The Consistent Writer

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Last week I picked up the phone and called a writer I met over a year and a half ago. I encouraged her to send me her material. It was not my first phone call or email to this author but in a consistent pattern since we met, I’ve been reaching out. As of this writing, she hasn’t sent her material. Months ago I recall reading her book proposal and seeing potential. My follow-up work has not been done in a nuisance way so she wonders about my persistence. I have had a steady pattern. This characteristic of consistency is an important one for every writer. In this article, I want to give you some ideas how to build consistency into your writing life.

First, each person needs to determine what do you want to accomplish with your writing? Do you want to increase your presence on a specific social media platform? Do you want to get more readers to your blog or your newsletter? Do you want to get more reviews for your books? Do you want to sell more books? Do you want to write more magazine articles? There are endless possibilities and questions. My point is to select something specific. 

Now with a specific writing target clearly in focus, how are you going to execute this task? From my experience the consistency comes from creating a system. For example, I post on my social media about 12 to 15 times a day. Yet I only spend about 30 minutes a day on these posts. I am consistent in this process because I’ve developed a system for creating and posting my social media. Years ago I decided to post my tweets every hour throughout the working day--and not at the top of the hour but at five minutes past the hour. In a few cases each day I post at 35 minutes past the hour. Each of these posts are scheduled a planned. 

Sometimes I will post immediately and often happens when I review a book and promote the book and review. If you follow my social media stream (which some writers do because they repost and share my material), I’m providing an education in publishing and the writing world--particularly if you read the various articles. My posting is a continual part of my effort to share what I’m learning and also educate others on this complex and ever-changing world of publishing. Other writers, editors, agents and leaders in the publishing world are reading these actions--including these articles in The Writing Life. 

My results and success in publishing didn’t happen overnight but happened because of my consistent action. I tried something, then adjusted the plan and then continued it--thousands of times. I’m consistent because I’ve created and continued my system. It is that simple and something you can do as well. 

Or maybe you want to blog each week or several times a week or once a month. Select a schedule which will work for your writing life and is something you can do over and over. I write these articles about The Writing Life once a week and have posted consistently for years. Throughout the week and often at odd times, I will have an idea for an article. I write it down and keep a running list of these ideas. During spare moments throughout my week, I will write my article. Sometimes I have it written early and other times I do it at the last minute but every time I get it done because I have developed a system.

For my blog, each entry is intentional to my particular audience with topics and labels (to help the SEO), a clear by-line who wrote it, a relevant, royalty-free image, a different image at the bottom of my blog and tied to my special offer (and if you click the image it goes to the offer), a click-to-tweet at the end of each article to help people easily pass along my writing to their audience, and many other details are included. If you want to know how to make money with your blog, I have a risk-free resource (just follow the link or click the image). Yet each detail is planned and a part of my created system which I use on a consistent basis. Because I have been blogging on a consistent basis, with millions of blogs, my blog was named as one of the top 27 content writers (which was a complete surprise to me).

Recently I received a proposal submission which was probably this writer’s first attempt. The submission was incomplete with a hand-drawn illustration which will likely never be published (unless the author does it herself). As an editor, I could have:

1) ignored it and not responded (a common response) 

2) scheduled it for rejection or 

3) responded 

I chose to respond to this writer and take a few minutes to send her some free resources and guidance. I have no idea if she will take my suggestions or ignore them (another choice). I recall my own early submissions and the mistakes which I made over and over. If no one helped me, I would still be unpublished. I include this story to show that each of us have things we have learned in our publishing journey. I encourage you to make the effort to pass along these lessons to others and help them. 

How can every writer become consistent? It begins with creating a system which works for you, executing your system over and over, then reworking it as needed. None of these actions happen randomly. My consistent actions and development of an ever-improving and refined system is working. What actions can you take to become a more consistent writer? Let me know what else you suggest in the comments. 

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The Details Matter

      

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Often in the writing community, I see someone who has missed the details and they matter. Inside a publishing company, there are many steps in the process (and through the years these steps seem to grow in detail). For example, if I don’t put a manuscript or proposal into our internal system  (which means responding to my email), then it does not get a letter of acknowledgement in the mail and then I don’t process it for a possible contract. If I miss this particular detail the author and their submission doesn’t get considered. Because of the large volume of submissions I have missed sometimes despite my best attempts to promptly communicate and keep these submissions moving forward. 

