Exercise Your Muscle to Sell More Books

This is a good time of year for my book sales because one of my books is always my Christmas best seller.

And that book is 'How To Quit Smoking Without Giving Up Cigarettes.'

Why is it a best seller this time of year?

Because most people think that January 1st is magical and it will somehow give them with more willpower, so they buy my quit smoking book or give it as a gift to someone who they think will have more willpower in the New Year.

And while that's really great for me, the truth (that we already know but don't want to admit it) is that we already have all the willpower we need to accomplish anything we want, or to give up bad habits.

You see, willpower is a muscle. And just like any other muscle, if it doesn't get used enough, it becomes weak.

But the good news is that all it takes to make it strong again is to use it.

Because the more you use it the stronger it gets.

And it's not just good for quitting smoking.

It's also a great muscle to use to help you write more and earn more.

You just have to exercise it every day.

So don't wait until next year rolls around.

You already have what you need.


-----------

How to Quit Smoking Without Giving Up Cigarettes
Let this amazing quit-smoking course, help you to use your willpower to quit for good.
http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/HQS.html

Hanging With The Smartest Writers

It’s a well-known fact that is you want to improve your life or your business, you need to hang out with people who are smarter than you or who you want to be like.

And you don’t have to be with them in person.

It can be bloggers you follow online, or people you go to see at seminars, or authors you read.

I was watching a seminar a few days ago and the speaker was author and marketer, Brian Kurtz and he said, “Only surround yourself with the smartest people. And if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”

And I agree. That’s why I only follow writers and marketers who I believe are the best.

One that I follow and have bought many products from, is email expert, Ben Settle.

I don’t follow him because I want to be an email expert, but I like three things about him.

1. He works alone. He has no staff and works completely by himself out of his own home. That’s the way I prefer to work too. AND he earns thousands a month from his emails, books, and courses.

2. His products are no-nonsense, and by that I mean he always gets straight to the point and doesn’t waste time with useless ‘filler’ information. I like that and I know that whatever I buy from him will be full of useable information.

3. He is full of ideas which I find really inspirational. By studying and disecting just his free emails I’ve discovered that he can take one idea and write 20 or more emails about it. And knowing how he does it is gold.

Having plenty of ideas is THE most important thing about being a writer, because without ideas you can’t write anything.

I’ve never had a problem with finding ideas and that’s why I wrote an ebook to show others just how easy it is. And even if you can’t think of anything, I'll show you how.

And once you know how to get your creative juices flowing, you’ll get 100s of ideas in just a few minutes.


Goodbye Writer's Block
How To Be A Creative Genius
And Have An Abundance Of Ideas
Plus The Inspiration
And Motivation To Write
http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/WB.html

Start the Day Write

Have you ever noticed that however a day starts, it tends to carry on that way?

So if you start the day by getting up late, you seem to spend the rest of the day trying to catch up with yourself?

Or if you start by spending way too much time on Face Book or checking emails, you spend the rest of the day getting zero done.

This is why I find it so, so, important to start my days how I want them to go on.

If I start the day right, it usually keeps up the moment.

So I have a morning routine that gets me into my most important writing straight away.

I don't waste it on trivial things like social media or email because the first hour of my day is the most important hour.

I originally learned about this from a book called "The Miracle Morning" and it really made a difference in my life.

I not only read this book once, I studied it, and listened to the audio version several times too.

So if you're like I used to be and find that you get up every day with the best intentions, yet go to bed every night wondering why you even bothered, try it for yourself.

Use the first hour of every day for the most important thing.

Mine is book writing or studying.


The Miracle Morning: 
The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

By Hal Elrod

http://viewbook.at/MiracleMorning

Writing Distractions That Were Overwhelming

For the last week and a half, it’s done nothing but rain.

Not just any rain, but with really strong winds and it was a huge deluge that sent cascades of water running down my garden, carving out huge channels in the dirt as it went.

But you might be asking what this has to do with writing?

