By Tosca Lee
I joke sometimes that according to the adage that “writers write every day” that I am not a writer.
One of the reasons social media is special to me—I mean aside from its profound helpfulness when it comes to procrastination—is that it has brought me closer to my readers. Not every writer wants this, but I love it. My readers know more about what goes on with, and alongside, and behind the writing. Because doing this writing gig full-time isn’t always about writing. Things I might be doing in the name of “work” that are writing-adjacent:

- Giving a talk about one of my books at a library or other venue
- Teaching or mentoring another writer
- Posting on social media to share news about my writing—or learn more about my readers. This is really important to me. I spent months during Covid live on Facebook every night reading and interacting with my readers and somehow, in the midst of the confusion and isolation and mess of lockdown, we remember that time fondly.
- Research. Which could be anything from internet searches no normal person would string together to backpacking the Himalayas.
- Answering reader mail. Most authors I know have a personal, a business (or two) email, a P.O. box, and all the social media account inboxes.
- Plotting marketing stuff and world domination. I’m only half joking—actually, it’s no joking matter. Publishers are spending less on marketing and publicity and the onus is on the author more and more to get out and hustle on behalf of their books.
- Visiting book clubs
- Staring out the window and brainstorming
- Working on a newsletter. Most writers I know have a love/hate relationship with these things, but they’re powerful tools that take time to craft.
- Conferences and other live events
- Blogging for a writing group like Rogue Women Writers
- Traveling—to events, for research, for publisher meetings, to retreat and write
- Any random business stuff: fighting with Amazon over a KDP problem, an agent or publisher call, going over royalty statements
- Brainstorming or catching up with author friends
- Reading for fun. And to see what’s up with that book everyone’s raving about.
- Reading to endorse other author’s books.
- Signing piles of bookplates or tip-in pages for an upcoming release
- Spending time with the family members and friends who form our valuable support system
- In therapy. Haha, you think I jest…
And then, between or at the center of it all, there is the writing—when all these other things fade away for a time. Because without that story, there is no need for the rest of this.
If you’re a writer, what writing-adjacent activity do you love best? And as a reader, which part of the writing life do you enjoy knowing about the most?

Tosca Lee is a New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels including The Long March Home (May 2023, coauthored by Marcus Brotherton), The Line Between, The Progeny, Iscariot, and The Legend of Sheba. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and optioned for TV and film. She is the recipient of two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, ECPA Fiction Book of the Year, and the Nebraska Book Award. Her work has finaled for the High Plains Book Award, the Library of Virginia Reader’s Choice Award, the Christy Award, and a second ECPA Book of the Year, among others. Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College. A former first runner-up to Mrs. United States, she lives in Nebraska with her husband and two of four children still at home.
Oh, I hear you! Among the many activities I do when I am NOT writing: exercising and swimming daily laps in our pool, checking social media, planning dinners with friends, figuring out marketing strategies for my new thriller, and spending time with our two Labradoodles.
I have never written every day! I don’t write anything between books–except letters. I’ve been writing letters to friends and family since grade school and it’s rare I can stick to one single-spaced typewritten page. So now everyone knows way more about my daily life than they need to! But everyone loves to get something in the mail besides bills.