Juggling Different Types of Writing
Not only are there different genres and categories of writing, but different types altogether that we must navigate as writers.
Writing is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, after all. But one of the things I’ve found most confusing and most difficult as a writer is navigating the different types of writing that I variably have on my plate.
You may have noticed that I’ve been gone from this newsletter for a while—hello again, by the way. The cause of that absence stemmed from a few different sources, but it all resulted in my falling behind on several of the beloved writing platforms I’ve spent the last several years building.
Life got in the way a bit—I’ve started a new 9-to-5 that has come with its own challenges and benefits—and I also spent much of the summer focusing on a different type of writing.
It’s hard to narrow down where to focus your time and energy as a writer.
I’ve explored this idea before, and I suspect I will continue to battle this idea for the rest of my writing career.
If I could write everything, everywhere, and for everyone, I would. I love writing this newsletter, and I love writing blogs for borrowed solace and for my own website. I love writing on Medium and coming up with scripts for borrowed solace: the podcast. But throw in a deadline to finish up the first draft of my manuscript that was requested by the Love Inspired line at Harlequin, and something’s gotta give.
As a matter of fact, in the case of earlier this year, everything had to give. I started waking up at 5 a.m. to get in my writing before a full day of work in order to finish everything by the end of the summer. I spent my mornings writing and my evenings editing, and any spare second I had reading, because any good writer knows they can’t forget to consume almost as much as they produce. And it was a lot.
I had to prioritize the types of writing I was creating.
And no, it wasn’t particularly fun, either. I love writing—obviously, if I didn’t that would be a real conundrum—but my writing often pulls me in different directions and it’s hard to prioritize. That meant that my writing here and on Medium, most notably, had to shift. I had to switch to focusing on novel-type-writing and sacrifice short-form-type-writing—at least for the better half of the summer.
I haven’t heard from Harlequin yet to see if I’m rejected or not, and I have some other novel-type-writing projects coming in the future that will take much of my capacity in the coming weeks, but I’m so happy to be back here typing out these words to you once more! I hope to never have such a long break in again, but I’m not making any promises. At least not for now.
Here are the places my words have ended up since I last wrote:
How to Triage Your Writing published in The Writing Cooperative
The TikTok That Saved Me Hundreds of Dollars in Medical Bills republished on my blog
Is Novel Writing Software Worth It? republished on my blog
5 Ways to Make Writing a Less Lonely Business republished on my blog
4 Steps to Write a Novel Manuscript in 4 Months With No Plan republished on my blog
A Curated Look at April republished on my blog
Stressed at Work? Here are 4 Ways to Help republished on my blog
You Need to Improve Your Aesthetic to Become a More Successful Entrepreneur republished on my blog
On a Bleak, Snowy Day in April republished on my blog
After getting a little bit frustrated with the Red Queen book series (the romance lover in me felt continually disappointed with that side of the plot, but I’ve gotten over it for now), I am reading the fourth book in the series, War Storm. I’m enjoying it, too, and getting a nice and refreshing break from my typical historical romance titles.
I’ve also been re-watching the quintessential fall show that everyone loves, Gilmore Girls. It’s been a while since I watched the show, so it’s fun remembering the plot and the characters, as well as memories that I have attached to certain episodes. I’m not often a re-watch type of person, but for Outlander and Gilmore Girls I seem to be making repeated exceptions.