Well, I was trying to sit inside and write while all hell seemed to be breaking loose outside, but it wasn’t easy.

During the first few days, it was doubly hard because two of my chickens started suffering from the downpour, and it was also really cold.

I kept running outside to keep an eye on them and try and tempt them with food (they were all sheltering under the house, which is raised on stumps).

But the cold and damp got to be too much for them, and sadly, I had to take them to the vet to end their suffering. The poor girls couldn’t even open their eyes or uncurl their feet at the end (see the last photo of them, above).

One of them was Miss Broken Comb who’d been ill recently.

The other smaller one who is upright in the photo, was Miss Scrappy, so-called because she was always shirt-fronting any animal that came into the garden.

So while my other 7 girls continued to shelter under the house from the storm, I carried on bravely with my writing, to help keep my mind off everything.

But with everything going on around me, with losing 2 of my girls, the loud tempest raging outside and the awful dampness and darkness everywhere, it was all starting to feel somewhat surreal.

I found though, that once I was able to focus properly, I not only got plenty of writing done, but I managed to have a huge brainstorming session that went on for hours.

And when I checked my online accounts, I saw that I was still making sales from my books and affiliate products.

So it does go to show that it’s always possible to keep writing.

And sales can continue to happen from other places, while yours seems to be in chaos.

That’s what I love about being working from home and earning all my income from my writing.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle: How to start and grow a profitable online business so you can quit your job.

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/LLS.html

The Writing Is On The Wall

For over 2 weeks now I've been busy painting.

It's not that I'm any kind of artist.

The painting I've been doing is painting the whole exterior of my house (with a little bit of help from my husband, of course.)

It's a huge task, far bigger than I first anticipated.

And we've been painting all day, every day now for over 2 weeks and today is our first day off, and we still have at least another week of work ahead of us. (sad face)

Below is a before and after shot of one of the walls on our verandah. The first picture was taken by the realtor before we moved in and the second picture is the wall painted and the verandah items replaced, including Banjo, sitting on his doggy hammock. I just couldn't keep him out of the photo, sigh...

But you can see how much better the house looks already.

So with today as my one and only day off from painting, I've been doing a bit of writing and catching up on a few other chores as well.

But despite the long, tedious, work of house painting, I have learned a really good lesson from it.

And that is, sticking at a job gets it done. And it also gives me a feeling of satisfaction when I see how much work we get through every day.

And this doesn't only apply to painting. It's the same with everything I do.

If I stick with it and get it done, not only does it get finished, but it feels really good to have achieved something.

And the way to stick to doing something is to make it a number one priority and not let other things get in the way.

It's so easy to get distracted. Like with me last week. One of my chickens got really ill and I had to take her to the vet. Thankfully she was put on a course of antibiotics and started to get better after a few days, but I was so worried about her and I kept going into the garden to sit with her for a few minutes as often as I could. But I had to keep painting, plus there really wasn't much more I could do for her except stop her feeling alone.

I took a photo of her at the weekend because I thought she was going to die. Even the vet didn't hold out much hope for her. And you can see in the photo that Miss Broken Comb (so named for obvious reasons) was so ill that she couldn't even hold her head up or open her eyes.

Thank goodness she's well now and running around with her 8 friends again. :)

I have also spent the last couple of weeks getting up early and rushing around doing other jobs and then walking the dog late every day so that we could keep painting while we still had the daylight.

But it has been a good lesson in finding the one important thing to do every day and prioritising it over everything else.

Because it works.

And the same can be applied to every day, no matter what that day's number one thing is.

Most days, it's writing. That is my number one thing I have to do. So all other tasks and chores have to take a back seat.

And that's how to get plenty of writing done.

Find books to help you write and earn money.

And then make it your number one task and do it.

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/make-money.html

Motivation From Actor Sam Shephard

I heard the sad news this morning that actor Sam Shepard had died at the age of 73.

He was born in 1943 and not only was he an actor but also a playwright and writer.

I was reading about him online before I began writing today and I found his story to be remarkably motivating.

