Updates on What I’m Doing

Here is the video if you want to listen to this post instead of reading it. I cover a wider range of topics than originally planned. I discuss burnout, how I’m working to avoid burnout, why my books will take longer to write and publish, and the books themselves. You can tell I was in a talkative mood because I kept on rambling. If you read the post, you’ll avoid a lot of the crazy ramblings.

Note: I talk about the actual books at the 9 minute mark, if you want to skip ahead to that.

Tackling the Burnout Beast

This takes some experimenting to figure out, apparently. A few years ago, I thought all I had to do was forget “writing to market” and it would take care of the road to burnout. Looking back, I realized I was heading for burnout starting back in 2016. I just didn’t recognize the signs. I knew I was getting tired but didn’t know how to adjust for it. So I swapped to “writing for passion”, but I kept up with the 3,000 words a day Monday through Friday routine that I had established back in 2013 (I think). I swear, this stuff comes up so slowly on a person it’s hard to pinpoint these things, especially when you don’t keep a journal. Essentially, just writing for passion did not prevent me from burnout.

Recently I found Becca Syme’s book Dear Writer, Are You In Burnout? This led me to reading her other books and even checking out her YouTube channel.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays are for Writing. Tuesdays and Thursdays are for the “marketing/business” management stuff. Weekends are for the family. (This is why my books are taking longer to write and publish.)

Right now, I am limiting my writing days to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. (If I miss a day, I don’t try to make it up.) I have found that giving myself breaks like this, my words flow a lot easier. The stories are more vibrant and engaging to write. It’s like everything is just “popping off in my head”. I know that’s a lousy way of putting it, but I don’t know how to explain it. But I have learned I need to not overdo it on these writing days, or I can wear myself out to the point where I can’t get much done the next day, even though it’s not a writing day.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are dedicated to the business side of things. Except for record keeping (which is required if I’m to get my info correct to the accountant), I am choosing things I enjoy. Like blog posts, the videos to go with the blog posts, reading my books and uploading those chapters on YouTube and Rumble. I am trying to make the “marketing” aspect of my life fun so I don’t get worn out. I forgot to mention this in the video, but I try to keep my engagement on social media to a minimum because that does wear me out a lot. Same with emails. At my core, I’m an introvert. I love people but have trouble coming up with something to say, so I spend quite a bit of time commenting and emailing as I try to get the words right.

Weekends are mainly for grocery shopping and family time, though I do walk with one of my sons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have worked my way up to 3-5 miles at a time when I walk. I want to take care of my physical health so I can write better. This is not in the video, but when I was in my early 30s, I ate a lot of bad foods, I didn’t exercise, and I drank a lot of sugary drinks. I also put on some weight (as you can imagine). I have been slowly working better eating habits and lifestyle goals that have helped a lot. But it wasn’t until I discovered Dr. Eric Berg (here’s his YouTube channel) that I picked up on healthy Keto, and it has been a game changer. I don’t think this works for everyone, but it did for me. Thanks to this man, I lost 30 pounds, have a lot more energy, and feel like I’m 27-28. (And I’m 50.) Before I came across him, I was only able to lose 10 pounds. I couldn’t get past 200. I was stuck there for years. I think all of this has helped with my writing because I’m more focused than I used to be.

Okay. Apparently, I ramble even in the blog post. Back to the topic…

Currently talking to someone to handle a couple of jobs for me.

I have contacted someone about managing BookFunnel for me because I keep forgetting to use it. I also want her to clean up my MailChimp email list because there are people who haven’t opened anything in years. There’s no point in having them there if they don’t want to be. I’m giving her time to think over whether she wants to tackle these things for me. I am still writing my emails. They are like my blog posts. I enjoy that part of things.

The Hero Least Likely is in edits

I am only six chapters into my initial edits, and I’m very happy with the way this story turned out. In addition to writing slower, I’m choosing to edit slower than I used to. I was originally thinking this would come out in May. At the point, I’m thinking it won’t be ready until June. (I want to make sure I give other people time to look over this for me as well.)

The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride is at about 45,000 words

I don’t know how long this will be. As of late, all of my books have been more than 60,000 words. But I don’t see how much more there will be to this one.

The big blow up happened. The hero is scrambling to make amends after the heroine found out he thought her play was terrible. I know some people will think I’m being too hard on him. (That’s a common complaint I get. I’m so mean to my heroes, but as a writer myself, this heroine is going to be this upset because that is how upset writers get when faced with rejection.) I’ve decided I’m not going to tone down my work anymore. I’ve done that enough in the past, and to be honest, I think I did my best work when I went all out with my characters. This lady is upset. I’m going to let her be upset.

I figured out how the “What if…” scenario will work in the Marriage by Holiday Series.

This is Book 1 in the series. I was originally going to go in a more magical direction, but I kept running into dead ends on that idea. So after talking to one of my sons, I settled on going with a woman from the year 2500s coming into the Regency era to run three experiments. (Each experiment will be for each book.) Her goal is to be successful. If she succeeds, she will get a promotion at her job. The heroine in Masquerade Bride is her first experiment. This is going to be a lot of fun to write.

I’m happy to say I actually got some writing done in The Preacher’s Wife

It took me writing some fan fiction to finally get to the point where I could write in these three books again, but the method worked. Whew! As much as I enjoy thinking up fan fiction in bed while I’m drifting off to sleep, I really don’t want to have to write it all out. I think I was spared the 100,000+ words I would have had to tackle if my brain wasn’t going to give me some leniency on the fan fiction.

I would rather focus on The Preacher’s Wife because going deep into this more “gritty” emotions these characters will tackle is intriguing to me. I love comedy and fun. I also love drama and dark. As long as the couple ends up happy, I don’t care what is thrown at them. I have a wide range of interests.