We talked about this a little bit last week when we were talking about organizing your time. Now we want to think a little bit about whether you have everything you need to accomplish your goals.

I don’t mean if you have all of the necessary training or background. Writing is a growth process so you’ll never arrive there. What I mean is just simple things. When you sit down to write do you have the notes that you need?
Do you have your character sketches?
Do you have your copy of Writing The Breakout Novel?
Do you have pictures that you use to help describe your main characters?
Do you have pencils to jot down notes?
Do you have your mouse? Your keyboard? Whatever it is that you use as part of the writing process so you’re not getting up and down out of your seat constantly to get things that you might have forgotten.

Organizing your workspace, as we said in the last post, is not always a matter of eliminating distractions but it’s also including things that will keep you focused and on task.

Till next time, remember to organize your workspace as well as your time.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website atwritingcareercoach.com.

Last post we talked about mentally preparing to write in our writing workspace. Today we’re going to continue with that by looking at ourselves when we’re in our workspace. Think about where it is that you do your work. When I’m sitting at my home desk, as opposed to my office where I do most of my work, my home desk is full of pictures my daughters colored for me. There’s a broken toy that I took away from the dog when it ran under my desk, a necklace I wore yesterday, and an empty bottle for a prescription that needs to be refilled. All of these things remind me of other tasks that need to be done. Whether it’s picking up my clutter, putting away my jewelry or getting that prescription picked up, all of these things will pull me out of the writing zone if I allow them. That’s why it is so important to minimize the amount of things that you keep in the area where you are going to work.

Just as certain things on your desk can cause your mind to stray, you can minimize distractions by introducing things that are going to keep you focused on your writing. For example, I have the book The Elements of Style sitting next to my laptop. I have my good luck eraser that I play with whenever I’m trying to think through a scene. I have my hair clip that I always keep next to me so that I don’t have to get up if my hair starts to fall in my face, and I have my character sketches and notes for the stories that I’m currently working on.

By introducing things that I use in my writing and excluding those things that I use as a mom and wife, I am able to more focus my time and organize my space. This allows me to get the most out of my writing time.

So what is it that you are currently putting around you when you are writing? Are they things that are helping you? Or is your workspace full of distractions? Consider these questions this week and make adjustments as necessary so that you can better organize your time as a writer.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website atwritingcareercoach.com.

In keeping with our theme we are now going to move from organizing our time to organizing our writing workspace. There are three ways that you need to organize your workspace.
• You need to mentally organize your work space.
• You need to organize your workspace to minimize distractions and maximize efficiency.
• And you need to know what you’re going to do each day.

Today we’re going to look at the mental aspect of organizing your writing time.

Where is it that you work? This space can be a separate office or a space at your kitchen table. Wherever it is, make that place your office. Mentally prepare yourself so that is where you write. It may seem odd, but when I was in college I read a study about the brain. It said that studying in your bedroom actually can cause problems with sleeping because your brain becomes trained to study in that place. Our brain associates different spaces with different activities.

The more I learned about that, the more I recognized the truth of that. Think about when you’re heading to work, how you’re mentally shifting. When you move from work to school, school to church, or church to sports event, think about the different ways that you change physically, mentally, emotionally with each place. This same holds true as you prepare to write. Mentally you need to recognize a single spot, even if it’s the same place where you eat. You need to train your brain to be in writing mode when you are there with your writing supplies.

The next thing you need to do is warm up your mind. That means you begin to think about what you’re going to write as you get ready to go write. If you’re working on a novel, start playing scenes in your head. If your writing an article, think about the previous articles you’ve written or the interview you just did. Put your brain in the writing frame of mind instead of sitting down at your computer cold.

Whenever possible write the same things at the same time of day. When I began writing I had a newborn, a 2 year old and a 4 year old. I caught writing time between naps and diaper changes. I was able to write my first full novel in two months during that time because I worked the story through when I was feeding one of the babies or watching Barney for the 900th time.

