science fiction and fantasy author

Tag: organisation

Getting organised

This week is turning into a week of not much actual writing, and lots of organisation.

Today involved the acquisition of some new stationary and filing organisation, and I began the task of truly getting my working area sorted.  The husband is amazing at keeping things organised, while I tend to just lob piles of paper into drawers.  Everything looks neat, but you can’t actually find anything.

The reality is this: if I want to pursue this as a career, I need to treat it like a business.  That means being organised, having vital papers where I need them.  I will note that I took particular joy in labelling a file “Contracts” today.  And realised that, even though I’ve only written three short stories in the last few years, I’ve sold all of them.  I have my fingers crossed for the fourth one, which is currently trying to find its place in the world.  I’ll never be a prolific short story writer, but I feel like I’ve levelled up there, at least.

I have my character bios rewritten, printed and filed away for Never, and worked on my place descriptions today.  Tomorrow, I’ll start getting my outline all sorted out.  I have hopes for this novel, and I really want to get the next draft finished relatively quickly.

How to focus in an age of distraction

How to focus in an age of distraction. Image from learningfundamentals.com.au

 

I came across this infographic on Tumblr the other day, and just really liked it.  I think it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by life, especially if you’re working online, and sometimes it’s important to take a step back and assess everything.

There are things on here that I should do – like turning off the internet when I’m writing.  I’ve found using the Pomodoro Technique helpful with that, though – I simply don’t switch out of my writing program for the 25 minutes that I’m writing, and that’s that.  I’m always thankful that I work relatively fast, so even on a bad day when I only get that 25 minutes of focused time, I usually manage somewhere around 1000 words.

Email checking I’m bad on, since my phone alerts me, and if it’s near me, I tend to pick it up and check my inbox.  Twitter and Facebook I only check at the beginning and end of the day (and sometimes not then).

I’m sure I can do things better.  Then, of course, I have a toddler in the house, which means that all plans can go awry in a heartbeat.  I’m just thankful that he’s generally well behaved, non destructive, and that I have family who help me get writing time.

And that said, I’m going to get away from the computer for the morning and the husband and I will take the kid swimming.

 

Making some changes

I’ve been vaguely dissatisfied with the way I’ve been using several social media sites for a while, and so I’ve decided to make some changes.

The first one is Facebook.  I’ve now set up my writing stuff as a page, so people can like it instead of asking to be friended.  I’ve set up another personal profile, which I’ll only add some people to.  If you’re not added, you’re not really missing out on much, since most of my babbling will be over here and on Twitter still 🙂

It’s going to take me a while to get everything set up the way I like it, but once it’s done, I’ll be happy.

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