Thread by @scalzi

1. Since we've been talking about how many hours a day one should be typing in order to be a full-time writer, I'll tell you the last time I wrote any pay copy (i.e., writing for pay): November 23. Since then, not a word meant for pay. What have I been doing since then?

2. One: taking a break. I'm fortunate enough to be able to take a rest between major projects, and the holiday season is a fine time to not have to stress about work, so I'm planning to keep the schedule clear of pay copy through the rest of 2021.

3. Two: Traveling. I went to @emeraldcitycon last week, where I met fans and was on panels and signed books and did various promotional things that are part of my gig as a commercial fiction writer. Marketing one's self is work! I'll do it again next week at @worldcon2021.

4. Three: Buying office space. Hey, remember that church I bought? It's part of our long-term business planning to have more office/storage space in order to do more stuff with my career. Writing is a business! Strategizing and prepping for the future counts as work.

5. Four: Back end work, like talking to agents and managers and lawyers about current projects and what needs to be done with them before next week, when basically everything in publishing and film/TV shuts down until January. Turns out, lots of loose ends to tie up before 2022.

6. Five: Plotting. I have a new novel I'll start writing in January (for publication in 2023), and I'm spending a lot of time thinking about characters, and cool scenes I want to do, and working out some obvious kinks in the plot. It's all pre-work for the typing to come.

7. Six: All the unpaid stuff, like posting Big Idea pieces and other posts on Whatever, signing books at @JayandMarys so people get them in time for the holidays, even chatting here, which is not critical for my career, but which I usually enjoy, and helps with my well-being.

8. None of the above is pay copy, but all of it, including and probably especially the "taking a break" part, are important to my ability to profitably create pay copy when it comes time to start typing again. It's all part of my career and writing life, and it's all important.

9. And in this respect, I'm not notably different from other creatives. "Work" is not confined to time typing, or drawing, or on stage, or whatever. The typing has to get done, sure. But so does the rest of it, and it counts as actual work for one's career.

10. There's no one right amount of time doing the physical work of creativity, there's just what works for you. Find that and try to be happy in your work, even and including the parts that don't seem like "work" to people outside of your process.

/end