I swear it was the beginning of the year only a few months ago…
Guess that’s what happens when you’re a few <mumble, mumble> okay, fine, a few million-plus edited words into the year. Not counting your personal projects.
And that’s at a much slower pace than last year.
Yes, you read that last sentence right.
Ms. Nose to the Grindstone is attempting to balance work life and personal life. I say “attempting” because so far this year, I’ve managed to be either all on or all off. That’s not ideal for me, although I got some much-needed downtime. On the bright side, I’m not putting in 120-plus-hour weeks every week these days. In addition, I’m working on backend methods and processes to prevent that from reoccurring.
I’ve also been largely quiet on social media as part of regaining time and attention for myself. Although I admit I’m not a fan of trying to clear all my notifications after I’ve been offline for a couple of days. <grimaces>
What’s next in the balancing act?
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, I have some exciting things scheduled. A couple of trips that combine work and fun, including going to 20Books Vegas.
I’ve continued the editing boot camp sessions I started with my coeditors last year. Working one-on-one with some of my in-house authors has been a joy. Seeing their eyes light up when something clicks for them is one of the best rewards. Having it translate to cleaner manuscripts makes my entire editing team happy. It’s a big win for everyone!
Speaking of sharing tips with authors
One of the biggest author communities to learn from is 20Booksto50k®. If you haven’t been to one of the Las Vegas conferences, joined the Facebook group, or watched the videos made available on YouTube, you’re missing out on some great information. Craft, ads, marketing, the best distribution strategies for your goals…fellow authors touch on all of it by sharing things they’ve learned in their publishing journeys. There’s something for everyone whether you’re a beginner or a six-figure author trying to hit the seven-figure ranks.
While I don’t have a formal editing presentation scheduled at the 20Books Vegas conference this year, I plan to share editing tips and tricks with attendees via an informal meetup or three. These will be for individuals and/or small groups since the focus is on reviewing part of each author’s WIP and identifying areas where they can improve their prose.
Regaining the creative spark
I’m enjoying being able to grab some free minutes to write again. Better still, I’m not so exhausted that my creativity has flatlined. A hard lesson learned is that your creativity suffers when you don’t nourish it by giving yourself some downtime. The effects might not show up right away, but they’re cumulative—and can be devastating when they hit en masse. I’m not where I used to be with a torrent of words spilling into my WIP (work in progress) or running amok in my head, but the spark is in recovery. After not feeling it for so long, it’s a blessed relief.
On that note, it’s time for me to get back to doing what I do best—wrangling words and polishing stories so they do their authors proud. Without courting burnout from forgetting my lessons learned.
Take care of yourself, wherever you are in the world.
