Insecure Writer's Support Group: Resolutions Anyone?

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IWSG Day Question: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?  

Can I just state first of all that  I am loving these monthly questions? It really takes the hassle out of figuring out what I'm going to write about each month. And they always seems to be especially relevant to me. But I digress...

I've spent the past few days trying to decide what will be happening with this writing and publishing thing that I appear to have decided to do. I've mentioned previously that I published my first and only novel in September 2015. Since then I've allowed myself to go off on a tangent and write all kinds of other novels in other series. As an indie, I can tell you now, this is not good practice. Any traction that I had with my first novel is now gone. The few people on my mailing list probably don't even remember who I am anymore and the face of indie publishing has changed so much in the past 2 years that when I do publish again I'll have to essentially relearn everything from scratch. 

I guess what I'm saying is that I went into this whole publishing thing with my eyes tightly shut, hoping to just wing it on luck. I'd been writing the same novel for over 4 years and was thoroughly sick to death of it and just wanted it out so I could work on other things. Which was all well and good except that I had nothing to follow it up with. There's a saying that the best way to promote your novel is to write the next one. Well I broke that rule right off the bat. 

The other night someone on one of my FB groups shared this blog post about sustainability as an indie author. It's all about treating your writing as a business and setting long term goals so that you don't burn out. There's advice in there about how to sustain the business now that the indie market has matured and it got me thinking about where I eventually want to go with my writing career. How much I can write a year, every year, to sustain my love of writing. I haven't quite figured it out yet but what I do know is that I can't be one of those writers who chases trends and writes what the market demands. It's just not who I am. 

I guess I'm lucky in some ways because when I do write (Mostly during NaNoWriMo months), my word counts can be staggering. I could probably comfortably write 4-6 novels a year if I really needed to. I've realised too that the drafts I write are pretty clean so editing, though mentally tedious, isn't as awful as it once was. I think it's the marketing and self-doubt side of things that makes me pause and want to stick my head in the sand. That's the part that I need to focus on this year. I have about 9 novels in various stages of readiness to publish. If I don't do them soon, it's never going to happen. So I guess that's my rough plan for this year. Publish as many novels as I have ready and figure out what a sustainable number of novels I can write in year will be.

Random Thoughts

It's the Easter long weekend this weekend and I have four days in which to either work furiously and get a whole bunch of stuff done, or flit it away procrastinating on the internet. Guess which one is winning out at the moment?
       My thoughts are too scattered at the moment for any kind of structured blogging so I thought I might just jot down a few things that have been going through my head:

• Multi-tasking seems to be the thing which threatens to kill all my productivity. Ironic isn't it? I get so caught up wanting to do so many things at the same time that I end up nothing finishing any of them. 

• Reading has taken a huge back step in the last few months now that I've gone back to work. Even though I've been enjoying books more than I did in the last few years I'm still having a hard time pinning down quiet time to read.

• I have started writing fan fiction for the MCU instead of working on my actual novels. Part of it is because I am annoyed that the pair I ship isn't very popular (even though they are the best!) and the other part is that I've had all these stories pop up in my head since I first saw The Avengers in 2012 and if I don't get it down it'll just distract me during Camp NaNoWriMo.

• Oh yeah I'm participating in Camp NaNoWriMo yet again. Despite my best efforts to make writing a daily habit the only way I seem to be able to write anymore is during some kind of NaNo. So next month I will be trying to sprint to that 50k again. 

• My garden is looking totally worse for wear now that summer has ended. I'll admit I was pretty slack this summer and with the possibility of mice in the garden I really didn't want to be in there more than I had to. This meant a lot of my stuff is overgrown and/or dying because I couldn't be bothered watering it. I've made a concentrated effort to try harder in Autumn. Feel kind of bad that the two things I love most (gardening and writing) are always the things I let slip when I'm stressed. 

• Blogging has taken a huge hit. Mostly because this is meant to be a book/writing blog and I have done neither with much consistency in the last 6 months.  Apologies to all my friends whose posts I missed. I am working on a better schedule so that I'm not MIA so much from now on.

Anyway, that's all from my end for now.  See you on the other side of April!

Insecure Writer's Support Group: No Escape

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
          I was going to do a 2016 goals post for my first IWSG but then I realised that I haven't written anything since the end of November 2015. Over the (Australian) summer break I've been watching quite a bit of Netflix and one of the documentaries called Cowspiracy has really had a profound effect one me. It never occurred to me just how environmentally damaging and unethical factory farming is. What makes it worse is that most people don't want to know about it and would prefer to turn a blind eye so that they can still buy convenient meat at the supermarket. What does this have to do with writing you ask?
         Well, writing is my way of escaping into a world where I have some control. Where I can disappear and forget about reality and the terrible things happening in the real world. Except this time I can't seem to forget. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older and more cynical and writing make believe just isn't enough to push the real world demons aside. I'm worried that writing  can't provide me with the escape that I need and therefore my motivation to write will just disappear. I'm hoping this is just a phase and maybe post holiday blues and that soon I'll be able to find the right balance of ethics/reality that I will be able to take it all in my stride. Here's hoping that next month I will have made some progress.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Writing Vs. Life 2.0

