Super Productivity for Entrepreneurs

On my blog, I've added a new advertisement for a free product.

It's a report called 'Super Productivity Secrets For Entrepreneurs.'

This is an amazing report (and did I mention it's free?) that shows you how to free up an extra 4 hours a day by being MORE productive.

Most people believe that if you want to have more time then you have to do less so that you can have more free time.

But the opposite is actually true. If you are more productive, then you can do more AND free up more time - up to 4 hours a day.

And it's not just about being more productive in your work. It's about a more holistic approach to being super productive in every area of your life.

I'm going to tell you a secret. Every really successful person you will ever meet has mastered the art of productivity.

Being super productive not only means you can free up more time for the things you want to do, but it also gives you a feeling of satisfaction and balance.

I know myself that on days when I flit around from one thing to another without doing much of anything, I feel so dissatisfied by the end of the day and I don't sleep well.

So if you've ever wanted to be more disciplined and productive, to achieve more in your personal life, your financial life, and your career, then this report will help - if you follow the advice in it and start taking action immediately.

And that starts by downloading your own copy of 'Super Productivity Secrets For Entrepreneurs.'

It's the first step to taking charge of your life and getting back in control.

Diet, Concentration, and Writing

Our mind needs to be calm to write better and write more. We all know this.

But did you know that it’s not just a calm mind that’s necessary for focus, productivity and writing more?

For instance, it’s also important to get plenty of exercise for mind as well as body. And it’s just as important to make sure we get plenty of rest when we need it too, to make sure we’re always at our optimum peak.

We need to take care of our body because we can’t write if we’re unwell or fatigued.

That’s why being a (successful) writer isn’t just about writing. It’s about biology, psychology and mindset.

And, surprisingly, diet influences all parts of our life, including our creativity.

A quick Google search will show you just how important what we eat is, not just for our brain, but for every area of our life.

You can read more about it in my latest article, How to Change Your Brain So You Can Write More.

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Change How You Feel In Just 30 Minutes or Less. 
Focus, Sleep and Relaxation.
Download a Free Demo Now.
https://ruthiswriting.com/links/brainsalondemo.html

Why I'm a Writing Genius

As I've been telling you recently, I had a bad year for three deaths in the family and my writing not only took a back seat, but most of the time it got thrown out of the car.

But not only have I brought my writing game back to life, I've improved it and found an extra benefit too, because not only am I writing more, but I'm more productive in everything I do the rest of the day as well.

And it makes me feel like a genius now that I can write so much.

But I do get a lot of help from my little friend known as brain salon.

Change How You Feel In Just 30 Minutes or Less. 
Focus, Sleep and Relaxation.
Download a Free Demo Now.
https://ruthiswriting.com/links/brainsalondemo.html

The Biggest Mistake Writers Make That Holds Them Back

There are so many writers that never write a damn thing.

So are they really writers?

They want to write yet never seem to do any. Or sometimes very little.

So one day I polled my subscribers about this and do you know what I found out?

I discovered that many of them didn’t want to write at all.

They wanted to work from home as a writer, but not do any writing.

They wanted to earn money from writing, and they call themselves writers, but they seemed to be looking for a way to get-rich-quick.

This is a huge mistake because writing = work.

I know that when you’re looking in from the outside, it seems like writers make money from doing nothing, but it is work.

At the same time, it’s better than having a J.O.B.

I much prefer to write from home.

Which would you rather do?

I can make writing really easy for you if you download my 7 Day Ebook Writing and Publishing System.

But I can’t do it for you.

http://ruthiswriting.com/books/7day.html

Stop Waiting and Start Writing

Many people I’ve met who call themselves writers never actually write a thing.

They’re all talk, and they have a multitude of reasons for not writing, and none of them are true.

Many say that their writing is still in the ‘planning stage’ whatever THAT means.

But it does remind me of an episode from the British sitcom, Red Dwarf (which is hilarious).