It seems that during his life he starred in over 50 movies. That is a lot of movies.

Not only that but he also wrote 14 plays AND wrote over 20 novels.

I sat there in amazement at how much this man has achieved.

It takes months to make a movie, not to mention all the travelling and promoting that the stars do for marketing.

And Sam Shepard was in 50 movies!

That is a lot of acting and promoting.

Not only that but he also found time to write over 20 novels.

AND he also wrote 14 plays.

This man was a working and writing mash-eeeen.


I sat in awe at how much he had achieved in his life and thought about what had motivated him to work so hard.

And I figured that maybe he just enjoyed what he did so much that he just couldn't stop doing it. No one could work that hard at something if they weren't fully motivated and inspired to do so.

In a way, it's the same for all successful writers. They work so hard at what they do because they love what they do.

Just like in the book I read recently, Careergasm, you need to find what you REALLY love to do and that will give you all the motivation you need to be a writing mash-eeeen.

And now...it's time for me to write my own 20 books, 14 plays and audition for 50 movies.

Wish me luck.

Stop Listening To Others And Start Writing And Earning More

I spend a lot of my time learning about how to earn money from writing.

I learn through emails, podcasts, books and articles, all giving me different advice  such as, I should email more often, use social media more, use forums, write more blog content, make videos, use different daily routines, up my words per hour, use a special writing place…and the list goes on.

Everything I learn from all contains different advice (often about the same thing) but there are some golden nuggets of information contained in a lot of them.

Each of the people giving advice are usually telling me what works for them.

But everyone is different so what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for all.

As an example, Ben Settle (who is a self confessed email expert) says it’s better to email daily. But he is brilliant at writing short, pithy emails that hold attention. I, on the other hand, don’t have this talent so when I followed his advice, I failed.

But he was right about one thing, which is that everyone needs to know how to do copy writing because we all need to sell our books. But sending out daily emails just doesn’t work for me.

So in the end I recently decided that although I’ll continue to listen to podcasts and read as much as I can about writing and earning money, I will ignore most of the advice and do what I do best.

Writing.

Just writing.

In my own time.

My own way.

This make me happier and more productive.

There is a lot of advice out there that also tells me that I should have a strict writing routine so that every day I sit down and write certain things, like an hour writing my book, an hour writing blog posts, an hour doing marketing, etc.

But that’s not how I roll.

I’m an all-or-nothing person. Once I start working on something I like to see it through to the end rather than jumping around from project to project.

So that’s how it’s going to be.

Having said that, on days when I don’t feel motivated to write, I use the Pomadoro Technique so that I do actually sit down and get some work done.

But I like to work my way.

And so should you.

But never stop learning.

Just decide what works for you and what doesn’t.

And ignore the rest.

Changing How I Work So I Can Write More Books

Over the years I've earned money from my writing in several ways.

I sell affiliate products, advertising, sell my own books and do freelance writing work.

But lately I've had a yearning to only do the type of writing that I love the most.

And that is writing books.

Not only is it the type of writing I prefer to do, but also it provides more income in the long term and is also passive income which means that once a book is written, it can go on earning money while I get on with other projects.

I earn money from every book I write, but the same cannot be said for the other ways in which I make money from writing.

For instance, I have no control over the products that I sell for other people and sometimes products are withdrawn while I'm in the middle of promoting them.

Only recently I was promoting a product by doing article marketing when suddenly it was withdrawn from the affiliate network and was instead only sold by the owner. So then I had to go through all my articles and change the link to another similar product or unpublish the articles. Such a waste of time.

Freelance writing also involves a lot of pitching with very few offers. That's not to say it's not worth doing because most assignments are worth several hundred dollars if I can land them, but constant pitching can feel frustrating at times, and it's unpaid work.

And advertising doesn't always work. Some ads are popular while others attract no attention at all and so just sit there taking up valuable space on my websites.

But writing books is what I love to do and because it's something I enjoy, I'm more motivated to do it and so I'm much more productive when I do sit down to write.

