InSecure Writers Support Group

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for starting the IWSG. The first Wednesday of every month, a feisty group of bloggers share ideas, hopes, a few cheers and other tidbits to help each other along.

Though I'm retiring soon and hope to have lots of writing time, I think every person trying to make it in this often frustrating business has to address the problem of time management. As a teacher, I always expected myself to get lots of writing done during the summer months. But last year was the first summer when I actually fulfilled that expectation. The previous years, it seemed the more time I had the less I accomplished. I've heard other writers say the same thing. They do better when they know they only have a few hours rather than the entire day.

Full time writers I've spoken to have described how they establish a regiment of how much time they spend on social media, on email, on promotion and then actual writing time. Some set aside certain times of day to do each thing. It works for them.

I recently read an article in a writing publication from a very successful author where she spoke about how to manage your writing time. She believes in the 'lock the door and stay in the chair' philosophy. Her one statement was to never leave the keyboard to do the laundry. It stuck in my mind because I do the laundry while I'm writing on the time. Some is in the dryer as I write this post. And that works for me. When I'm not sure how I want to say something, I go throw the towels from the washing machine into the dryer. Or I may go chop some veggies or make a cup of tea. I step away from the keyboard and do mindless chores that allow me to ponder.

My point is that reading all the opinions and advice articles in the world, including mine, may not solve your time management problems. You have to find the method that works for you, in your situation, with your personality, your outside responsibilities and that will help you meet your goals.

Have you tried following someone else's advice on time management? Did it work for you? Is time management a problem for you?

First Monday Health Tip

Last month, for some reason, I skipped posting my health tip on the first Monday of the month. As writers, its very easy to skip taking care of ourselves to work on our writing. Most of us are already working a day job, taking care of a family and fitting in some other leisure activities as well as writing novels, short stories, poetry and marketing all that.  Taking that hour or so to gear up, workout, cool-down and shower is sometimes last on our to-do list.

But it's summer for most of us. It's a great time to take that workout outside.  Stuck on a plot point, go weed the flowerbeds.  Unsure what to blog about next, go for a walk around the neighborhood and people watch. Want to check out a new book, walk to the library.  Have to go out of town for a speaking or signing engagement, learn a few simple yoga moves you can do in your hotel room.  Add a few pushups(there are endless varieties for all levels of strength) and some ab work(again endless varieties) and you'll be surprised how fine you feel.

Add a little exercise, and you'll come back to the work waiting for you feeling more energized. Even if you only take a few minutes to setp away from the computer and do some stretching, you'll feel better. Like right now before you click onto the next blog you're visiting, do a stretch even if you do it sitting in your chair. Every little bit helps.

Do you throw in some little fitness attempts during your day or are you a one solid hour and that's it kind of warrior? Do anything physical today?

Lotta Love

I didn't mention it earlier, but a few days ago, my husband and I celebrated our 30 year anniversary. That's a long time, over half of my life.  Like any marriage, it's been pure joy and hard work depending on the day. But we're hanging in there, stronger than ever.  It takes lots of love, compromising and shared dreams for two people to live and thrive together for so many years.

I'm trying for the next few months to approach my writing career with the same amount of commitment I've given to my marriage.  Well, nearly as much.  I love being a writer and I intend to work hard at it. 

When a married couple have children, it places extra stress on their relationship.  Suddenly there is important people who steal away the time the couple used to spend on each other.  Some marriages don't deal well with the added demands though some thrive.  The husband and wife have to make time for each other and not let their relationship take last place. 

For these summer months, I'm not going to let my writing take last place to everything else.  It's important.  I love it and it will get its share of my attention.

Married couples invest as they grow together, a house, cars, their kids' educations.  I'm going to invest in my writing.  Small amounts compared to the house, but there are some costs to the plans I have for the summer.

What have you invested in your writing career? Are you committed to becoming the best writer you can be?  

Insecure Writers: Guilt

Welcome to another day of insecurity.  Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this time of sharing encouragement and advice.

For those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis, you have heard this before.  I've really enjoyed my foray into doing more with my blog over the past twelve months but it does cut into my writing time.

The dilema then is where to spend my limited hours. I want to work on my WIP but I also like to keep up with my blogging buddies. I feel guilty for neglecting either one.  I know this problem is common to many writers, not just me.  The secret is to find a balance.  But even when I divide my time between the two, I feel guilt for not doing more for both. 

There is no answer, but there is comfort in knowing this problem is shared by all who have to promote, network and grow their online presence all while working on their latest writing projects.  A shared pain is better than a lonely pain. 

I won't even go to that spot of feeling guilt because you neglect other things in your life to work on your writing or blogging.  Please share your guilt issues and we'll all feel a little better for being one of many and not the lone sufferer.

At My Best

Summer's over and I'm back at school and dealing with a new crop of freshmen and returning upper classmen.  The kids are fun but I'd rather retire.  The odd thing about being back at the day job is the amount of writing work I get done. 

