publishing

The Most Dangerous Writing App- literally.

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I am always looking for new writing exercises to pass onto you fabulous writers. Writing can become very tedious, which in turn can force us to become stagnant. How many times can we sit down at the same computer, at the same coffee shop, and work on the same few pages? It will make anyone go a little crazy and will eventually bring on a nasty case of writer’s block. To make sure we keep our creative juices flowing, we need to switch up our routine a bit every once in a while. Maybe we take up a bench in the park for a few hours instead of writing under the dim light of our favorite coffee spot. Or maybe we try writing at night, versus during the wee hours of the morning. Or just maybe, we take a break from our current project and focus on some freestyle writing- even if just for an hour.

This morning I came across a new (well, for me) writing app called ‘The Most Dangerous Writing App’– and it takes its name quite literally. To put it simply, you set the amount of time you want to write for and if you stop typing before time is up… everything gets deleted. It’s a web based app that you can use with any type of browser, making it very accessible from wherever you are.

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At first I was horrified. How about if you pen the start to the next Pulitzer Prize novel and then you stop for just a second to take a sip of coffee and it’s GONE?! After my initial freak out of far fetched dreams, I shifted back to reality. The purpose of this app isn’t to write an amazing piece of literature, it’s to exercise and train your writing brain. Many writers struggle with finding chunks of time in their day to sit down and write. This app trains you to sit down and follow through on your commitment. If you struggle to write for more than than a half hour, set the timer for 45 minutes. Write about absolutely anything. Your day, your weekend plans, or that crazy dream you had last night. Anything- just don’t stop. Soon enough, writing for a half hour will feel easy and you can slowly work your way up writing for hours without much thought to it.

Another great benefit of the app is that it doesn’t allow for perfectionism. You have absolutely no time to go back and read what you just wrote or fix your grammar errors. If you do… well, you know- your work will be deleted. It trains our brain to be alright with getting all our thoughts out on paper without thinking about how it’s  actually sounding or what golden writing rule we just broke. Writers need to get more comfortable with the idea of a crappy first draft because to be honest, most are. It’s really hard to fully edit or tweak unfinished work. You need to have the structure of your story, the bare details, and the arc of where you are hoping to take your book laid out before you can really get down to writing. That’s hard to do if you are continually obsessing over the same paragraph. Do yourself a favor and forget about it. Continue writing and come back to it after. You will have a much clearer idea of what your purpose is and making corrections won’t seem as daunting.

Trying out this app will definitely be scary the first couple times, but I truly think only good things will come from it. As long as you don’t use it to write that book or essay you are on a strict deadline for.

Write on.

Dr. Seuss Turns 112!

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It only seemed fitting on this day, Dr. Seuss’ birthday, to talk about writing a successful children’s book. After all, he was one of the greatest (or possibly THE greatest) children’s book authors of all time. His left an unforgettable mark on society that goes far beyond his writing talents. He is and always will remain a household name. Children (and adults too) still lose themselves in his books each night before bed, they still watch movie adaptions of his work each year, and they ride Dr. Seuss themed rides throughout entertainment parks across the country. Dr. Seuss continually makes the impossible possible, even long after he is no longer with us.

Today I found myself thinking about what makes Dr. Seuss’ work so great. Why are we so captivated by his stories? Why do children of all decades continue to relate to his work? What did he figure out about writing children’s books that many authors are still trying to understand? The truth is, we will never really know. What makes a genius, a genius usually dies with them. For us regular folks, we are left sitting here asking why.

I took what I know about writing children’s books and applied it to Dr. Seuss and his work. And guess what? Each and every one of his books consisted of each and every successful characteristic of children’s writing that I could think of. So, I guess that’s a pretty good place to start.

  1. Make your book timeless.

One of the main reasons Dr. Seuss was, and continues to be, so successful is that he found topics to write about that are completely timeless. Be nice to one another, believe in yourself, don’t be afraid to have a little fun, take chances, and honor each other’s differences are all things that children will always be able to relate to. His characters and illustrations are also timeless. They don’t scream a certain time period or ever look outdated. If one didn’t know any better, they could easily believe that The Cat In The Hat was written just last year.

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2. Your  book needs to be visually appealing. 

Half of the children indulging in these books, don’t know how to read yet. They are listening to their parents, grandparents, or siblings read these books to them. The catchy phrases provide a good source of entertainment, but in order to captivate there needs to be a visual element as well. Dr. Seuss’ pages are filled with all the colors of the rainbow and humorous illustrations. They are tastefully crazy and perfectly match the wild imagination of children everywhere.

