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Episode Transcript

Welcome to The Rebel Author Podcast episode nine and happy fucking New Year guys. It is a new year. And ladies and gentlemen, a new decade too. Can you believe that we’re in a new decade? Does anybody else feel as old as I do right now? Because you know… wow they the Millennium does not feel like it was 20 years ago. I mean, what? That is outrageous. Anyway, I hope you are listening amongst your hangovers and sleep deprived brains and maybe vomiting and if you are make sure you reached the bowl. I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Today I have something special… This is a surprise episode. Well it’s not a surprise episode because we all knew episode nine was coming. But it’s a surprise because it’s not an interview episode. Today is a solo show from me. And hopefully you’re not all going to turn it off. However, next week normal service will return and I will be interviewing YouTube sensation Jenna Moreci. So if I’m not interviewing anyone today, what the hell is this show? Well, in a bid to be more accountable and transparent and also let’s be real give me a bit of a kick up the ass, I’m going to try a new thing. I’m going to run a quarterly solo show. It’s going to be a shortsshow oooh I nearly said shit show! Anyway, it’s going to be a short show because mostly it’s just me talking, but also because it’s going to be highly specific. I am going to be confessing my quarterly projects, and goals if you want to call them goals, and then come the end of the quarter, I’m going to confess the progress (or not) that I’ve made towards them.

I’m sorry about the windy, hoovery, hairdryer, sounds in the background. Hopefully those will have stopped now. My wife was drying her hair. And I’m amazed that my mic picked it up because it was definitely downstairs. So go mic. Anyway, where was I? Right? Yes. So last time, I asked listeners about their reading goals for 2019 and it was an inadvertent question I didn’t entirely mean to ask it. I obviously meant to ask it. But anyway, lots of you have tweeted or commented, and that made my day. So thanks, guys. I am going to make a thing out of this every single episode, I’m going to frame a question, probably around the episode, or perhaps maybe something thoughtful that I have thought about during the episode, or whatever. And if I get responses, then I will give some of them some shout outs. So last time, we had loads and I’m going to go through some of them now. So a couple actually weren’t about the question. So I’ll start with those.

Ida Duque Writes on Twitter says I’ve been binge listening. Is that a thing? (It’s totally a thing) to Sacha Black’s podcast on YouTube. She has a great voice — oh stop. Thank you, darling. Thank you — She’s so freaking cool and relatable and has great advice as She’s literally going through Growing Pains as so many of us are in this writing thing. You know what? I really am and I hope that I am honest and transparent enough that you guys can see both the highs and the lows, as I do go through this whole writing thing and hopefully you can learn from my fuck ups. So thank you Ida. That was really great. Also, yes, if you didn’t know I do post all of my podcast episodes on to YouTube, I did have a bit of a duplicate posting issue that’s now been sorted out because I have a new podcast provider. I’m now with Podbean shout out for Podbean and but hopefully those will all be fine now. So if you would like to listen to the podcast on YouTube, you can just type in Sacha Black and you should be able to find me here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCmGEeUxCRW5ZVxwJ_mEunw?

Next in Val Neil says your rant about December at the beginning of the last episode had me laughing my ass off. And thank you, glad that my pain and misery around Christmas makes you laugh. And she also continued to say she doesn’t have Goodreads and she can’t remember how many books she’s read. And as she starts and stops so many. I think as I get older, I start and stop a lot more books than I used to. I have been trying, to finish books, but the older I get the more conscious of my mortality I am and the less time I have to read before I die. So don’t read shit books.

Moving on. Aime Sund says I think I have a Goodreads goal of 25 and I’m done with 23 with two more in progress so I should meet my goal. Wicked. I don’t think I started the Goodreads app until April or something though. Okay, yeah. So it’s not going to track them all. And Goodreads doesn’t count beta reads or arcs either. So I know I’m actually over 25 I love how Goodreads keeps track and so that I can see what I’ve shelved for later which is no small list! Mine neither. And also, I really hate that Goodreads won’t allow you to upload unpublished manuscripts because I’ve read a whole load of those and they don’t count towards my goal, which is painful.

