Hello :D
My name is Jason Ellis. I am an author from
the UK. Some of you know me already, some of you will be meeting me for the
first time … hi whichever you fall in to ;)
So, a blog post about writing … I could
choose many topics, subjects, words of advice … but I think I'll just run
through what I am doing at this exact moment. You can then see a day/ week/
month in the life of an author :)
Believe
it or not, but I have (counts on fingers) seven(7) … yeah, seven … seven!!
stories/ books that are on the go at the moment. Wow! That sounds unworkable,
even to myself as I type this, yet it isn't unheard of with me, or other
authors out there.
I am choosing which to work on, sometimes
on a daily basis, sometimes on a weekly basis. It's difficult to prioritize a
story idea, you see. One day, story #1 may hit a wall and no matter how hard I
try, the words won't flow, yet story #3 is shouting at me with 5,000 lovely
words that want to come out!
As a lot of us set our own deadlines
regarding publication, no one story can be classed as more important than
another. This makes the decision even more difficult. Personally, I will always
follow the words. There will ALWAYS be a chapter or two(three, four etc) in my
head, somewhere, so I grab the relevant story and go for it.
This
brings me on to the point of daily word counts or goals, which I am not
particularly fond of, if I'm honest. Yes, do achieve something every day, but
don't beat yourself up or call that day a failure if it doesn't work out.
You
can discuss it with family, friends, your cat, your dog, the lady behind the
counter at the café, your kids … you get the idea … but if you set a goal, then
fail to meet it, this loneliness will lead to negative thoughts of failure, or
lack of self-discipline. You don't need those flying around in your head when
you need all those 5,000 lovely words I just mentioned to be flying around in
there instead ;)
If we add all the day-to-day stuff in too;
remembering to eat, drink, shop, the school performance of Romeo & Juliet
that you CAN'T miss, taking the cat to the vet, popping to your friend's house
to help them with something … the list goes on. “But … but … I planned on
2,000 words today!!!”
Instead of thinking on a daily basis,
choose weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly and see if it works better for you.
I had an 'idea' what would happen today in
my work schedule … guess what? Yeah, it isn't happening as I thought it might,
but there you have it.
Apart
from the seven(seven!!) stories, I am also making book-plates so that readers
can have signed material from me. Particularly handy seeing as I talk to many
US/ international readers, and am not involved in many signings etc. Then there
is cover designs, illustrations, marketing on Twitbook and Facespace and
Blogalog and GooglyBoogly … my head hurts haha ;)
I
suppose the point I am making is this; being an author/ writer is not just
story - type - publish. It is everything in between that as well,
and how you manage it all. You set the goals, nobody else, so set
them to fit YOU!
Right, nice to meet you all here today :)
My FB is; www.facebook.com/jayellisauthor
… come say hello!
Jay
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