3. Keep it simple and straight to the point. 

When children are bogged down with detail, they are likely to stop paying attention or just might simply walk away. Less is better when it comes to writing for children. Each page of Dr. Seuss is only filled with a couple sentences. The words are simple, short, and to the point. There are no unnecessary details and each word helps him to reach his end goal-to entertain and teach.

4. Teach a lesson.

When writing for children it’s important to have a purpose. Children’s brains are absorbent sponges and we should take every opportunity we have to teach them something new or reiterate something they should already know. It can be something simple, like to remember to brush your teeth. Or it can be more complex, like recognizing everyone is different. No matter what Dr. Seuss set out to write, he set out to teach. Each book taught a different lesson that every child could relate to.

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5. At the end of the book, your audience should feel good. 

It’s important that children walk away from books with a good feeling. If the book is too sad or scary, they aren’t going to want to pick up another book anytime soon. We want to encourage reading, not discourage it. This doesn’t mean you can’t deal with some heavy topics, you just need to find a way to make it ‘alright’ in the end. Dr. Seuss knew just how to do this. No matter what you are dealing with, you are guarantee to feel even just a tad bit better after reading one of his books. The rhymes, illustrations, and story lines encourage smiles to form on every reader’s face.

Do yourself a favor and pick up your Dr. Seuss favorite today and give it another read. You deserve to be a kid again every once in a while.

Write on.

Educational Waves in Writing

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Writing is one of the oldest forms of expression. It allows us to communicate with people who might be hundreds of miles away or even a complete stranger. But, over the past ten to fifteen years writing has dramatically evolved.  Simply put, the act of writing in everyday life has drastically increased. Before the explosion of Facebook, Twitter, and blogging the available writing venues were very limited. If you didn’t need to write for your job, you might write an opinion piece or letter to your local newspaper or a birthday card to a friend or loved one. You might even write in your own journal or diary, but that was likely only seen by your own eyes.

With the onset of social media, people started making daily posting about what they were feeling and thinking about at that moment, what they were doing that weekend, what vacation they were going on next, or how they felt about current events and local happenings. Twitter thrives off thousands of people writing thousands of words each day. The accessibility of blogging websites enables anyone to write about whatever they want whenever they want to. Social media gives us an instant audience that we never before had. At the end of day, if you are actively using any form of social media, a large portion of your  free time is taken up by writing. Whether you are writing heart felt realizations or complaining that your coffee is too cold, you are writing and communicating in a way that our ancestors never have.

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With the increase of the importance of writing in our daily lives, I have been interested in seeing how the education of writing will change. I recently came across an article in the Columbia Spectator about Barnard’s new first year writing program.  Changing a first year college course syllabi is a difficult thing to do because it has been so ingrained in the fabric of the school’s educational experience for years. You don’t want your students to miss out on essential lessons they will need to have a successful schooling experience, but each year the students are different, their experiences are different, and the world they are coming from is different than the last. As students adapt to the world in which they live, therefore our educational system must adapt as well. The course change made at Barnard is a big step, but a necessary one. Many people can’t go a few hours without at least writing a few sentences and Barnard is recognizing a need for a change in writing education in order to prepare their students for success out in the real world.

The first-year writing program will focus more on writing technique than the previous program. There will be fewer books and more of a focus on writing instruction. It always somewhat baffled me that in a first-year English course, there wasn’t much writing at all. You maybe had two to three essays throughout the semester with no real discussion revolving around the assignments. The professor would put a few marks on the paper and you would move on. Most of the time was spent reading and discussing what we had read. Why do we neglect such a large part of our everyday lives? Writing is hard to avoid, so why do we avoid it in the classroom? Is it our pure ignorance to the changing times or are we purposely trying to set our youth up to fail? A large part of an education is learning how to be a functioning part of society and having the appropriate skills to get us from one life stage to the next. Writing is one of those skill sets we all need to succeed in today’s world. If we aren’t learning how to write in the classroom, where do we turn to next? Kim Kardashian’s next tweet? I certainly hope not.

I am very happy to see advancement in the Academic world in response to what is happening in the real world.One cannot succeed without fully accepting the other. We can talk all day on this blog about how to write, when to write, and why we should write. But, if we aren’t practicing those skills in our day to day life then when we will ever truly succeed?

