Seek Kernels of Insight

Are you looking for kernels of insight into your writing life?

From my experience, these insights spring from many different places. It is critical that you be consciously looking for the insight which will make a difference in your own writing life.

For example, some writers bemoan that they aren't getting enough of their writing into print. Yet if you ask them the details, you will discover they aren't working at building relationships with key decision makers in the marketplace (editors and agents). Or they aren't submitting their work for consideration. 

Your magazine article or your novel or your nonfiction book will not get published by osmosis. You have to proactively pitch to the market.

Other writers grouse that their book is not selling many copies or they aren't getting enough book reviews or media interviews. 

Each of these situations can be conquered yet it will take consistent action from you. Do you have a plan and are you consistently working your plan?

Throughout my day, I'm reading different articles and blogs and looking for kernels of insight. For example, today my friend Bob Bly sent this article: Practical Techniques for Producing Profitable Ideas. I encourage you to read this article because you can gain several key insights to incorporate into your writing life.

Also throughout my day, if I get an idea, I take action on that idea as soon as possible. Today an editor came into my mind who I have not contacted or thought about in months. I had an idea to pitch to this editor so quickly went to my email and wrote a short and pointed email with my idea. Will it work? I have no idea but I've taken action on the idea and it's now out into the world where something could happen from that idea.

I recorded over a dozen different ways that writers can make money from their books. If you haven't heard this teleseminar, you can have immediate access to it. Download it and listen to my teaching—yet listen with a pen and paper in hand ready to write down any kernels of insight or fresh ideas. Then take action on those ideas. 

If you incorporate these insights into your day, then you will be following what my friend Peggy McColl calls the Law of GOYA. At the recent Author 101 University, Peggy told about this Law of GOYA. I'd never heard of it but in this article, she attributes it to another bestselling author, John Assaraf meaning: The Law of Get Off Your A... (assets?)

Take action on your kernels of insight and let me know how it goes for you.