’Tis the season for resolutions. In Part I of this two-part series, we talked about ways to learn, stretch your skills, connect, be kind to yourself and commit to reading and writing in the new year. Below are more resolutions to take up in your pursuit of writing.
BE PREPARED
Be Flexible
Grab opportunity where it is. You never know when an opportunity might appear. Be ready always. Have your pitch ready. Know your logline. Carry business cards. Have answers to common questions: What’s your story about? Why did you want to tell that story? Be ready to act if an opportunity presents itself.
Be Patient
Nothing in the creative world happens fast—not books, movies, television series. They all take time. Keep writing. Keep trying. Some books take years to appear on shelves and even longer to get movie deals. Some never get them. It’s rare for it to happen all at once. Keep trying. Keep pushing. Don’t stop writing. The more you have, the more you have to sell.
Learn to Accept Roadblocks
Things happen. Directors get jailed (long story there), topics become forbidden or unpopular, editors leave, agents quit, books get shelved. Be ready with a backup plan. Position yourself to weather obstacles, many of which you cannot prevent.
Say Yes
Whenever possible, say yes. Can you speak on a panel? Yes. Can you send me your manuscript? Yes. Can you write this article by next week? Yes. Saying yes opens doors and strengthens your reputation as a writer. Say yes whenever it makes sense and is possible. But remember that if you say yes, you have to deliver. If you can’t, then decline with regret.
Be Confident
Believe in yourself and your abilities. You have to in order to sell them. Confidence is a critical component of success. If you don’t have it, learn it. Now.
Write More
The more you write, the more you have to offer. Also every moment spent writing makes you a better writer.
PRODUCTIVITY
Stop Procrastinating
This is the topic of our next blog. Procrastination is the bane of productivity. Writers are prone to it. I’ll explore ways to get around this terrible habit so you can be productive and get to writing without the guilt and effort of waiting.
Finish Something
Finishing is key. You can’t send unfinished work to an agent or editor. It’s tempting to give up when writing gets complicated or difficult or when the words aren’t coming out right, but that’s when you have to dig in and finish. Keep working. Edit the heck out of your work. Get an outside opinion. Finish it.
Honor Your Writing Commitment
Make writing a priority. Schedule it, even if only in the general sense. If you set a word count goal for the week and it’s the final day of that week, you need to turn down that invitation to go out dancing and write. If you have scheduled a writing session, keep it no matter what. Your appointments with yourself are essential and should not be broken except for extreme emergencies and that does not include an invitation to brunch.
Be Consistent
Slow and steady works. Consistent effort will net results. If you write a 200 words a day, you will have 73,000 words by the end of the year. That’s a book. Stick to it and you will succeed.
Step Away from Your Devices
The Internet is a black hole. It will steal your time and never give it back. Put your devices down. Enter focused mode, whether through an app that turns the Internet off, or through discipline, and get to work. You can check your email, texts and social feeds later.
Become More Productive
Learn how to type faster or try a productivity app to keep you on ask (I like Todoist for that). Find apps that will help you focus or be more productive (yes, I see the irony of this tip coming after the previous one). I like Notion and Todoist, but there are many options available to keep you on task. Maybe a habit tracker would help you? Explore your options and pick the ones that will help, not steal more time to manage them. Only you can decide what will work for you.
Work on More
Forget working on one thing at a time. Launch several projects at one time—a novel, a blog, a website, a client project. The more you have to do, the more you are likely to get done. It’s a trick around procrastination. It also helps prevent getting stalled. If you hit a wall on one project, you can move to another. While you are doing that, you may happen upon the answer to the first problem.
Keep Writing
Even when you finish. Start something new. While you query agents or editors, while you hunt down new clients, write. Start a new project, a new novel, a new screenplay. Keep writing. You are never finished.
RESEARCH
Do Your Research
No matter whether you are writing fiction, creative nonfiction or straight nonfiction, you need to get your facts right. Your readers deserve that much. But research can be tricky. It’s all too easy to waste time trying to find what you need or lose the fact you found once upon a time but didn’t log properly. Research is so important that we will be offering an ebook shortly to help you plan, prepare, execute and capture facts for your story in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Look for that January 2020.