Next one. Tim Seabrook says I had my huge goal of 100—which is insane—and I’ve only hit 84 only—like that’s a small number—plus two unpublished. A lot more of my time this year has been on writing instead of just reading and at the end of the day. That is super, super important. Yes, we should be reading but we also have to write the damn book. Otherwise, we have nothing to publish. Writing and reading should always be in some kind of a balance. Okay, Ritu says… wait for this guy’s… drumroll… 140 read. What? I need is some kind of sound effect for my mind imploding “plus a few unpublished reads as a beta reader” I just… I, there’s nothing I can say to that it’s insane. Well done. Well done that man.

Okay, Edwin Downward, tweeted me and said you asked about reading goals for the end. I use Goodreads to track my reading and unfortunately will once again foreshorten my 30 books target. However, he did read several books that he recommended, and I have put those on my TBR or I definitely put one of them on my TBR anyway. Thank you to everyone who tweeted.

Okay, on to my first quarter 2020 projects. I… am nervous to admit to these goals. This is a public forum and if I don’t hit them, well, shame on me. However, I have 19 goals. Yes, I’m fully aware that sounds like an awful lot but not all of them are enormous. So look, fuck it, I’m just gonna have a go and see how accountable this makes me feel and whether or not it works as a forum. So okay here we go right number one I need to finish and publish The Anatomy of Prose. The Anatomy of Prose is my next nonfiction book at the time of recording this which is the 22nd of December, I am 47,000 words into what I think will be a 67,000 word manuscript so I’m pretty close to the end. And that also means number two, project is finishing and by finish I mean start and edit and finish The Anatomy of Prose Workbook. I always publish those two together. So those are my first two goals. The third goal which goes hand in hand… not goal, I’m not calling them goals. I’m calling them projects when their goals I like to rebel against them. So these are my projects

So project three is to record, edit, master and publish The Anatomy of Prose audiobook. So essentially before Christmas, I thought I was going to record the villains book but I’ve decided actually it makes more sense to go with the books that I’m writing now and then work backwards. So I’ll be doing prose and then I’ll go back and do the audiobook for villains.

Number four is to finish and publish Trey, which is the third book in my young adult fantasy series. Now I’m 75,000 words through this manuscript and I suspect it will probably be another 15 or so thousand. So You know, in the first three months thus far, we’re probably only looking at a total of 15…35… me trying to do math that probably about 45-50,000 months, so I don’t think that’s excessive.

Next in number five, this is so embarrassing this shows *mumbles*. Right, right, number five. Okay, I want to write an exclusive epilogue that goes after the end of Keepers for my readers and as a reader magnet for my fiction readers, so I need to do that.

Number six will be to get a cover to go with that.

And number seven is publish it. So that will be all of the re-editing, the auto responders and everything that goes along that so those are…

Umm seven? I think it was seven. So yes, Okay, number eight. I do some freelance work and I am the conference and blog manager for the lines of independent authors. And every spring and fall, I run their self-publishing advice conference. So that will come into this quarter. So yeah, do the spring self-publishing advice conference. Number nine. I need to put numbers next to these number nine. I have a terrible habit of wasting an hour in the morning so I dropped my son at school and usually, like I’m up early enough, but okay, like maybe 50% of the time I’m home by 8am. Christ, God, I’m already confessing so many things on this frickin baby. I’m not gonna do this again. Anyway, right so I get home on a good day at 8. However, it’s usually 9:00 or 9:30 before I’m really putting my head into the books, so I want to stop that and I want to be productive and have something to show for that first hour in the morning. So here’s me putting my hands up and admitting I procrastinate and need to stop. And and I’m going to do something about that in the first quarter of 2020.

I think this is a number 10… When I launch The Anatomy of Prose, I would like to appear on some podcasts. So I will be pitching some people. And if you guys have any recommendations for podcasts that you listen to that take guests please do tweet me or email me or contact me in some way or another, or if you would like me to come on your podcast hit me up and I would love to come and talk about improving prose.

