The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

Updating & Schedules

I've noticed many people who ask about updating such as "How many times do you update, that is normal?" and "Should you have an update schedule?" There's also tons of people who ask about schedules such as "How long is too long to wait for a chapter?" and "What happens if I'm busy?"

- The normal updating schedule is once every week, or once every two weeks.

This is because life can get in the way, it can take a while to write, and it seems normal because television shows have this schedule as well. Most of the time, they update once every week. But sometimes, it's once every other week. On some channels that I watch, a basketball or another sport takes over, sometimes it may be a speech that the President gives or whatnot. It's happened before, but not always. It's usually unexpected unless we look it up. And not to mention they take off seasons, too. Once the season they're in ends, they are off air for another season to get the next season of the show going.

- You should, but only if it's needed.

I don't have an update schedule. Only because my life can get hectic sometimes and I can't write. Not to mention, I'm not good when under pressure. Others can have that feeling too. If you've been in a rut for a while and you have a specific amount of time to get it done, you may feel too pressured and need to hurry. This may result in a badly written chapter.

I think that if you know life can get in the way and you spend too much time away from Wattpad and writing, you should have an update schedule.

- Two months, at best.

I can go forever to wait for a chapter; I mean, I'm still waiting from a couple authors who haven't updated in two years. But most people on here can't wait that long. It's best to keep it around two months, nothing longer.

This is because people feel as if you just ditched them or stopped writing it all together. So they distance themselves from you and you end up losing your readers.

- Tell your readers, don't update, and find ways to write.

The first results in giving updates to your readers, a broadcast to let them know what you're going through. And this isn't just one update, but multiple - you can come onto Wattpad every week or every few days to let them know how everything is going. This will allow your readers to understand that you're dealing with a lot, don't necessarily have time to write, and that you're still active.

The second is so you don't feel pressured. Don't update your stories so you don't have a real schedule, so it doesn't make you feel rushed. However, write a few chapters to keep to yourself, so when your life goes back to normal, you can update it and write future chapters that you don't have. This is good so you can focus on newer chapters, and don't have to be rushed to write.

And finally, if your life gets really busy to a point where you find yourself not being able to sit down and write, you have to look at your daily schedule (what you do on a day-to-day basis) and find ways to write. For instance, you could either wake up earlier than you do (or wake up earlier than you do on your weekends), go to sleep later, and so on. And if worst comes to worse, force yourself to sit down and write. Not everyone has time to do so, and sometimes, when you finally do have time, you can't sit down and write because either no words are coming to you or you don't feel like writing. So you have to force yourself. Even if you feel like you don't want to or you can't. You can and you will.