Adventures in Epublishing: Time to Write
I'm only officially two days in, but I'm enjoying my Writer Break (as I've dubbed Winter Break) immensely! I've written almost 5,000 words in 2 days, crossing the 30,000 word mark on my latest YA novel, a vampire piece titled Bloody Little Secrets. Being that I pretty much have no plans for the next two weeks off, I hope to finish this book by the time I have to go back to school. I've been pretty lucky, I get up around 8 or 9, eat a nice breakfast and head upstairs to write while the husband and daughter spend some quality time together. It makes me so happy to just sit for an hour (or two, or three...depending on the day) and just get lost in the story. It makes me daydream about writing being my only job. Okay, I do daydream about that all the time... I'm sure that's what we all desire in the end, though!
For those of you that don't know, I work full time as a high school teacher, I have a three and a half year old daughter, my husband is in law school, and I take classes towards a master's in writing and publishing. The last month has been super busy/crazy/stressful, and I had no time for writing at all. It seemed like every time I turned around I was sick, or the kidlet was. Well, I'm sure I could have found time, (I have in the past months) but for that month, I just couldn't do it. Even when I could carve out five minutes, the creative brain just wouldn't turn on. Usually I write during my lunch at school and when my daughter goes to bed. But now I'm thinking I might just work on edits and revisions during the week and save the super-new creativity for weekends, on Saturday and Sunday mornings. But that's assuming I can get out of bed!
The biggest problem I've run into lately is sleep. I don't seem to get enough of it and as a result, I feel like I've had less energy for creativity. I'm so motivated though, knowing that this book I'm writing now will be out in the next few months. I want to put out two, maybe three new titles next year. I know it'll be a ton of work, but I'm having so much fun doing it. Maybe I just need to drink coffee (yuck) or a ton of Coke or Pepsi and suck it up. I'm just hoping that someday all this hard work will pay off with lots of lovely book sales, meaning I can reduce time at work and increase time writing. But what with that pesky mortgage and day care, the job is a necessity.
What about you? I'm assuming many of you still have 'day jobs'. What do you do? How do you fit writing and revising and edits into your free (hehehe) time? Is it your ultimate goal to make writing your full-time job?
For those of you that don't know, I work full time as a high school teacher, I have a three and a half year old daughter, my husband is in law school, and I take classes towards a master's in writing and publishing. The last month has been super busy/crazy/stressful, and I had no time for writing at all. It seemed like every time I turned around I was sick, or the kidlet was. Well, I'm sure I could have found time, (I have in the past months) but for that month, I just couldn't do it. Even when I could carve out five minutes, the creative brain just wouldn't turn on. Usually I write during my lunch at school and when my daughter goes to bed. But now I'm thinking I might just work on edits and revisions during the week and save the super-new creativity for weekends, on Saturday and Sunday mornings. But that's assuming I can get out of bed!
The biggest problem I've run into lately is sleep. I don't seem to get enough of it and as a result, I feel like I've had less energy for creativity. I'm so motivated though, knowing that this book I'm writing now will be out in the next few months. I want to put out two, maybe three new titles next year. I know it'll be a ton of work, but I'm having so much fun doing it. Maybe I just need to drink coffee (yuck) or a ton of Coke or Pepsi and suck it up. I'm just hoping that someday all this hard work will pay off with lots of lovely book sales, meaning I can reduce time at work and increase time writing. But what with that pesky mortgage and day care, the job is a necessity.
What about you? I'm assuming many of you still have 'day jobs'. What do you do? How do you fit writing and revising and edits into your free (hehehe) time? Is it your ultimate goal to make writing your full-time job?
I wish I could make writing a full-time job. It's hard for me to find the time to write as well. (Two kids both needing a lot of my time.) I am hoping to get some great things written during the Holiday break when my children are occupied with friends and family down on vacation.
ReplyDeleteKarly, just like you, I hope to someday be a full-time novelist. Right now, I'm a full-time technical writer. Unfortunately, spending all day sitting at a computer writing technical documentation does a good job of draining me of my creative writing energy. However, I still try to get at least 10 hours of novel writing in a week.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your Writing Break goal!
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