Number 11 okay, I think I’ve got it, I think it’s number 11. Now, number 11 I would like to do a paperback boxset of villains 13 steps to evil. I’ve been wanting to do one of those for a really long time and just for a multitude of reasons, including being a bad publisher. I haven’t done it . So I I would like to do that as long as funds allow then I will be doing that. It will also be a nice time to coincide with getting the audiobook started or at least the book reviewed and reread and changing things for audio.

Next in his Number 12 the hardback for Keepers so I want to move to having all of my fiction books in hardback and the first one I will be starting with is Keepers. Now the Keepers cover wasn’t designed by my current designers so I’ve always been a bit hesitant to do this because I don’t know if it’s going to require a complete redesign of the cover which will obviously be more expensive than just having a hardback created and attached to the paperback. So we’ll see hopefully I will be able to do that but we will see.

Number 13, once I have published Trey, I will have three books in my fiction series. So I will be creating a box set. I’ve already got the cover so it will be formatting, proofing sticking in some bonus material and then ordering a proof. I might not publish it in the first quarter just because I’d like to leave some time between publishing Trey and publishing the box set, but I will be doing it nonetheless.

Number 14 getting Rebel Author merchandise live so Icy Sedgwick has created some amazing designs for me. Thank you very much, I see and I would like to get those live so yeah.

15 I… okay whoa big confession. I’m feeling under pressure when I say this. I would like to take this podcast weekly. Now I don’t know how realistic that is. I don’t know if there’s even a desire for that. Would you guys want me to be doing this weekly? But that is my hope, that I can get this weekly. Lot of things depend on that, for example, the amount of work it takes. So yeah, we will see but that is my hope. And let me know if you’d like that.

Number 16 sort some merchandise for my young adult series, I would really like to go to the young adult literature conference and have a stall there. So that is in preparation for that. I haven’t quite made up my mind. So that one is a bit of an iffy one, but nonetheless, it is in there.

Number 17. I am going to make a concerned effort to market to my fiction next year once I have three books and a boxset. And I will also have another fiction book in a different series by the end of next year. So I really need to be spending more time marketing. So I want to do some research and do a bit of a mega marketing plan.

So that was 17 I think. Number 18, finish an Instagram course that I purchased a little while ago.

Number 19. Last, but by no means least, is some really heavy reading into plotting. So in this whole journey into self-publishing has been a roller coaster of finding out what works, what doesn’t work, finding out what I like and what I don’t like. And that’s quite empowering but also overwhelming and confusing, because there’s nobody to tell me the right answer is and whilst I know I’m never going to be the sort of person that can publish a book a month. I also know that getting to the end of 2019 without having published anything isn’t good enough for me. And Yes, okay, I left my job and I did a whole transition I moved house and blah, blah, blah, but I would like to be faster than I am. And I’m happy saying that and I don’t think that’s an unrealistic expectation. And that’s sort of the reason I also said about, the 8am to 9am accountability and making sure I’m productive in that hour. So, yeah, now the reason I am talking about plotting is because I think innately I like structure and, you know, my Myers Briggs is E/I borderline but more NTJ and that essentially means I’m the sort of person that does things in advance. I like planning, I like to do lists, I like structure. I like plotting. What I don’t like is when bloody characters go off and do whatever the fuck they want that isn’t in my plan. So I just think I need to do some more study and re-look at trying to plot because I have basically written the last two books more or less pantsing, and it’s taken me fucking forever to get through them. So I don’t think that is what I should be doing. I think I should be doing a plot with flexibility. So yeah, anyway, I’m going to stop waffling, I’m going to do some research on that.