Write on.

Writing To Finish

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I’m not sure what the whether is like where you are today, but here it is dark and rainy. If I didn’t have anything I needed to do today, I would welcome the gloom with open arms. There’s no better excuse to snuggle in bed all day with a good book. But in reality, on most rainy days, we all have stuff we need to do. We all have jobs we need to attend and goals we need to meet. Bad weather is just another thing to add to the ‘excuse list.’

Writers… you know what I’m talking about.

Some days we look for everything and anything to avoid picking up the pencil or sitting down at the keyboard. The ‘scaries’ become ever more prominent the closer you get to finishing your current project, book, or novel. It’s like there is some extraterrestrial force pulling you away from the very one thing you should be doing or working on. Procrastination is one of the biggest obstacles for writers. Writing is a long process that takes a lot of stamina and determination. It’s very easy to get distracted or discouraged after months of writing, especially if you feel like you aren’t getting any closer to the end product. You aren’t alone in this feeling and it’s something that everyone of us struggles with at one point in our lives (or maybe a few points). The good news? It’s a fixable problem.

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The Huffington Post published an article this morning about some helpful ways to combat our unlucky procrastination. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Nothing worth having comes easy. That’s why it’s called an accomplishment. If we want to reach those accomplishments, we need to find ways to work through those hurdles. We need to find a reason to pick up that pencil on those rainy days. Here are some of the suggestions from The Huffington Post, maybe one will work for you:

  1. Plan a reward. 

Give yourself something to look forward to. You would think the gratification of writing an awesome novel would be enough, but in most cases it’s not. It’s not something tangible and it’s in our human nature to thrive on physical gratification. Plan a treat for yourself once your book is completely ready for publication- take a mini vacation, get that yummy dessert you have been eyeing for months at your favorite restaurant, or buy yourself a new outfit or pair of shoes. You deserve it.

2. Make a list of benefits. 

Take a break and make a list of all the benefits to finishing your book. You’ll get to finally publish it, which brings in book sales. You get to move on to your next big idea. You can focus on other leads for the project- such as a possible audiobook or movie deal. So many more doors open when you have a finished product. In fact, no doors are open until that finished project is in your hands.

3. Completion avoids failure.

Every new sentence puts you that much closer to actually finishing. It might sound like common sense, but think about it. Every day you don’t sit down to write another sentence, paragraph, or chapter increases your chances that you are never going to finish. And we don’t want that now, do we?

4. Ditch the perfectionism. 

Having polished work is important, but you don’t want to overthink it. Once it prevents you from progressing then it has become a problem. Editing, rewriting, and revisions are good but we need to do them tastefully. As soon as you find yourself questioning how other people are going to react to a certain sentence or the tiniest of details, you have gone too far. Write the story you want to write and people will either love it or hate it.

5. Imagine the worst. 

Imagine the worst thing happening to you upon completion of your book. Is it a bad review? No sales? Nasty comments? Whatever it is, picture yourself surviving it. Because guess what? You will. If that’s the thing that is holding you back from finishing, just know you will survive (and yes, the Destiny’s Child song is now permanently stuck in my head for the night).

6. Aim for your best effort. 

Rather than focusing on perfection, focus on creating the best version of your book that you can. Aim to make each book of yours better than the last. Focus on growing as an author, learning from your own mistakes and triumphs. Don’t strive for someone else’s perfection because you will never get there. Become the best writer you can be and then next time, become even better.

7. Please yourself.

Make sure that once you put that last word on the page, your story is exactly how you set out for it to be. Sometimes people’s opinions and criticisms along the way change the course of our writing. Most of the time we don’t even notice it, or we think it’s the best choice at the time. At the end of the day, you need to be happy with your finished product. There’s no guarantee it’s going to sell. The only guarantee you can have is that your proud of it. And plus, if you are writing something you want to write it’s much more likely you will finish it.

Write on.

The Magical 7

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A lot of the writing advice that I give on this blog can become monotonous at times. There’s only so many different ways I can tell you to edit your work, read more books, and just keep writing no matter what. I love when I come across different ways to present the same information to you. Because the truth of the matter is, this ‘stuff’ is really important. You can never be told enough times to edit your book one time or read one more book to understand your genre better. If something I told you didn’t stick the first time, maybe it will stick this time.

