focus

7 Paths from Busy to Productive

Published on by Kristi Holl

productiveAre you as productive as you’d like to be?

Earlier this week, we looked at the differences between being busy and being productive. Our time and energy are precious to us. When we spend both, we want results. Spinning our wheels uses time and energy too, but that depletes us, whereas being productive with our time and energy leaves us energized

So, how can we redeem our time, making sure that our time is invested and not wasted?

1. Monitor Your Thoughts

First, think about what you’re thinking about. Your thoughts about your writing create your feelings about it, and how you feel determines the actions you take. And, of course, your actions will determine the results you have at the end of your writing time.

For me, many times when I sit down to write a scene or chapter, I suddenly think it’s a boring or dumb idea and no one will like it. If I don’t interrupt my thinking right there and contradict that “stinking thinking,” my emotional reaction is to continue to feel that way until I want to procrastinate with “networking” Facebook or “researching” YouTube videos, or watching a show on Britbox or AcornTV. My thoughts tell me that I don’t have to write yet. It offers me a way to avoid dealing with my fear that my book idea is only interesting to me. This happens more times than I can count, and especially if I’m at a challenging point, or doing a rough draft, which is the scariest for me. I can so easily slip from my productive writing plans into busy work and distraction.

Most days I plan on having to do a “thought detox” when I get started. I know it’s probably coming. Each person must deal with their negative thoughts in their own way. For me, it works best if I pray, reaffirm that God is helping me create, and trusting Him with the outcome. Then I get to work. The sooner in the day you do the mental detox, the sooner you will be productive. You’ll also sidestep the anxiety and procrastination and addictive eating or Netflix bingeing. Too many days I’ve wasted most of the day planning to write but indulging anxious feelings first, then being disgusted with myself, then finally working on my stinking thinking, and getting down to writing about 4:00 in the afternoon. I’ll write 1-2,000 words and kick myself for not beginning much earlier and writing three times as much. What a waste of a writing day!

2. Set Self-Imposed Specific Deadlines

This trick pertains to those writing under contract as much as those writing on spec or who are self-publishing. It’s basic human nature. If you give yourself two years to write a book, it will take you two years. If you give yourself four months to write a book and that’s all you can give, it will take you four months. (Get used to deadlines. You won’t say to an editor, “Let’s leave the deadline in the contract blank, because I don’t know how long this will take.”)

You might think setting deadlines like that won’t work, but it’s just like when you were in school. You had two weeks to get a paper done, or you had two weeks to get the book read. How did you know how long it would take you to get that paper written? When was it due? That’s how long it took you. You have to treat self-created deadlines the same way.

Studies have repeatedly shown that when you give yourself a shorter amount of time to produce a result, it’s much more energizing and enjoyable. Bear that in mind when creating your deadlines. Giving myself two hours to write 2,000 words is much more energizing than giving myself all day to do it. It will take all day then, interspersed with lots of procrastinating which makes me even more tired in the end. With a shorter time deadline, there’s no time for stressing and confusion and procrastination, then making yourself get back to work. You just get to the writing and whiz along usually.

3. Break It Down: Daily and Hourly NON-Negotiable Deadlines

To improve productivity, set tighter production deadlines every day. Example: “I’ll write this blog post in two hours.” (Or “I’ll proofread three chapters” or “write 2,000 words” in two hours.) Then close out all your apps, set a timer, and go! It’s a mindset, a thought choice. You already have the skill of creating non-negotiable deals and deadlines with yourself. At one point, many of us made a non-negotiable deal with ourselves that said, “If my baby is hungry or has a messy diaper, I will always feed her and change her as soon as possible.” We didn’t have to keep negotiating with ourselves every few days when we didn’t want to get out of bed in the middle of the night.

We’ve made similar non-negotiable deals with ourselves about all kinds of things, from being faithful to a spouse, to paying rent on time (whether we felt like it at the moment or not, whether or not we were tired, and whether or not we just wanted to do something else.) Making non-negotiable deals with yourself and keeping your word to yourself is a skill you already have. Think about how you use that skill in other areas of your life. Then apply that skill to your writing.