Now. I also have a stretch goal. Originally this was in my quarterly goals which made me have 20. But also, I don’t really want to burn out. So I put this as a stretch goal and it will be a quarter 2 goal if I don’t get it done. But I would like to start drafting The Scent of Death if I can in quarter one. That is the fiction book I mentioned that’s in a different series. I’ve just had the cover done, and it’s amazing. Okay, I think that’s it. Those are my quarterly goals. I have confessed my goals… They’re not they’re my quarterly projects projects, damn it. And I think that wraps up this episode. My question to you so my question of the week because there is another episode next week. My question to you is, what are your quarterly goals? Or if you don’t have quarterly goals and you have annual goals, then tell me your annual goals. And I will give them some of them a shout out next week.

The post 009 – Sacha Goes Solo and Confesses Her Quarterly ‘Goals’ appeared first on Sacha Black.

I had all these plans. Plans for my second non-fiction book to be about heroes or maybe characters more generally.

But like Lennon said,

“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” 

And no matter what I do, it’s not characters I’m thinking about. It’s productivity. I mean, just two weeks ago, I wrote about productivity and Cal Newport’s book Deep Work.

I guess now I understand the phrase write what you know. Productivity is where my focus is at, so writing about anything else is proving difficult.

I feel like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar, when he’s desperate to tell a simple lie: he wants to say the pen is red when it’s blue. 

Only I’m trying to convince myself the next book I write is on characters when all that keeps coming out is productivity.

Balls.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

“They see productivity as a scientific problem to systematically solve-” Cal Newport, DEEP WORK p.39

That was one of the quotes from two weeks ago, and I’m still thinking about it. See non-fiction books solve problems. I NEED to solve the productivity problem. I guess in the end, you have to face the fact the pen is blue and I have to write the damn book on productivity.

Which means I need your help.

I like doing research before I embark on a non-fiction project so that whatever I craft is fit for purpose. So below is a survey on productivity. With questions on your writing style, techniques, and problems. I’d be super grateful if you’d help me out and fill it in. It’s completely anonymous, I won’t know who you are and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

Let me know what your best tip for productivity is in the comments.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

Thank you in advance  

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The post The Productivity Problem #MondayBlogs #Amwriting appeared first on Sacha Black.

I don’t believe in miracles or luck. I believe in hard graft, grit, a ton of sweat and the 70,000 words of baking time needed to make a book.

So until I either win the lottery or publish and sell enough books I can replace my salary, I’m pretty sure I will live in a constant state of unhinged mania and excessive perspiration.

It also means I constantly seek out new ways to make myself as productive as possible. ‘Efficiency’ is my middle name… mostly, when I’m not, you know, procrastinating in the time swallowing beast that is social media.

Now book 1 is done, released in the big scary world, I thought the burning desire to publish books would wither, or at least simmer down momentarily. But instead, I pressed published and it was like throwing uranium on my already lit book-flamethrower.

The knowledge that I can do it, has only fuelled my insatiable need to do it. In a way, I guess I’m a fifteen-year-old book-boy who just had his first shag and now he can’t get enough of getting his leg over the publish button.

But that provides me with a problem. I don’t have any more time in my day. I’ve given up everything, including my poor neglected wife. Which means I need to find a way to be more productive. I need to find a way to write faster or achieve that euphoric state of ‘flow’ quicker.

I’ve just read a book that blew my mind. And I want to share some of the things I’ve learned about time, productivity and output.

I get asked a lot how I get so much done. Mostly, I shrug moan it’s not enough and ask them how I can be more productive. To date, I’ve received strangled looks and wrinkled noses.

“Umm, just, you know… like write faster. Or don’t watch TV?”

Really?

I gave up TV two years ago. So for the longest time, I’ve continued in my perpetually frustrated vein, producing whatever I could, and looking rather ragged.

That was until I read DEEP WORK, by Cal Newport.

If you haven’t read it and you’re even remotely pushed for time, get that bad boy in your life. FAST.

AmazonUK, AmazonCOM

See, one little quote explained exactly how I felt about productivity and time.

“They see productivity as a scientific problem to systematically solve-“ Cal Newport, DEEP WORK p.39.

My brain literally exploded into a trillion mind boggled, epiphany-gasmed pieces.

