self-discipline

Scheduling and Time Management by Alyson McLayne

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Who doesn’t need help managing their time. Anyone who can live and thrive while wrangling five year-old twin boys deserves a medal, never mind a listen too. So with that I invite you to read this time management post by Alyson McLayne.

Scheduling and Time Management by Alyson McLayne

Ever wonder how you’re going to get everything done? Let Alyson McLayne show you how she seizes the day!

My secret? Coffee!

With January just ended, I realize I haven’t set any goals for the year. And truthfully, as busy as I am, I can’t help but wonder What’s the point? I already have goals for this year in the form of deadlines: 3 books to complete, 12 newsletters to craft, 25+ blogs to write, and the world to wow on social media—not to mention conferences to attend and edits coming out of my ears.

Maybe, like me, you’ve reached the point where you no longer sit down and write a list of New Year’s Resolutions—only to fail come December 31st. Instead, perhaps you choose an inspiring word that becomes your mantra, or theme, for the year. One year I chose the word “success”, and last year a friend of mine chose the word “courage”. This year she has a catchphrase: “Seize the moment”.

These are all good ideas. I can only imagine that if we courageously seized the moment whenever we could during 2018 it would lead to great success!

But I feel like those kinds of words and the sentiment behind them are too ephemeral for me this year. I need something with more grit, more heft, to get me through the challenges I face. Like many of you, in addition to writing, I’m also busy on the home front—I have twin five-year-olds, a puppy, aging and sick parents, and a husband who works long hours.

Read the full post at Romance University!

Ask Polly: Should I Just Give Up on My Writing?

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This post by Heather Havrilesky originally appeared on New York Magazine’s The Cut on 9/16/15.

Dear Polly,

I feel like you get lots of letters from folks either starting out pursuing their passion, or looking for a passion to begin with, but here I am, midlife, mid-career, full of passion but in a slump.

I’m a writer — a peer of yours, I guess, though age-wise, I’m staring straight at the big 5-0. And I’m stuck. I can’t seem to get to the next level and I’m frustrated. I do well enough that it’s a bona fide career — not “here’s my Brooklyn duplex” successful, but a humble income as a freelancer, which, combined with what my partner makes in a stable job, sets us up okay. There are books with my name on the spine on my shelf. Some good reviews (some truly awful). All assembled, I’m a “success.” But not really. I can’t talk about this with many people because as someone who is mid-career and mid-level, I’m not crying from the outfield here, and I can’t be picked up with a “Dust yourself off, kid, you’re young!” speech, either. It’s hard enough to make a profession of writing so I don’t want to sound ungrateful. Many, many people are trudging uphill, trying to get a toehold, so I know how good I’ve had it, relatively speaking. With so many earnest climbers on this Everest just trying to get to base camp, they can’t see you’re clinging to the side of the mountain, running out of oxygen and losing sight of the summit.

 

Read the full letter, and Polly’s lengthy reply, on The Cut.

 

The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine

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This post by Maria Popova originally appeared on Brain Pickings on 8/25/14.

How to sculpt an environment that optimizes creative flow and summons relevant knowledge from your long-term memory through the right retrieval cues.

Reflecting on the ritualization of creativity, Bukowski famously scoffed that “air and light and time and space have nothing to do with.” Samuel Johnson similarly contended that “a man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.” And yet some of history’s most successful and prolific writers were women and men of religious daily routines and odd creative rituals. (Even Buk himself ended up sticking to a peculiar daily routine.)

Such strategies, it turns out, may be psychologically sound and cognitively fruitful. In the altogether illuminating 1994 volume The Psychology of Writing (public library), cognitive psychologist Ronald T. Kellogg explores how work schedules, behavioral rituals, and writing environments affect the amount of time invested in trying to write and the degree to which that time is spent in a state of boredom, anxiety, or creative flow. Kellogg writes:

 

Read the full post on Brain Pickings.

 

Key Steps to Writing a Book

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This post by Christy Heady originally appeared on her site on 4/15/15.

Aside from implementing good storytelling and following stellar punctuation rules, when a writer begins the process of writing a book and wanting a successful writing career he or she must keep a few points in mind. These points are not taught in school; rather, they are fruitful lessons I have learned along the way to becoming a best-selling author that I want to share with you.

 

#1. You must love what you do.

When I began writing my first book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Money on Wall Street, I absolutely loved the topic. In fact, I loved it so much it helped me embrace the fact I lived in a tiny apartment with no air-conditioning and washed my hair in the kitchen sink since I did not have a shower and had only a pint-sized tub. I had a dream and a purpose and my love for that kept my focused and on toward financial success.

