Launch preparation for Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies is in full swing, but so is the first draft of The Divine Heretic Book 2: What Lies Between. It takes no small investment of time to keep High Trestle Press on the rails, but our stated mission to deliver series SFF on an expedited timeline without compromising quality means that I have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. A few readers have asked what my routine looks like, and I know that maintaining good habits of art is a point of interest for the many writers who subscribe to this newsletter. I know very few professional artists who have the privilege of coasting by on family money or a high-earning spouse. Most of us have day jobs. Many of us have kids. All of us have chores, and social lives, and myriad obligations drawing down on our creative energy and time.
It isn’t easy, and there’s no right or wrong way to stay writing. Some writers maintain rigid schedules with set writing times and target word counts that they hold themselves too ruthlessly. Others need more flexibility. I usually recommend a hybrid approach, since this is what works best for me. I do try to write or revise a creative work every day. That can mean proofreading a single scene or knocking out 10,000 words of fresh prose in a concentrated eight-hour writing binge. Both results are fine, as long as I’m producing something. This next bit may seem a bit fluffy, but I also try not to get down on myself. Some weeks are more productive than others, and sometimes life gets in the way of art. Kids get sick. Day jobs gets busy. Travel obligations can turn your whole regimen upside-down. The key is to not get caught up in what you can’t control and to practice gratitude for what you can. It’s easy to start feeling futile after a few days or weeks without any real forward progress. But every day grants you 24 new hours of possibility, and when you do find your way back to the keyboard, it doesn’t serve you well to dwell on past stumbles.
This past week, these were the frontburner writing and publishing tasks that demanded my attention:
- Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies release day PR
- Ophiuchus Flinched final galley proof
- Notes on a draft of the Ophiuchus Flinched cover art
- Notes on a draft of the What Lies Between cover art
- An assets request from the cover artist working on The Politics of Fear
- The Mark of Cain polish draft (hanging at about 40% finished)
- Writing the first draft of What Lies Between (about 60% finished)
Did I accomplish everything I hoped to on all these projects? No! I am behind on some PR correspondence. I still owe the lead artist working on The Compact Cycle a bunch of assets. I wanted to have the Ophiuchus Flinched galley finished. It’s not. I hoped to be further along with the latest revision of The Mark of Cain. I’m not. I did write a few new chapters of What Lies Between, and I feel good about that.
Tomorrow I get 24 more hours to work with. At some point, I’m sure I will sleep.