YES. YES. FUCK YES.

So how do you solve it? Well, you have to read the book, obviously. I’m not going to tell you everything, he’s an author after all.

But here are some principles.

TIP 1 – NOTIFICATIONS

Cal Newport hates social media. Actually, perhaps that’s not fair, he doesn’t hate it. He just never created an account. Oh, how I wish that were me. But it’s not, and in some ways, it’s pretty darned useful as an author platform building tool.

However, I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that social media is the crack of the 21st century. It’s as addictive as heroin and about as useful to productivity as a coma.

Now, try not to choke, but this is about to get uncomfortable, it might even hurt…

Switch your notifications on your phones, iPads, and laptops OFF. Cut the sodding ethernet cord and LIVE YOUR LIFE.

I know. I know. BUT THE TWEETY-LIKEY-STATUSY-UPDATES…

Hate to break it to you, but no one cares that you ate left over lasagne for dinner for the 8th night in a row. Miss a few comments? Take 3 hours to reply to someone’s like? SO FREAKING WHAT.

Get over it. Really. It’s okay. If you don’t respond to my comment, you know what? I probably won’t even notice.

In an act of sheer desperation, I’d actually switched off my social media notifications the week before I read Cal’s book. You know what happened?

Fuck all.

No one noticed, no one cared, and I got back a good hour or two of my life EVERYDAY. I’ll admit, It was horrific at first. I did check my phone incessantly, then, after a few days, I just stopped. My phone battery lasted all day and I still responded to people and no one died. My phone didn’t have a stream of alerts telling me about the consistency and frequency of the world and his dog’s latest toilet visits. I felt better, clearer even and my eyes were no longer flashing to my phone every three seconds and I concentrated. HARD. 

Best of all, instead of a blog post taking three hours, it took one.

TIP 2 – SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKS

Go one hour with no social media. Then stretch it to three. Then a whole evening. You’d be surprised how easy it actually is. Remember those people that inhabit your house? Go. Speak to them.

Now repeat 7x a week.

TIP 3 – ATTENTION, PRESENCE & FOCUS

I’m terrible at being present. Mostly because of  the constant multi-tasking and ‘loudness’ of my mind. But Newport says attention and focus is the prime way in which you can achieve more. He’s right of course, but I won’t give away all his secrets. Read the book. But one new thing I am doing because of him is scheduling all my time to help with my attention.

TIP 4 – SCHEDULING

I know, it sounds crazy bureaucratic, and more inefficient than productive. But it’s not. Just read the sodding book and you’ll understand the psychology of it.

The point is. Work time, going forward will be ‘internet free’. I’ve been trying this for the longest time, and it worked to an extent. But I like to research as I write. And you know where that leads to… A cheeky notification or 800 pops up as soon as I flick the internet back on and 43 minutes later I return to my neglected manuscript.

No more.

The art of scheduling means every minute of your day is blocked. 

But fear not this is not a minute-by-minute schedule. It’s blocks of time.

So, I have ‘morning routine’ ‘8 hrs of work’ ‘3 hours of mum-time’ and then at 7pm the real scheduling begins. Going forward 7pm – 9pm will be internet free. NO excuses, no infractions, period.

Two solid hours, of distraction free writing time.

9pm-12pm is split in half, between blog stuff and marketing.

Now, the only problem is my need to story-research. I’ll do more before I write. But if I’m desperate, then according to Newport, you delay the ‘research’ for a short block of time, this stops the addictive gratification of notifications. 5 minutes is all that’s needed, you put place holder text in, and write on. If you find that you end up back in the flow, stick to your original writing schedule. If you need the research, then take the break after the 5-minute delay is over.

Tip 5- THE FALL OF MULTITASKING

I used to think multitasking was awesome. It’s rare that I’m wrong. But I was well and truly wrong on this one.

“People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand… they’re pretty much mental wrecks.” Cal Newport, DEEP WORK p.158

That was me.

As soon as I read that, I took a shotgun to multitasking and blew it’s fucking brains out.