4. Make Results-Focused Task Lists

To be more productive, don’t create a to-do list that has you spend time doing something, like “spend two hours on marketing.” That’s an invitation to busy work, not useful for productivity. You don’t want to just spend activity time—you want to produce a result. Instead of “spend two hours on marketing,” your to-do list item for those two hours might read, “write a blog post, find two more agents to query, and announce my new blog post on Facebook.” If you focus on results, you will be more efficient with your time and not get sidetracked on Facebook reading everyone else’s posts. Always focus on results, not time spent. (Your result might be words written or revised, pages of research for your novel, lessons done from a book you’re studying on craft, etc.) Save your browsing of social media for after your work is done.

I used to have on my calendar things like “study character book two hours.” It’s interesting and helpful to learn new information, but unless I actually do the exercises at the end of each chapter and apply what I learn to my WIP, I find the time hasn’t been very productive. (Remember, we’re talking here about producing results.) Taking in information, via books or podcasts or blogs, certainly can have value, depending on what you’re reading. But it’s so easy for those of us who love books and information to fool ourselves into thinking we’ve had a productive day because we read James Scott Bell’s most recent plotting book. It might have been good, it might potentially help us write better, but we haven’t actually produced anything simply by reading. I AM VERY GUILTY OF THIS. I would so much rather read about writing than write! It makes me FEEL productive without actually having to produce anything. I LOVE books about writing—I have so many that I could open a store all by myself. But I learned that I had to leave them as a treat or reward AFTER the daily writing got done if I’m only going to read them.

5. Eliminate Distractions To Be Productive.

Productive writers allow themselves very little or no time to indulge in stress or confusion. They don’t check Facebook, or turn on the TV. You give yourself one hour to revise four pages of your novel, you sit down and you get it done. And you’re very focused because there’s that timer going. See also I’m Losing My Mind and Your Phone Habit OR Your Writing Life: It’s Your Choice for dealing with smartphone distractions. I use Internet blocking apps too, like Freedom software and Anti-Social software (both free).

Oddly enough, I find that my 2,000 words written in two hours is just as good as the same amount produced over an entire day or week. When you give yourself a time frame, your alertness goes up, your focus intensifies, your productivity increases. You feel efficient. So, try it out. Race the clock. Set a timer and give yourself half an hour to flesh out a character for your book. Will it be complete in half an hour? No. You’ll add to it later, but you’ll have something solid to work with.

6. Plan. Plan. Plan Some More.

To be productive, plan before you take action. Starting faster doesn’t get it done faster if you don’t have a plan. This isn’t an “outlining vs. writing by the seat of your pants” issue. Pantsers have to make plans, or they would miss deadlines right and left too. No matter what your writing style is, no one meets deadlines without specific plans of what they intend to accomplish on any given writing day. If there’s something you don’t know how to do, then your plan includes researching how to do it, and the timeframe for accomplishing that. You don’t want to write from a pressured last-minute state—it’s like writing with a gun to your head—but from a planned and energized state. You’ll enjoy the writing more and be doubly productive.

7. Work Hard. Play Hard.

Studies show that the most productive people—not just writers—alternate working hard with playing hard. The most productive writers I know alternate short work periods (30-60 minutes) with decent rest or play periods (30 minutes). The rest or play can be anything rejuvenating that you look forward to: half an hour of a favorite show, a walk outside, relaxing with a fiction book of someone else’s, etc. (You don’t count things like folding laundry or loading the dishwasher as a break. It might be a break from sitting and writing, and you might untangle a plot problem that way, but it won’t rejuvenate you or energize you. It’s just a different kind of work.) Work hard. Rest or play hard. Work creates results. Rest creates energy. Rinse and repeat.

Most of us—me included—can do twice as much writing as we’re already doing. We’re all working on lots of things besides writing. We all have challenges in our lives that make the writing harder at times. I wouldn’t say that without the experience to back it up. Big challenges come in our personal lives, our work lives, and our health. If you continue to write long enough, you will probably deal with them all. But learning some productivity habits—knowing how to get results from the time and energy you invest—will keep you in the writing game.

 

A Parent’s (or Grandparent’s) Writing Schedule

Published on by Kristi Holl

With summer vacation upon us, it seemed like a good time to revisit the subject of writing when you are involved with children or grandchildren.

When my children were small–and even as they grew older–I struggled to find a writing schedule that worked most days of the week. After much trial and error, I would hit upon a schedule that allowed me to write nearly two hours per day.

Bliss–but boy, was it temporary!

