Writing Tip: Achieving Focus
Everyone has their own system. You perhaps have your favorite place to write, your favorite pen, and of course, your favorite background music. That describes my typical writing day. Everything has to be in place, as if the luck of writing depended on it.
One way I’ve found to achieve focus while I’m writing is to listen to white noise or nature sounds as background rather than music. Music is the basis of the soundtrack for other areas in my life, but for writing, I want peace. I want it to be truly in the background. A site I’ve stumbled upon that helps me reach that mystical writing plateau is SoundSleeping.com. The site boasts that it promotes good sleep and relaxation. Perhaps relaxation is the key for my writing.
It makes sense. Writing, fiction writing anyway, is about creating a place, an escape, if you will. Relaxation helps you achieve that zone, that feeling of where-did-all-the-time-go. Like driving, writing leads you to its special place. All you need to do is relax and let it take you there.
Sharing the Link Love, September 25, 2009
Social media in the news, with opportunities to grow your business. Wishing you a great weekend!
Writing Tip–How to Maximize Your Article-Writing Potential
Today’s writing tip is about increasing your pay. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, filled with rejection notices, unpublished works, and lost ideas. We all have 24 hours in a day. How we use it can spell the difference between success and just getting along.
Take article writing, for example. A check of the freelance job boards will tell you there are lots of opportunities. Pay, unfortunately, varies widely from the insulting to the mediocre to the livable wage. A swift in your approach to article writing can help you maximize your income potential.
Even sites offering lower prices per article or share revenue pricing structures have potential for serious income. The key is output. Let me be very clear up front–I am not encouraging anyone to accept writing gigs for less than desirable wages. What I am suggesting is that your increase your productivity. Here’s how.
With many of the big article sites like Ezine Articles and Article Marketers, you choose your topics. Undoubtedly, you’re choosing topics of which you are well acquainted. To get the most out of your writing, you must be efficient. Efficient means having references and resources ready at hand to cut down on research time. Of course, statistics are one area for which you will always do research to keep up to date.
This is how I maximize my writing. First, I keep a folder with sub-folders of often-used references. Having them categorized makes them easy to locate. The same goes for my articles. I’ve set up a directory system to keep my articles in order, making sure and not references and resources. In this way, I can easily copy and paste citations, cutting down on keystrokes.
Making the most out of your article writing means maximizing your efficiency. By keeping reference files and citations handy, you can cut back on research time and spend your valuable time on writing.
Sharing the Link Love–Improving Your Skills
The focus of this week’s link love is YOU. Enjoy.
Tech Tip–Printer Issues
Today’s tech tip is probably about one of the more frustrating computer problems–printer issues. Inevitably it occurs when you’re just written your synopsis, and you want to review it. Or it happens when you’ve finally decided to edit that last chapter.
The errors are often vague and incomprehensible. I just printed 100 pages an hour ago. WTF? Been there done, done that, wrote the book. For printer issues, I’ve found through years of tech support experience that there are three courses of action to take.
Restart the printer
If pending documents are clogging up the works, restarting the printer may delete the jobs. It’s important also to unplug the computer and disconnect it if it’s attached to a print serve. Wait a minute or so and power up.
Restart the computer
Likewise, restarting a computer may release documents and memory being held for use. Restarting also reloads drivers in case something became corrupted during use. This works well if the error turns out to be something off the wall and of course, you did nothing to cause it.
Reinstall drivers/software
If all else fails, the error may lie with corrupted files. To solve these issues, reinstall the drivers/software. Doing so will replace the bad files. This is a last resort. With USB devices, a reinstall can be a pain, necessitating a complete uninstall of the software prior.
Printer issues are usually easy to fix. The important thing is not to panic, but to begin from square one.
Writing Tip–You’re Not Done When You Think You’re Done
I scaled a major hurdle with the completion of my rough draft. If I can say anything, at least I can say that I can write a book. I can plot it, populate it with characters, and present a problem with its solution. In my mind, that’s a huge feat.
I am in the process of submitting my book to agents. Having the book completed puts me at some advantage in that I’m not scrambling to complete a work if I’m called to duty. It’s done. I have a new goal now.
Just because I’m done with it doesn’t mean I’m done. There’s the next important task–starting on the next one. Fortunately, I have a good idea with an interesting plot twist. I know my selected setting well.
To guide my next project, I’m using a book that I found extremely helpful the first go-around, Hallie Ephron’s, “Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.” I admit: I’m still new at this. I need the direction that this book provides. The direction is good too. It encourages the writer to consider the background and backstory of the characters and settings. It raises the questions we may not know to ask and gives us fodder that will percolate in our subconscious when writing. It is an invaluable tool.
The task of creating a new novel is daunting. I’ve struggled to remember how I got to this place. With Ephron’s kind guidance, my next book will become a reality.
Hallie Ephron’s, “Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.”
September 11th–National Remembrance Day
“Never, never, never, give up.”
~Winston Churchill
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