The Domestic Goddess* sits down with a tisane and some index cards

I don't know that I deserve to be called a domestic goddess today (even though that is what frigg says I am) because I'm not the one who straightened the house. J did that.

But things I did or participated in:

- went to the farmer's market bright and early
- put S down for a nap (she didn't sleep) and headed to the health food and grocery stores to do the rest of the shopping.
- made cinnamon rolls and shrimp cockails, both completely from scratch
- fished for calamari; caught none
- made supper
- nursed S and put her to bed
- prepared veggies in brine for kimchi
- cut up and salted lemons for preserved lemons
- tidied the kitchen

I'm very ready for bed, but I'm going to relax with a tisane first (homemade, too, but not tonight :P) and try to do some plotting on index cards.  Yesterday, I spent over an hour working on my timeline. No new words on the story, but I am going to count it as a day's work, just like tonight's plotting will count.

This time, I'm going to write the scene goal, conflict, etc (actually going to try the Scene/Sequel thing: Goal --> Conflict --> Disaster -->Reaction --> Dilemma --> Decision).  I know this is a useful approach for writing focused scenes, but every time I think of doing it, I freak out, sure that I'm going to write hackneyed, formulaic stories. Still, it will be a good exercise to make sure I have goals, conflict, etc. I'm not sure my innate sense of "what makes a good chapter" is as honed as I would like for it to be. :P

Does anyone else have success using the above approach, or do you have another way of making sure your story moves forward instead of meandering too much?

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* see above comment about this being frigg's term. :P