I’ll be honest. Writing is not my full time gig. I work 40 hours a week on top of writing at my “real” job. But we all know writing is life. So, my spare time is spent being put into my serial fiction. From plotting to writing to editing.
I work early mornings and afternoons, so the rest of my day is pretty much for writing and chores if I manage to actually make myself do them. Ha ha.
I set a goal for myself which is usually about 1000 words. Its manageable, because 1000 words is enough for a chapter. With most stories, I won’t even think about hitting submit/post until I’ve got at least 25k under my belt.
According to NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month Organization, 50k or 50,000 words is novel length. So if I hit 25 k on a project I feel good enough about it that I am going to continue it. Also, because my posting days are usually Monday and Tuesdays, that gives me several months worth of material just incase life gets in the way.
Most serial fiction writing platforms allow you to pre-post things too.
You know, in case you get sick. Or there is a family emergency. The internet is down. Whatever.
Word limits also help remind me to take BREAKS. The thing about writing a novel is it can go on FOREVER. So with traditional writing, its really easy to sit there for hours at a time and forget to do things like I don’t know wash dishes, straighten your posture, just go for a walk and breathe the fresh air. If I at least get my 1,000 words in for Monday and Tuesday I feel good. I’ve got new content to post. And then I can spend the rest of the week doing whatever.
With any extra writing just being a bonus and because I WANT TO not because I have to. And honestly, doing things because you WANT TO is more fun.
I am convinced half of writers block isn’t an inspiration thing. It’s just the creative version of burn out. Every writer needs a break even though its something you love.
That’s why these limits work for me. I am less likely to run into writers block working like this too. And, if I do, it’s usually has to do with other life things and not writing itself.
Also something else I remember: it takes time to build an audience. Even though I’ve been on Dreame since 2018, not everyone is necessarily going to like every story I write. I’ve written things I thought were really dumb that no one was going to like and had everyone like it. I’ve written things people were kind of eh about but they read it anyway because I was writing it. And then I’ve had stories that no one paid attention to at first that everyone then paid attention to later because they were connected to another story or similar. Stories are weird. There’s no way to know what’s going to catch an audience no matter how much industry people try to tell you they know the next trend.
Right now, Kindle Vella has only been in existence since Wednesday. I’ve written 12 serials and still haven’t gained any traction yet. But that is okay. Because the audience is small. But eventually, it will be there. You’ve just got to keep on writing because you like it and posting and hopefully others will too.
Because really the main trick to keeping up with this is love and dedication. Because if you don’t love it, you won’t stick to it. And hopefully, the rest of the world will catch up and love your stuff too.
