Quick. Yes or no? Have you ever had to wait for something exciting–a live concert, a movie, a favorite meal, a new purchase–say, a new piece of technology, or new clothes or a grown-up toy like a new car? Something that you really, really wanted, that you had to wait for, and while you were […]
A Big Bat for When You REALLY Need Help to Write Read More »
I found myself in the ER of my local hospital early last week. It ended up that all the really scary possibilities hovering over me while I waited to see the doctors didn’t happen (and my lord, ERs in the middle of a pandemic are scary places!!). What did happen was that I learned…I suspect
How to Reset and Recover from Life Rolls, Disasters, and Bouts of High Resistance Read More »
This is not a post to harangue you and make you feel guilty because you don’t exercise. But it IS about exercise and movement, and some of the unexpected benefits for indie fiction authors. I’ve ducked writing a post of this sort since I set up the Productive Indie Fiction Writer site, mainly because I’m
Why You Might Want to Start Moving More Read More »
Michael Crichton is my hero. I only just found out. Here’s why: I get a lot of email from authors asking how many words a day they should be writing. I confess that the question puzzles me and I’ve hedge and hummed and fumbled to find a useful answer because the real answer is: “Whatever
What Your Daily Word Count Should Be Read More »
For a long time, now, I have spoken of “Just Starting” (here and here and a lot of other posts, too) as a way of overcoming your resistance to getting into a writing session. The basic approach I have, whenever Resistance shows up, and if I don’t fall prey to it, is to tell myself:
Just Start — Let’s Revisit This Idea Read More »
I came across a journal entry from 2018 recently that made me nod even more fervently than I did when I wrote it. I’ve cleaned it up and add it below for you to ponder upon. About using the time you have, now. I wish, I wish, I wish I had understood this when I
Using the Time You Have Now Read More »
Queen Elizabeth II called 1992 her “Annus Horribilis”. She had endured the collapse of three of her children’s marriages (Anne, Andrew and Charles), a fire that burned down part of Windsor Castle, and other extraordinary stresses. Many people ascribe the invention of the Latin phrase to the Queen, but in fact it was the Roman
What is your 2021 looking like? Read More »
This post is a bit of an outlier, although it does have some relevance to productivity and prolificacy. I read Advantage: Harnessing Cumulative Advantage In The Winner Takes All Publishing Market in one sitting. It’s dense. It has charts and graphs and footnotes. It is not prescriptive (you have to deconstruct it carefully to figure
How to Woo Cumulative Advantage Read More »
Recently, I wrote a post “What Prolific Should Mean“, and mentioned that there are ways to increase your hourly word rate so that, no matter what speed you’re writing at (dead slow, marathon or white-knuckling it), you’re producing more words per hour than you used to. As this entire site is dedicated to helping you
Increasing Your Hourly Word Rate Read More »
I’ve had some emails lately asking, more or less, what “fast” really means. Author A, over there, they say, produces a book a week–which is fast by anyone’s estimation. While Author B over here does a book a year and the media laud him as prolific and fabulous. So I thought I’d take another stab
What Prolific Should Mean Read More »
