Facing the Mundane

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Within the process of the Writing Life, there is a great deal of routine and mundane tasks. How do you face these tasks? Do you ignore them or move ahead and do them?

 

If I'm honest I love to tell stories and write words into my computer. Then I send those stolries to editors who see it is a fit for their publication, so they publish the material published in magazines or books or online or another format. It sounds simple but is much more complex.

 

While you may be writing the stories for yourself, each writer has to understand they are writing for the reader and have to have them clearly in their focus to capture the editor's attention. Many magazines require you write a one page pitch letter called a query letter. You have to learn how to use words which catch attention. There are thousands of these publications and you have to learn which ones will be a fit for whatever you are pitching and reach that editor with your pitch. Often you have to pitch numerous times before you find the right fit and this process can be repetitive and boring—yet it is a necessary part of the business. If you don't pitch, then you don't get the hearing and opportunity to be published.

 

The other specialized document which every writer needs to learn to craft—whether they write fiction or nonfiction is a book proposal, which is your business plan for your book. The proposal contains information which never appears in your manuscript but the various gatekeepers like agents and editors use to make decisions. Even if you self-publish your book, you still need a proposal.

 

There is often a lot of change within editorial offices. You have to reach these new editors, develop your relationships with them and pitch your ideas. Then when they agree to look at it, your pitch has to be on track and something they will want. It sounds simple but there are many places where the process can be stopped.

 

Also as an author, I have to use a gentle follow-up when I don't get a response. Every editor or agent get a lot of email and if you don't follow-up, it's easy for that pitch to slip through the cracks and not happen. Your approach has to be gentle and not pushy—because the easiest answer to get (and one you don't want) is “no thank you” or silence. These follow-up skills are something everyone can develop but are often a part of the mundance aspects or repetitive aspects of publishing.

 

Part of being an author is to market my work in various ways such as email, social media, magazines, media interviews or numerous other ways. As an author, I report my activities to my publisher, who passes these activities on to our sales team who passes it on to the bookstores. This communication process is important and what keeps my books out in the bookstores (selling rather than getting returned). But filling out these forms is routine and mundane—yet a necessary part of this business. At the core, we are in the communication business and you have to communicate in the expected manner.  

 

These are just a few of the routine tasks that I do in my writing life. I have a number of other routine tasks that I do as an acquisitions editor. Even if I don't like them, I can't ignore them because they are a part of the business. Much of what I do is outside of my direct control.

 

Here's what I can do:

 

--be responsible for my own actions.

--keep pitching and knocking on new doors as well as places where I have established a relationship.

--keep doing the routine —even when something crashes or gets cancelled (which has happened recently)

--use the gentle follow-up when you aren't getting response. It's what I have been doing over and over (yes mundane) for years.

 

It's not easy but possible—if you continue down the path. As I've written about some of the obstacles are my own internal struggles. My advice is to just do it.  Otherwise it often does not happen.

 

How do you face the mundane aspects of the writing life? Ignoring it will not make it go away. My encouragement is to keep doing it. Let me know in the comments below.

 

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The Importance of Routine

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

These days are different. During two days this past week, I shoveled snow—not what you would expect but welcome to spring in Colorado. With the worldwide pandemic and lock down, I've had to use my online skills to figure out how to get food and renew prescriptions without going inside the stores. It took some some time but I've managed to work out these details. It's just one indicator of how our world is changing. Instead of going to my doctor's office for an appointment, I had a session with him online through an app on my phone. Everyone is learning new ways to get things done in our ever- changing world.

With businesses closed, I've been thinking about the importance of routine. Do you have a daily routine? If not, I encourage you to use this time to develop one. For example, as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James a key part of my regular routine is to work with authors, answer emails, return phone calls, negotiate contracts. While much of the world has been disrupted, I continue doing this work. Yesterday I had a phone session with an author and her literary agent. Today I will have a couple more of these sessions with authors. It's been a part of my routine and is something that I continue doing.

As a part of my daily routine, here's a running list of some of my activities—and they are not in any particular order or preference:

• learn new ways of doing things.
• read books and write reviews
• listen to books and write reviews
• continue to post on social media
• write these articles for the Writing Life
• write every day on my current writing projects
• answer emails and knock on new doors of possibilities

These items are just a few of my regular routines—which are mostly the same as last month and the month before that.  My encouragement to you is to establish a routine and stick with it even with our ever-changing world. Even if you are isolated and stuck inside, you can get up, get dressed and still accomplish a great deal at home. Yes I've had some events cancelled and postponed. I've had to cancel some airline trips and delay other projects. But I've also had authors sign their contracts and move their books forward into production with Morgan James. Also in recent weeks, I've completed writing projects and started new ones. 

In these different times, I encourage you to have a routine. If your business has changed or shut down for now, look to diversity your income stream. Do you have a topic that you can teach? Then create an online course and I have a simple product with a risk-free money back guarantee called the Simple Membership System. Also look at affiliate income possibilities. If yo don't know what I'm talking about then get this free Ebook I've created. Do you have an email list? If not, create one and get this inexpensive ebook called the List Building Tycoon to start an email list.

Long after this different period, books will continue to be published. Magazines will need writers for articles and online publications will need your writing. Radio shows and podcasts continue to need guests with relevant topics. These needs continue and you can fill them with a writer—if you are continuing your routine.

Are you continuing your routines or starting new ones? Let me know in the comments below.

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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.

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Climb Out of the Routine

Are you a routine person? In many ways my writing life falls into a regular rhythm. I suspect that my preference for the routine isn't too unusual.

Every now and then it's good to climb out of your rut and break your routine. Try something different. Several weeks ago, my long-time publishing friend Judith Couchman asked me to read and write some words about her new book, The Mystery of the Cross, Bringing Ancient Christian Images to Life. I wasn't sure what I would learn but I agreed to read the book. It is out of the realm of the normal sort of nonfiction and fiction that I would choose but I found the book fascinating.

Throughout the ages the Cross has been symbolized in many different fashions and Couchman takes the reader on a remarkable journey. Until I read through this well-done book, I had no idea the various symbols used to represent the Cross. In fact, Couchman captures 40 different representations in this book which includes seven different parts:

* The Cross in Pre-Christian Times

* The Cross and the Suffering Savior

* The Cross and the First Believers

* The Cross and Early Religious Freedom

* The Cross in Ancient Everyday Life

* The Cross in Early Church Life

* The Cross and Its Eternal Power

This book can be used as a devotional learning experience about the Cross or you can read it straight through like any nonfiction book. I found it a bit unusual to release a book about the Cross around Christmas because typically the Church is tuned into the Cross around Easter instead of Christmas. Yet toward the end of the book on page 195, I found the Christmas connection within this book: "Christmas Day 800 marked one of the turning points to European history. Charles, King of the Franks, attended the third Nativity mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He prostrated himself for prayers at the Tomb of the Apostle, in front of the congregation. when Charles rose from his petitions, Pope Leo III stepped forward and crowned him emperor of the Romans. The assemblage cried out, "Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, the great, peace-loving emperor, crowned by God." Then everyone in attendance, including the pope, bowed to the new emperor, also known as Charlemagne." And to think that such a celebration happened on Christmas Day.

Pick up a copy of The Mystery of The Cross. It will shake you out of your routine thinking about this ancient symbol.