This month I released two planners through Lulu with writer’s in mind. The 2017 Task & Project Planner and the 2017 Writer’s Notebook Planner. I thought I would share the article posted on my blog for anyone who is interested in them.
I wish all those participating in NaNoWriMo the best of luck this next month. Have fun!
Stephannie Beman
As we all know, National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo, is just around the corner (though considering it’s done all over the world these days, it might need a name change). If you are not familiar with the tradition, it’s basically that every year authors try to write a novel in the course of a single month, usually one that’s around fifty-thousand words, and always in November. Of the authors that choose to participate each year, some do it independently, while others do it through an international organization that can hook them up with other participating writers in their region and even let them know about local events centered on helping authors during the month.
I’m on the fence on whether or not I’ll be participating this year. I’ve three other books at various stages of editing and I have to decide if one of those books needs to be rewritten (if so, then I’m participating because that’s basically starting from scratch). Even so, I thought I’d serve the writing community and do my civic duty by posting some notes on how to survive and get through NaNoWriMo with all your fingers still attached to you and your sanity somewhat intact.
Because let’s face it, writing fifty-thousand words in thirty days? I don’t know about the rest of you, but normally that many words takes me six to eight months. Cramming all that work into a month, we need all the help and advice we can get.
So first off, don’t get stressed about the word count. To get fifty-thousand words written in thirty days, you’d have to write approximately 1,667 words, or about 6.7 pages per day.* I know for a lot of writers it’s difficult to get that much out in a single day. The thing to remember is not to feel upset if you can’t force yourself to get that many words out per day. Remember, all good stories take time, and there’s no prizes for meeting daily quotas (the NaNoWriMo organization hands out badges, but they’re like the ones from Audible, nice to have when you get them but they don’t make much of a difference after you get them) or getting the full fifty-thousand words written out besides bragging rights. Besides, if you have to force yourself to put out words when your heart is not in them or just to meet a quota, your first draft might not turn out so well.
That’s another thing: remember that this is a first draft. And a rushed one, too. So if you look at what you’ve written and wonder what the heck you were thinking, that’s a normal reaction to a first draft. They’re supposed to be full of errors and passages that make no sense to you upon the second read-through. It’s during that second read-through that you touch it up and get it closer to the gem that you know it’s going to be.
Now that we’ve gotten the tips that’ll keep you in a good frame of mind out of the way, let’s cover how we actually survive NaNoWriMo:
Prior to November, research and prepare. We’ve still got twenty-two days till NaNoWriMo kicks off. During that time, it might help for you to get an idea of what you’re working on, where it might be heading, and maybe learn a bit more about the subject matter you’re writing, especially if it’s a topic you don’t know very well (like a murder mystery in Tang China or a coming-of-age story set in an ROTC unit). Now I know a lot of you might like to write by the seat of your pants, but just doing a little bit of prep can be helpful, especially if it means you don’t have to stop midway through writing because you realized you don’t know a thing about car maintenance and you lose four days because you got a car maintenance manual and needed to cram all that info in.
It also helps to prepare so that you can make plans in case you have to stop writing for any reason. Whether you need to attend a wedding midway through the month or you have to put the metaphorical quill down because you have a Poli Sci exam coming up you need to study for, having a contingency plan in case that happens can work wonders.
Speaking of which, while it is important to get out as much writing as possible, make sure not to neglect your life just to write. Many of us have day jobs, school, families, friends, and a variety of other things that require our attention. While it is important to write and maybe give up a few social obligations or fun outings to work, don’t neglect the real world entirely. I find the real world can not only give me great ideas for stories, but also reenergize me so that when I sit down to write, I’m not restless and looking for a distraction or yearning to go out and see the latest horror movie or something.
And while you’re working so hard, remember to take care of your health. In some ways, NaNoWriMo is like the last three weeks of a college semester: you’ve got a ton of work to do, only so much time to do it, and you’re willing to get maybe four hours a night of sleep and eat ramen noodles three times a day if that’s what it takes to get through it on top. I’m advising against that. There are no consequences to not getting out the full fifty-thousand words, so your health shouldn’t be a consequence of trying to. Get plenty of sleep each night, eat healthy meals, and get some exercise too if you can, even if it’s just going for a walk. You’ll find you’ll have more energy for writing if you do, believe me.
It’s also healthy to take an occasional break. We all need time to recharge and let our brains focus. So if you feel approaching burnout or writer’s block, or if you can’t figure out where your story should go next, or if you’re just so tired of writing about a princess trying to cover up her father’s murder so she doesn’t have to marry against her will, then maybe a trip out to the movies or to the bar with your friends or some fun family time or an all-night Mario Kart tournament with your roommates might be what you need. Studies actually show that ideas come more easily to you if you’re distracted, so there’s even more reason to take a break right there.