Business 2 Community published a creative article this morning about ‘7 Ways You Can Become A Better Writer.’ I really liked the way in which they choose to present the information. It’s fun, and let’s be honest, we can all use a little fun on this Friday- it’s been a long week.  🙂

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Take ONE course/class per year.

It’s true, writing is a personal journey. It allows for a lot of self-reflection that you can’t get anywhere else. But every once in a while, you need to work with other writers. Sharing your work in progress, reading it out loud, and receiving real life criticism (the good and the bad) is very important to your writing journey. You can learn a lot from a complete stranger. Many writing courses/classes can be expensive, but there are also plenty of free ones too- you just need to search them out.

Make TWO good beginnings.

The title of your book is one of the most important decisions you are going to make. It’s the first thing that readers see and most likely the reason they picked up your book in the first place. Make it count. If the title doesn’t feel right, then it’s probably not. The first few paragraphs and pages also need to make an impression. You want your reader to become immediately invested in your story. Give them a reason to stick around.

Read THREE books a month.

You barely have time to write, how are you going to find time to read three books? Trust me, it’s worth it. Just as you should always be writing, you should always be reading. I also really like what they suggest to read. Read one recently published book in your genre to keep up with the current trends. Read another book that has seen a lot of success and figure out why. The third book should be for pleasure- whatever interests you.

Do FOUR revisions.

Editing, editing, editing- it’s very important. As you write your first draft, you should keep an eye out for as many errors as possible. It will make your life easier in the long run. After you finish your first draft, do another edit. After the second edit, take a break and come back with fresh eyes for your third edit. For the fourth edit, ask a friend/editor/family member to read it through. I would highly recommend to do a couple more edits as well after this, you can never do enough.

Use all FIVE senses.

While writing, remember to use all five senses. You want your readers to feel what you are writing. You want your readers to be able to put themselves inside the pages of your book, right there with the characters. You want them to feel, hear, see, smell, and taste everything that the characters are.

Focus on SIX weaknesses.

When you go back and analyze previous works of yours, you should be able to pick out at least six areas that you struggle with or could use improvement on. Do some research and find some ways that you can improvement upon your weaknesses. Use what you learn in your next piece and focus on turning those weaknesses into some of your best qualities.

Learn SEVEN new words.

Make a point to learn one new word each day of the week. Chances are you are never going to use or say that word again, but you never know. One of those words might just naturally find it’s way into one of your books one day.

Write on.

 

The 2016 Publishing Shift

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In any industry, there is such a vast amount of knowledge that you should know in order to be successful in it. Knowing what’s ‘in’, what’s ‘out’, what’s ‘hot’, and what’s ‘not’ is essential. Publishing is one of those industries, for better or worse. It’s exciting to watch the publishing market evolve over time, but it can also leave you staring at your computer screen asking yourself, “Wait, when did that become a thing?” In publishing, trends happen fast and we need to be able to catch them while they are still here. Lucky for us publishing professionals and authors, we have awesome people sifting through this information for us- like the wonderful people at Written Word Media. They have read through all the most important articles (like those by Mark Coker Jane Friedman, and Joanna Penn) about the publishing industry going into 2016 for us. I wish everything was this easy. Here’s the ten most important publishing trends to keep your eye on this coming year:

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  1. The indie market is still growing.

Indie authors make up 20% of the publishing industry- that’s actually a pretty big number it’s only continuing to grow each day. Indie authors have proved that consumers care about pricing. Just because your book is priced low, doesn’t mean you aren’t going to make money. Lower prices entice more readers. Indie’s have pricing flexibility that traditional publishers do not have and that has played a key role to their success.

2. Amazon is asking for better quality. 

Starting February 3rd, Amazon is taking down any books that include any reported typos, grammatical errors, or other mistakes with formatting etc. until the author fixes them. Amazon has been a great outlet for authors to get their work published. Anyone can publish anything they want, which I have always been a fan of. But, that has led to a lot of sub-par books being put out on the market for consumption and readers aren’t happy with that. Would you be happy with a new car that stalled out every couple minutes? I don’t think so. So, why should a reader be happy with a book that has an error every other sentence? It’s distracting and unattractive. To learn more about what will happen if Amazon does this to your book and how you can avoid it, check out the full article for yourself. They give some helpful tips.

