Smart Girls Read Romance -- so do the bestselling and award-winning Authors who write this blog.
Join them as they dish about Books, Romance, Love, and Life.






Tuesday, March 12, 2019

It’s More Than Finding the Words by Paty Jager


I’m a self-publish or Indie author. It means I make my own deadlines. I almost did myself in, with a heavy schedule to get three books published the first three months of 2019. When I set the deadline, I didn’t realize how much family was going to play into taking time away from my writing.

Thankfully, I was able to get a couple of week-long retreats at the beach which allowed me to finish a book and get another one well started. I’m happy to say, my deadline will soon be over and I do believe, barring any complications, book 3 will publish on time.

But as I stressed and worried over making my deadline, I also realized that while I can work on a hard deadline and produce a good book, I don’t like doing it. The rest of my year, I have loose deadlines. I know how many books I want to finish by December 31st, 2019, but I’m not putting out definite dates, knowing that this will be another transitional year for my family and I’ll not have as many days of writing as I’d like.

While I have ideas and characters all lined out for 3 more novellas, 4-5 more books in the Silver Dollar Saloon series, and 2 more Shandra Higheagle books and 3 more Gabriel Hawke books, with more ideas coming at me. I know I’ll be lucky to get one more of each out this year. Even though before all the changes in our family, I’d planned to get more than those 4 projects written.

Right now, I’m focusing on writing the best book I can. I’m digging into the research, sifting through, looking for some wonderful nuggets that will enhance the next book I write and coming up with characters that will make the reader glad they read the book and look for the next one.

I had 2 book signings over the weekend and at each, readers asked how I come up with the ideas. The ideas are easy. It’s finding the time to put those ideas into an entertaining story that is the hard part. From the first draft, to the finished product it takes commitment and staying in the story to bring it to completion. When I’m pulled out of the story for several days it’s harder to keep the flow. I’m hoping to get projects accomplished in between other responsibilities and stay focused.

And that’s why writing is more than the words.


  

4 comments:

  1. Amen to that, Paty. It's easy to come up with ideas--we can't keep them away--finding time to complete the book is the difficult part. Family, health, and other distractions interfere with our best-laid plans. You do turn out wonderful books, so keep doing what you're doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Caroline, Thanks! Yes, life is what gets in the way of all the ideas and best laid plans. Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
  2. I used to get bent out of shape about deadlines, but I recently self-published with a new book coming out in April...and I loved being able to set my own schedule and deadlines. We have to remember we have families, and "life" gets in the way. That's A-Okay, too. I think we should be enjoying the process more, don't you?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Judy Ann, I agree! I've decided to not place such high expectations on myself and enjoy the process more, as you say.

      Delete

Thank you for commenting on Smart Girls Read Romance. We love readers and love their comments. We apologize that due to a few unethical spammers we've had to institute comment moderation. Please be patient with us... we DO want your genuine comments!