Laina Turner's Blog, page 21

Adverbs are the Devil

 “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” —Stephen King

 

 “What’s your obsession with adverbs,” my editor once asked me.

“I just really, really like them,” I replied.

An adverb modifies a verb and often ends in -ly but not always. As in other elements of the English language the -ly qualifier isn’t 100% accurate which is what makes English so much fun.

I hate grammar. I know that sounds odd for a writer and maybe not completely accurate. I like grammar much the same way I like accounting. There is some level of satisfaction when you are picking apart a sentence to make it perfect. But after spending 5 minutes on the same sentence I’m over it and want to move on.

 I want to write without thinking and those pesky grammar rules interfere with that. It makes writing life a lot more complicated.

 What are adverbs?

 Dictinary.com defines adverbs as:

Adverbs—those words that often end in -ly—modify verbs. They’re okay occasionally, but in excess, they’re an indicator of weak verb choices.

Visual cues show readers what’s happening; adverbs tell them

 As authors, we know we are always supposed to SHOW versus TELL. Hence the lazy writer comment. But when you write how you talk – which is often the case – you use adverbs. So, it makes it harder to write without using them.

 At least that’s what I tell myself to make myself feel better. Whatever works, right?

 “Adverbs are the tool of the lazy writer.” ~ Mark Twain

 

 In fiction, too many adverbs weaken your writing. Because you’re not showing what’s happening.

 Adverbs get overused because we want to put extra emphasis on our verb. To make whatever we’re talking about sound even better than it currently does. 

 For example:

She screamed loudly. The definition of scream is a loud piercing cry. So, there is no need to say she screamed loudly. But people say it all the time to get the point across.

Adverb fails also happen when it contradicts the meaning of the verb they modify.

For example:

My jaw literally hit the floor when she told me the news.

It’s not even possible for your jaw to literally hit the floor so it literally did not happen.

Literally, is one of the most overused word in this sense (using literally for things not literal). There are several You Tube videos dedicated to the overuse and making fun of the overuse of the word.

I love this video.

My personal hang ups in the adverb world are just and very. They’re throw away words most of the time. I used to have the same issue with that. But when I wrote my dissertation my editor beat THAT bad habit out of me (hahaha – I’m so funny).

When I edit my posts and my fiction writing adverbs are the first thing I look for. They sneak in so easy.

Other sneaky grammar errors are passive voice and dangling modifiers.

Passive voice (dictionary.com) A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. 

For example:

The ball was thrown by the pitcher – passive.

The pitcher threw the ball – active. 

I write in passive voice a lot (another dissertation holdover). But when I edit the passive parts are obvious and make me cringe. Passive voice isn’t as an exciting read as active voice.

Dangling modifier (Purdue OWL) A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated in the sentence. A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a concept.

For example:

After finishing dinner dessert was ordered.

Who finished dinner and who ordered dessert. We can guess it was a human being but was it 1 or 5. And who were these people?

I find myself making this mistake because in my head I know exactly who/what I’m talking about. I have a harder time chatting my own mistakes in this are too because once again I know who/what I’m talking about.

Now you know what my biggest grammar issues are. What are yours?

 

The post Adverbs are the Devil appeared first on Laina Turner.

How to get out of a rut

We all get to that place in our life, whether personal or professional, where we feel stuck. That things aren’t moving in the direction we want, or fast enough, or things just aren’t making sense anymore. You wake up one day and dread doing something when the day before you felt it was fun. You’re not sure what happened, why it’s not bringing you the same joy, and what you should do about it.

Maybe you feel blah, unmotivated, lazy. You have days where Netflix seems more exciting than working on your current WIP or on a blog post and your productivity tanks.

We all go through these streaks of not being at the top of our game, and there can be many different underlying reasons for feeling this way. 

You might be in what I call being in a rut. And since we all know that doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of insanity the only way to get out of your rut is to make changes in your routine. 

But changing up your routine can be hard. Especially, if it’s one that’s worked for you up to now. It can be hard to admit we need a change.

I used to think I didn’t need a routine. I mean sure I had one but I didn’t NEED it. I prided myself on being able to go with the flow. I may not have thought I needed a routine, but I was fooling myself. I finally acknowledged when people wanted to change up my routine I would get edgy and my productive would drop. Hence, I depended on my routine. Especially, when I transitioned into full-time entrepreneurship and wasn’t working that 9-5 where I had structure whether I liked it or not.

