How Writers Can Crush Absolutely Any Obstacle in Their Path
When my son was in preschool, he came downstairs with a concerned look on his face. “I don’t think I can go to school today,” he told his mom and me. He generally liked school, so this was a little strange. “Why’s that, Sweetie?” we asked. “Something’s wrong with my throat,” he said. Now my wife and I were starting to get concerned. “What’s wrong with it, Buddy? Is it sore?” “No,” he said, “just listen.” We leaned in close until we heard the telltale catch and release of a hiccup. “See?” he said. My wife and I did our best not to laugh. Then we explained what hiccups were and why he was perfectly fine to go to school. The Reality of Obstacles Sometimes what we think is an obstacle is actually just a hiccup. Other times obstacles are very real barriers to the things we most want to accomplish. As a writer you inevitably will face many obstacles. Writer’s block. Platform stagnation. Lack of traffic. The comparison game. No motivation. The list goes on. I’ve worked with many writers over the past twenty years, and I’ve noticed a handful of strategies that really help them, regardless of the obstacle. In this post I’m going to share seven main strategies you can use right now to move through and beyond whatever difficulty you’re facing. 1. Check your perspective. Like my son’s hiccups, sometimes what we think is a problem isn’t really a problem. I remember working with a client who was obsessed with his blog’s traffic and lack of subscribers. He had been blogging for just a few months, and already he was consumed with the extent to which people interacted with his content. My advice was to stop measuring traffic and start measuring how often he published. “Get obsessed with that,” I told him, “because at this point that’s the only metric that matters.” [Tweet “How #Writers Can Crush Absolutely Any Obstacle in Their Path #amwriting #askeditor via @chadrallen”] Stephen Covey said, “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.” So check your perspective and make sure that your obstacle really is an obstacle. It may not be. 2. Reach out to a friend. Sometimes it’s pride. Sometimes we’re so consumed with our own inner struggle it’s simply not on our radar. Whatever our reasons for not reaching out to a friend (and I’m as guilty as anyone here), generally speaking we all need to get quicker at this. If you have a friend with some experience in whatever your struggle is, that’s terrific, but don’t get hung up on this. Often the simple act of explaining your problem out loud to someone who cares will help you move forward. 3. Ask, “What’s one simple thing I can do right now?” I love the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” I love it because it limits our responsibility. Writer, you are not responsible for things you cannot do. You are only responsible for things you can do. So ask yourself, “What’s one simple thing I can do right now?” Don’t get overwhelmed with the gigantic size of whatever obstacle you’re facing. That’s not your concern. Your concern is the small thing you can do right now to move forward. 4. Look for the easier path. Sometimes we need to question our assumption that this thing we’re attempting is really difficult. Ask yourself a series of questions like this: What if this were easy? How would that look? How could I make this easier for myself? If this were to be done by tomorrow (or next week, etc.), how would I go about that? Presenting these questions to your consciousness has a way of shifting the way you see your problem. Your brain will automatically get creative and often will serve up a solution you didn’t notice before. 5. Seek wisdom from those who are further along. Sometimes we do need expertise from someone who’s “been there, done that.” Often you can find this advice via a Google search. Sometimes you’ll want to pay for such advice. Just remember that your problem is almost never entirely unique. Someone has been where you are. If you can find them, you can save yourself a lot of time, pain, and energy. 6. Get started early. Have you ever had a big project, like writing a manuscript or getting a book proposal ready for a writer’s conference, and it scared you so much you procrastinated getting started? Then you end up frustrated and even more scared because now you have even less time, and . . . nah, that’s never happened to you. Don’t know what I’m talking about, right? The strategy I’ve seen work really well in these cases is getting started early, earlier than you think you should. Even if it’s just thirty minutes, there’s something about going from anticipating a project to actually doing it that is magic. You get some momentum going. You get some perspective on how much work this project is going to take. And you adjust accordingly. 7. Cultivate gratitude. This whole thing is a gift. That you and I get to sit at our keyboards today or tomorrow and make stuff—it’s an incalculable privilege only a few people in history get to do. Don’t forget that. You are one lucky lady or dude. You were born at the right time, the right place, with the right skills, and here you are. [Tweet “Writers: “This whole thing is a gift…a privilege only a few people in history get to do.” @chadrallen”] Yes, it’s up to you to get better, but the opportunity underneath it all? It is not our doing; we can’t take credit for it. What we can do is cultivate a sense of awe and
A Powerful Insight for Nonfiction Writers That Makes All the Difference
