P.H. Solomon's Blog, page 329

Six ways to become a more productive writer

PHS:

Several of your points – which they were all very good – overlap my recent blog series so I’m re-blogging on Archer’s Aim. You have a wonderful site – keep up the good work!

Originally posted on bottledworder:

I’ve been thinking about how to become a more productive writer. Here’s six ways I came up with that could get the creative juices flowing:

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Project Management for Writers Pt 6: My Own Medicine

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here,  part 3 is here, part 4 here and part 5 here.

Here’s my application of my scheduling in light of analysis of my own needs.

What I needed done. Initially, I needed to complete some short story projects, jumpstart my author platform and complete a revision of my novel for my editor. Of course the details are much more complex. I calculated the amount of time I had available within a range. Next, I calculated how long each project would take in total hours and compared how much time I had per week to identify deadline dates(note: the author platform will always be ongoing but accounting for the time is necessary). Based on that information I could assign commitment to each project during a week by day.

How I scheduled. I dedicated the largest amount of time per day to The Bow of Destiny since it is the largest project and needed direct attention for a deadline. Next, I dedicated one day a week to work on a short story. Lastly, I put in a daily slice of time for my author platform development – social media updates, blogging, etc.  All of these were scheduled as a range of time since my availability might vary depending on daily situations. The point was to have a plan to address my goals.

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Things changed so I adjusted. When I found out my novel deadline was delayed for two months by my editor’s availability, I then adjusted my schedule. I assigned less time to my novel and more to the author platform and short fiction.

What I needed done. However, I realized that I needed to address goals/priorities one at a time. My author platform was lagging so I wanted to draft/schedule as many blogs as possible and then work on several pieces of short fiction.

The result. Last week I focused on blogging and social media engagement. As a consequence I have published, scheduled or begun drafts of sixteen blogs and increased my social media engagement. This week, with so many blogs scheduled or in process, I need less dedicated time to my author platform so I can focus on my short fiction with the goal of submitting several stories to magazine markets.

In conclusion, due to my change in deadline with my novel, I’ve adjusted my strategy to focus on short-term goals to accomplish as many of them as I can in order to gain more focus on my larger project – The Bow of Destiny. While I intend to continue working on the novel as I can, its priority is lower for several weeks while I clear other projects out of the way. Recently, Robert Chazz at ChazzWrites.com has written about similar need by addressing marketing and how he needs to focus his writing in his post which has already been re-blogged on this site: What if What We Think We Know About Writing, Publishing & Promotion is Wrong? Check out his reasoning and conclusions.

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Have you started scheduling your work? Have you already found a need to adjust your schedule? I’d love to hear from you so please leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

 

 

 

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What if What We Think We Know About Writing, Publishing & Promotion is Wrong?

PHS:

An interesting strategy to improving your return of investment in writing – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m:

Problem:

Blogging is dead. I’ve been spinning out gold here for years. Maybe I should have spent more time writing books instead because my blog stats are fairly static. This site gets pretty decent traffic when I post, but it’s not growing as I’d hoped. Still glad to do it because it’s a compulsion, but I don’t do it as often and I don’t do it to sell books. I’m here to gain allies, share information and rant when the pressure builds too high.

My book sales come through Amazon promoting me, perhaps the occasional ad, pulse sales and, most important, word of mouth. I experiment with categorization and keywords and KDP Select. I write surprising books with many twists and turns and emotional gut punches. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been teetering on the cusp of success a long time and sometimes that’s lonely and sad. That’s when I stalk around the house…

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The ten worst writing tips I’ve received

PHS:

Insightful thoughts on advice – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Suffolk Scribblings:

The problem with writing advice is that every writer is different. This leads to lots of advice being passed around, often with the type of reverence reserved for holy scripture, that may be of limited use, or at worst, incredibly harmful to a new writer. Following on from my Ten Most Valuable Writing Tips I’ve Received, I thought I’d share the ten worst. Again, this very subjective. I’m sure there will be one or two tips listed here that some of you swear by (or according to number 3, by which some of you swear). The best advice a writer can receive is to go with what works for you. The following definitely didn’t work for me.

