What is my writing/business routine and do I write every day.
It is really hard for me to write on some of my work days. I work nights from 6:30 pm until 5:00 am, ten hour shifts in a really physical kind of occupation.
Some days I am just too tired to write. I come home catch up on face book, email, blog posts that I need to write, edit or promote, setting up or responding to blog tours or other promotions for upcoming releases. Sometimes I can write. I will usually stay up until about 8am and then go to bed to rise in the afternoon. Once I am up I do a quick email check and get ready for work, shower, prepare lunch and leave all over again.
I work four, ten hour shifts a week and have three days off unless a mandatory over time day is called. On my days off I end up awake all night and sleeping in the day just like my work days. I can’t really shift back and forth. So I’m like a freaking vampire.
On my days off/ nights off. I write and edit. I have three or four pieces I am working on at a time. The piece that is with my editor and might come in with a revision letter from her. Second is the piece that I am almost finished with and doing final edits on. The third piece I am in the revision/edit stage that follows a draft of the work. I am working it and writing it. The process that takes me to the final edits stage. The fourth piece is the work that I am writing as a rough draft. It is the first run through of putting words on paper for the first time to get the characters and story down. Some of this process can carry over onto my work days where I will edit a bit or write a bit on one piece or another.
Along this way I send pages to my Critique Partner as I need her advice or help. At the beginning of a project I will often talk with her and brainstorm the plot, character or story line with her for realism and plausibility. At the beginning of each project I organize my thoughts into a blurb draft to send to my editor as a query to see if they are interested in the story. If they are, they give me the go ahead to write the story for submission. If they like what I send they contract it with me, set release date, send it through their revision / editing process with my editor. I complete a contact sheet about the story to get Carl Franklin the graphic artist on board for the cover design.
Once I know the release date I work to organize blog hop tours, radio shows, and any publicity I can generate to get the word out to readers. The Rebel Elite Authors periodically do advertisement and publicity together in various magazines and on different websites. Rebel Ink Press promotes my work on their website and they handle all the release business with the e-vendors.
When I totally finish a rough draft I set it aside for a week before I start the phase two editing and revision. I do this at each step of the process. Once I completely finish the final. I set it aside a couple weeks then go through it one more time or two before I send it to the editor.
Every author is different. However, this system works for me. I like routines and knowing what to expect. It helps me be more productive. You might say this is the secret to my success. LOL
Eden Glenn 