The other day one of my students asked me how I do it all.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"How do you make time for writing? And marketing your fiction? And editing?" she asked. "I see you put out a newsletter every week. How do you do it all? I mean, you teach, run a business, and I imagine you have to sleep sometime."
"Well, I don't do it all at once." I chuckled.
She lifted an eyebrow, as if to say that's not an answer.
True. It's not. Then I told her the boring answer and the solution to how I get it all done: scheduling.
A busy trial lawyer I met at the cafe the other day on his lunch break confided in me that he wanted to write a book, but how could he find the time? He had two kids, his court cases...
"There's only 24 hours in a day. That's all we all have," I said. "We can't find the time. Or make the time."
"Writers schedule time on their calendar, like a hair appointment or date with a friend," I told him.
He nodded, understanding.
I thought of my colorful Google calendar, wanted to tell him about it, but he'd turned back to his phone.
I still have a tendency to overload myself with tasks, but I keep myself honest by putting them in my calendar.
If I have too many tasks for my work hours, I know I have to move some to another day, and get real with how much I can actually do in any given day.
For my writer life, what do I schedule? I block off time for: - writing
- editing
- marketing
Then I work on that thing in a small chunk, maybe only for 45 minutes, maybe only for 5 pages. I stay focused and engaged, because I want to. Not very sexy, but effective.
One of my coaching clients calls it "donkey work." I think of it as the nitty-gritty, where the real work gets done.
To get the writing or editing or marketing done, I determined what my prime time, my peak energy times, were for each activity, and blocked off my schedule.
Granted, I work for myself so I can do that. But before I was self-employed I was choosing peak times too, without realizing it.
I love to write or edit in the late morning/early afternoon. Even when I was an employee, I would write during my lunch break.
I like editing also in the evenings. And I block off time to market in the afternoons, 1 or 2 days a week.
One thing you'll never catch me do is write early in the morning or late at night. Those are certainly not my peak energy times.
What are your peak energy times? Are you blocking off time in your calendar? What questions do you have about scheduling time for your priorities?
Hit reply and share with me. I'd love to know.
♥
On the note of tools that help us do our writing, I want to recommend Scrivener, a powerful software used by many writers.
I use Scrivener to write my first drafts, organize my research and story planning notes including character sheets, and to jot down all my marketing notes, articles, and ideas. I even use Scrivener to work on my scripts. (More on those some other time!)
Whew! That's a lot, and Scrivener can handle it all and more, including formatting your books for print and ebook versions. It's also a project management tool and tracker.
Scrivener is so many things. So when I had questions on how to power up my world building organization, I knew exactly who to call, my friend and fellow novelist, Vanessa Kier.
Vanessa has a robust and thorough course to help you master Scrivener and set it up to work for you, so you can focus on your writing.
Vanessa will cover the key features that will make your writing process more seamless.
Here's what you get in her "Power Up Your Writing Process with Scrivener" course: - 12 short, easy-to-follow, targeted sections that will help you STREAMLINE your writing process.
- Most lessons are LESS than 10 minutes. Ideal for the busy writer.
Vanessa will help you: - set up the Scrivener interface for distraction-free writing
- organize those ideas that don't yet belong to a project
- set up and work with templates and character sheets
- import your research notes, files, and links into Scrivener so they're easily accessible
- track your project's word count and set up word count targets per document or per writing session
- structure a series bible in Scrivener
- and lots more!
Her self-paced homestudy course comes with lots of templates and checklists, so you'll have many examples and roadmaps.
Vanessa is a knowledgeable, practiced teacher, and a working novelist, and is available via email to help her students any time they have a question.
"I was terrified but my curiosity about writing with Scrivener won out. I'm so glad I choose Vanessa [for help] who makes Scrivener as easy as painting by numbers." -- Kathleen Casey, Writer
Because Vanessa is so thorough, she's created 2 versions of her course, one for Mac users and the other for Windows users.
Both Vanessa and I know the world needs your stories. They are important and touch readers lives.
Scrivener helps you streamline your writing process, allowing you to focus on creating stories, and not spreadsheets.
So don't waste any more of your precious time. Enroll now in Vanessa's course and start making the most of Scrivener.
Happy Writing! And have a great week!
PS. I may have given the incorrect link last week to Patricia Simpson's course "Start a Book in 5 Easy Steps." The correct link is here.
PPS. I'm still preparing for our 4th Annual Plan Your Novel course in October and soon will have our fun free event open for registration, "Plan Your Novel Party." Mark your calendar for Sept. 23rd. | 