 

Read the full post, which includes four additional, specific steps with commentary, on Christy Heady’s site.

 

Good Is The Enemy of Great- 5 Things Special Forces Taught Me

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This post by Bob Mayer originally appeared on his Write On The River blog on 6/20/15.

I’ve had varied experiences, especially in the military. Cadet at West Point, Infantry platoon leader, recon platoon leader, and then Special Forces A-Team leader and other position in Special Operations over the years. I experienced organizations at various levels, from bad to great.

However, the most dangerous place to be is ‘good’.

What good means is that you and/or your organization is doing well enough to get by. To accomplish the ordinary tasks. But in Special Forces our tasks were often extraordinary. Complacency could have fatal consequences.Voltaire is credited with saying: “Good is enemy of great.”

I’ve found this also to be true in my civilian career as a writer and CEO of Cool Gus. Here are some basic rules I learned in Special Operations and continually apply to avoid settling for good; and you can too:

1. Great is hard work. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. The one common core I saw in Spec Ops and in successful authors was they work damn hard. I watch people buying lottery tickets and think that’s what many wanna-be’s do with their career and their life. They hope luck will strike them; luck comes to those on top of the hill. Who climbed up there on their own.

 

Read the full post on Write On The River.

 

In a Rush to Publish? Better Ways to Shave Off Time

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This post by Elizabeth Spann Craig originally appeared on her site on 6/5/15.

There has been a good deal written about the need for self-publishing authors not to be in a rush to publish. And yet, there has been a good deal written about the need for self-publishing authors to quickly produce for financial success.

These bits of advice aren’t really as contradictory as they seem. The time to move things along, I believe, is when we’re writing. The time to be thoughtful and unhurried is during the packaging process…the editing and cover design. The finishing touches need time.

What can we do to make our writing go faster? Here are some things that have helped me:

 

On a daily basis:

Know what you’re going to write that day (at least the plot points).

Think about where you left off and what you’re going to say next before you open the laptop (I mull things over in the mornings as I let the dog out and as I’m making myself coffee.

 

Read the full post on Elizabeth Spann Craig’s site.

 

Be a More Productive Writer While Also Achieving Balance

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This post by Jordan Rosenfeld originally appeared on Jane Friedman’s site on 4/23/15.

Note from Jane Friedman: Today’s guest post is by Jordan Rosenfeld (@JordanRosenfeld) and is an excerpt from A Writer’s Guide to Productivity, published by Writer’s Digest.

Surely you know one or more prolific writers who produce so much material that you wish you could bottle their energy and drink it down later for yourself.

Perhaps you even feel a little envious or resentful of their output: Hey, that could be me if only I didn’t have to [fill in the blank].

It’s easy to believe that a large quantity of writing is a sign of productivity, and thus, if you are not writing reams yourself, you aren’t being productive. But more writing does not necessarily equal better-quality writing, nor does faster writing lead to faster achievement of your goals.

 

The Pros and Cons of Fast Drafting

For at least six years, I, like millions of other slightly crazed, well-intentioned writers, have participated in NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month—in which writers attempt to produce a 50,000-word novel in thirty days while running on caffeine, blind faith, and a spirit of adventure. The part of me that is like an endurance athlete always thinks this sounds like a great idea and enjoys the endorphin rush of writing toward a fast finish. And it is fun at various stages—particularly at the beginning before reality has set in. But you know what the honest truth is? It kills me every year. By the end of November I am the crankiest, most burned-out, and spent writer I know.

 

Read the full post on Jane Friedman’s site.

 

Dip Happens—What Do We DO When Nothing Seems To Change?

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This post by Kristen Lamb originally appeared on her blog on her blog on 4/27/15.

Often I blog about things I am going through. Sometimes just writing things down, sketching out a plan of action, recalibrating MY perspective helps a lot. Hey, if nothing else, I have a blog post 😀 .

Lately, I’ve been in what Seth Godin calls…The DIP. In fact, I am even talking about The Dip over on my Dojo Diva blog for those who want more (and also a better chance of winning my 20 Page Death Star Critique).

*dangles carrot*

What is THE DIP? The Dip is that span of suck before the breakthrough. The Dip is where character develops, where dreams grow, where WE grow. Bad news is this is also the place where most people give up.

I’d love to say I’ve never given up when faced with a particularly tenacious Dip, but I am a terrible liar. Dips are tough. Why are Dips so hard?

Dips Come Out of Nowhere

We are zooming along and then it is as if an invisible force field comes out of nowhere. Maybe you started eating healthy and were losing weight steadily. Then…nothing. Another week? Nothing. Another week, I gained three pounds? WTH? And another and another and pretty soon, why bother?

