Spreadsheets, Schedules and Writers

by Janis Patterson

Okay, I’ll come clean. I’m a spreadsheet junkie. I use spreadsheets for everything – keeping track of chapter lengths/daily writing deadlines/publishing schedules/royalty payments – just about everything except what to have for dinner and when to do the laundry. While accurate and useful spreadsheets can be a pain to set up, once they’re in place they help my usually scattered mind keep at least a minimal grip on what’s done and what has to be done. Some of us need all the help we can get.

In my latest publishing blitz the spreadsheet has proved incredibly helpful. Nine books released one every two weeks over four months makes for one unbelievably complicated project. Every book is in a different place with editing, the formatter and the cover artist.

After almost being lost in an avalanche of sticky notes, scribbled-on napkins, various emails and an admittedly imperfect memory, I started a spreadsheet. One line per book, and – currently, which might change! – 34 columns of actions to be taken. Add a rainbow of color-coding, and I can almost see each book’s progress and current situation at a glance.

Of course, it would have been so much easier to start out with this system instead of having it grow organically. For one thing, I wouldn’t have to be digging around in a basketful of sticky notes, scribbled-on napkins, various emails and an even more than usual undependable memory in order to make an accurate history. On the other hand, though, there was no way that starting out I could have predicted half the things that happened and/or were necessary.

It has been an interesting journey.

I cannot recommend enough that anyone who wants to get organized in any field of writing think about spreadsheets. There are writers who keep track of the flow of their story – POV characters, turning points, various character traits – all kinds of things. I haven’t gone that far yet, mainly because my writing style is different. I just write with only the sketchiest idea of what is going to happen – a minimal skeleton of a story, if you will – and as for my characters…! Most of the time they simply walk in, announce their name and tell me to start writing. I could no more change them (major characters, that is – not one-line walk-ons) than I could learn to speed-type accurately with my toes. And – I say this from sad experience – Heaven help me if I try to change their name from the one they like. One time I tried that and the character simply shut up. Wouldn’t do or say anything and was unbelievably obstinate until I started calling him by the name he liked. Then the book went like cream and was one of my best sellers.

So – spreadsheets can definitely be a writer’s best friend. I would be terminally confused without them.

Now – an update on my publishing blitz. Yesterday was Release Day for THE FAIR AMAZON, a traditional Regency Romance. On July 30 my release will be THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION, a contemporary romantic suspense. Here’s a peek at the cover for THE FAIR AMAZON –

Writing As A Business

by Janis Patterson

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know writing is a business and should be treated as such?

Unfortunately, our business has always attracted groupies and wannabes, which is both good and bad. Some do develop into good writers. Some don’t – ever, no matter how hard they try and study. Some just want to be known as having written a book, basking in the automatic profit and adulation which is inevitably due to any published writer. (You may snigger or cry here, or both.) Some just want to claim a published writer – preferably a famous one – as a dear friend – whether they actually are or not.

Along with groupies, there are others who populate our lives and must be considered – family, friends, co-workers, our children’s (or grandchildren’s) teachers and schoolmates, libraries, lecture groups – add your own categories in here. They are legion.

Unless they are a writer, though, most people don’t realize that this is a business, and not an easy one. People who wouldn’t dream of calling you to chat or expect you to go lunch/shopping/to a movie during the day if you were Assistant Supervisor of Fralumpkins at Blurpkinner Enterprises will happily interrupt your writing. After all, you’re just writing, and that’s easy, isn’t it? And everyone knows that if you work at home you aren’t really working, are you? You’re your own boss, so you can do what you want. Then they get offended when you say you can’t, interpreting it as you don’t want to be with them. The situation is even worse for those dedicated writers (of whom I stand in awe) who juggle a day job and children, squeezing their writing into those precious slivers of time between immutable obligations.

Writing is work, something that must be pursued and applied and sacrificed for. Writing well is all that and more, just harder. And it’s not just writing – there is publicity that must be done, street teams organized, interviews done, guest blogs… all kinds of things that must be done to get your name and your book, once it is finished and published, in front and hopefully in the hands of the buying public. If you’re self-publishing, the work load is doubled. You must deal with (and pay for!) editors and cover artists and, unless you are computerly gifted, conversion into the various electronic formats – to say nothing of the brave new world of paperback self-publication.

Plus, in the middle of all this you need to be writing the next book. One of the facts of success in the publishing world is having books for the reader to read. Perhaps literary authors can linger for years between books as their fans wait and salivate for their next offering, but popular fiction writers are expected to produce much and often or their career withers on the vine. Sigh.

So – lunch? A movie? Shopping? Forget it. You’ve got to work, whether or not the people who populate your life understand.

Unfortunately, this disregard for the hard work of writing is not a new thing. Charles Dickens once wrote :

“‘It is only half an hour’–’It is only an afternoon’–’It is only an evening,’ people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that it is impossible to command one’s self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes–or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometime worry a whole day… Who ever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no.”

As usual, he said it much better than I ever could. Way to go, Mr. Dickens!

Now – back to work.

Time is Shrinking

At least that's what it feels like to me.

What I used to be able to do with ease, seems to take much, much longer. I guess I could blame that on old age and the fact that I need to do anything that uses my brain in the morning. To do that, I get up around 4:30 a.m. every day. Which results in me having to go to bed around 8. Though I try to watch at least one TV show, I never see the end.

I probably have "bitten off more than I can chew" as the saying goes.

I've been working on the blog tour for my next Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, Dangerous Impulses. It's very time-consuming and uses a lot of brain cells. (Wondering if I've lost a few over the years.) I'll be telling you what all that entails (the tour not my brain cells) on one of my blogs in March.

I also decided to self-publish an e-book, The Devil's Foothold, which I needed lots of help doing. I offered it free for 2 days (also needed help doing that too), and the promoting of the book itself and then the free days took more time than I wanted. (Not sure it helped all that much either.)

While all this was going on Christmas and New Years arrived at their usual times and I had to take some time off to celebrate, of course. Though, thank goodness, I don't celebrate with as much folderol as I used to.
(Meaning decorating, gift giving, baking, visiting, and parties.)

And doesn't it seem as though there are far more emails than ever, more lists to be on, more Facebook groups that are fun to visit? And I do have to look at Facebook ever so often because my grand kids put up some great photos of their kids. I also find out what's going on with my various family members this way.

I've hardly had time to read--one of my favorite past times. I've got a book to read in the bathroom and one on the dining room table and way too many on Kindle.

Right in the middle of all this, I went to a three-day board meeting for the Public Safety Writers Association in Ventura. Though fun, it's also a lot of work and really is three days, days I can't write. Evenings I did look at my email and Facebook and gave my new iPad a workout. (Have my Kindle books on their too.) I had a couple of short visits with my youngest daughter. Hubby spent most of his time with her and her family.

What about you? Have you got enough time to do all the things you need/want to do?

Marilyn aka F.M. Meredith