4 Books Written in 3 Months

 It’s no secret that all writers look for ways to write more and earn more. And this time of year is when we’re all planning how much we can challenge ourselves in the New Year.

And as I’ve been telling everyone, I’ve been spending plenty of time reading about other writers’ plans for 2022. It’s always interesting to see what others are doing as well as collecting inspiration and ideas for myself.

And while I was re-reading my favourite time management book last week (How to Have a 48 Hour Day), which is so insightful as well as being entertaining as hell, the author, Don Aslett, talked about how he once wrote 4 books in 3 months.

What struck me about his achievement, was that at the time , he was vacationing at his holiday home and during the 3 months he was there, he also cut back over 100 feet of what he calls ‘the jungle’ (it’s a large property), laid several concrete steps, erected 100 feet of fencing, as well as catching up with other jobs like cleaning tools, weeding, and planting trees.

AND he still had time to write 4 books.

Inspiring?

Yes.

Makes me jealous?

Absolutely.

But it does spur me on to REALLY challenge myself next year to see not only how I can write more, but how to get more done in other areas of my life too.

Perhaps I can start having my own 48 hour days.

I’ll let you know when I finish my planning and hopefully it will inspire you to write more and earn more too.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw

Go Big Or Go Home. Write One Million Words a Year

I’ve been reading a lot of articles and blog posts lately about goals that writers have and how much writing they plan to do in the next year. And it’s all fascinating reading, not to mention inspiring and motivating.

But there was one blog post in particular that really caught my attention. It was written by prolific fiction author, Dean Wesley Smith. He talked about his goal to write 2.2 million words in 2022.

 https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/my-2022-challenge/.  

My flabber was ghasted when I read that. This is such a huge challenge he’s set for himself.

In a previous post, he’d talked in-depth about pulp writing speed which is how pulp writers used to earn their living years ago what was then called pulp fiction, because they were only paid by word count so they had to write at super speeds to be able to write for a living.

https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/pulp-speed-brought-forward-again/

In this blog post, he goes through six different pulp writing speeds, and the slowest one (Pulp Speed One) is 1 million words a year, and while that may sound like a lot, it breaks down like this:

Writing 3,000 words a day, is 84,000 words a month (26 days), which adds up to just over 1 million words a year. And if you can write 1,000 words an hour (which isn’t hard), 3,000 words a day is easy.

This all got me thinking about how much more I can write in a year if I really tried. 

To be realistic, I’ll have to divide my time and include everything I do, not just writing, but also sleeping, travelling, eating, cleaning, personal hygiene, family, TV, and everything else besides.

Plus I need to look at what writing I plan to do in the next 12 months, including books, ebooks, free reports, blog posts, articles, and freelance assignments.

Will I make it to one million words a year?

Who knows.

But I’m going to having great fun trying.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw 

The Simple Way to Make Every Day Productive

We all want to have productive days, don’t we? But what usually happens is that we get out of bed in the morning full of enthusiasm for all the things we’re going to accomplish, but somehow the time slips away and we realise we got nothing done.

Yet there are other days when we bounce out of bed and zip through everything we have to do and end the day feeling great about how much we got done.

So what’s the difference between those two days? What is it that makes some days more productive than others?

The ‘secret’ to having a productive day is really no secret at all.

I’ve recently been re-reading my favourite book on productivity, called, “How to have a 48 Hour Day” by Don Aslett. This man is king of getting things done and his book is such an entertaining read, and so useful that I’ve read it several times.

One of the things he says you should do, and it’s something he has alway done himself, is to have 10-hour days. This means having 10 productive hours every day. Not 10 ‘busy’ hours. The time must be spent productively, whether it means working, shopping (for essentials), gardening, cleaning, writing, or anything else that needs to be done. 

The author himself often works 16 hours a day. He even talks about when he wrote a book in 4 days because it was raining and he couldn’t do the gardening that he’d planned to do. Wow! Can you imagine being such an over-achiever? And he loves every minute of it and says that hard work is the cure for all of life’s ills. He says it’s no accident that those who are high achievers are seldom ill. They don’t have time to stop for anything.

He says to aim to stay productive 10 hours a day. Commit to it and always have a list of different jobs/tasks to do so you can switch if necessary or if you’re not in the mood.

And 10 hours a day of productivity is life-changing.

I used to be one of life’s quitters and would give up on something if it got too hard or seemed too tedious. But not any more. I became a 10-hours-a day-person after reading this book the first time, and it really changed my life for the better. And the best thing about it is that it was actually easy to do. It wasn’t difficult at all. I even enjoyed it.

And the changes are instant.

Try it for yourself. Just one week of 10-hour days is transforming.

Make it your New Year’s resolution. 

Download a copy of the book and start changing your life.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw 

4 Horror Writing Markets and a Free Writing Competition

 Here are a few writing markets for you just to keep the creative juices flowing and possibly earn you some much needed writing income.

One of the markets is for a children's short story, so if you haven't written for this age range before, it might make it interesting for you.

Enjoy and happy writing.

Dark Moments Flash Horror
Black Hare Press are looking fo short horror stories on the theme, Circus.
Word Count: EXACTLY 100 words.
Deadline: 31st December 2021
Payment: 4cents (US)/word via Paypal
https://www.blackharepress.com/submissions/ 

Children's Alien Scary Stories
Raven & Drake open to submissions of stories on the theme: Alien
Reader age range is 10+
Word count: up to 3,000 words
Looking for scary but fun stories with a happy ending.
Payment: Digital copies of the anthology. 
No cash payment as it's a new market, but I'm including it because it's an interesting market (10+ age range) and can open up to new possibilities because chidlren can be raging fans once they find an author they like.
https://www.ravenanddrakepublishing.co.uk/seriescalls 

A Coming of Age Horror Anthology
Nowhere Fast pays homage to the well-loved theme, Coming of Age, and then adds a horror element. 
Did you ever just wish you could have made The Goonies a little gorier? That ET was actually evil?
Make your twist on these classics.
Any work featuring the actual characters from these movies will be rejected. 
Word Count: 3000-5000 Words 
Deadline: October 28 2022
Payment: 6cents/word plus one hard copy.
https://www.clashbooks.com/clash/2021/10/29/nowhere-fast

 
Counting Bodies Like Sheep
Short stories wanted for extreme horror anthology.
Fast-paced gory stories with the perfect blend of Extreme Horror + Splatterpunk + Dar Humor elements.
Word count: up to 3,000 max
Payment: 3cents/word plus one paperback copy.
Deadline: Sumissions open on 1st January 2022
Close 1st March 2022
http://theevilcookie.com/open-calls/ 

Free Short Story Competition
Curiosity Killed the Cat
Short story about a new discovery, invention, or insight that seems wonderful and glamorous on the outside, but which is truly insidious beneath the surface, or which goes terribly awry. Think 'Frankenstein.'
Word Count:1800-2200 words
Deadline: January 4th, 2022
Prize: $50 first place 
https://www.rainfictionpod.com/contests/writing-contest-3curiosity-killed-the-cat