Four Steps Forward – 09/02/16

Welcome to my first blog post, I hope you enjoy it. Please SHARE it if you do, like me on Facebook, follow me on Goodreads, just get the word out. Thanks.

So here goes…

Anyone who knows me – even a little – knows that organization is not my strong suit, Not even close. To deal with this, I have created my own 12-step program to survive and thrive as both writer and marketer without killing someone or someone killing me. Making time for a blog is step four. It is a work in progress, so I thought I would share steps one through four with you today.

Step one, Set goals. I wanted to write, to produce and finish what I started. I had to have time, a workspace, the notes from research and classes, and the freedom to be creative. I needed to complete certain, specific tasks that required a schedule and timing. Oh no – those required organization. Move to step two.

Step two: learn publishing, marketing, social media marketing, pick up some new valuable and very time consuming skills. Take some courses, read some great books. “On Writing” by Stephen King remains a favorite. Pay better attention to writers I love, from Jane Austen to Julia Quinn to Karen Marie Moning and lots in between. Need more organizing.

Step 3: Write, and then write some more. Write some short stories and give them away to thank my loyal, generous fans. Finish “Bedazzled” then “Beholden”. Schedule my first book talk. Holy crap! I am an author/publisher before I know it.

“Bedeviled” is slated to come out this fall and Book four will complete the Beguiling Bachelor Series this winter (still working on a title, suggestions welcome). More organization required.

As I move through steps two and three I decide I want to blog, to share my experiences as writer, publisher, marketer, mother of cats and consumer of DVR’d television. But this requires arranging my schedule to accommodate everything. How to blog, tweet, pin and post and still find time to write?

Enter Step 4: Find a way to organize all this. I tried the usual – the self help books like that Japanese tidying book, the magazines that promised to help you reduce clutter but just share your hard-earned cash with The Container Store. I did some pitiful begging, asking my ultra-organized sister to help me clean out the papers that piled up uncontrollably. The wonderful stylist Katie Schuppler – you will get to know her in the upcoming “Bedeviled” – cleaned out my closet. It helped a lot.

Ultimately, all the fancy containers failed to do the trick, my sister had her own life and the closet became impossible again. Not my sister’s fault. Not Katie’s either. Saving the size 6-8-10-12-and 14 clothes as I kept eating might have contributed a little. All the new books and printed advice on marketing and publishing took up space. I had no system – no habits – to maintain the organization. Well, you can see where this is going. I had more to do and no way to manage it all.

Reading the ‘habit books’ by SJ Scott was a huge help. I recommend them and his blog “Develop Good Habits”. These are great ideas that are easy to implement. Pick and choose the ones that work for you. The books are short, easy to read and some of them are free. Yes, you read that right. Free. I suggest starting with “77 Good Habits to Live a Better Life.”

So now I have some habits, write in the morning, market in the afternoon. I might even have time for a blog. Stay tuned to find out.

As with any 12-step program, I will have a messy closet now and then, call my sister now and then, miss a deadline now and then, but the habits are beginning to stick. So far, four steps forward, occasionally one step back. If I keep producing this blog, at least twice a month, you will know Steve Scott succeeded with me.

Step 5: OH NO, an exercise plan!

You might also like:

• Confessions of a New Author Part 1 November 17, 2016
• Confessions of a New Author Part 2 December 1, 2016
• Confessions of a New Author Part 3 December 15, 2016
• Announcing Maddy’s Romance Madness  March 9, 2017