Perhaps because I have fewer hours I work with more intensity during those precious minutes.  Today at lunch I ate my ranch chicken wrap while polishing my one-liner and blurb for my latest fantasy romance, A Tiger's Courage.  I was thrilled last week to receive a contract offer from New Concepts Publishing for this book but of course I received it just in time to be back at work.  But today at work I managed to get it done and send it out tonight.  I even stopped by the post office on my way home to put the contract in the mail.

I've always liked working under pressure with time constraints.  In the summer when I should have hours and hours to write, I seem to get less done than when I'm teaching school for eight hours per day.  Why?  I do get distracted when I'm working at home by laundry, cooking, yard work but I still have more hours than during the school year.  I can't figure it out but there it is.  So for the next ten months, I'm expecting some of my best work.

Are you a pressure worker? Do you find time constraints inspire you to work more efficiently?

Time Goes By

Some of you know I'm a high school teacher.  Today is the last day of school.  Yippee!!!  I always set goals for the summer about my writing.  Big plans.  Last year was the first time I came close to meeting those goals.  But I still dream big.

Things do distract me during the summer.  All those cleaning projects, a big yard to take care of, a swimming pool to enjoy and that tempting stack of books to read, combine to steal hours from my writing time.  Well, it's not really stealing since I allow myself to spend those hours so pleasantly. 

Despite all those distractions, I wonder why I accomplish more during my limited hours when school is in session than over the summer months when I don't have to do the day job thing.  Why? Is it because I believe I have tons of time so I put things off?  Does this prove I would struggle to be a full time writer because I can't manage my time?  If true, there's goes my retirement plans.

Well, I have some big plans for this summer and I'm digging in as soon as I get the tanbark spread, sand the deck and .... No this year I'm putting writing closer to the top of the list.  I have one huge project going and two medium ones and a couple of smaller ones.  I'll reveal them as I delve into them. 

I was always the child who wrote their term paper the night before it was due.  I know I do good work under pressure.  What about you? Do you work better when you have nearly unlimited time or are you a 'work under pressure' type? Do you need a deadline to keep you on task?

August Chaos and Whining

Every year of my adult life the middle of August is filled with days of chaos. My past included a few years of coaching and the preseason starts two weeks before Labor Day. Preseason practices entail multiple workout sessions each day, usually morning and evening, and when my sons played football that sometimes meant ‘three-a-days.’


These days I’m no longer involved in coaching and I only have one child playing a sport this year but there’s still enough chaos and disruption to go around. For the past seven years August has also meant the packing up and sending off of a child to college. For those of you who haven’t gone through that yet, don’t worry about crying when they leave. You cry trying to get everything together they need to live on their own. Teenagers obviously think shampoo just appears in the shower when you need it let alone something as mundane as toilet paper. They also have to learn, this means you have to do it, things take up less room when packed neatly. All this involves numerous trips to the store to get all the things they don’t think they’ll need but you know they will. It also includes buying a lot of things you hope they’ll use but they probably won’t. Things like Lysol kitchen and bathroom wipes, shower cleaners and fabric softeners.

Beyond the trips running the one athlete I have still competing are the three inservice days I must attend before actual school starts. And hanging over all the busy, not entirely unpleasant hustle, is the dread of another year of school.

School means the end of sleeping in an extra hour, staying up as late as I wish when the writing bug keeps me at the keyboard and the impossibility of a cup of coffee whenever I want it. It means my writing hours have been cut into a fraction of what they were during the summer months. It means fewer website and blog updates.  Every year I dread August more than the one before. Every year I wish I could leave teaching behind and work full time on my writing. But this year is not the year.

For at least two or three more years, I must hold onto the day job and write into the late night and in moments snatched from my family time. I must whip out pieces of scenes between loads of laundry and preparing meals. How I envy those who can not only write full time but have the kids all in school while they’re doing it. I know from how much I write during the last six weeks how much I can accomplish when I don’t have to work another job eight hours a day. The prohibitive cost of tuition and the state of the economy disallows any thought of early retirement or trying to live on my husband’s income alone until I make enough writing to replace my teaching salary. I love teaching and enjoy spending all those hours with teenagers though there are many other parts of the profession I despise. But I want to stay home and write or better yet, go to my favorite coffee shop and write.

Sorry for all the whining today but what about you? Would you give up your day job to write full time if you could? Would you be brave enough to dare it if you weren’t making money yet? Do you know many authors who actually support their family with their writing income?

