Are You Writing Enough?

One of the biggest complaints I hear from writers is that they don’t get enough writing done every day.

This is the topic of my latest article called “Where Does My Writing Time Go?”

And this problem happens every day.

You get up in the morning with high hopes and great intentions of getting plenty of writing done - writing a few articles, finishing your latest book, submitting a couple of freelance proposals.

But all of a sudden - BANG!

The day is over and although you’ve been busy all day, jumping from one task to another, you’ve barely touched your writing.

So you promise yourself that tomorrow will be different…but it never is.

If you’re experiencing this phenomena, one of the reasons for it could be that you haven’t established your preferred writing time.

We all know that having a good writing routine is important, but it wont’ help you if you're doing it at the wrong time of day.

You see some of us are morning writers, some work better in the afternoons while others are happier working in the evenings, burning the proverbial midnight oil.

I know one person who settles down to write at 9 or 10 pm every evening and keeps going till the early hours of the morning.

Admittedly he’s a late riser every day, but it doesn’t matter because he does whatever he wants all day before settling down to write again in the evening.

In the best selling book 2k to 10K, author Rachel Aaron explains how she tried different times to write and recorded her progress. To her amazement she found she was most productive in the afternoon, even though she was sure she was a morning person. And that’s how she increased her writing speed from 2,000 words/hour to 10,000.

So if you’re not getting enough writing done every day, try out a few different times to write and see if you are really a morning, afternoon or evening writer.

And if you do need to change the time of day (or evening) when you write, be prepared because it will take you out of your comfort zone and you will have to make sacrifices.

But before you know it, your new writing routine will be of such a benefit to you (as in, how much more you can get done) that you won’t mind at all.

Read more about how Rachel Aaron went from writing 2,000 an hour to 10,000 words.

Writing Competitions With Huge Cash Prizes plus Writing Markets that pay $1 a Word

Today I have for you two free-to-enter writing competitions with huge cash prizes plus a list of over 70 writing markets that are currently looking for freelance submissions AND they pay $1 a word or more.

These are huge if you're looking for a big return for your writing.

The first is the biggest. It's a competition run by Amazon.co.uk and is open to writers worldwide.

Kindle Storyteller Prize

 Amazon are looking for new books to be published as a Kindle book and a print book and the winning book author will receive ￡20,000 (GBP).

Here is a copy & paste about the competition information from their own website:

The Kindle Storyteller prize is open to submissions of new English Language books from all authors and genres. Titles must be previously unpublished, a minimum of 5,000 words with no upper word limit and be available as an eBook and in print.
All new entries must be submitted using Kindle Direct Publishing, a fast, free and easy way for authors to keep control and publish their books. They receive up to 70 per cent royalties on their work. To enter the contest, authors need to include the exact phrase “StorytellerUK2017” in the “keywords” metadata field and enroll their book in KDP Select.

So what they're looking for are previously unpublished books that are at least 5,000 words in length.

The Storyteller contest is open until 19th May 2017.

The winning author to receive £20,000 cash prize and be recognized at a central London award ceremony this summer.
https://amazon.co.uk/storyteller 

The Nick Darke Writers' Award 2017

This is another great writing competition and it's funded by Falmouth University's Academy of Music and Theatre Arts, and the School of Writing & Journalism. The Award commemorates the playwright Nick Darke who earned his living writing in the world of theatre, screen and radio.

This competition is open to all national and international writers aged 16 or over.

Applicants should submit a full stage play script (minimum 45 mins in length with no maximum) along with a one-page synopsis.

All submissions should be entered anonymously, do not include a name, address, phone number or email on the script or synopsis.

First prize is £6,000.

The closing date for entries is 17:00 (GMT) Wednesday 31 May 2017.
https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/nickdarkeaward

70 Publications That Pay $1 a Word
~ And They’re Looking for Writers
This is a huge HUGE list of high-paying publications that are all currently looking for writers. They all pay $1 a word or more or a flat fee of $500.

So take a look and get your creative juices flowing and submit to as many as you can.

Just don't forget that publications that pay high rates to writers are looking for top quality work.
http://www.theinternationalfreelancer.com/1-a-word/

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