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

Make Money Writing a Book...But How?

"You can't achieve anything unless you know what your goal is" ~ Jay Abraham

I've begun with this quote because Jay Abraham if you don't already know, is one of the worlds top copywriters and his marketing and sales letters have earned millions of dollars.

He really knows what he's talking about. And if he gives advice, I take it.

And so should you.

I was engrossed in watching a DVD recording of Jay when he was part of the Titans of Direct Response Copywriting seminar.

In it, he said that marketing is more important than writing a book, and I'm sure you've heard this before.

He also went on to say that the most important thing about making money from writing a book is to know why you're writing it and who you want to sell it to.

This means that you need to know the reason why you want to write a book in the first place before you even write a word of it and also know who is the person (people) who will want to read it.

If you first know your 'why' before you write a book you'll know what your goal is and then everything you do will be working towards it.

I talk about finding your 'why' in my free ebook, 'How to Write a Book in 6 Days' which you can find (as well as other free ebooks) at http://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/free-ebooks.html.

So go and find your 'why' and then get to work writing your next book.

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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

The Lesson I Learned About Lost Ideas

A couple of days ago I came across a great idea about writing.

The information was pure gold so I decided there and then to turn it into a blog post so that I could share the joy with my new knowledge.

In my head I planned out exactly what I was going to write and I even had a brilliant idea for an intriguing heading.

Yep, it was going to be great.

But I wasn't at my desk so I made a solid mental plan.

Then later, when I eagerly sat down at my desk, my mind was blank.

What was that great thing I was going to blog about?

I sat and thought for a few minutes, but nothing came.

So I replayed in my mind what I was doing when I had the idea and where it had come from.

I remembered that I was in the garden pulling up loads of big weeds and thinking about how much better it looked without them.

And I was listening to an audio as I worked and it was a podcast about...

Damn! I'd totally forgot what I was listening to.

I thought some more and remembered what it was but I still couldn't remember that golden piece of information was that I wanted to share.

Gone was every thought about it, even my brilliant headline.

I thought some more, but nope...it was gone.

So frustrating.

Even more so because I have a golden rule about writing ideas down as soon as I think of them because I know that no matter how much I tell myself that I'll remember them, I never do.

So this is the advice I'm going to pass onto you instead of whatever that piece of other gold was that I've forgotten.

And that is to never EVER fail to write down a great idea.

Get yourself an ideas book, keep it handy and write down every single idea you ever have in as much detail as you can at the time. Even if the only thing handy to write on is a napkin. Write it down!

And who knows, even if you don't use it straight away, you may find yourself without any ideas in the future and you can look at all your previous ideas for instant inspiration and motivation and most importantly, for great ideas that you DIDN'T forget.


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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

The Lesson I Recently Learned About Habits and My Challenge To You

For the past week I've been dog sitting. I've been looking after my daughter's little dog for 7 days.

She's a sweet little thing, extremely tiny (a Chihuahua cross) and so full of life she wears me out.

She is such a full-on little girl and her energy never seems to wain. She's like the Everyready Bunny and just goes and goes and goes, wanting to play all day.

And she loves toys.

On my desk I have a little stuffed toy of Marvin The Martian character from the Looney Toons cartoons.

Whenever Marvin falls off my desk, the little dog is quick to snatch him up and run off with him.

I took the dog home yesterday and today I sat down to write (haven't done much of that over the past week with the little Tasmanian Devil of a dog whirling around and barking at me when I don't pay her  enough attention), I took out my diary and when I closed the desk drawer, Marvin slipped sideways.

He would have fallen off the desk but quick as a flash I grabbed him and sat him up again.

And it occured to me that the reason I grabbed him so fast was so that the little dog couldn't get him.

But she's not here anymore.

Not only that, but last night, I nearly snapped the end off a dog treat before I gave it to our dog, thinking that I still needed a little piece for the other dog.

It's amazing how quickly my new habits formed. In just 7 days.

And you may be wondering what this has to do with writing, so I'll tell you.

If you have poor writing habits, like not having enough bum-in-chair time or getting easily distracted by bright, shining things on the internet or Facebook, try changing your habits for just 7 days and see the impact in can make into how much writing you get done and how much more money you earn.

Make it a one week challenge to sit and write more and to not get distracted by the internet.

Just sit down every day, write, and ship your work.
https://goinswriter.com/you-must-ship/

See how much you can write and publish in the next 7 days.

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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