Committed? Uncommitted? Should be committed? What kind of writer are you?

[Donna Carrick]

With the insurgence of Twitter as a networking/marketing tool, Alex and I have been having some fun learning to promote our books and blogs to all and sundry. (See Alex's blog.)

This morning I came across the following “Tweet” posted by Phillip Schofield in the UK: Wow, there's a lot of Saturday morning ironing going on in tweetsville!

To which I RT’d (Reply Tweeted, for the uninitiated): Apparently it ranks as #1 Diversion Tactic for writers! READ MORE...

[Donna Carrick]

Good to see you, B.R. Being a part-time writer with a full time passion, I sure do understand the sporadic rushes of work that can come and go. I've been known to write 20 pages per day for weeks, then not touch anything for awhile. Those 20 needed a lot of editing, naturally, but they were good solid flow, so they had substance. That was during holidays one year.

The rest of the time, when not on holidays, I don't write during the week, just edit and network. I do the actual writing on the weekends, and I usually aim for 1-2 chapters per day. They are brief chapters, never more than 5 pages each.

It's amazing any of us get anything accomplished, isn't it? Especially when we read the comments about how hard it is to market! I actually sent my latest ms to the publisher last week after spending most of my 2 week vacation editing yet again, so there was a sense of accomplishment!

[Donna Carrick]

Hi, I.J. -- yes, I'm also trying to network and trying to keep it as a focused effort apart from the writing. I try not to let those become "diversions", but of course that's difficult. It's important to remember why we are networking in the first place -- to expose our books! Erego, one must write... ;=)

[B.R.Stateham]

I keep telling myself I need to hammer out one/two pages a day on my current work. That's what I tell myself to do--but in reality, I don't. There are days I don't do a damn thing. There are days I'll crank out 10 or 15 pages. Others where I start something entirely different.

Really, it's amazing I get anything accomplished.

[I. J. Parker]

One has to keep the diversionary tactics (internet posting) separate from the writing. I'm very focused about the latter, but do a certain amount of the other to stay in touch with the outside world.