I'm in the third week of re-drafting my MS, Dragon Scales, and I'm taking a social media break.
Yes, you'll see my blog update and post to Facebook and Twitter. But -- BIG secret here (and perk, if you use Strikingly -- seriously, you should check it out, this is a part of the FREE blog!) -- all my blog posts were written months ago and are scheduled to post throughout the summer, without any action by me, at all.
I just wake up Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, and it's there. Posted for me. Nice, right?
Disconnecting from social media is vital for me to write. I knocked out 15K the first week, 15K the second, and I'm already 10K into this week. I'm on page 33 of a 54-page (27K) outline, so things are going quite well. I truly do need the time to draft, or re-draft in this case, and by stockpiling book reviews and scheduling them to post well in advance, I can do that.
Now, I'm still reading and writing book reviews as I draft. I'm always reading for my December Countdown to the Holiday Review-a-Day marathon, and my Summer Reading Sci-Fi / Fantasy Read-a-Thon. And of course I'm always on the lookout for good books to teach, ones that hit the standards for English Language Arts or Social Studies, 7th/8th grades.
But I'm not responding to social media stuff like "likes" or comments the way I was before, when I was planning, because I'm writing my fingers off. And I'll need similar "away" or "disconnected" time to edit, because I write long and need to cut, cut, cut after I've got a working draft. You can always reach me by commenting on my blog, here, or by sending me an email.
So yes, I'm being anti-social in an age of social media. And Strikingly is helping me to do that. Thank you for understanding.