Write what you know

This is an incredibly frustrating piece of advice. We have been blessed with a wonderful imagination yet when starting out as a writer you’re told to stick to what you know. How many wonderful…

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Project Management Pt 5: Putting the Pieces Together

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here,  part 3 is here and part 4 here.

Here are the ideas referenced from the original post:

Be very specific: Schedule your time with specificity in order to set your expectations. If you are vague then you will tend toward accomplishing less because you don’t know what you are doing. For example, rather than scheduling thirty minutes several times a day to edit/revise a project with the stated goal of “edit”, be more precise and name what you will edit, how much for the day and how you will accomplish this goal. In other words, thirty minutes of editing several times a day to reach a minimum goal of ten pages in your novel project until you reach your allotted time for the day (remember, you have allotted time to other duties such as social media management). This gives you focus. Since you know that you should apply three hours a day to this priority then you know how to schedule it and everything else for each day, week and month.
Be fluid/realistic: You will often fall off the pace if you are unrealistic. What do I mean by this? Simply that you will have real-life issues arise that need your attention so expect your schedule to have interruptions. Go into working your scheduling and project management with the understanding that you need to be fluid – willing to adjust. But this does not mean give yourself excuses for accomplishing nothing, after all, this is why you’re attempting to manage the project(s) better. You must schedule with flexibility either by lowering daily/weekly/monthly expectations or having a tolerance for problems and being nimble enough to adjust for interruptions. Regardless, you are the manager of the project and you must take responsibility for it to complete it.

By this point in the series, you should have surveyed your time for availability and required time to complete tasks. Also, you should be aware of your goals and priorities. Lastly, you should have taken a look at your information to gain perspective.

Now it’s time to put your pieces together. Unlike a real jigsaw puzzle, your scheduling assessment does not have predetermined places in your puzzle. Instead, they depend on your conclusions from your survey. It’s completely up to you to decide how to schedule your time.

Most likely your first attempts will not fit like you want so you must re-assess and adjust how you will spend your time. Likewise, circumstances change and you may find you must schedule differently for a while than what you actually want to clear some projects out of your way. In this case, keep your long-term goals in mind to shift back toward scheduling them with proper emphasis.

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The main idea is that you are your own CEO as a writer and you must determine outcomes. Your survey provides you with the information to schedule and adjust while becoming more efficient and effective with your efforts within your available time.

Do you have an idea of how to better manage your projects and time? Are you ready to put the pieces together and make more progress with writing? I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

 

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Feeling Dissed By Mainstream Reviewers?

PHS:

Thanks for the thoughts, I totally agree. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Beem's Blog:

Should indie authors seek reviews from traditional mainstream sources? If we, as writers, opt for the self-published path, should we still consider sending copies of our work to The New York Times or Publishers Weekly?

Roger Sutton, the editor-in-chief of Horn Book magazine, a mainstream book review publication, recently published an open letter to “the indie author feeling dissed.”

In his open letter, Mr. Sutton does make some valid points. He says there are just too many self-published books flooding the market. Some estimates put the number at around 300,000 indie releases per year. To attempt to review even a portion of these works would prove daunting. Imagine being tasked with the responsibility of combing through that many books in search of just a handful of gems or potential gems?

Many self-published works are just plain awful, Mr. Sutton claims. This statement, unfortunately, holds some manner of truth. While…

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The Desiccated – About Lia

PHS:

Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim – answering a character questionnaire is interesting and insightful.

Originally posted on Writing After Dark:

So Brittany, who is part of this group I’m in over on Goodreads, posted this character questionnaire she found on Tumblr. I decided to answer it about Lia. It was really fun to do and I hope this gives some insight into the character.

What is your character’s name?

: Ophelia “Lia” Thomas


What book are they from?

: The Desiccated


How old is s/he?

: 22


Is your character a human, alien, creature/animal?

: human


Basic appearance

:

(hair color, eye color, etc)

blond hair, blue/green eyes, skinny frame, mostly from not eating regularly





1. What position does your character sleep in?

( i.e; stomach, side, back, etc. ) Describe why they do this — optional.

She sleeps on her back. Any other way is feels like an invitation for trouble.

