Things That Look Like Writing But Aren’t

The Glitter Globe

Isn’t writing a time suck? Not really. Let's review things that eat your time that aren't really writing at all. 

• Writing blogs about writing. Like this one.
• Reading books about writing.
• Buying books about writing.
• Taking classes and workshops about writing.
• Watching YouTube Videos about writing.
• Checking your book stats/Reading your reviews/Fooling with your SEO/Same goes for all and any tweaking or checking books you’ve already written.
• Talking to other writers. This includes networking and brainstorming and even planning collaborative efforts concerning past or future writing endeavors.
• Critique groups.
• All professional writer associations.
• ALL social media.
• Writer Conferences.
• Book Signings.
• Communicating with your readers through any and all medium.
• All the go-between between you and your editor and beta readers.
• All the go-between between you and your publisher/cover designer/interior designer and any legal representation.
• All the paperwork and financial stuff from organizing papers to taxes to Quickbooks to keeping track of your expenses.
• Selling your books or giving them away.

The ugly truth is you can spend all day, nay, weeks working on writing related stuff, and not write at all. While all of the above are necessary to being a published author, not a single one of them is really writing. 

So with all that in mind, how much time did you spend actually writing today? Because that’s what it’s all about, no matter how crucial all the rest is, it’s about the writing. How many hours a day do you actually spend writing? 

My name is S. R. Karfelt and my weekly writing goal is twenty hours a week, fingers on keyboard, windows drawn, door locked, phone off, and I write full-time. The rest of my time is spent doing all of the above and other assorted writerly deeds. Sometimes I write far more than twenty hours a week, and sometimes I write far less. Right now I’m going through a far less time, and I don’t like it. It’s time to batten down the hatches and unplug and write. Anybody with me besides my muse?