Finding the time to write

Now that you are marketing, how do you find time to keep writing? This has been a major problem for me. Writing my first manuscript was easy. I'd wait for my family to go to bed, sit down at the computer when all was quiet and let my fingers do what they do best...type. The story just seemed to flow, the characters came to life, and the next thing I knew, it was 4:00 in the morning and I had written ten pages.

After that book got published, things began to change. Now I find myself constantly marketing. The stories I'm working on are sitting in cyperspace waiting to come alive. The minute I start to write, a new E-mail pops up...someone from a writing group has a question...or worse yet, Yahoo Instant Messenger pops up: U there? (Dang, I forgot to turn that off again). Now, they KNOW I'm here. Ah well, I'll chat for a bit, keep marketing and write in a little bit. Next thing I know, it's 4:00 in the morning again, and I haven't written a damn thing.

It's a catch 22. If I don't market my first book, what's the sense in writing my second? So I decided to make a schedule. At 10:00 at night I sit down, answer my Email, chat for awhile...and shut down at midnight. This gives me only 2 hours to market, network, answer Emails etc. Then I take the rest of the time to write. Sometimes I'm just too tired and do none of that. Other nights the sun peeks through my office window and I know it's going to be a LONG day at work. With four hours of sleep as it is, I don't need to be hallucinating from lack of sleep.

Then comes the age old question: Am I just wasting my time? The answer to that is probably yes. I'm obsessive and I always will be. So at 3:00 in the morning, when my eyes are drooping and my book is going nowhere, I throw myself into the next story. Hey, my characters have something to say whether people want to read about them or not...there's no harm in that right? (Don't ask my husband that question).