These details matter throughout publishing. In this article, I want to give you some specific examples that I have seen recently. I write these stories to emphasize and encourage you to take care of the details in your own publishing. The best publishing is also a team effort. It’s not my sole decision whether a submission is published or not. I have to champion your book to my colleagues, then each of them have to respond about the book. Sometimes I get a contract and other times the group decides to pass on a submission inspite of my best efforts to get the author a contract. From my years in publishing, I understand and respect this team effort. 

Recently another author reviewed one of my books on Goodreads. I was grateful for this positive review. When I read it, I noticed his incomplete profile on Goodreads which didn’t even have his photo. I was in the same position several yerfs ago. I took action and updated my profile, connected it to my blog and many other details. Today some people read these articles from my blog over on Goodreads. It’s not where I would read it but as authors we need to have our material accessible to people wherever they want to read it. 

For a variety of social media sites, other authors will use the ClickToTweet which I’ve added and share it with their audience. I’m always grateful for the additional exposure. Many of these people are missing a key detail: the royalty-free image from my article. It’s been proven that adding an image to your social media posts will increase your readership. People are drawn to the image then read the words. If you are like me and have no graphic design skills, I recommend getting lifetime access to MockUp Shots (follow the link). In a matter of minutes, you can have instant access to hundreds of images. 

Another simple way to get more attention with your posts is to tag the various people named in the post. I will often see these types of post on social media with this missing detail.

As I read various blogs and online articles, I’m looking for valuable content. If I find it, I look for an easy way to share this information on my various social media networks. While there are many different tools to easily add this information to your blog or article, I find many content creators have missed this important detail. Because it is missing, it is much more time-consuming to share the story.  It takes a bit more cutting and pasting, but I often go ahead and add the article or blog post to my social media feed. 

As an editor, I’m constantly receiving and processing new submissions from authors. Often I see where the author is missing some critical information such as their mailing address, phone number or word count.  Because of the missing address and phone information, I’m forced to write the author and ask for it. Without it, I can’t get their submission into our internal system to move forward. I suggest before you submit your material, take one last look to make sure you aren’t missing such a detail. Your editor will appreciate your additional effort. 

I’ve given a number of different types of examples where the details are important. Can you think of another area where the details matter? Let me know in the comments below. 

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The Payoff For Consistency

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Most of our writing feels unnoticed. We send it out and wonder if anyone is reading or following us. Because of the large volume of submissions, often publishers only response is silence and they don’t devote the energy to sending out a rejection letter. What plans do you have for your writing? Are you writing a book that you want to get published? Or maybe you have a personal experience story that you want to get into a magazine? Or maybe you want to build a website or start a blog or begin to be more active on a social media platform. Each of these plans are admirable but how do they happen? It does not happen by thinking about it. You have to sit in your chair, put your fingers on the keyboard and write the words or send the submissions or any number of other things.

 

Successful writers are consistent in their efforts. They take consistent action whether their work is published or read or not. A 50,000 word book manuscript is not written in a single session. Instead the writer writes words into their computer day after day until they complete the manuscript. If they miss a day or something interrupts their writing, they continue to move forward.

 

Because of the volume of articles in The Writing Life, in 2008, I sorted those articles into different categories and created a blook or a book which began as blog articles. While the concept sounds simple, it is a lot of work to transform random articles into a cohesive book manuscript which I called Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, Insider Secrets to Skyrocket Your Success. I self-published this book and sold a number of copies. Later when I began to work for Morgan James Publishing, they published the updated edition in 2014. This book contnues to help many writers. I created a free sample at this link.

 

Since 2008, I’ve been blogging each week. While I don’t get much feedback or many comments about these entries, I’ve been consistent in writing then launching them into the world. Overall, it has felt like a limited number of people read these entries but occasionally it pays off. Last week I found my name and blog in this article called 27 Top Content Writers Sharing Their Talents. This article begins saying there are an estimated 600 million blogs online. The article includes a remarkable group of writers like Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday and Jeff Goins—and I was surprised to be included.

