First Drafts Aren't Perfect - My Guest Post on Proof Positive

I'm excited to share that I'm a guest author on Proof Positive's blog today! I discuss the favors you do yourself by taking breaks from re-reading and editing your novel. Here's a snippet:

"The words poured effortlessly from my fingertips and onto the page completely free of grammatical errors and typos, forming a perfect, succinct, and intriguing story that everyone in the world wanted to read…said no author ever."

Click HERE to check out my tips on how to edit, revise, and polish your novel.

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If you enjoyed my post on rewriting, you might benefit from these too:

• How to Write A Novel, Part 1: Let The Journey Begin 
• How to Write a Novel, Part 2: Brainstorming, Drafting, and Getting Organized 
• How to Write A Novel, Part 3: Editing Like A Pro  
• How to Be a More Productive Writer

Why I Left Academia to Write Fantasy Books

I'm honored and thrilled to be a Psychology Today guest blogger!

Click HERE to learn why I left academia to write fantasy books.

Don't forgot to check out the other articles on PT's College Confidential.

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Have you checked out my other articles about writing? You might enjoy these too:

• How to Write A Novel, Part 1: Let The Journey Begin 
• How to Write a Novel, Part 2: Brainstorming, Drafting, and Getting Organized 
• How to Write A Novel, Part 3: Editing Like A Pro  
• How to Be a More Productive Writer 

Get Them While Their Young, Keep Them Until Their Old - Guest Post by Sarah Noffke

I recently had the pleasure of reading Suspended by Sarah Noffke. Since I've also written a book about a dark circus (The Nightmare Birds), I was especially anxious to read her story. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. :)

The more I discovered about Sarah, the more I was intrigued by this "superwoman". She's written fifteen books and is currently working on two more! I'm delighted that she found the time to share this guest post with you today.  Enjoy!

Get Them While Their Young, Keep Them Until Their Old

Scroll the feed on Instagram and you’ll come to a few conclusions. They might be: she definitely shouldn’t be wearing that, is that dude out of his mind, and holy batman young adults love their books. I follow more than a few book addicts on Instagram and they all happen to be ones who are obsessed with taking pictures of their bookshelves, rather than their freckled faces. When was the last time that you saw Helen, the retired widow, arranging her books in the garden so she could take a pretty picture to post on social media? So what’s my point? It’s that we need to be catering to this hungry market. Young adults crave the actual pages of books. They use the hashtag for cover love more than anyone else. Young adult fantasy is especially hot right now, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. And if we know this knowledge, then we might should be using it.

When I was a young adult, I didn’t think I liked to read. Stop gasping and listen to me. It’s because the books I was forced to read were Heart of Darkness and Frankenstein. Now before you forever loathe me for complaining about being exposed to classic literature, please hear me out. While those novels are amazing in their own way, they aren’t something relatable for a young adult. I know, you’re shocked, I’ve never, not once, sailed down the Congo. It wasn’t until later that I accidentally picked up a young adult novel that I fell in love with books. I remember the exact moment. It was like Prince Charming walked into the room and I was instantly in love. That passion for young adult literature then grew and now I read books of all genres. However, too often I think we force the classics before we’ve hooked the young reader. I think we cater to the adult readers, not realizing that it’s the teens of the world that are going to break down doors to get a fresh paperbacks. They are obsessed with covers. Obsessed with collecting spicy fantasy novels. And most importantly, they are consumers who have decades of reading ahead of them.

Having written five young adult and new adult series, I’ll claim to know a little bit about the genre. New adult is this relatively recent category that is just starting to emerge. It has less rules than young adult and is relatable to a larger audience. However, I will disclose that most of the readers of my young adult series are thirty-something-year-old women. The reason for the wide appeal is that young adult characters have more potentials and I’ve polled readers and found there’s an irresistible draw to that. It’s fun when a character is still developing and doesn’t know who they are, what they want or who they love. The key to good young adult fiction is exploring these potentials. And the key to happy readers is to find the stories that they can relate to, while also creating surprising potentials. Finally, because I like sets of three, the key to success for authors, libraries and retailers is tapping into this hungry market. Hooking the young and young at heart readers is a great strategy. From my experience there aren’t more loyal followers than those who post their TBR lists on social media.

