by Catherine L. Tully

After reading Yo’s post today on how to manage money, I realized something. Many of the things that we talk about on blogs are things we see writers doing wrong. Sometimes they are mistakes we have made ourselves, but more often than not, posts relate directly to actions we see writers taking (or not taking) that can hurt their career. The one I see most often is…

poor time management. I see writers that spend tons of time thinking about or talking about writing…but they aren’t actually writing. Fine, take your laptop to the coffee shop down the street and have a latte with the freelance crowd–but you have to write something to be a writer. Many people like the idea of it, but don’t want to do the work.

The other thing that can be a real time waster is social networking. Don’t get me wrong…I believe strongly in the power of Facebook and Twitter, but not at the expense of your writing time. I don’t do these until I’m done with my queries or actual work. It’s easy to let your time get sucked away if you don’t set some limits.

The time you spend writing is time that you are investing in yourself and in your career. Get that part down and you’ll be well on your way. Other things can always be added to your routine, but the bottom line is…writers write.