I remembered the first time I felt stuck and unmotivated. It scared me because I wasn’t sure what to do.

But over the years, and many ruts, I’ve learned a few things that have helped me tremendously in getting myself excited and rejuvenated about the work I’m doing. At least enough to make myself do it. And let’s be honest that’s all you can ask for sometimes. Not every single thing you do is going to be super exciting.

So what should you try if you feel stuck in a rut?

1. Revisit your goals and why’s and make sure they still align with your long term objectives. Sometimes you keep working toward a goal because it’s habit, but you’ve fallen out of love with it or started going in a different direction. That’s ok. Goals are fluid. They’re meant to change as we grow and change.

You want to make a point of revising your goals a couple of times a year (at least) to be proactive and make sure you’re still working toward what you want.

2. Change one thing. If change scares you (and that’s ok if it does), then don’t try and change everything at once. Your routine became a routine because at one time it worked. Maybe you can adjust one tiny thing, and it will be enough to make a difference.

3. Be crazy and mix up your day. I like to get up early (well the word like is a bit of a stretch but it works best for my schedule) and get my writing and workout done first thing before my mind gets distracted. But I will get to a point a few times a year where I start dreading getting up before it’s even time to go to bed. I then know it’s time to flip my schedule and remind myself why I get up at 5 am to work out. Because I hate it even more in the evening.

4. Same task different environment. It can be simple like working at Starbucks instead of Panera Bread. Instead of working on your laptop indoors go to a park. Head to the library instead of your home office. Changing the scenery in which you do your work can often be a creative vibe to what you’re doing.

5. Do something you’ve never done before.  It could be you just need to try something different. Go rock climbing (I’m talking indoors not repelling down the Grand Canyon) or try a silks class. Read a book in a genre you’ve never read. 

6. Talk to someone. Sometimes telling someone your frustrations might be all you need to get unstuck and figure out what it is you need. Even if it doesn’t solve your problem, it certainly can’t hurt. We all need people to talk to. Who cares enough to listen.

The most important thing I can offer you is don’t beat yourself up. Feeling stuck is often temporary, and it’s normal. Even when it involves something you love. Being patient with yourself to figure out what you need is key. Stressing out over it will make it worse.

Remember you are fabulous. Every day in every way!

I’d love to hear how you get yourself unstuck.

 

The post How to get out of a rut appeared first on Laina Turner.

Work ON Your Business, Not IN Your Business

I took a business course years ago, and one thing that stuck with me is he talked about Working ON Your Business not just IN Your business.  

As a solopreneur, it’s so easy to get sucked into the day-to-day activities of your business. You’re constantly hustling to get everything done in the mere 24 hours in the day. 

If only we didn’t need sleep.

But you sometimes have to pull back and look at what’s going on in your business from a high level. To see what’s working and what’s not. Then make adjustments where you need to. When you’re too deep in it, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees as they say.

I know what you might be thinking. I have so much to do every day I don’t have time to stop and analyze. If I do that I’ll get behind on Tweeting and Pinning and Instagramming (oh my).

Well, you can’t afford not to. What if what you’re spending all your time doing isn’t that effective. You’re so deep in the trenches of doing the tasks you aren’t even noticing they aren’t effective. You could be missing out on traffic, sales, and opportunities. You owe it to yourself and your business to take that time, put your CEO hat on, and look at your data.

The first thing you need to analyze in your business is your key performance indicators. Your key performance indicators (KPI’s) are those things you measure that indicate your success as a business. As an author/blogger that has a lot to do with social follows, email sign ups, traffic, sales. You get where I’m going.

If you don’t have those metrics, or if they’re in your head and not on paper in the form of a business plan (hint hint you should have one if you’re serious about making a living at this) then that’s your step one. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t know exactly what you want to achieve with your writing. 

You also want to break those metrics down. If your 5-year plan is to make a million dollars, then break it down to what that looks like this month and next (and so on). You also need to know what actions will get you to your intended results and how those actions translate into dollars. 

For example: 

Does spending an hour a day on Twitter gain you anything that directly relates back to your revenue goal?
What blog posts give you the best ROI on email sign ups?
What book ad service gives you the best bump for your money?

See where I’m going with this?

