Settling into Routine

Over the last 2 months, my life has been filled with constant upheaval.  I was made a Lady of the Ballroom, went to Peru, followed shortly by If I Fall and The Dress of the Season coming out at all fine retailers (and e-retailers) near you.  Then, the If I Fall Blog Tour and… well, it’s been hectic, is what I’m saying.  But thankfully things are settling back into a kind of routine, and everything will be normal – or at least what passes for normal – again soon.

Can you tell I watched Crazy, Stupid Love recently?

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: routine is essential for writing.  Because for most of us, writing is a necessary chore – like sit-ups.  With sit-ups, we very, very much want the end result (a six pack worthy of Ryan Gosling, of course) but the work to get there is haaaaaaaaard.  And booooooooooooring.   But the work must be done – hell, the work must be enjoyed – to get the end result.  Thus, you need a routine, to get those sit-ups in every day.  Or that word count.

The good thing is, once you’ve been doing those sit-ups a while, you actually begin to like it.  Heck, you being to crave it.  And suddenly one day you realize you have Ryan Gosling abs.  Or, in a writer’s case, a finished project.  None of which is achievable without a day to day routine.

So what’s my routine, you might ask?  Well, it involves a hearty amount of procrastination and a cow’s worth of lattes, but the day is not allowed to be over until I hit my word count.  So usually, sometime in mid-morning, I will have read over the entire internet and settle in to get work done.  That’s all there is to it.  Just getting the work done.

Sounds boring, I know.  I bet you were hoping for some kind of magical, third-eye focusing trick that lets me get work done and still have time to have a life.  Well there’s not.  In fact, I’m not allowed a life until work is done.  It’s all about being in the chair.  And it’s a chair – and a routine – my butt has missed for the past few months.

One other part to my regular routine is a website contest – of which there is a new one!  Prize is your choice of my backlist, and a winner is drawn every two weeks.  AND once you enter, you’re entered for the entire 4 month life of the contest, so plenty of chances to win!

That’s all for now kids, plenty of butt-in-chair time for me this week.  Until later – happy reading!