"What I Did On My Fall Vacation" or Getting Down To The Business Of Writing

The month of November was interesting. For this blog, I asked five relatively new writers to post about their writing journey. A big “thank you” to Joshua Curran, Robin Mason, Nancy Hallo, Laura Wood, and Deana Rogers.

So, if I wasn’t writing a blog post every Wednesday, what did I do with all that time? I’m here to report this side of the blog was equally interesting and productive. Hmm…this post is starting to feel like a “what I did on my November vacation” report.

The first Wednesday of the month I generally address the business of writing. Today I’m giving you a peek at how my writing business shakes out. I usually take on one major project to complete each month, but with the holidays just around the corner and a new year approaching, I hunkered down and put my fingers on the keyboard two to three hours a day in November. I map out my workload three months at a time so this was intentional. Here are the results of following my plan.

The Writing to Publish Series

I have been working on a series of handbooks for writers for a couple of years now. Since starting A Novel Creation, I’ve been asked by new writers how to get started in writing. I always start with, “You need a plan.” I’ve talked on the subject of building a business plan for your writing and I’ve blogged about it on both my blog and as a guest on others.

The first week of November I finished the manuscript for book one the series called Writing to Publish. [Working Title] The title of the first handbook in the series is Creating a Business Plan for Your Writing Career. It is designed to help writers develop a workable path to be successful with their writing. I sent the manuscript to Michele Matthews, a professional editor. In less than a week she completed her editing magic and returned the work to me. Creating a Business Plan for Your Writing Career is scheduled for release the first week in January 2017.

That first week in November, I also completed the second draft of book two for the Writing to Publish series. Book 2, titled Marketing You and Your Writing 101 guides writers as they enter the writing world and the marketing they need to consider early in the writing process. The draft is now with a beta reader who also happens to be a marketing guru. Once revisions have been made to that document, I’ll be sending it off to Michele for editing. The plan is for Marketing You and Your Writing 101 to be released the third week in January. Side Note: As I worked through this handbook, I also drafted a marketing plan for the Writing to Publish series.

During the month I completed the revised book three which I initially completed in October. I put that one away for a few weeks to mull it over. Soon, I’ll be looking for beta readers for the final book in the Writing to Publish series. This one is titled Writing with E’s. This handbook explores five habits successful writers must incorporate in their daily routines to meet their writing goals.

My granddaughter drew this picture of me.
I told you the work was intense!

WIP: My Latest Novel

During November I turned a 4,000 word synopsis into 50,208 words on my newest novel. That is an average of 1674 words per day for November. Note the word average. I did not write every day on my romantic suspense project. Some days I struggled to complete a sentence. Other days, I was on a roll and hammered out 5000 words before lunch.

Blogging 2017

There is a saying, “if you want something done, ask a busy person.” With that in mind, November proved to be the best time to outline A Novel Creation’s blog posts for January through March. This may sound easy, but each outlined post requires research, contacting guest writers, and putting enough down on paper to remember what I had in mind when it comes time to write.

Although I am dedicated to writing, this month was a bit more intense in that I have several works in the mill. I feel accomplished. I enjoyed the work. At the same time, I think I’ll go back to the practice of focusing on one main project each month.

What do your writing days look like? How do you organize your time? I would love to hear from you.

And don’t forget, when you make that New Year’s resolution to write a book in 2017, I’m here for you! Be on the watch for the Writing to Publish series in January. I’ll let you know when it’s available.