What did I write today?

Since I work out of my house, I like to break my day into three parts:

morning

afternoon

evening

I consign writing jobs to each portion of the day, stopping for lunch and dinner. Often, those three portions will be 1) freelance writing, 2) WIP, and 3) research.

Every once in a while, I like to look at what I accomplish on a daily basis with my writing. I don’t count words like some writing efriends. I count what I get done. My writing ToDo list includes:

• a weekly article for an edtech ezine, TeachHUB
• a monthly article for my collaborative writing group, Today’s Author
• a monthly article for #IWSG–the Insecure Writer’s Support Group
• ongoing work on two novels, Twenty-four Days and Lucy: Story of Man (renamed Born in a Treacherous Time)
• 3-5 posts on my three blogs, WordDreams, Ask a Tech Teacher, and USNA or Bust
• reviews on books I get from NetGalley and Amazon Vine

That’s the goal. Here’s what I actually accomplished this week:

• continued to work on final edits for Twenty-four Days, the sequel to To Hunt a Sub. Here’s the blurb:

Can a former SEAL, a brilliant scientist, a love-besotted nerd, and a quirky AI stop terrorists in twenty-four days?

It continues the popular characters of To Hunt a Sub, although Otto (the robotic AI) has acquired a voice and mobility–and uses those to his humorous advantage. Projected publication date: Summer, 2017.

Here’s a picture of one of the main characters, the USS Bunker Hill:

• edited and researched Lucy: Story of Man. Since the projected publication date isn’t until Summer, 2018, I have only a preliminary blurb:

Lucy: Story of Man is a collection of paleo-historic vignettes in the spirit of Jean Auel that follow a band of early humans as they struggle to survive in a world where Nature is King. Though each vignette focuses on a discrete piece of early man’s life, they are tied together with a plot line roughly reflecting Lucy, the main character’s, efforts to find safety for her unborn child.

Here’s a picture of Lucy:

• wrote 3-5 posts on each of my three blogs, WordDreams, Ask a Tech Teacher, and USNA or Bust

• marketed my debut novel as well as my non-fiction edtech resources.

• started preparing articles for the upcoming AtoZ Challenge. Yeah, I know that’s not until April, but if I’m going to do it, I’ll need all 30 posts ready by then. I’m through R so far…

• visited efriends on social media to support them, check in, and learn something new. I use this as breaks in my writing activities. It rejuvenates me to see what the rest of the world is doing.

 

• attended a webinar in my area of interest, in an effort to keep up to date. This week: Google Apps in the Classroom.

It doesn’t seem like that much when I list it out. Where DOES all my time go? What do you do with your day?

If you’re curious what other writers do all day, here’s Kate Harrison’s wonderful video on the Life of a Writer and Amy’s Day in the Life of a Writer.

More on writers:

What’s My Writing Space Look Like?

14 Things Writers Do Before 8am

How to Talk to a Writer

8 Things Writers Can Do No One Else Can

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy and To Hunt a Sub, her debut fiction. She is the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer,  a columnist for TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member forJournal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her nonfiction books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.

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