Defeating Writers Block by Increasing Your Productivity

(Originally featured here)

Oh, the dread of looking at a blank page and not being able to fill it. Still, you order yourself to move forward. ‘Never give up, never surrender!’ echoes repeatedly in the back of your head. And in the end, you get a thousand words of pure… crap.

Feels familiar? Of course it does, but do not fret fellow writer! There are many ways to turn your lack of inspiration into a ton of productivity.

So fun fact: you usually get writer’s block because you don’t know where to go with your story. Basically, it’s as if your Muse were telling you it needs some time-off to figure stuff out.

I know, it sucks. All you want to do is curl up in your couch and devour two tons of chocolate ice-cream. Maybe even cry a little. However, this will only waste your time (and gift you with waay too many fresh calories.)

So what to do when this happens?

• Start a new book project: Can’t figure out what to do with your current WIP? Create a new one. Fun thing is: you usually find the answers to your old project’s questions inside your new one.

• Outline your current project: Write down a general, chapter-sectioned draft of all you want to happen in your book from beginning to end. Maybe outlining will bring back the Muse.

• Write a short-story: This is one of my favourites. I got two of my short stories published, which added ‘Published Author’ to my curriculum. How awesome is that?

• Revise (edit) an old story: Maybe it’s time to work on that project you left forgotten in the bottom-drawer years ago. Plus, it’s always great to check old projects so you can see how much you’ve grown on your craft.

• Start a blog about something you love. And if you add a business goal to your blog (let’s say content marketing, for example), that’s even better!

• Write to a friend.

• Engage in writing forums: It’s really great to talk to people just like you. You can learn a LOT. And you can even start helping each other out.

• Get a critique-partner-or-group: CPs are the backbone of succesfull writers. If you don’t have one, get one. Now.

• Write a short-article and submit it to magazines. This is another way to add some good n’ old fairy dust to your curriculum with very little work.

• Draft a query letter or book blurb for your project: Seriously, that’s the hardest thing a writer can do. If you manage to go through THAT, you can surely get your story back on track.

The fun aspect of being productive during a creative drought is that the possibilities are pretty much endless. If your Muse doesn’t come back, at least you’ve started a new project. But truth be told, stories are jealous little things. If you start looking elsewhere, they’ll go after your Muse and bring her back by the hair. Caveman style.

Cheers and happy writing!

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On Book Reviews and Why We Should Care

The other day I wrote a review on Amazon for a book I liked. Not long after, I got a message from the Big Zon saying that my review helped another customer shop for the book!!

I was thrilled, I mean how cool is that? I kind of sold a fellow writer’s work! Where’s my commission?

Amazon ranks someone’s book according to customer ratings and reviews. Meaning every time you review a product (and that is any product, not just books), you boost it up on the rankings. Which equals better exposure for someone’s work.

(By the way, Amazon just bought the world’s largest reviewing website: Goodreads. So yeah, reviews are EXTREMELY powerful little things. Side note: One day the big 6-5 will merge into one with Amazon and form THE GREAT AND POWERFUL ZON, you’ll see. By the way again, ‘Oz, The Great And Powerful’ was a really good movie…)

*Ahem* anyway, if there’s an author you think deserves exposure, a story that you want others to know about, write an Amazon review. You don’t need to step over egg-shells and write the bestest, kindest review in the world. All you need to do is write a balanced review of someone’s work. Be nice but be true.

And if you didn’t like the book at all, be honest. But personally, I try to keep in mind someone spent labored hours on that project, and if I can’t find one good thing to say about it, then I

• Say nothing at all OR
• Say something but in a professional, considerate way

I certainly did not trash Twilight on Amazon…as much as I wanted to.

Now, *clap of hands*did you know that if you subscribe to my mailing list, you get a FREE SHORT STORY?

A supernatural romance formatted to kindle and all?  YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE FIRST CHAPTER  HERE.

If you liked it, then BE COOL and subscribe!  

Disclaimer: I won’t spam you or anything. You won’t receive blog updates either (you need to follow my blog for that one)

But maybe in a couple of months, I’ll write you an email that says ‘Hey, my book is out, and I’m looking for awesome reviewers. Or maybe you’d like to participate in a cool giveaway? You know what, I’ll just give you ten thousand dollars because you’re pretty.’

Wouldn’t want to miss that, would we?

And if you end up finding the time to read my story, and if you do like it, let me know! And if you think the story is total crap, well, you are hereby cursed!!!! Just kidding.

Or am I?

Since we’re on the subject, what was the best book you’ve read recently? Did you write an Amazon review for it?

Cheers lovelies!!

