For the last month, I've been slogging through first round revisions for my self-dubbed "light and fun" YA contemporary, and it's been hell. The revision process has been so bad I recently had a weekend-long panic attack. While I'm known to tweet/FB things like "Revisions. Grrr...," I'm not opposed to the process. It's an accepted fact of the writer life. So the fact I struggled for breath just thinking about my WIP caused even more anxiety. I didn't think too much into the why of it all but over the last few days I've come to the conclusion that most of my recent tweaking is due to unrealistic expectations I set for myself. Despite what I said publicly , internally I kept my goal of revising this project in 31 days while working the day job and querying and handling life. The truth is, I couldn't. No matter how much I wanted it, I'm a 2-4 month revision girl. Because I set down something I couldn't realistically achieve, ...

Welcome to the final installment of Task-Setting for Writers. If you missed a week, you can read the previous three weeks here . By now it's been established that we're here because we need help getting everything done that we want to get done. Case in point, this week I spread myself too thin: date night with Hubby, the final meeting of my old crit group, my second meeting of my new one, not to mention some girl time with a bestie. Oh and probably some housework. Notice how I didn't mention anything about writing on that list*. Credit Part Four: Just Say "No" In order to achieve our goals, we have to be selfish. Sometimes. This is harder than it sounds because no one wants to be that way. It comes off sounding terrible and that we're being uncooperative. We want people to be able to rely on us, but while we're being selfless, we forget about our own needs. Coincidentally, the chronicness of saying "yes" to everything creates a lot of s...

Welcome to part three of task-setting for writers. You can read weeks one and two here . There are some people out there that totally own the hand-off. My experience shows this happens with managers of some sort who drop the crap tasks on their underlings/interns. But your're not here to discuss my traumatic work history. You're here because you want to know more about task-setting. Part Three: Bargain and Compromise This part should really be called asking for help when you need it. I must admit, I'm having problems writing this post. While I can write a competent task list and do multi-task somewhat efficiently, I'm not good at this bargain and compromise thing. Since Wonder Woman was my idol as a kid, I like to think I can do everything**. The key is to acknowledge you need help. It can be something as miniscule as picking up a book of stamps, but if you know someone nearby who goes to the post office every day***, why can't they pick them up for you? ...

Welcome to part two of task-setting for writers. This will be a weekly feature for the next several weeks. If you're like me, you want to accomplish more things than reasonable during the day: blogs to read, TV watch, peeps to catch up with, that book you want to finish reading, not to mention the gym. This is on top of eight hours at what you consider your day job, whether it's school or work. Overwhelmed with how much you have to do, you opt to do none of it. Why couldn't there be four more hours in the day? No worries, you can trick yourself into additional hours by multi-tasking. Part Two: Multi-Task Some people will argue that no one can truly multi-task , that our brains aren't structured that way. While I know for a fact I can't tap my head and rub my belly simultaneously, I can walk and chew gum. It's a fine line, but it's still multi-tasking. Most of  us do this naturally. Have you ever read on the treadmill? Talked to your mom while groc...

Welcome to part one of task-setting for writers. This will be a weekly feature for the next several weeks. To say that the art of writing is time-intensive is like saying chocolate is awesome*. In my fantasy world, I have an unlimited amount of time each day to work on my projects, still train for a marathon, and give the pool boy a good tongue-lashing. Reality is pretty different. There's the day job, social commitments, housework, cats. Life. All of this chips away at the time I mentally block off as "writing time." "Writing time" consists of anything that falls into the writing bucket: researching, editing, revising, beta-reading, and *gasp* actual writing. That's a lot to fit in and it's not surprising that everything sorta overflows like that time I forgot to add the flour to the cookies**. The key to stop the overflow is to quit. Kidding. photo © 2008 Hartwig HKD | more info (via: Wylio ) All you need to do is find balance. Balance is t...