I keep hearing a rumor that the book market is over saturated. Honestly, I can’t find relevant data to support this. If my Instagram feed serves as antidotal evidence then young adults actually don’t have enough books. If I see another picture in my feed of the Harry Potter series with a newly released cover then I’m chunking my phone across the room. #coverlove

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Bio:
Sarah Noffke writes YA and NA sci-fi fantasy and is the author of the Lucidites, Reverians, Ren and Vagabond Circus series. She holds a Masters of Management and teaches college business courses. Most of her students have no idea that she toils away her hours crafting fictional characters. Noffke's books are top rated and best-sellers on Kindle. Currently, she has fifteen novels published. Her books are available in paperback, audio and in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. To get a free book from the author, go here: http://www.sarahnoffke.com/free-book/

Connect:

www.sarahnoffke.com
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2n0rnJO
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialsarahnoffke?ref=hl
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9830676.Sarah_Noffke
Twitter: @RealSarahNoffke
Instagram: @sarahnoffke

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Have you checked out these other articles? You might enjoy these, too:

• How to Write Historical Fiction Without Really Trying - Guest Post by Christie Stratos

• How to Write Fantasy and Have Fun While Doing It - Amie Irene Winters

• Don't Write for the Market - Guest Post by J.D. Estrada

Follow You Passion, Even If It Means Taking Some Detours

I'm a Women For One Truthteller!

Read the true story of why I  gave up a good job, steady paycheck, and wearing high heels to pursue my greatest passion: writing fiction.

This Old Dog's New Tricks - Guest Post by Joe Compton

The first thing I think about when I hear the name Joe Compton is GoIndieNow - an online platform that highlights, fosters, and supports Indie Artists of all art forms. A few months ago, I had the privilege to participate in a GoIndieNow author panel discussion called Women in Publishing/Exhibiting Strong Leadership. Not only was it a blast, I met some really talented authors, including Joe (who's a fellow metal head by the way :)) Since then, GoIndieNow has added a bunch of really cool new features and hosted more awesome panels. Joe is an incredibly talented and dedicated individual whom has graciously agreed to write a post today about the importance of having an online video presence as an author.

Take it away, Joe...

This Old Dog's New Tricks

How do we market ourselves at a pace that keeps up with the world’s rapid growth and advancements? Are we holding on to tightly too tried and true methods that prevent our actual growth?

Let’s face it, virtually gone are the days wherein authors and artists use mailers and press releases. Even book festivals and writer’s conferences that were once the only quick fire way to have direct contact with industry folks and readers have dwindled in not only attendance but hierarchy. One of the more prominent reasons is the average median age of someone publishing their first novel is between 36-38.

I bring up the age thing because at 36 you are more likely to have a steady job and a family with responsibilities that are not just financial but time consuming. Which makes conferences and festivals logistical nightmares, as most of them fall on a weekend or take place over the course of several days and are very expensive (even if you find one local to you).

Age also slows you down or make your priorities shift. No matter how you might view that statement, it’s fact. You can’t do what you did at 24 or care about what you cared about at that age. That usually equates to missing the best part of the conference or at least the most productive part, the networking events.

Even if you curtail your intake or don’t drink at all, you most likely will be mainlining coffee for 6 hours to keep your eyes open for the next day’s conference lectures, panels, and group exercises. Even if you go to the networking events but leave early you just might miss out on that one or two agents or publishers because they went up to their room or sat in the lobby doing business on a call or on their laptop, and couldn’t get down to the fun till well after your bedtime.

Now if you are 21-30, you might be more apt or in a better place to do these conferences but then again if you are the only one at the bar or in your age range, then it becomes that measuring stick of is it really worth for you as well.

Sure all this doesn’t mean conferences are useless. There is still a lot of great knowledge to glean and opportunities to pitch yourself to established professionals that can help you. It’s all a matter of what it means for you to be there.

