Who can expect the world to go crazy? I certainly didn’t expect that weeks of my normal writing time would up and evaporate in the blink of an eye. I figured I’d have until mid-May to do the brunt of writing for two of the books I’m putting out–both of them the third and final in a series, and important to me personally to get out into the world.
Everyone’s long exhausted of hearing about illness, so I won’t talk much about that. Instead, this is about something a lot of people say to themselves: I’ll write a book when I have the time.
Let’s be honest. You’re never going to have the time. Time doesn’t magically appear or fall into your lap. You have the same amount as everyone else, and how you choose to spend it is ultimately what decides what you have time for… and what you don’t.
It’s true you won’t have time for everything on your list. There will always be more you need to do. But if you sit back and wait for when things slow down, you’ll be waiting forever, and the things that you really want to do somehow won’t get done.
Again, being honest. More often than not, it’s our passions that end up being put aside. It’s the things that mean the most to us, because we feel selfish for prioritizing them. But if you want to get those things done in your lifetime, that’s what you have to do–prioritize them, put them above all else.
That’s part of why I try to write first thing in the morning. It’s my priority. Something that has to be done, that’s easier to do if I hit it when I’m fresh and energetic, instead of waiting to the end of the day when I’m tired and have been working all day and just want to rest. There will always be enough other work to fill a day, and it’ll never leave room for my writing unless I make it.
That’s easier to do some times, harder in others. When my little one is in school, it’s easy to sit down right after breakfast and hammer out a thousand words. When my little one is home for isolation and my husband is working from home and needs me to keep her entertained and quiet, it doesn’t happen so easily.
As a result, To Steal the Queen isn’t quite where I hoped it would be. Part of this is because–as usual–it’s running a little longer story-wise than I expected it would, and part is because I have less time I can devote to it. There’s time at night, sure, but when I’m worn out, it’s hard to work. I’ve been craving normalcy, because I’d only planned for one week of reduced productivity over the course of spring break.
The good news is in spite of a jam-packed publishing schedule this year, my writing schedule is less demanding than it has been in years past. There are only three new things that have to be written; everything else is editing. So while I’m still working to do the final wrap-up on TSQ, it should be out and crowning the end of the Westkings Heist trilogy at the end of June, as planned.
Of course, Serpent’s Tears, the second Snakesblood book, comes out at the end of May… so I’m back to the grindstone here, wrapping up TSQ so I can slam through edits on ST and still get the book out on time.
Tough goals. Wish me luck. Because let’s be real–nothing’s going to slow down.
