I've Changed My Mind, But That's OK

A couple of weeks ago I said that I was changing the way I worked and instead of working for 3 to 4 hours a day, I was going to work for 2 full days a week.

Well, that didn't turn out to be such a great idea for 2 reasons.

It's the Weekend. Time to Write

This weekend, instead of doing the usual chores, why not get that novel written, write that screenplay, start that blog.

Whatever it is that you've been promising yourself that you'd get done when you get "a round tuit" make this weekend the beginning.

And the reason to start this weekend is because of all the amazing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for writers.

Below is a list to help get you inspired and get you going.

Final Draft 9 on Sale for $99+ at Writers Store, now-12/31/14
Get your copy of Final Draft from The Writers Store, the Industry’s #1 screenwriting software source for over 30 years, and you'll receive the latest version, an exclusive Screenwriting Starter Package ($100 value), extended access to your download and serial number, free installation support and peace of mind knowing your purchase is backed by our unmatched 30-day money-back guarantee.

Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 on Sale for $59.95+ at Writers Store, now-2nd December 2014
Format your script and outline it, too, with the newly redesigned Movie Magic Screenwriter 6! This award-winning screenwriting software formats movies, television, novels, stage plays and even comic book scripts, making it the only program for all types of creative writing.

Shop Software Starting at $12.99 at Writers Store
Black Friday Savings at Writers Store are here! Valid 28th Nov till-1st December 2014, Shop Software Starting at $12.99 and Up! In Addition, Save 20% Storewide with Offer Code BF2014. Offer excludes items already on sale and kits.

Save 50% Off Plus an Extra 10% at Writer's Digest Shop with CYBERSALE10
Cyber Monday Savings include an Additional 10% Off with Offer Code CYBERSALE10. Offer Valid until 1st December 2014.

And lastly, but by no means least, Hostgator (a company that I use myself) are having massive "Fire Sales" from Black Friday through to Cyber Monday with discounts on hosting from 55% off to 75% off. Keep checking the site all weekend because many of these sales only last for one hour. Click on the banner below. Get your website started this weekend.

How to Be Better Than the Rest in Just 30 Minutes a Day

There are all different kinds of writers.

But mostly, there are only 2 kinds.

Writers and wanna-be writers.

The real writers write every day.

The wanna-bes don't.

And somehow there seems to be far more wanna-bes than actual writers.

But this is good news for you.

If You Don't Make Your Processes Easy, You Won't Do Anything

I've just finished reading a book on Essentialism and it was quite an inspirational book that changed the way I look at life and work.

One of the things it talked about was the fact that, if you want to do something, you need to make the processes easy or you won't do it, or if you start, you won't finish it.

And I thought that this was so true.

This idea not only applies to many things in life but also to writing for a living.

And I'll explain.

My Writing Failures of 2014 and Writing Plans for 2015

Because the New Year is fast approaching (Holy crap! November already?), I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I've achieved and what I've failed to implement this year with my writing, and what I plan to do next year.

And what I also thought was that I don't need to wait till next year to implement my plans/goals for 2015, I can start them straight away.

Why not?

I know of one blogger who begins his New Year resolutions on his birthday every year because he considers this to be the start of a new year in his life instead of January 1st, which makes perfect sense.

But we really don't need to wait for any particular date to start making better changes and implementing our goals for the next 12 months.

And here is what I was thinking.

Can I Please Stop Wasting My Own Time?

I've read quite a lot of books and articles on Time Management because, as a writer, time is money.

The more time I spend writing, the more money I make.

The time management information I read, often talks about not letting other people undervalue and waste your time, which is relatively easy to do.

Like when someone says "Have you got a minute?" and you know that whatever they want always takes an hour instead of a minute.

So you stop them by saying "Not just now. I'm really busy. But I've got a few minutes spare at 4 p.m. Shall we talk then?" And usually it's enough to get rid of them.

But what about when it's not others wasting your time?

What if you constantly waste your own time?

The Most Versatile Writing You Can Do

Most people think that writing only has one purpose, as in, you're writing a book or writing an email or writing a press release.

But there is one kind of writing that is extremely versatile and can be used in many different ways.

Articles.

Articles can be used as blog posts, press release articles, emails, ebook chapters, auto-responder emails and marketing articles, just to name a few things.

Which means that if you can write a lot of articles, you can earn a really decent income.

2 Free Subliminal MP3 Albums From Inspire3

This is a promotional offer from Inspire3 that I've mentioned before, and I want to remind you again so that you don't miss out.

Inspire3, who have hundreds of MP3 subliminal audios available, including their impressive BrainSalon and Brain Evolution System (both of which I have myself and always highly recommend) have launched their new site called Subliminal Guru.

And to celebrate, they are currently giving away 2 free MP3 subliminal albums. These are not just a few minutes of audio, but almost 5 hours of free listening.

5 Amazing Resources For Writers

Today I have 5 new amazing writing resources from the Writers Store, that are all designed to get you writing and keep you going.

It doesn't matter if you want to write your next novel or start writing that screen play that you've always dreamt about.

2 of these resources are substantially reduced in price and 3 are on sale, but only for a short time.

Download free trials.

An Interview on Content, Creativity and Writing Consistently

This week I read an online Q & A interview with best selling author, Ann Handley.

Ann is the author of "Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content" which recently reached number 4 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In her interview Ann talks covers many topics including how writing habits “practiced once a week aren’t habits at all. They’re obligations.”

She also discusses that there is no one way to write, just as their is no one way to parent a child. But she does believe that the following is a guaranteed formula for writing creative and engaging content:

How I've Been Increasing My Writing Speed

This working week is nearly over for me. It's only Thursday but tomorrow I'm going to an all day Ayurvedic Cooking class. Should be interesting plus the food will be useful for helping me stay physically and mentally balanced.