Multitasking is dead. Long Live King FOCUS.

One more lesson. One of the only things I actually did do prior to reading his book…

“One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change – not rest, except in sleep.” Cal Newport, DEEP WORK p.214

YES.YES. FUCK YES.

Attention. Focus. Distraction Free Writing Time. And Task Changing When Tired.

I am all kinds of hot and bothered about DEEP WORK, I’m still fanning myself with its productive pages. It’s  truly been an eye opener and I feel more productive just having read it, let a lone implementing his techniques.

If you want to get more done with your time, you need to read this book.

AmazonUK, AmazonCOM

Do you see productivity as a problem to be solved? What’s your most effective productivity tip? Let me know in the comments.

***

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains

OUT NOW

Click this link to purchase and then click the logo of your device or regular bookshop, and it will take you to the right page.

You can also get a FREE villains cheat sheet by joining my mailing list just click here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

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Do you ever sit down at your desk/sofa/perch of perpetual word-vomiting midnight visiting coffee guzzling glory with the full intention of having an awesome writing session, only to look up at the clock, see it’s 11 pm and realize you’ve written the sum total of, fuck all?

Yeh, me too. I need to be a more productive writer.

But I’m trying to change that. After a catastrophic month in which I managed approximately three WIP words, I’ve decided next month has to change.

I gots me some books to write, people. Wasting a month, no matter how many of those hours were spent on important things, just ain’t good enough.

But I don’t want to just write faster. Me writing faster looks like a garbled shitstorm of gobbledycrap. And that’s less helpful than a delete button on steroids.

Instead, I’m approaching this tactically and I thought I’d share the tricks I’m implementing with you.

ONE: PLAN

I know. I know. You’re a Pantser. No excuse, so am I! Being a Pantser is no excuse for disorganization. Do you want to get more done or not?

Here’s what happens when I don’t plan my writing:

Sit at my desk. Stare for a couple of minutes, scratch various body parts. Try to figure out what I am going to write. Write nothing. Check Facebook. Respond to comments. Pin shit. Stumble Shit. Read blog posts. Reply to comments…

Two hours evaporate and guess what… I’ve written nothing.

Sound familiar? If you’re shifting awkwardly in your seat, then just admit it. It’s fine. We all do it. But now’s the chance to do something about it.

Plan your writing. At the end of each writing session, I write down what I need to do in the next two. Why two? Because sometimes I write fast, I’m more productive than I expect and if I get to the end of my allotted plan and don’t know what’s next on my list, I’ll revert to social media stalking.

Writing it down physically feels important too. A bit like signing in blood. If I keep it in my head I can ignore it. If its inked I’m more obliged.

What do I mean by plan? Doesn’t need to be much:

• Write chapter 4
• Edit chapter 20
• Write the scene with the booger and snowman
• Write an ironic post on productivity

And do you know what happens when I sit down knowing what I need to do?

I write.

I get shit done.

I don’t procrastinate.

TWO: CUT THE CABLE

Hate to say it, but the internet is a drug. I’m like a crack addict waiting in line for the local dealer to get my next fix. I’m Gollum with his shiny golden pretty. I’m… okay you get the point.

Our computers are smart. Unless your evil, you don’t need to turn the actual wi-fi off and make everyone else in the house suffer. Flip the switch on your own computer.

Then flip your (phone/iPad/tablet…insert choice of technological device of wonderment) over so you can’t see the notifications pop up. This one is key, there’s plenty of bonafide lab-coat experiments that prove how detrimental notifications are to a person’s anxiety level. If we get a notification we HAVE to look at it.

Know what happened when I flipped mine? I edited a chapter a night for a week, plus I wrote blog posts and finally when I turned the wi-fi back on, went straight to my blog comments and sat and replied to all of them too.

I had no idea how much of a time drain the internet was until I actually cut the cable. I was stuck with tinted specs, living in ga-ga land thinking I wasn’t one of ‘those’ writers. I told myself the only reason I had the internet on when I was writing was to use the thesaurus.