Next time we’re going to deal with minimizing distractions, but for today take some time to determine where it is you’re going to work if you don’t already have that. If you do, look around that workspace and see what kinds of things that are currently distracting you from getting your writing work done. Is it set up in a way that’s conducive to accomplishing your goals? Then mentally prepare. And get writing.

 Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Over the last few blogs we’ve looked at ways to organize your time so that you can better accomplish your goals. Today we’re going to talk about the importance of not working.

It is important to schedule breaks to give yourself a mental letdown and also to prevent extremes in your work time.

Think about if you don’t let your kids have candy at all. What happens as soon as Halloween or Easter comes around? They are attacking the candy boxes. Or if you never let yourself have sweets. What happens if you go to a party? You overindulge. This same thing is true with breaks. Now I am very guilty of going for five or six straight hours of focus on a single project. The problem is when I run 14 hrs a day, 6 days a week for months at a time I eventually crash. That is not an effective time management tool.

What is better is a system I learned in High School. The work cycle involves focusing on a single task for  45 minutes then taking a 10-15 minute break. And that seems to be pretty consistent for most people, forty-five minutes to sixty minutes at a stretch. If you need more breaks then work on multiple projects during that 45 minutes rather than taking more breaks. If you’re working on books and articles, switching it up between projects so that you can keep your brain alert is fine.

The right kind of break
Now, what should you do during break?
• Stand up, get away from the computer. Keep your blood flowing, keep your body moving; do some stretches; move your arms. Get the blood flowing again so that your brain can become alert.
• Walk down the hall and get a drink of water. This will help your health and your mental alertness.
I drink water during my fifteen minutes, walk down the hall and then pace around my desk when I’m at my office. When I’m working from my home office I actually do away with breaks because my kids help me have breaks. [ha-ha, but working from home is a topic for another day]

To recap these last few blogs, to effectively organize your time you need to:
• you need to create office hours and respect them.
• You need to define what your daily success goals are and recognize how they play a part in your long-term writing.
• And schedule your breaks so that you can stay mentally alert.

Using these tips will help you better organize your time and become a more effective and efficient writer.
 

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

How do you define success each day? Is it based on some amorphous sense of internal peace or do you have an actual goal you’re striving for when you wake up each day?

When you’re defining success it is imperative that you know what you need to accomplish each day, otherwise it is far too easy to become distracted. Whether you have thirty minutes first thing in the morning or you have to write a thousand words to keep your word count for your contract deadline, a target will keep you focused.

What it is that you’re seeking to accomplish each time you sit down to write or to work on your writing business, is going to be crucial to making sure that you always have forward momentum. There has to be time to not only put words on the page, but also to do the other outside things like marketing, blog tours, submitting to editors and agents, and going to writing conferences. All of these things come in together. Clearly defining what each task is and how it builds into the overall picture of your writing career is going to be crucial.

Just like your characters in your story when you have a plot and a character arc, you have to recognize your overall goals and the pieces that will get you there. What are all of the things that you have to do and how to those break down each day?

Here are some time management resources I recommend:
• Randy Ingermanson’s time management book. It’s an excellent one for writers.
• The recorded webinar I did for the ProVision Network on time management. PVN is a business organization group, so this talk is not specific to writing, but is applicable to writers.
• I’ll also be releasing a new product later this summer and I’ll give more details on that as we get closer. If you’d like to get introductory pricing sign up for my newsletter at this link.

But really what I want to focus on here is knowing what it is that you want to accomplish and not being distracted while you move towards that. Here are some things I’ve done recently to control my time.
• Don’t check email before you’ve done word count. I understand there are some exceptions. My business partner is in Christchurch, New Zealand and I’m in the Eastern time zone. That is a 16 hr time difference. So he’s going to bed at 8 am our time. I look for his first because while I’m sleeping he’s working, and vice versa. I also quickly scan for any emails from my agent or from one of my clients that I’m currently working for to see if there’s something that impacts what my schedule is for the day. Then I turn the email OFF until scheduled email time.
• Write it down. Writing down what it is that you’re trying to accomplish, moving systematically through it, and allowing yourself the fun time will help maximize and organize your writing time and you’ll be able to accomplish more.
• Scheduled breaks. Tomorrow we’ll be talking more about the importance of breaks in your overall time management scheme.
• Mental preparation. It is important to mentally prepare for your writing time as well as get your materials prepared. This helps minimize writers block. We will talk more about this on Monday.

