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How Accountability Decreases Writer’s Overwhelm

Most writer’s don’t like deadlines. In general, they don’t like reporting in to anyone about whether or not they have met their quota of pages or words written per day or per week and they don’t appreciate having to complete a writing project by a certain date—especially since they have a hard time ever feeling like their projects are finished.

Sound like you? Well, let me tell you. Actually, accountability is your best friend when it comes to feeling overwhelmed.

Initially having an accountability partner—someone you check in with periodically about your progress—can feel stressful, as can having a deadline, but once you begin meeting your commitments, you will feel less overwhelmed. Why? Because you will be getting your work done.

So, the next step in decreasing your writer’s overwhelm, and the last part of this series, involves getting yourself an accountability partner. This can be a writing friend or a coach with whom you check in on a regular basis concerning your short and long term goals.

I have always found that being accountable to someone makes me get my work done. I’ve never really liked deadlines, but knowing I have one surely makes me complete my writing work. When I work for a magazine, my editor becomes my accountability partner. If you have a book contract, your editor at the publishing house serves as your accountability partner. If you are a blogger, your readers become your accountability partners; you assume they wait each day or week for you to post your next blog. That’s why blogging a book is such a great way to get your book written quickly. Not only do you have to be disciplined and write your book on a schedule (you have a daily deadline or one set up several times a week), but you have readers waiting for you to publish the next installment who become your accountability partners.

In the absence of these partners, you can hire a writing coach. I have successfully coached clients through the writing of their books simply by being there every week to discuss their progress, strategies for overcoming obstacles, new weekly goals, and generally cheer them on. It’s amazing how quickly people can write a book when they know they are paying someone to keep them on track.

Critique groups, writing buddies or even best friends and family members also can stand in as accountability partners. Simply ask them to hold you to your own deadlines and writing goals. Or, if you are fairly disciplined, simply give yourself deadlines, and then stick to them.

If you utilize the idea of accountability partners and deadlines, you’ll find yourself meeting your writing goals much more quickly and reliably.

Who will be your accountability partner? Think of five people and/or groups that could help you in this manner. When you find one or two to whom you will, indeed, be accountable, check them off the list.

Last, despite most people’s – not just mine – dislike of deadlines, you must set one for your big rocks. If you determine when you want to have this project completed, you are more likely to actually achieve the goal. It’s a proven fact that if we don’t just say, “I want to finish this project this year, “ but rather say, “I want to finish this project by March 30, 2012,” we are more likely to get it done by that date. Therefore, it behooves you to utilize this tool if you want to get your big rocks moved.

So, consider your first big rock that you listed at the beginning of this series. When would you like to complete it? Write down your deadline.

To meet this deadline, when must you start this project? When is your midpoint in the schedule? What must you have done by that point? List any important dates, such as your start date, midpoint date, and other Important dates to move smaller rocks I’ve chipped away from my big rocks.

Then plot all these dates on your calendar and share them with your accountability partner(s). Put the tasks (the rocks) associated with achieving them on your to-do list, and move them as appropriate. In no time, you will achieve your writing goals this year.

I hope you end up feeling less overwhelmed by using the process outlined in this series. Overwhelm is not a nice feeling, and it doesn’t help you get your work done. The process I’ve outlined for you beginning here, however, help you accomplish a lot and feel good in the process. Let me know how it goes. Leave me a comment.

Don’t forget to registering for my free How to Blog a Book teleseminar on April 23 at 5 p.m. PT!  Register here: http://bit.ly/BookLaunchTeleseminar One FREE 30-MINUTE blogging or blog-a-book COACHING SESSION will be given away during the teleseminar! Also, 2 FREE SIGNED COPIES of How to Blog a Book will be given away during the telesminar.

I am offering a 15 minute FREE blog-to-book coaching session for all those who preorder the book before April 24. Just email a copy of your Amazon or B & N receipt to namir(at)copywrightcommunications.com to schedule. (Note the change in date, because the book has not begun shipping yet.) Order here: http://amzn.to/howtoblogabook

For those who purchase a copy ON May 24 (again note the change in date) and send me a receipt (at namir(at)copywrightcommunications.com), I am giving away 2 FREE blog-to-book coaching sessions! Order here: http://amzn.to/howtoblogabook

Reduce Social Media Overwhelm by Blogging Your Book

Now that I have introduced the concept of blogging, I’ve opened up Pandora’s overwhelm box for many writers. Why? Because most writers don’t feel they can get their “real” writing done if they also blog. Not only that, they lump blogging in with all that other social media “stuff,” like social networking, they need to do to promote themselves and their books and create an author’s platform.