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I look at my business once a week (usually Saturday or Sunday) and analyze the previous week. I can look for trends and get an understanding of why things are happening (or not). It doesn’t take me long to look up the data and then I usually spend about an hour analyzing the numbers and making a determination of some sort. This information then allows me to better plan what I need to do going forward.

I will caution you about not making reactions to data too quickly. You often need to give certain promotions a little time to see if they’re working. They might need to gain traction. There’s no rule for how long you should let something ride out before you determine it a dud and only you can determine what means success to you. We all have different goals so comparing your stats to someone else isn’t a good idea.

I am a firm believer in slow, incremental goals is the most effective long-term. I love this article on the aggregation of marginal gains. I recommend you read it. If you don’t feel like it the short version is about the British cycling team and how no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France. The coach vowed to change that.

Brailsford believed in a concept that he referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.

They won it in 3 short years.

You too can win by finding those small incremental gains. But not if you don’t look at your business to find out where those gains can be gotten.

So what are you waiting for?

Put on your calendar today a time when you will work ON your business and make it a new habit.

 

The post Work ON Your Business, Not IN Your Business appeared first on Laina Turner.

Everyone is an Expert

One of the great things about this amazing life we live in is everyone is an expert at something.  And there is someone else out there who will pay for your expertise.

One of the things I’ve always loved about being a college professor is how much I learn from my students. Regardless of your educational background, experience, age, or environment you will always know something the person next to you doesn’t. 

Like when I explained to my friend Sheri, who is an attorney, that cows have 4 stomachs and they regurgitate food. And that’s where the expression chewing the cud came from. Can you believe she had no idea?? I mean what law school did she attend?? 

And now you’ve learned everything you might ever need to know from this blog.

Lately, I’ve worked with a two people who are starting blogs and want to use their blog as a platform to launch a side business. One of the things they both said is “I don’t know anything special. No one is going to learn anything from me much less pay me for it.”

While I know that’s completely false I also know I’ve felt that way before when launching products. As have many other bloggers/authors I know. It’s normal to feel the information you have in your head isn’t worth anything to anyone else but that is NOT TRUE.

There’s a reason there is more than one outstanding motivational speaker on earth, or business guru, or astrophysicist. 

There could be 10 people in a room talking about the same topic, but there won’t be 10 identical talks. Everyone will bring their own spin, have their own personality infused into the topic, or look at it a completely different way. And one method may reach a person whereas another won’t.

We all have so much to offer the world out there. When you have a skill you love, one you’re good at, and you want to share it, be confident that if we lined you up with 100 people there would be some who knew more than you and some who didn’t. The ones who don’t know what you know are your target audience. Your niche. The people you can focus on helping. I mean that’s why we blog and create products, isn’t it? To help people?

If you don’t know what your super power is and what you should be sharing with the world, you just know you want to share something, then start by making a list.

I love lists, don’t you?

List out everything you like/think you’re good at. I know this is a hard exercise. Most of us have a hard time talking about ourselves this way. But you owe it to yourself to do it. Not only because you want to define your expertise but because you want to remind yourself how absolutely fabulous you are.

Because you ARE fabulous my friend!

Roadmap to Author Success: make a living as an author

Have you always wanted to be an author?

Do you dream of writing as a way to make a living?

Do you want to quit your day job and pursue your passion of writing?

What’s stopping you?

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If you’re feeling super frisky, ask a couple of your friends to list the top 5 things they feel you’re good at. I know that can be a scary question to ask, but you might be surprised your friends admire you for reasons you never knew. Your ability to drink a bottle of wine in one evening might not even make the top 5.

When you have your list, and I bet you’ll be surprised that once you get going, you’ll have a lot more items on there than you expected, you want to review it and see out of those skills you’re truly passionate about. What out of that list do you like to talk about, tell others about, what excites you to discuss? What could you talk for hours about and getting paid to do so it a bonus?

If you want to parlay your expertise into a product or even a blog post you must enjoy talking about it. Or it will get old and boring for you really quick, and your audience will be able to tell.

When you’ve narrowed down that list, then the real fun begins. How do you take that information and share it with others? If your goal is to turn your expertise into a business how do can you monetize it?

It could be an ebook, an online course, webinars, live training, or videos. There is an endless list of ways to convey your information to the world. It’s about picking what you feel comfortable with and what your audience wants.

Regardless of your medium, taking your chosen topic of expertise and brainstorming the millions of ways you can talk about it is your next step. Again don’t assume that people already know a certain piece of information because someone out there doesn’t.

