6 Routine and Productivity Tips

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! I hope you're all enjoying your new year thus far. Today, I'm talking about how to stick to your routine and be productive no matter what you're doing. I won't bore you with a long introduction up here, so grab your coffee or tea, and let's dive on in!

As you all may know, when the pandemic hit, my characters ran from Covid like the bulls in the streets of Pamplona, abandoning me to the woes and worries of the world with nothing to distract me and the very real possibility of getting trampled by depression. It was touch and go there for a minute, but I managed, through the power of flour, to pull myself out of the trenches and keep forging ahead. I created my baking channel and companion cookbook.

My biggest assets have always been my ability to schedule myself for maximum productivity and form routines to keep myself focused. I changed gears so fast I'm surprised my transmission didn't fall out, but here we are, nearly a year later, and I'm still going strong. Below, I'll share a few of my most helpful tips for achieving something you wish to do.

1. Take the time to learn everything you can about the thing you're trying to do. Whether that's using a video camera, editing reels, or proofing dough, find out the how and the why. You'll be better prepared when you get to the action stage of this list.
2. Use a calendar and be realistic. Don't set yourself unobtainable goals a year in the future. Start now (or as soon as humanly possible) and start small. There's no need to go crazy. 100 words every day for a year is 36,500 words. Things add up. Pick a date and just start!
   
3. Plan ahead. Grab yourself a day planner with the hours of each day outlined (mine was $20 at Michael's). Spend an hour each Sunday planning your week. If that's not realistic, loosely outline targets you want to hit then segment and figure out how many hours you need to use to achieve them. Find those hours. For my YouTube channel, I plan a whole three months ahead, and I know exactly when I need to start taping recipes for the next quarter to get them all done in time. Then, I break that down by days then by hours (photo below). Usually, I have lunch breaks planned out, too, but I've been horribly lacking in that area lately, choosing to eat what I film instead. :)
   
4. Stick to your planned routine as though your very life depended on it. Don't let anything get in the way. If you have other obligations, schedule around them to begin with. If something pops up that you can't avoid, reschedule your action item right away. Don't put things off with the intention to "get to them" later and not making a firm plan to do so. You'll never get to them.
   
5. Tell people what you're doing, and ask them not to disturb you during that time. Turn off all your ringers if you need to, and step away from the computer if you can. If not, disable your internet while you write or film or hammer or knit, whatever you're doing. Be as protective of your time as a mama bear is with her cubs. People interrupt? Maul their asses. You now have permission. :) Aren't I generous? haha
6. Be a finisher. If it matters to you, you'll find a way, and if not, you'll find an excuse. Close your eyes, dive in, and give it everything you've got. Even if nothing comes of it, you gave it your all, and that makes you a winner every time. Celebrate those successes of finishing. Even if it's only forty-five minutes all to yourself (if you get this reference, you're now my bestie-haha! I'm totally kidding, Tia. You'll always be my bestie!).
   

Above all, don't be hard on yourself. Enjoy whatever it is you're doing, because if you don't enjoy it, what's the point? You don't have to be what everyone else considers perfect. Be your own version of greatness. Yours is the only opinion that matters.

I hope you all got something out of this and forge ahead with new energy in this year of 2021. Our future is what we make it. Let's make it great.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

5 Things to Make You a Happier, More Productive Human and Writer

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic, relaxing weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead. I have so very much left to do in order to be ready for Chapter.con, but I have it worked into my schedule for next week. Yay! But that's not what this post is about. Today, I'd like to give you a quick list of ten things you can do that will help you become a happier, more productive individual. Ready? Grab your coffee, and let's get going!

1. Take Care of Yourself
This might be the single most important thing you can do. If you're not functioning at 100%, you're doing yourself a disservice. Need a mental health day? Take it. Trying to find a way to not go crazy every day? Find an outlet. Do something for you each and every day.

2. Stop Stressing About What Other People Think
If there's someone you don't want to interact with, stop. No one should own you or your mental space. Don't let those people eat your time. You have more important things to do.