The comedy is set on an interplanetary mining ship that is lost in deep space.

One of the crew, Arnold Rimmer, wants to take the officers exam so that he can be promoted.

But he’s so nervous about it that he spends all his time planning how he’s going to have enough time to study for it.

In the end, he takes so long to plan out his study time, that he ends up with no time to study and fails the exam.

And this can be a problem for many writers who are busy ‘planning’ their writing without ever writing anything.

So what can you do if you find yourself procrastinating all the time instead of writing?

Simply this: -

Don’t get it right, get it written.

This means just do it, because writing badly is better than not writing at all.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this, that I’ve changed the subheading on my writing site (https://ruthiswriting.com) to “Don’t Get It Right, Get It Written” because that’s what you need to be doing every day.

And if you’re stuck for a way to find so many writing ideas that you’ll be suffering from ‘Idea Overload,’ read my latest article, Never Look An Off-Line Gift Horse In The Mouth at https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2018/offline-gifthorse.html

Have I Misled You About Writing Quickly?

As you know I talk a lot about writing quickly and how much it can help you.

I've even written ebooks about it like my 7 day ebook writing and publishing system and how to write articles in 15 minutes or less.

But what I mean by writing quickly isn't just about writing fast.

Writing quickly doesn't mean always rushing. It means being focused.

Writing and earning money is all about practice, which leads to proficiency, and the ability to write fast comes naturally from that.

But it all originates from focus and constant effort, not rushing.

I always remember watching my mother vacuuming the house. She would always press as hard as she could and move the vacuum cleaner backwards and forwards really fast, going over the same bit of carpet again and again, which always left her sweating and out of breath.

When I vacuum the house, I don't press on the vacuum cleaner at all and I move it over the floors, rugs and carpets slow and steady to give the machine time to do its job and to make sure I see every bit of dirt.

And the end result is that the vacuuming is done faster and better because I'm focused on doing it properly and the vacuum isn't pressed into the floor which gives it the opportunity to work properly.

And it's the same with writing quickly which is also about focus and the ability to keep working without letting anything distract you.

So you don't have to go hard and fast at writing, just stay focused on your writing and it will get done not only faster (because you're not getting distracted and drifting off onto other things) and better (because you're paying more attention to what you're doing).

And eventually, as you practice writing with more focus, you'll get faster naturally.

So if you want to write faster, don't think about rushing, think about being more focused on your writing.

That's what my products are for. Not only do they give you the complete process of how to work, but they give you a tight writing frame (one week for a book or 15 minutes for an article), which forces you to focus because you don't have time to do anything else.

And when you repeat writing this way, practice really does make you faster and better.

Try it and see for yourself.

Article Spinners? Forget Them

The other day I saw online someone singing the praises of an article spinner they'd invented.

The point of using them is to reduce writing time, or not have to write anything at all.

Article spinners work like nothing more than a giant Thesaurus.

You load an article into it and the software finds different words and phrases with (supposedly) the same meaning as the one you've used.

The premise is that you replace the words and phrases already in the article with the different words/phrases that the software prompts you to use and voila! You have a whole new article to publish.

Well...that's fine in theory, but not so good in practice.

Or some software (usually the free-but-completely-useless type) lets you upload an article to your blog or website as-is and "spins" it automatically for you, which usually ends up as unreadable garbage.

I had this happen to me a few years ago when someone started republishing some of my free articles and rendered them as complete garbage by "spinning" them.

You can read about it here https://bit.ly/2uLRhaY.

But what got me about the description I was reading about the article spinner and how it worked, was that it said that you could use the software to upload someone else's article and create a "new" article from it in just 20 minutes.

20 MINUTES!

So first you have to go online and search around for an article you want to try and get away with plagiarising, and then you have to copy and paste it into the software and go through it line by line, changing words and phrases as you go.

And at the end of it, you may or may not have a decent article that no one will recognise as actually being copyrighted to someone else, because let's face it, using someone else's article and trying to make it look like a completely different one so that you can illegally put your name to it as the author, is copyright theft.