Book festivals are an even more harsh reality. As most will tell you, the goal is to sell but in reality the goal quickly becomes to get as many names for your mailing lists or hand out as many rack cards/bookmarks as you can. Half way through the day you start to realize that breaking even on sales would be almost a victory.

Now, again, there are some festivals that are better than others. Sometimes it’s just perspective as they are better for the person next to you or across from you for whatever reason. There are even some unconventional conventions (i.e swap meets, craft fairs, comic cons, etc.) where you fall into a groove and just sell your ass off. Truth of the matter is though, those happen only in 1 out of every 4 and they almost never repeat themselves the next year.

So with these 2 very prominent ideals being on the tail end of their lifespan and almost being shoved into the publishing hospice to be left for dead, what’s an author, especially an indie author to do?

Well social media is redefining itself and its effectiveness everyday for sure. Even that has uneasy and unsettling results though. One month Facebook parties are the best. The next they are stale, and that depends on who you ask. Some look at it like those happy hours that were such a huge part of the physical conference ideal. Some think it’s just seeing the same 6 facebook postings over and over, to the same audience as the last 1 or 5. One month Twitter is the best. Then Instagram kicks Twitter right between the .jpegs. Then there is the cool kids hangs like Pinterest, Hootsuite, or LinkedIn. Interesting to explore, no doubt, but for some hard to understand the appeal and for others it morphs into something else. Then there are the out of touch, who still look to MYSQL/Proboards’ Message boards, GoodReads, and even have the nostalgic love for MySpace.

I have no doubt that some will defend their personal favorite(s) to the death. We certainly lock on to what works and fight for their relevance. Yet the merits are debatable at best but still essential.

Right now though we all can agree that audiences are quick and need to be fed within an arm’s length of them passing you by and that they never or rarely look back. So if you miss them, there is no getting them back or going after them because if you go after them, the next wave comes by you as well. Before this becomes a generational divide argument (which it’s not in my mind) and for as much as we might want to blame or play “the millennials don’t have the attention span and have driven patience away” game, it isn’t just them. All of our lives are faster and we only have so much time in a day, let alone a week, a month, and a year. That means you have to hook and connect them almost before they get to you instead of by you.

Hmm, I wonder where this principle came from? Sounds super familiar doesn’t it?

Yes book festivals and writer’s conferences do hold a merit after all. If nothing else, for the relevance of the audience not being much different. If you sit at your table at a festival, looking disinterested, scared, or downright bored, nobody will stop; not even for a second. You have to get up, engage, and sometimes drag them, even if they are kicking and screaming, to your table. You have to hone your pitch and have answers to questions you never thought of until you went to a festival or pitched to an agent or publisher at a conference. At the very least you have to know your source material so well, like it was your child. So with those principles being what an audience is, and if they are no longer at these festivals or conferences, where then? Where did our audience go? You see it’s not generational, it’s just a different way audiences go looking now.

I give you YouTube, Vimeo, and DailyMotion. Yes, video platforms. You can throw Skype, Facebook live, Snapchat, Vine, Periscope, and Zoom in there for an even more measured two prong approach to this type of marketing.

Why? Why this method?

YOU STILL HAVE TO BE SEEN!

Let me repeat that..YOU STILL HAVE TO BE SEEN!

While they may not be leaving their living rooms or workplaces, they are Hunkered down on some computer, somewhere. So you being seen makes the connection and makes the metaphysical actually feel physical again. What I mean by that is we are actually conversing in real time and looking at each other. The trick is to turn your conversation to your source material and your expertise.

Honestly here’s the great thing about doing this and doing this right now...you don’t even need to have the best camera, know the best editing methods, be tricky, and/or be so technical that your resolution and pixelation have become resolute and in HD. Just make sure people can hear you and see you. Even seeing you, is not always necessary, as some people use these videos as background and listen more than they watch.

I mean the curve of forgiveness as far as quality goes, right now, is medium to high. Especially right now because not many are doing it perfectly. So it’s just as cool to be out there with it. Eventually you will just get better, you will find what works for you and your audience, and even more so start to get into the technical aspects. Which of course might just benefit you, as those tedious things become important and help you separate yourself from everyone else.