Here’s the good news: You can do it all and not feel overwhelmed. You can write your book, blog and promote yourself and your book via social networking, and have time left over. How? By blogging your book.

Here’s how it works:

1. Map out the content for your book.
2. Chunk your content down into post-sized bits.
3. Sit down and write every day, or several times a week, in short increments of time. (You can also write in longer increments less often, if you prefer.)
4. Copy and paste those short bits of writing from your manuscript as blog posts on your blog each time you finish a writing period. (Or break the work you do during your longer writing periods into shorter pieces and post those several times during the week.)
5. Share your blog posts by including links to them with your status updates on your social networks, like Facebook and Twitter.

Pretty simple. You will have your manuscript written in no time flat. As you continuously publish blog posts, you will find yourself gaining fans and followers and your blog moving up in the search engine rankings. That means you will have developed an author’s platform. Not only that, you will have done some simple social networking along the way.

See. I told you it could be done. Write your book, blog, social network—all in one fell swoop with little to no overwhelm at all.  How do I know this? I blogged my book, How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time, in just five months.

How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time is being released tomorrow.
You still have a chance to get in on some of the preorder and release-day deals. Here they are:

Registering for my free How to Blog a Book teleseminar on April 23 at 5 p.m. PT!  Register here: http://bit.ly/BookLaunchTeleseminar One FREE 30-MINUTE blogging or blog-a-book COACHING SESSION will be given away during the teleseminar! Also, 2 FREE SIGNED COPIES of How to Blog a Book will be given away during the telesminar.

I am offering a 15 minute FREE blog-to-book coaching session for all those who preorder before April 23. Just email a copy of your Amazon or B & N receipt to namir(at)copywrightcommunications.com to schedule.

For those who purchase a copy ON May 23 and send me a receipt (at namir(at)copywrightcommunications.com), I am giving away 2 FREE blog-to-book coaching sessions!

Increase Your Discoverability by Decreasing Blog Overwelm

Discoverability. It’s the most important word for an aspiring author to know and to master. The Internet is where everyone and everything gets found today. If someone searching for you, your book or subjects related to your book can’t find you on the Internet, you will remain obscure. Unknown. That’s not what any aspiring author wants. That’s not what a publisher wants in a writer.

The fact that you can’t be found on line when someone searches for you, that you and your book aren’t discoverable, can feel pretty overwhelming, especially if you want to sell books to readers or to publishers. Yet, so many writers fail to develop an online presence. They don’t want to create a blog or a website, both of which provide them with a way to be easily found on the Internet. Why don’t they do so? Because it feels hard. It’s out of the realm of writing. It’s techy and unfamiliar. The task feels overwhelming.

Creating an online presence with a blog doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Today, my webmaster and blogmaster, Linda Lee, offers a few basic tips on how to begin a blog, or a blog website, in a way that will reduce your sense of overwhelm and give you an online presence in no time flat.

How to Find Your Zen While Working Online
By Linda Lee

Finding Zen is this crazy hustle bustle world of working online can be tough. There is a million things going on, distractions galore and then there is our old enemy: fear. People have lots of fear around working online.

Some of the things I hear almost daily are, “I am so stupid with computers,” “I don’t know anything,” and other negative statements. When you work on the computer, no your current skill set, you need to realize several things:

1. You can do it. (Please do not tell yourself you are stupid, you are not.)
2. Take it one task, one item at a time.
   
3. Take a break when feeling frustrated.
   
4. Google for help. I find answers to almost every problem I run into online by Googling the question.
   
5. Stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish.

I would have to say that the most important thing I have learned the last 13 years working online is to stay focused on what you are trying to achieve. When you work online there are literally millions of things that will be clamoring for your attention. You will suddenly begin to notice all these internet marketing ideas, and “get rich online” messages, and this tool and that tool, and then your friends will start to tell you things you simply must be doing, like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and tons of things you may never even have heard of! Everyone will tell you that they know best, you simply must try this. Paying attention to all these other things will just suck up all your time if you start to listen to everyone. No wonder people get so overwhelmed.