I’ve been re-reading Stephen King’s On Writing, and as I come to the end of it one thing stands out to me above the rest. That’s significant because it’s a very good book, and many things stand out to me as helpful and wise. If you haven’t read it, you should. But this one things stands out to me as not just helpful and wise but also really important. So here it is: Your book is a piece of art. The Problem with Missing This I think too often nonfiction writers think of themselves as merely transmitting information or conveying a message or teaching how to do something. The problem with this is that we end up writing stuff nobody reads. Remember this, nonfiction writer: how you say something is just as important as what you say. You are creating art. You’re crafting an experience for the reader, and you owe it to that reader to make the experience as compelling as possible. [Tweet “Remember this, nonfiction writer: how you say something is just as important as what you say. You are creating art. #amwriting #askeditor”] The one exception might be if you really are writing an instruction manual for, say, building a piece of furniture. Then you can be boring just so long as you’re clear. But my hunch is, if you’re reading this, you’re not writing an instruction manual. That’s the sort of thing companies pay technical writers to do. No, you’re here because you have a story or message to get into the world, and I’m here to tell you: the best way to do that is with artful prose. What Is Nonfiction Art? So what is it? What is nonfiction art? For one thing it’s delightful. Artful nonfiction is a joy to read. You may tell yourself you only have fifteen minutes to read this, but if the author’s done her job you want to keep going. You may end up being late to wherever you’re supposed to be because the book enticed you to stick around. That’s what a good book will do, fiction or nonfiction. Artful nonfiction is also authentic. It’s true. You’re not just pulling this stuff out of thin air. You have experience or research to back it up, and you can prove it. Another piece of authenticity is vulnerability. We’ve had enough of experts who know it all. Show some warts, please. Become human so that we can relate to you. It’s also imaginative. I recently heard political consultant Frank Luntz say “imagine” is the most powerful word in the English language. He may be right. When we imagine something, we are conjuring up a whole other world that is different from where we are right now. That’s what artful nonfiction does too. A good nonfiction book will take you places. Delightful. Authentic. Imaginative. The more our nonfiction becomes defined by these adjectives, the more artful it will be. [callout]Need some help doing your art? Check out my ebook, Do Your Art: A Manifesto on Rejecting Apathy to Bring Your Best to the World. Creativity expert Todd Henry calls it “a wonderful (and welcome) kick in the pants.” Click here to download your free copy.[/callout] What has been most useful to you in this article?
The One Crippling Fear Every Writer Faces
What’s your deepest fear?” That’s the question I asked in a recent survey of writers and other creatives, and following were some of the responses: “That people will see the real me and discover it’s not all that great.” “That my voice (in writing) will not be valued or desired. “ “The fear of rejection and in particular, being irrelevant” “That I don’t have anything worth saying.” “That I’ll make a fool of myself” What strikes me about these and other responses is the object of their focus. These comments are not about the work as much as the commenters. When you say you’re afraid people will see the real you and discover “it” is not that great, you are not really talking about your work. When you say you’re afraid of making a fool of yourself, again that’s not a statement about the value of your work. It’s about your value as a person. And I’m here to tell you: that’s a problem. Our creative work is vitally important, but it does not establish our value as people. I would say our value as people comes from our Creator. Others might say it comes from the cosmos or some other place. But I think we all can agree, as soon as we place our own value in the hands of others’ perceptions of our work, we’ve gone terribly wrong. And of course we do it all the time, so how do we get out of this mess? [Tweet “The One Crippling Fear Every Writer Faces . . . And How to Overcome It #amwriting #askeditor #creativity via @ChadRAllen”] Practices That Affirm Our Value As soon as I refer to affirming our value, I immediately think of Stuart Smalley’s Daily Affirmation on Saturday Night Live. Stuart, an effeminate television show host, encourages his viewers to look in the mirror and repeat after him: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” Why is that sketch so funny? It’s funny because Stuart embodies our insecurities and helps us experience the relief of laughing at them. If we didn’t have insecurities, Stuart Smalley wouldn’t be as hilarious as he is. The way humor often works is it points to something real and then exaggerates it. In other words, as painful as it is to admit, Stuart Smalley touches close to home. I don’t find it very helpful to look in a mirror and say affirming things. I find that as funny as you do, no doubt. What I do find helpful is asking, “What sorts of things would I do regularly if I believed in my value and in the value I have to offer others?” The answer: I’d take care of myself, and I would do my best to take care of others. Sometimes we have to “fake it till we make it,” to choose actions that bring the feelings we want to have. Taking Care of Self and Others I would exercise, eat well, drink plenty of water, meditate and pray, and get a good night’s rest. I would travel to fascinating places “just because” and take a lot of vacations and read good books and hang out with friends and get a massage every now and again. In short, I’d live well. And I would do my best to serve others as often and as well as I could. I would do my art. I’d show up for the people who look to me for help and advice. I’d listen well. I would lead them to do good work, to bring out the best in themselves. I would encourage them. I would be bummed when they’re bummed, but I would try to help them take one brave step forward. Two Challenges How about you? Do you ever struggle with the temptation to doubt your worth? If so, I want to give you two challenges: What’s one thing you can do today to take especially good care of yourself? Take 20 seconds to think of something right now. What’s one thing you can do today to take especially good care of the people you wish to serve and lead? Again, twenty seconds . . . Press on! We need you to take care of yourself, and we need you to do your art! I’d love to send you my manifesto, DO YOUR ART: A Manifesto on Rejecting Apathy to Bring Your Best to the World. To download a copy, click here. What did you find most helpful in this article?
