(Re) Scheduling

Creative Commons image “Business Calendar & Schedule” taken by photosteve101 – www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/

I mentioned in my “Taking off my pants” post, that I’m on the cusp (or I feel I’m on the cusp) of having my fiction writing become a viable job. One that sees me doing what I love, one that I can fit into my family’s schedule, and one that can maybe pay me something approaching a part-time salary.

Which would be awesome, of course!

But … I’m realizing if I want this to be a job, it’s time to treat it like a job.

What brought this realization about? Well, I recently applied for a job, and was interviewed for it (it was very recent, so I still haven’t heard the outcome of the interview).

While I’ve been contemplating what it would mean to take this job, I’ve thought things like, I’d have to get much more efficient. And, I’d have to stop doing “x,” as it’s a nice thing I get to do, but I won’t have time if I have a job. I’ve been running time recovery, and time saving tips through my mind.

And then I thought, Hmmm … what if I used all those tips for my writing career? What, indeed?

So, I’m going to.

I’m not going to be too hard on myself because I have been fairly prolific with my output. I’ve always got novels on the go, and I’m bringing them out much more quickly than if I was traditionally published.

But … I could do better.

Also, it’s not just the writing of the novels. Every novel I bring out means more technical work (formatting, liaising with designers, etc.) and more promotion. And, you know what? My current schedule doesn’t have a box for that kind of work. Right now I have, essentially two “work” boxes – my resume-writing box, and my novel-writing box.

I’m realizing that’s not going to work. First of all, I need to put novel-writing first. It’s actually starting to pay me more than resume-writing, and I like it more than resume-writing, and I want it to be more important than resume-writing, so it needs to be #1.

Then, I need to split that novel-writing time into two. There will be a chunk every day for writing “stuff.” That will vary from day to day, but it will include all the time-consuming things like formatting eBooks, and finding cover images, and keeping my website updated, etc.

That leaves the other chunk free for WRITING. Just writing. Output. Words.

It’s Sunday now and I’m going to start the week with a new, improved schedule. One that looks more like a job.

And I’m going to see how it goes.

Then, of course, I’ll let you all know!