Hi everyone!

It’s been a few weeks since the last update, but I got a few concerned messages from people noticing me writing the As I Write stuff vs. me (I think) talking about writing Academy. I think some readers had concerns thinking I’m not writing Academy things.

I can say this is very, very far from the case, and those who read this blog and keep up with the newsletter already probably know. But I did want to update that, as I know a lot of people are curious.

Obviously, I am still writing Academy. Like noted in the last update in mid-November, this month is no different. When will I be finished writing the first draft? I don’t know. I just know how many scenes I need to write in until the end, but scenes don’t have a set amount of words before I write them. I just let them flow out naturally and it ends when it should end naturally.

And when I get close to the end of the first draft (like I sort of am getting to now), I tend to do slow down a bit, checking previous chapters, revising a bit here and there as I figure out the ending and how to put the pieces together.

All that said, I tend to tread the work like a normal job. Every weekday, I’m typing. 🙂

WRITING SCHEDULES

So when does CL have time to write/revise books?

I wanted to clarify what my working schedule looks like, and I think that may help answer a few questions.

Monday through Friday schedule, I’m usually up by eight in the morning, sometimes earlier. After a bit of coffee and making sure pets have what they need, I’m at the desk, or I have the laptop with me wherever I am. There may be a few emails answered during that time. Then I tend to write from nine-ish to about twelve or one. Usually at a point where I need another coffee and I’m hungry enough to make lunch.

After that, there may be more emails, answering people on Facebook or Twitter, or marketing (any small business needs near-constant marketing), any accounting work, working with my agent on a project, etc. This might be when I’m signing hundreds of signatures for books or cards or just thank you notes. I save the business side of writing for the afternoon.

However, I’m usually off work at around 4-ish. (Sometimes it’s three, sometimes it’s seven. It depends on how much work I needed to do, usually not writing.)

I do enjoy my work, but like many of you, I work my set hours, and then I have to separate myself from work. 🙂

But I also enjoy writing. And on the weekends, when I tell myself I should be taking time off and not working on anything, instead I get a little antsy. That’s usually when I’m spending time on other projects.

But I’m trying to keep those projects, like Favored and other stories fun for me, and also for those who might enjoy reading them. It doesn’t really take too much time to write up a bit of the story, give it a quick format and upload over the weekend, ready to go out on Tuesday. And most of the stories I have are things I tend to tinker with between edits while an Academy book is with a proofreader, or beta readers, or I take time out between books to just decompress but I still want to work on something.

So I try to not put too much pressure on myself for those stories and just write what I feel I can, but also still take some time off over the weekend to enjoy a video game or hanging out with pets or with friends.

Obviously, there are weeks where there are holidays, or I take time off for travel or I have to help family with something, taking time off if I’m sick, etc.

Why don’t I work on Academy during the weekend? Because writers need days off, too. 🙂 At least one day completely off each week, just like most people, you need to give yourself time to rest. I tend to give myself the two days off.

Otherwise, the writing turns to crap, you get into burnout mode, your health suffers, etc. Same sort of thing for anyone else. You’ve got to take care of your health, take time out for family and for your own personal interests.

But I think people seeing more of Favored and not updates on Academy stuff, I can understand people getting worried that maybe I stopped writing. I haven’t. 🙂 I’m not sure how to update people other than a blog like this to let you know, yes, still writing. Some authors do word count updates, but mine tend to be kind of crazy, because some days I write 5000 words and some days it is 500 because I needed to research or I’m just mentally a little slow that day, or some days it might be -1000 because I revised a chapter and took out whole sections.

I promise, even if I’m not updating every day, I’m still working on the books. If slowly.

But if people were worried I’d stop writing books before the end, the answer is: unless I’m dead, I’ll still write Academy until the whole of the story is done. And I don’t mean just Ghost Bird, I mean everything coming after, too. I enjoy it. I love the guys. I love the world. That’s pretty much my fantasy life right there so, yeah. I constantly tell people if I could just *write* and not work on the business side, I’d do even more of it because I personally enjoy creating those fantasy worlds and living in my imagination.

If there’s ever a time where even Amazon shut down or whatever happens where I couldn’t be paid for what I’m doing, I’d still write on it, albeit slowly. :p

So please don’t worry if you aren’t hearing updates about Academy books vs. how much you might hear about Favored or something else I’m doing on the side. I write these blog posts once in a while to keep you all updated as much as possible. If you see people asking about it, feel free to mention these blog posts and share the information with others. But I hope this helps clear up some things. 🙂