Create Writing Routines

I have a number of writing habits including writing each week for the Writing Life. Every morning I use Refollow to follow 800 new people in my target market.  I've been doing this habit for years and yes clicking my mouse 800 times is a bit boring and routine. Why do it? Because consistent use of this tool is one of the reasons that I have a large following on Twitter. This fact combined with the other habits I've created have gathered a large following or platform. Follow this link to learn the details of my every day actions on Twitter.

Every day I read and/or listen to audiobooks. As I read, I'm learning new things but also feeding into my writing life and habits. As I've mentioned before, for every book that I read or hear (good or bad). I take a few minutes and write a review. I've reviewed over 900 books and products on Amazon and over 500 books on Goodreads. This volume has happened because I've created a writing habit which I execute over and over.

Currently I am listening to an audiobook from historian Doris Kearn Goodwin called Leadership. It's a book on the current bestseller list and I got the book from my local library through Overdrive. Goodwin compares the leadership style of four different U.S. Presidents. In my listening so far, she has included Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. The background and style of each man and how they tackled the leadership issue has been insightful. Eventually when I complete the book, I will write and post a review. Listening to audiobooks is a habit I've cultivated which feeds into my writing.

Whether you write a lot of a little, consistency is one of the keys. If you begin a blog, then I encourage you to grow that blog and consitently write or post on it. Some people use guest bloggers to fill their blog. There are many different ways to do it—just be consistent as a basic principle. You can also reuse this material or a book or in a newsletter or any number of places. I have a free teleseminar about reusing your content. Also I have a 31 Day course on making money from your blog which is risk-free during the guarantee period.

Your writing routines will be different from my routines. Create patterns in your life for your writing. If you do, I believe you will be more consistent, prolific and productive. In some cases, a routine can become boring but change it up to keep it interesting—yet continue doing the action. Each of us as writers needs to be continually building our email list, completing magazine writing deadlines, getting to events and meeting new people.

In my view, the payoff for having a writing routine is completing and getting done what others just dream of doing. Many people want to write a book but if you get that book published you enter a smaller circle of people. And if your book sells (and not just a few but in a large number), then you enter even a smaller number of people who succeed in writing a bestselling book.

One of the basics is creating writing routines then sticking with those routines. What sort of writing routines do you have? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Have you developed writing routines? Get some ideas from this prolific author. (ClickToTweet)
 

Take Consistent Action to Achieve Your Goals

Are you taking consistent action to meet your writing or marketing or publishing goals?  In the first place, do you have a goal or dream? If so, are you writing down the goal then taking consistent action to achieve it?

Last week I was at Author 101 University in Los Angeles. This life-changing event happens twice a year. Each time I meet new authors and also reconnect with some of my publishing colleagues. Several of these colleagues who are active in the publishing community also want to write books.  As a part of our conversation, I make a point to ask them about the book and see if they are making progress.  Yes, they still want to write the book but have been consumed with other things so their book writing has taken a backseat and hasn't been happening.

I'm empathetic about their situation of trying to write a book in the middle of other business. Then I encourage them to be writing their book in small pieces—even 200 words a day can add up to become a completed book. It will only happen if you take consistent action to achieve this goal.

At the event, I met a new writer who was enthused about building her presence in the market and using different tools like Twitter. She was aware of the frequency of my tweets and that I was providing excellent content on a consistent basis. How did she know? This writer had set her phone to beep every time I sent a tweet. I've written a number of articles in The Writing Life about the different tools and methods I use for my social media. It is not time consuming but to grow a large following, you do have to take consistent action.

Every day I'm adding content to my Twitter feed and always looking for good articles to pass on to others along with my own content. I'm also consistently growing my own followers and social media presence. Whether I'm traveling or at home, I regularly work on these areas. The constant effort pays off and if it doesn't then you stop that action and try something else.

I didn't suddenly have over 150,000 twitter followers. I've been growing it gradually. I didn't instantly write over 550 customer reviews on Amazon or gain 5,000 friends on Goodreads. These milestones took place with consistent action. For this blog, I'm a few articles away from having 1300 different articles. This large volume of content was built through consistent action.

What types of goals or dreams do you have for your writing and publishing life? Do you want to sell more books? If so, then you need to be increasing the number of people that you tell about your book. Make an action plan and then consistently execute that plan so you can achieve your goals. It does not happen overnight but can happen—provided you take action.

A Celebration of Books!

April is the first ever Wimpy Kid Month, which will become an annual event. Tomorrow, April 28^th, the cover and title for the 9^th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be revealed in a free webinar.

This event reminds me of an amazing experience that I had with books last October. I love printed books. I've written numerous books. For years as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James, I’ve helped others get their books into print.

Yet something was missing from my experience. I had never toured a book manufacturing plant. I wanted to see how books were assembled from large rolls of paper to books you can hold in your hand.

