Between bits of freelance work here and there, blogging, my own writing, and life, I’ve been pretty busy. When I check off one thing from my to-do list, five more things seem to get added.
I’ve talked about it this before. In fact, I’m sure I’ve talked about it a couple times. I’m trying to create a steady schedule and routine for myself for all the work I need/want to do.
Some months are easier than others, but, like I said, my to-do list grows faster than it shrinks.
I’ve created deadlines for everything I want to do – some I’m going to end up missing. Which is okay. I can’t do everything all at once.
A big problem I have is that I focus a lot more on my blog than I do my writing – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, my blog needs a lot of attention. However, I’m barely getting any writing done, despite my blog posts talking about all these projects I’m working on. I need a better balance to give my characters the spotlight they’ve been craving for so long.
So, that’s why this update is strictly for my writing.
My Schedule
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I create monthly goals. Since I’ve been working on multiple novels, I try to spend each month working on different stages of each novel – outlining, writing, editing, rewriting. It’s a lot, but it’s actually been working for me, as crazy as it is.
My biggest problem is time. I’ll tell myself I can work on a couple projects on certain days and then things in real life will happen or something will happen with the blog that I’ll need to take care of. So this is something I need to account for. I won’t get to everything on my daily to-do list – again, which is fine since I can’t do everything at once – but I don’t think I work on the “high priority” stuff first.
Wattpad
I had a few novella ideas for Wattpad. I had planned on publishing 4 stories, each of them being three months apart. Two have been published and are completed – The Scribe and Take Over – feel free to check them out if you haven’t already.
Currently, I’m working on Brave, which I had originally planned on publishing in July. I outlined the story in April and was supposed to write the first draft in May and only ended up writing the prologue. I’m supposed to edit it in June but obviously, I can’t edit what I haven’t written. I’m not sure if I’ll try to have it done by the end of July or push everything back a month. This isn’t something I want to rush.
After Brave, I’ll be working on Silhouettes, which is supposed to be published in October, which might end up being November depending on how Brave goes.
I’ve already decided for 2019 that I think I’ll only publish 2-3 stories on Wattpad. I have a good schedule going, but with my other projects, I think it was too much. I still want to try to get Brave and Silhouettes out this year though.
So, long story short, I’m still working on Brave. It’ll just be later than originally planned.
Self-Publishing
When I started writing I always thought I’d go traditional. I’d get an agent and a book deal with a publishing company. I’ve even queried to agents – and some publishers – before. However, the more I write and the more research I do, I’ve realized self-publishing is the way to go for me (which I may explain in a later blog post).
I’ve been researching self-publishing and learning a lot about it as well as creating a timeline for the book(s) I plan on publishing.
Perplexed
This is a collection of mystery short stories that I’ve been working on since January. I was hoping to self-publish it in 2019 but I don’t have many short stories. It’s a lot harder to create mystery shorts than I thought. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but all the ideas I create star George and Lilah. I’ve thought about creating a collection of short stories featuring them, but not until after a few books from their series have come out.
So, Perplexed is going a lot slower than I thought. I’m still working on it, but I’m not giving myself a solid deadline anymore. I want to see what comes of it as inspiration hits. Though I still plan on working on it fairly regularly.
George Florence and the Perfect Alibi
Yes! I have finally come up with a title for the first book of the George Florence series that I have been working on since 2011!
But anyway, I plan on self-publishing this. I’ve gone through many drafts and have edited it a ton. It’s definitely time I kick George and Lilah out of the nest.
There’s still plenty of work to do, of course, but I’m planning on a 2019 release.
Other Projects
I have many novels I’m working on, but there’s one I’m working on monthly. It’s called Unwritten and I’ve been sending it to my writer’s group each month. I plan on giving it a deep edit in July (since my group won’t be meeting that month) so they’ll have a brand new draft to look at come August. And then, hopefully, I can edit the book each month after we meet to keep up polished… like I had planned to do originally and never did.
There’s also The Lost Girl, a book I had planned to start editing this summer, though I don’t think I’m going to get around to it. I feel like I have too many other projects to work on, so I’ll be putting it on the backburner.
For More Writing Updates
If you want to stay up to date with my writing, there are a few ways to do it.
Each month (unless I accidentally skip it like I did this month) I publish a WIP Wednesday post. It’s usually the second or third Wednesday of the month where I discuss what I’m currently working on and such.
You can check out the My Books page. I update it pretty regularly. It’s just a list of what I’m working on and what stage each project is in.
You can subscribe to my newsletter. It’s free and while I’m still playing around with what I want to do with it, it’s a great place for resources for yourself as well as updates from me and more.
You can check out my Patreon and Ko-fi pages where I post regular updates.
Thanks for reading this whole post if you made it this far. I didn’t think it’d turn out this long. I hope you’re just as excited as I am for self-publishing and all my projects!
How is your writing going? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share it around.
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