So if you have a favourite type of writing that you love to do, plan to do more of it.

It can be any type of writing that appeals to you including copywriting, article writing, blogging, ebooks, fiction script writing, comedy writing...you choose.

Then buy whatever you need to help you and learn as much as you can.

And then write.

And then write some more.

Write Any Book In Just 28 Days...Or Less

I know this course works because I've done it. I love this ebook because it really does take you through writing your book in a month.

http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html

Amateur Mindset V Professional Mindset

You've probably heard it before that our thoughts control our lives.

Everything that happens to us depends on what we’re thinking.

So where is your mind when it comes to your writing?

Do you have an amateur mindset or a professional mindset?

Are you planning to work as a professional writer or do you just think that if you write enough pretty words you’ll make money…somehow?

Being a Professional Writer

All successful writers have a blog (or website) and they use social media to grow their audience, get attention and spread their message.

And if you want to do the same you firstly need to have a clear message.

You need to know what it is that you’re trying to say.

And once you know what your message is, you need to get it across clearly.

When you first begin a blog, you only need to get your message across clearly, not perfectly.

Don’t wait for perfection before publishing online because clarity always trumps perfection.

If you’re still unsure what your message to the world is, then try and think of what your worldview is.

Every great writer has a worldview.

To find yours, just ask yourself what is it that bothers you that needs to be fixed?

What problem fascinates you?

Once you know your worldview then you’ll know the audience you’re trying to reach and exactly who you're talking to.

And if you’re still unsure of your worldview, ask the 5 people closest to you to describe you in 3 words or 3 short phrases.

You’ll be surprised what others know about you that you’ve never noticed yourself.

And it doesn’t matter if you want to write fiction or non-fiction. Your worldview will be visible in your writing whether you know it or not.

So it’s better if you know exactly who you’re writing to and what it is that you want to say.

Because that is what writers with a professional mindset do.

http://ruthiswriting.com/links/quickcash.html 

Don't Say Yes When You Want To Say No

We've all been there.

Someone asks you to do something you don't want to do, yet you agree to do it.

Or someone wants to do something but they need your permission (like one off your kids), so you say yes even though you want to say no.

So why do we do it?

It's usually to avoid bad feelings, friction, or conflict.

Yet the truth is that people won't like you more or give you more respect, if you say yes all the time instead of standing up for what you really want.

And at the same time, saying no is empowering. It won't make you popular, but it will help you to set boundaries of what you will and won't do.

Best of all, you only have to say no once, and it's easy to do it every time after that.

But...you may be wondering what this has to do with writing?

Saying no to things you don't want to do opens up more time for the things you DO want to do and for the things that are important to you.

And that means more time for writing.

Sure your friends will be annoyed with you if you tell them you don't want to go out drinking with them because you want to stay home and work on your novel instead, but who's life is it?

And if anyone pressures you for an immediate answer to something, but you don't want to say yes, or you're unsure, just say "I'll have to think about it." And if they still pressure you tell them "If you want an answer right now, it will have to be no. But if you give me time, I'll think about it." (This works amazingly well with teenagers in the family.) :)

Don't let time-vampires steal any more of your time.

If you'd rather be writing, go and do that and say no to the unimportant things or stuff you'd really rather not do at all.

And if you want more inspiration read the short viral article written by Derek Sivers, "No “yes.” Either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.”

Then get back to writing.

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Discover the writing resources I've used to help me  make more money from writing in my latest article for writers, "My Top Ten Writing Resources."

Say No Not Yes To Be More Productive

We've all heard that in order to get more done you need to say no to requests from other people or no to things that aren't urgent.

But that's not the only type of no that you should be saying.

If you have a lot to do and you feel overwhelmed, here is a simple way to eliminate the unessential.

Look at everything that you have to do.

If it's more than you can do, or more than you want to do, take this next step.

Usually when we feel overwhelmed with how much we have to do, we look at what is the most important thing on our list or which is the most urgent.

But forget that.