These ideas within your topic are what you will use to start creating your content. You might think you will run out of ideas but you won’t. You will continue to find new ways to do things. That’s why if you Google Red Velvet Cake you will get more than one recipe. Over time hundreds of people have put their own spin on it.

Be confident. You ARE an expert in what you do. Your information is valuable and you owe it to the rest of us to share so we can learn!

 

The post Everyone is an Expert appeared first on Laina Turner.

September Goals

It’s September. The 5th to be exact. 

We are past Labor Day and fall is here. Well not technically (still 17 more days to go for that) but in my head once we get past Labor Day it’s officially fall.

Which means PUMPKIN SEASON!!!!

Yes, I am one of those crazy pumpkin lovers. That first PSL of the year (pumpkin spice latte if you don’t know) is the best! But the next 500 aren’t too shabby either.

I love summer and hot weather. But I really love the beautiful leaves of fall and watching the season change.  Add that to my fondness for hot drinks and cozy sweaters and it makes me look forward to this time of year.

Not only do I look forward to the things already mentioned but I also look to this time of year as the gateway to the holiday season. which as an author/blogger is a big one.

I took some time the past couple weeks to look at the year so far. What I’ve done, what I haven’t done, and what I want to do still as we have 4 months left in 2017 (OMG only 4 months left in 2017).

I feel great about some of the things I’ve accomplished so far this year.

Created/published 2 free courses for authors (if you haven’t yet taken one sign up here)
Blogged more consistently and on message
Tightened up my brand message (you will see this more visually at the beginning of Oct)

But I also feel like I left too much on the table. Looking back it’s been a weird year. There’ve been work changes in my life. I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been. Caden had ACL surgery, I traveled a lot this summer which was awesome, and that’s just a few things I had going on. I haven’t been unhappy with how my summer unfolded, but I haven’t been happy with what I’ve accomplished either.

In reflecting I realized I’m kind of angry. Angry at myself. 

Angry for gaining the weight back I lost earlier this year during the 13-week fitness challenge (job security for my bootcamp instructor)
Angry for getting way off track with my writing
Angry for watching too much Netflix and not working enough
Angry for always feeling like I’m dropping the ball somewhere
Angry for not doing enough, being enough

That’s a lot of anger and negativity right there sister, which is not at all how I want to live my life. So in my typical fashion, I had to think and reflect more to get to the root of my anger and why I felt this way. 

I have an amazing life. I should be happy. I want to be happy. There is no reason NOT to be happy.

What I realized and had to admit, which is a super hard thing for me, is that I’m drained and overwhelmed. Mentally, emotionally, physically. I need to remember that I’m not Wonder Woman and need to take a break sometimes. That it’s ok not to be perfect and solve everyone’s problems all the time. To not to compare myself with others (when I don’t know their real story anyway and am assuming they’re perfect) and feel like I’m falling short as a mother, a wife, a friend, and in my business.

My word for the year was the focus, so I decided to have one word for September to help me re-focus. Ok, I know that sounds a little redundant but just go with me here.

My word for September is “restorative.” September is about self-care and slow, consistent movement forward. Without the pressure of worrying about the result. Only the process.

As my friend Danielle said Process vs. Perfect.

With that said my goals are all centered around that concept, and some of them won’t be easy. I’ve got some bad habits that fuel my anxiety, and I need to break those.

Roadmap to Author Success: make a living as an author

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Do you dream of writing as a way to make a living?

Do you want to quit your day job and pursue your passion of writing?

What’s stopping you?

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1. I’m only going to check my stats once a day. I spend countless minutes a day obsessively checking my Amazon rankings, Google Analytics, and all the other social platforms to see if I’ve gained followers, likes, sales, etc. 

Not doing it this month. I will focus on the process while having faith the result will come. Instead of feeling defeated every 5 minutes when I tweet something out, and it doesn’t generate 1 million email sign ups.

I have my metrics, and I will execute the actions to achieve my goals.

2. I am not going to watch Netflix. I know. You’re freaking out. And feeling sorry for me. You’re wondering how it’s even humanly possible to not watch Netflix. First, I’m not sure it is, but I will find out and tell you.

I watch way too much Netflix. I swear if there were Netflix when I was working on my dissertation I never would have finished my Ph.D. 

I watch Netflix to relieve stress, because I want to be lazy, to avoid thinking, to waste time, and for entertainment.  