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In Which She Talks About Agent Databases

I just heard about Agent Hunter.uk , a searchable database of UK based agents and publishers. I thought it sounded peachy, but I didn’t expect much out of it. After all, I’m strongly considering self-publishing (Amanda Hocking and Hugh Howley, anyone?)

So I shouldn’t, theoretically, squeal all over an agent database.

But I kind of did.

The interface is incredibly clean and easy to use. You can search an agent by genre,naturally, but you can also sort your search by:

• Agent experience (I know, say Wha?!)
• Authors represented by them.
• Specific likes and dislikes (Though this wasn’t working very well. I typed in some basic words like ‘coffee’ or ‘Scotland’, because I love both, and found no results. When I inputted ‘fantasy’, I got only one result. But I do believe that this is something easy to fix and it doesn’t damage the service as a whole.)
• Opportunities to meet (As in scheduling a meeting with the agent. Which is useless if you don’t live in the UK.)
• Size of literary agency.
• And the best of all: If they’re AAA members.

Once you sort and find an agent, you’ll get all kinds of valuable information about them (their twitter, a bit of their history, what they are looking for, how to make a submission, etc). So yeah, it’s a pretty sweet website. Plus the annual fee is peanuts (12 GBP which is around 19 USD).

Now, I know what you’re thinking: What about QueryTracker.net? They offer similar services.

Lots of sources will provide similar services to you, fellow writer. And that is EXCELLENT! Competition = Better options to you, customer. All you need to figure out is what’s best for you, personally. Weight everything in and then make a decision. Which basically means: Be business savy, aye mate?

So Querytracker.net, much like Agent Hunter, offers free services but charges for the upgraded accounts (They charge 25 USD a year). Querytracker provides great quality service, plus you’ll get much broader results since you can sort agents from the US, Canada and UK.

Some of QT’s further search queries are limited to paying members only (Like sorting per submission method or AAA members), whereas in AgentHunter.uk there’s no such thing (although they will blur some agent info from free members).

Now let’s say you’re writing a Paranormal Romance for Adults. In QT you can only choose the category ‘Romance’ and ‘Fantasy’, so you’ll end up finding a load of agents who represent both but might not represent Paranormal Romance (even though they should). Plus it’s an YA saturated market so it’s really important to know which agents take Adult Paranormal.

In AgentHunter.uk, the sorting is a tad easier, since you can easily select paranormal romance adult (see below).

Overall, I believe both services are a great resource to writers, but I really like Agent Hunter’s clean cut and intimate style, plus their easy sorting. If they included options like sending out and tracking queries, much like Query tracker, it would be really cool. Also, it’d be GREAT if they added an US agent database.

What about you lovelies? Did you try these ones out? What do you think? Share your thoughts on the comments below

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Setting Your Goals The Smart Way

It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at-home mom, retired or unemployed, if you’re a student or working like crazy.You need goals.

There’s a very big difference between a dream and a goal. A GOAL IS A DREAM WITH A DEADLINE.

I dream of winning the X-factor and I could have a good chance if I decided to take singing lessons, learn about the business, dedicate myself to it, and improve my craft. Add a load of luck to that as well. But winning the X-Factor is a dream, it’s stuck in time and it’ll never become true (Sorry Simon Cowell, thou shall not witness my awesomeness).

Becoming a writer who earns a good income from her own books though, well that is a goal.

I highly recommend that you set goals for yourself and the best part is, they don’t need to be solely about writing. They can be about a variety of things, but once set, be dead serious about fulfilling them. Why? Because your goals are a commitment to the most important person in your micro and macro universe: You.

But how to organize your goals?

Start by sorting them into two main categories:

Long-time Goals

Short-time Goals

These can be divided into sub categories. Your goals can be set regarding your personal life, your career, family, pretty much anything. Just make sure to sync your long-term goals with your short-time ones. Or at least most of them.

A few examples:

Short Time	Long Time
Weekly:
Write N words per week —>	Self-publish or get an agent by 2014
Draft a blog post —>	Go work for Copyblogger
Critique your CP’s chapters —>	Finish edits for your current project
Study to move forward in your current career —>	Get a promotion
Practice ballroom dancing —>	Win a dancing contest
Monthly
Read two books, give them amazon reviews —>	Become a big time Amazon reviewer
Learn 50 new Russian words —>	Speak Russian by 2018
Spend 10 hours at the gym —>	Lose n kilos by end 2013
The possibilities are endless	The possibilities are endless

Pretty simple ain’t it?

So, what are your goals for 2013?

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Drafting the Profile of Aspiring Writers

All right, time to reveal the results of the poll!