Why Every Artist Needs a Confession Booth
You’ve just stepped into a confession booth, but don’t worry: I’m not a priest, and you don’t have to share your sins with me. This is a different kind of confession. I want to know your deepest fears and greatest hopes as a writer, artist, musician, leader, designer, or other creative role. What’s your deep fear? What’s your great hope? At this point you might be thinking, Why do you care, Chad? I care because we creative people don’t often get to the heart of what scares us and what motivates us. I don’t think we’re consciously avoiding it. We’re just busy doing our thing, and that’s okay. But every once in a while it’s healthy to stop—to name our truth. The survey I link to below is an opportunity to do that. Your responses will be completely anonymous. I have no way of tracking who you are or what you said, so you can be as raw and honest as you want. I will wait for a good number of responses and then share quotes from what I heard. Will you do this with me? (Yes, I’ll be taking the survey too.) Click here to take the survey.
How the Right Mindset Leads Writers to Success
Recently we had to send out the dreaded “OP” letter again. It goes something like this: Dear Author and Agent: We are writing to inform you that due to low marketplace demand for your book, we have decided to discontinue keeping it in stock. Sincerely, The Publisher “OP,” in other words, stands for “out of print,” and publishers send it to authors and their agents when demand for a book falls so low, the publisher can no longer justify keeping the book in their warehouse. The ideal, of course, is for a book to stay in print forever. The first book Baker Publishing Group (the company I serve as an editorial director) ever published over seventy-five years ago, More Than Conquerors by William Hendriksen, is still in print. And if a book stays in print for twenty or thirty or fifty years, that’s nothing to sneeze at. The cases that grieve me are when physical books go OP after just twelve months. These days publishers often keep the ebook version in print because it costs very little to do so, but in an OP situation the physical copies become unavailable. And it’s a sad day in the life of a book. Here’s the thing I don’t want you to miss about authors whose books go OP that quickly: About two years prior they received what so many writers pine for—the Holy Grail of ambitious writers the world over, the great and mighty, the glorious book contract! Unfortunately, if an author’s book goes OP in twelve months or less, it will be really hard for that author to get another book deal. So it’s just bad for everybody, particularly the author. In fact, one could argue that in a case like this a book contract is more of a curse than a blessing. The Right Mindset How can we writers stay out of this predicament? Great question, and the answer has everything to do with how you define success. If you define success by whether or not you win a book contract, you are headed in the wrong direction. Now don’t get me wrong. Book contracts can be an important means to an end, but they are not the goal. They are functional; they are a tool, nothing more. [Tweet “”Book contracts can be an important means to an end, but they are not the goal…””] The right definition for success is to write a compelling book that goes out to thousands of readers. I know one author who defines success by selling 100,000 copies of a book in the first twelve months. That’s too high a bar for most authors, but my point is this author is aiming in the right direction. So how do you make sure you write a great book that sells thousands of copies? You write a great book that sells thousands of copies by doing the day-in, day-out work of craft and generosity. You write a lot, and you share a lot. You keep writing until you become a good writer, which just about everyone can become. And you share what you’ve written—over and over again. You love on your tribe. You serve readers. You help them with the real needs they really have, which might mean addressing a felt need first so that eventually you can address a deeper one. Finally, you decide that you’re in this for the long haul. If you make up your mind to stick with it no matter how long it takes, you’re all but guaranteed to succeed. The Really Good News So that’s it. No magic formula. No silver bullet. The recipe for success is deciding to show up day after day to become a better writer and to serve people. The really good news here is you have a lot of agency in whether or not you succeed. You don’t get to decide whether a publisher picks up your book; that’s not up to you. You do get to decide whether you show up and do the work. And as long as you keep taking up that challenge, you really can’t lose. And consider this: How would you rather spend your time? Fact is, if you’d be happier doing something else, cut your losses and go for it. Most writers I know wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. The human heart was made to do the work of its calling, and if you’re a writer, your calling is to write and serve people with your writing. It is a sacred vocation, worthy of your best efforts. Do your best to enjoy the journey. [callout]Would you like to design a writing process that aligns with who you are and your season of life? I created a PDF worksheet called ‘My Writing Process’ that will help you do just that. Click here to download the *My Writing Process* worksheet. [/callout] What did you find most helpful in this blog post?
