March 21, 2013

When Your Output Drops

I decided late last year to really get serious about my writing, that the key to success was not only creating quality eBooks, but doing it frequently (in other words, both quality and quantity).  I realized that I could not afford to spend eight months  writing a book, as I did with Something Real.

I began keeping an Excel log of how many new words I created daily.  At the time I had just begun writing Man of Her Heart and was determined to have it done in 90 days, so my output was excellent, sometimes over 2000 words a day.  Still, my output was highest in the month of January.  It was lower, albeit still respectable, in November and December because I was doing other things, some of them family-related (like hosting a family reunion over Thanksgiving weekend), but much of it writing-related (setting up an eStore, revising my website, and proofing the text of a backlist title among them).  I met my goal and published Man of Her Heart 90 days after Something Real. 

But my word count has dropped dramatically following the publication of Man of Her Heart a month ago.  That worried me, but I'm now realizing that there's more to writing than just pumping out words.  My word count decreased because most of my time went toward proofing the text of another backlist title (A Love For All Seasons), which I published a few days ago. So I'm still on schedule and have now begun to work on my projects scheduled for April. Sure, in December I managed to keep up with everything

So if your output suddenly drops, ask yourself if it's because you're slacking, or if it's because you have other writing-related business to attend to.  If you know you've been slacking, ask yourself if you want to get with the program or do something different.  On the other hand, if you've been tending to other things related to your writing--promotion, website updating, pre-edits, etc., don't beat yourself up.  It's all good.