3. You need to be mobile friendly.

Almost everyone searches the internet on their cell phones. Smart phone cell phone usage has risen 392% between 2010-2014 and I don’t think that number is getting any smaller any time soon. If your website is not mobile friendly, it’s going to be very hard for your fans to navigate and they are likely not going to come back then they can get their hands on an actual computer. It’s estimated that about 60% of your visitors will be using a mobile device- that’s a lot!

4. Amazon KDP is a love-hate relationship for many.

Amazon is always rolling out new programs for their authors. Some are met with enthusiasm and others… not so much. KDP Select is one of those programs that I keep hearing mixed reviews about. Many authors enrolled in the programs are seeing that burrows are taking place of actual sales, but the marketing efforts that Amazon offers authors in the program are proving to be effective. Authors are seeing that these promotions are increasing sales, as well as burrows. Authors are left to weigh what’s more important to them- the sales or the marketing. Authors who aren’t in the KDP program are left to fend for themselves on the marketing side of things. If you aren’t experienced in marketing, or just don’t have the time, you aren’t going to get as many sales on your own if you can’t put in the initial leg work.

5. Free book promotions sell series.

Offering one of your books for free can be a scary thing. But research has showed that it’s a very effective marketing tool. A Smashwords survey reported that a series (of three books or more) that has the first book free sold more copies than other series. It has also been found that 45-55% of readers who downloaded a free book have gone on to purchase other work by the author. Sometimes a little risk leads to a big reward.

6. E-mail marketing drives sales.

Both publishers and authors are investing more and more time into building their own e-mail lists. E-mail marketing is so effective because you know you are hitting a targeted group of consumers who care about what you have to say and what you have to offer- they were the ones that signed up for your newsletter in the first place.

7. Physical book sales are rising. 

It’s time to focus our attention back on print books, which is why many indie authors are now interested in finding traditional publishers. The rising print market is making it worth it for them, giving traditional publishers the advantage on this one. There really is nothing better than holding a book in your hand and sitting back for a relaxing afternoon.

8. The international market shouldn’t be ignored. 

The United States and Canada only make up 30% of readers consuming e-books. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and Italy are creeping closely behind.

9. Coloring and erotic romances for the win. 

Adult coloring books and erotica continue to flood the publishing market. Erotica romances have been hanging in there for a few years now and it doesn’t look like it’s going away for 2016 either. The coloring book trend has proved that maybe we all need to relax a little bit more. We will see more big things for the trend before it dies.

10. Being an indie author has become a choice.

Many indie authors aren’t self-publishing because they can’t get a traditional publishing deal, but rather because it makes more financial sense for them. Readers are starting to realize that and are taking more chances on indie authors. There are so many awesome books out there that aren’t getting the recognition they deserve because they are ‘indie.’ Fortunately for these authors, an important and inevitable shift is occurring. Being an indie author is something to proud of.

That’s a wrap on what’s ‘hot’ and what’s ‘not’ for 2016. Publishers have a lot to learn from the indie world, and vice versa. 2016 is going to be the start of some more major shifts in the publishing industry and I am excited to be a part of it.

Write on.

Why Writers Read

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One concept that I have mentioned frequently throughout this blog is that in order to improve your writing you need to be reading. Your best learning tool is other authors. The key to successful learning through reading is to venture outside your writing genre. There is so much to be learned from writing that is different from what you normally indulge in and most importantly, what you typically write. I have offered up this advice many times before, but I never really explained why it’s so important. In order to reap all the potential benefits, you need to know why you are doing what you are doing, what the benefits are, how it’s going to help you improve, and what you should be looking out for. It’s easy for me to spit out ‘meaningless’ advice to you, but understanding the advice and how to take full advantage of it is going to make all the difference. Since 2016 is the year of change, we need to start understanding our own writing and why we do what we do on a whole different level.

I have to be honest, I love Bustle. They always seem to have the right advice for me right when I need it the most. The advice they offer up is very accessible and it’s actually fun to read. Once again, Bustle came to my rescue with a recent article about… wait for it… why we should read outside our genre and its benefits. It sums up, for me, the three major reasons we should all diversify our reading list a bit more.

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  1. Reading outside your genre is a form of priceless research.

