Support for Indie Authors discussion

Howdy all,
New member, and already loving what I am seeing so far. I do have a question on something that I am currently struggling with. Time.
It is hard enough for us to find time to write, between jobs, family, etc. But clearly, we have managed to find that time somewhere. But what about finding time for the other aspects of the writer's life that you don't originally think about? Like running your author page/blog, networking with other writers, finding cover artists, and the thousand other tasks that are a necessity for what we are doing.

Anyone have things that have worked for them? Thought it might be cool to see what everyone has to say.
-Mark

Well, I don't have a job, since I'm disabled, I don't have children, and I treat writing like it's a job (While still keeping it fun of course.) So my answer is an unfair one, because I make the time to do all of that without having outside influences that are too terrible to overcome.

Howdy, Mark!

I'm still trying to juggle life, writing, publishing, book marketing . . . and I agree that I'd like to see what others have done to balance writing life and regular life.

Thanks!

Mark wrote: "Time."

Really, writing is just like anything else in life. If you want to do it, you'll find the time. I married a woman that understands my passion for writing. I manage to work around my other jobs. The dogs don't really get why I'd rather be staring at the laptop and petting it instead of them, but they get over it.

As for "work beyond the writing"... it's all writing to me. Doing cover art, talking to people about my stories, yakking it up with the folks on here... it's all a part of the writing process.

V.M. wrote: "Sacrifice the virginal Sleep..."

Sleep... I vaguely remember what real sleep is.

While that all makes sense, and of course we make the sacrifices for what we do, I guess I was looking for more specifics. Like do you find that an hour a day devoted to networking and online presence is something that works? Or a "housekeeping day" where you take care of a lot of the little necessities that often fall by the wayside? Do you like to look at cover art first thing in the morning, or after you get your pages in?

Hmm, I actually kind of like those ideas.

Mark wrote: "Like do you find that an hour a day devoted to networking and online presence is something that works? Or a "housekeeping day" where you take care of a lot of the little necessities that often fall by the wayside? Do you like to look at cover art first thing in the morning, or after you get your pages in?"


Hmm...

Well, I check in on the networking off and on just to see what's happening. I don't have a set time to do it or an allotted amount of time.

I try to take care of housekeeping chores during breaks from the writing.

I work on covers when the mood hits.

I'm sorry if this isn't much help.

No, Dwayne, that is perfect. Exactly what I am looking for. I work much the same way. I'm mainly wondering if scheduled time would work better for me, but glad to see I am not alone in the "when the spirit moves me" camp.

Mark wrote: "No, Dwayne, that is perfect. Exactly what I am looking for. I work much the same way. I'm mainly wondering if scheduled time would work better for me, but glad to see I am not alone in the "when..."

I don't believe in hard, fast rules for writers. I have read several books and sometimes they suggest a rigid schedule for this and that, but when the mood hits to sit and pound out words for a few minutes, an hour, three hours... I don't want to feel tied down to doing other stuff. It's the words that are the most important and I don't want to hold off on them when they're ready to come out. The rest of the stuff can wait. A set schedule may work for some, but not for me.

Setting an allotted amount of time for specific tasks can work for super type A people, but for the majority of writers, this ain't happenin'. I try to keep something of a normal eight hour workday whenever possible, but I find that some days I spend more time slacking off here and others where I'll write for twelve straight hours. As far as covers and marketing and al that goes. That's what I work on when the words fail me.

I go the house keeping route usually on a day that my husband is at work. It makes it easier for me to sit down and focus and this way i dont ignore him. I try to write at least an hour a day but all the other stuff has to be done together on that one day im alone.

I use hootsuite to schedule my tweets and posts. I spend one day writing up various blog posts and schedule those. Then any extra time I have in between I still try to blog. I find it hard to make time to visit many other writers blogs but I always support them on my personal and professional blogs.