Everything You Need to Know about Listening to Music While Writing
First of all, thanks so much for your willingness to fill out my “Writers and Music” survey. (If you haven’t yet and you’re willing to help writers everywhere with two minutes of your time, click here.) This survey and blog post were born of my own curiosity. I regularly listen to music while I’m writing, and I wanted to know how other writers listen to music. I wanted to see how this analysis might inform my own music-listening habits and hope it will help other writers too. So let’s dive in to the results. Survey Participation I sent this survey to my email list and via my social media channels. I asked respondents to consider sharing the survey via their channels too. As I write this I’ve received 107 responses with a completion rate of 74 percent. Average time to complete the survey: 1 minute, 51 seconds. I’m just geeky enough to find that interesting. I’m also geeky enough to find this interesting: 57 percent of respondents took the survey on a PC or laptop, 39 percent used smartphones, and 4 percent used tablets. Interesting, right? Now to the meat of it. Fiction vs. Nonfiction Writers I’m a nonfiction guy myself, so it’s no surprise that most of the respondents, 65 percent, were nonfiction writers. Of the remaining, 14 percent identified as fiction writers, and 21 percent said they were equally both. How Often Do Writers Listen to Music While Writing? I asked “Do you listen to music while you write?” and asked respondents to select a number between 1 and 10, 1 being “No, never” and 10 being “Yes, always.” Sixty percent of respondents landed in the 7 to 10 range. I think of this as the “often to always” range. The top pick, at 18 percent of respondents, was 8. The survey revealed 17 percent were in the 4 to 6 range, what I think of as “sometimes” territory. And 20 percent of writers rarely or never (0 to 3) listen to music while writing. Seven percent indicated they never listen to music while writing. It’s possible these results are skewed because you might be more likely to fill out a survey about your use of music as a writer if you’re a writer who listens to music. Having said that, writers who listen to music while writing are safely in the majority here. Those in the “sometimes” and “rarely” camps have plenty of company too. What Services Do Writers Use for Listening to Music? Respondents were allowed to pick more than one service for this question, and the options were iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, old-school CD player, and “Other.” The top service at 31 percent of respondents was iTunes, though Pandora and Spotify were solidly tied at second with 29 percent of the responses. As for the “Other” responses, following is a breakdown of services that were entered more than once plus the number of entries in parentheses: YouTube (7) Amazon Music (2) Focus @ Will (2) Google Play (2) iHeart Radio (2) Honorary mention goes to the respondent who wrote in “Record player”! What Type of Music Do Writers Listen To? The results to this question were particularly interesting to me. Here’s a pie chart that summarizes the findings by percentage of responses. Let’s break down that “Other” option. Below, again, are the music types that received more than one write-in with the number of people who did so in parentheses: Instrumental (8) Worship (6) Christian (5) Indie/Singer-songwriter (2) Soundtracks (2) Some of those “Christian” entries might belong in the “Worship” category, but I kept them separate because I do think there’s a difference between the worship genre and contemporary Christian music. The big winner here is classical, which I find fascinating. But another noteworthy selection, I think, is that broad category of instrumental music, which, in addition to those who wrote that exact word in under “Other,” likely also includes New Age, jazz, electronic, and soundtracks. These nonverbal options comprise well over half of respondents. But a still significant minority (my estimate is about 20 percent) listens to music with words, including those who selected country, rock, folk, perhaps some of the jazz contingent, and many of those who wrote in worship or Christian. Honorary mention goes to the person who wrote, “I develop a play list for the project with music that fits.” I love that intentionality! [Tweet “Everything You Need to Know about Listening to Music While Writing #amwriting @ChadRAllen”] What Are Writers’ Favorite Pandora Stations? As a Pandora listener myself, I was eager to learn some new Pandora stations to check out, and the responses to this question did not disappoint! I was also interested to see if writers gravitate toward any particular stations. The only outlier here was “Classical,” not surprisingly given the responses to the question about type of music. Both Leonard Cohen and the Piano Guys received two entries. About a third of survey takers responded to this question, which makes sense because about the same percentage selected Pandora under the services question mentioned above. Below I’ll alphabetically list the stations respondents wrote in as their favorite: 1920s Baroque Beats for Studying Brooklyn Duo Christian Civil Wars Classical (3) Classical for Studying (2) Colin Haye Country rock David Nevue David Francey Epic Soundtracks (2) George Gershwin George Winston Hammock Helen Jane Long Hymns4Worship Jazz Standards Jim Brickman The Oh Hellos Leonard Cohen (2) Lumineers Michael Buble Nickelcreek Piano guys (2) Sleeping at Last Smooth jazz Worship What Are Writers’ Second Favorite Pandora Stations? Following is a list of what writers wrote in for their second favorite Pandora station: 70s 80’s 80s alternative Beach boys Carly Simon Christian Civil Wars Classic rock Classical Classical Guitar Radio Classical instrumental Downton Abbey soundtrack French folk music Frou Frou George Winston Instrumental (2) Jazz Jazz Standards Lord Huron Christian Movie scores Peaceful Seclusion Piano Guys Rock Seasonal Smooth Jazz Soundtracks Thomas Newman Traditional Country Hymns One person wrote, “I haven’t tried any others