 

Also last week, The Writing Life was listed among 100 Best Writing Blogs You Must Follow in 2023. My consistency to write these articles is not with any expectations to be recognized or included in such lists. I write these entries teo encourage other writers and to document some of what I am learning about the writing life. Sometimes my consistency pays off.

 

Do you get these articles on email? If not, you can subscribe here. Also please forward this email on to others and ask them to subcribe. Thank you in advance for your help. While I'm mentioning help, I'll be speaking at a few conferences this year and have updated them on my speaking schedule. I hope you will check the link but also make plans to attend one of these conferences and we can meet in person. I look forward to it.

  

How has consistency paid off for you as a writer? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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Advantages to Batch Writing

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Since my recent move, I've been doing some batch writing. This term “batch writing” is where I will write a series of the same type of writing. For example, one of the ways I support other writers is through writing and posting book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. It happened gradually but I've written over 1,100 reviews on Amazon and over 700 reviews on Goodreads.  Because I've written so many of these reviews, I can write the review in a short amount of time. Several publishers have been sending me children's books and in particular board books—which do not have many words. I've been reviewing these books in a group or batch.

 

One of my long-term writing friends Bob Bly is the author of THE COPYWRITER’S HANDBOOK plus over 100 other books. His COPYWRITER’S HANDBOOK originally was published in 1985 and last year Bob's publisher released the Fourth Edition. If you have not read this book, I encourage every writer to get a copy and study it. For many years, Bob has made a highly profitable career as a copywriter and this valuable skill is one every writer needs to learn. Here's what I wrote about THE COPYWRITER’S HANDBOOK:

 

One of the critical skills for every writer is copywriting. I’m delighted to see this classic book from the 80s updated with a fourth edition. Years ago, I read the first edition and still have it on my bookshelf. As Bly writes in the preface, the psychology of convincing others has not changed in centuries but the details of achieving success with your words continues to change and evolve. As Bly writes, “For instance, we used to say a disgruntled customer would tell ten other people about his dissatisfaction with the merchant. Now, with online reviews and social media, some can and do tell thousands.” This new edition includes chapters on critical elements like landing pages, online ads, social media, video content and much more. Every writer needs to read and study THE COPYWRITER’S HANDBOOK. Your writing will be improved, and you will be able to profit more from your words if you have this invaluable skill. I highly recommend this book.”

 

I believe there are advantages to writing some things like reviews in batches. You get into a frame of mind and can crank them out in a brief amount of time. While each review is distinct and different. While I've been writing reviews in batches, you can also write entries for your blog, articles, guest blog posts and many other types of writing. Do you ever write in batches or groups? Let us know your insights in the comments below.

 

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Productive Social Media

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

How in the world do I post on social 12–15 times a day? To some people it appears that I spend hours each day on social media—when in fact I don't. The truth is I have created my own system. In this article I want to give you some details about what I do in hopes you can adapt it to your own social media plans.

 

I use a scheduling tool. There are several types of these tools but I use the professional version of Hootsuite because I quickly maxed out the free one. Throughout my week, I'm reading and learning from other writers, then adding their content into my social media scheduled posts. The bulk of my posts every day are from others and not my own writing. I envision this section like I am back in my magazine editor days. On my social media feed, here's my mindset for what I'm doing: I'm essentially running a magazine about publishng for anyone who wants to learn about it.  I'm several weeks ahead in my scheduling of these posts. It's something that most people do not do and I'm fairly certain my author friends appreciate that I use their material (at least from the limited feedback I receive from them).  I read each of these articles as I schedule them and it adds to my own knowledge and information about the publishing world.

 

Once a week and often on a Tuesday, I return to my scheduled posts and fill in the rest of them. As with the other posts, I've created my own pattern or system in this process. For example, I have a series of lead magnets or resources I've created to help others. Each of these resources, ask the reader to give me their first name and email address so they are added to my email list when they get the free resource. Many authors use this method but I make sure I don't use it too much so use one of these resources in the morning and one in the afternoon.

