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A WRITING BUDGET - Tips from the Pros
By Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz
Have you ever balanced your budget by putting money aside in
separate envelopes marked for specific purposes, e.g., one
each for rent/mortgage, food, medical bills, utilities, pleasure,
etc? If you want time to write, you need to be sure the time is
there when you need it, just as you want money to pay your bills.
Imagine you have a box with little envelopes. Each contains the
amount of time you have designated for each of your writing
activities. Each of us has a different set of envelopes.
Successful authors can write either full-time or part-time.
What they have in common is the ability to set aside time to write.
Devon Ellington writes full-time. "I devote as many hours per
day to each aspect of the writing business as necessary,
dependent on deadlines and payment . . . a full eight hour day
- more if necessary, less if appropriate . . . The amount of time
depends on the current roster. Social networking is the thing to
fall by the wayside first." (
http://www.devonellingtonwork.com )
Multi-award winning children's author Jane Yolen is a full-time
author, "though that doesn't mean I write every moment of every day.
A good day breaks down to about three to five hours writing and
revising, about two hours doing queries/planning tours/marketing."
She states "like most self-employed writers, I really do work
seven days a week." (
http://www.janeyolen.com/
Charlee Compo writes full time, seven days a week. She spends
three quarters of her time on email, her web page and marketing.
"I usually work on three novels at once and try to write a chapter
a day in each." (
www.windlegends.org/intro.html )
C. Hope Clark spends five to six hours per day on FundsforWriters,
reading email, researching markets, advertising and membership
maintenance. She breaks for the gym, gardening, dinner and family
then writes four to six hours into the wee hours of the morning.
"Each day has to cover nonfiction, administrative and fiction, or
my writing day isn't complete."
What about people who don't write full time? Their quest is even
more difficult. Matt Briggs is a novelist in his "spare" time.
Matt writes 800 words on the average, almost every morning or spends
the time editing. "I spend two evenings a week on either revising,
reading books for book reviews, or attending readings."
( http://seedcake.com/mattbriggs/
)
Ann Charles is a prolific part-time author. She writes one book
a year from January to June, during which time she writes 20 hours
per week, edits ten hours a week, networks four hours a week, and
markets about four hours a week. She switches to a "marketing/promo
hat" from July to December and then spends ten hours a week
networking, and 20 to 30 hours a week marketing.
( http://www.anncharles.com/ )
Eve Hanninen, poetry writer and editor of The Centrifugal Eye,
writes full-time or part- time, depending on her schedule. Eve breaks
her week down as follows: "writing 25 - 50 hours; editing 30 - 80
hours; networking ten hours or more; marketing one to ten hours;
queries one to two hours; research two and one-half to ten hours."
( http://centrifugaleye.com/
Part-timer Linda Barnett Johnson cautions "don't open any sites,
not even your email accounts, until you write a couple of pages,
or so many words a day." (
http://lindabarnettjohnson.homestead.com/ )
Anjali Banerjee, who has published several children's novels, concurs.
She writes six pages before she opens her email in the morning.
(
http://www.anjalibanerjee.com/site/children/home.html )
Take heed of what these published authors advise. No matter how
you set up your writing budget, writing should be your number one
concern. If it has been pushed to the side, re-evaluate your budget.
Make sure there is enough time tucked into your writing envelope.
BIO
Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz has published more than 75 articles,
50 stories, two e-books, a chapbook, and her stories have been
included in two anthologies. Her fiction has appeared in
numerous genre publications and non-fiction work has appeared
in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print
magazines and online publications. Find her writing blog at
http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com/
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