I mean...is it really worth it to buy the software and then go through all that to try and steal someone else's article?

If you're a writer, and I'm assuming you are if you're reading this, then it's faster and better to simply write your own articles.

I've been writing for years and I've always written my own articles and have never used article spinning software.

And what I've found is that the more I write, the better and faster I get.

So much so, that now it only takes me around 15 minutes to write an article.

And I write them a lot because I write blog posts, website articles, emails and marketing articles, (amongst other things) so I don't have time to waste trying to cheat.

I'm a writer so I just write.

Don't be fooled by anyone's claim that you can write something without having to actually write it.

---------------

If you've ever dreamed of making money writing articles, then you really need to read this, because you're about to discover:

How I Earned Over $4,000 Writing Articles 
in Just One Day

I did it using my simple 15-minute article writing system which Includes Research, Writing and Proof Reading

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/15.html

Do You Want to Write or Do You Force Yourself?

The other day I was listening to a podcast interview with a really famous - and wealthy - copywriter.

He was talking about his work and how much he writes every day and how successful he is, when the interviewer asked him, "So are you eager to sit down and write every day?"

"No," he said.

"So how often DON'T you feel like writing?"

"Every day."

The interviewer gasped. "You never feel like writing?"

"No. Never. But once I sit down and read just one sentence, I'm back in the zone and can work for hours. But at first I have to force myself to sit and write because it's always the last thing I want to do."

(Naturally, I'm paraphrasing here because I don't remember the exact words, but that was the general gist of the conversation.)

My flabber was absolutely ghasted at this revelation.

Even though I've read Stephen Pressfield's book, The War of Art, several times (which is all about fighting the Resistance to writing every day) I still always feel like I'm the only one this happens to.

In my over-romantic imagination, other writers wake up smiling, stretch happily then get out of bed, while little bluebirds land on their windowsill and sing sweetly while they slip on beautiful clothes and glide dreamily into their study where they sit and effortlessly work on another best seller.

I know, how could I even think that?

But like the copywriter, I don't always feel like writing, but once I start it's easy to have a total mind-shift and keep going.

Applying plenty of butt-time to chair every day is the only way to conquer writing Resistance.

----------------

Grammarly. The free writing app
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/grammarly.html

When Everything Gets in The Way of Writing

The past few weeks have been distracting for me for several reasons.

My poor old greyhound, Banjo, is 12 years old now and has seen better days. He gets tired easily and I don't like going out and leaving him alone for too long because he sometimes gets confused, is not eating as much anymore, and gets tired really quickly.

And then my daughter fell and hurt her leg and so has been laid up for a couple of weeks so I've been helping her out with making food so she doesn't have to cook and looking after her incredibly energetic and never-seems-to-take-a-break-from-playing-and-chasing-balls little dog.

As well as all that, the house renovations have been ongoing with engineers with tripods surveying our land, curtains to make, furniture to buy, painting to be done and still more work waiting to be done.

Not only that but it's winter here and so I've been sweeping out and then setting up our wood-burning fire every day because the nights have been getting down to single digits, and because it's mostly hot here, our heating is minimal.

So with all this going on it's been harder than usual to settle down and write, which means when I do I need to be as focused as I can and not let anything distract me while I'm working.

And as we all know, the less time we have to write the more we seem to get done, which is no different for me.

My writing time is short lately and I still have just as much to do, but being present in the moment while I work has meant that I've had to slow down somewhat and work more deliberately because I don't have time for mistakes and do-overs.

And what is surprising about it, is that although I've been working less and having to be more focused, I'm not only producing just as much work but also seems easier.

Most importantly, my income has increased slightly.

So I guess the moral of this story is that deeper focus and being more mindful (meaning keeping my mind in the present and only thinking about the work I'm doing) has really helped my productivity and my finances.

Which means I'm motivated to keep up the good work.

I've also written a short article about being more mindful while writing, at https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2018/buddhist-writing-advice.html.

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Goodbye Writer's Block
How to Be a Creative Genius and Have an Abundance of Ideas Plus the Inspiration and Motivation to Write
http://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/WB.html

3 Simple Ways to Beat Writers' Block

Although writers' block isn't something that I suffer from myself, I know that many writers do.

So I thought that it would be helpful to provide a short list of 3 things that you can do to beat it.

But these 3 things must be done together. They can help if you do them separately but if done all at the same time they can really help you to blast through your writing.

So here they are:

1. Only set out to do one small task.  It's said that if you tell yourself that you have a whole 'to-do' list to get through, you'll put off starting it. However, if you tell yourself that you just have one small task to complete, then it's easier to sit down and do it.

It's like knowing that you have to brush your teeth but not wanting to do it. So you tell yourself that you'll only brush one tooth, but you end up brushing them all. And it works the same with other jobs you have to do.

Don't tell yourself that you have to do a whole project. Break it down into individual tasks and then attempt the first one, and chances are, you'll end up accomplishing more than you think.

2. Keep a regular writing time. This may sound hard at first, especially if you're already trying to juggle kids and a job. But we all have some quiet time in our day that we can use for our writing.

I once saw an ad for online shopping, it said, "It's 1 a.m., the kids are in bed...let's shop." I thought "Wow! 1 a.m. is late to start online shopping, but if it's all the time you have..."

I've even known some writers who get up at 4am to get their writing done before the kids get up and their day starts.

3. Use a timer. You can't concentrate if you're always watching the clock. So use a timer and then lose yourself in your work. I also find that when I know the timer is running I'm less likely to get distracted. My timer is often my best friend when I'm trying to get some work done. And also I'm often surprised at how much I can get done once I start.

And that's it. That's the 3 things that, when used together, can really help you blast through any writing project, or at least, it really helps me.

I always keep a regular writing time, divide my projects into tasks and list them in the order they need to be done and I use a timer to keep me on track and to stop me wasting time.

I also use brain entrainment audios to block out other noises and help me to concentrate.  My favourite one is Brain Salon which is something I use nearly every day and it's more than paid for itself over time.

Try a free demo for yourself at http://www.brainsalon.com/demo/?a=writelady.

And read my latest article The 33-Minute Way to Beat Writers’ Block at:
https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2018/33-minute-writers-block.html

The Two Important Writing Perfections

In a recent article, I wrote about The Buddhist Six Perfections of Writing.

It's about how the Six Buddhist Perfections for life and spiritual practice can also be attributed to writing.

And I thought that two of these perfections were most pertinent:

Patience

Concentration

Patience - because writing takes time (so does everything). Not only that but it usually takes much longer to do than I think it will. Or sometimes writing seems to be slow but I'm actually working at a good pace so when I finally look at the clock I see that I haven't been writing for as long as I think. But I still need to keep my head down and work while I'm doing it. So patience is always required.

Concentration - because writing can often require 'deep work' in order to organise research, outline and stay on track of what I'm trying to say. Writing is not something that I can do while watching a movie or singing a song. It takes complete attention so that I can concentrate.

No doubt you've noticed yourself that you need a lot of patience, especially when working on a large writing project, and concentration to stick to what you're doing and to go deep into your own thoughts.

I know that makes writing sound difficult to do, but it's not.

Not if you have enough patience and the ability to concentrate.

You can read my complete article at
https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2018/6-perfections.html

(Did you notice my new https in the URL? Still so pleased with my new website security update.)

How I Edit My Manuscripts

Books are the bread and butter of my writing income.

And as you know I'm currently working on my latest romance novel.

The manuscript is written and now I'm going through the second draft.

And it got me to thinking about how many people say that second draft is first draft minus 10%. In other words, the second draft should be a tightening up of the first draft and so take out whatever is unnecessary, which they always say is about 10% of what you've written.

And I used to believe that and so my second draft was always me looking for ways to cut words out.

Yet as the years progress I find more and more that my second draft equals my first drafts PLUS 30%. (my percentage may be wrong but I definitely add to my second draft, not take from it.)

That's because I find it easier to get the first draft written rather than getting it right. That has always been a favourite saying of mine (which I made up myself), "Don't get it right, get it written."

This is because my creativity flows better and my focus is razor-sharp if I'm writing without thinking about if it's right or not. I just need to get my book written. And most of the time, I find that even in parts of it where I think I've gone wrong, I haven't. On reading it through at second draft stage, I find it's fine.

And then comes the first edit which is where I read through my manuscript and, if it's fiction, I add more bits of detail such as what people are wearing or what they're eating, or I write more about their environment or I add more dialogue to conversations.

If I'm writing  non-fiction I go deeper into explanations of how or why to do things or talk more about how things came to be. Whatever it is, I always find more to add in the second draft.

That's not to say that I don't remove unnecessary things, because I do. But I still find more to add than to subtract.

And that's not a bad thing if it helps in the flow of creativity.

So ignore what anyone says about how to edit a book. Just do whatever makes your book the best it can be.

And enjoy writing that first draft because that's always the fun part.

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Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less.
Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction. Just follow the course, working just one hour a day, and in less than a month, you’ll have your manuscript written.

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

How I'm Planning to Make More Income From My Writing

Last week I took some time out to look at where I'm going with my writing this year.

I've been busily working away for weeks when I suddenly realised that I forgot where I was headed with everything.

You see, I always like to have a plan so that I know what I'm doing because if I don't stay on track, I'll get lost and forget my goals.

So one evening a couple of weeks ago, I sat down for a few hours and went through and updated my writing plans for the year.

It took longer than I thought and also took much more thinking too.

And below are 5 things that I looked at and made a few changes to make sure that I'm always working towards my writing goals and my income goals.

1. Revised my earning rate. I took a look at how much I'm earning compared to how much I want to earn this year. That helped me to look more closely at what I could do to make sure I reached my income target. One of the things was to only write for higher-paying freelance markets and not waste time on lower-paying gigs. I want to earn a minimum of $50/hour from any freelance work I do.

2. Worked on my editorial calendar. I also looked at what I've been doing so far this year and what I still needed to do as well as what I have to do to make sure I stay on track of everything I want to write and publish. If you don't have an editorial calendar, my advice would be to not only get one but make sure you stick to it.

3. Revised my weekly marketing plan. We all know that marketing can be more important than writing, that's why I always market my websites, books and affiliate products. Marketing has to be not only weekly but consistent for it to work.

4. Do more training. As you probably already know, I'm trying to learn more about being a marketer and studying books, audios and DVDs. It's a lot to work through and I realised that I needed to set aside time every week so that I can do it more often, instead of whenever I can find the time.

5. Take more chill time. Sometimes, well all the time actually, I find it hard to just sit and do nothing. But taking more downtime is necessary because of all work and no play, etc. So I sorted through all my books and put some that I want to read first, in a drawer, and I've started taking time out to sit and read every week. And it actually feels really good to do it.

So far it's working for me and I believe it can work for you too.

If you're having trouble staying on track with your writing goals, or you don't have any goals or you want to earn more money from your writing, try doing what I did and take some time out to look at the bigger picture of what you want to achieve.

Know how much money you want to make this year, decide how you're going to do it, design your editorial calendar, have a rigid marketing plan, learn whatever it is you need to know but you don't already know, and take some well-earned chill out time.

Then get back to writing.

Why is Writing Always Harder Than It Looks?

"Easy reading is damned hard writing." ~ R L Stevenson

Sometimes I have a brilliant idea about something I want to write.

In my head I see it as amazing and writing it is going to be a dream.

Yet the reality is far from the dream.

