Making a Writing Schedule

It occurs to me that there isn’t enough advice/help for writings who need encouragement to keep a schedule (me!). I think one of my biggest tags in my tag cloud is PROCRASTINATION. I am terrible at it. My mind wanders and I struggle to tether myself to a single task or idea. The problem with this is nothing ever seems to get completed, and after years (YEARS!) of falling into this trap, I decided I need to set myself a proper schedule… to keep myself motivated and in line.

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A few weeks ago I bought myself a couple of white boards from Poundland. As the name would suggest, they were £1 each. I imagine there’s an equivalent in most countries. Initially I was going to use them as story boards, which is another thing I need to get into the habit of. I’m a ‘seat-of-my-pants’ writer, for the most part. Anyway, here’s it is:

So, what are my plans? Well, I have decided to look into the terrifying world of Indie publishing. This requires a lot of extra work on the part of the writer, marketing and such. So as well as actually writing the story, I need to factor this into my weekly planner. Today is Monday, it’s a good day to plan. Here’s a quick list of things I need to fit into my week:

Writing

Writing blog posts

Sourcing covers

Editing

Social media updates

I aim to write at least 2,000 words every day. I know this isn’t a lot by other writer’s standards, and last week I was averaging at least 3,000 per day. However, 10k a week is better than putting tonnes of pressure on myself and getting nothing done! Other things may come up, but for now, these are the things I want to focus on. Cover art is a big deal for me, and I know there are so many cover artists out there, so I need to spend a bit of time researching the best in terms of product and price.

Anyway this is my plan for the week! Lets see how it pans out!

31 day blog challenge (Day 4)

Day 4 of my super blog challenge! I am really enjoying this. Each question does make me think, which is great fun.

Today’s question is: What are you afraid of?

This is an easy one for me. Aside from spiders, which I mentioned in a previous post, my biggest fear in life – easily – is losing people I love. This is a crippling anxiety, and one I have struggled with for most of my adult life. I have this constant worry, every time a member of my family goes away on holiday, or out to a nightclub, I fear something will happen. If someone I love says they will be home by 11… if they haven’t entered the house by 11.01 I will presume they’ve died a horrible death. The more the minutes tick by, the worse my imaginings. If there was one thing I would change about myself, it would definitely be this.

Still, I guess this just means I care very deeply for those important to me.

This is a short post today as there’s not much more to say about my fears! Aside from this and spiders, I would say I am a huge wuss about anything dangerous, such as rollercoasters, skydiving, bungee-jumping, paragliding and anything else of such an insane nature. I should make an effort to do more things that scare me. You only live once after all!

Come back tomorrow for day 5 of my challenge!

Thanks to all my new subscribers!

31 day blog challenge! (Day 1)

I found this awesome blog challenge online yesterday and thought I would LOVE to do it. Basically, I will write a new blog entry every day for 31 days and answer a different question every day.

So – Day One:

Introduction and recent photo

My name is Rea Thomas (this is a pseudonym, but for the sake of this blog – let’s go with it!) and I write romance and erotica for Ellora’s Cave Publishing Inc. I live in Northern Ireland – which has perpetually wet weather and an air of eerie dreariness. Because doing things outdoors is difficult here – especially planning anything – a lot of people enjoy reading and writing. Ireland, as a whole, has a wealth of literary geniuses from C.S. Lewis to Meave Binchy to Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. I like to believe we are natural born storytellers.

When I am not writing, I work for a huge company here in the UK called Ann Summers which sells lingerie and sex toys on the high street. This is a job I love immensely and has been my favorite so far (I worked in hospitality before – eeek!). I have incredible fun with the girls I work with and count every one of them as friends in my life. The craic (Northern Irish speak, pronounced ‘crack’ and means ‘fun’) is brilliant and there isn’t a day when I don’t laugh.

This is a recent photo of me:

 

Come back tomorrow for Day 2 – 20 Facts About Me! Hooray! Have a great day.

Rea x