Writing and Publishing News

As we close in on Christmas and I think about all of the last minute tasks I must finish, it reminds me of writing deadlines. Have you noticed that most writing projects come with deadlines? Sometimes the deadlines are dictated by a client, editor or publisher, but most often they’re self-imposed.

How do you approach deadlines? Do you wait until the last possible second and then scramble to finish the article or chapter? Do you pace yourself—setting reasonable goals all along the way? Maybe you rush into the project with gusto so you’ll have plenty of time to complete it should something disrupt your schedule.

I think I use a combination of these methods. I’ve learned that the approach also depends on the project. While some writing projects need concentrated attention, others can be accomplished in snippets of time between other writing projects. Timing is important, too. I have to admit that there are days when my brain just won’t cooperate. I might want to spend the morning promoting my new book or editing a client’s memoir, but I just can’t concentrate on that particular project. For me, it’s usually a case of burn out rather than writer’s block. But it does no good to forge ahead when the going is slow and painful. What is a writer to do?

I turn my attention to something else. I’ll work on my cat story book, send out a few query letters, organize my office or go putter in the garden. When I return to the project an hour or a few days later, I’m refreshed and able to proceed and produce.

What is a deadline to you—a friend or a foe? Do you depend on writing deadlines and welcome them? Or do they drive you crazy?

I appreciate deadlines. I like having some sort of parameter within which to work. This month we have a huge deadline. Tomorrow is Christmas. Are you on schedule with your tasks? Will you be ready to meet your commitments? Or have you let some traditions go by the wayside again this year because you just couldn’t get a “round tuit?”

Whether you’re highly organized and on schedule or falling a little behind, don’t forget to order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book at the prepublication discount. This special offer ends December 31, 2005.

http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

It’s only 5 days until Christmas. I hope you’re giving yourself permission to NOT write. At least for one day or a few hours each day, take a holiday break. If you don’t, the season will pass without your feeling as though you were ever a part of it. The shopping you did in a rush and the token baking you did in a huff don’t count. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time now for you to get out of writing mode—at least for a little while—and experience the season.

Here are some ideas to help you soak up some of that Christmas spirit you may have been avoiding.

• Walk through the mall and be a part of the hustle bustle.
• Attend a children’s Christmas presentation.
• Dress in your most Christmassy outfit.
• Go to church.
• Drive around various neighborhoods and enjoy the Christmas decorations.
• Take extra time wrapping some of your more special gifts—make the presentation as yummy as the gift itself.
• Donate food and gifts to a needy family or volunteer to serve the homeless.
• Do something completely off the wall such as leave jars and cans full of coins where unsuspecting people will find them. Or drop dollar bills tied with a bow outside of a busy post office and watch how people respond when they find them.
• Dress up as Santa, Mrs. Santa or an elf and visit a nursing home or day care facility.
• Throw a Christmas party complete with gifts and cookies for some of the less fortunate children in your neighborhood.
• Do some holiday baking and deliver a plate of home-baked goodies to some who would least expect this from you.
• Write a poem or take wintry photos for next year’s Christmas cards.
• Call a long-time friend or a relative whom you haven’t seen in a while.

Just imagine how refreshed and joyful you’ll feel when you return to your writing work. And some of these experiences might just fill you with new story ideas.

Happy holiday writing, everyone. You can make my Christmas and secure your professional future by purchasing my new book, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.” http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

It’s less than a week until Christmas and I’m right on schedule with my tasks and activities. Isn’t it amazing how something that seems so overwhelming can come together so flawlessly? But I’ve learned through years of writing for a living that in order to achieve success on a project, one must consistently move in the direction of his or her goal.

The difference between a writer and someone who wants to be a writer is purposeful action. While the wannabe/would be writer just thinks about becoming a writer, the writer has taken the steps necessary to make it happen.

How often have you felt overwhelmed at the thought of writing an entire book or completing an article assignment? It happens to me almost every time I face a large project. But I don’t stay in that mode for long. Instead, I quickly map out my writing course, schedule my time and then begin the process of study, research, interviews, outlining, writing, editing, proofing and ultimately completing the book or article. You can do the same.

It doesn’t matter if you take baby steps or giant steps, it’s just important that you move forward toward your writing goal.

If you need help drawing up your map, read my book, The Successful Writer’s Handbook. This book offers encouragement, tools, ideas, techniques and oodles of resources to help you start a career in writing, produce a book, sell articles to magazines, work with clients, build your writing business and much more. http://www.matilijapres.com

If you want to write a book or you’ve written a book and are struggling with finding a publisher or promoting the book, for example, read my newest book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping, your tree isn’t up and you have no idea what to feed the 25 people you’ve invited for Christmas dinner, sorry, I can’t help you there.

What does a writer do when she comes to the end of a project? Many of us panic. We feel pangs of fear and we wonder, “Will I ever have another writing job?” “Will I be inspired again?” “Has the well run dry?” “Am I washed up as a writer?”

What is a writer to do when he or she is flooded with writer’s doubt? I say, get back on the horse—er, the office chair.

I have a love/hate relationship with my writing projects. Once I get involved in the writing or editing, I am completely immersed. I am usually also completely in love with the work. But when the job is over—when I finally finish the book or the commissioned work and there’s nothing else on the horizon, I feel an annoying void.

I must say that it is rare that I don’t have back to back projects lined up as far as the eye can see. Like most freelance writers/authors, there’s always book promotion to do, that unfinished book waiting for attention, the new client on the horizon and a filing cabinet brimming with article ideas.