And if you need a little motivation to keep you going, reward yourself for certain milestones. For every five-thousand words or so you put out, reward yourself with something fun. This could be a favorite dessert, watching Netflix for a little while, whatever you want. Give yourself something extra special when you reach fifty-thousand words and/or finish the book (I suggest some wine, some celebration music, and later a good movie with a friend). You’ll find it much easier to write if you have something to look forward to after all your hard work.
And let’s not forget to build a support network around yourself. The NaNoWriMo organization attempts to do this by putting you in touch with other participants in your area and with community events, but whether or not you decide to participate in these events, you should still have people around you encouraging and cheering you on. Friends, family, lovers, authors you’re friends with online or offline, they should all be there for you. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have people cheering me on and willing to read my work every time I publish during the rest of the year. Imagine how motivating it’ll be when you know there’s a group of people standing behind you when you do the writing equivalent of a 5K.
Finally, take a long break when you’re done. Not just from writing so you can get your creative juices to recharge, but also take a break from whatever novel you were working on once you’re done. I always feel that a month or more between drafts allows for writers to come back to their first drafts with fresh eyes so they can see where they made mistakes in the first draft and correct them. If you start editing immediately after finishing the first draft, you can only see it as the baby you just poured so much time and energy into and miss quite a lot. Better to take a break and let it lie until you’re ready to look again.
I’d like to wrap it up here and wish everyone participating next month good luck. Whatever you do to make the month of November one of the most productive and crazy of the year, I hope you found these tips helpful and that you have fun trying to get a full novel out in thirty days.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
What tips do you have for getting through the month and writing as much as you can in so little time?
*That’s if you write like I do, which is Times New Roman, 12 point font, and double spaced on 8.5” x 11” paper. Otherwise it varies.
Recently I wondered what the best time to release a new book was. Obviously you would want to release something scary prior to Halloween, something romantic right before Valentine’s Day, something full of snow and holiday cheer right before Christmas, etc. But what about the rest of the year? Are there days that are lucky for self-published authors? Is there a time of year that can help you get more copies into people’s hands? I was determined to find out.
Now despite my best efforts, I only have three books out at the moment (though I am working on getting more out soon), so I couldn’t rely on just my own experience ot answer this question. So when in doubt, I do what I normally do: ask the writing groups I belong to on Facebook. The answers I got were quite informative.
Of course there were the tips to release seasonal stuff around their seasons, but there was a ton more advice that I found quite interesting. One author’s observations was that people prefer introspective works in the summer (makes sense, seeing as I just read Go Set a Watchman) and mysteries and thrillers in the fall (that is when JK Rowling is releasing her next detective novel). Another author liked to follow the movie release schedule, releasing books whenever there’s a movie coming out in the same genre as his book. He also felt that people prefer laughter in winter months, “light and airy reads” in spring, adventure stories in the summer, and scary stuff in autumn.
Probably the most helpful advice I got from a woman who had recently read an article on the subject (which I wish I had a link for, but so far I have been unable to find the article). According to the article she read, the best time of year to run a promotion was the two weeks after Christmas. According to her, something about a free or discounted book after the holidays gets people buying, and that allowed her to retire from her day job and pick up writing full-time (which is something I’ll have to try).
Some other tips she gave included:
The one thing that all these authors seemed to agree on is that there was never a bad time to release a book. It was never directly stated in any of the comments I got, but it seemed to be implied. Sure, apparently Tuesdays might not be the wisest day of the week to release a book, but other than that there aren’t any days or times of the year when authors will doom themselves publishing a book.
And you know, I can’t help but see that as a good thing. Just means there are plenty of opportunities for authors to publish their books and maybe pull out a bestseller from them. And we all want that for our books, don’t we?
Does the advice here match your own experiences with publishing?
What advice do you have on the best time to publish a book?
I’ve been looking into buying a new planner, since my old one died at the first of August and it’s something I need. However, I’ve been having a hard time finding one I like and I’m curious to know:
How many of you are using day planners?
What are your favorite formats? Monthly? Weekly? Daily? Horizontal or vertical?
What do you look for when you choose a day planner?
Bad me! I checked in this morning and realized it’s been a little over a week since our last post and we’ve run out of scheduled posts. So time for me to emerge from the writing/editing cave I’ve been hiding in for the last month and get to work on some Writing as a Business posts I promised everyone. 😀
I’m going to save the post about Plots for the next couple of slots and jump to scheduling and routines, mainly because I’ve been dealing with this of late and it’s on my mind right now. On my blog I wrote a post, It’s all About Balance, and no you don’t have to click the link to read the post. I’m going to use much of what I talked about there here.