Nine Little Known Facts about Getting Published
“We all want progress,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” If you as a writer pursue getting published with false ideas about how to get there, you only make your journey more difficult. The purpose of this blog post is to explain some little known facts about getting published and clear up some common misconceptions along the way. 1. Content is important, but it’s NOT the only thing that’s important to publishers. Novelist Bill Mayer said, “Content is king. Promotion is queen.” Publishers care deeply about content, but good content does not by itself create a saleable book, unfortunately. Publishers are looking for good content that is attached to some sort of engine—some driver of promotion and sales. Usually this is an author’s own ability to get the book in front of readers. 2. Who you are as a person matters to publishers. Publishing is a business, and businesses are only as valuable as the quality of the relationships that make the business possible. Even if your book is successful, if you’re a pain to deal with, eventually a publisher’s enthusiasm for working with you will wane. 3. A great concept can win you a contract regardless of whether you currently have an audience. Great book concepts, usually encapsulated in a great book title and subtitle, can sometimes be so witty or compelling that a publisher will take a chance on them even if the author doesn’t have a platform. A publisher that does so believes it can get enough distribution for the book that it will market itself. Examples of especially strong concepts include How to Win Friends and Influence People, I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 4. Many (perhaps most) authors secure agents via referral. Referrals often come from an agent’s current clients. (They come occasionally from publishers.) With this in mind, one way to increase your chances of getting represented is to follow and nurture relationships with authors who are represented by literary agents you have in mind to represent you. [Tweet “Nine Little Known Facts about Getting Published #amwriting #askeditor via @ChadRAllen”] 5. The author is a book’s #1 marketer. Some writers believe it’s their job to write the book and the publisher’s job to market it. This belief is harmful to your career as a writer because if you don’t help promote your book, it will very likely flop in the marketplace. Publishers usually have some amount of money to use for marketing your book, but honestly it’s usually not enough to sustain ongoing sales. Publishers rely on (and try only to work with) authors who are motivated marketers for their books. 6. Books are experiences. Books are not primarily a means of information transmission or self-expression or income generation. They are experiences, and I like to think of writers as experience architects. For more on this idea, see my post and presentation titled “Do You Make This Mistake as a Writer?” 7. The doors to publishing are always swinging open or closed. This one comes from my old boss and Baker’s former publisher Jack Kuhatschek, an author in his own right. He used to tell authors, “The doors to publishing are always swinging open or closed.” When it comes to choosing a topic, writing your book, or marketing your book, you are making choices that will impact whether or not you will get published. Choose wisely. 8. It’s easier to be a first-time author with a great concept than a second-time author with a lackluster sales history. This fact is perhaps the cruelest of them all, but it’s true. It’s good news for unpublished writers who have a strong concept, good platform, and writing skills. It’s inconsequential for published writers whose books have sold well. It can be devastating to the careers of writers who have published one book that has not sold well. 9. A shorter book proposal is a better book proposal (with one exception). Lengthy book proposals are usually lengthy either because they’re confused or just not very strong overall. You can’t make up in length what you lack in substance. It’s far better to get crystal clear on the need your book is addressing, the audience, and the concept. Make your bio and chapter structure sing, not ramble. Do the work necessary to create a brief but powerful proposal, and you’ll stand a much better chance. The one exception to this rule is the marketing section. Publishers appreciate hearing how you plan to help market your book, as long as it’s genuine. (To download a copy of my book proposal guidelines, click here.) If you dream of getting a book contract, I want you to know it is possible. You just need a good plan and a lot of determination. Hopefully this list of little known facts helps you with both. What surprised you in this list? Which fact do you find most helpful?
