First Cup of Coffee – November 22, 2024

On giving ourselves permission to give less than 100% (or more) effort to tasks and projects that aren’t our priority. Insights I gained from Becca Syme’s Author Business Summit, sustainability of all our efforts, and taking time off.

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - November 22, 2024

November 22, 2024

Jeffe Kennedy

On giving ourselves permission to give less than 100% (or more) effort to tasks and projects that aren't our priority. Insights I gained from Becca Syme's Author Business Summit, sustainability of all our efforts, and taking time off.

Becca Syme's Better Faster Academy is here https://betterfasteracademy.com/

Visit JenniferKLambert.com

RELUCTANT WIZARD is out now and audiobook is live!! https://www.jeffekennedy.com/reluctant-wizard

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Writing Habits and Work-Life Balance

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re discussing work ethic and asking each other what we do to keep balanced and writing regularly?

Many of you already know I’m kind of a fiend for building a writing habit. That’s because, once I stopped resisting the idea and starting doing it – by writing every day at the same time every day – that habit carried me through all sorts of difficulties.

It still does.

For example, I’m on a plane as I type this, heading to WorldCon in Chicago. I was reading a novel (Lisa Klepas, Marrying Winterborne, highly recommend!) as the plane taxied and took off. Once we reached cruising altitude, I began to feel the prodding of habit. “Time to write!” it urges. So, I pulled out the laptop to write this blog post. Then I’ll turn to my draft of Shadow Wizard, which I need to get done.

Yes, I write every (weekday) morning. That’s how I can count on getting the book done.

Last week I visited family and there were many family goings on. There was some emotional stuff to deal with, aging parents and all that involves, and it threw me for the remainder of the week. I wasn’t productive. I was feeling stressed. I’d been knocked out of my routine by life, which is the way of life. It would be nice (in theory) if I lived in some hermitage or remote villa where all days flowed by as serene as my view of the Mediterranean Sea, but I don’t. I live in a beautiful place (no ocean) and my life is relatively even and peaceful, but I’m connected to people and life happens.

By the following Monday, I was able to slide back into my writing habit like a pair of comfortable yoga pants. Morning writing was waiting for me, restoring the necessary balance. It felt good. That’s the beauty of habit – it does all the hard work for you.

First Cup of Coffee – June 9, 2020

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee – June 9, 2020

June 09, 2020

Jeffe Kennedy

Happy Release Day to Grace Draven for DRAGON UNLEASHED! Thoughts today on entropy, backsliding, and how drift figures into building - and sustaining - a good writing habit.

First Cup of Coffee is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find more outstanding podcasts to subscribe to at Frolic.media/podcasts!

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First Cup of Coffee – September 2, 2019

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - September 2, 2019

September 02, 2019

Jeffe Kennedy

Talking today about habits, and how vacation is good for breaking all kinds - and allows us to consciously and deliberately rebuild. Also, another salvo in the pack rat war. 

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First Cup of Coffee – November 29, 2018

 

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - November 29, 2018

November 29, 2018

Jeffe Kennedy

Touching back to yesterday's discussion of dealing with agents, how publishing is a small community - and how your agent might listen to your podcast when you complain about her! But all is good, and a shout-out to Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency for being awesome in all ways. The other agent mentioned is Joanna Volpe.

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First Cup of Coffee – November 2, 2018

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - November 2, 2018

November 02, 2018

Jeffe Kennedy

Why I don't do NaNoWriMo - but why I think you should, and some advice on how. I'm giving some advice on how to "train" for NaNoWriMo and keep yourself from burning out before you finish. Also thoughts on competition and keeping to your line.

the blog post with the word count metrics I reference:
https://www.jeffekennedy.com/increasing-word-count-and-training-for-nanowrimo-2/

Georgia O'Keeffe quote:
"If you can believe in what you are and keep to your line - that is the most one can do with life."

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Increasing Word Count and Training for #NaNoWriMo

I had a bit of a SNAFU with the podcast this morning, but since I talked about #NaNoWriMo – and this post from 2014 – I thought I’d reprise it here. I’ll podcast tomorrow with the same thoughts!

***

This seemed like an appropriate photo for the topic of the new week – Managing Your Time: If You’ve a Deadline, You’ve a Schedule. How Do You Get Back On Track When Your Schedule Goes To Crap?

I’m in this place right now, getting back on track on a number of levels. My schedule didn’t really go to crap. But I did take a huge step back in September and now, it’s turned out, a good portion of October. It’s been deliberate in some ways and very likely much needed. Also weird.

