What to do When School Starts Back Up

As adults and writers, many of us are attending college. No matter what degree you are pursuing, you know that college will keep you busy most of the time. So what's a writer to do?

As stated in previous blog posts, there are three things that will be your friend throughout your college experience as an author:

1. Being busy sometimes helps

2. Setting boundaries and saying no

3. Prioritizing

Let's recap the past few blog posts and go over the best strategy to put into place while you are studying:

First off, being busy can sometimes help. The urgency of needing to write right now because you might not get another chance all day can really up a person's word count. So fret not if you have a full load ahead of you, it might just prove to be your ally.

Secondly, you will need to remember that because you are busy, your writing time may be limited. If you are invited to a party or an outing with your new college friends, say no if you think that it will interfere with your writing time! That is, unless you absolutely need a load off, in which case every now and then it's OK to slack off, just don't make it a habit. Procrastination is your worst enemy as a writer.

And thirdly, learn what your priorities are. Your book is very important to you, and you want to finish that book ASAP so you can get it published! BUT your grades are also important and sometimes you will need to say no to writing time in order to fit in more last minute study time for that exam on Tuesday. I like to prioritize based on deadlines; I plan on finishing The Hooded Boy by Saturday, February 7th and my goal is to write 10,000 words per week. By the end of February, I plan on having Eggs and Bacon complete, as well. I start school on January 20th, and the semester ends in late April. Once I get my syllabus, I can map out when my assignments are due and when I will need time to study; then, I can designate one or two days out of each week to dedicate solely to writing. This is what I did during NaNoWriMo, and it benefited me greatly.

I hope to have given you hope that the writing magic is not lost once the new semester begins, the adventure just changes a little bit is all.

Cheers!