Blogger: Rachel Kent
1) Don’t wait until tomorrow to back up your files. Do it today. Email your manuscript to yourself so that it is stored online as well.
2) Take breaks and move around throughout the day. Sitting all day is bad for your body and your creativity.
3) When you’re on a deadline, don’t wait until the last minute to work on your book. The publisher gave you that time to write the best book you are able to write–so do your job well.
4) Involve your agent in conversations with your publishing house. Your agent can’t know what’s happening without communication from you. Copying your agent on emails is a great way to keep him or her aware of the details. (Provided your agent wants to be copied; check this out first.)
5) If you are asking other writers to help you with promotion, be ready to help them in return. Everyone is busy. Don’t assume that you are busier than someone else who made time for you.
6) Be cautious about giving away your writing for free. Ask yourself, “Is this freebie going to sell books?”
7) Push yourself out of your comfort zone. If you hate public speaking, try teaching at a conference. If you aren’t comfortable with blogging, guest blog a few times. By pushing your own limits, you will reach an audience that you wouldn’t otherwise.
8) Invest in your own books. Be willing to set aside some of your advance for promotion. You can write it off on your taxes anyway!
9) Don’t forget to read. It’s easy to get so caught up in writing that you aren’t reading current releases. Keep up on the market. And read writing craft books too. There’s always room for improvement.
10) Dream big and work hard.
Do you have any tips to add to help other writers?
To everyone at ACFW: Have a wonderful conference!!!
11. Discuss your writing with God. Who better to pull into the conversation about your words than the “Word become flesh” the “Word was God”?
Amen. Shirley. In the last few months I’ve noticed that scriptures from my One Year Bible study are not only falling inline with my current WIP, they’ve also sparked an idea for a new story.
Thank for your tips, Rachel. I’m wondering if anyone can add to your #2 suggestion. Writing several hours a day is a good thing for me, but sitting too much is causing my hips and lower back to complain, LOUDLY.
*I work from a lap top and have no designated area to sit. Kitchen table, sofa, back porch, I tend to write everywhere although I’m considering investing in a new computer chair.
*Any tips from fellow writers would be greatly appreciated.
Lara, I’m like you in that I have 5 different places in the house where I’m likely to use my laptop plus the passenger seats of an SUV and a 4×4 pickup (very bouncy at times and makes using the touchpad a bit tricky).
* Do you have an exercise bike and someone who can make something custom? My husband made me a tray that fits on the handlebars to hold the laptop. It’s a very simple design made with inexpensive materials. Now I can ride and write at the same time. That might help your hips and back. At the very least, it will burn calories. I was gaining weight after my retirement from sitting for hours until he made me that.
*Anyone who’d like some pictures to try to make the same can pop me an email at carol@carolashby.com, and I’ll send you some views to guide you in making one. The only price is agreeing to be among the first to join my author email list.
Carol, I am seriously considering an exercise bike. I gave my treadmill to a neighbor, big regret there, although I’m not sure I’ve enough coordination to walk and type. Ha! However, a bicycle with a tray sounds feasible so I’d like to see those pictures. Until then I’ll go back to changing up locations where I work and balancing on that exercise ball. Thanks for your help.
Many businesses now provide their employees with standing work stations. I have a friend who uses one and she alternates between that and a desk with a chair that holds a ball that she sits on. You could probably find a standing station on line or you could have a local carpenter make one for you. I guess the solution depends on what kind of back problem you have.
Thanks Kathe, I have seen pictures of the “ball seat” and I happen to have an exercise ball. I’ve tried sitting on just the ball…?
I use a standing desk. (Actually an old printer’s cabinet.) I had to ease into it, but now that’s how I always work.
Great list, Rachel! There are three things I’d add –
1) Delegate non-writing stuff – “If you want something done right, teach your spouse or kids to do it better than you ever could.”
2) There is a simple key to success – be the one who is willing to hurt more and sleep less than anyone else.
3) I’ll modify your last, if I may…”Live large, dream big, die hard”…and if anyone’s interested in the genesis of that somewhat nihilistic-sounding aphorism (nihilistic actually it ain’t) please drop by my blog for a metaphorical trip to Egypt, wherein I take on the role of Cleopatra, Queen of De Nile. (And please pardon the shameless self-promotion; I feel like heck but am in a GOOD mood, having found a truly and definitively Quixotic goal.)
This is probably old hat to everyone, but use Google Earth as a scene-setting tool. You can get the feeling of a locale to which you don’t have access to at least a workable degree, and you can even find surprises in your own backyard. Long before GE (or the Internet) existed, I learned to fly, and it forever changed my image of my hometown.
* GE’s also useful for historicals, at least to some degree. For instance, if you’re writing a romance set in WW2 England, you can still find the traces of old airfields on the landscape. Some are easy; the distinctive triangular pattern of runways stands out in the fields as soil disturbance, even though the concrete itself has long been removed. Some are quite difficult; for a challenge, try finding “RAF Mepal”. Wikipedia will give you the coordinates to link to GE, but even then…it’s hard to find. And it’s still partially in use as a private flying field!
* It’s actually a good eye-brain exercise, to ‘fly’ over, say, East Anglia and Lincolnshire and look for airfields. There are dozens there, and once you get the knack you’ll find it both a rewarding and somewhat haunting exercise.
I agree with this recommendation Andrew. I used it looking to make sure there was a cliff where I intended to have an assassination attempt.
We make time for what’s most important to us. So if you “don’t have time” to write, where are you investing your time? What does it say about your priorities. Even if you only set aside 20 minutes a day, that adds up over days and weeks.
Great tips. 🙂 Something I’ve always wondered about … once an author has a published book, and she/he is working on their next one … how do they have time for blog touring? You know how you’ll see Q&As on blogs … does the author come up with their own questions/answers ahead of time for blog tours? To save time?
I listened to an interview with Ted Dekker yesterday. He said that we all are a story (the seen) but we, as writers and others, have a greater purpos, to live out our spiritual identity (the unseen). We have the light of the world in us. The more we can stay true to this the more our writing will impacted by our spiritual journey. Understanding who we are in Christ is huge. The spiritual is our anchor, our guide, and our joy. Suggestion: Learn centering prayer, focus on the Jesus prayer, listen in the silence. Deepen your prayer life. It will energize your life and your writing. Bless you. HAGD,
I love your advice to invest in your own book. I just made a significant financial investment in promotion this week. I feel good about the investment: praying it pays off. The growth in platform will be substantial, and that in itself will be valuable. Good points, Rachel.
I hope this doesn’t sound cranky but I learned my lesson the hard way: don’t share your unpublished work with others. So.me years ago I read an excerpt from my unfinished novel at a conference.Afterward people came to me and asked me about my story.At the same time one of the guest speakers came up to the group and offered me the names of a few agents. One man in the group questioned me quite a bit. So much so that I excused myself and went to lunch. A few years later I found my work in that now famous writer’s bestseller. I was so disheartened that I put the book aside for a long time. Lawyers said I had a case but I decided that I’d rather be known as a writer than as one of the people that sued So and so. I recently dusted it off and I’m working on it now. Now I don’t read my unpublished work or share it with anyone.
Explore the meaning of “the call to write.” Allan Arnold and others have wonderful, rich resources to really uncover the central message you are destined to write. I love knowing regardless of results, I’m doing what I’m supposed to and when life’s twists and turns emerge, relentless to pull you out of your focus, you can keep a that foothold and not be shaken.