Turning the Page: Starting the year with a refreshed writing routine!

I'm turning the page for 2024 with a new refreshed writing routine!

So big news. For me anyway. I’ve “retired” from the daily grind of earning a regular income and have loads more time for writing. The hard part is developing a solid, bum in seat, writing discipline. To help with this I've created a content planner in Excel and refreshed my writing routine.

The first couple of weeks in February was content planning. I have a list of 24 articles to write for the coming year plus social posts for the whole year (except weekends).

This is the second article in the list (read #1 - Unleashing a literary avalanche). Overall, I’ll be writing about authors, books, what I’m reading, research focussed articles relating to my novels, and book reviews.

Once I have the first few articles in the bag, I’ll keep article promo to Monday afternoons and spend the rest of the week working on my fiction.

Crossing the Line book 2 is with the publisher. Book 3 is my focus for 2024 and I’m diving back into seafaring research so there’ll be a few posts/articles about that coming up. I also have some short story ideas to flesh out, and when I’m finished Crossing the Line another few novel ideas to work on as well.

Wednesdays are planned as art days (where possible).

Mornings and weekends are for yoga, walking, swimming, gardening, and wandering around taking photos. Whatever I feel like that is active. I can't spend all day sitting at a desk (again). If this refreshed writing routine is to work, I must practice self care. I'm also a bit of a genealogy nut. As well as working on my family tree, I’ve volunteered with findagrave.com to take photos of headstones at local cemeteries. If you’re into genealogy, you’ll understand how handy being able to access photos and info of gravesites can be.

Before you think this routine is a bit strict (and a bit full), I’m also planning a few short holidays and regular weekends away to visit family.

So far so good too. By the time you read this article, I’ll have written a dozen more and be making headway on my current manuscript.