Scheduling

In my quest to network, I've been using the "Friends You May Know" option on FB. When I see a name with more than its fair share of fellow writers attached to it, I Friend Request that person. I have met some interesting people this way. I only ask one or two people a day.

Oddly enough, FB stopped me from doing this. Why would it offer names then refuse to allow me to contact them? I have no idea.

TT: I may lose some of these new contacts if they don't care for FV posts. I cannot help it. FV is part of who I am now.

One extremely useful person I met is K.M. Weiland. Find her blog Wordplay on my "Blogs I Follow" list. She has published two historical fiction books and seems to have more in the works. More power to anyone who doesn't mind doing research.

She also has a links page of marketing resources. I added three of these to my list and will begin implementing their numerous suggestions. I am trying, PYP. Arrogant as I am, self-promotion is new to me. So is networking. This turtle prefers her own shell.

I read a post yesterday (I thought it was Weiland's, but I'm wrong, so I don't know who wrote it) about scheduling time to write, one of the differences between the professional and the hobbyist. I didn't need to schedule Star of Justice; I couldn't stop writing it. Elementals was harder, but I made it happen. I have very much gotten out of the habit of writing daily other than my blogs. Which presents the question, when should I write?

I am a highly scheduled person. Not quite OCD, but close. So when should I write?

It seems clear it will be during what is currently FV time. I can play FV while doing other things, like listening to the radio or eating. I cannot write with divided attention, and I cannot type while wielding a fork.

My greatest time waster has undergone some changes. NBC has at last removed Friends from its daily lineup. That removes NBC from my radar. I have only one channel left, and only 1 show on that channel I follow faithfully (who knows what it is?). That means, as long as I don't turn on the TV, I have 3 hours a night most nights. Except I don't. One night a week goes to the nieces. One night goes to My Best Friend. One night will go to my favorite show. And, for while anyway, at least one night goes to politics.

So when should I write?

The most obvious answer to me is in the morning. No one calls me at 4:30 AM. I don't think my friends know that time exists. I have no problem writing my blog posts at this time.

Potential problem. Writing stories puts me in an odd frame of mind. I don't know if I'm writing from my right brain or entering some kind of trance, but once I focus on that inner world, I have a hard time coming out of it with any kind of graciousness. I'm a little worried about what writing first will do to the rest of my day.

I guess I'll find out.

So, for a while, I'll be blogging in the evenings instead of the mornings. I hope. I remember what happens when the weather turns cold. I may move the computer into my bedroom so I can type under the covers.

On the Elementals revision front, I finished working in all of The Lioness' suggestions last night (despite 3 phone interruptions of varying lengths of time). Somehow I managed to add clarifying sentences and still reduce overall word count. I'm not entirely sure how I did that, unless I haven't counted words since the last time I revised and those edits got counted here. However I did it, I hope I can keep it up. I have 8000 words to remove, and for the life of me, I don't know how I will do it.

Ooo, just had a petit mal panic seizure thinking about submitting in half a month. That's fun.