 

Each of my posts include an image, a short link to the resource or article (because otherwise sometimes they are broken when posted) and a hashtag. Notice I have created a standard or pattern for each of these posts. If the posts are related to my work like a blog post, a free offer, a book I'm promoting through stressing the benefits or something else related to my own work, I have saved a series of these posts. They are stored in a text file which I use each week.

 

Also I have a series of royalty-free images that I've pulled over the years and stored in a file on my computer. I use this method to repurpose and promote these articles from The Writing Life, which has over 1500 searchable entries (a great deal of content). As a reminder, I've created a search tool for my various blog entries (scroll down to find it) but I use this tool often to find my own articles. These are some of the details that I open and use in this once-a-week process. If I'm traveling or going to be away from my office, then I schedule even more than a week's worth. Because I do this process on a consistent basis, it runs even if I'm away from my computer.

 

As I mentioned, I look at my social media feeds like running a magazine. If I see a potential article and it speaks about a holiday or a deadline earlier than where I'm scheduling, then I use it earlier (often that day) in my social media feed. 

 

I've given you a number of the details which I have not written about before but use each week in my social media feed. I've created my own system—and know you will have to create a system that works for you and your plans. 

 

Do you have a plan or system for your social media? Let me know in the comments below. 

 

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Seven Critical Steps for Every Author

Over 80% of Americans plan to publish a book at some point in their lifetime. Over 4,500 new books are published every day. Yet repeatedly I hear from authors wondering how to sell their books and what steps they should be taking in this process.

Let me tell you right from the start, when it comes to book publishing and in particular selling books, there is no magic formula. If there were such a formula every book would be a bestseller. Yet there are proven essentials that every author can do—and that's what I'm writing about in this article. These steps are not in any particular order but it's important to tackle each of them.

1. Know your target audience (readers). The more information you have about this reader, the better you can focus your efforts to reach them. No matter how much we want it, not everyone will read your book but your target audience will.

2. Be active or visible with your audience. It is different for every author but if you know your target. Where are they? Listening to their radios? Then you need to be on radio programs. On Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, then you need to become more visible in these places. To help you, I have a free ebook, Platform building Ideas for Every Author.

3. Start and actively use an email list. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about then I recommend you explore these two links for My List Building Tycoon at: http://bit.ly/t2W1zy or on Kindle: http://amzn.to/wU6Fzb. The essence of it is you create an ebook or audio or something valuable for your audience. Then give that ethical bribe away to your audience in exchange for them giving you their email address. Only you control your email list (not some other platform like Twitter or Facebook). Then you build your list as you use the list to continue to give your audience value. 

4. Take responsibility for your own marketing. Each of us have excuses. We are introverted. We don't like it. We want to just write. We want someone else to do it—why we get a publisher. Listen to yourself and then stop the excuses and take action. Every day when I speak to authors I tell them that they bear 80% of the responsibility for selling their book.. They say, “yes” but then balk at taking action. You will be exceptional if you do take your own responsibility.

5. Get to a writer's conference. Conferences are a key part of my own growth and people I know in publishing. You will learn a great deal and also make friendships with editors and agents. Over the next few months, I'm speaking at different conferences and would love to meet you in person. Follow this link to my schedule. I especially recommend Author 101 University.

6. Have the Right attitude. You should always be growing, trying new things and experimenting to find your path. It is different for each book and each author so you have to be moving forward. Remember you are not selling your book or yourself. Instead you are helping as many people as you can help. In the process, stress the benefits and advantages of your book and how it will help others. Much more attractive to people than “selling” and as an author you will be more comfortable doing it.

7. Create a simple system to become active with your readers. It is different for every author. Maybe your path is blogging or social media or radio interviews. As you speak or write, focus on helping others but also leading them to your products where to spend money to get additional help. An example of this process would be my free teleseminar about book proposals. When you take this teleseminar, I lead you to my Write A Book Proposal membership course. 

Opportunities are around you—but to take advantage of these opportunities, you have to seize them and take action. Don't count on anyone else or you will certainly be disappointed (publisher, bookstore, Amazon—no one). If I can help you, reach out to me. 

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9 Ways to Jumpstart Your Writing During the Holidays

You can almost feel the shift in the publishing world when the calendar gets close to the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.  I'm receiving fewer emails. My phone calls and emails are not as quickly returned.  The culture is shifting into holiday mode where activities outside of publishing fill our schedule and less is happening.