But back to this week.

I have spent the whole week writing, plotting and planning.

I'm currently working on my next ebook for writers as well as all my other weekly writing projects.

As you know, the last few months I've been crazy-busy practising writing quickly or, to put it a better way, seeing how much more I can write in the same amount of time.

And so far the results have been much better than I expected.

Know Where You’re Going and Get There Fast

If you want to be more productive then you need to know where you're going and how to get there fast, because there's nothing more frustrating than working long hours and producing nothing significant.

When you're working, you want to be moving toward your end goal all the time.

So first, ask yourself “What is my goal?” What is the one end goal that you want to achieve with your writing?

Then look at everything you do every day to move yourself closer to your goal and get rid of the rest.

Once you know what your ultimate goal is, there are 3 things you need to do.

Writing Fast and Focused

My new romance novel that I published a few weeks ago is selling well.

With little (or really, no) marketing, sales are steady. It is also being borrowed often through the Kindle Lending Library. So I have to say I'm pleased with how things are going although I hope to market it properly soon.

It is a great book though and it has a twist in tail ending. It looks like the usual "will they get together or won't they" story, but the ending is a great surprise and that could be why sales and lending are up.

You can download your own copy of Stand By Me from the Amazon Kindle Store.

What I loved about writing this novel is that it was fast to do. I just wrote an outline and starting writing. Every time I sat down to write more of my novel, the time simply flew by and I could write thousands of words in one sitting.

And I think there was a reason that I found it so easy to do (and an experience I intend to repeat soon as well).

Keep Your Eye On Your Goals and Stay Inspired

Lately I've been re-reading two of my Kindle books, 6 FIGURES A YEAR WRITING KINDLE BOOKS: The 100 Book Challenge and 1500 Words Per Hour: How To Write Faster, Better And More Easily Using The Simple And Powerful Speed Write System For Writing Mastery.

These two books are a great inspiration for writing faster which is what I need to keep doing if I want to earn more money. I find that the faster I write, the more I publish and the better my writing is. If I'm writing against the clock (like when I write in pomodoros) it keeps me focused and stops me from doubting what I'm doing or stopping to think to often. So I find that my writing simply flows.

And writing as fast is possible and can product great results. You only have to look at what my friend and colleague, Yuwanda Black, achieved when she had a goal of writing 50 ebooks in one year. And she did it. But she did have to put in a lot of hours to do it and said she virtually had no life for the whole 12 months.

Using the Pomodoro Technique When Writing Is Hard

This past week or two I've been writing a lot more than normal. In fact I've been working really hard.

It's been great on days when I felt really revved up and ready to work, but it was difficult on days when I just didn't want to sit down and write.

But I had a lot to do so taking days off wasn't an option.

Instead, what I did was use the popular Pomodoro Technique to get more done on days when I just wanted to kick back and be lazy.

And it worked really well.

My Week of Non-Stop Writing

This has been a busy week for me. I've been writing non-stop.

Well, it's not just been writing but researching and gathering material.

I'm currently working on my next ebook for writers and I've decided to add two bonus products as well.

By the time I'm finished, this will be one massive offer with everything you need to start writing and making money.

Why It's Important To Have Weekly Planning Meetings With Yourself

"Every minute spent planning saves ten minutes in execution." ~ Brian Tracy

Working from home is far different to going out to work every day.

The biggest challenge I find is self disciplin. It's so hard to keep working on my own without a boss standing over me telling me what to do and giving me deadlines.

But without deadlines I find I waste too much time. And in order to have deadlines I have to have a weekly  meeting with myself to figure out what I want to achieve during the week, what I need to do to achieve it and how long it's all going to take.

And this is why weekly  meetings are important even if you have to have them with yourself.

How to Keep Moving Your Writing Business Forward

To me, writing isn't just something I do, it's my business.

It's my business because it's how I earn all of my income. I don't have any other job. I only have my writing.

That's why I set up  my own publishing company, because writing is my business.

But before you can set up a successful business there's one thing that's important to know. And if you don't know it, your business will fail.

From Presentation to Pilot to Series + Essential Tools of Writing a Comedy

Have you ever wanted to write comedy but just didn't know where to start or how to write it?

To help you, here are two of the latest comedy writing courses offered by The Writer's Store.

They both have discounted prices, but not for long.

Comedy series are well thought-out worlds constructed to play out over 100 or more episodes. In this webinar, Paul Chitlik will lead you through the process of creating a world, designing characters to populate it and coming up with stories to keep it vibrant and funny. ON SALE! $59.99 (ends 20th July 2014)
From Presentation to Pilot to Series: Get Your Comedy on the Air, Cable, or Net

Believe it or not, being funny is a skill that can be learned. This value pack will teach you how to structure a comedy film and how to create a unique story line that your audience will love. If you want to launch a career in writing comedy, whether it's in a writer's room or selling your script, you need to start with this invaluable collection of comedy writing resources. ON SALE! $59.99
Essential Tools of Writing a Comedy

Too ill to Write

I've been out of action for a few days now. I came down with some sort of wretched virus that has had me flat on my back since last Saturday.

Thankfully I'm almost back to full health now but I'm still finding it hard (impossible) to breathe through my nose.

The biggest problem with beling ill, though, was boredom.

Bored! Bored! Bored!

We have a cable TV channel called TV Hits and I watched it constantly for days. NCIS, CSI, The Mentalist, Law & Order and lots of other crime shows, one straight after the other, all day every day.

I slept on and off and dozed through nearly every episode.

Bored! Bored! Bored!

Then 2 days ago I felt well enough to sit up (which had been a struggle for a few days) and do limited work on the computer before my eyes began to stream. My creative spark seemed to have been extinguished so writing was out of the question.

But what I found was that it was a good time to do catch up work.