A is for Analyze Your Time - 2016 A to Z Blogging Challenge

Day 1

April 1, 2016

A is for Analyze Time

Welcome to the 2016 A to Z Blogging Challenge! This is the SIXTH year I’ve participated in the challenge. Yes, it may appear on the surface I’m a glutton for punishment, the truth is I think the A to Z is a lot of fun.

It was October of last year until I decided I could do the challenge again. It takes a massive about of time to figure out topics and write the blogs. I wasn’t sure I should devote the time to it, and that’s when it hit me. I set my theme as “time” and ways to manage it more productively in regards to my writing.

Then on January 2 of this year, Amber Quill Press announced it was closing and I was back to square one. With a lot of work to do to send my books back out as an indie author, would I have time to do the A to Z?

I’m talking about time and how to make the most of it, so to prove I can walk the walk, of course I’m doing the A to Z Challenge!  

So here goes. Thanks for stopping by Between the Keys as we kick-off the 2016 A to Z Blogging Challenge.  

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Writing is a very time intensive pursuit. Pulling pure thought out of the air and molding it into the written word doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye. We’re all busy with family, friends, fun and “day jobs.”

I want to spend my time writing. It’s a sacred time for me, writing. I don’t want to squander any of it although I know, realistically, some of it will be wasted. (Welcome to the human condition and the lure of the Internet.) Given this goal, analyzing how I spend my time is an appropriate activity.

Searching for help on how best to accomplish this, I found the suggestion of keeping a time log. It sounded easy enough - set your cell phone to sound an alarm every fifteen minutes and write down - honestly - what you just did. They even have software to help with this but I’m a starving writer. It’s an old fashioned spreadsheet for me.

How did I do with this exercise? Well, I found out I spend too much time weekly blogging and too much time joining the cocktail party known as Twitter. Same for Pinterest. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily.

Now that I know how much of my writing time isn’t spent actually writing, I can take the steps I need to take. Maybe some nights will be marked strictly for writing time and maybe some nights will be split time. I’ll probably have to do some adjusting along the way and that’s okay.

And if I need to stop and check myself after a couple of months, I know what to do to track and analyze my time. The end results are up to me.

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A is also for Ace, Deuce, Trey

Being a writer and talking about time, it seems appropriate to use this opportunity to do a short book promo. Here’s a bit about Ace, Deuce, Trey, book three in Ian Coulter’s Amethyst Cove series.

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Ian Coulter has his hands full with a sexy office assistant, a favorite movie star client and a drag queen determined to save the world one lost runaway at a time. He can juggle all of it because he and his lover, FBI agent Rick Mohr, are finally together.

Rick’s transfer to Amethyst Cove puts him in charge of multiple operations. When one of Ian’s clients is targeted, it doesn’t take long for Ian to suspect the con artist is on an FBI watch list. With their cases overlapping, Ian and Rick are short on time. Together they set a trap and spring it before their suspect escapes.

ACE, DEUCE, TREY is available now at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo

 KC Kendricks

My home on the web- Between the Keys: 

http://kckendricks.blogspot.com

Visit my bookshelf at: 

https://kckendricks.blogspot.com/p/the-bookshelf-of-kc-kendricks-and-rayne.html

Social media links:

twitter.com/kckendricks

facebook.com/kckendricks

pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards

instagram.com/kc_kendricks

My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com

Life through the eyes of Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com