Scheduling Change for #FirstLineFriday

/ Marcia Meara

Good morning, Everyone!

I have come to the conclusion that my basic time management skills are rudimentary, at best, and possibly totally lacking altogether. I seem to have no realistic sense of how much I can accomplish in any given day or week. Or month. Or year. (I think you see where I’m going with this.)

Because I’ve fallen desperately behind on my current WIP, The Emissary 3, and because my readers are getting restless and emailing me regularly about the release of this one, I decided I have no choice but to cut back a bit on social media, at least until I finish this novella and get it published.

I’ve already slowed down on some of my regular features like #MondayMeme and #ShareAReviewDay Tuesdays, for which I apologize, but I’m still too far behind. So  I’ve decided to feature #FirstLineFridays every other Friday until I catch up a bit. I do plan to resume the regular weekly schedule of each of these things as soon as possible, but I hope you’ll understand that for the immediate future, I need to focus on my writing until I get TE3 finished.

This is a temporary situation, and I will be picking up the pace again when I’m more in control of my workload. HONEST. I enjoy this blog too much to disappear completely, so I will still be sharing some things here on the blog, as I’m able. But I think it will be much easier for me to manage if I don’t try to stick to a preset daily schedule. That just becomes a source of frustration when I fail to meet it. 

Thanks so much for your understanding, and rest assured I will be picking up where I left off as soon as possible. In the meantime, I have Jake, Dodger, and Azrael waiting for me to get on with their story, and that’s what I’ll be focusing on. 

 

DON’T WORRY!! Things will be back to normal before you know it! 

NOTE: Since it is a time-sensitive subject, I will continue my weekly Peace Talks Countdown posts, which are pretty much all set to go, already.

 

24 thoughts on “Scheduling Change for #FirstLineFriday”

  1. Totally understandable. Good luck with your WIP and I will look forward to your posts as they come. I need to do something about getting back to my own WIP. Then characters keep nagging at me but I just keep getting busy and sidetracked.

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    • It’s funny, isn’t it, Jeanne. I thought that being forced to stay home for several weeks (months?) would mean I’d get a ton of writing done. I figured to have this one “out there,” and be busily at work on Riverbend 4. Somehow, it hasn’t worked out that way at all, especially since I had a few weeks where I felt awful. But now, I’m determined to take charge of my time again. Or at least to NOT let it run rampant across each day in some willy-nilly fashion. That’s my plan, anyway. Fingers crossed. And good luck to you, as well! 🙂

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  2. You definitely are forgiven and I just want to encourage you…write to your heart’s content. We, as your readers, will be rewarded with your finished books. YEA‼️ God bless you and stay safe & healthy

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    • Aw, bless you too, Pat! And you are one of the readers I hate disappointing, so I’m going to give it my all for a few weeks and get this story out there for you. I’ll do my best to stay safe here, and you do the same, and we’ll meet again when you return to Florida next year! 🙂 ❤

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  5. I totally understand, I keep my blogging schedule to once a week, or occasionally twice and sometimes a reblog, but if I did more than that I’d NEVER get the next book written.
    I am, of course, looking forward to TE3 so pleased to hear you are getting on with it ❤
    I've been struggling for too long with getting #4 in the Five Kingdoms series underway, because although I know the overall arc for the whole series, and how it wraps up in this one, I didn't have the story for this individual book worked out. I've taken advantage of friends with time on their hands and brainstormed some idea, et voila! The floodgates have cracked and the story is starting to flood out – now I just have to write it!

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    • If it were just this blog, I’d probably be fine, but it’s all the other social media I’ve been involved in over the years, and several new ones. I’ve just got to cut back. Some may fall by the wayside before I’m done cutting back. Others I’ll have to limit to once or twice a week. I would like to resume my regular features here, though, as I’ve always enjoyed them so much. I’ll know more once I get the draft finished for TE3, and can reassess.

      I’m so far behind on my reading, I haven’t even gotten to the 3rd Five Kingdoms book yet, though it’s on my Kindle. That’s another reason to stop spending so much time online. I’m way behind on books I want to read, both for my online writing friends and for other authors I’ve read for years. I need to be in a better place by the time Peace Talks arrives, for sure! 😀

      I’ve realized that Old Age is a lot busier than I ever imagined it would be! 😀 😀 😀

      Thanks for stopping by, Debby! And good luck as you get going on Five Kingdoms #4. I swear, I’m going to be ready to jump right in when you finish it! ❤

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      • There is so much pressure on authors to be omni-present on social media, but the most sensible advice I followed some time ago was to limit it to 3 platforms, so I blog and post on Facebook, and a little on Twitter, and leave it at that. I love Pinterest, but its a huge time suck without, I think, much reward (other than staring at fabulous images). I’ve tried one or two of the newer ones but not stuck with them.
        Obviously I also have my author newsletter (once a month, despite people saying it should be more often), and the odd post on other people’s blogs (like this one), but I’m really trying to prioritise my writing – without more books, we fail as authors far more than limiting our social media input.
        LIFE is busier than any of us expect, even during lock down!!!

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        • Excellent suggestions, Debby, and I may be following you. In fact, I might be even stricter. At my age, I do not want to spend too many hours doing stuff that isn’t producing a finished book. I know I have to put some effort (and maybe money at some point) into marketing, but I’m not at all sure the social media I’ve been using is that effective. I’m still mulling over ideas, but I could be pulling out of a lot of things other than blogging. I think I could make that work. Maybe. 😀 And there’s no law that says I can’t return to these other things if I want to in the future. Lots to think about, here. but even considering doing this has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. Thanks for your input! 🙂 ❤

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  6. Like you and Jeanne, I thought this sef-isolation would at least afford plenty of time to focus on my writing. Wrong. Two days ago I managed to write a short piece and today, for the first time, I think I’m ready to knuckle down. To be honest, I don’t know how you manage to keep pace with all the other things that you do. I only have facebook – nothing else – and it sucks me down and makes me anxious because I really don’t know what I’m doing there! Your writing is so good, it makes sense to give that priority. You’ve had so many setbacks during the last few months yet you’re still managing to keep in touch with us, advise us and make us chuckle. If you drop out altogether for a few weeks we’ll miss you but we’ll still be here looking forward to your return. Don’t beat yourself up unnecessarily! ❤

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    • Thanks so much, Trish. I won’t disappear completely, I don’t imagine. I love this blog too much, and I want to include it, no matter what else. And then there’s the beta blog, so I’ll have that. Cutting back on some of the rest would also cut back on my overflowing email Inbox.That’s a major time suck right there. 😯

      But don’t worry. You can’t get rid of me completely. 😀 😀 😀

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  9. I’ve always been a sporadic blogger. I’ve been known to post five times per week, but am usually closer to three. I’ve gotten down to one per week recently. I’ll pick it back up once I have something to say.

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    • I know not everyone enjoys blogging as much as I do, but I love it. I’m just going to slow down a wee bit until I catch up. It’s mostly the other social media distractions I don’t really need, and in some cases, don’t even enjoy. I’ve decided several of them have to go. Period. But I’m not ready to give up this blog. It gives me too much pleasure. As soon as I catch up a bit, I’m planning to return to my regular weekly features, even if I do them every other week or the like.It’s been my main social media platform for close to 20 years, and I hope to continue for another 20. 😀

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