Author Talks – JSH Writes: Episode 2
Hey readers and writers! To those who don’t know me, I’m a Geelong-based author who plunged into the world of independent publishing in 2025. My debut novel was a 2025 Aurealis Award finalist, and I’ve almost finished the trilogy as we speak! I’m going to share aspects of my journey with the Geelong Cereal in a semi-structured, interview-esque format, as prompted by our host, Mel! Here is episode 2:
Are targets really important to you or just a way to keep up momentum?
They absolutely are! I find that they help keep me focused and oriented in a space where there is no boss breathing down my neck, and having a bottomless well of intrinsic motivation is pretty much non-negotiable.
Rather than berating myself into doing the work, I like to input several little achievable milestones into my week, so I am regularly getting that dopamine dose from completing tasks and reaching goals. It is also a really helpful way to break down these huge projects – rather than thinking of writing a novel in 2 months, all I have to do (every day) is turn my phone off for a couple of hours, hit 2000 words for the day, then see how much time and energy I have left for the rest of the business!
Do you work well under pressure?
Honestly, I’d say no. I get rather anxious and tighten up, which has been exemplified through my various misadventures with playing sport, among other things. The funny contradiction to this though, is I regularly place myself under a lot of pressure, and I’d say I deal quite well enough with that, in a way. I set high standards, but again, most of the pressure at this stage in my career comes from me – it’s a largely solo operation, while I am the coordinator of the professionals I work with, they are accountable and prompt, which just leaves me as the one who has to make sure I’m getting my work done.
You have been doing so much promotional work; do you write in the quiet times when you're at a book fair or market or do you need to be somewhere quiet?
Oh, absolutely not! A lot of the quiet times at these markets are spent exactly the same way as the busy ones – standing up, smiling and waving. As soon as a general passer by sees a vendor is disengaged, this usually writes off your chances of having them approach you. Respect to anyone who can manage this, but for me, there are way too many stimuli going on around me to concentrate!
I do most of my writing at home, in the quiet of late morning – around 10am-1pm. I have experimented with lots of methods and times of day, but I’d say I’m about 4 or 5 times more efficient when I can hit it during that window. Before I quit my job though, I was sneaking in half hour sessions wherever and whenever I could – that was a big part of ‘proving I had what it takes’ enough to take this leap into doing this job full time. I’m so grateful to have these regular windows now!
Do you have any other tips or observations about balancing writing with promotional work?
Planning and structure are everything. It’s amazing how much you can get done if you are on top of your schedule and are able to compartmentalise tasks. I used to be someone who tackled ‘the easy tasks first’ to warm up, or ‘the most stressful to get it off my mind’, and those approaches can work too, but for me now, it’s about building a really solid process that leans into my strengths. To this end, it’s sleep in a little bit, matcha and light breakfast, then write in the late-morning. Cook some food, touch some grass, then make content/do business work in the afternoon – which usually takes about the same amount of time in my day.
Not all days look the same, but I try to portion out the week as precisely as I can, knowing that there will be times when the routine is disrupted. Over the next six weeks or so, my goal is to spend my time in a block like this:
Weekdays:
10-12:30 – deep focus/writing time
12:30-1:30 – writing catchup (if needed)
1:30-4pm – social media, online orders, networking, meetings, catchups and emails.
Weekends
Either attend an event (which will be a bit quieter during the winter months) This takes a minimum 6-7 hours (i.e. 8am-2pm) If not, I’ll be taking a true day off. No writing – maybe even leaving the house?
If you add it up, it might come to somewhere between 35-45 hour work weeks, depending on priorities (for example, when it’s time for edits, I spend 6-8 hour days on that alone). But the ‘weight’ of these tasks feels much lighter when I have a really clear grasp of how much time I’ll have in the week ahead, and know there will be a certain window I can allocate to each job. Prioritising, discipline and fluidity all come into the mix when needed!
If you’d like to check out my books, you can find them on my website, here:
https://jsharman.com.au
Or on Amazon, here:
DARK SANDS: A Thrilling Sci-Fi Horror Adventure (The Darkworlds Saga Book 1)
eBook : Harman, J.S.: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store
My best social media platform is Instagram - @j.s.harman.author, but I also keep
the lights on over on Facebook and Tiktok, under the same handle.
