On Wednesdays, I'll cross-post my blog from Routines for Writers here…
This time of year I'm always thinking about what I'm going to work on next. Will I sign up for NaNoWriMo? Will I write something new or edit something I need to finish? If you're like my friend Betsy, you might be wondering if you should work on a new novel (she's nearly finished with the latest one) or should she work on a nonfiction book idea she's had for years?
As soon as she said “nonfiction,” I was all but jumping around in my chair. I self-published my first novel and will self-publish more over the next few months. But I've also got a few nonfiction book ideas that I can't wait to write and self-publish as ebooks. If you didn't know it already, word on the ‘Net is that you can make more money with nonfiction books right now than with fiction. You can not only sell more copies, you can set a higher price point.
One of the books I want to write is how to properly run your writing business. And from a business standpoint, it would be a good idea for me to intersperse nonfiction books in among the fiction books in my product line. So taking my own advice, I should be thinking long and hard about writing the business book during NaNo.
Yes, it's National Novel Writing Month. But wasn't the point to set aside time to do something we never take time to do? Something we want to do and believe we might be good at? Something we think we'd really enjoy?
Betsy hasn't done NaNo before and she asked me how I make up my mind when deciding which project to work on. I told her about how much fun it is to get inspiring emails from famous authors every week, how much I love competing with my friends when I see they've only written a few hundred words more than me, and watching the little graph grow as I write more. The encouragement, and the worldwide energy, those are the reasons I love signing up for NaNo.
So I told Betsy that she should write the book that she needs the most encouragement on. Work on the book that you most need that extra energy to get you through the first draft.
Remember my am-I-or-aren't-I-going-to-move predicament? If you have something like that in your life, another way to decide which book to work on is to ask yourself which one will be less stressful for you. I don't know how much I'll get done in November if I have to move across the ocean. But one way or another, I have to keep doing all the business “stuff” that small business owners have to do. Plus I'm teaching my goal setting and time management class for writers again in January, and I'm adding in information on running your small business. So making notes and writing about what I'm doing and what experts suggest will actually help keep me focused. It will help me to pull several similar strands together so that when I'm working on one thing, I'm actually getting several things done.
If I have enough time, I might just work on both books! I'll write on my novel in the morning, and the business book in the afternoon. After all, small business owners learn how to multi-task in ways that work for their personalities as well as their businesses. Yup, the more I think about it, the more I'm considering that last option. I guess I'll decide for sure when I know if I have to make time for packing, too! 🙂