THE CRAFT
Learn the Craft
Read book on writing, attend lectures or workshops, study grammar. Work on the foundations of good writing. Then read great examples of it. If this is what you want to do with your life, you need to put in the work.
Dedicate Yourself to Honing Your Skills
Assess your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to writing and work on those areas. Commit to building on your skills this year. It can only help you on your journey.
Write What You’d Like to Say
In other words, stop talking about writing all the time and write. Put your words onto the page instead of sharing them with everyone you meet. No one wants to hear about your book as much as they’d like to read it.
Follow the Rules…
But know when to break them. This is a combination tip for learning the craft and then trusting your instincts to write your best story.
FIXING YOUR WORK
Learn How to Edit for Easier Revision
This means learning how to approach an editing project (see our series on NaNo: Now What for a comprehensive approach), but it also means learning how to do line editing too. And proofing. You are going to have a hard time selling if you can’t learn how to edit your own work.
Set Aside Time to Fix Your Work
The writing is not finished once the first draft is done. Most real writing happens after the first draft, when you dig into the story and start fixing all the issues you didn’t see as you put your words on paper. Set aside a good chunk of time to edit. The time will vary depending on the person, issues, type of writing. Don’t shortchange yourself at this stage. Rewrite then rewrite and then do it again. Edit until the manuscript is as good as it can get.
Proof
There is nothing more annoying than reading a great book only to find typo after typo in the text. Proof your work before you send it. Don’t rely on your editor or publisher to find every flaw. They don’t have that kind of time. You do. Use it.
Let Go
At some point, you need to stop working on projects that don’t work. Some stories are not fixable without a complete rewrite, and even then, some stories aren’t strong enough to sustain a book. It’s okay to accept that and start again with something new, as long as you aren’t stopping because it’s hard. Only let go when a story cannot be saved or when the time to save it is far too long for your schedule. Move on to something new. You can always come back if you get a brainstorm.
Ask for Help
Beta readers are great. Editors are too. Writer’s critique groups can help too, if you find the right one. Don’t go it alone. Get outside opinions when you are too close to see the work anymore or don’t know what to do next.
THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
Get Organized
Clean out those files and old emails. Clear your space for more work. Do you really need 14 versions of the same project when the last few will do? Do you need hard copies of all your old research when you have it digitally too? Purge the excess. Then organize what remains. The more organized you are, the less time you will waste trying to find things.
Submit
Try. Send a query to an agent or editor, contact a potential client, self-publish. Do what you can to get your work into the public. It won’t happen if you don’t take that leap.
Work Ahead
Delays happen. You get sick or an interview gets postponed. Plan for delays and write ahead of your deadline. This is the best way to avoid missing a due date.
Look at Your Writing as a Business
Set a financial goal for the year. Then make a realistic plan for how you are going to reach that number. It could be adding a specific number of new clients, writing x number of articles, garnering blog revenue, selling a novel. The method is up to you. The point is to be strategic with your goals. I want to earn X amount of dollars this year and I plan to do it by doing x, y and z. If you are really dedicated, you could make a business plan. They are effective and are available online.
Back Up Everything
Then do it again. I know I just said to purge your files, but you need backups of everything, ideally in more than one location. Seriously. There is nothing worse than losing work. It happens. Don’t rely on the cloud alone.
Learn Finances
Being a writer means earning sporadic paychecks. Learn how to maximize your paychecks and how to budget so you always have money for bills. This isn’t easy to do, since most writers earn different amounts for their work. The key is to build up a reserve to carry you through the leaner times. Knowing how finance works is a must.
Get Professional Advice
I’m not talking therapists here (though that is fine too). But it is essential you learn your legal obligations as a freelancer and that you understand copyright law. Talk to an attorney. Make an appointment with your local Small Business Development Center to make sure you are legal for your city/county/state. Talk to an accountant about setting up your books and preparing for taxes. Talk to people who can help you protect yourself legally and financially.
Ask Questions
If you aren’t sure about something writing-related, ask. Post your question below and I will answer it. Also consider joining the Figments & Fables Patreon where we have an ongoing Q&A on Discord, as well as other benefits for every level of patronage.