Guess who's back? Guess who should be writing? ... Guess who's procrastinating!
I know, future me may regret this decision. But present me is happy to be here blogging instead of staring blankly at my manuscript hoping it will magically type itself. I'm probably the worst self-proclaimed author in the history of authors when it comes to forcing myself to write. If I could somehow harness my motivation to turn on and off at whim, I wouldn't currently be sitting at my day job. I'd probably just write full time. But I don't trust my self-control enough to take that plunge.
So everyone will just have to deal with my spastic, sporadic updates to Vella until I get my life together enough to actually publish a book.
In all seriousness though, I try to have at least one episode posted a week to Vella, in at least one story. If I get more than one I'm stoked. But usually what happens is I bounce around between three (or more) stories and eventually get enough words typed to spit out a whole episode.
Imagine a squirrel scraping together all their nuts to haul off for the winter. That's what I look like scraping together words.
But for real (real serious this time), my biggest piece of advice when publishing in Vella, or self-publishing in general, is to find a comfortable writing schedule for you. It's ok to set long term goals, in may ways I think it's helpful to have that as some kind of motivator, but unless you're just extremely focused on daily word count I wouldn't put that kind of pressure on yourself. If you're a machine and can bang out 1,000 words in a day, then go for it. If you struggle to get up 300 words (hey, hi, this is me most days), then chip away at it.
As of yet, no one has shown up at my house with torches and pitchforks. And until that day happens, I will keep plucking at my keyboard. Three hundred words at a time.
If you're writing, or trying to achieve any kind of goal, be sure to give yourself grace. If you don't reach your goal that doesn't make you less of a person. Even the smallest step forward is progress. Keep on keepin' on.