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     
      I published my debut young adult novel yesterday! Check it out HERE! While I am so super psyched and have been waiting for this moment for almost four years, I can say without a doubt that it's come at a very inconvenient time in my life. Let me insert the necessary disclaimer here and clarify that I'm not complaining (much). I've made a choice to be a writer and know full well the kind of commitments, both time-wise and lack of social life-wise, that are involved.  I'm merely observing that of all the months for everything to snowball why did it have to be now?
        You see, a week ago I was told that a job opening for a higher paid position at my work would be advertised. Applications for jobs where I work involve answering a number of selection criteria so that essentially you're writing a 1,500 word essay about your skills. The closing date for applications is tomorrow, or in my mental timeline, two days after the release of my book. Interviews will probably be held a few weeks later, otherwise known as right in the middle of my book blitz dates and the outcome will take a number of months. Probably coinciding with the edits for book two in the series.
       If by some miracle I got the job it would mean a salary increase and less financial stress. On the other hand it would mean more stress at work because my sole job would be in management and dealing with real life people is not my ideal. It would also mean much less time spent on writing due to potential mental exhaustion every day.
     So I ended up making the choice not to apply for the job. I spoke at length with my husband and we agreed that if I really want to strive to make my writing a success I should put all of my energy into building a writing career as opposed to fitting it between real life commitments. I've given myself a year to see how well it goes and then after that I will reassess. My decision will mean that in the short term we will be living lean like we have been for the past few years. But making this decision means I'm going to be focused solely on publishing more books and hopefully, in a year's time I will be able to look back without regret that I made the wrong decision not to apply for a real life job instead of chasing a dream one.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Book Trends

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        They say you should write what you love and forget about popular trends. As with most advice it's a lot easier said than done. Especially as a writer who reads and runs a book review blog. It's hard not to be enticed by the next big craze and not to want to read and write in a genre that's taking off. So what happens when you're such a slow writer that the trend dies before you've even finished editing? This is the dilemma I'm facing at the moment. I tend to be one of those people who reads book reviews before I decide if the book is for me and one comment I've seen time and again is that readers are starting to get bored of dystopian fiction.
        This does not bode well for my dystopian MS which has taken almost three years to even get to an editing stage. I know dystopian isn't a new trend but I can't help thinking that by the time I'm ready to publish, dystopians will have fallen off the radar completely until it's next cycle of popularity. By which time I'll probably be moving into a nursing home!
       I guess all I can do is forget about what's popular, write what I love and hope that there are other die hard fans like me out there who will always love a good story about a world gone bad.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Enjoy Life!

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        This month my post is less about what I'm insecure about (everything!) and more about a habit that I have of dreaming so big it stops me from appreciating the small things. Let's face it, the chances of a writer making it big are slim. Yet who among us hasn't daydreamed about our books hitting a best seller list or being made into a movie? I do it all the time. It's gotten to the point where I've even planned overseas trips based on my future success. All this before I've even written the first draft of my novel. The other day I stumbled upon this quote:

It got me thinking about my current wishful habits and I realised that I will only ever have one debut novel. I may go on to write dozens of books and with any luck they may be well received but this time, right now is the time that I should be relishing. Everything I do at this stage is new and a scary kind of exciting. I shouldn't wish that away hoping for something that may never come. I will only have one round of firsts and even if there are better days to come they won't have that same feeling of fresh anticipation. So I've decided that from now on I will keep a lid on the dreaming and try to remember to enjoy life as it is, right now. Happy New Year everyone. Looking forward to another year of sharing encouragement with you.

Insecure Writer's Support Group: Writing Vs. Life

This month I had the good luck to have quite a few long weekends off. Wow you must have gotten so much writing done I hear you say. If only that were true. Every Friday I'd mentally prepare for a long session of story telling only to wake up too late on the Saturday, do to many unrequired chores and spend way too much time agonizing over irrelevant things.
       I love writing. I know that writing breeds more writing and once I start it's hard to stop. It's the starting that is difficult. Because sometimes, as much as I love it, writing just can't compare with the other things going on in life. Or at least, I can't seem to give it priority over other things even though I know I should.
      In Melbourne, it's coming to the end of the most perfect summer that I can remember. It's been almost two months of beautiful weather which means my garden is bathed in sunlight all day long and is just begging to be enjoyed. So I do.
      Then there is the TV that's just begging to be watched and the chores that need to be done. I'm also trying to break a really terrible reading drought at the moment as well so I'm constantly picking books up and putting them down.
        All in all that doesn't leave too much time to do any writing. It's always at the back of my mind that I should be sitting down and getting all those words written. Each day that I write nothing is another layer of anxiety that I feel. That's my insecurity this month. I'm worried that I can't just make myself write despite everything else that I can do, which is what needs to be done if I'm going to reach my goal of publishing something this year.
         What about everybody else? What are your insecurities this month?