A Year to Publication: Creating your Writing Space & Sticking to a Schedule by Jennifer Snow

Let’s welcome back monthly columnist Jennifer Snow as she shares with us “A Year to Publication: Creating your Writing Space & Sticking to a Schedule.” Enjoy!

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When I quit a day job last January to write full-time, it was a challenge, at first, to focus writing at home. Up until that point, my writing sessions had been on coffee breaks, sitting outside at a picnic table, or scribbling furiously with a notebook pressed up against my steering wheel while waiting in a drive-thru line or secretly in a bathroom stall whenever inspiration hit in the middle of an important meeting. 🙂

So, all of a sudden I had time, quiet and far too much space.

Creating a writing space became my focus for the first few weeks. My husband and I share an office at the front of our house. But he isn’t there during the day, so I have the space to myself. On my side, I put my desk, my bookshelf, my series planning board…then I organized my desk. Reference books that I use all the time had to be kept within arm’s reach, notebooks filled with different series outlines were labelled and in order and all of my writing inspiration trinkets displayed where I could see them. My old-fashioned Underwood typewriter takes center stage on the desk, surrounded by any award certificates and trophies, special pens, mugs, my collection of socks from the Harlequin RWA parties, etc. All of the little things that remind me why I love this job so much are positioned where I can see them.

Then it was a matter of getting used to walking straight into the workspace every day and sitting my butt in the chair for eight hours to write.

Training myself to ignore the dishes or laundry or the new Nora Roberts book was hard at first, but then I reminded myself that writing wasn’t a hobby for me. It was my job. And for eight hours a day, it had to be my focus if I wanted to meet my deadlines and succeed.

So, every morning, I sit and write. Words flow much easier for me in the morning than in the afternoon, so I try to reach my word count goal of 3-5 k words before 1 p.m. After that, I focus on marketing and promo, blog posts that are due, answering emails from the day before, checking in on social media to interact with readers, etc. The afternoon is also when I focus on line edits or copy edits, things that can be done while listening to music.

My schedule works for me, but everyone is different. The key is finding a place that you can set up camp-a place that is all yours, where you can organize your writing life and a place that feels like a ‘work’ space. I still write in coffee shops or pool side or at the library sometimes, but I find I am most productive in my office, because I’ve trained myself to think of the space as somewhere that things get done.

And setting a daily page goal or word count goal also helps. Even on the days that you don’t feel inspired or the words are coming slow, set a goal and try your best to reach it. As you write, the words will start to flow easier and even if they aren’t perfect-they are on the page and you have something to work with the next day.

Routine and consistency have become very important to me and my writing schedule. Create a routine and be consistent and the book will get finished!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Snow lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband and four year old son. She is a member of the Writers Guild of Alberta, the Romance Writers of America, the Canadian Author Association, and SheWrites.org. She is also a regular blogger on the Heartwarming Authors site and is a contributing author to Mslexia Magazine, WestWord Magazine and RWR. She has also taught RWA Chapters courses online. Her 2013 Holiday Romance, The Trouble With Mistletoe, was a finalist in the 2014 Golden Quill Contest and the Heart of Denver Aspen Gold Contest.

Her publishing credits include two holiday novellas, previously published by The Wild Rose Press, now re-released or being re-released as self-published editions through Amazon. The Mistletoe Fever was an Amazon bestseller for two weeks in the category of Kindle Short Reads. Her six book small town, Brookhollow series is published through Harlequin Heartwarming, and she has a new MMA sports romance series releasing through Berkley/NAL Intermix in 2015. RT Reviews has given each of her Brookhollow series books 4 stars.

She also hosts an annual SnowGlobe Award contest in recognition of holiday themed romance stories, with over forty entries each year, with participants ranging from new authors to NYT Bestselling authors, such as Brenda Novak and Sarah Morgan. More information about the contest can be found at www.snowglobeawardcontest.vpweb.ca.

She is active on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and various blog sites and has a monthly author newsletter.

More information can be found at www.jennifersnowauthor.com.