My best tip for you today is to write these two questions down on an index card and post the card somewhere where you see it each day.

1. What am I trying to accomplish online?
2. Is what I am doing right now getting me closer to that goal?
   

This will help you stay focused and not get distracted from your primary purpose. I also suggest that you do not start buying any internet marketing products or go down that path until you have at least gotten a website or a blog up and have spent some time developing some content. This is always the first thing you have to learn, no matter what your goals are. Staying focused on the basics—a blog or website—will allow you to get a little experience before you invest in some of these internet marketing products that have an entirely different learning curve and can be complex and a waste of money.

If you don’t yet have a blog or a website, you might be wondering how to get started—and feeling overwhelmed by the undertaking. I suggest you simply get a WordPress blog. WordPress is the most used blogging and website platform online—and it’s easy to use.

It is best to get your own hosting and domain name and most hosting companies now offer a one-click type of install for WordPress. Once you have that all set up, you will login to your new website and start setting things up. Or if you would like to try it out first and figure things out, you can sign up for a free WordPress website at http://wordpress.com.

At first, it might feel a bit daunting because it is new.  Once you start working on the site and posting and adding pages, it quickly feels more comfortable. However, there is lots of free support online. For instance, I have several websites that offer paid and free training and many short videos on topics such as:

• How to post and write pages
• How to add images
• How to add youtube videos
• How to add keywords, (or tags is what WordPress calls them)

There is quite a bit of help available online and from WordPress itself, too.

As far as the work you do to create an online presence, I encourage you to keep a list of goals and what you are accomplishing each day, so you can track your progress. If you can just get three things a day done on your list to move yourself forward, whatever your field or endeavor, you will be amazed at how quickly things will snowball.

Good luck and stay focused. And don’t forget to take a walk or go outside when you feel overwhelmed. Real life is still out there! And you can find the Zen even as you work online.

About the Author

Linda Lee began her own online business in 1998, and since then her entrepreneurial sensibilities have helped others find their own place on the web. She has uncanny ability to disarm anyone’s computer anxieties. Linda teaches technophobes of all generations, from Millennials to Boomers. She is not your typical techie.  Linda is the founder of Smart Women Stupid Computers and Askmepc-Webdesign, and WordPressBootcamp, She demystifies the online experience. Whether you’re a novice or veteran Internet user, Linda can train you, and help you optimize and monetize your website. She builds custom, easy to manage, user-friendly websites and blogs. Linda also creates tailored-made logos, graphics, and banners. She offers remote training domestically and internationally, helping hundreds of people in China, Australia, England, Scotland, Sweden and Canada. Linda’s clientele includes small and large businesses.

Linda Lee runs monthly live WordPress Bootcamps around the Bay Area, CA. If you are interested in signing up for the upcoming WordPress Bootcamp, please click here: It is Sat, April 21, at Stanford University, from 9-12. In the afternoon session, they have Self Publishing Bootcamp with Carla King and Laurie McLean; get more information on their session here.

Overcoming Your Book and Article Writing Overwhelm

This week I am continuing my series of posts on writer’s overwhelm. I will publish three posts that discuss the three areas I heard writers complain about most often: feeling overwhelmed about their actual writing projects, feeling overwhelmed about the need to start blogging and feeling overwhelmed about the need to spend time on social networking.

Today we start with the overwhelm that comes from tackling a large writing project, like a book. However, some writers might even feel overwhelmed by writing a 2,000 word article. Here’s the trick: Much like chipping large rocks into smaller ones, as discussed in my last post, you want to take your large rock—your book or article—and chip it down into smaller rocks or pebbles. These are much more manageable to lift or move around. They don’t look as intimidating. And you can deal with them one at a time and feel as if you are accomplishing something. In fact, if you move two or three pebbles each day, before you know it, you’ll have a large pile of pebbles on our desk. And in a week or two, you might have moved a medium sized rock. In no time flat, you will have moved that large rock.

The process is simple really. Take your writing project and write down the title or the subject on a piece of paper. Underneath this, write down all the subjects you need to cover. For a book, these might end up being chapters. Break these down into sub-topics. For both a book or an article, these might be subheadings. You can even break these down farther into sub-sub-topics.  Now, start out with whatever feels easiest. You don’t have to start at the beginning if that feels hard. Tackle something that feels manageable and work forward from there. Pick up a pebble and move it. Do this once a day or more often if possible.