I know, one more thing to stress about but I am telling right now if you aren’t out there with a youtube channel or at very least participating in others endeavors to be out there, you will be left behind and wondering why you are one of the first 2 at the happy hour at the hotel bar at the 22nd Annual Bland Conference. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, you are the only 2 at the bar because everyone else is doing a youtube video or facebook live about their experiences at the same convention you are at right now? Just look at your facebook feed or twitter feed and you will see the answer is yes. It is already happening. I counted 3 facebook friends this week alone who have done just that.

See people are even using this new marketing wrinkle at the old marketing methods. If that isn’t telling you its relevance, nothing ever will, and you can go back to your MySpace profile now. Tell AOL4life on the book tours message board I said hello.

Look there is no wrong way. That’s not what I mean to say when I talk about old methods. Those still work to a degree and for some people it works how they wish it to work. If you are doing all the things people have done since the beginning of time or since the boom of self publishing, and are happy with that, sobeit; more power to you.

However if you are hungry and looking for that game changer and getting to the next level, then follow me into this world.

I spent nearly an entire weekend online, on camera in 2016 at the Brain to Books Cyber Convention. I was up and streaming live for 47 hours. I also created 7 hours of content that ran when I wasn’t online live. That’s how much content I have in my folder on my youtube channel from just that weekend. You can go check it out at my YouTube channel.

It’s under the 2016 Brain to Books Cyber Convention Video Playlist there.

Am I crazy? Yeah probably but that’s what I decided to do. Why you might ask? Well the simple reason is I am crazy, but really it’s because I know making those connections were invaluable. I paid $0 to be a part of that convention. Ok, not true I bought a new camera for $29.95, and posters for another $30, plus all the coffee I drank while I was there. Still I did not need a hotel, still got my drink on, and still had a ton of networking done throughout the weekend in pajamas. I even made 4 sales from it. Pretty awesome considering I wasn’t even talking about my book at this event nor had a goal of making sales for the most part. I was mediating conversations and keeping conversations about other people’s works going.

My point is, there are not that many opportunities like that out there but there is going to start to be. The ones that are out there already are growing and growing faster than they probably even thought they would. Booktubers is a thing. NaNoWriMo has a youtube channel. For those 2 specifically it’s being used as the fun way to connect commonalities we all thought no one else shared.

There are other such formats like Panel discussions. Panel discussions are sharing the most interesting ideals and life lessons within a peer group. It’s invaluable information that is being shared and put out there. If you watch a panel discussion and don’t learn something, wow I feel sorry for you.

Look I know all about the introvert or anonymity thing. Most would feel these are good reasons and yes I will acknowledge that if you have genuine fear or get hurt by the judgemental aspects of being online and criticized, or are a high profile or very private person not wanting to mix your lives with this endeavor, you have some claim to not being or wanting to be a part of this new found glory. However the bottom line is you are the only one hurt by your resistance, no one else. SO you can’t complain about being left behind. I am sorry, you can’t.

I am really sorry, and understand I am not making light of these reasons I have heard for someone not to come on one of my shows or be a part of a Cyber Con or have a youtube channel. I understand, They are real fears and concerns. I can’t imagine what you must go through. It could explain why you are an author and not an actor. I get it but then be who you are and embrace that. Don’t look to the future and think you will reinvent the wheel or that what you are doing now will come back to style so why change. Technology is moving too fast and what I am sharing here may be out of date by the time you get done reading this.

You can’t avoid being swallowed or engulfed by the darkness without stepping one of two ways; forward or to the side. To the side gets you that light and warmth you know but it never rewards you for taking a forward step. It comforts you and leaves you be. There is nothing wrong with that but I guarantee that you all have friends taking those steps forward and they are going to get further away and then you are all alone. If you are good with that, cool. If not why not take that person’s hand who you know is not afraid to step forward and step with them, It is always better to have a friend because they won’t let you fall or be hurt. The buddy system works, remember as a young kid how much better you felt with that ideal? Well right now your buddies are lining up, they are ready to step forward, are you?