I find that even though the idea seemed simple in my head, it's a lot harder to write about it.

The reason for this is because it's much more difficult to write out a description clearly, to really go into the detail of describing what it looks like or how to do something.

That's why instruction books for new appliances are so big. There probably isn't much to know, and to use the appliance isn't hard, but the description in the manual of how to use it seems convoluted.

Recently I bought a new toaster oven. It's simple to operate but the instruction book had such detailed information about what each setting was for and how to set it, that it took a lot of reading.

Yet to use the oven is simple. Just turn it to the correct setting (grill, bake, pizza, toast, etc), adjust the time and oven temperature if needed, press 'start' and voilà.

But the written instructions of how to do it went on for page after page.

And it can also seem like this when you're writing.

The thing you want to write about is simple, but the actual writing is not as easy.

You might be able to see the expression on the face of your character, but describing it to your reader is difficult.

Or you might want to describe how to use a piece of software or a website, but it takes much more writing to describe it, especially when you can't point to the bit you're talking about or use hand gestures to help you to explain something. When all you've got is written words, it can seem daunting.

But never get discouraged when writing about something turns out to be much harder than the idea you could see in your head.

I always find that a detailed outline/blueprint of what I want to write about helps to keep my writing flowing.

It's far better than the dreaded blank page.

---------------

Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less.
 Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction.
Just follow the advice as you go through the course and by the end you’ll have your manuscript written.

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

How to Write 30,000 Words/Month When You Don't Have Time To Write

It's hard to find time to write every day, especially when some days, you just don't feel like writing at all.

We've all been there.

You wake up with good intentions and then other things come up and then you're just too tired to write.

Well, there's a thing that I do that, if I do it consistently, helps me to write at least thirty thousand words a month, even when I don't feel like I have time to write every day.

And that thing is that I always spend the first hour of the day writing.

As soon as I sit down to write, I make sure that the first thing I do is work on my latest book or writing project.

That way, no matter what else happens in the day, I've got my most important writing done.

Some days, I do it when I sit down to write, and other days I get up early and do it before I do anything else.

And the great thing about it is that, done consistently, that one hour of writing every day can end up being 30,000 words a month.

The math is simple. I can write at an average of 1,500 words an hour, which isn't difficult at all because it's only 25 words a minute.

So that 1,500 words an hour multiplied by 5 days a week is 7,500 words. And 4 weeks a month is 30,000.

It really is that simple.

And that hard.

The hard part is making sure you commit to doing it.

So even if you don't think you have time to write, dedicate your first hour of the day to writing and you can write a book a month, even if you have to get up an hour earlier every day.

----------------

Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less. 
Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction. Just follow the advice as you go through the course and by the end, you’ll have your manuscript written. And it only takes an hour a day.

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

Finding Time to Write

Being a writer isn't hard.

But being a working writer who earns all their income from their writing is hard.

And one of the reasons it's hard is because it requires a lot of uninterrupted hours of work.

Unlike other careers, writing requires 100% focus and concentration. I can do other jobs while being somewhat distracted, but when I write, I need to give it my full attention.

Every day I feel like I'm bombarded with the desire to do anything but write and this is because of the deep attention I have to give my writing, so it can feel much easier to do other things.

So I have to make sure that I sit down and write every day, even though I don't always feel like doing it.

One of the ways to find time to write every day is to figure out what approach is the best way for me.

Different people work in different ways, depending on their life, job and other life commitments.

But the 5 best known ways of finding time to write are:

Monastic. This means totally cutting yourself off from everything while you write, including no phone calls, no texts, no internet and not even allowing others to speak to you at all while you're working. And if necessary, go away from home to write like Maya Angelou did. She always rented a hotel room for a few weeks and would go there every day to do nothing but lay on the bed and write. Many other writers have also hidden themselves away at hotels so that they can write including Tennessee Williams, Charles Dickens and Stephen King.

