Weekends Dont Exist, a post by Marianne Knightly

The Truth About Weekends

The truth about weekends is…

Weekends Dont Exist, a post by Marianne Knightly

…that the weekend is a myth. It’s something we’ve lulled ourselves into thinking will be a relaxing few days at the end of the week, when we all know they’re not most of the time. There are family commitments, errands to run, kids to manage if you’ve got some (I don’t, FYI), and other life to manage no matter what. It’s paying bills and running to the store. It’s trying to forget about that annoying woman at work who’s just passively-aggressively insulting all the time, and you keep trying to take the high road, but that bitch keeps trying to drag you back down and…

Ahem. I digress.

For me, besides many of those things taking up my precious weekend space, there’s also a VERY long list of author tasks I try to do. I try to prioritize my tasks into ‘need-to-do’, ‘like-to-do’, and other tasks. I push myself to work on the ‘need-to-dos’ (they’re things I absolutely have to get done). The ‘like-to-dos’ are ones I’d like to get done or get started on, but if I don’t finish them I don’t beat myself up over it. With my health being as it has been, I needed to learn to pace myself and also not torture myself if I didn’t finish something when I’d planned to. A lot of ‘like-to-dos’ don’t really have hard deadlines, so as long as they get done eventually, it’s okay.

Here’s a look at my author tasks for the weekend coming up:

Need-to-dos:

-Review my copyeditor’s comments on Seaside Valleria 1. I’ll talk more about what a copyeditor does later but, for me, my copyeditor is really the last person to provide edits on my manuscripts. Once I review and make changes, the book is SOCLOSE to publication…which means this one’s almost there! Typically, it might take me a full weekend to do this, but Seaside Valleria 1 is my longest book at nearly 90,000 words (most of my books run from around 50K-70K, except for novellas). Goal: Keeping in mind my limits, I’ll be okay if I don’t finish this up by Sunday night. As long as I can get a good start, I’ll be happy.

-Finish up the cover for Seaside Valleria 1. This is also very close to being finished, and I am loving it so far! This will likely take a few hours to finish up. I’ll take a break editing at some point to work on this. Goal: Finish the cover!

-Write Seaside Valleria 3. I write best in the mornings, so I’ll do this first thing before I get started on the rest. Goal: 2000 words (or 1000 per day).

Like-to-dos:

-Marketing, marketing, marketing. Once I have the covered finished, it’s time to make all of the marketing images. This includes cover photos for Facebook and Twitter, teaser images (which I’m doing for the first time), and a lot more. Goal: Get started on this! Though, honestly, as long as the cover’s done, I’ll be okay. There are other things that need priority this weekend.

-Series book trailers. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a book trailer for each series (it’s just like a movie trailer, but for specific books or series). Do you watch book trailers? Is that something you’d be interested in? Let me know below!

Other tasks:

-Besides personal admin-type stuff (*unenthusiastically* yay, bills…), there isn’t much time for anything else other than running a few errands. Not to mention we’re getting snow here on Saturday. It won’t stick (too warm for that) but I will still stay huddled inside.

It’s not all work – I’ll curl up with a book (of course) and I may even head out to meet friends for brunch (*enthusiastically* yay, brunch!) but there’s not much else going on for me this weekend. It’s focused on building my dream, so I don’t mind the work that comes with it.

So, I contend that, at least for me, weekends don’t really exist (because a lot of my weekends look like this). Weekends are an elusive myth I hope to enjoy more once I’m writing full-time and don’t have the day job.

What are your weekends like? Are they crazed and hectic? Are you able to take time to relax? Comment below and let me know!

~xoxo Marianne

This is Post 5 of 100 as part of the #100DaysofMKAuthorLife.

5 thoughts on “The Truth About Weekends”

  1. My weekends are like my weekdays, I read 90% of the time and do other house stuff or chores, such as grocery shopping the rest of the time. I am disabled and retired so that is why so much time is available. But, once a long time ago I was in your boat, but since late 1985, after a horrendous car wreck I was a normal wife and mom. I sometimes wish I was that way again!!! But age catches up with you and I can’t seem to get younger!!!

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