Insecure Writer’s Support Group (Jan)

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. On this day we post about our thoughts, our doubts, and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs, and offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Every post opens with a question (a blogging prompt, if you will), and this month's is:

What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

If the last year has taught me one thing, it's that I thrive on a schedule. Part of it is that I have way too many freelancing responsibilities to juggle, and part of it is simple procrastination, but I definitely work best when I am under the pressure of those looming deadlines.

October last year was my busiest ever for writing and publishing, and it was all because Halloween was looming there as a big, bold, unavoidable deadline. I got my entry done for the Miss-Taken Identities anthology, which was a double-deadline since I was editing the whole thing as well; I finally got the twin Alpha Surrender/Alpha Transformation stories done, after sitting on the first draft for the better part of the year; and I even had time to polish off Gender Swapped by the Haunted Brothel, another story that had been lingering as a rough draft for even longer than the twins.

November . . . well, I had plans, but no schedule in place, so I accomplished pretty much what I expected, and that was nothing.

December carried with it another natural deadline, though, with Christmas, and that was what drove me to write a brand new story in Holly Daze, which I happen to think is some of the best writing I did all year. I plotted it, roughed it out, and polished it in the space of about two weeks, and that includes obsessing over the cover and blurb.

Going hand-in-hand with scheduling, I find accountability keeps me on track too. While I do not have a schedule in place yet for this year, it is something I am working on and plan to share. Simply posting progress updates on stories to social media has done wonders for keeping me on point, so hopefully sharing a schedule will do the same.