Reflection Sunday

In my Facebook writers' group Speculative Twist, I ask my fellow fantasy, science fiction, and horror writers to share with me their writerly wins, setbacks, and plans for the following week. I like to do this because as writers, unless we're working for a magazine, or on a publisher's deadline, we don't get the same support structure (or accountability) as someone with a less solitary career.

Tasks are assigned at day jobs, but when you're an indie author, it's all up to you to schedule your writing time, your blog, your newsletter, social media interaction, and really, you only have yourself.

My writerly wins, setbacks, and plans this week:

• I scheduled two daily posts for a month's worth of content for my Facebook author page to engage followers.
• I planned out content for this blog. In addition to writing about writing, I'll post a new review every Friday here. The first Friday of the month will be indie author spotlight. The second Friday will be a fantasy or a sub-genre of fantasy. The third Friday will be science fiction, or a sub-genre of sci-fi. The fourth Friday will be a non-fiction or random genre pick.
• I wrote two surprise-to-me because I hadn't plotted them chapters of Eastside Faerie and came up with a twist for the end.
• I came up with a plot for a short story and wrote 1k words of it to get it out of my system.
• A fellow author, Jesikah Sundin, asked me to do an author asked me to takeover for her and Claire Luna's fan group MoonTree Readers. It was so fun to interact with their fans as an author instead of a reader.
• Setbacks: My sales numbers dropped this week for both Adoration and Tam Lin: A Modern, Queer Retelling. Given that my ads are getting a lot less coverage, it's to be expected. I learned big corporations dump a lot of money into advertising this time of year and drown out the smaller budgets of indie authors.
• Plans for the week: focus on my WIPs and leave promotion alone.

©TJ Deschamps

How did your writing week go?