I re-designated the flylady hour as the faff hour. I still have the housework and daily chores to do, but I wasn’t liking the regimental aspect of it. Yes, I do like my day well mapped out before me, but having fixed chores at fixed times on fixed days was perhaps a step too far. So I changed it to faff hour.
So yesterday, when I got up, I still fed and watered the birds and I still emptied the dishwasher. And I did online chores over my dirty cuppa. I’m trying to keep on top of social media by seeing what’s new since last I looked and then interacting with people I follow and who follow me.
I’ve always been interactive on Facebook. I always like and comment on other people’s posts and I always acknowledge when people do the same to me. Even if they use the opportunity of one of my posts to have a political rant, whether I agree with it or not, I always acknowledge it. If someone says something that’s very offensive, then it gets deleted. But I wasn’t so active on BlueSky or Instagram.
I never really got along with TwiXter. Everything moved too fast and I couldn’t keep up. Plus, every second post was ‘buy my book!’ or ‘hire me to edit your work!’ or ‘come and see me talk 500 miles away from where you are!’. I always support my fellow writers and editors as best I can. I’ll share their posts if they’re not too often. I’ll go along to events they’re involved with if they’re local. And I do buy their books if it’s something that interests me and I can afford it.
But that’s not why I follow them. I follow them because I’m interested in what they’re up to, who they are and how they are. How they work. What they’re working on at the moment.
BlueSky is more like that (although it still has the TwiXter feel). So is Instagram really. But I only opened an Instagram in the first place because the poet had one, although his was hacked and closed down a while ago now. (He had a lot of followers, but fortunately that wasn’t where he stored all of his wonderful photography and artwork.)
I usually have just one ‘buy my book!’ a week at most, even then it’s when it’s on the blog, and even then I’m not comfortable doing it. At the moment, that’s weekly, while I catch up with the backlog and get on top of my own personal publishing schedule. It will be going down to fortnightly or less often in the future, though. I also brag whenever I have something to brag about, like when I’ve finished another book in the great novella challenge, or when I have a sale.
But I only brag once.
Where people have scheduled a hundred posts at various times of the day throughout the week just to say the same thing over and over again, I’ve hidden them. I wouldn’t have the guts to ram myself down people’s throats like that. And where a person *only* reposts what others have posted and nothing about themselves or their lives, I’ve hidden those too. Again, I’ll share a new book or a talk or special offer if I see it. But only once.
For the last couple of days, BlueSky has apparently been a bit more political than it usually is. I say apparently because, apart from reposts, no one on my timeline is overtly political on there. I had a quick look at TwiXter, though, and it’s rife. Facebook has been a bit rife too. And really, I get that some people are upset or shocked or disappointed or, even in some extreme cases, delighted. (Really? Delighted? Okay, so he got to eat his own words. But, delighted?)
But there’s no balance.
Where was the vitriol 3 months ago? When someone else was assassinated? In her own home!
In politics, our government is currently in trouble and ministers are resigning or being sacked left, right and centre…but mostly to, or from, the left. And the vocal among us are delighted and, again, spewing hatred and vitriol. But where was it when the previous government did the same and worse?
No balance.
But anyway, I did my social media update over my dirty cuppa and then hit my desk. A friend of mine has stopped looking at social media, and the news, and she says she’s having a much calmer and less stressed life because of it. I should try that, but I’m too nosy.
There was only one job yesterday. Editing. I transferred hard copy edits to the screen for most of the day. I forgot to write today’s blog, so that’s why it’s a bit thin on detail.
Oh yes, and I rattled off a 3-star book review and posted that on Instagram, NetGalley and Amazon. That one’s scheduled to post here on Monday.
While I was in NetGalley mode, I collected all outstanding books, converted them so I can read them on Kobo and Google Play Books, and tidied up my Calibre library. I removed all books from my Kindle Paperwhite, as it’s getting slow and sluggish again and it’s easier to do the conversions when there aren’t 3,000+ books to trawl through. And I updated my 2025 reading spreadsheet. I still have to go into my Calibre library and change the remaining black and white covers to colour covers, but most of them are already in colour.
I’m still editing today. And doing my weekly finances. And my weekly backup. But mostly it’s editing. I need to step away from Calibre and from Affinity today if I want to shift this current job.
We have grand-doggy #1 with us for a few days, so we’ll be busy doing things with him.
Whatever you’re up to this weekend, I hope it’s a good one!
I’m trying to find the sweet spot of enough marketing posts to actually sell books and not too much. I haven’t yet found it (even with the content calendar, which I largely ignored this week).
I’m barely on FB anymore. Every time I open it, it’s awful. I do like IG, most of the time, and I’m on Blueksy a lot. Sometimes on Threads, and Mastodon’s writing.exchange instance is useful.
It all just makes me tired at this point.
Have fun with the editing. You’ll get a giggle today when you read my post about writing a story in the wrong genre. Can you tell i’m tired?
Yes, that did raise a smile!
Some people have managed the balance between life and work quite well. Probably more than some, actually. The others probably stand out. I’m seeing more come back to blogging, but I’m disappointed the majority seem to think SubStack is ace.