Staying Productive

I’m probably like a lot of writers, indie or otherwise, a working stiff trying to get writing in around a 40 hour a week job.  Plus a family and all the social obligations that come with that.  

I am fortunate to have a great job that is flexible, allowing me to get my writing in during the day; mostly first thing in the morning and over lunch.  It’s still a challenge and I feel guilty all the time.  I’m not getting enough done at work.  I’m not writing enough.  The dual needs can be overwhelming.  

When it comes to being an indie writer, it’s not all one dimensional, focused on putting characters on the blank screen, building sentences, paragraphs, and stories or novels.  It’s editing and revising.  It’s eFormatting books.  It’s promoting via blogging, Facebook, and any other outlet.  Plus there’s submitting if you write short stories like I do

Still, I beat myself up if I don’t having something new and original in the works.

One of favorite authors, Joe McKinney, wrote a great piece for The Horror Zine, discussing how he maintains his productivity while working a fulfilling job as a cop and also writing.  What he basically said is that you have to set goals, even modest ones, and be disciplined, yet flexible enough to stick with them.  His goal is 1,000 words a day.  I try to hit that, too, but sometimes I’m editing and revising without new and original output.  I’ll just have to accept that.  

Today, I felt like I didn’t do enough, but I got in 500 words on a novella I’m working on, put my first short story on Amazon, and did revisions on my novel based on feedback from my editor.  

One of the things I’m realizing is that I can’t beat myself up.  The past month or so I had this low level anxiety going on because I hadn’t had a short story accepted in a couple months.  It ate at me, so I dedicated my Friday writing time to making a real push at submitting some of my stories.  Within a week of that push, I had three stories picked up, one for flash fiction site which put the story up that day, one for another flash fiction site for next year, and one for an anthology.

Again, backing up to what Joe McKinney said, it’s about settings goals and discipline.