Recently, I signed up for the Self-PublishingSuccess Summit, which was on from June 12-22nd, put
together by the Self-Publishing School. It was quite intense, with four
sessions a day, and while I didn’t have the time to watch all of the talks, and
many of them were more advanced (dealing with setting up a non-fiction
business, and I am not there yet), it was still very inspiring and packed with
information.
The summit was broken into three phases: writing,
marketing and monetizing. Most of the sessions were geared towards writing and
publishing non-fiction books, but much of the advice, especially in phase 1,
was applicable to fiction writers as well. I took tons of notes and in this
post, I thought I would just highlight a few things I learned that I am hoping
to apply to my own writing, and will be applicable to anyone writing their
first (or even fifth) book.
1. Don’t Wait For Inspiration
Ray Edwards talked about writing everyday on a
schedule, without waiting for inspiration to strike. But then again, some days
you’re on a roll, and the writing is flowing. On those occasions, he cancels
his other appointments and keeps going. This is something that I need to learn,
because whenever it happens to me, I simply get annoyed, do whatever else I
needed to do (usually keep an appointment of some sort) and feel upset because
the feeling of flow didn’t come back the next time I sat down to write. It’s
probably better for me to get the writing done when its going well, and
disappoint some people, than not get it done and just be permanently
cranky.
2. Have A Writing Routine
Almost all of the writers talked about having a
routine, and many of them woke up early just to write, or wrote as soon as they
woke up. Eileen Wilder woke up at 4.30am to go to the gym, and then came home
and wrote for 90 minutes till her kids got up. Jay Papasan mentioned that many
authors write in the morning because that is when our willpower is strongest,
and also once you are done, you get this feeling of having won first thing in
the morning.
3. Try Dictating Your Book
Both Ray Edwards and Lisa Nichols extolled the
benefits of dictation. For Ray, dictation allowed him to get the book’s first
draft done that much quicker. Lisa, on the other hand, as a seasoned public
speaker, was much more comfortable “writing” when she was speaking, because she
didn’t find herself getting hung up on grammar and getting it perfect, and
could focus instead on what she really wanted to say.
4. Focus Deeply When Writing
Writing is a task that requires a lot of
concentration, and it becomes much harder to do, and to do well, when we are
constantly being distracted or interrupted. Cal Newport spoke of the importance
of practicing the skill of concentrating on a task, which gets easier the more
we do it. Conversely, the more we switch from one task to the other, checking
our phone while simultaneously opening the browser to quickly check email and
then switching back to the book, we make it harder for our minds to learn to
concentrate on one task. The writing takes us longer by this method, and is of
poorer quality.
5. Have a System to Save Your Research
Michael Hyatt mentioned this point, that it is
really important to ensure that all your research is safe in one location, when
you sit down to write. His preferred method - Evernote. Joanna Penn in her talk
said she uses Scrivener’s research section to save all the relevant research
for a book. No matter what actual method you use, it is important to make sure
everything is in one place. This is something that sounds obvious, but until I
heard this I realized that I had actually got my research scattered around, and
often forgot to check one of the places for the content I was looking
for.
6. Make an Appointment With Yourself to Write
Jay Papasan (whose talk I loved) talked about the
importance of time blocking and making appointments with yourself. Most of us
tend to make appointments for other people’s priorities, or for things like
doctor’s appointments, and we are pretty good at keeping them. But when we
decide to take on a project like writing a book, somehow we imagine that we
will do it in the small spaces of time around our day, and then are surprised
when it doesn’t happen. Jay’s solution: block out the time you need to write
and make an appointment with yourself to get it done.
7. Creativity is a Muscle
Joanna Penn talked about how when she started out
she wasn’t sure she could write fiction, or whether she would run out of ideas.
But then she discovered that creativity is a muscle, and the more you use it,
the better you get, the more ideas you get. Ask yourself what you’re really
curious about, and if you run out of ideas, do more research.
8. Act Like a Writer
Jeff Goins talked about the mindset of writing.
Some people have rules - you aren’t a writer till you have 3 books published,
or something similar. In his opinion, you’re a writer if you act like one. You
decide when to call yourself a writer, not someone else. This really resonated
with me, because some months when I haven’t been writing as much, I hesitate to
tell people I am a writer. Or when I am feeling down about my book sales, I
think, I can only say I am a writer when I have shown success as a
writer. But the key is that you get to choose, and take action based on your
choice.
There were lots more useful tips and advice that I
learned - generally it was very motivating to hear so many successful authors
share their journey, and I realized how many of them made mistakes, battled
self-doubt and just kept going despite things not being easy. I realized one
thing most of them, if not all the authors interviewed had in common, they made
writing the book a priority, realized that it wouldn’t get done without some
kind of system and plan, and then followed the plan till it was done.
I was really inspired by many of the talks during
the summit, and even though I couldn’t watch them all, I am really glad I made
the time to watch the ones I did, and I am grateful for Chandler Bolt and the
Self-Publishing School for putting it together.
What advice for writing have you read or heard
lately that has inspired you?
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