Time as an Indie Writer

If you are anything like me, you sit down to do something and three hours later you get up forgetting your back is killing you and your legs are numb; you are so engrossed in what you are doing, time seems so not relative.

The thing is, you are not simply writing a book. On no, that would be too easy! The 255 page Murder Mystery you wrote (not including intros and all that!) and the two children's books and 2 others you have on the go don't seem to be enough, you need to be a real sucker for punishment and decide to format and illustrate your own books as well! Oh yeh!

Add to this, you aren't satisfied with American English, oh no, you have to do Canadian which is more UK than American but oh yes, there is American in it also! So you write a book BEFORE you decide to go Canadian and guess what, you forgot to change your spell check so no you have to go through every word AGAIN because you are fussy!

Of course there is marketing however that is a whole other kettle of fish left for another day!

So, what is time to an Indie writer? It really doesn't exist. If you enjoy the headaches of software you fine inconsistencies in and glitches, and all the intricacies of the English language which is in itself, enough to make you want to jump off the nearest bridge, you can add to this the fact that there will be soooooo many around you who think because you sit on a computer writing and illustrating, formatting and making ready books, that you are not REALLY busy and have all the time in the world! Once again, this whole business of thinking because you don't have a boss or go out to work, then you aren't really working, and you really do have all the time in the world.

Well Indies, we don't have all the time in the world. We may not have conventional deadlines and they are ones we self impose, however we both know being an Indie publisher is work. No if, buts, ands or maybes! It is just good old fashioned doing it and time gets away from us because there is sooooo much to do! So much to remember and so much to learn.

I have learned recently that if I don't get off this computer at least an hour before bed, I am not going to be able to sleep. My head is still going to be spinning with decisions about what fonts to use, where to find my setting to show preflights in my publishing program or some other thing that is going to need deciding. This is why I have checklists I have made to make sure when I am scanning a book after uploads I check everything because guarantee, somewhere there is going to be a glitch! There is going to be a notice saying a font is missing (that you didn't even use!) or for whatever reason the styles setting that you have used on may chapters suddenly is going to change the indent size for the paragraphs. Oh joy! In the midst of all this, someone is going to basically categorize you as not doing anything, or not really busy!

All I can say to any fellow Indie person is, I UNDERSTAND! You are not alone! What you are doing IS work, and if you are fussy like me, then it is a constant learning curve and the curse of using electronics and software that are forever not keeping up to how fast your brain works. When you think it should just logically do such as click on a text box in the middle of text flow and have the cursor go there so you can start your next chapter in the appropriate place and that sort of thing which doesn't work. You see the guy in the you tube video able to do it, so what the hell!?!?!?!? In the end you learn your best friend is the ability to hit control while opening the program and setting everything back to the defaults. Hey, you loose all your presets but it is better than battling with a glitched up program!

Time?!?!? All the time in the world? When you sit for hours on end to create something, against all odds, you make it happen, THEN the time you are putting into it feels worthwhile, however while your in the midst of the mess knee deep in font choices and book cover ideas, the last thing anyone needs is someone basically treating you like you have all the time in the world.

Hang in there and keep on keeping on. Time flies by so fast in one's life, just get on with it. I am sure you will work it all out in the end and manifest that project; that book or article, or whatever else it is you are trying to create and ignore anyone who tries to minimize what you are doing because we both know what you are doing is HUGE and deserves a great deal of credit!

JK Rowlings got it right when she said, "The discipline involved in finishing a piece of creative works something on which you can truly pride yourself."