How to Write Your Book and Blog at the Same Time
Think of a drummer in a rock band. Somehow she manages to keep that bass drum going while rat-a-tat-tatting on all the snares and cymbals above. That’s what we want to do with our blogs and books. We want to keep our blogs dynamic and lively, releasing new posts regularly, while at the same time making solid progress on our book manuscripts. Why? Because our blogs help us build a readership, while our books help us go deeper into the content we want to share with the world. If we stop (or never start) blogging, it’s quite possible we won’t have an audience for our books. That’s no good, so how do we do both? Writing a great book while maintaining your blog’s momentum can be difficult, but the reward is worth the effort. You can succeed at both. Here’s how. Strategy #1: Commit to the Long Haul Writing a book and building an audience via your blog takes time. If all you want is a book with your name on it, go ahead: drop the blog and just write and self-publish your book. But if you want to write a book that a lot of people read, and I hope you do, commit to sticking to this for the long haul. Strategy #2: Give Space to Both It’s important to give space in your life and calendar to both the book and the blog. The two perform different functions, and each deserves your careful attention. You can do this a lot of different ways. Weekdays for one and weekends for the other Mornings for one and evenings for the other Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for one, Tuesday and Thursday for the other The first two weeks of a month for one, the last two weeks for the other Decide on an approach that gives space to each, and don’t be afraid to switch things up as you go. [Tweet “Want to write a book and blog at the same time? 7 tips from @ChadRAllen #amwriting #askeditor”] Strategy #3: Set a Manuscript Goal and a Blog Goal As you begin this journey, I recommend setting a goal for when you’ll complete the first draft of your manuscript and a goal for how many email subscribers your blog will have by when. For simplicity it might be useful to set the same deadline for each goal. For example: Complete the first draft of my 45,000-word manuscript by June 1 Build my blog’s audience to 5,000 subscribers by June 1 It’s important that you remain flexible. Be willing to revise your goals. Jon Acuff, in his forthcoming book Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, he talks about the power of cutting your goals in half. It’s good advice. Better to actually hit your goal, even if it’s less ambitious than you originally set out for, than beat yourself up for not hitting a goal that was probably unrealistic to begin with. Strategy #4: Break It Down and Design Your Day-to-Day Process With your goals in place, you’re ready to set what Michael Hyatt calls “habit goals,” goals that incrementalize and support your “achievement goals.” If I want to write a 45,000-word manuscript by June 1, how many words do I need to write each week to get there? What’s my day-to-day writing process going to look like? To download a tool to help with this, click here If I want to build my subscriber list to 5000, how many do I need to add each month? What are my strategies for doing this? For sixteen possible strategies, click here. Strategy #5: Repurpose Your Blog Content Wouldn’t it be great if you could repurpose some of your blog content for your book? You can! Ask two questions: What published blog posts can be repurposed for my book? It’s bad form and usually a contract violation if you’re working with a traditional publisher to simply copy and paste your blog content into your book. But that doesn’t mean you can’t begin with blog post content and then revise and expand on it. Go deeper. Get more practical. Give more examples. What content gaps could you blog about? Bestselling author Mark Batterson told me he thinks of his blog posts as his test balloons. He has gauged his audience’s interest in a topic by blogging about it. You can do the same. You can also help yourself “think out loud” about a topic by devoting a blog post to it. Then use that post as a springboard for a piece that goes in your book. Strategy #6: Consider Blogging Less Frequently If you blog every day, consider blogging three times a week. If you blog weekly, consider posting every other Tuesday. Your blog is not going to tank just because you slow down your frequency a bit. If you feel like your audience will be put out by the change, consider publishing a blog post in which you announce your plans to write a book because you want to go deeper in serving them. The only way you can do that, you could explain, is by publishing fewer blog posts. Assure them it’ll be worth it! In this way you’re honoring your audience by letting them know what’s up, you’re managing their expectations, and (don’t miss it) you’ve begun promoting your book! Strategy #7: Schedule Some Writing Retreats I’ve saved the best strategy for last. I’ve worked with thousands of writers, and the number 1 way they’re able to make real progress on their manuscripts is by getting away for some dedicated book-writing time. This can look a lot of different ways—from staying with a friend to booking an AirBnB for a week to staying at a monastery for a long weekend. I’ve created a tool help you design and schedule a writing retreat that is customized to you and your situation. To check it out, click here What’s Your Plan? Time to take action. Grab a notepad and answer these questions: How