Instead, look at your list and ask yourself which do you want to say no to?

Then ask yourself why?

This simple step will give you more clarity on future decisions and helps you to easily eliminate the unnecessary.

Just ask yourself "What is essential?"

Then eliminate the rest.

This works so well it will blow your mind and free you up to do what is most important to you.

But I didn't think of it myself.

I learned it from reading Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.

How I Get More Writing Ideas

It’s OK to say that to be a successful writer you need to write.

But what when you have no ideas?

For me this isn’t a problem for two reasons:

• I’m extremely creative (always have been)
•  I have 2 notebooks full of ideas

Being creative and blessed with a good imagination helps. But many people ask me how I find the time to come up with ideas.

And the answer surprises them.

They seem to imagine that I sit and wait for the muse to strike me.

On the contrary.

Usually I’m not even sitting when ideas strike me. When I get an idea it normally strikes when I’m busy doing un-related things that have nothing at all to do with writing.

They come often when I’m dog walking, from what I see, what I think, or what I hear if I’m listening to an audio as I walk.

Many ideas come to me when I’m doing mundane things like housework, car cleaning and even mowing the lawn.

But most importantly – and this is really, REALLY important – I write all my ideas down IMMEDIATELY.

And that’s how I collect so many.

Try it for yourself and see.

Get a notebook just for ideas. Mine are spiral-bound shorthand notebooks.

Then every time you get an idea, write it down, or, if you’re out, voice record it till you get home.

But never EVER think that you’ll remember an idea – you won’t.

That’s a lesson I had to learn many times over.

So don’t make the same mistake.

Kindling - Ignite The Fire Under Your Kindle Publishing Dreams

This is a free ebook all about working as a published Kindle author. 

If you've ever dreamed of writing and publishing books for a living, 

this ebook will show you how you can do it. 

Download it now and start living your dream as a published author.

Just click the image above.

You CAN Have It All

Recently I decided to change the type of writer I'd become.

You see, I had somehow become an online writer, working on my websites, writing articles and selling my own products as well as affiliate products and earning money through advertising.

This meant that I spent my days working on keywords and always checking on what my online competitors were doing.

But I wasn't happy.

So I decided to shut down most of my sites and concentrate more on book writing.

But...then I wondered if it's the right thing to do because mine is the only income and my husband is busy working at home everyday on our house renovations (which is a huge task). So we need enough money to not only live on, but to pay for the renovations too.

So was this a good time to follow my dream of being a full-time book author?

Then a read a really inspiring article written by one of the most prolific writers I know, Mridu Khullar Relph. This woman has one of the most amazing hard work ethics that I've ever seen.

Her article is called Writing Saved Me and in it she talks about how we are told (and we always believe) that we can't have it all. We can have a great life or a great career. Or we can write what we want and be as creative as we like, or write for the majority, but we can't do both if we want to earn money.

She says that none of this is true and that we can have it all.

But...we must own it on our own terms and own it all, the downs as well as the ups.

Where we are in our lives and in our writing careers is through the choices we have made so far, and if we're not happy where we've ended up, then we have the freedom and the control to change things.

But we have to be true to ourselves and forget about societal obligations, because we CAN have it all, if we want it badly enough.

And I do want it badly enough.

I want to write many books and earn money as an author.

And I do believe that if I'm true to myself and work hard, then the money will come.

So here I go...

How about you?

Are you living your dreams?

How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

There are no double standards in life.

That’s why how you do anything is how you do everything.

A person isn’t lazy at home and hard working at their job. They are lazy wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.

Likewise, a person isn’t mean to animals and kind to people. They’re just mean all the time, even if they try and come across differently in different situations.

I remember years ago saying to a friend of mine that a man we both knew was a really nice guy and that I couldn’t understand how he could be married to the woman he lived with becasue she was so nasty and was always upsetting people and causing trouble.

My friend instantly said to me, “He’s not a nice guy. He’s just as bad as she is.”

“How do you know?” I asked, perplexed, because the guy always seemed so smiley and friendly.