I recently read a blog post, If You’re Bored, You’ll Be Boring and there was this passage:

In his book, The Accidental Creative, Todd Henry writes that “what goes in must come out”. To do our best creative work, we need to have a steady stream of incoming stimuli, and we need to be intentional about what all is in that stream.

As fun as Netflix is it doesn’t feed my mind in the way it needs to be fed to be creative for my books or my blog. I need to read, listen to podcasts, go to the museum, go for a walk. Something that WILL stimulate my creativity.

4. Workout 5 times a week and stay within my meal plan allowing 1 cheat meal a week. I am NOT going to weigh myself all month. Nothing is more soul crushing than working out and eating perfect yet getting on the scale the next morning and gaining a pound. Your mind knows weight fluctuates, but that doesn’t stop the emotional toll it takes.

Not letting it happen in September. I may have to have my husband hide the scale from me.

5. Finish my current WIP Death by Suspenders. I started this book 3 years ago. Was going to delete it from my files forever this summer and then had a spark of an idea. Now I’m engaged in it again and is on my production plan but the last week I’ve not been very productive. I just need to GET IT DONE. Which not watching Netflix should give me plenty of time.

6. Record 5 podcast episodes and 2 FB live sessions.

7. Plan out rest of the year book marketing so I can get ad space reserved. I know I’ll have already waited too late for some places and they’ll be sold out through February.

I have a lot to work on, but I’m excited to have a plan and goals. I’m nervous about not checking stats (and not watching Netflix) but I know it’s going to be beneficial and I can’t wait to share next month how it went.

I’d love to hear your stories of any goals you’re going after this month!

 

The post September Goals appeared first on Laina Turner.

Traveling to NYC

I’m a big fan of the city.  I like the convenience, the energy, the hustle. I grew up in the midwest in both rural and suburban areas. Thanks to my parents I traveled a lot as a kid. I didn’t spend a ton of time in big cities though until I was on my own and started traveling for work. 

For about 10 years in my 20’s and 30’s, I worked in retail. The main offices of the places I worked were in big cities. Like Chicago, Dallas, and Washington DC. That’s when I got the opportunity to spend time there and fall in love with the great energy of a city. 

While I settled in the suburbs, and don’t regret it for a second because it’s a great place to raise children, I prefer the city. I can see myself in 10 years when the kids are out of the house living in an apartment in a city. Maybe not even in an American city. A place where I can walk to everything and soak up the culture.

There are many amazing cities in the US, but nothing compares to New York City. At least in my humble opinion. 

New York City is truly a city unlike any other. I’ve been there a few times over the last 20 years, but this last trip by far was the best. I got to introduce my husband to the city. Sharing a place you enjoy with someone you love always enhances the experience don’t you think?

The main purpose of this trip was to attend Book Expo, so the hotel I chose was the Four Points Sheraton Mid-Town. Close enough to walk to the Javits Convention Center and far enough away to be affordable. It was an older hotel, but it was clean, had super cool elevators, and a great staff. They couldn’t have been nicer.

The first evening we were there we headed down to Times Square. It’s one thing when you watch the ball drop on New Year’s Eve. But to see the energy is the same even on a random day in June before nightfall is hard to describe.

Hanging out in Times Square, people watching, and enjoying everything that was happening around us was a great time. 

One thing my husband noticed after we were there about 24 hours was the people, and traffic, are constantly on the move. It didn’t matter the time or day there wasn’t a lull.

It’s never bothered me to drive in Chicago, but I have no desire to drive in NYC. The taxi drivers must have nerves of steal. Either that or they go home after work and drink like crazy to relieve the stress of the day. The honking and the jay walking, which everyone does without a second thought, would drive me insane as a driver. It was hard enough for me to jaywalk as a pedestrian. I’m such a rule follower. But in NYC if you’re on a corner you have to walk with the flow or risk getting trampled. Flashing white man or not.

Though it made it easy to spot someone from out of town. They’d actually wait for the proper signal before crossing the street. Yes, we did that a few times before we learned it was more dangerous to fight the people moving than the moving cars.

True New Yorkers stop traffic. They give new meaning to the phrase Pedestrians Have the Right of Way.

The city is rich with history and culture. It was the gateway for people to immigrate to the US starting in the mid 18th century which has contributed a lot to the great city it is today.

