For me, the easiest way to bypass getting writer’s block is to always try to have something I am working on and to do so at set times as well as consistently. I believe creativity is a muscle. And like all muscles, the more you exercise it, the more you can get from it. So as long as I can keep it working, even if it is just doing edits, I can keep it fit and productive.
Describe a regular day in your life.
Ooo, something to bore you with! Cool! A typical day is getting up at 5:30am, feeding the cats, showering, getting dressed, grabbing breakfast then spend the next hour answering emails/posting weekly blog entries/marketing/promo until it’s time to go to work. I get there about 20 minutes early, so I relax by reading until eight o’clock. Then it’s work work work, unless I get very lucky and it’s a slow day and I can sneak in a little writing. Otherwise writing has to wait till lunch. I have a laptop (though I used to use notebooks for first draft, but that was years ago) so I am enabled to write while I eat!
After lunch, I work some more, then go home. (Sneaking in some more writing if possible – normally toward the end of the month. The first half is usually swamped with work.) At home, I cook dinner and then spend time with the family.
On weekends, I will do some editing, maybe some writing, and at least a few hours doing random marketing things like making bookmarks, sample CD’s, updating the website, whatever needs doing. Sometimes it feels like the marketing takes more of my time than the writing itself! Oi!
How was your experience in looking for a publisher? What words of advice would you offer those novice authors who are in search of one?
This is a very tricky question. Every year there is more and more competition out there and the major markets have become less and less friendly. Way back, in my total cluessness, I had assumed writing something unusual would be the way to get in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. A lot of the major publishers are now run by their marketing departments and they are mostly looking for the tried and true, regardless of what the public actually wants.
Most major publishers will either no longer accept unsolicited or unagented manuscripts, or their slush piles are so huge the manuscript will sit there for two years before it ever gets looked at if that soon!
Article comments