Sunday, November 22, 2015

Blog Swap: Making Time to Write by Sara Jayne Townsend, Giveaways




Dead Cool by Sara Jayne Townsend
Who would resort to murder?

Kindle UK
Blog Swap Time! Do you enjoy getting two-for-one blogs? That's a blog swap. 

Today I'm swapping with mystery and horror author Sara Jayne Townsend. Sara, joining us from London, England, is my guest. She's sharing about making time to write. Now there's something many writers need to figure out! AND  Sara is generously offering a giveaway of a choice of either one of her Shara Summers books, Death Scene or Dead Cool,or the horror novel, The Whispering Death. The spooky book trailer is at the end of the page Take a peek, if you dare.  

Please leave a comment below to enter the drawing. Winner will be chosen after 6 pm EST on Wednesday, November 25. Good luck!

Since it is a blog swap, I'm at Sara's blog revealing my desire to raise awareness about issues in our modern society through my writing. Sounds like a heavy topic. I would like your opinion about authors using their stories to bring attention to their causes with subtle messages in books. You're invited to hop over to Sara Jayne Townsend's blog after you finish here. You can sign up for the Rafflecopter drawing while there or sign up below to win prizes during the Deadly Undertaking Book Blog Tour.  Deadline to enter is midnight November 25. Thank you. 


The Whispering Death by Sara Jayne Townsend
UK Kindle link
Death comes to us all; life is the name of the game and everyone has a role to play. 


MAKING TIME TO WRITE
By Sara Jayne Townsend

There’s a misconception that the writing life is a glamorous one. And that all writers are rich. If you’re JK Rowlings, that’s undoubtedly true. If you’re not – well, the reality is that the vast majority of writers don’t earn enough from writing to do it for a living and have to have a separate source of income.

For me, and many other writers, this means writing around the day job. I have a rather demanding day job that involves three hours a day of travelling to and from London. Finding the time to write around that requires discipline. I can’t afford the luxury of waiting for the muse to strike. I allocate time to writing, I sit down to do it, and if the muse is asleep I poke her with a big stick until she starts being productive.

I don’t use my commuting time to write, since my train is rather crowded and getting out the NetBook on the train would mean elbowing my fellow commuters and, more importantly, having someone read over my shoulder – off putting, to say the least. Nor do I generally write during lunch time. Sometimes I need that time to get away from the office. Sometimes I use it for personal tasks I don’t have time to do at home, or for writing blog posts or Tweets or other promotional material. Neither do I get much writing done in the evenings, since I’m generally too tired when I get home from work to focus.

So my writing routine these days is to get up at 5:30am twice a week and take the early train into London, where I sit in a coffee shop with my NetBook and write for an hour before going into the office. Getting up at such an ungodly hour doesn’t suit everyone, and I wouldn’t say I’m naturally a morning person, but there does seem to be an advantage to writing before my ‘internal editor’ is awake. I am quite productive at that time in the morning, especially with a first draft, as I am able to tap directly into my subconscious for the words, without that internal voice interrupting with, “that sentence is rubbish”. An indulgent breakfast muffin to munch on and a big cup of tea to drink as I wait for the NetBook to boot up gives me added incentive to get out of bed so early, and I can arrive at the day job feeling satisfied that I’ve achieved my word count for the day. And besides, the early train is much quieter, since most of my fellow commuters are still in bed at that time.

The trick to finding time to write is to work out what’s best for you and mark the time in your calendar. If you can’t face the idea of getting up early, maybe you can allocate some time in or lunch hour, or sit at the laptop after the kids are in bed instead of watching that TV show. But once you’ve worked out what’s best for you, put the time in your calendar and treat it with the same commitment as you would any other appointment.



The truth is, the writing life isn’t an easy one. Those of us who feel moved to do it, do it out of a sense of need rather than regard it as a pleasurable hobby. And the only way it happens is to apply backside to writing chair and get words written. If there was an easier way to do it, we’d all be best-selling writers.


About Sara 

 Sara Jayne Townsend is a UK-based writer of crime and horror, and someone tends to die a horrible death in all of her stories.  She was born in Cheshire in 1969, but spent most of the 1980s living in Canada after her family emigrated there.  She now lives in Surrey w
Author Sara Jayne Townsend
ith two cats and her guitarist husband Chris.  She co-founded the T Party Writers’ Group in 1994, and remains Chair Person.

She is the author of the series of mystery novels featuring Canadian actress and contemporary amateur sleuth Shara Summers, but her most recent release is a supernatural horror novel, entitled The Whispering Death, featuring a group of live action role players who unwittingly release an ancient evil during a game.

Connect with Sara and her writing online at
Sara's blog  
Follow her on Twitter 

Video




Book Trailer for The Whispering Death by Kensington-Gore Publishing

Enter the Rafflecopter drawing to win prizes after the Deadly Undertaking Book Blog Tour is completed. Hurry. Deadline is Wednesday, 12 pm EST, November  25.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 comments:

J.Q. Rose said...

Hello Sara. Welcome to the J.Q. Rose blog. So happy to have you as my guest.

emaginette said...

Funny I was just talking with a frustrated writer that expected just that to live off what he made as a writer. I told him he might want to write for the love of writing instead.

Anna from Elements of Writing

J.Q. Rose said...

I think Sara made a good point about writing and income. Are we crazy to write because we love it? Of course there's always those famous writers we can aspire to who make lots of money e.g. Stephen King and Danielle Steele. Thanks for stopping in, Anna.

Taylor said...

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victoria seo said...

Now that’s what I call a tremendous blog. Beautifully written.
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