3 Ways to Manage Your Time

Time is a beast that every writer must tame otherwise it slips through our fingers with all too much ease. Family duties, job demands, and general living all have a stake in our time. On our list of priorities, writing has a tendency to drop to the lower ranks. Before we know it another year has gone by and we are no closer to finishing our novels. So what are some ways we can manage our precious time?

1. Prioritise. How important is writing to you? Are you happy with it to remain a hobby or would you like to make a career out of writing? These are the questions you need to ask yourself. If you want to make a career of it, then you have to treat it like any other job. When it is time to go to work, then you need to find a way of switching off from all other distractions and write.

2. Schedule. A great way of finding time to write is schedule a time to write. This not only helps you, but it also helps your family members. They will get used to the time you devote to writing especially if you have a regular schedule for it. They will even help you to stick to that schedule.

At this point I need to add that some people – me included – don’t like the rigidity of schedules. I can’t stick to one rule for schedules because I need a level of flexibility. I try to write every day. I try to start writing my WIP at 9.30am at the latest Monday-Friday. I take 30min lunch break (sometimes 40mins) and then I write some more until 2-3pm. If my writing is cooking then I’ll keep going. I don’t often write past 4.30pm, although it has been known to happen on that sweet rare occasion. Of course, that schedule goes out the window on the weekends, but that’s ok, as long as I find some time to write.

3. Make Goals. The best way I’ve found to manage my time is working with word count goals. My minimum goal per week is 7000 words. My daily word count is a loose 1000 words a day. Some days I can only squeeze out 400 words. That might sound sad and disappointing, but with my weekly goal, I can play catch up without having to bemoan the lack of progress. Some days I’ve written 1000 words in an hour so I keep writing and take great joy in the bonus words. With these relatively easy goals, I’m able to feel a sense of achievement with my writing and I’m able to push myself more if I’m close to a self-made deadline.

Of course, you don’t have to give yourself micro goals to help you manage your time. You can give yourself a broader goal. For example, you can tell yourself you want to finish your first draft by September.

When all is said and done, there is no point comparing yourself to anyone else. You have to find what works for you.

What are some tricks you’ve found that help you manage your time?

5 Ways to Crisp up your Writing.

Have you ever read a story that fell limp? Have you ever watched a movie where the characters were dull? I have no doubt your answer will be a resounding, "yes!" So, how, as writers, do we escape the boring characters? How do we avoid the fizzle? In other words, how can we freshen up our writing and make it more engaging for the reader?

1. Throw everything you have into your writing. I wrote tedious essays in school. I would spew out 2000+ words of dry facts and boring details and figured that would do. Technically they were correct. They had an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. But they were horrible. I got fair grades but there was nothing extraordinary about my work. Because I lacked passion. If you are passionate about your subject or your story, then that passion will translate into your work.

2. Never accept a ‘close enough is good enough’ attitude. Sloppy work will only cause regret later on. The practice of sloppiness will also mean critics will see you as an amateur – no matter how many books you sell. Always strive to be the best you can be.

3. Learn your craft. Sure, anyone can string a few sentences together and call themselves a writer, but you need to think of yourself as a wordsmith: someone who has to learn the power of words to be able to wield that power. The more you learn how to use words, the greater the impact you’ll be able to achieve.

4. Look for the new angle on an old subject. Clichés riddle our society. It’s in our speech, our media, our music and our stories. At the risk of sounding like an old fogey before my time -- I blame television. We watch too much of it and soak ourselves in its cliché spittle. I recently listened to some political speeches for Australia’s coming elections. The party leaders drowned in Aussie clichés. It made me wonder if they thought the public wouldn’t be able to understand anything more intelligent or thought provoking. And so I say – with passion – try to rise above the masses and write something new. (lol, even I’m not immune to the occasional cliché)

5. Seek honesty in your writing. Rather than writing what you think others expect or want to read, write with honesty the truths in your heart. This takes courage and requires practice. It means steering away from plastic representations of characters. It means going that step further to find the realism in your work. It may even mean writing to a different market than the one you originally chose. Readers respond to honesty, no matter what form it takes.