3. Schedule Yourself
New to the blog? You can find my tips on scheduling here. An old hat? Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about.

4. Let Things Go
Don't let others' actions nag at you, and don't beat yourself up over mistakes you've made. Apologize and move on. If that means moving past that person, go back and read number two. Let it go. Sometimes, "it" is a person.

5. Write (or be Creative) at the Same Time Every Day
This way, your muse knows when to show up. If you're asking her to pop her head in on odd days, chances are, you'll end up staring at a blank screen (or canvas) pretty often, not knowing where to go next. And if it's not working, go do something else for a minute then come back, but don't give up.

Got anything to add?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

5 Reasons Authors are Divas

Happy Friday, everyone! Wowzers, what a crazy week, huh? Hope you all have big plans for the weekend and have a ton of fun. Today, I'm gonna talk a little bit about authors. If you're ready, get comfy, grab a cup of Jo, and let's get going!

5 Reasons Authors are Divas!

Number 1

No one ever told us how much marketing we'd have to do when we published our book. Seriously, that shit wasn't laid out there in the beginning. We had no idea we'd need a degree in human psychology and social media interaction to make anything of ourselves in the book world. Now that we've found out, we lament the loss of our writing time. It makes us grouchy on the best of days (no matter how many cups of coffee we imbibe). We're tired, frustrated, and downright pissed off most of the time because we don't have the magic formula, and when we find something that works, it's suddenly inundated with 5k other people doing the exact same thing. What happens then? We have to go back to the drawing board and pray whatever we try next works, and then wash, rinse, and repeat.

Number 2

It's literally all about us. All the time. We have to be our own biggest cheerleaders, and that makes our heads swell whether we want them to or not. When a person spends all day talking about themselves on social media, it's hard to step out of that mindset and remember how to focus on other people. Just know that most of us don't do it intentionally. Narcissism is a byproduct of marketing yourself.

Number 3

When a person sacrifices so much of themselves, both physically and mentally, to accomplish a task with the magnitude of publishing and marketing a book, they feel like they deserve some kind of reward or acknowledgement for all that they gave up to make it work. To put it simply: This shit ain't easy. Authors give up time with their families, time they'd spend on themselves, and even time to pause and eat something, for the cause. Do we want to take the time to go get mani-pedis? Hell yeah we do! But unless the nail person can come to our office and do our toes under the desk as we write (I still haven't figured out how the manicure would even occur--Dragon?), we're shit out of luck. I hear people say there need to be more hours in a day. That statement makes me laugh. We'd still use those hours to write or market. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and if we're not producing books, or talking about our stuff, we're screwed.

Number 4

We give a lot of stuff away. Why? Because this is what we've been told will make loyal readers. For every few dollars we make, we're probably spending ninety percent of it on giveaways and marketing. Hours are spent setting things up so readers have the most fun at our parties. Then, we find our books on pirate sites, posted by someone we gave an advance review copy to, or we get a one star review from someone we gave several prizes to, only to have them say they'll never read anything by us again. I mean, holy shit, Batman! Do you have any idea what that can do to a non-diva mindset? Yeah... So, we have to hold our heads up and say it doesn't bother us, put on a brave face, and forge ahead. Otherwise, we go down in all-consuming flames of depression and give up.

Number 5

We're tired of hearing how easy it is to write and publish a book. Seriously. So damned tired of it. We're also sick of people shunning us because we're not worldwide bestsellers with a million bucks in the bank. We freaking work hard, and we have to have an attitude about it because we know we've done something all those mouthing bastards who talk about how easy it is haven't done. If they had, they'd never spout all that bullshit to begin with. Rather than berate or negate us or our work, they'd genuflect. Regularly.

Writing is a job. When someone works for themselves, they don't have 9-5 like regular folks. Authors usually work 10-18 hours a day. So do small business owners. Guess why? Yep, because being an author is the same thing as owning a small business.