Not For Long

That “bliss” lasted a very short time usually–until I once again had morning sickness, or someone was teething, or my husband switched to working nights, or someone started school, or someone else went out for three extra-curricular activities and we lived in the car after school and weekends.

It was many years before I realized there is no one right way to schedule your writing. The “right way” (by my own definition) is simply the schedule that allows me to get some writing done on a regular basis.

[For the five types of parent-writing schedules, read the rest of the article. This is an excerpt from More Writer’s First Aid.]  

Beware the Fuzzies–and Focus!

Published on by Kristi Holl

“How’s your focus?” It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with lately.

Last year my calendar was so full of very good things, but I was frequently exhausted and vaguely dissatisfied. (Well, not vaguely actually. It was a very pointed dissatisfaction with the amount of writing I finished on any given day.)

My children were grown and on their own. I had long ago given up time wasters (TV viewing, hanging on the telephone) and most hobbies (quilting, gardening), and yet…the struggle to write for quality periods of time persisted.

A Busy Blur

A recent sermon gave me a lot to think about. “Beware of living your life without focus,” he said. He talked about how often we substitute being busy for being focused. He finished by challenging us to really give this prayerful thought.

I wrote down his questions and applied them to my writing life:

  • Do you know where you’re going?
  • If you stay on the road you’re on, where is it leading?
  • (And my own corollary question: Are you busy qualifying yourself for a writing life you don’t want?)

Pull Back for Better Focus

You may need to get an overview of how you spend your time before you can answer those questions. It can be an eye-opening exercise to keep track of your activities, hour by hour, for a week or two. For example, you might truly believe that you spend two hours writing every day, plus one hour marketing, and a fourth hour studying. [That’s what I thought I was doing.]

After keeping track, you might find you actually write twenty minutes, but stop frequently to check email. Your marketing hour might actually be spent reading about marketing methods, but not truly doing any marketing of your own projects. Your hour of studying the magazine article on character development might actually boil down to twenty minutes of study and forty minutes of reading ads or following related links.

Training for What?

You may dream of writing novels, but your time tracker might reveal that your writing time is eaten up by writing free newsletters for two organizations you belong to. Or, if you’re well published, you can’t say no when asked to write an endorsement or review of someone’s new book. (That may not sound like much, but reading the book takes several hours, and a well crafted review takes another hour.) Maybe you haven’t had time to work on your own novel for three days because you’ve been critiquing for other writers or writing guest blogs.

All these things make you feel like you’re furthering your writing career as a novelist–but are you? Or are you busy qualifying yourself for something other than your dream? You’re actually gaining experience as a reviewer, a critiquer, a blogger, and a newsletter writer. (Those are fine jobs, if that’s truly what you want to be doing in the long run.) But if you stay on this road–if you continue to spend a large chunk of your writing time this way–do you like where it will inevitably lead you?

Solution?

Beware the fuzzies! Know what your dreams and goals are. We all have our own criteria for choosing goals–and different methods to determine what we’re supposed to do with our writing gifts. (Prayer and journaling work best for me.)

Once you’ve decided, don’t be vague about how you intend to get where you want to go. And stop being an automatic “yes” to each request, no matter how flattering. You must live on a higher plane–above the constant demands for your time–and say “no” to things that don’t further those goals.

How the Chunky Method Saved My Life

Published on by Kristi Holl

A couple of months ago, after being sick and traveling and meeting two book deadlines, I stalled when given some unwelcome health news which required tests and more tests. I got really, really behind on an adult mystery, and for hours I would struggle to write, only to throw it all out at the end of the day.

I was used to writing in 90-minute or two-hour blocks, taking a break, then doing it all again. I’d used that schedule for years, since I no longer have small children living with me. But sickness and burn-out had taken their toll, and I wouldn’t make my deadline at the rate I was going.

Enter the Chunky Method!

I had signed up to attend a Saturday writing workshop, and I was eager to be around other writers t. The speaker, Allie Pleiter, was to talk about her book, The Chunky Method Handbook: Your Step-By-Step Plan to Write That Book Even When Life Gets in the Way. To be honest, I didn’t expect to learn anything really new. I just wanted to be encouraged.

I got so much more!

In a Nutshell

Based on our personalities, our lifestyles, our season of life (small children, day job, retired empty nester) and our health, we all write in different “chunks.” By Allie’s definition, a chunk of writing is what you can comfortably do in one sitting, stopping when you pass the point of “this writing is good” into “the writing I’m doing now will have to be tossed out because it stinks.” She had a test for determining the length of your natural chunk. Big and little chunks are equally valuable.