Yes, there’s always work to do, but it requires starting over and that’s not always easy. I guess this is a type of Writer’s Block. When you’re involved in a project there’s a sense of comfort involved. Each day you walk into your office knowing that you will spend the day working on Chapter Twelve, editing a client’s memoir or finishing up the research on a major article. Once it’s finished, you have to start fresh. If there are no priorities among the projects on your shelf, you must decide what to work on. You have to determine which new project will pay off in either earnings, satisfaction or as a career move.

And that’s where I sit today. My book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book is finished. I have been promoting the heck out of it for the last five weeks. I’ve decided to self-publish my book of cat stories. But I can’t spend my days working on it because, at this point, there’s no money in this work.

One look at my bank balance and I realized that I need to be working on something that is more apt to pay me now. With my current client on hiatus until after the holidays, this means getting back into article-writing, which is how I started my career. I always put article-writing on hold when a book project comes along and when I have a paying client. And when I need some funds, I go back to it.

So this week, I am interviewing and photographing a neighbor who has a wonderful cottage industry going—she designs and manufactures organic tee shirts with gardening and earth-friendly slogans. Country Woman Magazine is interested in her story. I’m researching the new PE programs many schools are adopting. Back in 1999, I wrote about the wave of innovative PE programs sweeping some of the nation’s schools in an attempt to reverse the trend of obesity in kids. I’m following up, now, with what’s new in 2006. I once wrote about mother daughter book clubs. This morning I heard about one instance where kids read to pets in the St. Louis Library. If there are other such programs, I may write a piece on this concept.

The void is over—back to work. In the meantime, I have an announcement. Our Sophie kitty is a pin up girl. A friend, the founder of All For Animals and a writer, Karen Stevens, wrote a piece for CatWatch Magazine about how to keep your cat safe during a home remodel. She interviewed me because of problems that came up with our cats during remodeling projects here. I took a pix of Sophie for the article. We were excited to see our little tortie immortalized in print. But fame has not gone to Sophie’s head. She just took one sniff at the magazine and resumed her fascination with the Christmas tree.

Keep writing. And don’t forget to order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, at a one-time prepublication discount offer. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Our Christmas cards are sent, the house is decorated, ¾ of our gifts are wrapped, the shopping is DONE and my Christmas day menu is set. Remember my plan—to do a little something pertaining to Christmas each day? It’s working. We’ll decorate our tree later this week and I’m knitting in the evenings. Not only that, I am still putting a reasonable number of hours into my writing/book promotion work, too.

Aren’t you just so much happier when you are organized and when you give yourself enough time in which to accomplish your goals? This premise works when preparing for the holidays and it is also important when operating a freelance writing business.

Whether you are an author promoting your book(s), you write articles for magazines or you work with clients on their projects, organization is vital to your success. Without a sense of organization, you will miss deadlines or create undue stress for yourself because you’re always trying to play catch-up. When you lack organizational skills, you risk losing track of important data and information. When you aren’t organized, you probably don’t keep accurate business records and this can create all sorts of problems with clients, editors and publishers. Meeting writing/publishing-related goals definitely become a greater challenge for people who lack the ability to organize.

Chapter One in my “The Successful Writer’s Handbook” includes this list reflecting the traits or mind-set of those who would mostly likely fail in the writing business:

• Those of little faith who don’t even try.
• Those who refuse to make sacrifices.
• Those who are too attached to their own writing.
• Those who can’t step outside their comfort zone.

I would add, “Those who can’t organize their personal or professional life.”

To become a successful working writer or author, one must:

• Make a commitment.
• Establish a routine and stick to it.
• Practice self-discipline.
• Be a bold promoter.
• Write every single day.

All of these points rely on what?? Organizational skills.

How do you develop a sense of organization? In Chapter Ten of “The Successful Writer’s Handbook,” I include a section called “Stop Procrastinating, Now!” I say that sometimes procrastination is a matter of sloppy organizational skills. Here are some ideas:

1: Start by making lists. Before going to bed or before starting to work in the morning, write down everything that you hope to accomplish during the day. I typically write a schedule each night complete with a time table. While I don’t always finish everything on my list, I almost always accomplish the major tasks.

2: Learn how to prioritize. Often lack of organization is a lack of the ability to prioritize. Try this: List the projects you have on the table now—everything that must be accomplished by the end of the day, week or month. Give the most important tasks a “one” rating, the next in line of importance, a “two” and so forth. Transfer all of the number one rated tasks to the top of a new list and follow with number two tasks and so on. Note how much time it will take to accomplish each task and create a schedule designed to accomplish them.

3: Don’t be afraid to make new lists and new time tables, this will be especially necessary when new projects come into your life.

4: Avoid temptations. There are many distractions for writers everyday. And these can be a real problem. It will behoove you to learn to deal with them. For example, say “no” to a lunch invitation with your best friend—opt for dinner out after working hours, for example. Reeducate neighbors to conform to your writing schedule. Barking dogs? Now that can be a real problem to one’s concentration. I’ve handled this one by working with neighbors to quiet their dogs. You might wear soundproof headphones while writing. Move your office to another area of the house.

I’ve been writing for articles for magazines and books for over 30 years and earning my living as a freelance writer/author for nearly two decades. I would not still be in this profession if I had not honed my organizational skills. It is crucial to business success and pretty darned important in managing a personal life, too.

Learn more about how to become a successful freelancer writer or author in “The Successful Writer’s Handbook.” http://www.matilijapress.com/writershandbookpage.html

If you want to write a book the right way, read, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.” http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html