Quieting Down To Write

                                                   Wishful thinking in the midst of winter
Promotion is absolutely necessary for writers.  But just how much of your day should you give to it?  Just how much of your energy do you lose by concentrating on it?

I've had a few days that I couldn't focus on the pure writing...the getting lost in the story...the work that should be driving everything else.  I had audio auditions coming in, a book to reload onto Amazon, a new banner to develop for Facebook, a book trailer to approve.  If I start the day with promotion, it can go on and on like an engine that just won't quit--tweeting, Facebooking, setting up ads, listing on free-book sites, contacting reviewers.

So either I write first, or I learn how to quiet down.  First of all, that might mean setting a timer for all the busywork that built up on my to-do list overnight.  If it doesn't all get done--  Well, it just doesn't.  Because my raw writing is the reason I do promotion in the first place.

After that timer buzzes, it's not easy to switch gears.  If I can, I go for a walk.  Today, though the temperature was a tad below freezing, the sun was winter bright.  (We're supposed to have a snowstorm tomorrow.) So...I sat on the patio, soaking in the sun, listening to the birds, feeling the breeze, inhaling winter scents that I hope will soon turn to spring ones. (Hence the picture I opened with.)  Quieting down takes about twenty minutes.  If I can't sit in the sun, I play with our kitten Zoie Joy, listen to music, tend to seeds I've started for summer planting or just breathe until I'm no longer buzzing with busywork but turning my head toward plot and my characters and what they're going to do in the next scene.

Do you have to quiet down to write?  If so, how do you do it?

©2013 Karen Rose Smith

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