While the schedule for others fills with holiday activities, your writing does not have to go on hold. In fact, from my experience, the holidays are a perfect time to jumpstart your writing life.  Here's nine action steps you can take during the holidays:

1. Increase Your Writing. Now is the time to lean into your novel or your nonfiction book and complete it.  No book manuscript is created overnight. It takes day after day effort to write your story and finish the manuscript. Make a plan for your writing then stick with it.

2. Create A New Product or Book. Do you have a new product or book idea? Take this time to lean into it and create. I encourage you to download The 24–Hour Product Creation Cheat Sheet from Jimmy D. Brown. I have several of these types of projects which have been on hold because of other work. I've started scheduling regular time into my work day to begin to move these projects forward and get them into the marketplace.

3. Write A Book Proposal. Maybe you have several book ideas and the place for you to dig in during the holidays is creating a new book proposal. If you don't know how to create a proposal, take my Write A Book Proposal membership course or use my free Book Proposal Checklist or take my free proposal teleseminar. Then take action and create your proposal.

4. Reach out to Editors and Agents. The holidays are often a great time to touch base with these publishing professionals. Send them a card or email and reconnect with them. Tell them some detail you appreciated about them and see how you can help them. Those simple statements may go a long way with that person. 

5. Read and Review books of others. I've written about this important habit but if you've never started it or forgotten about it. Now is a good time to read these books and review them. You will be practicing your craft of writing but also building good will among other writers as you read these books and write book reviews.

6. Begin a new program or tool. Do you want to learn how to make money with your blog or increase your social media presence? The key is to develope an easy system for you or to learn from someone else. I have a risk-free, detailed 31–Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks. Or listen to my free teleseminar on blogging or follow my detailed information on social media. Take committed time to work on developing a new skill or tool.

7. Get Organized. As a writer, I have piles of paper that isn't in a file folder (where I'm much more organized). I took some time this weekend to sort through the papers, put them into folders and get more organized. If I haven't used or read something,  I threw it away rather than lurking in a pile. As you get organized, you can be much more effective as a writer.

8. Pitch and Write Magazine Articles. Think about the publications you read and send ideas to the editor. If you have written for a magazine in the past, what can you write that they need? Approach the editor and see if they have a theme list online or one you can get from the editor. Then pitch appropriate ideas. 

9. Write to Look for New Opportunities.  Maybe you want to do more speaking in the new year or have a greater visibility at a particular conference. Work on expanding those possibilities during this season.

I include more than a dozen ways to jumpstart your publishing life in my book, Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. The key is to take action during the holidays and move forward with your writing.

Build Your Presence with a Blog

Book editors and literary agents are looking for visible authors. I'm talking about authors who have an already established connection to their audience and communicate with that audience on a consistent basis. The buzzword that is commonly used in publishing is called “platform.” What is the author's platform?

Many authors are chagrinned to hear this news. They thought the publisher was going to be the one to promote and market their book. These authors want to focus on storytelling and creating the best possible novel or nonfiction book. They don't want anything to do with marketing. Because these authors resist being involved in marketing, their pitches are consistently rejected and they struggle to find an editor or agent to champion their project. 

One of the simple yet effective ways to build your market presence is through blogging. On a consistent basis, I've been writing my blog since December 2004. The experience has been valuable in dozens of different ways and I've learned a great deal from it. Also I've increased my presence in the marketplace through blogging. 

Whether you have a blog or not, as an author or would-be author, you have some questions about how to build your presence (platform) with a blog and also how to you make money with a blog? I want to provide you with some answers but first here's

Five Ways Not To Blog

1. No focus. The word blog is short for a weblog and you start your blog with a literal use of this word. You write whatever comes into your head with no focus and no particular topic and audience in mind. In the process you crank a bunch of words into your computer. Yet are you drawing an audience?

2. No consistency. Sometimes you blog several times a day. Other times you go weeks or months without a single entry. You put information into the blog without any constant flow. And if you look at your viewing statistics, you see the results—lame.

