Hello everyone and welcome back! I am now officially permanent at my job, which is a huge relief for so many reasons. I'm hoping it will give me a chance to lower my stress levels significantly so that I can work on other things, like writing, a bit more. Monday and Tuesday were 'orientation' days, so now I am going back to my normal schedule, which is quite nice too.
We're already into February this year, which is kind of surprising since I keep hearing people say January. I've mentioned before that the passage of time is always kind of surprising for writers, since a lot of time is spent being so focused on something that when you look at the clock you realize you forgot to eat. This happens with video games too, so I think it's something everyone can relate too on some level. I've mentioned before that the passage of time can also freak some writers out, because the brain tends to forget gaps whether they're on purpose or by accident. So I will say again, don't panic!
One of the nice things about being an independent author is being able to make your own schedule. Not that you shouldn't still have some kind of schedule to keep yourself on some kind of track, and I'll talk about that in a minute. The thing you don't have however is the obligation to follow the guidelines of a contract regarding how many and when your books are going to be released. Admittedly I know that not all contracts are like this, because quite frankly it's a contract and you are going to be the one negotiating some of the terms, but some of them are and that can add a world of stress to someone's life.
Not to say that schedules of some kind aren't important, because they are. If you just decide 'I'm going to write a book! I'll get to it someday!' then I have terrible news for you; you probably aren't actually going to get around to writing the book. I don't want to sound negative, or like a terrible person, but think of it like a New Years Resolution; you say you're going to lose weight, and you are all excited and going in head-first, and in the first couple weeks you're doing really well, but then you start to taper off and by mid-February you're back to not losing weight. You can use this same concept with writing, and I've seen it happen to a lot of people.
You can make it work though! It's actually, also, a similar way to handling a New Years Resolution and actually keeping it. You need to schedule it out, even if it's just a vague one, but you do. The schedule will include but is not limited to; character creation, world creation, timeline creation, research, outline creation, and finally writing. That may seem like a lot that needs to be done before the actual writing begins, but if you go into your story without knowing all of that then you are going to hit a wall really fast. Admittedly some of the research portion can be done on the fly; I can't tell you how many times I've gotten to a part, fairly confident in my knowledge of useless crap, only to stop and start questioning myself before I actually go to write it. That's perfectly fine, so don't get upset if you have to do that.
Once you get to the writing portion then it's time for a new psuedo-schedule. I say 'psuedo-schedule' because that is exactly what it is. You have an idea of what you want to do, but you also need to figure out he pace that's safe for you to work at in conjunction with whatever else your life has thrown at you. Remember people also have families, work, pets, and other aspects of life that will demand attention as well. This 'schedule' is more of a hopeful period of time in which you plan on writing a book. Don't get discouraged when that period of time becomes over a year. Writing a book is hard and very time consuming, so please keep at it no matter what.
Thanks everyone for stopping by again. Remember, you can check out my books, available at Smashwords whenever you like. 'Uncrossed Paths' is 100% free and is the brief character backstory introduction and 'The Light Rises' is full-length and $2.99. Please tell everyone you know and love and I'll be back on Friday!
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