The bottom line to organization and time management is to incrementally change bad behaviors to efficient behaviors. Today try turning off your email for an hour and focus on a single project. See how much more you’re able to accomplish.

See you tomorrow.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

This article is excerpted from my article “How can I market my writing.” The entire article is available free under the “Articles” tab at www.WritingCareerCoach.com

As an aspiring author there is a great deal to learn. There are grammar and spelling rules. There is a tone. There is that certain ‘something’ that helps the reader connect with the message of the writer. Writers recognize this and spend a great deal of time at conferences and in critique groups honing their craft and finding ways to better express their thoughts on paper.

What writers are only beginning to realize is that running alongside this is the need for a strong marketing sense. For some people with a business background this could come more naturally. They’ve grown accustomed to networking and making sales contacts. For born writers, however, our more solitary nature sometimes makes the idea of networking about as appealing as dragging our tongue across razor blades. There is the perception that marketing our craft somehow sullies it, and thus, we want to leave that part to our publisher. Doing this will doom your work to obscurity. Therefore, we need to find ways to make marketing, if not pleasurable, bearable.

In this article we’re going to look at a few simple ways to begin to market your writing. While using all of these ideas together may give the best result, selecting only one or two can give you a significant jump start on establishing name recognition. Furthermore, most, if not all, of these techniques can be used before you even have your first book contracted. That makes these not only a means of marketing our writing to readers but also marketing our writing to potential publishing houses.

Blogging

Blogging is a phenomenon that has only been around for a little over a decade and has received mixed reviews. One of the advantages of establishing a blog is that many blogs are free to start. The setback of blogging is the same as the setback of anything else, you must let people know it is there and give them a reason to come again and again.

Articles

Historically the way to publication began with an author writing a variety of articles and then “shopping” them around to various magazines and periodicals. The face of publishing, however, has been changing over the last 5-10 years with a transition from print publications to electronic publications. While this has led to a decrease in the number of paying markets for a writer to break in to, it has offered an increase in the potential of using articles to market YOU, rather than the magazine you are writing for.

Newsletters

For people who like to stay in the know but who don’t like to read daily blogs there are newsletters. One benefit of the newsletter is the ability to add graphics to your stories and links to your blog and to other articles. Furthermore, a newsletter gives the perception of professionalism to some readers. I find that there is some overlap between my blog subscribers and my newsletter subscribers. Despite this, the two distribution means tend to reach different groups.

Speaking

This is my favorite part of marketing. I love to write, but I also love teaching other people how to write. Therefore I spend as much time as I can speaking to business and writing groups. This option isn’t for everyone but if you do have some interest in speaking, take the time to learn how to do it properly. Find some online classes and read books. Remember, just because you can talk, doesn’t mean you can speak.

Networking Communities

Finally, a great way to market your writing is by networking. Membership in online communities helps you with national and international connections while local groups help your develop your people skills. Make sure you focus on giving to these communities more than you seek to take.

This is not an exhaustive list of ways to market your writing but gives you a start. While these tips and ideas may not help you with the nerves inherent in putting yourself out there, they will help you to develop the relationships that will make marketing your work a much more pleasurable experience.

For a more expanded view of marketing and developing your writing check out my ebook Writing and Business: A Guide for Freelance Writers.  Available for purchase by contacting Tiffany, only $7.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

In my previous blog I suggested looking for work in other venues. Today I want to show how this will help you with your book or novel writing.

