A Block of Time

2/10/2012 goal , organize , writing 0 Comments

I’m an organized person.

At least I’d like to think of myself as one.

I have a system down for cleaning my house and doing laundry. I have a place to put our receipts so I can gather them together and balance the checkbook. I go to the grocery store on Mondays because that’s when the food truck comes, and so on and so on.

You get the idea.

However, since I decided to self-publish, I had upset my writing schedule and became scattered brain.

Before the self-publishing journey I’m now embarking upon, I would crank out two chapters or more a week.

Yeah, I know.

Some people can write a book in a week if that’s all they do is sit at the computer and write. I’m not sure if I’m one of those people because I haven’t tried a full-out writing marathon. But writing two chapters a week while still dealing with everyday life is pretty good, I think.

Sure, I’d love to write a book in a week, or month even, but at this time I’m not in the position to find out if I can. So I need to work with the situation I’m in now, and organize my time more efficiently so my writing schedule doesn’t suffer like it has been for almost a month now.

How can I do that?

It’s simple.

Schedule a block of time for it.

When I was working full-time, I came home, made dinner, and wrote. By doing that I finished the rough draft to ‘Beyond the Eyes’ in three months, which isn’t too bad.

I had set a block of time for my writing and established a daily routine. It became second nature to me. I didn’t even have to think or force myself to do it, like brushing my teeth at night before bed. It was a habit I created that benefitted me tremendously.

Now though, since I’ve been putting all my energy into self-publishing, my writing schedule for my third book has been all messed up. Not to mention, I haven’t read a book in a month, which is not good. Every writer needs to be constantly reading.

On Tuesday, I had spent a good chunk of that day writing chapter thirteen for my third book.

Just so you know, writing a third book to a series is not easy because you have to remember things/details from your last two books and intertwine them into the third book. Also, I don’t want to disappoint the reader, or myself for that matter. That’s why on Tuesday, after I was done with that chapter and read it, I wasn’t happy with the results. So on Wednesday, I spent part of that day rewriting that chapter, and then sent it to my critique partner. She thought it was a good chapter; however, I still feel kind of uneasy about it. But the good thing is, it’s a rough draft, so I’m not going to fret over it.

Anyway, I realized this week I need to start doing blocks of time for everything I want to do. Otherwise, my third book is going to suffer if I don’t, and I can’t have that. I’d like to have the whole series published by the end of this year, and start on a different book.

In order to reach that goal, I’m going to figure out the best time to write my chapters during the day/night, and do nothing else but that. I’ll probably set a time limit on it as well, like write two hours a day, or whatever suits me. But this doesn’t just apply to writing my third book. It also applies to everything I need to do: research, blog posts, marketing, book trailer, helping other writers, reading, blurb, etc.

Did you catch that last one?

Blurb.

Yeah, I still need to finish it, and to be honest, I haven’t worked on it at all this week because I’ve been so frustrated with it. I’ll get it done though, and when I do, I’ll write a post about it (like I had said in my previous post).

So this is my next step on the self-publishing journey.

Organize my time.

Of course there will be hiccups along the way, and I’ll have to readjust my schedule, which is fine. Just as long as I keep writing my books AND keep reading books, I’ll be golden.

HAPPY FRIDAY!