Why You Don’t Write - And It’s Not Procrastination or Writer’s Block

More and more often I come across people who want write but never do. Or they do write, but not as much as they want to.

It happens to most writers. In fact, it happens to every writer.

Sometimes it’s blamed on procrastination.

But what does that really mean?

It means that you’re not writing because you don’t feel like doing it. Which doesn’t really explain anything.

Then there’s writer’s block. This is when you sit down to write, but don’t know where to begin. Or you’re already writing, but the ideas start drying up.

The reason for the former, is because you don't have a task list so you don’t know what to do first. The latter is because you’re tired and need a break. So both of these have a reason that’s easy to fix.

But why is it that most days you just simply don’t feel like writing? You know you really should sit down and start, but the motivation just isn’t there.

I can’t answer this for every individual because there could be many reasons.

But one explanation could be non-writing related.

What You Need to Do If You Want to Earn Money From Writing

The past couple of weeks has been hectic for me. I was initially busy sorting out all the issues that went along with selling my old website for writers (very long, complicated and drawn out). My new website for writers is at http://ruthiswriting.com (which I only just managed to get online today, and it's still far from being completely ready).

Then just when I thought I was safe to get back to writing, I had a close family member get really sick and she was in hospital for a week. This meant spending time driving to the hospital and back every day and staying most of the day, then getting home and rushing around doing everything that still needed to be done (dog walking, washing, cooking, etc) before catching little sleep and rushing back to the hospital again.

Thankfully it's now all over and she's home again and things are getting back to normal again.

But one thing that I did keep doing was checking my emails every couple of days or so and one thing kept occurring.

Someone was going crazy buying all my writing ebooks and emailing me about how it's not working for them.

Well...it won't work unless they work it.

What I mean by that is that if you want to earn money from your writing, you have to actually do the writing. And plenty of it. Not buy several writing ebooks and courses over a two week period and then complain that they're not working and you're not earning any money.

If you want to be a professional writer AND earn all your income from it, then you have to put in the time and effort to write.

It's easy to think that writing isn't working (and many people think that about me because they see me sitting at home every day and so don't consider it to be 'proper' work).

And it's not a shortcut to being rich either.

But even though it's work, it's somewhat enjoyable work. I say "somewhat" because sometimes when I have a deadline I'm working to, it gets hard to sit and write on days when I simply just don't feel like it.

I guess it's the same as being a doctor in that regard (and boy have I seen a lot of those recently). By that I mean that although people say they want to be a doctor and that it's their dream job, that doesn't mean it's easy for them to do. They still have to work hard and sometimes work long hours. But they'd still rather be doing that for a living than anything else.

And it's the same with writing. You might not always feel like doing it, but it has to be done.

On the plus side, the income is passive so once you've established yourself enough, even when you're not working for a week or two, the income is still there. For instance, over the past couple of weeks, even though I didn't put finger to keyboard that whole time (except to check my emails and respond to my ranting customer), I still managed to sell quite a few ebooks and I received a couple of payments from Amazon for my affiliate money and my book sales.

But writing income doesn't last (or I should say doesn't stay as high) if I don't eventually get back to work and start writing again.

That's because NO BUSINESS can survive without work.

But at least being a writer affords me the opportunity to be self employed and still earn income when I take time off from my job.

The good thing though, is that I'm now more than ready to apply my backside to my chair and get back to writing again, now that I've been away from it so long and life has gotten back to normal.

And anyone who wants to know what the "secret" is to becoming a successful and well-paid writer, it's writing. It's sitting down every day and working.

Buying ebooks and courses won't work unless you follow them and there's no way my ranting customer had time to work through them all in such a short time, especially considering one of the things they bought was The 12 Month Writing Challenge. (I think they didn't understand the words '12 months' and perhaps thought it said '12 minutes').

So if you feel that you've not been doing enough writing recently, then like me you need to sit down and write more.

And that's what I'm going to do right now.

How about you?