Frankly, I was going to skip the test when I got home and move on to the rest of her book. I had to get busy! Anyway, my natural chunk for years had been about 90 minutes, or about 1500 words. I knew that already. But was it anymore? My writing life was certainly no longer working.

Back to the Drawing Board

I decided to do the chunky test. (You’re supposed to do this five days in a row, one chunk per day.) I didn’t have five days to use for this, so I did four chunks spread throughout a day. I was careful to stop when I felt too tired to keep going productively. Big discovery!

My chunk had shrunk!

I wasn’t able to comfortably write 1500 words at a sitting. My four chunks averaged only 500 words, and my sitting was only 45 minutes. At first I was really dismayed. I was too far behind to write the novel in 500-word chunks. Or so I thought.

I had nothing to lose by trying this method of writing my “comfortable chunk,” then resting a good while, then doing another “comfortable chunk,” and so on throughout the day.

Changing It Up

It worked! Before the Chunky Method workshop, my struggles had only produced about 1200 words per day, and sometimes not that much. Using the Chunky Method, I was able to average about 5,000 words per day rough draft, and some days nearly 8,000 words. And with the rest breaks between the chunks, where I walked or just went outside, I wasn’t stiff and sore or even very tired in the evenings. [NOTE: Determining your “chunk” is just the first step in the Chunky Method. I would tell you more, but I don’t want to plagiarize her book.]

Because I was writing so close to the deadline, I followed my own advice and got a paid critique from a writer I know and trust who has written award-winning mysteries. (Thank you, Mary Blount Christian!) After revising according to her excellent critique, I was able to turn in the manuscript on time. (And very little revision was requested by the editor this time too.)

So, in case you’re stuck, or you’re trying to write in the midst of stressful circumstances, I’d encourage you to buy The Chunky Method. It could change your writing life. It sure did mine!

The Completion Stage

Published on by Kristi Holl

The past two weeks, I’ve talked about the stages we go through in our writing projects, including the challenges at each stage and ways to keep from derailing. After we have prepared the work-in-progress, let it germinate, worked on it, then deepened and shaped it, we are ready to complete the work.

“There is a completion stage,” Louise de Salvo says in Writing as a Way of Healing, “during which we again revise, revisit, rethink, and refashion. .. Often the drive to finish a work takes precedence over other needs and obligations—like being social or taking showers or eating well.” She said her sons used to call this her “demented stage” because she was so completely involved in her work.

Derail or Finish? That Is the Question

During the completion stage, you can derail your process several ways:

  • If you work needlessly, refusing to let go of your writing project and send it out into the world, your book can fail to be published out of fear. (The “world” can mean your critique partner, your agent, or an editor.) You know in your gut that you’ve made the book as good as you’re able at this point in your learning curve, and that continuing to work on the book is probably not helping it much. In fact, if you keep tinkering needlessly, you can do more harm than good.
  • If you lose interest in your work at this point, you may sadly end up putting the manuscript on a shelf in your closet “to work on later,” only later never comes. Instead of this solution, you must find ways to rekindle your original enthusiasm for your book. If you kept a work journal for this project, go back and read your original notes and hopes for this book.
  • If you become careless during this stage, you might not do the necessary polishing or changing that deep revisions call for. You might settle for a good manuscript or story, but not rise to the excellence you’re capable of at this point in your career. If you find yourself reading through your manuscript and being jolted by certain paragraphs or sentences—yet go on by, hoping no one else will notice the jerky rhythm or unclear sentence—then you’re becoming careless. This can derail your project.

It makes no sense to spend weeks, months, or years writing and then, when finishing, to produce a slovenly, careless effort. During the completion stage, you must fine tune what is there. You must pay attention to detail at this stage. It can be a “slow, meticulous, often plodding process,” says Ms. de Salvo. Yet it is necessary. “Finishing strong is something great athletes learn… Finishing strong is something writers also must learn.”

Celebrating Freedom….for Writers

Published on by Kristi Holl

Sometimes, in order find freedom, you have to take the exit pointed out for you.

Last week was one of those weeks.

And at the end of this post, I’ll share with you a very easy path to the freedom to focus.