For example, maybe you need to conduct some online research or contact someone for an interview. Do that first if it feels easier and manageable. Then write up that part of your project. Or choose to begin writing the chapter that you know the most about.

You also can break your large rocks into smaller ones by taking your table of contents for a book or your basic article structure and then formulating questions you think you need to answer within the context of the project. Ask yourself what your reader wants to know. Once you have questions for each chapter or for the body of the article, simply start answering them one by one. Later, get rid of the questions and edit in transitions. (I find that books and articles set up as a Q & A are not as interesting to read.)

You can take this approach with any writing project and it will work. This weekend at the Truckee Meadows Community College Writer’s Conference, broadcaster and writer David Stipech called tackling writing projects in small increments a The Great Adventure approach. I’ve found the approach very useful. In fact, I applied it to my blogging and blogged a book—actually now I’ve blogged several short books in addition to How to Blog a Book.  Blogging a book—writing 250-500 words a day and publishing it on your blog—utilizes the same idea. You simply break your book into small chunks—blog posts—and write for short periods of time—30 minutes or so (however long it takes you to write 250-500 words)—until you complete your book.

All these approaches have the same effect: They decrease your writer’s overwhelm. So try one out, and tell me how it works for you. Leave me a comment below.

If you feel like it’s too hard to move those rocks alone–or to decide which of your tasks are big rocks or small rocks,
you need an author or book coach.
I can help you Achieve More Inspired Results.
Click here to schedule your free 15-minute coaching session now.

Determining Your Priorities so You Succeed as a Writer

Yesterday I wrote about the need to move big rocks first if you want to stop feeling so overwhelmed. Big rocks equal your priorities—the things you need to get done first to achieve your writing goals. I have a confession to make. No, not the one I already made…that I tend to move the small rocks first. Next to moving small rocks first, the biggest problem I’ve had over the last year or two comes down to setting priorities. All of the things I have to do feel important.

I mean really. How can I decide whether to focus on promotion first or writing first? (I know, a lot of you simply say writing, but this is not necessarily the right answer—at least not for me or those writers who want to become authors.) Without a platform built from promotion, my writing will not sell—not to readers or to publishers. But without writing, I have nothing to sell. Of course, there is blogging; that’s writing and promotion.  When I focus on my blog and all the social networking that kind of goes with it, the book proposals and the books don’t get written. Oh, yeah…and then there is the client work. I can’t forget about that. I do need some income. But I’d also like to spend time on improving my website. And, I almost forgot, there are those information and coaching products I want to create that would support my business and my promotional efforts. Plus, I really need to do more speaking…And the list goes on.

I’ve probably made you feel move overwhelmed. And my list of to-do items may seem crazy, but it’s really not—not if you want to be a published author and an author that makes money. And many authors feel this same pressure, this same sense that they need to do a good bit, if not all of what’s on my list. Indeed, it is an overwhelming list, and one I live with all the time. That said, you don’t have to do all of these things. And, I had to figure out that I don’t have to do all of the things I feel I need to do all in one day or even in one week. Maybe not even in one month.

Your list may look much different. Whatever is on your list, however, may cause you to feel overwhelmed. To overcome that feeling, learn to prioritize. My husband likes to say, “Put out fires.” Which fires are burning hottest at the moment that you need to extinguish? In other words, which projects simply must get finished now? Maybe you have a deadline to meet or you will miss out on an opportunity if you simply don’t get something done now.

Or look at your fires the opposite way: What fires need some tending—some wood and some air to get them burning hotter? What projects have you left lying around too long? What needs some attention so you finish it? What were you passionate about when you started but possibly got sidetracked from doing?

Personally, I like the rock analogy better because the more rocks you lift, the stronger you get. It’s like psychological weight lifting. It’s a response to what you need to do rather than a reaction to it.  So, let’s go back to moving rocks…

To help you overcome your overwhelm, make a list of your big rocks: the writing, publishing and platform building projects—or anything related to your writing career—most important to you. These are the things you really want or need to accomplish in the next 1-3 months. These can be full-length books or articles or proposals. Maybe you want to start a blog or enhance one you’ve already begun. Maybe you want to begin pursuing radio appearances, join a new social network, spend more time on social networking, or learn how to record and upload YouTube videos. Choose no more than three, and list them in order of importance. You will move the one on the top of the list first. Once you have accomplished that goal, you can move on to the next rock. List them below.