3. Not picking a niche with passion. While this relates to focus, as a blogger, you need to select a particular niche that you will write about for a long time—with passion. Many bloggers fail to account for this element and they blog for a while then run out of steam. My blog has been going strong for years because I am passionate about the area I selected. Are you?

4. No email updates or RSS feed. Readers are different and you need to appeal to many types of readers. Some people like reading the entries on the site while others prefer to receive updates via email or their favorite blog reading tool which picks up on the RSS (really simple syndication) feed. You are missing out if you aren't using these simple resources with your blog.

5. No links to other resources. No one contains all of the information about any particular topic. People who read and love blogs like to have other resources within a blog post. You need to include links to other people's materials and resources as you write your entries. It will broaden your base and help you in countless ways.

I've just listed a few of the countless mistakes that people make in setting up and maintaining their blog. They do not attract readers nor make any money from their blog and quickly lose interest. They chalk it up to a wasted experience. You can avoid these mistakes with a little forethought and consistency. 

I want to help you build your presence in the marketplace with a blog. Whether you are a blogger or not, I have some insights for you. 

On Tuesday, August 7^th, I will be answering your questions in a FREE live teleseminar at www.askterrywhalin.com I encourage you to ask your questions. Hopefully your question will be one that I will answer during the 70–minute event. If you can't make the exact event, go ahead and register because it will be recorded and everyone who signs up will receive an email to the recording after the event.

To encourage your blogging efforts, everyone who signs up for the event will receive a free copy of my Ebook, Bloggers Guide to Profits, Discover the Little Known Secrets to Making Money with our Blog. If you scroll down the right side of my blog, you will see that I sell this book for $9.95. During this event, I'm giving away this valuable resource to everyone who registers. Please feel free to pass this information along to others and have them come to this live event.

I look forward to answering your questions on August 7^th.

Capture the Experience While It's Fresh

The world felt small and connected last Friday. As a book publisher, I was on a call with a new author guiding a brief meeting to get his cover design started. I've led many of these sessions yet the timing and the connections were unique.

This author was in Tel Aviv, Israel. The designer was in Canada and I was in Phoenix. We took care of the business about his cover and the call was almost over.

Last Friday was Good Friday yet also the beginning of Passover. As we were speaking on the phone, he was driving through an Arab village on the way to celebrate Passover at his in-laws house.

We were speaking on a conference number and this author dialed in using Skype so there was a bit of a delay with his speaking but it worked. I felt connected to the world community and was amazed at the advances of technology to allow something that a few years ago could not be imagined.

Each of us have unique personal experiences in this journey called life. What steps are you taking to capture some of these experiences shortly after they happen?

Our personal experiences can be used in many different ways for our writing. I'm going to give you several of them:

1. Personal Experience magazine articles. Your personal stories can be used in many different types of publications. The category of personal experience articles is almost universal for the print magazine world. High circulation glossy publications use them as well as trade publications. I've written for both types of publications and you can too.

2. Personal stories in nonfiction books. Writing any nonfiction book involves a careful balance between personal stories and how-to information. Often I've included my personal experiences in my writing. I've also collaborated with more than a dozen different people. This experience has allowed me to write their personal experiences into these books. In those cases, I tell the stories through their viewpoint which is another spin on how to use personal experience.

3. Fodder for your short stories. Many novelists are focused on producing their complete novel. Yet it takes a lot of time to write a full novel. You can be practicing your storytelling craft and using your personal experiences as fodder for those stories through short stories. Many print magazines are actively looking for appropriate short stories. It's terrific exposure and experience for the writer. Some of that storytelling springs from your life experiences.

4. Fodder for your novel. Many novels are thinly-veiled personal experiences for the writer. It's a common statement that writers should write what you know. It's hard to make any fiction believable if you've never been to a location yet you can take those experiences and they can be the backdrop for the writing in your novel.

5. Stories for your blog. Your own stories can create some fascinating writing for your blog. As someone with over 1,000 searchable entries in my blog, I'm a big believer in writing your experiences in the blog. If you don't know how to monetize (make money) from your blog or maybe you aren't making enough money from your blog, I recommend you get my 31 Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks, then read it and take action on the many suggestions.

Some writers journal to capture their thoughts and feelings. Others open a computer file and write the raw emotions of a moment.

How do you seize the day and take advantage of your personal experiences? The key from my perspective is to take consistent action to gather these stories so you can use them in your writing.

What's Holding Back Your Writing?

I've got a new dog in my house. Well, she's not really new but acting in a new way. We've had Sophie, our Yorkshire Terrier for over four years and she's an integral part of our daily lives. Yet I'm not the “alpha” in our house but my wife fills that role.

For years, Sophie has had this annoying behavior of barking like crazy each time I come into the house or speak with my wife. We've tried many different things to correct this behavior—and nothing worked until this week.

We learned about the Pet Corrector. This simple red can makes a hissing sound with air. Whenever Sophie barks or misbehaves, I blast it toward her and she immediately stops barking. In fact, she's lost this barking habit. It is like we have a new dog in our house—one that has much better behavior.

This Pet Corrector is an amazing tool and we learned about it from a family member who used it with their dogs.

I thought about this tool in relation to my writing life. What is holding back your writing? Is there some missing tool that you could pick up which would move your writing in a new direction?

The correction process has several parts. First, you need to take some time and think about what is holding back your writing?

Maybe you need to learn to write a query letter. Maybe you need to learn the skill of writing a book proposal. Maybe you need to attend a writer's conference with different editors and agents (people you've not met in the past). I'm speaking at a number of conferences in the coming months and you can check my schedule at this link.

Possibly you need to purchase a new book which will stir ideas. In each chapter of my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, I include resources so you can dig deeper into the material in that chapter.

Or maybe you are missing a critical skill that is holding you back. Or possibly it is financial and you need to make more money with your writing. I have a free teleseminar that you can access immediately along with my Ebook, Buzz Your Book Marketing That Matters.

Possibly you have a blog yet few readers and you aren't making any money with it because you've not set it up right and monetized it. I suggest you get my 31 Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks. You can get this resource any time day or night and it comes with my 60 day risk-free guarantee. Begin to use it right away.

After you determine what needs to change and locate the resources, the final step is critical: change your behavior. If you don't change your actions, then you will still be in the same spot a month or six months from now.

You can determine what is holding back your writing, find the resource and make a change. I believe in you and look forward to hearing about the results.

Focus Intentional Writing

It happens every day. Writers dream of having their work published in a magazine or a book. They commit time to write during the early morning. Or maybe they write in a journal each day or a blog. Possibly you are one of those writers who love words and crank out something every day.

From my experience, this type of random writing is unfocused and not pointing toward a specific goal. What is the goal of your writing? Are you doing it to help people? Are you doing it to tell a good story? Are you writing to capture your memories of the moment?

If you are blogging for a book deal, then read what Jane Friedman recently wrote in Please Don't Blog Your Book: 4 Reasons Why.

I've met novelists who love to write stories. Years ago I was in a critique group with a novelist who had written seven or eight novels. Each one was substantial storytelling and involved hours of work. I asked him if he had ever submitted the work to an editor or agent. “No,” he said. “I just love to write.”

I admired his discipline and love of storytelling as well as his commitment to write. Yet at that time, he had no plan or endgame for his writing. In the years since, we encouraged this writer to submit his material and the bulk of that writing has appeared in print.

There are millions of blogs. This week I received an email from a writer who had been blogging and wanted me to read some of his writing. I saw that he could tell a good story (and told him so). Yet the writing was scattered with no obvious target audience or purpose. Again it was unfocused.

For example, my blog on The Writing Life has over 1,000 entries. Each article is focused on the writing and publishing world. It is planned and intentional in what goes on these pages. Also to help you, I have a search tool in the right-hand column. Scroll down and you will find it and can search for any term to see articles that I wrote years ago on a particular topic. It is a rich resource.

If you are going to blog then I encourage you to focus your writing on capturing your passion. Make sure your target audience is clearly in focus with each entry. Also look for ways to monetize your blog and turn it into a revenue stream. If you have 31 days, I encourage you to get a copy of my 31 Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks. You can read it risk-free for 60 days. I'm confident the content can change your writing life from unfocused to laser focused.

With a plan for your writing, the days ahead can be full of promise and publication. I encourage you to action today to move forward.