As we always do when we go to a new city, we do the tourist thing and buy passes to the city bus tour. I know you may find this cheesy.  But being able to sit up high and drive through the city with attractions pointed out is a great way to figure out where we want to spend more time. We don’t always do the entire tour but have found it’s relatively inexpensive for what we’re able to find out.  When you’re only in a city for a limited time, there’s only so much you can do. You don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what that is.

We chose the Grey Line tour, and the people were friendly, well except one. They also were natives so had some great personal stories to share. We grabbed some street food before we hopped on. Why is it that hot dogs always taste better from a street vendor?

We stopped in Little China and did some shopping. I didn’t buy the knock off purse I wanted but couldn’t settle on just one, so I decided on none. I was quite proud of myself for showing such great restraint.

We then walked a few streets down to Little Italy where we had the best Italian we’ve ever had. That was saying a lot because the night before we said the same thing. 

Fun fact: Little Italy doesn’t have all that of a big Italian population theses days but Little China still has the largest population of Chinese/Asians outside China.

Taking the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was breathtaking. Walking through Ellis Island thinking about the history was amazing. To think people would spend weeks, even months, on boats to get over to this great country knowing that entry could still be denied. But the hope of being able to live in this great country was worth taking the chance.

During the peak time for immigrants coming through Ellis Island, they only sent back 2%. Which doesn’t seem a lot but when they were processing millions, 2% adds up. It was a risk.

Going to the World Trade Center memorial was powerful. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 16 years. The thing I enjoyed about this memorial, besides the fact it’s a gorgeous testament to lives lost, were the people there. So many people were stopping and reflecting. I do realize it’s a tourist attraction and not everyone probably cared as much as we did about the real reason to be there. But even if only 80% were it was still an amazing number.

I plan on attending Book Expo next year which is again in NYC, and I’m already looking forward to it. I also can’t wait to plan a trip to bring my kids. NYC is a part of this great nation they must see.

 

The post Traveling to NYC appeared first on Laina Turner.

Nothing Beats Doing The Work

I am a firm believer in the saying life is too short not to do what you love. But even with that said don’t fool yourself into thinking you will always love what you do. I wish that were the case but it’s not.

There will be days when you hate being a writer (or whatever it is you do) and wonder why in the hell you thought it was a good career idea. 

Passion about something can only get you so far. Don’t get me wrong so far is pretty far because without passion why bother. But along with passion, you have to have the motivation to execute the necessary steps to achieve your desired result. Especially on the days when you don’t want to.

Motivation can sometimes be the biggest obstacle to achieving your dreams because it’s not always easy to come by. And you can hope and dream and wish and talk all you want but if you don’t DO not much will happen.

We all know someone who’s a great person, but when it comes to dreams and plans, they’re all talk. They talk about what they’re going to do, how they’re going to achieve their dreams, how they will be rich and successful, how amazing their life will be when…

But when never comes. They don’t do a damn thing but talk big. There are never any actions to go with the talk.

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I’ve been guilty of that before. I’m sure we’ve all been there a time or 2.

Like when I say I want to lose 20 lbs as I’m stuffing a Big Mac in my mouth. You know because the diet starts tomorrow and we all know tomorrow never comes.

The two actions are counter productive. If I want to lose 20 lbs I need to stuff my face with lettuce and go for a run. Not nearly as much fun as eating Big Mac’s but its what will get me to my goal. Big Macs won’t. 

Man, I wish I lived in a world where Big Macs were diet food. Seriously, how awesome would that be?

Same with writing (or anything for that matter) I can say I want to be a writer but if I don’t actually sit down and do the work, I won’t become one.

Nothing beats doing the work.

The challenge as a writer to sitting down and doing the work is there often isn’t that instant gratification we all love so much. You don’t sit down and write a masterpiece in one sitting. Then publish it, and the next day you’ve sold a million copies and someone is calling you to buy the movie rights.

You can sit in front of your computer all day and not write anything you feel is worth keeping. It can be frustrating, but it’s the process of writing, and all writers go through it. 

When you are at a point where you need to push yourself to keep writing you need to think of your end goal. Anything that’s worthwhile of accomplishing isn’t always going to be easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be much of a goal. 

The day you type The End is the day when all your hard work will have paid off and will be worth it. 

So what can you do to keep yourself going, so you do the work and reap the benefits?

Here are  5 things  I do

1. Keep my eye on the prize. I have my life goals written down and hanging where I can see them every day. I make myself read them at the beginning and end of my workday to keep me focused.