1.

2.

3.

To make those big rocks seem more doable, you now need to chip them into small rocks. Each day you will sit down at your desk and move your big rock. However, you will do this by moving small rocks that make up parts of that big rock. In other words, you will chip that big rock—your priority project—into smaller parts. Each day you will then take on one or more of those smaller rocks. In this way, you will quickly achieve your goal. Below, take your first big rock and chip it into at least five small rocks.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

You can chip these smaller rocks into even smaller rocks. Create another list below of smaller tasks.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Every day, check them off the small rocks you have moved until you have actually moved the large rock. Notice if your sense of overwhelm doesn’t decrease as you get closer and closer to getting something accomplished. Your feeling of overwhelm also should decrease simply by having prioritized and chunked your projects down into more “moveable” pieces.

More next week. In the meantime, why not leave me a comment to tell me about your progress or how this process is working for you?

What Rocks Have to Do with Overcoming Writer’s Overwhelm

I recently ran a survey here on my blog asking my readers to tell me what they struggle with most. (You can still take it.) So far, the largest issue writer’s face is feeling overwhelmed. I can relate. Right now, I not only have client work and four blogs to keep up with, but also articles to write, a blog tour to arrange, constant book promotion (including contacting book reviewers and writing conferences), and a variety of classes to prepare to teach. Then there is the book proposal my agent wants me to finish, the short proposal I wanted to get done as well, and four or five unfinished books I’d like to complete and self-publish. Ack.

Okay, maybe I have more going on than some (most?) writers, but in today’s publishing environment, every serious writer—those that want to become published authors—must be more than just writers. They must be good businesspeople wearing all sorts of hats. They must wear a promotion hat, a sales hat, a copywriter hat, a teacher’s hat, and a social media hat.  Indeed, this can feel really overwhelming.

So, for my next few posts—or possibly many posts (however many it takes), I’m going to talk about how to overcome your feeling of overwhelm.

Let’s start by talking about rocks. Yes, rocks. Not long ago I asked someone I know how she managed to get so much done each day since I got so little done. She responded, “I always move the big rocks first.”

What are rocks? The important stuff. Writing deadlines to meet. The projects that fulfill your passion and your purpose. That query letter or proposal an agent asked you to send.

We all have things we have to do. I have a to-do list with about 30 items on it right now. That feels overwhelming. However, some of these are big rocks and some of them are small rocks. A revision of an article is a big rock, for example. I have to get it done today. This blog post is a big rock, since I religiously publish on this blog three days a week. Organizing my blog tour is a big rock, since it has to be ready by the end of the month or so. (I have some personal big rocks on my list, too: Call the doctor for my son.) Small rocks are any to-do items that can wait until tomorrow, next week or next month. Moving rocks is about setting priorities.

Some people move the small rocks first. I must admit, I have a habit of doing this. I like to check and respond to email, handle social networking, make phone calls, and in general take care of the things I find distracting first. Once these are done, I find I can concentrate better on the big rocks. This system, however, does not always serve me well. At the end of the day I have moved many small rocks and few big rocks. Sometimes my blog post gets written at 5 p.m. when it really should have been published in the morning. So, I don’t highly recommend it. Moving big rocks first offers a better approach if you really want to get something accomplished and feel less overwhelmed.

During a two-week period I moved only big rocks first. I was amazed at what I accomplished. Prior to that time I had been moaning and groaning about how I didn’t have time to get any big jobs done. I’d complained about my schedule, my husband working at home, having to drive my son to San Francisco (a three-hour round trip) many days a week, and more…

Guess what? These were excuses. During that two-week period, I gave myself a deadline and some large goals (more on this later). By moving the big rocks first, I achieved my goals and handled just about everything else that came my way — I moved the small rocks, too.