 

Read the full post on Kristen Lamb’s blog.

 

How to Deal With Writing Distractions

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This post by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen originally appeared on The Adventurous Writer.

These tips for dealing with distractions as a writer are inspired by a parable about James Joyce, and will help you develop the productivity of a writer like Stephen King. Learning how to deal with writing distractions isn’t just about turning off the internet or writing in pomodoros.

In Writing Habit Mastery: How to Write 2,000 Words a Day and Forever Cure Writer’s Block, S.J. Scott describes how to establish a productive writing routine and environment and find time to write – even if you have a full-time job. You may not have the natural discipline it takes to write every day; you need to learn how to minimize distractions and interruptions, create a mental mindset that inspires you to write, and deal with lack of motivation that distracts you from writing.

The following tips on dealing with writing distractions are inspired by a story about James Joyce, told by Stephen King in his famous memoir On Writing. I featured his book in 7 Writing Tips From Stephen King – but I neglected to mention his parable about the late great James Joyce.

 

Read the full post on The Adventurous Writer.

 

Productivity For Writers: 5 Ways To Become More Productive

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This post by Joanna Penn originally appeared on her The Creative Penn site on 1/29/15.

Some of the most common emails I receive every day include: How do I find the time to write? And how do you get everything done?

While I don’t write a book a month (at the moment!), I do get quite a lot done!

[Time poor and want to finish a book in 90 days? Click here for a free video series from Self-Publishing School.]

I published 4 new books in 2014 in ebook and print, plus I had another one completed and on pre-order, so technically 5 books in total. Plus, I published books in German, Spanish and Italian, as well as several in audio format, resulting in a total of 19 new products for sale in 2014.

Plus, a lot of blog posts and podcasts which I hope you found useful 🙂 So today, here are some of my tips on productivity for writers and a resource I think at least some of you will find useful.

 

(1) Schedule your time

We all have 24 hours in the day, and we all have to balance the real life stuff with the writing. Before I was a full-time author-entrepreneur, I would get up at 5am and write, then go to work. After the day job, I would come home and get on with building my online business. We got rid of the TV so I would have more time to create, and I spent every weekend working. I was so focused on leaving my job that I cut out everything that got in the way. I was driven to schedule my time incredibly well in order to fit everything in.

Now, as a full-time author-entrepreneur, I still have to schedule everything. You might have noticed that I blog, podcast and speak professionally, as well as writing books. It’s just as hard to get everything done, let me assure you!

So I’ll admit to being a chronic scheduler! But seriously, it is the only way I get anything done.

 

Read the full post, which includes five additional productivity tips, on The Creative Penn.

 

Susan Straight On Learning To Write Without A Room Of One's Own

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This essay by Susan Straight originally appeared on the The Los Angeles Times on 4/9/14.

What does it take to be a writer: A room of one’s own? A weakness for words? To celebrate the Festival of Books, we asked five celebrated authors to recall a turning point in their evolution as writers. First up is Susan Straight, recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes’ 2013 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

I wrote the stories in my first book by hand, in these places: at the counter of the Mobil station where I worked in 1979, between customers, eating beef jerky and stale cashews out of the nut mix no one ever bought from the cloudy glass compartments beneath my notebook; sitting on a huge rock at the beach in Rosarito, Mexico, in 1983 after my husband fell asleep in the tiny hotel where we spent our two-night honeymoon, writing in my notebook; sitting at a card table in married student housing in 1984 in Amherst with the small blue Smith-Corona my mother had given me for high school graduation; in a pale green 1980-something Fiat with brakes that went out all the time, upon which occasion my husband would have me sit in the driver’s seat and pump the brakes while he was underneath the car in the gravel driveway of our house back in Riverside in 1988, and I held a notebook and pen, writing.

 

Read the full essay on The Los Angeles Times.

 

Setting Up A Regular Writing Schedule

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This post originally appeared on Creative Caravan Club on 1/8/15.

Are you trying to write a novel within the next few weeks or months, but you just can’t seem to stick to a regular writing schedule?

The following tips will work for anyone who wants to write a book within a short period of time:

 

1. Set up your writing time as a regular appointment with yourself.

Plan specific times you will write each week, then write down these times on a calendar or day planner, just the way you would any other appointment.

 

2. Break down your novel, short story, or article into small chunks.

If you’re writing a novel, break down each chapter into scenes. Then schedule time to write just one scene at a time.

