Before I start talking about how I juggle everything I do, let me be completely frank. I’m not much of a juggler compared to other authors. First, I write full-time. I have since I decided to seriously pursue publication in 1999. With the exception of a couple holiday jobs in between, it’s been me and this computer for a long time. In addition, I don’t have kids. Just cats who think they’re kids, but aside from the occasional whiney meowing and demands for love while sitting on the keyboard, I can leave them alone for hours and hours a day and never hear anything about it.

So now that you all hate me and want to throw things at me, here are some hints from someone with no external annoyances on how to stay focused. You can feel free to give your screen the finger.

1. The Pros and Cons of Writing Full Time - It may sound very dreamy to write full-time if you’re working a job at present. But you’d be surprised just how many shortcomings it has, especially before you publish. First, you get all the fear with none of the paycheck. We’ll talk a lot more about this tomorrow in my “The long, long journey into Hell” post about the struggle to publish and not quitting. But basically, you don’t have a fall back. You can’t say, “Well, my book sucks today, but I did get that promotion at my other job” … cause you don’t have another job. It can be very stressful, mentally and financially. You get more isolated since you work for yourself, by yourself. There are a lot of voices that pop up in your head when there aren’t other humans around. And I find the voices in my head can be way meaner than the nastiest critic.

Also, the more time you have on your hands, the more time you have to waste. If you only have an hour a day to write, you’re probably writing because you know it’s the only chance you’re going to get. If you have twelve hours a day to write… well, I sometimes do twelve hour marathons when I’m in the groove, but I don’t usually write twelve hours. I can find myself wasting a lot of time, especially at the beginning of a book when it all seems so daunting to have to do the whole 360-400 pages again.

So my first tip: Pay attention to the clock. If you’re finding yourself checking email (raising hand), reading blogs (yeah, that’s me again), posting on the Avon Authors board (me, me and me) or playing one of the many online card games (something I broke myself of years ago, thank goodness)… get thee to a kitchen timer. It sounds dumb, but there it is. Get a kitchen timer (mine is silver). Set it for thirty minutes. Write for thirty minutes. Until the clock goes off, you may not do anything else but write. This has helped me enormously when I’ve been in a temptation mood. And I find I have to use my timer less and less because my body and mind start to realize we’re in serious writer mode again and they stop arguing.

2. It’s all about focus. May sound easy, but it’s easier to say than do. If you want this, really want this… you will do it. You’ll find a way. You’ll fight for it. I wanted to write romance. I wanted to publish romance. I wanted to publish romance with a New York publishing house. I put my eyes on the prize and kept trying. I knew that if I gave up, I’d never make it. That was the only way I’d be absolutely sure I’d fail. Nora Roberts said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I can fix a broken page, I can’t fix a blank one”. So see your dream and write toward it. Keep writing toward it. Keep reaching for it. When you become singular in that goal, you’ll find it’s easier to juggle. And if you take your dream seriously, people around you will start to do the same thing. Don’t give them an alternative by short changing yourself.

3. And it’s all about enjoying what you do. Don’t chase the market. Find a niche you enjoy and write for it. When I started writing in 1999 it was right at the beginning of a really wretched historical romance slump. I had no idea of that, of course. I loved Julia Quinn and I wanted to write books in that time period (though ultimately I realized I couldn’t be Julia Quinn. I could only be Jenna Petersen and that’s okay). I knew that the historical market would have to catch up to me again at some point. It finally is starting to make a comeback. But I loved writing it. So for many years, I wrote it and even in the lowest point, I loved writing it. When I tried to write contemporary for a brief time, I had a couple of ideas, but then the well dried up. I had nothing else because contemporary wasn’t what I loved.

When I hit a point where I was burned out and not having as much fun writing regular historical romance anymore, that’s when I turned to historical erotic romance. And I sold. But my heart drew me back to the thing I loved most. Historical romance. And now, I get to do what I love for at least a few more years :). But loving telling my stories brought me through and allowed me to stay focused on the historical romance. So find what you like to write and then write it. It’s okay if you like a couple different things, but don’t try to write every thing and every trend that comes along. Write what you love and you won’t want to stray (or at least, not too often).

4. Set priorities and stick to them. So yeah, last year and this year I had/have a lot to do. I have two books from Avon coming out that I need to promote. I have two books and one proposal that will be due before the year is out. Plus, I have a little side project that I want to address. So how do I do all that?

Schedule myself. I set deadlines that are realistic for me and then I don’t compare myself to anyone else. If you’re not sure what a realistic deadline is for you, start figuring it out. I’d suggest writing as much as you are able for a week. Then look at how many pages you did. That’s probably about the maximum you can do. Then have a week where you write on a more normal schedule for yourself. Look at how many pages you wrote. Compare the two. Did you kill yourself trying to hit your high end? Then it’s not realistic to think you can keep up that pace. Were you a little lazy with your low end? Then maybe you’ve got to get yourself in your chair more. Once you figure out how much a week you can realistically write on an average basis, then divide 360 pages (or 90,000 words) by that number. It will tell you how many weeks it should take you to write a book going at your average, comfortable speed. Add a couple weeks for days you want to take off or just can’t write.

And if you aren’t setting deadlines for yourself… start. Your editor will do that at some point and you’ll already be ready for that time… and able to give her a realistic view of what you can do. It will also help to keep you focused. When you have a date coming up that you’ve made a promise to meet, it might help you meet it.

I also organize projects by priority. My Jenna Petersen work is always going to come first. So I schedule promo and other projects around that. And I try to chose promotional opportunities that I LIKE to do. That way I don’t end up feeling as stressed by the projects because I’m actually enjoying them.

In the end, juggling is just all about keeping the balls in the air that you care most about. Sometimes you’re going to drop them all. Don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes you have to put the balls away. Don’t feel bad. But just keep picking them up. Pick the project you want to finish most… then FINISH IT. Even when it gets hard. FINISH IT. You won’t sell without a complete manuscript… so FINISH IT.

In fact, type that out in Word, print it and tape it next to your monitor. FINISH IT. FINISH IT. FINISH IT.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the long, long road to finishing it and what you can do when you want to give up.