Losing Focus

I had reached the middle of a novel, one thoroughly plotted out, mind you, but when I actually analyzed it scene by scene, the plot was quite thin. It needed a subplot to beef up the middle, but it couldn’t be any old subplot. It’s a mystery, so it had to tie in with the main story PLUS add important clues and intrigue. Once added, it also meant going through the whole novel and seeing how the subplot would change all kinds of things.

My solution? Acorn TV! I love British TV, and for $4.99 a month, you can watch all the classics you want. But did it help me plot the sagging middle of my novel? No.

So I stopped watching TV, tried to think of a subplot, and went to check email, then post photos of outings with my grandkids on Facebook, and check the local weather station (even though I didn’t plan to go anywhere.) When I am having trouble with my writing, the Internet is my all-time biggest time waster.

A Semi-Solution Is Not Freedom

The day I had the most trouble, I packed up and went to the library study room where I can’t get their free Internet, for some reason. I got quite a lot done, but someone there was playing video games. It surely left him half deaf because I could hear it perfectly despite his ear buds. And it was so cold in there! I’d forgotten to bring a jacket, a must for anywhere indoors in Texas during the summer months.

I prefer working at home in my office, but I will do what I have to do to concentrate. Today I had the same focusing problem, but I couldn’t leave home this time. We had city inspectors coming to make sure the new doors and windows had been installed properly. And of course, the very busy inspector didn’t come till the end of the day. Did I get any writing done?

YES! A lot! And here’s how.

Best Kind of Freedom

I remembered some software I’d bought a few years ago for a whopping $10 called FREEDOM. It simply blocks the Internet for as long as you choose. I blocked it four hours this morning and could focus so easily then! After lunch and checking email, I blocked it for another three hours and wrote. I haven’t had such a productive day in a long time. When you stop interrupting your own thought processes with tiny snippets of information online, you can actually stick with a writing problem long enough to solve it.

Check it out. The Freedom software is still the same low price; it works on Windows and Mac computers, plus other devices.

Want to restore your freedom to focus? Check it out! (It even comes with an unconditional 60-day money back guarantee.) You can’t go wrong.

Shorter Focus = Successful Writing

Published on by Kristi Holl

I read a very surprising study recently on the differences between marathon runners who finished the race and those who didn’t. All the runners were equally fit and trained and healthy.

So what was the deciding factor in whether they were hardy enough to finish the 26-mile run?

It depended on where they placed their focus.

And it wasn’t at all where I expected!

Letting Go of the Goal

The runners who finished the race all said, in one way or another, that they had to stop focusing on the finish line and focus on the process instead. Rather than telling themselves, “I can’t run ten more miles to the finish line!” they focused on what they could do. They told themselves, “I can take the next step. If I have to slow down and shuffle, I can still take the next step.”

One reason they stopped focusing on the finish line was because it seemed overwhelming, too difficult. But a second reason they stopped focusing on the finish fascinated me: they actually lost speed. Whether they were ahead of the pack or behind everyone, focusing on the finish line made them slow down.

Parallels with Writing

You often see writing a novel compared to running a marathon. It does have many similarities: training, planning, learning specific skills, endurance, perseverance, and daily plodding! So I suspect that where you focus if you want to finish also applies to writers.

I know for a fact that when I focus on the finish line–the day I can say the book is done–that it feels overwhelming. All the work that needs to be done to get there just looks too difficult. And that feeling of being overwhelmed may be what causes us to slow down and procrastinate even starting the daily “workout.”

The Solution?

I expect that the writer’s solution to this is much like the marathon runner’s answer. We need to focus on what I can do right now. Something small that corresponds to the runner’s “next step.” Small steps don’t look overwhelming. They look simple and do-able, if you’ve made them small enough. And we don’t have to be speed demons either. Like the marathon runner, we can “slow down and shuffle,” if we have to.

They say hardiness consists of three personality characteristics: commitment, control, and challenge. Writers with hardiness–marathon writers–outlast other writers. They commit themselves to what they are doing, they believe they can control themselves and their small part in the publishing process, and they believe challenges are a normal part of the process.

Become a Marathon Finisher!

Are you a “hardy” writer? You may not think so because you’ve seen many of your writing goals go by the wayside. But maybe–just maybe–you have all the hardiness you need to be successful. Perhaps you’ve been focusing on the goal too much instead of just taking that next small (slow) step.