A few weeks back I started to feel overwhelmed by the demands being placed on me and not getting to any of my editing and writing. I decided it was time for a break from anything I considered a time waster while I learned to could juggle all the new responsibilities with all my old responsibilities.
This meant finding a schedule that would allow me to spend time with my kids and husband, do my housework, take care of ranch, write and edit and market my books, and work on book cover designs for clients. This means sticking to a schedule long enough for it to become a routine or learn what works and what doesn’t.
For me a daily routine is imperative. I’d get nothing done if I didn’t. When building a writing schedule there are some things I take into account:
1. What is the time that best suits me for certain tasks (i.e. writing, editing, marketing, etc)
2. What is my work schedule (i.e. ranch, book designing, etc).
3. What are my writing and publishing goals for the year.
4. What are my other responsibilities
I wrote down everything I could think of and started to build a routine that works for my needs. If I want to write a book in a year, I create a list of all the things I’ll have to do to accomplish this. Working on characters, plotting, writing, etc. I take these smaller goals to meet my bigger goal.
I know that my schedule won’t work for everyone, hell, some days it barely works for me. But I thought an example might help some of you.
I start my morning by looking over my to-do list while my computer boots up. Then I write or edit (M-F I wake at 6am to get my youngest ready for school and on the bus by 7am. So I start my writing time after I send her off. On Sat. and Sun. I sometimes get to sleep in, if not I have to start breakfast before I write.). I try to get at least 2 hours of writing or editing done.
Setting limits to your writing time will help you not over do it and burn out. A time allotment, page count, or a word goal are the most common. If these don’t work for you, don’t sweat it. 😀
I mark off all the tasks that I accomplished that day and write down notes of what I need to do tomorrow. This way, when I start my day all I have to do is look at my schedule and know where to start. This saves me time and useless staring at the computer screen.
Then I write a blog post if I’m in the mood before I check emails. If I have any emails or blog comments that I need to responded to I do that first, Business related newsletters and blogs are next.
I shut down my computer for the day and start my other responsibilities and spend time with my kids. After I get my kids off the to bed at 8pm, I’m ready to start working on book cover designs. I look at my to-do list while my computer is booting up. I check emails to see if there is anything “urgent” for me to respond to, changes that needed to be made to a cover, or new clients before I start working. I do not read blogs or business newsletters, that will wait until tomorrow.
I like to schedule tasks at the end of the day that allow me to wind down and relax from the day. I find writing at night makes it hard for me to sleep. I’ll work for an hour or two and then mark off what I accomplished and write down what I want to accomplish the next day before I head to be.
I hope this helps some of you create your own schedule and routines. If you have a writing routine you would you like to share, please comment below or post a link to a blog post where you wrote about it? If you have any questions, now is the time to ask. 😀
I hate trying to work myself into a schedule. Hubby D’s swing shift schedule in the Winter is the worst. It changes month to month. The first week is usually the hardest, the second weeks is smoother, and by the last week of the month, when I’m just getting use to the schedule and working writing time in, his shift changes.
Unlike D’s work schedule, adding T’s school schedule to the mix was easier then working writing into. With my eldest, T, at school and the youngest, K, at home everything is in chaos. K isn’t sure what to do with herself during the hours without her sister. So mommy is having to entertain her, only she doesn’t want anything to do with that. Then when T gets home from school, T wants to show off what she’s learned and K wants to boss her around and fight with her.
I think the whole school thing is going to drive me insane. K has about two years before she starts school even though she’s only 17 months younger than her sister. She missed the age deadline by 16 days. Which means my writing is shoved over to when I can get to it. So it’s time to do something different. I can’t keep up the gardening, house cleaning, Ranch work, and entertaining the youngest with writing the next story, editing, and blogging. I know there are some people who can, but I’m not one of them.
Since writing is more important for me than marketing and blogging at this time. I’m once more cutting things back. I’m working on a schedule that allows me to be there for my hubby and my kids and yet allows me a few hours to work on my writing business.
What things have you had to change in your writing for family and work?
A few years back I had a short bout of Writer’s Procrastination. This is different from Writer’s Block because I wasn’t blocked. I had a ton to write and no umph to write it. I was lucky enough to find a book by Jenna Glatzer titled Outwitting Writer’s Block and Other Problems of Pen http://www.amazon.com/Outwitting-Writers-Block-Other-Problems/dp/B001QCX9FY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292558177&sr=8-1, it’s a book I highly recommend. There’s a section about goal setting in the book that I love. She suggests more than just yearly and monthly goals, she talks about weekly objectives to keep you motivated and focused.
Business and organizational professionals are forever extolling the need for writing down goals or tasks that you can accomplish on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. Writing down these goals allows you to create a plan of action, keep you focused, see the results, and provide a strategy for achieving your writing goals. We are all familiar with New Year Resolutions or goals. Ever wonder why you rarely meet those goals at year’s end? It’s because we usually fail to create specific, measurable achievable, realistic and targeted goals, SMART goals for short.