Last October I finally had that magical experience. I spoke at the Wisconsin Writers Association and I knew one of the largest book manufacturers was in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I arranged a tour of Worzalla Book Publishing which has been operating since 1898. The plant runs 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

You’ve got to wear your walking shoes because the plant is over 300,000 square feet of building space. They were running many different print jobs as I walked through. Some machines were binding paperbacks while others were adding the jackets on hardcovers. Others were assembling the signatures of books into stacks and another machine added the hardcover binding.

The large project in the plant was printing six million copies of Book #8 of the Wimpy Kid Diary books. I was not allowed to take any photos of this printing because the book is embargoed and will not release in the bookstores until November 2, 2013. Yet six million books are not magically printed overnight and shipped to stores around the country. It happens ahead of time in book plants like Worzalla.

I saw the book in pieces in some places and at other machines like in the bindery, they were completely assembled and packed into boxes and on pallets for shipping.

With permission, I took a few photos to include with this post. The rolls of paper are massive and weighed 1300 to 1600 pounds EACH. Notice the tall stacks in their warehouse. These rolls of paper become books.

I’ve been wanting to visit this plant for years and last fall, one of my dreams came true. My plans paid off and I managed to see how books are manufactured.

What are you dreaming of seeing manufactured? How can you take action to set something into motion where you can see this take place? Or maybe it is some trip you want to take. How will you achieve this dream in the days ahead?

Take Action to Grow

This morning I was organizing my desk and found a CD from a conference I attended in June. The Write to Publish Conference generously gave each attendee a free copy of 26 sessions from the previous year. 

Yet my copy was still in the wrapper and unopened. Despite my good intentions, I had not heard any of these sessions for my own growth as a writer.

Also today I picked a book off my shelf that I had purchased months ago, yet never opened the pages and read it. It is one of the many how-to books that I regularly read and apply to my writing life or business practices.

As writers, we have good intentions to learn and grow but we don't take consistent action. I regularly speak with authors who have good intentions to send me a promised book proposal or a manuscript. 

Yet a million interruptions have come into their life and they haven't sent it—but they still have plans. Ironically these same authors want to tell me about some pricey training where they've just returned. I've met a number of people who attend many training sessions on a regular basis—yet they have joined the ranks of the person who comes to an event yet doesn't apply the information they are absorbing. It strikes me as a waste of good intentions.

I want to encourage you to apply whatever teaching or training you have received—as you continue to learn more about your craft. I have taken the shrink wrapper off the CD with teaching from a writer's conference. I'm going to begin to listen to some of these sessions.

That book which has been on my shelf for months. I will open and spend some time reading and gaining insight from this seasoned professional who wrote the book.

As I listen to the audio programs and read the book, I will take notes and apply lessons to my own writing life. Each of us have good intentions. The key distinction is if we take action on these intentions and move forward. 

If you are looking for a boost to your writing life, then I encourage you to take my Write A Book Proposal course or read my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams book. You must take action to grow and achieve the desires in your heart.

How are you moving ahead to accomplish your writing dreams and plans?

Fragile Dreams

For the last few days, I’ve been at the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference. As a literary agent, I’ve had a parade of would-be authors sign up to meet with me, flock to my dining room table and catch me in the halls of the conference.

Each time I attend a conference as a member of the faculty, I’m keenly aware of the fragile nature of dreams. I’ve listened to many people tell me about themselves, their work, their hopes and their dreams. The challenge is to understand the effort of the writer to tell someone else about their hopes and dreams. I know these plans are fragile because I have many of my own plans and dreams. I look for ways to build these individuals, give them hope and encouragement yet balanced with realism about the challenges of book publishing and today’s marketplace. It’s a careful walk and I hope I achieved it.

I’m on the way back home. Tuesday I’m looking forward to interviewing Susan Driscoll, the president and CEO of iUniverse.com which is one of the largest Print-On-Demand companies in the United States. I’d encourage you to ask a question and listen to the live telewebcast.

A Matter of Focus

Are you stuck some place with your writing life? Maybe you've started several novels but not managed to finish them. Or maybe you have a half-baked query letter and haven't completed it and sent it out to various magazine editors. Possibly you've started a book proposal yet not submitted it. Years ago, one of the people in my writing critique groups had a whole desk drawer full of manuscripts. He had not submitted any of them. Or maybe the array of writing choices overwhelm you and you wonder which thing to tackle first.

In some ways it's a matter of focus and getting out of stall then forming a plan to move ahead. This past week, John Kremer included a short article about Keith Ferrazzi, the author of Never Eat Alone. [If you don't subscribe to John's free newsletter, take a second to do so because it's packed with great information]. The current issue of Reader's Digest includes an article from Ferrazzi about how to achieve your dreams.

Then Ferrazzi created a simple online quiz so readers could follow through. Check out this tool and it may help you get out of stall and on to the next level in your writing life.