2. Does your character have any noteworthy features?(Freckles, dimples, a scar somewhere unusual, etc.) She has some…

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Project Management Pt 4: The Jigsaw Puzzle

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This is an ongoing series about managing writing-related projects. In this edition I want to get deeper into analyzing time. The original post is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here.

The following is an excerpt from the original post on comparing time needed and time available. I want to take this information and then share from the other posts to gain more perspective with these elements of project management.

Compare time needed to time available: You know how much time you have per week and how much time a project and tasks need but how do they mesh together? Perhaps you have a novel to revise and estimate 50 hours of work. If your deadline is a month away then based on your weekly available time you know how much time is available to assign per week to the revision using a little math. Now you have a reasonable expectation for daily and weekly goals. But hold on there! You also have other tasks or projects during the week to address. In this case you should scale back expectations on the revision and assign how much time you need for these other jobs. Here’s where knowing your priorities comes into play. If you know your long-term, main priority is finishing the novel then it gets both weekly and daily priority, meaning it gets the lion-share of time applied to it. However, say you need to complete blog posts during the week. Since these are shorter and need regular attention your might assign time each day to blog. Or you might develop all of a week’s worth of posts in one day and then schedule them to be published. It’s up to you to divvy up the time that meets your needs according to priorities and available time. Regardless, you must make reasonable time for each item that needs your attention during the month/week/day in order to know what to expect.

If you’ve read the other posts you begin to see that available time and time needed combined with setting prioritized goals begins to be a puzzle of sorts. But to be organized you must sort the pieces and put them together. To do that you need perspective. I’m sure most people have put together a jigsaw puzzle and used a method similar to this:

Sort out all the edge pieces.
Sort the remaining pieces by color or identifiable objects from the image.
Frame the puzzle by putting all the edge pieces together.
Consult the box-top image for clues to where the remaining pieces go.

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Managing your writing projects is a similar function. By sorting your various pieces effectively with your survey you gain clarity. With clarity your survey provides perspective to make decisions about scheduling. As long as you pursue this with flexibility, that is, understanding what’s affecting your time, goals, priorities and schedule you can pivot your schedule to suit your demanding life and changing needs. For instance, you may find that you may need to suspend some long-term goals in order to complete a string of shorter ones. In doing so, you can clear a path to the long-term goals.

Now is the time to inspect your pieces and how they fit together. Ask yourself how will this information improve your effectiveness? Your answers should address short-term needs but keep you moving toward long-term goals.

What do you see from your survey? Can you see a way to move along daily to meet your goals? How will this make you more effective? I’d love to hear from you so won’t you leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

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My followers have asked

PHS:

Great ideas! Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim!

Originally posted on kelzbelzphotography:

So I’ll do my best to explain my own hints and tips with blogging. I know I’m still new to this have my blog since June 2013, but have only been activley blogging for about 4 months. The main things I try to follow (most are from a sucessfull blogger whom I look up to).

I tried to screen shot a photo of my stats to show what I’m meaning. But argh its not working at being 2 in the morning writing this, I gave up lol.

Posts – I post approx 4 times a day. How many you do is of course your choice. For me I find it manageable in the long term. When I do this my stats are steady. Eg if you only post once a month, or 10 posts in 10 minutes then nothing for months. Your stats will reflect this. Schedule is also a…

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Writing in the Age of Distraction

PHS:

I schedule social media update time as a break when I’m working on my writing. I consider it a part of my writing goals. Just re-blogged on Archer’s Aim! Thx for a great post!

Originally posted on Evil Toad Press:

All modern writers face the persistent distraction of the media culture, through social media, email, and every other facet of the digital age.  How do the pros keep themselves on track?  Most of the time, there’s no real secret: it always comes down to hard work, determination, and will power.  But occasionally, giving in to that urge to connect–much like allowing yourself a rewarding

“It doesn’t matter what social media you’re plugged into, or what’s going on,” counters Neil Gaiman. “At the end of the day, it’s still always going to be you and a blank sheet of paper, or you and a blank screen. My process as a creator is always the same. You write the thing you want to read. And you go on from there.”

…

“I have 2 million Twitter followers,” he says, “ but those 2 million followers are not going to do…

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