4 “Aha!” Strategies for Enhancing Your Writing
Few videos are more mesmerizing to me than those that feature people who go from not being able to do something to suddenly doing it. In the following video, for example, an older colorblind man puts on special glasses and is able to see color for the first time. This is a beautiful example of what I call an “Aha!” moment. Aha moments are powerful, and if you can work them into your writing, they keep your readers from getting bored. They deliver a sense of payoff that delights readers and prompts them to share what they’ve read with others. In this post I’m going to share how you can increase the number of aha moments in your writing. Keep Your Radar Up As you go about your day, keep your radar up. Be on the lookout for creative subject matter. I remember talking with a coahing client who was concerned because she couldn’t come up with any blog post ideas. I asked her to tell me about what she did that morning, and we quickly found something she did that made its way into a great blog post. Life brings all kinds of ideas to you, but they don’t necessarily hit you over the head. You have to be looking for them. And the more we look for things we can write about, the more aha moments we’ll be able to put into our writing. Don’t Let Them Get Away Don’t stop there. It’s not enough to look for great material. We have to capture it. You can do this in a lot of different ways. If you see something that grabs your attention, take a picture of it. If you get an idea, write it down in a notebook. Here’s an idea. Go out and buy yourself a nice notebook, one you’ll want to have around. Make sure it’s practical. If you know it needs to fit in a pocket for you to carry it around, make sure it fits in your pocket. On the first page write “Ideas” at the top. Then skip a few pages; these will become your table of contents. Now begin numbering the pages. The next time you see or hear or experience something that could be useful in your writing, jot it down on page 1 and give it a label along with its page number in your table of contents. Keep doing this as you come across material. This is one way to keep track of your ideas. Another way is to use the software program Evernote. In my own Evernote account I’ve created a separate “notepad” (the program’s label) titled “Blog post ideas” (my label). As I come across ideas, I record them here. Sometimes I type them out. Other times I create an audio recording using Evernote’s recording feature. In fact, to listen to the recording that prompted the blog post you’re reading right now, click here. It’s nothing special, definitely the backend of my creative work, but it’s why you’re reading these words. You can do this for blog post ideas, but you can also do it for chapter ideas or for ideas to include within particular chapters. The main thing is to avoid letting ideas run past you. When you see a great idea, trap it, and add it to your bag. [Tweet “How to Create More “Aha!” Moments in Your Writing #amwriting #writingtip via @ChadRAllen”] Do Your Research Another way to create more aha moments in your writing is to do research. It’s amazing the things we discover when we go looking for them. I have a story I often tell about Jan van de Capelle, a Dutch Golden Age oil painter whose work transfixed me at the Seattle Art Museum. I did some research about him and found out he was an amateur. Van de Capelle did not have any formal training nor did he join his local artist guild. He painted for the love it and ended up being called “second to Rembrandt as a painter of light.” Isn’t that inspiring? I think it is, and that’s why I tell his story. Van de Capelle’s story was an aha moment for me, and I learned about it through research. Or take my friend, author Lois Tverberg. She writes whole books about how understanding the values and morays of ancient Jewish culture opens the world of the Bible in ways you’d never know if Lois didn’t do the research for you. So don’t be afraid to do a little work. Do some digging. You just might find an aha moment, and your readers will be glad you did. Use the Magician’s “Prestige” Imagine a magic trick. The magician holds a red ball in his hand. Then he waves his other hand over the ball, and it’s gone. Vanished. You’re amazed: where’d it go, you wonder. The trick isn’t complete until the magician reaches behind your ear and shows you that somehow the ball ended up there. Then the trick is over. That last bit, when the ball reappears, is what magicians call the “Prestige,” and it’s a useful metaphor to keep in mind when you’re writing. When you have an aha moment, make sure the aha happens all at once. In other words, aha moments are moments, not marathons. Let me give you an example. Take Jan van de Cappelle from earlier. If I started the story by telling you van de Cappelle was an amateur artist who never received any training, and then I told you he was still a great painter—considered, in fact, second to Rembrandt as a painter of light, you’d still be impressed. But the story doesn’t have near the effect of starting with my being transfixed with his work and telling you that he was a master painter in an exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. Do you see what I’m doing there? I’m building to something. Then I reveal he was self-taught, never joined the local artist guild.