If so, learn and apply this easy mental trick of successful marathon runners!

Stage 3: Taking Action

Published on by Kristi Holl

Ready for Stage 3? It’s about taking action.

(First read The Dynamics of Change, Stage 1: Making Up Your Mind, and Stage 2: Committing to Change.)

If you’ve done your homework in Stages 1 and 2, you’re probably more excited about this action phase than you would normally be.

Why? You’re prepared. You’re motivated. You’ve taken obstacles into account already.

You’re primed for success.

Action Steps

As mentioned before, this stage includes several big steps:

  • You must decide when, where and how to start.
  • You must show up to start despite fears and self-doubts.
  • You must focus on each (present) step, rather than focusing on the end (future) goal.

This is the exciting stage because you’re past making excuses and procrastinating and giving in to the fear of change. You’re done rehearsing and experimenting. It’s now time to take action. You take steps on the path that leads to your goal. Note that shift in focus. The daily path is now more important than the end goal. So find ways to make each successful step enjoyable.

Create Action Plans

An action plan is exactly what it sounds like–a written plan to take concrete action steps to perform a behavior that leads to accomplishing your end goal. An action plan involves when you will do something, where you will do it, and how you will do it.

Run this when-where-how scenario through your mind for each step of your action plan. Be detailed. It doesn’t have to take a long time, but this mental rehearsal is immensely helpful. The more detailed the mental rehearsal, the higher the probability that you will actually initiate the behavior.

To help you create action plans, ask yourself these questions:

  • When do you want to start working on your goal? (day and time)
  • Where will you start? (time and place)
  • What specific action step will you take at this time?
  • How will you keep this commitment?

Time to Show Up

Fear and self-doubt can raise their ugly heads when you least expect it. Even when you’re primed and eager to start, fear and anxiety can give you pause. There are many ways to deal with fears and self-doubts. How you choose to deal with them is probably an individual thing. (I start with prayer.)

I keep several books on my shelf such as Ralph Keyes’ two books on fear (The Courage to Write and The Writer’s Book of Hope) and The Now Habit by Neil Fiore on conquering procrastination.

Focus on the Present Step

Focusing on your end goal as motivation to get started causes two problems. First, the end goal (e.g. finish a novel) can just look overwhelming. You want to quit before you start!

The solution? “Focus on what you can do rather than what is out of your control,” says Neil Fiore of Awaken Your Strongest Self. “Switch from thoughts about the goal, which is in the future and is usually overwhelming, to thoughts about what you can do in the present.”

Second, the reward is so far in the future that we feel tired just thinking about waiting that long. A reward many months in the future isn’t much motivation to stick with the writing today.

One solution is making sure you have rewards lined up for every 15- or 30-minute block of time you work on your goal. Publishing a book a year from now won’t get me writing today, but a reward of watching a favorite movie today if I write ten new pages is much more likely to get my fingers to the keyboard.

Small Steps

Take small steps. Reward yourself (with something healthy) for every step you take in direction of your goal. Be your own cheerleader. Each small step will get you warmed up and moving, then help you build momentum.

For more about the importance and brilliance of “mini habits” to beat procrastination, see “Not Enough Willpower?”

NOTE: Don’t stop here. Next time we’ll discuss the final stage–learning to recover from setbacks and maintain momentum.

100% Is a Cinch!

Published on by Kristi Holl

“There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

(Ken Blanchard, author of the best seller The One Minute Manager) 

Without a 100% commitment to anything, you spend so much time (and energy!) every day deciding whether or not to keep the commitment. If you’re truly interested in writing–but not 100% committed–you probably fight with yourself nearly every day over whether or not to stick to your writing disciplines.

I fought that for more than twenty years. Long enough! It was high time the writing and marketing (necessary these days if you want to have a writing career) became absolute non-negotiables.

No Matter What?

What if we lived the rest of our lives the way we live our writing life? Instead of the “should I write today, or shouldn’t I write?” daily hassle, we’d be fighting nearly everything! But we don’t. We make 100% decisions all the time. Examples:

  • I never pass a bank or gas station and fight with myself about whether to pull in and rob them. I don’t steal. Ever. And I don’t intend to. So I don’t have to waste time and energy thinking about it.
  • I don’t agonize over spending money I don’t have. I hate debt–always have. I don’t take on payments, and I don’t intend to. So I don’t have to waste time and energy thinking about it.
  • I don’t agonize over whether to brush my teeth after I eat breakfast. I don’t want my teeth to rot. Ever. And I don’t waste time and energy thinking about it.