How to Write a Novel: Idea to Manuscript in Five Simple Steps

If you want to earn money from writing fiction then time really is money because the more you write, the more books you can sell.

I’ve been writing a lot of fiction lately and the biggest projects are the book-length manuscripts.

These can be anything from 20,000 words to 85,000 and more.

And with so much writing to do I find it impossible to start with a blank page.

Years ago I read about Ranger Ingerman’s ‘Snow Flake’ method for writing a novel and it really is an ingenious and easy-to-do idea.

You can read more about it at http://advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/. 

The snowflake method of writing a novel includes knowing your characters extensively before you begin writing your manuscript and also constructing a complete story outline.

So here I’ve broken it down into a simple, but thorough, five step process that really does help you to go from idea to full manuscript:

1. Write one sentence to describe your story idea. It should be just a few words like a movie description in a TV guide, perhaps something like, “Aliens invade earth.”
2. Expand your idea into a paragraph which must contain a beginning, an end and at least three plot crisis points in between (5 sentences). The story starts with the main characters moving from having a goal to reaching it and at least three things, or people, that try and stop them. The ending must contain some kind of change in the main character/s life/lives - either physical or emotional.
3. Expand each sentence into a paragraph so that you end up with a one-page summary.
4. Expand each paragraph into a one-page description of scenes and things that happen in them. Break each scene into chapters that all have a cliff-hanger ending.
5. Now use this outline to write your novel.

Once you start writing your idea and expanding it into a full outline, it quickly becomes easier to think of new plot ideas and conflicts to add.

It really does help to get your creative writing juices flowing.

Thinking and Thinking Then Changing What I Write About

Thinking Hard

The last few weeks I've been doing a lot of thinking about all the writing I do.

And thinking that much is SOOOO hard for me.

The reason for all the thinking is that I'm really not enjoying writing anymore.

Shock! Horror!

But how could that be? I just couldn't work it out.

I'm a writer.

I do a lot of writing.

So why wasn't I loving it anymore?

And then the reason came to me.

I'm not doing the kind of writing I like to do.

I'm bored with blogging and article writing which is what I do mostly because I have other websites in different subjects.

So I made an executive decision.

I'm closing down all my websites except this blog, writeaholics.net and my publishing website Cheriton House Publishing.

Everything else just has to go and some has already gone.

And I feel elated.

But...what am I going to do instead?

Well, I also thought about that a lot too and I finally realised that the kind of writing I enjoy the most is fiction writing.

So, apart from my two writing sites, I'm only going to be writing fiction.

I know that this is what I want to do because it makes me so happy to think about it.

I've been wondering what has been wrong with me for a while now (although some would say the there is plenty wrong with me) and I just couldn't understand why writing had become such a chore.

It was getting harder and harder to sit down and write every day, and I don't usually feel that way, but the last year or two (or longer if I'm honest), writing hasn't been my favourite occupation.

Then I had my Aha! moment and realised that I don't like blogging and writing articles all the time.

What I really want to do is write and publish fiction books and short fiction, which includes submitting stories to magazines.

I think that my epiphany came a couple of weeks ago when I had borrowed some magazines from the library and I was plotting and planning sending in article proposals to them all. I also created a list of fiction markets for this blog without even realising why I must have unconsciously done it.

And that's when it hit me.

I used to enjoy submitting to magazines but I was mostly sending in short stories (and getting them published) and it was all more fun then.

So that is what I'm going to be doing now, as well as writing novels.

So I will keep you updated as I go along and let you know what I'm doing and what is working for me and what isn't and hopefully I'll have more hits than misses with my new fiction writing career, and all my successes will inspire you to write more as well.

And if you fancy becoming a fiction writer too, here are a few places online where I've been looking  for fiction markets today:

JBWB Fiction Markets
http://www.jbwb.co.uk/markets.html

Show Me the $$$! Literary Magazines That Pay
http://thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/show-me-literary-magazines-pay

esthernewtonblog. Markets For Freelancers
https://esthernewtonblog.wordpress.com/markets-for-freelancers/

that's life! Fast Fiction Guidelines
http://www.thatslife.com.au/fastfictionguidelines

The People’s Friend Guidelines
https://www.thepeoplesfriend.co.uk/guidelines/

Where to Find Unlimited Ideas For Writing Fiction

Writing fiction is fun. It’s much more fun than writing non-fiction.