Go get yourself a youtube channel, a camera/webcam, and smile. Then take my hand, I promise I won’t let you down.
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Great post on how to be seen, Joe. You provided some excellent ways to get out there. You also shed some light on the reality of what events are like for authors, something I don't think many people are aware of. It's been awhile since I've made a new video for my YouTube channel, so this is certainly the kick in the pants I need to start making videos again. :)
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Bio:
Joe Compton is the author of the crime thriller Amongst The Killing, published in March of 2015 under his publishing company Never Mind The Fine Print Publishing LLC. Joe also runs a subsidiary company called GoIndieNow which is an online platform that highlights, fosters, and supports Indie Artists of all art forms. He does this mainly through his youtube channel where he produces, writes, and hosts a few different shows that post on a regular basis there, Joe has made a half dozen short films, 3 of which he wrote and directed. He also served his country in the United States Marine Corps. Joe is working on a sequel to Amongst The Killing entitled, "We The Moral Majority".

Book Links:

Amazon USA (available in Kindle ebook, paperback, and audiobook)

Amazon UK (available in all 3 formats there as well)
Barnes & Noble (Available in NOOK and Paperback):
Smashwords:(available in electronic formats only)

Social Media Links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Youtube 
Audio podcast version of show 
Instagram
Pinterest
Vimeo

Driving For Inspiration & The Title Reveal of Book III!

Since finishing writing The Nightmare Birds, all of my energy (creative and physical) has been completely and totally zapped. I'm one of those people who gets anxious though if they aren't always working on some big project, or several big projects. But, as luck would have it, every time I sat down to write, I just wasn't able. It was like my brain was frozen.

I HAD WRITER'S BLOCK! Something I had always heard about, but never really experienced...until now.

I knew that I needed to take some time off and recharge, and recharge I did. For a whole month. That might not sound like a lot, but for me it was agony. I read all of these articles on how to recharge to get back into the writer's chair and everything I saw said to read, read, read. And when not reading, watch, watch, watch. So for the entire month of August, I read as many YA, fantasy, and supernatural books I could get my hands on, and watched as many fantastical things I could watch hoping to recharge and be inspired. Stranger Things is freakin AWESOME by the way. That little girl seriously deserves an Oscar!

My goal was to start writing Book III in the Strange Luck series starting September 1, and when August 31 rolled around, I still had the same unsettling and blank feeling. That day I happened to go for a long drive down to Pittsburgh for a doctor's appointment and like a bolt of lightening, I got tons of ideas while driving, including a title! Suddenly my brain felt completely recharged. But why then? Why when I was driving?

To psychoanalyze myself for a moment, I think I was inspired because I was completely alone with my thoughts. I was free to think about my book, but also free not to think about it. I came home that night and wrote down all of my ideas and expanded them more and more. Overjoyed that I had gotten my writing mojo back, I suddenly remembered that's actually how I was inspired to write Strange Luck in the first place - while driving to work one day. There's just something about driving that relaxes my brain and energizes me as a writer. This is something I need to remember for the next book!

I'm pleased to report that just over a week later, I've officially finished the first chapter! It's so much fun writing these characters, especially the new ones!

And that, my friends, is how I started writing my new book - A DARLING SECRET.

The Importance of Rewriting

The words poured effortlessly from my fingertips and onto the page completely free of grammatical errors and typos, forming a perfect, succinct, and intriguing story that everyone in the world wanted to read…said no author ever. Rewriting and editing comes with the job and there’s absolutely no way around it, but luckily there are ways to make it less painful. 

Since finishing The Nightmare Birds, I’ve already re-read the entire thing a half dozen times on my laptop, then another two times printed out, then passed it off to a few beta readers, re-read it again, and then sent it off to my editors for a final polish. When I get it back, I'll have more editing, more rewriting. Then, there will be another reading or two printed out and then a final arc read through. It takes forever and is incredibly tedious, but it’s well worth it, especially if you compare what you originally wrote to the final thing. Just take a look at this massacred page from one of my Strange Luck edits.