I’m an idiot, and I was very wrong. I bought a thesaurus cut the proverbial cable and now I get words done.

I will NEVER write WIP words with the internet on again. EVER.

TWO POINT ONE: CHEAT

I love a shortcut and since I wrote this post, there have been many, many wonderful pieces of software created to help you sucker-punch the parts of the internet that hurt you most.

FREEDOM software does what it says on the tin. It gives you freedom from social media and any other distractions you choose on the internet.

You can block particular websites (of your choice) for a set amount of time. Leaving you free to research character names or settings without slipping into Facebook stalking.

Freedom has some other cool tools, like allowing you to set times for your sessions, as well as reoccurring times – let’s say you always write 5 am to 6 am. You can tell Freedom that, and you won’t have to waste valuable self-control trying not to check Facebook first thing in the morning.

What are you even waiting for?

Go get freedom.

THREE: PACKAGE IT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3rB_qx0wRM

I’m not actually talking about wrapping your book in some nice shiny Christmas paper. I’m talking about your time. This blog is a time suck. I love it. Just as I love to exercise and reading and all manner of other things. But none of them are helping me to write my books.

We have a choice.

Prioritize the blog, the comments and the interaction, respond all day every day and watch as your precious WIPs disappear into the ether of WordPress management.

Or

Package your time. Block off sections of time for each ‘thing’ that needs managing, put them in your calendar and only do those things in that time slot.

I get well over a thousand comments a month on WordPress alone. I LOVE them. I WANT to reply to each and every one. But I also love my WIP.

I’ve reverted to weekly blog notifications. I only receive posts on a Sunday. (You can change this in the WordPress ‘manage who I follow’ section). Where possible, I only read posts on a Sunday. Now that’s not strictly true, I do read stuff in the week, especially before bed. But by and large, I sit with a fat cup of coffee and plow through all the lovely posts I’ve been waiting for all week. I have hundreds of posts to read which is why what doesn’t get read on a Sunday, doesn’t get read at all. It’s a hard choice but I love my WIP more than I love anything else.

Plus, for my sanity, I need to start the week fresh knowing I haven’t got a constant backlog of posts to catch up on. Otherwise, the week starts bad, and I’m always behind.

If you want a career writing, then you need to be productive. Not just productive, but prolific. Here are three quick tips to help you be a more productive writer. #amwriting #indieauthor #IARTG #ASMRG #writingcommunity
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So tell me, what tactics do you use? Tell me how you’ve become a more productive writer in the comments below.

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10 Life Hacks For The Efficient Writer

The post 3 Tactics to Make You a More Productive Writer appeared first on Sacha Black.

Do you ever need just five more minutes in your day? Maybe you want to edit another post, or write a short, or a piece of flash for a competition. But you just don’t seem to have enough time. I’m writing this post, because I always need more time. I’m pretty good at being efficient. But I could be better. I know I could squeeze another half hour out my day. But how when I’m a busy worker bee, mother, wife, friend, chef, cleaner…. Etc etc?!

Cheat – thats how!

Find work arounds, life hacks, and quick fixes. For the sake of simplicity I am going to break this down into three categories. Work – because lets face it, most of our day is spent there, Home because that’s where the rest of it is spent and Technology, because that’s where your quick wins are. Snatching 2 minutes here, 4 minutes there, they all add up. I guarantee if you start thinking differently and use your time wisely, you can start churning out the words.

Work

There are lots of things you could be doing at work to squeeze a few extra minutes into your day. You need to stay switched on, mind. None of this taking a leisurely half hour to re read what you wrote last time (I do this). You need to be on top form for this to work. For the sake of ease I am using a typical office work environment, hopefully you can translate to your work environment.

1. How do you get to work? Drive? Walk? Bus? Cycle?

Walkings obvious, you can write notes, stories or pieces of flash on an iPad or phone. But what of the other methods – what happens if you drive? Ever thought of a Dictaphone? Can’t afford it? Ok, what about dragon dictation it’s free app, and as you talk it converts your speech to text.

