Between Writing The End and Those Reviews

The writing has kept you actively engaged for weeks, months, years. You've created a great manuscript.

Now, you get to wait to hear from those beta readers, to hear from your editor, and if you're going traditional, you have the added joy of perhaps waiting to hear from your agent, then the publisher, then the public who will weigh in on your book with reviews. 

If you're an Indie, then you have a very full plate, and you have to shift gears from creating a story you love to selling it.

In my case, no matter if I'm going traditional or doing it myself, this period also involves a touch of angst. My coping strategy involves two things: lots more exercise, like upping my walking and yoga and anything that keeps me moving. Then I plunge into another writing project, or I double down on my promo strategy, which, of course, I've forgotten from the last time, but that's another post.

Shattered was my last book, and I've done exactly what I've described. I'm now at the part of this process where I'm knuckling down and starting another project, so the cycle is complete...until the next time.  

 

I thought that I'd find out how other authors managed this time between finishing a story and reading the reviews, so I asked a few. Here's what they said in order of their responses.

L. Diane Wolfe

Since I’m also the senior editor at Dancing Lemur Press, that between time is spent focusing on our other book projects. (And sometimes my own.) I’ll focus on ads-badges-covers, promo, getting reviews or reviewers, setting up book tours, etc.—I cope by keeping very busy.

Alex J. Cavanaugh

I’m not one of those authors with multiple manuscripts in the works, so I rarely write anything in between. Instead I focus on my music (I play guitar in a Christian band). Once the manuscript hits my publisher and starts going through the steps, I start looking at ways to promote it.

Yvonne Ventresca

After each major writing project, I take time to reorganize before beginning a new one. This means clearing out files I no longer need, categorizing the info I’ll keep (character notes, setting research, etc.), cleaning my desk, and reviewing next goals. Resetting this way between books provides a mental break and helps me to stay productive and organized.

Gabi Coatsworth

Having a book at the publisher usually means having unstructured time while I wait for edits or formatting, and have nothing essential to do, except plan my marketing activities, and begin to work on the next project. Thankfully, my critique group demands some writing every week, which makes me produce new words.

Planning marketing means looking at what I did to promote an earlier book and adapting it for the current one. Doing that brings me peace of mind, as does keeping extensive to-do lists. I add every little thing, just for the joy of crossing them off! 

Damyanti Biswas

In my case, there’s hardly been any downtime between books these days because I tend to work on multiple projects at once, at different stages of their life cycle.  

 

I’m forever dreaming up new characters, so by the time a novel reaches the copyedit stage, I’m beginning the threads of another, working on outlines and pre-writing. I’m also working on the marketing of the one that went before---trying my best not to let my platform go to sleep. By the time reviews trickle in, I can look at them from deep within the creative cocoon of another project.

11 Tips to Increase Your Word Count

I've never participated in NaNoWriMo, but I admire those who do. I've visited numerous blogs lately where my friends are debating if they should participate this year or not. Those who are participating are doing some preparation in anticipation of their efforts to write a novel in the month of November. It's a challenging task where many will fail and many will succeed. There is a lot of advice out there to help writers reach their goal. But that advice is solid for all year long not just during NaNoWriMo. Not all these tips may work for you and most of the ideas are oft repeated.

11 Tips To Increase Word Count

1. Prepare an outline, plot points and character profiles before you start writing.

2. Have a routine such as a particular time of day or place to write.

3. Design your writing space for comfort but free of distractions. Cat or dog at feet allowed.

4. Be superstitious and use those rituals. If you're always productive when you drink green tea then have green tea. Need your comfy slippers on, then slips those puppies on.

5. Put some music on that helps you write. Perhaps a play list that fits the story or something without words that calms your muse.

6. Don't discuss your WIP while you're writing it. Keep it to yourself until you have that first draft done.

7. Spew out that imperfect first draft. Quiet your inner editor and keeping pounding the keyboard.

8. Along with that tip, don't delete or throw away anything. That scene that you've decided you hate may not seem so bad when the entire project is complete. You can fix or dump it in the second draft.

9. Stop each writing session in the middle of a scene or sentence where you know what comes next. It gets the next day's writing off to a quick start.

10. Remember to eat right, sleep enough and exercise. Take care of yourself.

11. Reward yourself as you reach your goals. Made the halfway point? Celebrate and move onto the next one.

Few of these ideas are new to experienced writers. I challenge you to add a tip to the list. What works for you to keep your word count high all year long and not just in November? Are any of the above suggestions part of your routine? Any of them that just don't work for you? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Any interesting rituals or superstitions you use to maintain your writing pace?

Your Daily Routine...

 Have you ever wondered about the routines of some of the world’s most famous writers? Here are some snippets... (you can read the full article HERE)

Ray Bradbury: “My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve. So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this.”

E.B White: “I never listen to music when I’m working. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all. On the other hand, I’m able to work fairly well among ordinary distractions. My house has a living room that is at the core of everything that goes on: it is a passageway to the cellar, to the kitchen, to the closet where the phone lives. There’s a lot of traffic..."

Haruki Murakami : “When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 pm. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”

Ernest Hemingway: “When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop...”

Maya Angelou: “I write in the morning and then go home about midday and take a shower, because writing, as you know, is very hard work, so you have to do a double ablution. Then I go out and shop — I’m a serious cook — and pretend to be normal. I play sane — Good morning! Fine, thank you. And you? And I go home. I prepare dinner for myself and if I have houseguests, I do the candles and the pretty music and all that. Then after all the dishes are moved away I read what I wrote that morning...”

What does your writing process involve?