Make That 100% Commitment

We all have things we’ve made 100% commitments to: exercise programs, drinking water, tucking our kids into bed every night, not swearing, getting to bed by eleven, praying…you name it. Isn’t it time we made our writing commitments 100% too?

And you know the kicker? Studies have proven that it’s actually far easier to keep a 100% commitment than a partial commitment.

Try it and see for yourself!

How NOT To Be Taken Seriously

Published on by Kristi Holl

If you take yourself seriously, you will be taken seriously.

A common complaint among new writers is that friends and family members don’t take them–or their writing–seriously.

I tell them–truthfully–that the main thing they need to do is convince themselves that they are serious about their writing. Others will pick up on that attitude and start giving them the respect they crave.

Do You Need An Attitude Fix?

If you’re a self-employed, freelance writer, you’re in business. You’re creative–true. But you’re still in business if you want to make income from your writing. And often it is poor business attitudes that keep others from taking you seriously. Do an attitude check with the list below.

Are you harboring these unhelpful attitudes?

1) The “I’ll work when I please” attitude—Most of us are drawn to self-employed writing because we like the idea of being our own bosses. We can work when (and if) we so choose. But if you take this attitude to mean you can meet deadlines if nothing else comes up, you’ll never be taken seriously. It’s one thing to let an editor know you won’t be able to meet a deadline because you’re in the hospital and both arms are in traction. It’s quite another to miss a deadline because you’re hand crafting mini pinatas for your daughter’s birthday party.

2) The “I don’t have the money to be professional” attitude—You have to invest money to make money, say the experts. For example, if you’re advertising your resume-writing business with a brochure, get a good printer or have them professionally done. During the early years, I never had a publisher willing to foot the bill for flyers or bookmarks or other advertising. It came out of my pocket. [This is where I differ from the experts though. I didn’t put anything on a credit card. I have a horrible fear of debt.] Since the family needed my book advances to live on, I would do “extras” to get whatever money I needed to run my office: an extra speech, an extra workshop, an extra critique. And when the “extra” money ran out, I stopped. Perhaps if I had been willing to put things on credit or had more expendable income, I could have increased book sales faster. I don’t know. But I do think you have to spend some  money to get established, even if it’s just for paper and ink. [That was me–I already had my husband’s old college typewriter.]

3) The “I can’t charge more” attitude—Sad, but true. People tend to value what they pay for. Dogs that people pay big bucks for are treated so much better than free dogs from the pound. While you may choose to write or speak for free very early in your career, don’t let that period last long. [The only free stuff I used to do were talks at my children’s schools as my parental/community contribution. I never wrote for free that I can remember. Even now, if I critique for free, it’s because I’m trading with a writer friend who is giving me a free critique also.]

Early in my career I complained to another (more experienced) writer that I didn’t appreciate some of the disrespectful treatment I got at certain schools. Her reply? “Triple your speaking fee. You work too cheap. They’ll value you more.” With much fear and trembling, I did it. She was right too! I got more speaking invitations after that! When schools said they couldn’t afford me, I sympathized about hard times and sent back a list of suggestions about how they might raise the money. [I kept a list of money-making activities other schools had used–bake sales, t-shirt sales, “slave” auctions, sharing the fee with another school, grant writing–and then sent the ideas to people who wanted a freebie or a cheapie.] I tried to be helpful–short of doing a free or cheap school visit. You’ll be treated more professionally if people have to invest in order to enjoy your services.

4) The “I do a lot of things” attitude—When starting out, it’s tempting to dabble in a lot of things, hoping at least one of them will work out. You might write greeting card verse, design websites for other writers, and run a resume service. Or you might want to be a novelist, but you split your time among writing guest blog posts, creating crossword puzzles, entering writing contests, and working on your novel. To be taken seriously, you’ll probably need to decide what you want to do most and then give it 100% of your time and energy (even if 100% of your available time is just one hour per day.)

Be Professional

The next time you get the feeling that people aren’t taking your writing seriously, do an attitude check on yourself. Are you taking yourself seriously?

Start there, and fix that–and I guarantee that others will take their cue from you.