Guest Post: Jim Wisneski on Time Management

This week I'm starting work on a certain short story for a certain interconnected anthology (shh!) Please welcome guest blogger Jim Wisneski, author of one of my favourite serial stories, Guns n' Graves.

Time Management with Writing… and Life

Here are the projects that are sitting on my plate as I type this:

• Novel writing – wrote a 107,000 word novel from January 1 2010 to April 24 2010, and I’m currently 17,000 words into my next!
• Short story writing – weekly #fridayflash and stories for submission.
• Serialized story (1) – Guns n’ Graves. Posted weekly.
• Serialized story (2) – Living Lost. Posted weekly… and comes with music.
• Music – always working on new songs!
• Soft Whispers – my ezine featuring poetry, art, pictures, and short-short fiction. Also has monthly issues and anthologies.

So, the million dollar question is HOW TO DO IT ALL? Believe it or not, it’s easy. Here is the checklist that I follow:

• Set a plan and GO
• Don’t overdo or over commit
• Recognize failures and LET GO
• Learn from failures

My plan is always set and I always follow it… first thing in the morning, I update Soft Whispers. I email that day’s author and then I get to Twitter and Tweet it. I always have a notebook handy. I keep my notes separated so items don’t get mixed together. Then, at night, I always – ALWAYS – get 1,000 words written. It can be for a novel, a short story, an article… you get the point.

I know it may seem like a lot and trust me, with two kids, it can be. But I keep moving, keep writing, keep thinking… if I’m working on my novel and I get stuck, I move to something else. I grab a notebook and see what’s next for Guns n’ Graves. Once I get tired of that, then it’s time for Living Lost. Again, you get the point.

I always stay ahead by one week. There are a few reasons for this. First, you never know when the unexpected will happen. And for me, when I commit to something, I stay committed no matter what. And just to prove what I’m saying is true, my wife gave birth to our second son on Mother’s Day and not a single story missed a beat! Because I was ahead one week, I had no worries of missing a part of the story.

Another reason I stay a week ahead is to edit. There’s nothing worse than scrambling to get something written a few hours before it’s to be posted.

Finally, I stay a week ahead just in case I need a break… I mean, come on, we are all human and sometimes we have to walk away. And it’s good to be prepared in case that moment comes.

For #FridayFlash, I always have my story done by Tuesday night. AND if I don’t have a story for that week, no big deal. There’s a very important thing to remember about the internet… it’s vast, yes, which works to your advantage if used right… but you have to respect it. No matter the writing, if you share it, it’s out there forever. Make it count. To me, whether I get paid for writing or not, it’s still my writing. Now, am I saying that all my stories are top notch perfect? Nah. But each story that is posted as a #FridayFlash or available for free has had the same care and consideration as stories that are in print or ones that have been paid for.

Okay, now I talk about some failures… as I mentioned, you have to recognize failures and learn to let go. And you have to learn from the failures, too.

I had an idea for a site where it would be ALL links. Links to writing topics, to literary agents, publishing, etc. I called it Writers n’ Writers. I would wake up every day and look for link after link after link and post it on the blog. Then I would Tweet each link. I did it to help others out but all I was doing was wasting time. Close to ALL of the links I was posting were already available on Twitter. It took me a while to figure this out. My test was not doing anything with Writers n’ Writers for two full weeks. What happened? Nothing. I still had the same followers on Twitter, still had the same traffic on my sites. That told me that Wn’W had to go.

Another example is Soft Whispers. The original idea was to have Soft Whispers as a print magazine of short stories and poetry. I bought a printer, a paper folding machine, and went to work… and failed. First, I was flooded with stories and poetry. More than I wanted and WAY more than I liked. The final straw was when the people submitting to me started writing nasty emails. That’s when I ended my editor duties. BUT I decided to change the Soft Whispers idea… make it poetry, stories under 150 words, and have an outlet for art and pictures. I recruited regular contributors and the site has been running since January 2010 with great success.

Well, that’s my writing life as it stands now. Is it tons of work? Yes. Why do I do it? That answer brings me to my last point… you have to do what you love. I love writing. I love sharing stories, poetry, writing novels, entering contests, getting things published, and running Soft Whispers. I enjoy the people I speak with everyday and take the rejections with a smile. And when I wake up in the morning and my giant list of to do’s is waiting in my mind, I can’t help but smile. This is my dream and I’m living it.

Visit Jim at his blog or on twitter @Wisneski.