Split times. This means having some times when you write and the rest of the time for more shallow (or other) jobs. This works well for those who have family and other commitments who can't shut themselves off completely like a monastic. So you might carve out one part of the day, or the week or the month, that you use only for writing.

Set times. This means that you set aside a certain amount of time for writing and never waiver from it, like say, you write from 5am to 7am before you go to work every day.

Journalistic. This is how many writers work and it means grabbing whatever time you can for writing whenever you find a free slot in your day/evening. It's a moment to moment approach but sometimes it's all you can do if, for instance, you have young children.

So what this all means is that you need to find out which approach to writing works best for you rather than try and live your ideal.

In other words,  you may want to shut yourself off like a monastic and go to a luxury hotel and write every day, but your job, your kids and your spouse, means you can't do it and so the journalistic approach to writing is all that you can do.

But whatever your situation, make sure it works and that you get your writing done.

----------------------------

Write Any Book in 28 Days or Less.
Laid out in an easy to follow style and suitable for writing fiction and non-fiction. Just follow the advice as you go through the course, just one hour a day, and by the end, you’ll have your manuscript written.

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

Do You Need a Dedicated Writing Place

I'm currently reading a book called Deep Work, by Cal Newport.

In it, he discusses the need for having a place where you go to do your deep work.

The argument for having such a space is that going to it puts you into the 'zone' for the work you have to do.

Many writers are the same. They have a space or a room where they work and they find that it instantly puts them into work-mode.

And it got me to thinking about whether it really is necessary to have a dedicated writing space.

From my own experience, I do tend to start the day sitting at my writing desk.

And I do indeed find it helps to get me instantly into writing mode.

I sit down, check my emails, then open my diary to see what I have on the writing agenda for the day.

But the thing is that I don't always stay at my desk.

Sometimes, it gets really hot inside so if there's a breeze (and there often is because I live on a mountain), I go and sit outside on the veranda.

Or if I want to get immersed in some offline work, then I'll sometimes venture out to the park or the library because I find that I have fewer distractions when I'm not at home. And because I have nothing else to do, I get plenty of writing done.

So while I find it really useful to have a dedicated writing space, I also like to move around, depending on what I'm working on and other factors (like the hot weather).

I think the answer then, is that it all depends on how your mind is wired as to whether you can work anywhere or only in one place.

Everyone is different, as is every day when you want to write but other things keep coming up and getting in the way.

So I'd say, have a dedicated writing space, but at the same time, be flexible.

Today I'm at my desk because it's a bit cooler outside due to recent heavy rains and a looming cyclone off the coast. Fingers crossed that it doesn't hit land.

And in the meantime, I'll stay inside at my dedicated place, and get more writing done.

What I Learned From Writing My Latest Book Manuscript

Yesterday I finished my latest manuscript.

It's a romance novel and the first draft has come in a little shy of 50,000 words.

It's been an on-going project for some time now because I kept letting other things get in my way.

Eventually, I had to stop letting myself be distracted and get down to some serious writing and I learned quite a few things along the way about how to apply myself when I have a large project to complete.

And here are three of them:

1. Always do my book writing first. It's all too easy to put book writing as the last thing to do every day, and it's also too easy to let other things use up all my time so that there is no time left to write my book. Luckily I had a detailed outline to follow so I never lost where I was up to in the story, but it was still hard sometimes to pick up the story where I left off because I couldn't remember every detail that I'd previously written, like what did I say the weather was like or whether my characters had already discussed a certain detail.

2. Ignore procrastination and it will go away. It's all too easy to procrastinate and not get my writing done. The reason we procrastinate is that it's easy. It's much easier to do nothing than to work on a big writing project. But once I got over the feeling of wanting to procrastinate and got stuck into my work, I soon got lost in my writing and time just flew by. And because I'd done my book writing first, no matter what else happened for the rest of the day, my most important writing was done.