1. You learn to write by writing. While there is a difference between a term paper and a romance novel writing is still writing. You learn to express yourself better as you write, no matter what the writing is for.
2. You learn about people. Interacting with people is a great way to deepen character development. In novels our characters will not always react in a way that seems logical to us. We need to learn how others react to certain situations so we can integrate that in our writing.
3. You make connections with other people who could be future readers. Becoming visible in your community helps increase your platform and will lead to more sales.

While these are just a few ways you can benefit from writing for other venues, they are important. Why don’t you take a few minutes to think of how writing for others will help you build and develop your writing career and share your thoughts in the comments.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Over the next few blogs I’m going to really hone in on clarity. Lingering questions are the key to excellent craft but if you ever want your writing to be published there must be some clarity on a few things.

Today think about your goals. Are they clearly defined? You want to be published? When? Where? What form? What genre? What publication or Which project?

Do you even think about these questions? Do you say “I want to be published next year” or do you say, “I want to have my WIP “Awesome Book” completed and at least three queries out by August 2010”?

Does it seem I am really beating on this right now? It is because in the course of working with authors in my Writing Career Coach program I find that most people are extremely ambivalent. They are afraid of failure and are thus stuck in this persistent “One day” mentality.

So, write a clear goal for each day this week. What is ONE thing you will do each day? whatever your goal determine going in how doing this will help advance your writing career. That will give a real value to your goal and make you more likely to follow through.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

Last night I was having a conversation with three of my daughters, I have four, and I was talking about my years in school. With the new school year in full swing we were talking about goals and expectations. One thing in particular I wanted them to think about is the strength of their dream. My daughter who is nearly eleven was talking about all the different things she’d like to be when she grows up. Her young mind was struggling to figure out how she could be so many differently, and seemingly unrelated, things.
     It occurred to me that many people that I am in contact with through Writing Career Coach battle with the same issues. They arent’ sure if they are interested in or committed to writing. I’ve encountered many people in the years I’ve been writing. I saw some who are stagnating. They have reached a certain level and they’ve become enamored with the idea of “One Day” being a writer, but never really committed to seeing it happen. I’ve seen others get so paralyzed with fear over their writing that they stopped doing it all together. And then I’ve seen some who have really fought for it, and they’ve prevailed.
     When I was in sales they used to say “Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice.” Usually we said this about a new person who was starting out. They were excited and saw no limit to their potential. Over time, and with a steady stream of rejection, they gave up. They had more knowledge and better sales techniques but they went nowhere because they’d decided it was impossible. They weren’t willing to fight for it.
     So, today, right now, consider what it is about your writing that you’re willing to fight for? Maybe you have an article almost done that is rotting on your hard drive. Wrap it up and send it off. Maybe you need to stop watching a cool new series on TV and spend time writing instead. Maybe, like me, you need to flip your body clock so you can write in the mornings as the house sleeps instead writing at night when there are more distractions.
     Often by changing one small activity you can completely change your amount of progress. Don’t give up if you’re in a rut. Fight for it.

To read more on a similar topic follow these links.

Grow from Success. Learn from Failure

How do I get there from here?

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.

With that information you were to look at what you needed to earn and time available and get your calendar booked. You always booked it 4-6 weeks out starting with the first two weeks.

Writers need to do the same thing. Our industry is slower than making a cold call [most places require a month or more to give a response on a proposal, even an article] but that isn’t an excuse to delay building your calendar. In fact, that makes it even more crucial.

Now that the chaos of summer is over the excuse from many will be “Well, we have back to school, the holidays, etc.” I think you’ve figured out by now it is always SOMETHING. There will always be SOMETHING that makes writing a challenge, but there is nothing in life worth doing that comes simply.

In order to do each of these things I know what I need to do daily. I need to bid about 8 jobs because I know ½ of people who contact me for a quote end up booking a job that month. I need to read the book/novel every week and maintain the blogs because that leads to the new material that leads to more coaching clients. Everything builds on something else.

With that I go through and determine what must be done each day.

So what are you working towards in September? Do you even know? Do you have a plan of any kind? That will be the first thing.