Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.
I need more than 24 hours a day.
Maybe this would be a good time to find a vampire to bite me so I could stop needing sleep? Is that how this works?
Because there is simply not enough time, y'all.
For context, I have a full time day job and my caregiving responsibilities include two rescue dogs, a disabled newly adult child, and the beginning of elder care. That means that I fit MY WHOLE WRITING LIFE into 2-4 hours a day. That's the most time I can beg, borrow, and steal from all the rest.
Luckily, I have ADD. I mean that--it's actually good in some ways. It's useful in that it lets me make connections quickly and because when I focus, boy howdy do I focus. A tornado could remove the house around me and I wouldn't look up.
But you probably didn't pop by my blog to hear me kvetch about not having enough time. So, here's a few thoughts on "making" and managing your time to support an indie writing life.
1. Decide what you're NOT going to do. Currently, you use your waking hours for a variety of things. So to find hours you'll devote to this, there will have to be things you stop doing. For me, that was cutting most television and videogame time and finding a new day job that actually stays within the working hours most of the time.
I started by doing a time study, where I literally logged what I did for what hours of the day and then looked for holes I could exploit. I also had a BIG TALK with my family about the time I'd need, because it really requires their cooperation and support. We've also had to renegotiate as a household several times as circumstances and needs of all the household members have shifted and changed.2. Prioritize. There are A LOT of decisions that end up in your hands when you go indie (see my post of D is for Decisions for more on that). It's easy to fall into a game of whack-a-mole where you run around trying to do all of it at once and you miss things. I've had to be really intentional with my time to make sure I don't spend my limited hours on the wrong things and end up feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.
The hard part for me is not letting myself do the thing I'm most excited about if there's something else that really should be handled first. Right now, for example, I'm chomping at the bit to get my audiobook reviewed and uploaded, but I have a few things I have to handle first. I'm trying to hold that more "fun" work out there as a carrot to myself to drag this donkey through the stuff I don't enjoy as much.
3. Be realistic. There really are only the 24 hours a day. And even though you want to do it all and do it all now (at least I did), remember it's a marathon not a sprint. You'll burn yourself out if you don't set realistic expectations.
I almost learned that the hard way in February, March, and early April when I said "yes" to too many things and ended up with author events of various sorts ten weekends in a row. 11/10 do not recommend.
4. There's ebb and flow: To everything there is a season, right? Because I'm in a book launch phase, I'm spending a lot of time and energy on promotional and sales related activities. Because this is only my fourth month of building processes, I'm still figuring out HOW I do things.
The fallout of that is that I've stopped making progress on my Work-in-Progress for the time being. It's hard for me to set that aside and accept that I can't work on it right now, but that's what I'm doing because I can't make good progress on the new book with all the other balls I'm juggling right now. But I'm keeping a careful eye on things to make sure I don't let that state of affairs go on too long.
Sometimes the hard part about this is saying no to myself. I soften the blow by saying things like "not yet" or "now's not the time, but later will be," but I do definitely have to keep my excitement under tight rein sometimes for my own protection. Everything, everywhere, all at once, might be thrilling, but it's not sustainable, and I want to do this for the rest of my life.









