I Think I'm Developing A Seasonal Routine!

This is just a bit of musing around how my 'professional author life' (I'm allowed to call myself that because I've been published and paid money for a book!) is starting to shape up, not quite one year on from publication of my first novel. And I think there's going to be a routine.

So I'm a horror author, so naturally my publishers are going to want to publish my books in October, in time for Halloween. I am absolutely fine with that; Halloween is my favourite holiday anyway! So that means that the summer before publication is going to be filled with editing.

However, the summer after publication - this summer we're in now - has been filled with promotion! I'm going to festivals and events, doing readings and plugging my firstborn like crazy, and I have to say it's been a great time. Now that August is coming to its end and we're about to slip into September, I'm looking forward and anticipating that events and the like are going to wind down in the next month or two. And then?

Well, there's NaNoWriMo, of course. For those who don't know, that stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the month in question is November. I can be a terrible procrastinator, especially when there's a dozen other things demanding my attention, so I always use NaNoWriMo as a means to motivate myself to sit down and focus on ONE PROJECT. The challenge is to write 50,000 words of a new project; I don't usually manage it, and I normally jump onto an existing project rather than starting something new, but it gets me in the habit of writing regularly and sets me up for the next few months, when the weather is colder and people are less inclined to go to fairs and outdoor events. Peak sit-indoors-and-write months. Until around April, when (theoretically) the days will get longer, the weather will improve and it'll be time to go out and promote - and/or edit - again!

Being a pagan, this idea of a seasonal routine really appeals to me. It's nice, it feels ... organic and natural. That doesn't mean I'm not writing over the summers - I am - just at a much slower pace.

I'm actually looking forward to autumn, with sweater weather and hot drinks and time at my keyboard being cosy and tapping out new worlds (or snuggled up with someone else's worlds). But before then, I'll be making the most of summer, so look out for me on my adventures!

Photo: SmashBear Publishing at Orpington Alternative Market, July 2023. Taken by Nic Sans.