2. When I get really frustrated, I take a break. Read a book, see a movie, go for a walk. Something to relax and get my creative juices flowing again.

3. I have an accountability partner I have scheduled phone calls with on Mondays and Fridays. We always start and end our week telling each other our goals, actions, and what we did (or not) get done.

4. On days I don’t feel motivated I tell myself just 10 minutes or 100 words. Then I can stop. So far I’ve never stopped there. Once I get myself started the momentum takes over.

5. Celebrate often. Life’s too short not to make it fun. You know the cliche all work, and no play makes you a dull girl. You need to work hard and play hard. It’s pointless to work, work, work if you can’t enjoy your life. 

I’m the first to admit finding a balance is hard. I’m not even sure you can find a balance. At least not a 50/50 balance. It’s about what works for you. Doing the work to get you to your goals so you can live the life you want.

That’s the dream most of us have.

 

The post Nothing Beats Doing The Work appeared first on Laina Turner.

It’s Never Too Late To Start

I’m in my 40’s, and while I sometimes feel my age physically, mentally, it’s a different story. Every day I think of new things I want to do and try and explore. I know I will not have enough time on this earth to do everything I want to do. I’d have to live to be 200 for that to happen and maybe not even then since I’m always learning about new things.

I’ve always felt that age was just a number. While I’ve been blogging and writing for 10 years I feel in many ways I’m just now hitting my stride and understanding what it is I want to do with my life and career. When I was chatting with an acquaintance the other day, who is my age, and she said she’d wanted to start a blog but felt she was too old I was dumb founded.

I mean I’ve had my moments where I’ve wished I was younger (or thinner or prettier or smarter). But never has there been something I wanted to do where age stopped me. Where it was a concrete reason for not pursuing whatever it was, I wanted to do. I felt so bad for her. No one should think they are too old to start something. Because the truth of the matter is we are never too old to try.

Of course, there is more to lose if the thing you want to start requires you to quit your job and completely change your lifestyle. Most of us in this age bracket have families and mortgages, but it certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be done. You might have to be more creative in how you go about it.

When I asked my friend why she felt she was too old to start a blog she told me that it seemed like most the bloggers out there were under 30 (clearly she considers me young – haha).

Now I will admit that there are a lot of young bloggers out there and I love it. It makes me proud as a woman to see young women who are in college or just starting their life and writing about their experiences. Life has changed so much in twenty years it’s fun to read their perspective. But there are plenty of bloggers out there over 40. Over 50. Even over 60. Probably over 70.

What I told my friend is bloggers don’t have an expiration date. That’s one of the awesome things about blogging. The whole point of blogging is to share your knowledge, your opinion, your expertise on whatever it is you chose to chat about. Regardless of age or background, we ALL have things to share that will be of value to someone else. We all have different perspectives and age alone brings a different perspective to things.

Whether you want to start a blog, a business, write a book, change careers, or travel the world, you should never let age stop you. Age is a wonderful thing and something that should be celebrated. It gives us more experience, more wisdom, more confidence. More freedom to be who we were out on earth to be and live life with no regrets.

It does not / should not prevent us from realizing our full potential. It should never stop us from pursuing our dreams.

I challenge you never to let age stand in your way of anything you want to do. You are fabulous at every stage of life.

 

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How to Hold Yourself Accountable

If you want a full-time author career, you have to hold yourself accountable to your writing goals.

If you publish traditionally, you will have an editor who will give you milestones you need to meet. When you’re a self-published author, you need to set your own milestones.

Now it’s usually easier to meet deadlines set by someone else. Especially, when they’re paying you. But as a self-published author, your income depends on how many books you write and have to sell. In the indie author world publishing a lot of books is key to making a living as an author.

But holding yourself accountable, regardless of the stakes, isn’t always that easy. I know it’s not for me.

However, when your livelihood depends on it, then you must hold yourself accountable to your writing and publishing goals. Even when you’re not motivated to do so. It’s about 

What are some ways you can do that?

Set goals. If you follow my blog at all, you know that I’m a huge believer in goal setting. Small goals, big goals, hourly, daily, yearly goals. You name it I’ve got a goal for it. But without goals you don’t know what you’re supposed to accomplish and what you don’t know won’t happen.