And with fast digital publishing available, it’s possible to sit and write fiction novels every day and publish them in minutes.

In fact there are many fiction authors who can write and publish one or two novels every week.

But sometimes it can be hard to find enough ideas.

If this is a problem for you, here are three things you can do to have a never-ending supply of great  ideas for your novels.

1. Visit the Library. Just go and browse a few books in the genre that you want to write. Read the blurb on the back cover and flip through a few pages to get a feel for the style of writing and the flow of ideas. Then, whatever the plot idea of the book, come up with an even better one. Sometimes just looking at a book cover can spark a great idea



2. Browse Second-Hand Books. Charity shops are usually filled with cheap novels that no-one wanted to read twice. Buy one, read it, and improve on the story idea. Come up with a much better plot and turn it into a best seller.



3. Window Shop On Amazon. This is a great website for coming up with plot ideas. On Amazon you can read book blurbs plus use the “look inside” feature to get better book ideas. Amazon will also show you similar books as you browse, which helps you to keep on looking.

These are 3 easy to use ways to find ideas for your next great novel.

But…there’s one caveat. DON’T PLAGIARISE!

It’s perfectly fine to use someone else’s book to help you to come up with your own ideas, but don’t steal their work.

Everything you write and your ideas must be your own.

Just start looking and browsing and write down all the great ideas that spark in your mind.

And if you keep browsing and keep looking you should never run out of ideas ever again.

Goodbye Writer's Block

How To Be A Creative Genius 

And Have An Abundance Of Ideas 

Plus The Inspiration 

And Motivation To Write

How to Tell the Difference Between an Amateur Writer and a Successful Writer (And This Alone Can Significantly Increase Your Income)

 So what’s the difference between an amateur writer who’s making no, or little, income from their writing and a successful writer who publishes one book after another, has thousands of blog followers and earns all their money from their writing?

Well, it’s a secret that not many people know, but it’s so obvious when you can see it.

And the best thing about it, is that even though you might be making this mistake yourself, you can turn it around instantly and it won’t cost you a thing.

Do you know what it is?

It’s attitude.

Amateur writers act like amateur writers. They act as though their writing isn’t good and that no one will want to read it.

They think that what they say isn’t important and so they don’t update and add content to their blogs very often because they don’t have many subscribers and so they think it’s not worth it.

So how can you change that?

Change your attitude and start acting like you’re a successful writer already.

Even if you only have a few subscribers to your blog, don’t let that put you off from writing and posting regularly.

And even if you’ve only written one book and it hasn’t sold well (or not at all) don’t let that stop you from writing many more books.

You see, successful writers write a  lot of books and they blog regularly to their thousands of subscribers.

And you need to do the same.

If you haven’t sold as many books as you would have liked and you don’t have many blog subscribers, how differently would you do things if your book was selling hundreds of copies a week and you had 10,000 subscribers to your blog?

Would you do what you’re doing now and never write another book? And would you do other things instead of writing posts for all your subscribers to keep them interested in your work?

If you’re not making as much money as you’d like to from your writing then change your attitude and start acting like you’re already where you want to be.

Act like it’s already happened. Act as though you’re earning thousands from your book sales. Blog as though you have a huge number of subscribers with more signing up every day.

Fake it till you make it.

Act like you’re already there.

Once you lift your attitude you’ll lift your game and start doing great writing, like you should be doing, and guess what?

As soon as you begin to act like a professional, people will start treating you like one.

You’ll have a shift in your work ethic and you’ll start writing every day, like you should be doing
already.

So if you want to turn things around today, start acting “as if” and start writing.

You already are the successful writer you want to be.

But you just don’t act like it.