On one of my writer’s loops I found a discussion about the five things a writer needs to focus on and I thought that’s a great discussion. Of course by the time I found it, it was long over, but things happen, so I decided to make it a blog topic.
–First, keep writing. When you finish something, start a new WIP even while you’re preparing it to send the first out to editors. Especially after you’ve sent something to an editor you need to be working on something. There’s nothing worse on the nerves than the waiting.
–Set goals. Small daily ones and career goals. One of my goals is to write every day, even if it’s just a paragraph.
–Read, both for your craft and relaxation.
–Write then edit. This is a must for me. I get to picky sometimes, looking for the right word and progress will bog down if I try to go proof my work as I go.
–Take time to relax. I know it kind of goes against one of my own goals, but sometimes you’ve got to take a day off. Burn out’s bad. So is wrist pain so intense I couldn’t type or even hand write for two weeks when my muse was throwing ideas at me.
In other news, I missed the first two check-ins for the Sweat but I’ll catch them tomorrow. So far I’m doing good. I have around 13k for the Sweat total so far. I’ve been getting more done than I hoped. The only thing I haven’t been doing so much is revising. I have two WIP that need to be revised and I have to find time to get to them too.
I also have a release date for Fire Princes’ Bride. It will be hitting the e-shelves at Ellora’s Cave on June 26.