But before I do, I’d like to say a big thank you to all of you who participated. You built a bulky and reliable sample, so thank you; seriously.

Okay, enough of that, on to the results. Drums roll please:

Click to enhance *votes cast as other could not be included*

As you can see above, most of you work full-time (25.49%) followed by part-time (17.65%). Third place is both unemployed (11,76%) and working parent full time.

I’m particularly amazed to see ‘working parent full-time’ with such a high rate, I did not expect that. Kudos to you people, whoever you are. Please tell me what you’re using.

Another pretty cool revelation: WOMEN ruled the numbers! How about that?

Click to enhance

These results help us draft two very interesting conclusions:

Most of us are women.

Most of us work.

What I’m particularly interested in, is that full-time and part-time workers, both men and women, are the biggest number, yet they’re the ones with less time in their hands to dedicate to their writing (again, full-time working parents, what on earth are you taking?).

This shows us that the drive keeping writers moving forward is Huge (yes, with capitol H). Imagine working 8-9 hours a day,coming home and working 2-3hours more in your writing. Now add tucking your kid to bed and taking care of your family. Add exercising and trying to keep a fairly okay social life.

The sheer fact we write is a reason to be proud. So take a moment to pat yourself in the back, my dear fellow, because your success did not come cheap. You lost a lot of weekends, gave up some sweet TV time and ditched your friends all too often.

“Wait a moment there, lady,” some of you might say. “I don’t work and I’m still a writer as worthy as any other.”

And you’re absolutely right. We’re all writers worthy as any other, BUT, fact is, you do have more time in your hands than most. So make sure to use it at its best. Set your goals and never rest until you reach them. Find ways to be productive, work on schedules. And if you need help with that, do not fret writer buddy. That will be coming to you on the next post. ; )

So what did you guys think of the results? Do share your thoughts in the comments!

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POLLS FOR WRITERS: Need Your Help Writer Friends!

So I’ve got something pretty cool planned for my next post, but I need your help.

I’m trying to learn a bit more about the living habits of my writer buddies. Results will be announced on the next post. So, I’d be extremely grateful if you could use three free seconds of your time to answer the polls below.

It’s all pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll let you get acquainted with it. If you have any questions you can always write them down in the comment area. : ) Needless to say your contribution will remain anonymous in all accounts.

Cheers!

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I, Writer

“Doctor said an AI mind is far superior than a human’s. Our brain is flawless, a symphony of algorithms guided by pure logic. We cannot be irrational, we cannot be wrong, and perhaps that is  why our great minds will never be grand.” 

So it seems this is not far from happening. Phillip M. Parker has created a computer system that can write books.

You’ve read me. And writing is not all the computer system does.

“The present invention provides for the automatic authoring, marketing, and or distributing of title material. A computer automatically authors material. The material is automatically formatted into a desired format, resulting in a title material. The title material may also be automatically distributed to a recipient. Meta material, marketing material, and control material are automatically authored and if desired, distributed to a recipient. Further, the title may be authored on demand, such that it may be in any desired language and with the latest version and content.”

So far the 200,000 books the system has authored are all non fiction. But that’s Phillip Parker’s next goal.

AI authoring, holly schnitzel. Still, writing is a dance between brain ans soul; a process that can’t be easy to map because let’s face it, we still have a lot to learn about both. Sure, there’s technique, algorithms and historical research into writing, and these can be easily mapped. They could end up making pretty good book. Grand however? I doubt it.

What are your thoughts, lovelies?

On other news, did you know Big Brother is watching you from your e-reader device? It seems pretty much every e-reader is tracking your reading habits. And they’re starting to use such information and maybe even sell them to publishers. Check out some of the stuff they found:

• Kobo found that George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons (the fifth book in his popular Game of Thrones series, Random House) was a particularly engaging book: Most readers read it from start to finish at an average speed of about 50-pages an hour.
• Barnes & Noble learned that while novels are generally read all the way through, non-fiction is read in parts and readers often quit non-fiction books before finishing.

And the most scary one:

• Amazon has data on readers’ bookmarks, notes, annotations and highlighted passage. The company wouldn’t share specifics with WSJ. The Journal did, however, point out that Amazon is in a unique position to put this data to use as it’s both a retailer and a publisher.

So be careful with what you do in your kindle.

I feel so exposed, they could’ve at least warned us. But then again, that was probably written in one of those agreement terms we never read through.

What do you think about this little privacy invasion? Are the costs x benefits worth it?

That’s it for today peeps, peace out!

If you liked this post, please do like it, or press it, or share it, or hug it, because it needs love. Much obliged!