If I’m a writer, I have to write something. A good rule would be “Do something writing-related every day.” I pretty much follow that, though of course some days are more productive than others.

Yesterday, for example, on my writing “diary” sheet—which is a table of days of the month across and writing items down, with specific details footnoted at the bottom—I checked the following.

• Harmony of the Gospels (wrote passage notes; some edits on the harmony)
• John Wesley letters (formatting volume 6 for MS Word document)
• An Arrow Through the Air (my other blog—posted there)
• Absolute Write forums (posted)
• Rachelle Gardner blog (posted)
• Other writing blogs (posted)
• Documenting America (format for Smashwords)

That’s not a bad number of items, though it’s easy to see that, except for the blog posts, I did no writing. I don’t consider my Harmony of the Gospels to be a commercial writing project; it’s more a labor of love.

So a day went by with no specific progress on my works-in-progress, other than formatting Documenting America for uploading to Smashwords. That’s important, but not writing. Also, the day went by with no promotion of my writing. The posts on the blogs and forums are a sort of general promotion, mainly in the fact that agents see my name and activity, and fellow writers and a few potential buyers see the same. I don’t dismiss the value in that, but it’s not a big platform building activity.

Obviously I have to devote more efforts to writing and building a writer’s platform. I need to work on this website, and figure out how to include a “contact me” link. I somehow need to promote my author page on Facebook to try to get more than the 8 fans I currently have. I need to start creating a buzz for Documenting America. I don’t want to do a lot of that until I get it listed on Smashwords and included in their premium catalogue for wide distribution.

I guess what I’m saying is I’m not unhappy with my recent efforts, but I’m not satisfied either. My physical problems of late are starting to fade. I’m feeling almost at my background level of aches, pains, and infirmities. Extra family responsibilities will soon fade, and that will be back to background. Beginning Sunday, I should have much more time available for writing and for platform building. I hope, with a post really soon, I’ll be able to report better progress at adding words and adding fans or sales.