During that period, I managed to:

1. Turn an ebook into a printed book (including editing it and designing the interior and cover)
2. Turn two existing workbooks into printed books (including editing them and designing the interiors and covers)
3. Redesign five covers of workbooks or booklets
4. Create a new workbook (including writing it and designing the interior and cover)
5. Do a radio interview with one day notice
6. Handle several time-time consuming requests form an acquisition editor
7. Coach two clients
8. Upload a new product to Smashwords
9. Create three new workshops and prepare all the materials to go with them
10. Speak to a group of writers
11. Update my two websites

This past summer I landed a traditional book deal for my book, How to Blog a Book. However, when I saw the deadline for finishing the manuscript, I realized I had only three weeks to actually get the work done. Prior commitments forced me to finish writing and revising the book in less than half the time allowed. How did I do this? I made writing the book my only big rock for those three weeks. And, guess what? I finished the manuscript with no problem.

Moving big rocks makes you stronger. It makes you feel less overwhelmed because each time you move one of them you can check it off your to-do list and that list gets shorter and populated with more small rocks and less big rocks. This makes you feel more successful, more able to move more big rocks tomorrow.

If you feel like it’s too hard to move those rocks alone–or to decide which of your tasks are big rocks or small rocks,
you need an author or book coach.
I can help you Achieve More Inspired Results.
Click here to schedule your free 15-minute coaching session now.

You Can Blog a (Short) Book in a Month

I don’t normally do too much cross promotion between my blogs, but I though some of you might like to try your hand at blogging a book in a month. Over at How to Blog a Book (the blog, not the book) we are having some fun blogging short books in 30 days during National Book Blogging Month (NaBoBloMo). Never heard of this event before? Well, that’s because I created it.

I figured spring was in the air. New creations can be found everywhere  in the natural world. Why not in the physical world as well? And why not before summer, when we all get busy and don’t get around to starting or completing our writing projects?

And where better to quickly create a short book but on your blog? Nowhere that I know of. By writing and publishing a post of 250-1,000 words for 30 days, or even just for the remainder of the month, you can complete a short book, like a tip book, a step book, a booklet, or even a workbook, handbook, white paper, or manifesto. It will only take you about an hour a day or less, depending on the length of your post.

The reason we are only writing short books, and not long books, is simple. The concept behind blogging a book involves blogging over time to not only get your book written but to also build an author’s platform–a readership for your book. You can’t do that in just 30 days. At least the average blogger can’t. So, the goal is simply to use your blog as a way to write your book fast. I want you to just produce a short book fast, or, more accurately, the first draft of your book.

When you are done, you can enter my contest: If you’ve completed at least a 7,500-word manuscript in a month, submit it to me to win a FREE, signed copy of How to Blog a Book, the book. Include a table of contents, a 50-word pitch, and an overview of the book (synopsis). It must arrive by 12 p.m. 4/30/12 Pacific Time.  Email it to me at nina (at) ninaamir (dot) com. I’ll choose the most interesting and marketable idea–or the one that strikes me in some way as the most unique–to win the copy of my new book.

In the meantime, check out the great info on how to blog a short book fast over at How to Blog a Book. And don’t forget to preorder a copy of the book; when you do you get a free 15-minute blog-to-book coaching session. Get the details here.

Writing about Holidays Pays Off

I started writing this post this morning. Then I had to stop and clean up the house. I came back to my desk and started writing again. Then I had to go make matzoh balls. Then I came back and tried to finish. I got up again to make chicken soup and something called charoset, which involved cutting up a lot of apples. I also set the table. In a few minutes I have to go shower or I won’t be ready when our company comes over.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I was getting ready for the Jewish holiday of Passover, and my lack of time to write this blog post reminded me that I also should have written a blog post about Passover on my other blog. Why? Because posts about holidays are like evergreen articles in magazines. You can always write another one, and they always garner readers. And they not only bring in readers when you first write them but year after year after year.

So, always take time to write a post about a holiday. Each time you write one, choose a new angle. Tie it into the news. Tie it into your life. Make it fresh and interesting.

Each year, include links to past blog posts about that holiday in your current post on that holiday. That way your readers will know where to go to read similar pieces.

You won’t be sorry. Each year you will see a ton of traffic coming to your website or blog for weeks prior to the holiday. And those same readers may stick around to read your posts the rest of the year as well.

Write What You Love, The Money Will Follow

When I was in college at Syracuse University, I as not allowed to just study magazine journalism. I had to have a concentration in another topic–something I could actually write about. I chose psychology. Thinking back on this choice now I see how this reflected my love of everything to do with human potential and self-improvement. I wanted to go to work for a magazine like Psychology Today or Self. If O Magazine had existed, that would have been my top choice.

