There are different kinds of writing, as you know.  Which should you be doing, when, and why?

Marketing is paramount, right?

You’ve got to connect with your audience.  It’s a proven fact that a healthy Blog and an active social media profile instantly peps up interest in what you do.  These tools are vital for the twenty-first century author, and a valuable and immediate way to obtain reader feedback and gauge the market.  Trouble is, there’s a finite amount of time in a day, and you’re supposed to be getting your next book finished.  If you’re meant to be energetically churning out diverse-but-relevant marketing content – I read somewhere that ‘experts’ suggest Blogging three times a week.  A week!  You’ve gotta be some sort of superhuman to achieve this, surely? – how can you possibly devote the requisite amount of time and effort to completing your manuscript?  After all, you can Blog ‘til the cows come home, but if you’ve nothing to promote…? 

Unfortunately – boringly – it comes down to good ‘ol self-discipline and time-management.  Yawn…

Encouragingly, there are only two types of writing you actually need to do.  Any others come down to personal choice, but you must CREATE and you must PROMOTE. 

Fix your priorities, and plan your time accordingly

It sounds obvious, but prioritise your manuscript (what I refer to as Writing, with a capital ‘W’!) That’s the thing that rewards you – either creatively or financially; ideally, both!  Set aside dedicated Writing Time and protect it passionately.  I have three Writing Days a week…and I don’t do anything else on those days but write my books.  You might not have the luxury of full weekdays, but instead be setting aside three hours each evening, or a weekend once a fortnight.  Whatever reasonably fits within the pattern of your life is what you must do.  There’s no point setting unrealistic goals you’ll never meet, as it’ll just make you feel like a failure.  Nothing will turn you off your manuscript quicker than the knowledge you’re already running to catch up with overly-ambitious intentions before you’ve even got the cap off the biro.  However, if you bother to set targets, you must make the effort to hit them, or what’s the point?  If you persistently use your Writing Days to mow the lawn or do the ironing, don’t be surprised when another six months has flown by and your book still isn’t finished.  If you want to get stuff written, edited, and published, do not let anything encroach upon your precious Writing hours!

I’m not a machine.  I’ve got a life, you know! 

I know it might not sound like it sometimes, but I do occasionally inhabit the real world, and I appreciate that chores must be done, and life must be lived.  It’s not reasonable to believe you can write all the time.  I’m a fully-paid-up champion of downtime and the regenerative delights of the daydream – more on this later... 

Before you get to have a nice rest, be aware that these chore-filled, non-Writing days will contain pockets of otherwise seemingly useless time which should be snatched and exploited.  Half an hour in the car outside the school gates?  Time to do a few ‘social’ posts reminding your fans you still exist and are working very hard on something new for their imminent delight and delectation.  A free afternoon because plans got cancelled?  Smashing!  Wonderful, empty hours now not earmarked for anything in particular!  Don’t waste ‘em!  Get the kettle on, and churn out as many Blog posts as you’ve got the oomph to manage, that you can store and publish at a later date. 

If you’re one of these incredibly popular types who’s in constant demand (lucky you), I suggest you diarise your marketing time for all aspects of your advertising from replying to emails, comments, and letters, to writing Blurbs, press releases, Blog articles, social media posts, and more.  It’ll discipline you to complete these often-tedious tasks in the window you’ve set aside, and prevent them increasingly sneaking onto Writing Days (which they have a cheeky habit of doing if you let them).  If you’re struggling with your manuscript, it’s all too easy to decide clearing your email inbox is suddenly imperative, and way more pressing than pushing through a thorny plot problem that’s been troubling your subconscious for a week.

None Shall Pass!

Whatever you do, DON’T, DON’T, DON’T mistake the displacement activity you’re doing when the going gets tough for Writing.  Don’t assume just because you’re sticking words on a page – and they happen to loosely relate to your writing career – that it’s ok to pinch from what should be your fiercely-guarded Writing Time.  Writing for writing’s sake is not the same as writing to further your manuscript.  Please learn this.  I had to, and it took years.  I want to save you all the time I wasted not understanding how to differentiate between the two major things I had to do. 

In my opinion, rigid demarcation between Creation and Promotion is the only pragmatic way to achieve a well-rounded public profile and a decent and marketable body of work.  If you allow yourself to become confused about where your writing priorities lie, it’ll show.  Everything you produce – whether it be manuscript pages or marketing material – will be half-hearted and confused, and it’ll make your overall job much harder.  You’ll be expending effort in the wrong places, putting too much pressure on yourself to achieve everything at once, and ultimately failing.

Mental Blancmange

And so we come at last to mental fatigue, when your brain seems to cramp up uncooperatively, and your usual psychological agility deserts you.  Yes, you must hold fast to your Writing Days like a reluctant dieter grasps their last choccy bar, and you must maximise snatched moments to squeeze any usable scribbling time you can from them…but…if you don’t also recognise the equal importance of downtime, you’ll soon find the creative capacity of your grey matter reduced to mental blancmange. 

We’re writers!  Without idle musings and flights of fancy, from where would our plots come?  How would our characters and worlds take shape?  For the writer, time spent gawping vacantly into space is not time wasted.  The brain is rebooting, sorting the scattered remnants of incomplete thought back into order like a croupier shuffles a deck of cards. 

Medically, time to mentally switch-off and think of absolutely nothing at all has been proved not only beneficial, but essential for health and relaxation.  You ‘reawaken’ refreshed and reinspired.  Your dreams – whether sleeping or awake – represent subconscious brain activity; the mind seeking to make sense of experiences, thoughts, impressions, and emotions.  If you cannot tap into deep-seated desires, joys, fears, and perceptions, how can you effectively attribute believable personalities to your characters, or bring authenticity to the situations in which they find themselves?  Daydreaming should be as essential a part of your process as the practical mechanics of time-management, or the discipline of sitting down obediently before your incomplete manuscript regardless of mood or inclination. 

If you seek success, learn to love writing, whether it comes easy or not

In conclusion, whether you’re paid for your writing, or seeking to be, you must make the most of the hours you’ve got or you’ll never get anywhere:

1.       Prioritise your manuscript.  If you can’t finish it, you’ll never sell it, and all your frantic, directionless promotion will be in vain.

2.       Marketing is vital, but not more vital than writing your books.  Therefore, maximise small pockets of time in your busy life to reach out to your potential (or actual) audience, or diarise segments of your day to do this necessary work, but don’t steal marketing moments from Writing Time; you’ll regret it.  I reiterate – you’ll never sell an unfinished book.

3.       Daydreaming is never wasted time.  It’s an essential psychological ‘deep breath’, gifting you the oxygen to press on, refreshed and reenthused by your project.

Treat every moment with your current manuscript as a rewarding opportunity, not a punishing chore.  (It should be a place you want to be.  If it isn’t, perhaps you need to rethink your reasons for wanting to write…?)  It’s a new beginning, ripe with potential, because every time you sit down in front of your almost-completed work, you are a step closer to your goal.  It’s a fresh chance to produce something truly brilliant, and should be seized and savoured.

At the end of every Writing Day, you should leave your manuscript better than you found it.  Plan your time, stick to your realistic objectives, and make all those magical interactions count.  You’ll be glad you did.