Make sure you have a WHY for all your goals. Don’t set a goal without a purpose or you won’t have any reason to work towards said goal. When you have a strong reason, it will get you through the times you don’t want to work toward your goal.

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Make sure the goals you want to be accountable to are actionable and aren’t vague or abstract. Instead of saying, “I want to write this week say I will write 500 words every day this week.” Set yourself up for success by making your goal tangible and concrete.

Be vocal about what you want to accomplish. Don’t keep your goals a secret. When you tell others you open yourself up to them asking about your progress. You don’t want someone to ask you how you’re doing and not have good news to share. So you’ll put a little more pressure on yourself to stay accountable to what you want to do.

Go one step further and find someone who also needs help to stay accountable. Work together motivating each other and giving friendly little pushes when necessary.

Join a Facebook group of like minded individuals (you can join mine here). Share your goals with people who understand how hard it can be and have some of the same frustrations. It can be so motivating to engage with a group of people who get what you’re going through.

Write your list of tasks down. Don’t keep a running list in your head. Write your to dos down or use a task management software like Trello. Not only will this help keep you organized but it will also help to make sure you don’t forget something. 

Focus on one thing at a time. Most of us today think we are amazing multitaskers. But the truth is we are much less efficient when trying to do several things at once. It’s better to tackle one thing at a time, give it your undivided attention, and then go on to the next task.

Reward yourself. We all motivate ourselves in different ways, but I’m a big believer in rewards. I’m not talking letting yourself eat an entire cheesecake or go on a 12 hour Netflix binge. But small things that can motivate you to push through a small task.

Most importantly realize you won’t be perfect every day, and it’s ok. Self-care is important and telling yourself to take a break if you feel you need one is a good thing. Don’t look at it as lost productivity but rather giving your mind and body the rest it needs to be awesome the next day.

 

The post How to Hold Yourself Accountable appeared first on Laina Turner.

Creating a Writing Routine

Creating a writing routine is hard. Even for those of us who love it.

There are some days when the last thing I want to do is write. I’m not in the mood I don’t have any ideas, I’m tired, there’s a new series on Netflix. The list of excuses is endless. 

But I don’t have a choice. Writing is my job, so I have to show up every day (well 5/6 days a week at least) and write whether I like it or not.

Writing is like working out for me. If I get into a routine where I do it everyday even on the days I don’t want to it’s easier to get up and do it. And I never want to workout. It’s just a necessary task since I love to eat.

Most writers I know feel that their writing routine is important for the same reasons. Writing isn’t always fun. It takes mental energy and focus. So how can you get into a routine, so you write even when you don’t want to?

1. Make your writing a priority. If you want to be a full-time author, then this is tantamount to anything else you might do unless it’s family-related. Family always comes first. I’m a big believer in balance. You want to have time to work, for play, to exercise, and spend time with friends and family. But if sometimes you do need to make a choice and put your writing first. That’s life.

2. Set small goals and work toward bigger goals. Don’t set yourself up for failure by setting a goal that’s not realistic. If you’re struggling to get into a routine, then start small. After you can maintain a small goal, you can increase it slowly until you’re at the place you want to be. Again I’ll use the working out analogy. You don’t go out and try to run 5 miles a day when you start out. You might run a half mile for a week then bump up to a mile. Slow progression will make it more likely to stick to it.

3. Try to schedule your time, so you write at the same time daily. We all have different times of the day when we’re more alert and creative. Mine is in the morning and I also know writing when my kids are home is almost impossible. I need uninterrupted time to think. So I schedule my weekday writing as soon as the kids leave for school. Before I check email and get distracted with other things.

4. Write every day even if it’s just 5 minutes. 100 words. I was at the RWA conference and one of the authors speaking said if you have a hard time finding time to write aim to write 100 words a day. You’ll often find yourself writing more and knowing you only have to write 100 makes it less daunting. And you’ll be less inclined to put it off. When I went to the conference, I was in a bit of a writing slump. I tried this technique to get myself back in the groove, and it worked. Within a few days, I was back in my normal routine.

5.  Feel good. Sometimes we are so hard on ourselves. Yes it’s important to have goals, it’s important to meet a certain word count to meet deadlines, but you’re only human. Sometimes you’ll have a bad day and not get in the writing you want. Or something will come up totally not expected, and you’ll miss your goal. It’s ok. If you beat yourself up, you won’t be in the right frame of mind to get your writing done.

What tips and tricks do you use to get a routine going?

 

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