2. Cars parked.You pick your bag up and walk into the office. But what do you do on your walk to your desk? Scratch your nose? Pick a wedgey out? Bimble around? Chat to co-workers? Or do the worst… check facebook, twitter or a number of other social media sites?

STOP.

Get your phone out yes, but have a notes app, a writing app or find a pen and piece of paper and write. Write notes, work out a character problem, write a piece of flash. Can’t write without reading what you wrote before? Fine, start a new chapter, write a character bio, do something different, damn, you could just think about your novel if you really wanted. But do something rather than nothing. Because nothing, doesn’t get your novel written.

3. What about when your laptop is loading? My work computer takes at least five mintues to load. How do you use those five minutes?

4. What about when you walk between meetings? Same principle applies. Focus, write. Walking to the toilet what do you do? What about sitting on the toilet… other than the obvious! Some people spend an age on the loo, why not use that time productively?

 5. Ever stand in the lunch queue? What do you do on your lunch break? Have a social? Catch up with friends? I’ve started taking my laptop, leaving my desk, finding a cubby hole, setting a timer and furiously writing for 25 minutes. If I don’t, I end up eating at my desk and working through lunch. Well, we all need a lunch break, it is allowed you know! I get between 300 and 750 words done in that time too. That’s a lot of words I might not have written if I didn’t take my lunch.

6. Ever sit and wait for people to turn up for a meeting? write notes, take a spare notebook, write a story. What about when you are in a meeting? I mean, ok, you need to pay attention to the work, but do you ever pay attention to the people? To the body language? What about a heated exchange at work? Use it. Steal ideas for characters or scenes from your coworkers.

Home

There are simply hundreds of ways to get more time at home.

7. Cook?

I’m, the chef in our house. But I find myself mindlessly stirring the cooking pot like a zombie. Why not put a note pad next to the oven, and use it. Yes you need to cook, but there’s no harm in writing the odd note here and there.

8. What about when you do the housework?

Are you mindful when you do it? What do you think about? Why not think about your novel, construct sentences and plot lines. Blue tac a piece of paper to the door of every room in your house. When you come out of the room having finished cleaning, challenge yourself to write 5 bullet points or a subplot, 3 dialogue sentences or maybe 3 straight sentences from your current story.

I talked about the loo earlier, why not remove the magazines and leave a note pad instead?

9. Own a dog? What do you do when you walk the dog?

If you have a phone why not write, spend time considering your next plot twist. Dogs basically walk themselves anyway right? :p

10. Wifi

Now here’s the biggest time waster for me. The bloody joyous procrastination tool that is, the internet. More specifically, social media. It’s fitting then, that I take my own advice and cut down. I have 30ish thousand words left of my first draft of my novel. I’ve decided to drop down to just 3 posts a week until the bloody thing is finished (well a first draft anyway). But more than that, I am taking another drastic move. I do solemnly swear to switch the wireless off on my laptop when I sit down to write, and only turn it back on for research purposes. I shudder to think the amount of time I have wasted on various social media sites when I could have been writing. Or worst when I went to research something and a notification came up which I thought ‘I’ll just check it quickly.’ The thing is, I’ve tried to be good before. But the only sure fire method of ensuring I don’t procrastinate is by switching it off.

Technology

I don’t need to list it all here, there are dozens of tech blogs that can do it better than me. I mentioned Dragon Dictation earlier. But there are lots of apps and programmes that sync up between phones and iPads and laptops, like Evernote.

Here’s The Top Ten Apps For Writers from the Huffington Post.

Here’s the 20+ top iPad apps for writers from the Daily Genius.

And because I’m not biased to iPhones (I am) here’s a list of the top android apps for writers.

And last but not least The Best Apps for Any Kind of Writing from Lifehacker.

Did I leave anything out? What are your most efficient tips and tricks for more writing?

The post 10 Life Hacks For The Efficient Writer appeared first on Sacha Black.