The professors there at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications knew their stuff. They understood that you to succeed as a writer you needed to be an expert in something, to know enough about a topic to actually prove to an editor you were the right person for the assignment or for the job. However, there’s more to it than that.

If you choose to write about a topic you feel passionate about, a topic you love or that you are really interested in, you are more likely to succeed as a writer. Why? Because your passion will shine through in your writing. And you will feel inspired every day to get up and seek out more work, write more and promote what you do. People will pay for that passion.

Long ago I read a book called Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood. Over the years, I’ve thought about that book. For the most part, I do a lot of what I love…but not enough. I write, that’s for sure. But I don’t always write about what I love. How about you? Do you write about what you love? When you do, does the money follow? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Can You Make a Living as a Writer?

I’ve worked as a writer and an editor ever since I graduated from college. Much of that time, but not all, I supported myself. Once my children were born I began allowing my husband to support me and my family. I was lucky that I had that option. I still worked and brought in money as a writer and editor, but I didn’t have to pay all the bills. Not every writer has that luxury. That said, we could have used a larger income from my writing and editing over the last 10 years that we have lived in California, and I’ve had some trouble increasing my income.

That begs the question, can you make a living as a writer? Yes, you can. It’s not easy. It takes work. You must believe you can. And you must take action.

I’m not a good example to follow. I made the choice to focus a ton of my time on building platform, and I didn’t totally know what I was doing. (I also raised two stepkids and my own two kids along the way, but many writers must do similar things.) I spent more time on platform building than was necessary; my platform building could have been done more effectively.  And I could have done more writing that would have amounted to paychecks and advances; this might also have amounted to platform as I accrued more readers.

As always, hindsight is 20-20. Today, my vision seems pretty clear. Here are a 6 lessons I’ve learned from my past that I’ll be putting to use as I move forward:

1. When you get a book idea, write the damn book. Yeah, go ahead and write a book proposal if you want to try for a traditional publishing deal, but write the book while you are waiting to hear form an agent or acquisitions editor. And if you don’t hear by the time you are done, get the book edited and designed, publish it and go on to the next project. I’ve got at least seven or eight books started or published in a condensed form (which means unfinished) that never got written because I was waiting for someone to back me or approve my idea. All of those books could be providing me with some sort of sales by now (meaning money and platform).
2. Do what you do best and what you love. I stopped writing articles, which is what I’m trained to do (I’m a magazine journalist). In other words, I turned away from what I do best: writing. And I stopped writing about the subjects I love most. And then I wondered why I never made that much money. Duh. Follow your passion. Write what you know and about what interests you. There is money to be made writing articles. I just turned in a piece that took me maybe 10-12 hours to write, and I’ll receive $1000 for that effort. Not too shabby. And there is money to made in writing books if you write enough of them.
3. Trust your gut. Everyone always tells me I’m spread to thin. I do too many things. As a writer, you can make more money by writing about a variety of topics. Yes, specializing is good, but specialize in a few areas. Plus, its more interesting.
4. Learn something new all the time and put it to use. I’m constantly learning. I can’t hardly put everything I read and hear to use, but I try. I have a huge list of things I want to do, should do, must try. Try one a day or one a week or one a month. This is especially true when it comes to platform building.
5. Don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes. I’ve made a bunch of mistakes. I tend to rush into things without knowing all the facts, to try things without reading the manual, to publish stuff without utilizing a proofreader (even though I say you should have a proofreader). I’m always in a hurry to get moving, try something, do something, get to my end result, achieve my goal. So, I sometimes fail. I have typos. Oh well. So what. I get a lot done.
6. Never say can’t and there is no such thing as “try.” I’m a perpetual optimist. I believe our thoughts are creative. I believe we create our own reality. I believe every challenge is an opportunity. Can you make a living as a writer? Of course, you can. Believe it. And go make it happen. Combine your passion and your purpose. Get inspired. Take action. Do it.

I was inspired today to write this post by something I read–three posts by literary agent Rachel Gardner–about how to make a living as a writer. In particular I was struck by the post about volume–and the fact that I have not written so many of my books. Shame on me. I suggest you read all three of them. They are well worth your time. You can find them here:

Make a Living as a Writer Part 1
Make a Living as a Writer Part 2
Make a Living as a Writer Part 3