See, in August I wrote 68,050. The most I’ve ever done in one month. It was a lot for me. More, that followed a straight run since the previous August when I wrote at least 41,000 words every month. In 2013 I wrote just over 497,000 words and so far for 2014, I’ve written 455,000. To do the math for you, that means I’ll likely have somewhere around 550,000 by December 31.

Once I get back on track, that is.

Because, in September, I only wrote 22,402. So far, for October I have 16,831. These are my two lowest word count months since May of 2013. I haven’t been doing nothing, precisely. I edited the novel that comes out in January, Under His Touch – developmental edits up through proofreading – and developmental edits on The Talon of the Hawk, which took a lot of focus, though a minimal additional word count. I worked up a proposal for three more Twelve Kingdoms books and started the first in the concept for another contemporary romance series. There’s been a lot of promo with the release of Rogue’s Paradise in September and preparing for The Tears of the Rosein November.

But I haven’t been doing much drafting. Which takes a whole other muscle.

Speaking of muscles, I was also sick in September. Some kind of low-level respiratory crud that nevertheless laid me low for several weeks. I got behind in exercising, too. Though managed to use the treadmill desk some every day, if only to keep my lymph flowing, I couldn’t run or lift weights. The treadmill served as a cat bed more than it moved. All of this was by way of necessary recovery. I truly believe that. I don’t have another book deadline until March 1. I haven’t gotten sick in a long time. It worked out okay for this to be my down time.

However, it’s now time to ramp up again and the question, the focus of our topic this week, is how do I do that?

I take my own advice. The sort I had the opportunity to hand out a couple of weeks ago when Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, visited our local chapter meeting, something I mentioned in last week’s post, too. One gal asked if Chris had advice on how to get going on writing those 1,667 words/day to make the 50K words/month that’s the NaNoWriMo goal. He said he didn’t so I offered mine. I told her that the temptation is to do the math exactly that way – to divide 50K by the 30 days of November and focus on achieving 1,667 words for each of those days. The problem with that approach is that writing that many words on the first day is akin to learning to run a marathon by going out and running ten miles right off the bat.

Yeah, you can probably do it, but you’ll feel the pain later.

In fact, you might be able to do it for a couple/three/four days – and then the crash occurs. Like my recovery time recently, it’s a natural sequel to going flat out.

Better, I told her, to treat it like that marathon training. Build up a little more every day. Stop before you’re tired, because that energy will translate to the next day. Consider setting up a schedule for NaNoWriMo like this:

1 100
2 200
3 300
4 400
5 500
6 750
7 1000
8 1250
9 1500
10 1750
11 2000
12 2000
13 2000
14 2000
15 2000
16 2100
17 2100
18 2100
19 2100
20 2100
21 2100
22 2200
23 2200
24 2200
25 2200
26 2200
27 2200
28 2200
29 2200
30 2200

By the end of November 30, you’d have 50,150 words. Best of all, by the time you’ve got yourself doing 2,200 words a day, it will feel very easy and natural. Because you’d be in shape for it.

This is what I need to do, to get myself back in shape. I’ve gotten back into running and weight-lifting, working my way back up to my previous levels. I’m tracking my treadmill desk miles, making sure I do a little more each week. I need to get back into drafting, but not to 2,200 words/day. Not right off, tempting as that is. I’m going to ramp up like this. Get the words flowing.

Back on track.

First Cup of Coffee – October 29, 2018

 

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - October 29, 2018

October 29, 2018

Jeffe Kennedy

Last Friday I had podcast troubles, it was a wonky day for other reasons, and on Saturday my cell phone died. All of these things conspired to mess me up on many levels, most importantly my writing rituals and habits, which I often talk about as critical for productive creativity. So today I'm offering three ideas for how to salvage a day like that - and how to actually embrace it!

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First Cup of Coffee – July 31, 2018

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - July 31, 2018

July 31, 2018

Jeffe Kennedy

In which I *don't* talk about an annoying situation, but instead muse on days off, the work week, habits, and THE ARROWS OF THE HEART.

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First Cup of Coffee – July 26, 2018

I loved how this dog got their own chair at the bar along Denver’s busy 16th Street pedestrian mall. Spotted while having drinks with the lovely and witty Limecello

First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - July 26, 2018

July 26, 2018

Jeffe Kennedy

Getting back into my at-home routine, so I discuss writing habits, creativity, the RWA conference, Suzanne Brockman's Lifetime Achievement Award speech - and what being quietly civil really means.

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