The idea of marginalia (notes written in the margins of a print book) will either make you recoil in horror, or nod sagely because you’re already a compulsive note-taker. This excerpt from Mortimer Adler’s How To Read A Book is worth your consideration: When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, […]
Marginalia and the Fiction Author Read More »
How often do you think, even in the back of your brain, “I’m too busy to write!”? Especially if you are working any sort of alternative revenue stream, or have a day job, writing becomes much easier to off-load with the justification that this thing over here is paying the bills and deserves your attention.
Busy Is Good. Busy is GREAT. Read More »
One of the most-visited posts on this site is “5 Types Of Writing Sprints – And Why You Need This Tool“, with “Tailor Writing Sprints to Maximize Flow” a close second, along with “Increasing Your Hourly Word Rate“. They all deal with word sprints. Word Sprints are exactly what they sound like. Writing at maximum
A New Type of Sprint! — Graduated Word Sprints. Read More »
The Fine Art of Schedule Compromises: How to Eat Your Cake and Have It, Too. In The Productive Indie Fiction Writer, when I spoke about writing schedules, I made the observation that you can do anything you want…you just can’t do everything you want. In order to keep your daily routine from blowing out, to
The Fine Art of Schedule Compromises Read More »
Just Starting is a way around procrastinating, a way to make yourself write when you should. I mention “Just Start” a lot because it works. It is one of my most effective…tools. Hacks. Tactics. I’ve spoken about it here, here, and here, and more indirectly in many other posts on The Productive Indie Fiction Writer.
The Definitive “Just Start” Strategy To Get You Writing. Read More »
I had an interesting chat with an author the other day. They said, in part, “I’m not sure if I’m relieved or worried that an author as advanced as you still brings up the fact that she also has problems with this self-discipline thing.” This was in response to my post about self-discipline. I was
I am a perfect machine. My self-discipline is extraordinary. Read More »
We indie fiction writers are shafted by the nature of our business. Nearly everything we do takes forever. A novel can take weeks or months (or years!) to write. Building your back catalogue takes years. Marketing is a long term strategy that takes months or years to pay off. Once you’ve figured out what habits
A Powerful Tactic to Achieve Almost Anything Read More »
This is an old adage, but I wanted to circle back to it today, because it’s the beginning of the year, and we’re getting close to the point where most New Year’s Resolutions drop off a cliff. (Generally, that’s somewhere in February.) White knuckling your way through writing sessions, just hanging in there until you
Learn to Love Writing, Not “Having Written” Read More »
I’ve had a long-running, on-again-off-again affair with self-discipline. I admire the iron discipline of dancers, and would love to have that sort of discipline myself. I’ve been working on it all my life. “Success” methodologies have been around since Victorian times, but my first introduction to the idea of creating one’s own success was in
Let’s Pull Self-Discipline Off the Garbage Heap Read More »
One of my terrible tendencies is that I’m a relapsing/remitting Perfectionist. So, writing about planning for the new year, in the New Year, instead of December 2023, makes me itchy and uncomfortable. Because planning now, my perfectionist brain argues, ruins the year. The year has already started, and now it’s already a mess because the
How to Review Your Business & Plan for This Year Read More »
