Okay, so I've been on a pretty crazy productivity schedule for several months now. The reason is because I'm releasing a new inspirational western romance every 11 weeks. And there was one point in April, where I'd just put up a pre-order and I'd only written ONE CHAPTER of the book.
One chapter.
And the book was coming out in 11 weeks. And I'd only written that chapter so I could put it in the back of the book coming out.
I started panicking a little. I mean, I write fast, but I need time to edit, let the book sit, format, etc.
And I never wanted to be that far behind again. My goal for the summer was to write enough so I could be working 6-7 months ahead of a book's publication date.
I wrote 240,000 words from the last day of school in June to the first day of school in August. And since school started, I've written 2 more books, one at 50K and one at 53K. And I just started another that I'm 20K into.
I have to do this if I want to continue publishing according to my schedule -- and in fact, I've decided to roll out my new series (starting in January) every 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. But I'm happy to say that the book I'm writing right now doesn't come out until April. So I've achieved that 6 month cushion I wanted for myself.
I'm using Google calendar to keep track of what I should be working on. I give myself 3 weeks to write a 50K book. If I can get 3K/day for the 18 days, I can get really close. I take Sundays off, and I don't work Mondays so I can usually get closer to 5K to make up for any days I don't meet my word count goal.
I draft 2 books back-to-back. Then I take a break for formatting, marketing stuff, relaxation, releases, outlining the next 2 books, etc. That's usually 2 weeks. Then I'm back to drafting.
I feel like I'm doing pretty well at sticking to my schedule, but I also re-evaluate everything every month to prioritize things I may have overlooked, or move a book I'm not feeling like writing. But I have a productivity schedule, and I use it!
Do you do anything like that? How's it going for you?
See Elana's recent blog posts
2 comments:
I've got a schedule set up for myself over the next year that looks very much like yours, if not even tighter, and I'm not working 6 months ahead yet (good for you)! I'm mapping it all out on my calendar, but it's going to be CRAZY!! Good luck, Elana!
You're amazing Elana. I'm sort of on a "break" right now, which means that I'm writing 1500-2000 words a day, instead of 3,000. On good days I write 4,000-5,000 (when I'm drafting). I literally have 4 completed novels ready for publication in 2017 (I wrote 3 this year, one the year before), but I'm trying to decide if I want them all to come out in 2017. I also have a finished 100 page novella and 50 page novella that are already scheduled. And I think my greatest challenge is knowing that "today I have to do xyz" and "tomorrow I have to do xyz" not "this week" or "this month." There's no room for procrastination ;-)
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