I just turned in my last assignment for my first MBA class. And I wrote over 1,000 words for Blood to Fire this week. So on the one hand, I’m feeling like I accomplished a lot (including, did you see my fourth-wall Friday post over at Cabin Goddess?), on the other, I’m also feeling like I’m at the very beginning of a very long road. If I think about it too much, I’m liable to get depressed. I’ve already had to tell my mom I can’t spend more than 2 hours a week on the phone with her (and if you knew how much of a decrease that was over our average weekly conversations…)
So I’m back to taking my goals on a week-to-week basis. I did everything I wanted for school, and for promoting my books, but not quite everything I wanted to make progress on my new book.
The irony is, the paper I just turned in spoke to the choices indie authors face in pursuing that path, the opportunity costs gained by not going through the submissions and rejections, and the financial and professional pluses of not being tied to mainstream contracts and all their gotcha clauses. (That, in and of itself, was eye-opening research!) Part of what I’ve been reading, too, relates to being business-oriented in your writing plans–that it really takes releasing books regularly (think once every month or three) to build toward long-term success.
That being the case, I need to think seriously about my priorities: school is all well and good, but spending time promoting my work at the expense of developing new work is probably not in my best interest. Not to say I won’t be meeting those commitments I’ve already made (that Dementional tour is going to be FUN!), but I’m going to think long and hard about making new ones, given the lack of actual sales I’ve seen for the effort I’ve invested.
So. For the next week, which is a mini-break between classes for me, I’m going to be writing my fingers off, both developing my guest posts to meet those tour commitments, and building up my word count for my latest WIP. What are your goals?
Visit the list of other ROW80 participants to see how they’re dealing with their goals.
It is too easy to let everything else get in the way of your writing. I think it is wonderful that you have been working towards your MBA, and at least that work will be finite (as in, you will eventually finish it and get your degree), so although it takes some time away from your writing now, it won’t always do so. But I do understand you about not feeling you are spending enough time on your novel. I have been letting other things get in the way of my writing too. I am using NaNoWriMo (November) to get me back to writing regularly every day.