The Jigsaw Puzzle of a Writing Life
By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin
For each of us, the writing life
is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. You try different pieces to see which ones will
fit. You have to experiment to find the right combination for you and your
writing. One of the online groups where I participate was talking about critique
groups this week. Just like your writing, you have to experiment with critique
groups to find the right fit for you—the right people with similar worldviews,
the right mixture of people and whether it is in person or online or a little of
both. Nothing is clear cut and nothing works for every writer. Instead like
putting together a puzzle, you have to experiment and try different things to
see which ones will work for you.
I suspect your schedule for the
day is similar to my schedule—mostly blank unless I'm at a conference or event
where my schedule is generally filled with meetings and activity. As an editor,
I email people and schedule phone meetings. I also make phone calls to follow-up
with authors and others but the bulk of my schedule is blank. My day is filled
with a variety of activities.
This past week I had returned
from a writer's conference where I met with many writers about their books. I
spent a great deal of time, putting their information into my computer (to make
it easy to access) then writing them emails and asking to submit their
manuscript. While I encouraged them to send it when we were face to face and I
gave them my business card, the email reinforces that I actually want them to
send me their material. From doing this work for several years, I understand not
every submission will be a good fit for Morgan James. There are many reasons this fit isn't the right
one—but I know for certain they can't get into the consideration process if they
don't submit their material. I have had some good exchanges from these emails
and expect more material will arrive in the days ahead from my follow-up
work.
Also I had a zoom call with a
journalist in the United Kingdom asking questions about my writing life. This
interview was recorded then posted this week on a private group. Sometimes I
will pitch a particular podcast or radio station to get this interview. Other
times they will approach me and we will schedule the session. The majorty of the
time I pitch myself to get these types of opportunities. When they happen, I ask
for the recording then save this recording on my own website. Then I can promote
the interview over and over on my social media and know the interview is not
going to disappear.
I have several regular guest
blogging assignments. I schedule reminders on my phone to help me to meet the
deadlines for each one, which has a slightly different audience and focus. In
this process, I will often recycle or slightly rewrite an older article so it
can be done in a shorter amount of time than creating it from scratch.
While
each of my days are filled with different activities, there is a balance between
immediate deadlines and long-term deadlines. I continue to write books for other
people as well as promote my own work. As I've mentioned in these entries, there
is always more work to be done. A particualr project will be completed but there
are other tasks that need to be done.
I use tools like Hootsuite to schedule my social
media posts and respond to those posts. Your consistent effort is an important
part of the process.
Throughout today I will be emailing and calling people as well as writing on
different projects. These actions are all part of the jigsaw puzzle of my
writing life. What steps are you taking? Let me know in the comments
below.
