Image by Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
Welcome to the Author Toolbox Blog Hop, hosted by author Raimey Gallant. Join us here: https://raimeygallant.com/2017/03/22/authortoolboxbloghop/
Each third Wednesday, we gather to share resources and advice for writers. But honestly, with a pandemic raging around us, we’re all just feeling our way. Lately, I find my mood as mercurial as, well, Mercury, I suppose. Ditto my concentration. Some days, I’m good for three or four hours, as long as I don’t click onto a news site. Other days…(sigh).
I’d like to offer a bit of wisdom shared by an author on Twitter. Her therapist told her to count it as a victory if she accomplished even 50% of what she would have before the pandemic hit. After all, we’re simmering 24/7 in a stew of anxiety and distraction, not to mention loneliness. That advice helped me a lot; perhaps it’ll help you as well.
Another bit of advice: writing adjacent chores that build your author career count as forward progress, even if new words aren’t coming. This may be the time for those thousand little writerly chores required to build your platform and promote your books. Remember the old saw: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Little tasks are about all I’m good for at the moment. Like a pinball, I ping from chore to chore, completing some, starting others, taking copious notes in my paper calendar lest I forget what’s due when.
Today, for example, I finished the press kit for an upcoming release, made an avatar (goofy, but fun), made several graphics on Canva and Bookbrush, did my social media stuff (participating in a book giveaway), made book cover mockups on diybookcovers.com (so cool, and free!), and dealt with various emails. Also updated a page on my website with new book info. You get the idea—Ping! Ring! Buzz!
This is also a good time to further your writerly education. I’m taking an online course on tech for authors via the RWA Online chapter—thank you, Kerry Blaisdell! (You should totally read her paranormal/romantic suspense series: Debriefing the Dead and Waking the Dead. It’s like a mashup of a female Indiana Jones and the TV show Lucifer.) I’m also clipping articles from my huge stack of old Writers’ Digest magazines and organizing my notes from workshops. And reading in my genre counts as education, right?
My WIP will still be waiting when my buzzy brain calms down—someday.
I hope this post finds you well and safe. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to everyone working outside the home to provide essential services.
If you’re home, how are you coping? Are you getting any writing done?
Pinball image by Vlad Vasnetsov from Pixabay
This made me feel so much better about my bad writing habits since the virus hit. My brain has been buzzy too, and I love the pinball idea!
Small tasks are all I can handle as of right now as well. Having to balance my writer stuff with my momming stuff which includes making sure the boys do their online work pulls my attention in 20 different directions. I know I’m slacking on the promotion for my upcoming release, but baby steps. We’ll all get there.
I love that first bit of advice. I know a lot of people who are struggling each day. Their world has been knocked from its axis. I’ve been distracted myself, worrying about family and friends. This situation is so bizarre and unique it’s unfair to put the same pressure as usual on yourself.
Thanks for this advice! With everything going on right now, it’s definitely difficult to be motivated to do writing work. This perspective is really great!
Yeah, I’m starting an online course as well and hoping it will help.
Anna from elements of emaginette
I heard similar advice on Twitter: that we should give ourselves permission to stop judging ourselves by our pre-pandemic standards. Reading in your genre absolutely counts as education. This is all really good advice I should take to heart. Thanks!