Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Unavoidable (?) Delays

BREAKING NEWS: Songbird is FREE on Amazon today only. (Maybe tomorrow, depending on how quickly prices settle back to normal).

Back to your regularly scheduled programming:

A while back, I announced that the pre-order was up for French Lessons, and that the release date would be January 31, my birthday. 

I regret to inform you - and even more, I regret to inform me - that that that is no longer the case. The book will be released in March.

It's not that I haven't been working on it, or that it hasn't been going pretty well. But I write large books, and they require a lot of research, and marination time so that I don't simply vomit that research back up on the page. When I started this coaching program back in the summer, I had a somewhat optimistic idea of what I was capable of, and that idea was, naturally, encouraged. 

That idea was wrong. Putting myself on a production schedule did the exact opposite of what it should. It made me feel less productive. And even when I'm down on myself for not getting things done, I understand that I am one of the most productive people I know. I worship at the altar of productivity. Pretty sure I had a blog post about that. So it wasn't the expectation of productivity, it was the deadline and the idea that I could accomplish something in that set period without feeling pressured or the book suffering for it.

Now that the deadline has been pushed back, I feel so much better. The words are coming more easily, and last night, one day after the official date that I should have been done this draft, I completely restructured the first chapter and it works so much better. 

Know thyself. That's all. That's the post.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you for realizing that an artificial deadline wouldn't work. You can't rush creative endeavors! Best wishes in finishing up the book!

Margaret Anne Kennedy said...

Tried to leave a review on Amazon US but it said it wasn’t supported but I tracked you down! Want to say how much I enjoyed Songbird. I love Tudor history-but I think you excel at writing the inner thoughts, mind and heart of people - people who love people, who are vulnerable, who hope. You had a striking way of expressing things. I’m nearly 80, and yet things were put in a way I hadn’t heard before - yet rang exactly true. I think you’re a very good writer. (but hard to reach).