How To Keep Writing Novels In a Crisis

At the start of this year, I had a plan.

A really good plan, if I get to say so myself. I made a calendar in Excel, mapped out when  I’d be doing what, which of my manuscripts needed to be revised, edited, read through, and fixed. I had deadlines plotted in, and I even shared it online with my beta readers so that they could log on and check when they were supposed to be doing what, when they needed to have it back to me, and when they were supposed to be receiving new writings from me. It was a really good way of keep ourselves accountable.

And it worked! Really, really well. I’ve never been more productive in my life.

And well, then the pandemic happened.

At first, nothing much changed for me. I got to work from home, and I couldn’t go to the gym, but that was it. If anything, I had more time to work on my writing, not less.

But slowly I started falling out of sync with my plan. Suddenly I was a week behind on something that should be revised, or one of my beta readers needed more time than originally planned (which is completely fine, of course!)

Thing is, I have no idea where the time went. I didn’t have more things to do, or less time to do stuff. It didn’t make any sense.

And that’s okay.

Thing is, you can’t expect to stay productive during a worldwide crisis! Even if you don’t know where the times goes. That’s fine. Do what you can (or what you feel up for), and then just worry about staying safe, staying healthy, and getting through it. You can do everything else later.

These days, I’m not writing anything new, other than some short stories.

I have one book that is super close to being published (any day now), and the next one (the third and last in a series) is already written and being edited. I also have two novellas that are close to being done, and I’m aiming on publishing one of them in time for Halloween.

I feel like I’m doing a little bit of spring cleaning, in a sense. Getting a few of the stories that are sitting on my work bench out of the way, before I start something new.

But boy, do I have great plans for something new.

Stay safe out there, and take care of yourselves!