Successful research takes a mediocre book/story line and turns it into a masterpiece. We all want to believe what we are reading. We all want the story to seem possible- either in our world or in some extraterrestrial universe. Research brings reality to your writing. Just because you write romances, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t read some medical non-fiction books or medical thrillers to bring that heart wrenching hospital scene to life. If you write science fiction, try your hand at some romances to learn how to take that budding relationship between your two main characters from platonic to sexual. Learning how other authors describe and present certain areas that you are struggling with is a priceless tool. You can read countless articles on how to make a steamy hot sex scene, but immersing yourself in the literature yourself is the best thing you can do. Not only will you learn things that you should do in your own writing, but you will also discover things that you shouldn’t do along the way as well.

2. Reading outside your genre will reveal your strengths, as well as your weaknesses. 

All authors have their signature writing tone that many of their fans identify with. Having a distinct style that readers can rely on is part of successful writing career. Readers are drawn to your writing for a certain reason and you need to make sure you give it to them every time. Reading outside your genre can put you more in tune with your signature tone, you will quickly realize which authors are similar to you and which must be writing on a completely different planet. You learn what’s working for them and perhaps try to incorporate it into your own writing. Most importantly, you also learn what your own writing is lacking. You likely aren’t going to change your tone completely and I don’t think you should, but incorporating different styles and tones into your stories leads to more layered and entertaining writing and reading. Varying tones can take a one dimensional piece and convert it into a three-dimensional piece of glory. Spice your writing up a bit and throw your readers for a loop every once in a while.

3. Reading outside your genre will teach you different ways to captivate your audience.

As important as a signature writing style is, we never want to become predictable or boring. We don’t want to start every chapter the same way or end each book with the same resolution. Reading different genres teaches you how different authors create exciting scenes, introduce new characters, create tension, and demonstrate emotion. You know, all that important stuff that makes for a great story. There are a million ways to do exactly the same thing, which is what makes writing so awesome. You can essentially read the same scene by a thousand different authors and feel like it’s fresh new content every time. Reading outside your genres teaches you to diversify your writing in a way that will never be coined as predictable.

Write on. Or perhaps this time, read on.

Creating Your 2016 Action Plan

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The new year always brings lots of talk about goals. We often get so wrapped up in where we want to go this year that we forget that we need an action plan in order to get there. It’s great that you want your book to land on the New York Times bestseller list, but how are you going to get it there? It’s most likely not going to appear there by itself. That would just be too easy. Once you have your goals lined up, next step is to create a plan. Formulate tools that are going to help you reach those goals. A good action plan turns goals into reality.

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This afternoon I came across an article on Poynter that handed out some pretty refreshing suggestions for productive writing. Sometimes the action plan seems so overwhelming that we quickly start to doubt that we will even make it past step two. That’s why I loved this article so much, it makes productivity sound easy. The article provides five doable solutions to having a productive writing year. It’s something we can all do without too much hassle. It makes our goals seem within our reach, which is half the battle. We need to believe in ourselves before others will. While creating your 2016 action plan, try incorporating some of these tools:

  1. Create a to-morrow list.

Slim down your “to-do” list every night. Make a smaller list of 3-5 things that you know you will be able to accomplish tomorrow. Often there are many pending jobs left on our ever expanding “to-do” lists that we constantly have the nagging feeling that we are doing so much but we aren’t moving anywhere. Feel your progress with shorter lists meant for success. Tomorrow never felt so good.

2. Dream Big.

This one might just be my favorite. 2016 is the year of big changes. Big changes means big goals. Take a moment to picture your wildest dream ever. Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy with it. Draw a quick picture of your ultimate success and hang it in your work space. Yes, I said it- draw. It doesn’t need to be the next Picasso, but visual reminders are often the most effective. A take a look at that drawing every day before you get to work. Use that energy to make your day the most productive it can be.

3. Build your own ladder. 

Create your action plan in chronological order. Start from the bottom and work your way up. What needs to happen before you can take the next step? Don’t get ahead of yourself. Live within the moment and savor every step of the journey.

4. Just do it. 

We can only plan so much before we want to rip our hair out. Sometimes we just need to sit down and write. Get all your thoughts out of paper then go back and revise, polish, revise, polish. In order to create something, you need to have a product. Get your baseline product done early so you have the most amount of time possible to make it the best version of your product out there.

5. Set a timer. 

It’s really easy to feel overwhelmed when writing, especially when nothing seems to be working out the way we had envisioned. Work in smaller spurts. Set a timer between 30 minutes to a couple hours. Work until the buzzer goes off, then take a break. If you are really feeling what you are writing, keep going. If not, it’s the perfect opportunity to hit the reset button.

Happy writing! Write On.