How do you freshen up your writing?

Versatile Blogger Award

Last week Rosie from East for Green Eyes gave me the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much, Rosie!

This award comes with the following rules:
1. Thank the person who loved me enough to bestow this gift.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Bestow this honour onto 15 newly discovered or followed bloggers – in no particular order – who are fantastic in some way.
4. Drop by and let my fifteen friends know I love them.

Seven Things
Since this is a writing blog and I try to keep as much to the theme as possible, I thought I’d share seven random tips I’ve learned about writing:

1. Don’t worry about the technicalities of writing. Don’t stress about correctness. Just write. Then edit.
2. Every writer, established, famous, or new, will experience writer’s block. Don’t let it defeat you. Keep writing.
3. If it’s about fame and fortune, reassess now. The chance of getting rich off your writing and gaining celebrity status is as high as winning big on the lottery. It’s possible, but it’s not likely, so don’t bank all your hopes on that.
4. It’s better to be a slave to your story than your story a slave to you. Think about that one.
5. Exercise sharpens the mind and makes a better writer. No matter how much I resist this one, it’s true.
6. No matter how much time you have to write, it’s never enough. Consequently, it’s better to have less time because you’ll be less likely to squander it.
7. Everyone has a right to be heard. Your voice is just as valid as someone else’s. So keep writing. (lol, maybe I should rename my blog to “Just Keep Writing”)

And now to pass on the award (no particular order):
Amanda @ All that Good Jazz
Jennifer @ Unedited
Mary @ Wistful Nebulae
Victoria @ Hairnets and Hopes
Erinn @ Something Else to Distract Me
Terri @ Terri Tiffany Inspiration Writer

Flash Fiction: Boogie Fear

Flash fiction is exactly how it sounds: a story in a flash. It is less than a 1000 words, but more often it is less than 500. That’s not a lot of words to cram a story into, and, for that reason, I recommend every fiction writer to have a go at writing some flash fiction.

Flash fiction teaches the writer brevity. It trains them to seek and destroy all unnecessary words.

Don’t for a minute think that writing flash fiction is easy. It is unforgiving. There’s little time for character development. It relies on story, a punchy beginning, and a pow ending.

Boogie Fear was accepted for publication way back in February. I’ve been itching for it to reach the public eye. At last it has, and, because it’s online, I can share it with my blogging friends. If you wish, you can register and vote for your favourite stories as well. I’d love to know what you think.

Have you tried any flash fiction?

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Vocabulary: Expand or Not to Expand?

In one camp sits the belief that it’s not necessary for a writer to expand their vocabulary. It can often lead to stilted writing, it can add an air of pompousness, and it can slow the readers down.

In the other camp sits the belief that it is necessary for a writer to expand their vocabulary. The more words we learn, the more skilled we will be to express ourselves.

In George Orwell’s classic, 1984, the government removed words from the public’s vocabulary in order to remove their ability to think with clarity. “Doubleplusgood” replaced words like “excellent”, “exceptional”, and “brilliant”. “Bad” became “ungood”. This is, of course, an extreme example but it does drive the point home: we need words. So, how far do we go to learn new ones?

My take on the issue: We naturally pick up new words through reading and, as writers, we should be reading a wide range of books anyway. I don’t believe it’s something to stress about. I don’t believe it’s necessary to hunt down new words. When we come back from the hunt with a shiny new gem, we may have a tendency to use the new word for the sake of the new word alone, rather than using it because it’s the right word.

Words interest and fascinate me, but I choose not to use many of the ‘high brow’ ones because it’s just not my writing style. Whenever I throw one in it stands out like a beacon and screams, “Oh, look at me! I’m a big word. Look how smart the author must be to know me!” (exclamation marks ‘n’ all).

Anything that takes away from the story must go. Anything that draws attention to the writer must also go.

If the big words are your thing then they have a place in your prose. A writer friend of mine loves to indulge in lugubrious pontifications. That’s her style and it’s brilliant because she works it well. It’s not my style.

So, what’s your style of writing? Do you love the big words? Do they work for you or do you work for them?