5 Ways Stories Can Make Your Writing Irresistible
The one thing all good writers have in common is the ability to tell stories. Stories draw us in. And when we read good stories from a particular author, we want to go back when that author tells more stories. It’s as if a transaction is always occurring just below the surface between author and reader. “Listen to me?” the author asks. “Is what you’re saying worth my attention?” the reader replies. Notice the economic language related to attention. Is this worth my attention? He pays attention. Our attention is valuable, as any advertiser will tell you. And in a world where powerful forces constantly vie for it, good storytellers win. Fine. Stories are important. But what kinds of stories? It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, telling the same story, or the same kind of story, over and over again. The purpose of this post is to blow the lid off the different types of stories we tell. When it comes to narrative sources, we don’t live in a black and white world of one or two types. This is a world of Technicolor, full of all kinds of possibilities. Here are 5 different story types (plus some bonus types) that can make your writing irresistible. 1. Metaphor Stories Sometimes explaining a principle metaphorically illuminates the story in a way straight prose could never do. Recently I was talking with a group of writers about the importance of developing their book concepts around a need or desire their readers have. To bring my point home, I told them about my five-year-old daughter. For a while now she’s wanted to ride in a convertible. Well, she recently completed Kindergarten, and to celebrate we rented a yellow Mustang convertible to tool around in for a weekend. As I pulled around the corner, a song from the Disney film Moana blaring through the speakers, first she was stunned. And then she danced around the lawn and in the car and on the driveway and then in my arms. Your readers will be equally appreciative if you fulfill their desires, I told them, if you meet their needs. That’s a metaphor story. 2. Stories from Other People’s Lives Chris Guillebeau just announced his new book Side Hustle: Build a Side Business and Make Extra Money without Quitting Your Day Job. I have a strong hunch his book will be full of examples of people pursuing their “side hustle.” I believe so because he currently hosts a podcast, Side Hustle School, in which every day for a year he is profiling a side hustler. What’s he doing there? Guillebeau is illustrating how to go about building a side business by showing you others who have done so. 3. Composite Stories Sometimes we want to tell a story that might involve a breach of privacy or casting a person in a possibly unfavorable light. One way to do this is with a composite story. Psychologists and coaches sometimes do this in stories about clients. A memoirist might use a composite story about someone who’s been harmful in her life. They change some aspect or a few aspects about a person to disguise them. Doing so grants these writers the freedom they need to make a point or fill in a narrative gap. 4. Autobiographical Stories Autobiographical stories are stories from your life, which is straightforward enough, but I want to underscore the credibility and persuasiveness of autobiographical stories even in serious works of analysis or journalism. I think of the most viewed TED talk, for example, by Sir Ken Robinson. His talk is about a very important issue, namely, how we educate our children. But he opens with a humorous story about his child’s school play. It’s very effective. Sometimes academics and journalists assume they’re not allowed to refer to their own lives in their work, but I would argue otherwise. Sometimes a story from your life adds something that lightens or illuminates your work in a compelling way. 5. Data-based Stories If I tell you homicide and suicide are serious issues for today’s teenagers, you have one reaction. But if tell you homicide and suicide are two of the top three leading causes of death for teenagers, my guess is you have quite a different reaction. That may not be a story in a strict definition of the term, but it definitely gets the point across in a more concrete way. The right data can help you underscore your point and give it the weight it deserves. I’ll quickly move some other story types for you to consider: Stories from Literature. Using stories from literature adds gravitas and legitimacy to your writing. Stories from Movies. Naturally these stories often have a visual aspect that’s very engaging. Stories from History. Historical stories can have an educational quality that is gratifying for readers. Dialogical stories. These are stories that involve dialogue between two or more individuals. Very effective in sparking the reader’s imagination. Funny Stories. These are not always appropriate, of course, but there’s nothing like a humorous tale to keep the reader reading! [Tweet “5 Ways Stories Can Make Your Writing Irresistible via @chadrallen #amwriting #askeditor”] Which of these types of stories do you plan to use?