I decided to take a bit of a break, or rather, my brain decided it was going to take a break. Thursday was long and slow and had some emotional stuff going on. Friday wasn’t any better. So instead of being on my computer, I laid on my couch and watched television ALL DAY. For any of you who know me, you know this is rare. I rarely watch television, so I did a binge watch of some new shows.

I have been working, on and off, as you can see below, but I’ve not been working, as you can also see below. My timing seems to be off in terms of regular and consistent work, and I was doing a lot of it on one day and none on another. I used to work like this, but I’ve tried to even it out a bit more, for my sanity, for my production levels, and for my body physically. While I love days when I can write 17k words at once, my wrists do not, my elbows do not, and my brain certainly does not.

So I have been working and not working. I’ve been editing and not writing. I have two more novels releasing this year that need to go through the editing process or are somewhere in there. Not to mention, I do need to be writing some more blog posts. If anything, my blog post yesterday tells me that.

Does anyone else struggle with what to do and when to do it? I know writing is important but so is marketing, so is keeping my presence up on social media sites. It’s a balance that I try very hard to keep, and this year I think I managed it, but I won’t be able to maintain that forever. A huge part of that is because the SO and I work opposite shifts, meaning I have much of my day (like all of it except 2-3 hours) to myself. When the SO gets a new job with different hours, that will change.

I talked with another author who writes full time. He spends 5 hours a day working, 7 days a week. the first 3 hours he markets, the second 2 he writes, and his goal is 2k words a day so he doesn’t get burned out. I’m pretty sure he far exceeds that amount every day. My balance currently is writing as soon as I wake up in the morning for 3 hours, which means I get anywhere from 2k-5k words written (my goal is usually 1 chapter, which currently is 4k ish words). I tend not to write on Sundays because of day job busyness. I go to my day job, and in the evenings I edit or do some marketing.

How does everyone else keep this balance? What are your “rules” for it? What’s your pattern?

1. Lost & Forsaken — write 1 chapter a day until complete (3.5 chapters to go)

Wednesday: Ch 17
Thursday : Ch 18 — half of it anyway
Friday: none
Saturday: none

2. Simple Biology — write 1 chapter a day until complete (26 chapters to go)

– This is to start after Lost & Forsaken is finished

3. Outline that novella thing the paranormal romance that has no name so, MILFy thing 3 (14 chapters)

– Did this on Wednesday and Thursday…sadly this is probably going to be written before Simple Biology

4. Edit Grace through Redemption — 1 chapter a day until caught up, then as they come in from betas

Wednesday: none
Thursday: none
Friday: ch 8
Saturday: ch 9, 10, 11, 12

I’m now caught up with my beta readers, meaning I have to wait for more chapters to come in before I can edit =P only 4 more chapters to go in this novel!

5. Edit Unbound — 2 chapters a day until completed

Wednesday: none
Thursday: none
Friday: none
Saturday: ch 12, 13

I do need to finish this one soon so it can get back to my publisher and formatting stuff