Fabulous writing process, part the second

[catherineldf]

So I meant to post these about once a week. Then every two weeks. Now I think I’m up to about once a month. That said, clearly the next thing I should talk about is time management since lizardlez inquired about how it is that I do what I do. Namely, this refers to my ability or lack thereof to juggle an often full-time + day job, a relationship, some semblance of a social life and what passes for my writing career, along with a full helping of publicity-related activities. The last category covers everything from blogging to science fiction conventions to readings to the occasional workshop, plus website time, mailing list time, Facebook, RedRoom and assorted other things.

 

The short answer: I don’t sleep much.

 

The long answer: I juggle a lot. This was easier when I first started writing due in part to a lack of externally imposed deadlines for my fiction (nonfiction was and is a different animal). No one was requesting a piece of writing or interviews or panels from me. I tried for publications that looked interesting, generally anthologies, and wrote pieces I thought might fit and turned them in before the deadline. Writing time was all day Sunday and maybe one or two evenings a week. Weeknights were also time for revising and whatever publicity I needed to do at the time. I was also fortunate enough to get 3 writing residencies early on, which meant the luxury of whole weeks of writing time.

 

Once I started selling stories, that all began to change. Editors started asking for stories and I began writing to deadline for both fiction and nonfiction. I could still stick with the same writing schedule though, just amped up a bit. This lasted until I dealt with my first written-mostly-from-scratch book, Crave. For Crave and the 5 other nearly simultaneous deadlines I had in 2006, I wrote nearly every day and most of Sunday. Saturday was and remains the sacred day of errand running and other miscellaneous activities.

 

Around the time that Crave came out (early 2007), my presence as a panelist/reader began to be requested more often at conventions. I tripled the amount of publicity I was doing, adding social network sites, several mailing lists, and a semi-regular reading and paneling schedule. The regular writing schedule began to deteriorate because there were other deadlines and commitments to be met. Then I tried my hand at editing in 2008 and that ate up lunch times at work, as well as most evenings and Sunday.

 

It also ate up my writing time, which was not a particularly happy thing. It isn’t that I didn’t like editing, but that on my first time through I hadn’t figured out how to balance it with writing time. Judging from my chats with other writer/editors, it’s a pretty common problem.

 

Thus we arrive at the Now. Now, I’ve virtually given up on a regular writing schedule. I have too much to get done so I just grab whatever time I can. I may spend lunch time doing research and the occasional break outlying the next project. But writing is starting to take over once more. I’m writing a novel, you see, and I find that I write bits of it in my head all the time, then put it down on paper when I get the chance. I’ve only just begun to carry whole scenes in my head like this so the whole composing things all the time is very new. I still try to reserve part of Sundays for writing time but it doesn’t always work out. Same goes for weeknights.

 

Overall, though, I’d say the answer to the question is that I prioritize as best I can and am very grateful that I have the opportunity to set my own priorities at least some of the time.