Where Have All the Hours Gone

So many of us are juggling jobs, kids, household chores and still daring to call our 'real' job as being a writing professional. Despite my determination to be an author, in high school and college, my academic strength was math and science. And I have to say when looking at all those jobs I listed above, the numbers just don't add up.
Let's start with a big time drain, that dreaded day job. Even if you love that job, it interfers with your writing time. Let's give that job at least ten hours if it's full time. An hour to get ready, half hour to get there, eight hours on the job and another half an hour home. So, 10.
Now, you probably have to spend at the least another hour in the morning getting the kids ready for school or the sitter and if they're very young, get them breakfast. So now the total is 11.
Once home from work you have a variety of things to do. Fix dinner, dishes, perhaps laundry, help the kiddies with homework or spend some good family time with them. If they're older, you may be spending hours at athletic endeavors, dance practice, music lessons or just on the road as the family taxi service. This is going to take no less than three hours and likely more. 14
The evening would be deeply upon you by now and you might think you have time to do some promotion, but it's time to put the kids to bed, read the little ones a story and do that softball uniform for the older one she has it clean for tomorrow. 15
Finally the kids are in the bed, the spouse asleep in front of a basketball game on the telly, and you can sit down in front of your computer. You visit a few blogs and update your status on facebook and twitter. Finally you open up your WIP and read the last few pages you wrote the day before. Probably it was only two pages at the most. You gather up the threads of your plot and finally find the emotion you want to instill in your prose when your jaw cracks with a might yawn. Three more hours so you're at 18.
You fall into bed and get up at 5:30 am to start all over the next day. You glance at the morning paper and see a health article on the minimum requirement for a good night's sleep is seven and you've been averaging five and a half to six. Geez, who didn't know that?
As a former math whiz, I know I don't have enough hours in the day to be all I want to be. But I won't give up and neither should you. There are days when I want to put it all aside because I have so many other things I could fill those precious couple of hours I spend at the keyboard. But I don't. I squeeze in every minute I can including writing this post while my favorite show, Supernatural is playing. When it's over I'm going to get back to the edits on Beyond the Gate, the second book in my fantasy series from Medallion Press. After I do at least twenty pages, I'll go get my six hours of sleep for the night. How many hours do you average?

The Edge of Season

My writing has lagged a little this week. It's that odd time of year when winter is holding on with sharp, biting cold claws while spring wears away at it with added minutes of daylight and the increased warmth in the afternoon sun. I'm anxious to be outside, cleaning out my flowerbeds, trimming back my raspberry bushes before they get completely out of control and raking up the last of the old brown leaves that escaped last fall.
I usually do my promotional work when I first get home from school and then do my writing after dinner. But now when I get home, the longer daylight hours call to me. One day I cleaned out the garage instead of promo. Another day I washed my car and cleaned windows I haven't touched since last fall.
Things may get worse before they get better. The first day of spring sports practice is only a week away. My daughter plays softball and my son runs track so I'll be busy being taxi to and from practice as well as being number one fan. And in two short weeks, daylight savings time begins. How will I stay at it when it's light out even longer?
Do the seasons distract you? What is your best writing season or are you steady throughout the year? I know the holiday season slows most people down, but what about other times of year? You would think as a school teacher and having my summer months off, I would get a lot of writing done during June, July and August, but the opposite is true. I love the outdoors and near rain or cold to keep me at my keyboard. My alpha smart helps because I can take it outside and to sporting events and get some writing done. Am I the only one distracted by the great outdoors?
It's dark and cold now, so I'm going back to my WIP. I have to get it done before that time change.

The Kids

I love them. I really do. All four of them were planned, three years apart and born in the spring. They're the source of my best memories, most wonderful moments and eternal pride. But, I need a few hours alone. I grew up in a large family and always wanted one of my own. My children are hard workers, intelligent, respectful, well-adjusted teenagers and young adults, but I need some MOM time. That stands for Me Only Me time. To write, to read, to watch a TV show I want to watch all by myself without their young, arrogant male POV about the story, the characters and the feasibility of the action.
This past week I've been so busy promoting, updating my website and my blog as well as working on the WIP because the characters won't be quiet in my head and I have to get it down before they stop talking to me.
And they've been invading my work space. Each one has a tale to tell, even while I'm writing this. My daughter wants me to listen to some really cool, Celtic music she found online. It's really nice. My son that is a teacher in the same high school where I teach had a tale of one of his students that made us both laugh. My twenty year old son came in to tell me about the youth basketball team he coaches and how badly they were beaten today. My son that is at Penn State for a big indoor track meet text messaged me to let me know they're safe in their hotel room and playing monopoly. Gosh, I love them.
Each child that passed through my office took a sip of my ice coffee. That's too much for any mother to take. When they were little they went to bed early and the majority of my writing took place while they slept. Now I'm waiting up all hours for them to get home from dates, typing on my alpha smart in gymnasiums and on sidelines of baseball and field hockey games. If your children are small now, don't think they're going to need you less as they get older. Even if your just the sounding board, they need their dear old moms.
Oh well, things seem a little quieter now. It took almost an hour to type this amid all the interruptions. I'm going to get back to that WIP just as soon as I order some new shin guards for my daughter. I think in about ten more years, I'll have some MOM time.