My first drafts are terrible. They’re slow and peppered with lots of unnecessary scenes and words. I also have a tendency to think a particular word, but type a similar sounding word with a completely different meaning instead. It's super fun going back and finding those (*eye roll). The worst is when you think you’ve finally tamed the beast, but you open the Word doc to find it covered in red. 

 

If there’s one piece of solid gold advice I’ve learned from rewriting and editing over the years it’s this: TAKE BREAKS FROM YOUR STORY. As soon as it starts to feel like “work,” becomes boring, you stop looking forward to working on it, things stop making sense, and/or you begin losing track of important details (dates, ages, hair color, etc.), then it’s time to put the manuscript down and walk away. I know it may seem counter-intuitive because you’re in “the zone,” but trust me, you’ll end up doing more harm than good. I’ve had to force myself to walk away from The Nightmare Birds probably a dozen times to recollect myself. Sometimes it was for a few days, other times a few weeks. This has meant pushing back my launch date, which has really sucked, but I'd rather have a well-written book that comes out a little later than a garbled, incoherent story.

Even if you're not experiencing any of the symptoms above, YOU STILL NEED TO TAKE BREAKS from your work. Only you will know when and for how long. Just make sure it's at least a few times.

This is totally me. :P

Why get up and walk away? Because you'll be able to look at your story with fresh eyes. Taking a break also rekindles the passion for your story and characters. It took me a long time to implement this practice, even after I had read Neil Gaiman’s quote when I first started writing seriously:

“The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before. If there are things you aren't satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: that's revision.”

Walking away is one of the most critical things you can do as a writer, but it's not to say that you shouldn't write at all, just go write something else. Anything else. Your characters will still be there when you return. Your lumpy desk chair will still be there when you return. Your keyboard peppered with food crumbs will still there. I promise. The point is that you need to clear your head so that when you return you'll be at your absolute best.

How do you handle edits? How painful is rewriting for you? Share your tips, tricks, and advice below.

Have you subscribed yet??? It seriously makes my day when I get a new subscriber. :)

The Scary Reviews Interview

 

David Spell started The Scary Reviews because he's always been a huge horror fan and wanted to have a place to post his favorite horror book reviews. Not only did he see his dream to fruition, his site also features insightful horror/fantasy author interviews, guest posts, and a fabulous Women in Horror spotlight. I'm thrilled that he will be reviewing Book II in the Strange Luck series, The Nightmare Birds, as part of the Women in Horror feature in late 2016. I'm so excited!!!

Until then, you can check out my interview with The Scary Reviews, where you'll learn how many books are planned in the Strange Luck series, how I got the title, and what inspires me to write. And don't forget to check out the other author interviews, too! They're incredibly interesting and I've already discovered a bunch of new books to read as a result.

How to Be a More Productive Writer

We all want to find the time to write more, but those darn annoying things called “responsibilities” get in the way (*eye roll). Then there are those unexpected things that tend to pop up every time you get in "the zone." You know what I’m talking about. Your allergies are bugging you, it's your great aunt's b-day, or your dog just threw up on the new carpet. Okay, some things are more urgent than others, but still, whatever the reason, finding the time to write and sticking with it is well, really freakin hard! It’s something that all writers struggle with, including me, which is why I'm sharing my biggest productivity takeaways in hopes of helping you achieve your writing goals and feel great at the end of the day. Now, let's do this thing!

1)   Identifying and Sticking to Realistic Goals: Write down your writing goals for the day, week, and month and stick to it. This can be in the form of a word count, page count, or whatever gets you motivated. If things repeatedly come up and you aren’t able to meet your writing goals, there may be a simple fix like setting different goals or slightly adjusting current goals. Still not working? Ask yourself why writing is important to you and why you want to make time to write. The pieces should then fall into place.