 

3. Give yourself some slack while you’re committed to completing a big writing project, like writing a book.

Save some of your other writing for later. You want to plan, start and finish your book within a short period of time. You won’t be able to do that if you also try to write a million other things.

 

Read the full post on Creative Caravan Club.

 

NaNoWriMo Doesn’t Matter

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This post by Chuck Wendig originally appeared on his terribleminds blog on 12/1/14. Warning: strong language.

On November 1st, NaNoWriMo matters.

On November 8th, it still matters.

On November 13th, 18th, 24th, mmm, yep, it matters.

(Thanksgiving? Only pie matters. Do not argue this.)

On November 30th? Still matters!

December 1st?

*the quiet sound of crickets fucking*

Today, it doesn’t matter.

This isn’t a dismissal of National Novel Writing Month. Not at all. I’ve come around to love the spirit around that month — a 30 day descent into the lunacy of being a novelist, equal parts fun and frustration (“funstration!”). A hard dive into creative waters. Let it fill your lungs. Drown in it.

Rock the fuck on.

But right now? It doesn’t matter. NaNoWriMo is just the wrapping, the trapping, the springboard, the diving board. It’s what got you going, but it isn’t what matters.

What matters is you. What matters is the work.

And right now, you’ve got something.

I don’t know if it’s finished or not. Did you win or lose?

Forget winning and losing.

You left those words behind when NaNoWriMo ended. What matters now is what happens next.

Don’t know what happens next? Here. I’m going to tell you. Or, at least, I’m going to give you a general idea of what happens next — a menu of permutations and possibilities.

If you didn’t finish what you started, you’re going to finish it. (Why? I told you that last week.)

And if you did finish it?

 

Read the full post on Chuck Wendig’s terribleminds blog.

 

3 Reasons Most Writers GIVE UP & 3 Reasons Why YOU Shouldn't

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This post by Angela Scott originally appeared on her site on 12/20/11.

Between getting our words down on paper and then trying to get someone (agents, publishers, READERS, anyone) to care about those words, we may come to a cross point in which we say, “Is this even worth it? Why in the world am I doing this to myself? I think I’ll take some medicine to numb the voices and just go back to bed. Forget it. I’m done.” *sticks out tongue and blows a raspberry at the world*

I’ve been there myself, many a time. But each day, I put myself back in front of the laptop and write. Even on days when I don’t want to.(I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna). Why? Why do I put myself though this craziness? Well, I’m still trying to understand it myself. And though I don’t have a clear reason why I keep plugging along (I’m a masochist. I’m schizophrenic. Like Lady Ga-Ga, I was born this way), I do know several reasons why some writers give up:

Reason #1: Writing is hard. It is. The writing process, at times, can be incredibly fun and rewarding. When the words flow and nearly write themselves, it’s amazing. It’s almost a high type of feeling. A rush. But there are other times, many times, in which writing just plain sucks–the words do not come; or the words DO come, but they are crap; editing (it’s a pain in the butt, but SO necessary. Do not skip this step. Just saying); promoting and marketing (UUUGGGHHH); and then coming up with another great idea. Oh the pressure! No wonder I feast on lots of migraine pills, chocolate, and caffeine.

 

Click here to read the full post on Angela Scott’s site.

 

Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators

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This article by Megan McArdle originally appeared on The Atlantic on 2/12/14.

The psychological origins of waiting (… and waiting, and waiting) to work

Like most writers, I am an inveterate procrastinator. In the course of writing this one article, I have checked my e-mail approximately 3,000 times, made and discarded multiple grocery lists, conducted a lengthy Twitter battle over whether the gold standard is actually the worst economic policy ever proposed, written Facebook messages to schoolmates I haven’t seen in at least a decade, invented a delicious new recipe for chocolate berry protein smoothies, and googled my own name several times to make sure that I have at least once written something that someone would actually want to read.

Lots of people procrastinate, of course, but for writers it is a peculiarly common occupational hazard. One book editor I talked to fondly reminisced about the first book she was assigned to work on, back in the late 1990s. It had gone under contract in 1972.

I once asked a talented and fairly famous colleague how he managed to regularly produce such highly regarded 8,000 word features. “Well,” he said, “first, I put it off for two or three weeks. Then I sit down to write. That’s when I get up and go clean the garage. After that, I go upstairs, and then I come back downstairs and complain to my wife for a couple of hours. Finally, but only after a couple more days have passed and I’m really freaking out about missing my deadline, I ultimately sit down and write.”

Over the years, I developed a theory about why writers are such procrastinators: We were too good in English class. This sounds crazy, but hear me out.

 

Click here to read the full article on The Atlantic.