It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. Well, it’s June and so summer here in the US is almost upon us! I ended last month good with my writing and am trying to start off this month and the upcoming summer with at least just as good of, but preferably better, writing!
For most of May, I had been getting no more than an hour of fiction writing into my Fridays which is the day of the week I regularly have off from my day job. Other writing related tasks such as the promoting of my books, working with technical tasks on my blog and inserting affiliate ads on it had put me behind in my fiction work. In addition to that, lack of sleep during the week put me back. Not last week, though.
Last week, I started going to bed earlier. It was that Friday when I felt the difference. For the first time in at least a month, I got up before by 10:30 AM. Before, I had been getting up closer to noon on those days due to going to bed after midnight the night before. But last Friday I was able to get a better start on my day and so an earlier start on my writing tasks overall. Because of that, I got done almost two-and-a-half -hours of fiction writing! And I didn't even feel like I had to make a big effort to control my day’s schedule unlike before when it seemed to get ahead of me like a run-away horse! Now, I just have to maintain that kind of sleep schedule so I can maintain more sufficient fiction writing time during the day.
IWSG Optional Question of the Month
The optional question for June is: In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members? This will be one of the rare IWSG posts that I pass up on answering the question. I haven't worked with the other IWSG services enough and so I can’t give a sufficient answer. However, I’m interested in hearing anyone else’s answers!
Current Book Projects
As I mentioned in my blog post for Monday, in addition to working on my stories for my short fiction collection, "Bad Apps ", my upcoming one-short story book, "The Trespassers", is in progress of getting formatted for print and e-book. I gave my approval to the formatter to format the manuscript on Monday. Once it’s formatted, I just have to review it to see if it needs any revisions in the formatting and then give the approval of acceptance for the final product. After that, I'm going to focus on the cover design and illustration. So, expect a cover reveal here soon!
For more details about "The Trespassers" and "Bad Apps", and for a discount on the former and possibly on the latter, subscribe to my free newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call". The most recent issue is now out and will be available to new subscribers for the next week and a half.
There won’t be a post here next Monday since this week here at the Far Out Fantastic Site has been a two-post one (this one and this past Monday’s). So, I’m taking next Monday off. But I’ll be back here with a post the week after!
Do you feel like you can take better control of your writing schedule, or your writing overall, when you get good sleep? What have been your latest writing projects or goals that you've been working on? What offerings or services do you think IWSG should offer to members?
Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Liza at Middle Passages, Shannon Lawrence, Melissa Maygrove, and Olga Godim! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels!
Until next time . . .
I can't remember the last time I slept that late! Even on Saturdays, I'm usually up by seven.
ReplyDeleteIt's much better to get up early like that if you can. I make up for my late awakenings on the days that I go to work. Lol On those days I wake up at 4 AM to get some writing done before going to work.
DeleteWe're in bed by ten as we have to be up by 5:30 most days. So that's just become our normal bedtime.
ReplyDeleteThat's me on my day job days!
DeleteIt's amazing how much time all that marketing projects (and all of life's other responsibilitites) take away from writing. I'm glad yoru getting more sleep- it can make a huge difference. Good luck with your writing.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Miffie!
DeleteHi, Steven! I do anything better with a good night's sleep behind me. I've been trying to average six hours a night, but I'm too erratic. I can't settle into a regular schedule. Any schedule has always been difficult for me because I'm ADHD. I'm working on the next draft of my memoir. It's slow work, but satisfying. Have a happy and creative June!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! I'm also ADHD and so I don't do well with schedules at all, my day job excepted. My day job is already prestructured. Outside that, I just do the best I can.
DeleteBy the way, good luck with your memoir and you have fun creative June too!
DeleteYeah, an improvement in your sleeping habits can make all the difference to your writing, not to mention your life in general. Unfortunately, it is not always possible if a writer suffers from insomnia, as I do.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I can't comment here other than Anonymous. The site wouldn't allow me any other option.
Olga Godim from https://olgagodim.wordpress.com/
I've had my share of nights of insomnia. In fact, I had a bit of it last night.
DeleteI'm sorry you're not able to comment through your name or blog here. I'll check the settings to make sure that nothing inadvertently turned off the other options.
Thanks for stopping by!
It's a pain how much time the "business" aspects of writing take, and how they take away time from writing. I'm glad you got some better sleep and writing time in! I have every other Friday off if I can manage to work all my hours earlier in the week, so I'm trying to restructure that into getting more writing time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, for some people business is a career or way of life. For me as a writer it's only a tool.
DeleteI think it's great that you work a job that's flexible enough to allow you take Friday's off which gives you more time to write.