2)   The Power of Timing: Successful authors know what times of day they write best. They block out this time for writing and schedule everything around it. If you’re freshest in the morning, schedule your writing time accordingly. If work or school overlap with your best times, never fear, you can still find energetic hours. It just might be a little trickier. After I’ve had my morning walk and coffee, my brain is on and ready to go so I always reserve that primo morning time for writing new and/or challenging content. I also block out a chunk of time in the afternoon. Since I’m not as fresh then, I use the time to re-read what I had written and edit.

3)   Create A Routine: Block out writing time on your schedule every day and commit to it. The only way to transform your writing routine into second nature, and thus be more productive, is to follow it consistently. Here’s what Stephen King does:

“I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.” (from Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, via Daily Routines)

4)   Work in Increments: Group tasks into small batches instead of working for one long duration of time on one task. Not only will this help you focus, especially if you get bored easy, but you’ll be more productive because you will be regularly re-visiting your work with fresh eyes. Even if you're not sure about this one, try it out! You might be pleasantly surprised. One thing that has worked very well for me is scheduling in short blocks of time on my calendar the night before so I know exactly what I’m going to do and when I’m going to do it the next day. I’ve had to learn to accept that as much as I want to sit and write all day, I simply can’t. Although my writing time isn’t as long as I’d like it to be, I definitely utilize my writing time more efficiently.  

5)   Organize Your Space: If you haven’t done so already, designate a writing space where you can focus without interruption. Ideally, this would be your own office, but if space doesn’t allow, just make sure you avoid choosing a place where you relax like your bed or couch, which can send mix signals to your brain. Your goal is to train your mind to know when it should be in “work mode.” Wherever you choose to work, make sure that the area is well organized and free of clutter and distractions. An organized space = an organized mind. Also, getting the right space might take some experimenting. For me, I absolutely can't work without a view. A view might be too distracting for you though, so you can try facing your desk towards a wall instead. Don't be afraid to experiment. 

Here's my work space. It's simple, neat, and has a great view.

6)   Disconnect: Disable everything! I mean, everything. Close your Internet browser and turn off your cell phone (or at least the notification alerts which ping every time you get an email). Continuously being connected not only interrupts your flow, but the temptation of social media and emails can be too hard to resist. Before you know it you’ve scrolled through dozens of tweets, added five recipes to Pinterest, liked your BFF’s wedding pics, and written zero words of your book. I just read a magazine article that said the average person checks their phone 100 times a day! You don’t need it. Remember, you’ve got a book to write and all those things can wait.

7)   Skip It: If you’re still struggling to find time to write, take a good hard look at where you are spending most of your time. You’re more likely to achieve your writing goals if you skip watching shows and movies, spending hours surfing the Internet, or even reading other people’s books. You don’t need to avoid these things all the time, only when you’re struggling to focus or unable to meet your goals. I use movies as a reward. This motivates me to meet my goals because I have something to look forward to. Chocolate is also an excellent motivator. Whenever I hit a milestone like finishing a first draft, I celebrate by going out to get a piece of pie or cake.

My very own chocolate cake for completing Strange Luck. Yum!

8)   Schedule Social Media in Advance: You’ve already scheduled time to write, but what about social media and blog posts? They're important, too! Queue posts in advance and limit the amount of time you work on these things each day. You might be pleasantly surprised by how much time you’ve freed up.

9)   Motivation: It’s very easy to get down on yourself for not meeting your writing goals. It’s even easier to compare yourself to other authors and ask how the hell they’ve written fifteen books when you can barely get through one. This is another time where you might just need to disconnect. This means you need to stop looking at other authors and what they’ve done or are currently doing, and just write! When I’m having a particularly rough day and don’t want to write at all, I’ll journal or go over to Pinterest and look at some inspirational quotes. After five minutes I feel so much better.

10)   Know When to Step Away: Sometimes you just can’t get in "the zone" no matter what you do. The key here is to pay attention to your body to avoid a possible burnout. If you can, leave your workspace and do something fun or relaxing. Or both. Although it might feel like you’re wasting time initially, breaks can actually refresh your mind and lead to increased creativity. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas while doing something fun.  

Want more tips on how to write a book? Check out my other posts here.

Now you share! What tips or tricks do you utilize to increase your writing productivity?