1. Define your goal(s).
Write down things that you can realistically achieve in a given time frame. For goals to work; they need to have targets. An example of a SMART goal is: “I will write 1,000 words a week on my 50k word romance novel, Soulmate, and have it completed by 1 April 2011.”
2. Determine what tasks are necessary to achieve your goal(s).
Going back to my last post about creating a Book Production Schedule, take that of list of thing you know you have to accomplish for each book. This would be things like outlining the book, writing the book, revising, editing, and proofreading the book, sending it out for feedback from beta readers and editors, getting cover art, doing the layout and book design, interviews, permissions to use copyrighted material, marketing, pictures, promoting and marketing, research, etc.
3. Organize the tasks and develop a strategic plan.
Start with your bigger goals and break them down into manageable chunks of three-year, one-year, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. The smaller your tasks the easier it is for you to accomplish.
4. Set yourself up for success by creating a practical plan.
If you have a full-time job, two small children, and a dog to care for, it may be difficult to fit in three hours of writing each day. Make sure your plan suits your lifestyle. If you write one hour a day (after the kids go to bed), five times a week, or five hours one day a week (on Sunday when the kids are at grandma’s house) that’s five pages of writing each week; within a year you will have completed a 250-page book.
So this brings us to the end. I wish you all good luck on your Writing business plans. If you have anything to add, comment below.
The Writer’s Business Plan: An Introduction
The Writer’s Business Plan: Parts of the Writer’s Business Plan
The Writer’s Business Plan: Creating a Budget
I never thought of myself as a very goal oriented person, but over the last couple of years I’ve fallen into it as I’ve planned out my writing year. This helps me to be a more productive writer and blogging keeps me on track. This planning also helped me when it came time to plan my production schedule in my Business Writer Plan.
Building a Production Plan is not so hard if you know roughly how long it takes you to do each task and add extra time for unexpected events in life and holidays. Because inevitably something always pops up to throw it all into chaos.
Start with writing out a list of thing you know you have to accomplish for each book. This would be things like outlining the book, writing the book, revising, editing, and proofreading the book, sending it out for feedback from beta readers and editors, getting cover art, doing the layout and book design, interviews, permissions to use copyrighted material, marketing, pictures, etc.
If you know how long it takes to do each item on that list you’ll know when to set deadlines for yourself. I know it takes me anywhere from 1 to 3 months to write a book. After that, I like to let it sit for about two weeks before I revise it, which takes up to a month. During that two weeks I usually outline the next book in a series or just take a break if I’m burning out. After the revisions, I let it sit for about three months while I edit the previous book or write the next one.
I usually use a calendar of the next year, or a large piece of paper folded into half and then sixths with each month written into the box, and some sticky notes for this next part. I start with filling in appointments I know about, holidays, family events, vacation, business events, and other commitments. Then I write on the sticky notes each task and my time limit for it, factoring in extra time for the unexpected. I’ll stick them on my calendar so I can “see” the path my book production will flow from month to month.
I hope this helped. If you have any questions, please comment below. If you have any suggestions, please speak up so we all may learn. And as always if you find this helpful, please share.
The Writer’s Business Plan: An Introduction
The Writer’s Business Plan: Parts of the Writer’s Business Plan
The Writer’s Business Plan: Creating a Budget
The Writer’s Business Plan: The Marketing Plan
The Writer’s Business Plan: Setting Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Goals
Whether you are a novice or a long time writer, some sort of writing rountine is necessary. Why, you might ask? Because any kind of routine helps you be more effective and productive in your work.
For me a daily routine is imperative. I’d get nothing done if I didn’t. When building a writing schedule there are some things you have to take into account.
1. Build your routine to meet your needs. I wake early, about 2-4 hours before the kids wake to write. This is only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. It’s not everyday, but it meets my needs, probably not yours.
2. Set goals for what you want to accomplish that day. At the end of the day I mark off what I accomplished and write down what I want to accomplish the next day. This way, when I start my day all I have to do is look at my schedule and know where to start. This saves me time and useless staring at the computer screen.
3. Set the time that best suits you or your working schedule. Before I got married or had kids the best time for me to write was from 9PM to midnight. After kids it was random until I learned my kids schedule. Then there is my husband’s swing shift schedule during the winter and spring months. Then when the kids start school next year I’ll have to revise again.
4. Set limits to your writing time so that you don’t over do it and burn out. It can easily happen to the best of us.
If you have a writing routine, would you like to share? Would you like to add anything? Do you have any questions? Please share with us so we all may learn. Thank you.
Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors 