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Exciting news this week ... I've just reopened Writers' Huddle for the first time since October 2015.
If you've been waiting for this for a while, head straight here for all the details and to join:
If you've not heard of Writers' Huddle before, or if you want a quick look at the new stuff that I'm introducing this summer, just scroll a little way down this email.
Don't forget to check out the Aliventures blog, too: this week's post went up on Monday:
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What Would Your Ideal (Writing) Day Look Like? |
Do you have great intentions for your writing that never seem to quite work out?
I've had a bunch of those over the years. I've wanted to finish a novel in X months or write Y blog posts per week. And it's often not panned out.
Whether you
write full-time, or around a day job, or around kids, it's always going to be a challenge to focus on your writing. There'll be plenty of admin distractions, like emails and blog comments -- and plenty of non-work tasks, like laundry and dishes.
I've found that the key to making my writing plans work is to figure out where writing's going to fit into my day.
Right now, it shifts from day to day, but a typical Monday or Wednesday for me looks
something like this, in terms of my writing: - 10am - 1.30pm - Nanny has the kids, writing/work admin
- 4pm - 5.15pm - Husband has the kids, work admin / housework
- 5.15pm - 5.45pm - Novel writing (or something novel-related like marketing)
I'm making a conscious effort to keep my mornings for writing and the late afternoon slot for admin-y stuff: if I get distracted by emails or little 5-minute tasks in the morning, it's hard to make good headway with the
writing.
Of course, before the kids, I had a lot more flexibility with my writing (and once my youngest starts pre-school in January 2017, I'll have something a bit closer to a full workweek again). If you're in a position to have more control of your own time, by all means plan and arrange your day to best suit you.
Think about: - What non-negotiables do you have? E.g. day job, childcare responsibilities.
Do you have the option of shifting your hours around so you can write at your best, most focused time of day?
- What potentially-negotiables do you have? E.g. volunteering, community group meetings. Can you cut down on some of these?
- When do you want to start work? When do you need to get up to make this happen? In an ideal world, I'd start writing around 7am. I'm not keen on being up before 6am (sadly, my one-year-old has
other ideas...)
- Which hours of the day can you keep for writing (rather than for admin, marketing, etc)?
- How many hours would you ideally want to work during the day? (Don't try to write for 8 hours a day! If you can write for 4 hours per day, that's great. You might have the occasional marathon day but find that you're wiped out afterwards.)
- When will you NOT work? We all need downtime -- and you may find
that you're not very productive at certain times of the day anyway. (I havealways struggled to work after dinner in the evenings.)
- How many breaks will you have / how long will breaks be? For non-fiction, I like to work in Pomodoros (25 minutes work, 5 minute break) because I focus well and write fast that way. You might prefer longer work sessions and longer breaks.
- How will you integrate exercise into your day? If you're
a full-time writer, you're probably spending a lot of time sitting at a desk. Ideally, you want to do something active for about 30 minutes a day. If you can get outside into the fresh air, even better!
It's entirely up to you what your ideal day looks like. Keep in mind this is an ideal -- don't beat yourself up if you struggle to stick with it, especially initially. (Though, if it consistently doesn't seem to be working, you might want to check that you're
allowing enough breaks and downtime.)
What matters here is being intentional. You're not just hoping that writing will somehow happen to you: you're planning for exactly when you're going to sit down and write.
You can take this further, particularly if your days vary a lot, and create an ideal week. Here's Michael Hyatt's example (note this is fairly business-focused rather than writing-focused): michaelhyatt.com/ideal-week.html
I'd love to hear about your ideal writing day. Feel free to reply to this email (or email me separately if it's easier, [email protected]) to share your plans with me. : |
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Writers' Huddle is now open for new members ... but only until May 31st.
Do you ever feel a bit lost with your writing?
Maybe you've wanted to write for years and years ... but
you're not making much progress. Chances are, you don't have a lot of support around you (maybe most of your family and friends just don't "get" writing). You might have a lot of ideas but not know which to pursue ... or you might feel desperately keen to write, but the ideas just aren't coming.
If that sounds like you, come and check out Writers' Huddle:
Writers' Huddle is a teaching / community site for writers that's been going for over four years now.
As soon as you join, you get access to all 50 existing seminars, several full-length ecourses and mini-courses, and the members-only forums where you can talk about writing, workshop your
work-in-progress, and get to know fellow writers.
Each month, you get a new seminar, and each week, you get an email alerting you to new content and/or reminding you of some of the existing resources you might have missed.
We've also got two brand new bonuses for this re-opening:
#1: All four of my Blogger's Guides are included in your membership (these are premium ebooks that normally
sell for $29 each or $66 for all four)
#2: You'll get a critique of up to 2,000 words of your writing (no charge!) from me -- you don't have to take this up right away, you've got a whole year.
As well as these, there are quite a few new things starting this summer in Writers' Huddle, including a reading group, a "buddy" system for support and accountability, and a six-week writing challenge. (All of these are totally optional: you can join
in with as much or as little as you want.)
It costs $19.99/month to be a member, and you can cancel at any time.
No-risk guarantee: If you join and decide that Writers' Huddle isn't right for you, just let me know within your first month and I'll refund your payment.
You can find all the details, including the list of archived seminars plus information about the included ecourses,
here:
Important: So that new members can get settled in quickly, I'm only keeping the virtual doors open until Tuesday 31st May. I'll send you a reminder in next week's email, but the sooner you join, the sooner you get access to
all the great content inside! :-) |
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Q&A: Finding That "Spark" That Gets You Going |
One reader asked me to write about, "Inspiration to write, finding that 'spark' that gets you going."
This is (for me, at least) one of the hardest things about writing. Once I'm underway with a short story or blog
post or novel or book, then it's easy to keep going ... but it's hard to come up with an idea that grips me.
In fact, in my very early days as a writer, I wanted to write something, anything, but I didn't really know what. It took me a while to figure out first that I wanted to write novels and then that I loved blogging too.
So, a good place to start is with the broad category of what you want to write. If you feel drawn
towards a particular type of writing, go for it (even if that type of writing isn't likely to prove very profitable). If you don't really care what you write, I'd suggest starting with shorter pieces (short stories, individual blog posts or articles).
You might already have some idea about what you want to write. Maybe you're reluctant to start on a particular idea: you feel that you need to be a better, more experienced writer in order to do it justice. If the idea is
drawing you in, though, start anyway! The experience of working on it might be what you need: you can always redraft, using what you've learnt along the way.
If you don't already have an idea, you may find that one simply comes to you. You can potentially help this process along by giving yourself some mind-wandering space for ideas to occur (long walks, long showers, and doing the dishes work for me). Make sure you're reading plenty in the genre / area in which you want
to write – and be open to inspiration from other forms of art (like music, paintings, etc) as well.
There's no sure-fire way to spark an idea. And, while ideas themselves are cheap – I'm sure you could come up with a page-full – it's not so easy to find an idea that you want to commit to.
Don't use the lack of an idea as an excuse not to write, though. Try out writing prompts,
writing exercises, or even writing competitions to get you going. Along the way, you might well find that more ideas start coming.
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In next week's newsletter, I'll be talking about to stay motivated for the long haul with your writing.
Till then, happy writing,
Ali
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