3. I need to do Deep Work. That is a phrase used by the author, Cal Newport in his book by the same name. Deep Work means to totally immerse yourself in what you're doing and not let little things distract you. It helps you to do more work in less time and to do better quality work. It's also called Deliberate Practice by some experts and is said to help neurons in the brain fire faster and cleaner thus cementing the skill you are working on which makes it easier and faster to do next time, which is how you get great at what you do.

So all I had to do was make sure I did my book writing first every day, ignore the feeling of wanting to procrastinate, and work deeply and not let anything distract me.

At first it wasn't easy, but after I'd done it a few times it no longer seemed hard.

I guess doing my deep work of book writing first, meant that every day I started how I wanted to go on.

And it worked.

And you can see from the picture at the top of the page, that I've printed out my manuscript ready for the first edit, which I'll start in a couple of days once I've put in some time distance so that I can read it with 'fresh' eyes.

If you're currently working on your own manuscript, I hope you can work deeply and distraction-free too.

Don’t Feel Guilty About Writing

One of the problems that I find with working from home as a writer, is that others equate it with not having a job.

So they come round, or ring up and expect me to be always available.

Over the years I’ve trained them all to respect the fact that I do work for a living and that I do need time to do it, so I banned them with disturbing me during office hours.

And for a while it worked but now I find myself backsliding and letting them interrupt me again.

The problem is that I often feel guilty about putting my writing before everything and everyone else.

And it’s this unnecessary guilt that I need to lose.

I mean where would JK Rowling be today if she’d given in to her co-workers’ demands to have lunch with them instead of using her lunch hour to write her second Harry Potter novel?

And where would Stephen King be if he hadn’t put his kids to bed early every night so that he could write his next great horror novel while his wife was out at her night job?

These writers put their work before demands from others, especially unimportant demands.

So that’s what I have been doing too.

And do you know what?

It feels good to be back in control of how I use my time and being able to get more writing done.

So if you have others who insist on interrupting your writing time, don’t feel guilty

Just write and make them wait.

And if you need more motivation to write more and spend less time on other less important things, take a read through the Villains' book.

It’s all about being a true villain and explains how to put your mission (your writing) first.

It’s a quick yet insightful read.

I’ve read it a dozen times already and I might just read it again.

http://viewbook.at/villains

A Time To Write That I Didn't See Coming

“Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” ― Ray Bradbury

Even though I live in what is called 'The Sunshine State' it has been raining for 3 days now.

I don't like the rain. I know we need it, but I don't like it when it rains heavily for days on end like this.

And today is forecast to be another day of rain.

It's not even 9am and it's already been raining steadily since I got out of bed this morning. In fact, I could hear it on the roof a soon as I woke up.

This weather doesn't exactly inspire me to get up and do anything.

And speaking of which, did you see the image I've included of the guy trying unsuccessfully to get up and function? Hilarious. I actually 'borrowed' it from someone I follow on facebook called Meanwhile in Australia. https://www.facebook.com/MeanwhileInAustralia/.

The image is exactly how I felt yesterday when I saw it was raining AGAIN.

But guess what?

Once I got up and had a couple of cups of coffee to get me going, I figured why not see how much writing I could get done because there was nothing else to do. It was raining hard so I definitely wasn't going anywhere and everything outside was wet and everything inside was damp. It's still summer here so the weather is wet and hot.

So I sat down yesterday morning and started writing. I have a new project that I'm working on so I had plenty lined up to do.

And surprisingly, I got a lot done, and by the time I'd finished for the day I was pumped with my progress.

So the humid, rainy day that I thought wasn't good for anything, turned out to be one of my best writing days ever.

And it made me wonder how many other great windows of writing opportunity I've missed, just because I didn't feel like I could write.

So today I'm going to rinse and repeat what I did yesterday, even though, when I heard the heavy rain when I woke up, I felt like the image above again, but I got up, showered off the sweat (boy is it humid) and now I'm ready for another non-stop day of writing, despite (or maybe because of) the constantly pounding rain on the roof.

Can't wait.

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