At this point, are you wondering why we do it? If you are, just know it's because we love what we do. Writing books is what our insides tell us we must keep doing in order to stay sane.

So, if there's a writer in your life, and you wonder why they're so consumed with themselves, take a moment to consider what it is they do every day. Think about what kind of pressure they may be facing. Ask how you can help (if you can), and be sure and tell them what an amazing job you think they're doing. It matters.

Are you an author? Do you know one? What are your thoughts on the above?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Pick Up the Pace

Happy Monday, everyone! Today, we're talking about ways to increase the pace in your novel. I assume you've used the tools in my previous post on measuring pace and scene writing, so now I'm going to give you ways to speed it all up. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how to slow things down. Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get going!

You hear folks talk about how a novel dragged on and on, right? To keep your readers interested, you have to have the right combo of a fast pace and a let's-look-at-each-and-every-flower-and-tree pace. Those novels that dragged had more of the second kind. *grin*

Let's fix that.

• Word usage. This is the most basic way to increase a novel's pace. Shorter words and sentences make reading and processing easier. Seek out places you can cut a sentence to six words or fewer. Oftentimes, you can remove introductory words: Then, However, Often, etc... Independent clauses can come out if they aren't helping the sentence. MS Word has a checker that will seek out wordy sentences for you. You can highlight the section and tell the program to look at it. Easy peasy.

• Dialogue with few to no action tags. If you refrain from giving description of the characters' movements or expressions during dialogue, it'll help. Stick with invisible tags (tags readers see but don't actually have to process): Said, Asked, Answered. Don't go down the rabbit hole, and keep the back and forth going.

• Action! This is where you can leave off the telling and show. You aren't trying to increase tension, just give the character some kind of goal and get him or her there. If it's a battle scene, you want to do a little telling and describe a few things, but don't go into paragraph after paragraph of description. Action happens quickly, and you, the writer, can just sit back and watch as the beauty unfolds.

• Suspense. Yeah, that's right, keep the reader turning the pages to find out what the heck is going on. You'd think dragging something out would slow things down, but it actually engages the reader's brain and makes them read faster so they can find a solution to their twanging nerves.

• Scene cut/breaks. This is where there's no transition to a new scene. You can end the previous scene on a cliffhanger or not, but your story makes a leap into something totally different. Keep in mind, you can also create a scene cut by cutting out some of the tale where the prose is dragging.

• Summary paragraphs. Your character just spent three months getting to know the people around them? Awesome. Readers will be fine with a summary now and then if nothing significant happens during those three months. Cut the scene and summarize.

You can use some or all of these techniques. Either way, you're guaranteed to pick up the pacing of your story if you follow the suggestions above.

Which one(s) did you know about, and which are new?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Story Designs

Happy Tuesday! Wow. We're into day two of the week and already it looks like it's gonna be five days that feel longer than they should be. But, as always, we must continue to press on. Today's post may lighten your mood a bit. I'm discussing plots. That's right, those timeless things we all have to consider when beginning to craft our novels. NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and I know we're all gearing up to take part in the most fabulous writerly collective to ever happen. Maybe this post will spark some ideas for you. So, grab those pens and pencils and let's get going!

There are several structures you'll see used in novels. I'm gonna go over the most common ones.

1. The Boy She Can't Have - A female meets a male, and something is keeping them apart. We read on to the end to find out if they can ever resolve the obstacle and end up together. Many variations of this have happened, and there could be more than one thing the two need to overcome before they can be together. A sub-plot often includes another male the female may have an interest in, and she ends up having to choose. As an aside: This can also be male meets male or female meets female (LGBT romance). It's becoming more popular, and shouldn't be overlooked.
2. Taking Down the Bad Guy - Your society has a tyrant in control and he/she must be brought to justice somehow. This can also be Taking Down the Regime.
3. All Grown Up - How the protagonist matures to find inner strength through the span of life. A twist on this could be they can't die and end up having to live more than one life. May be physical or emotional aging.
4. Oh! The Grass is Greener. . . Right? - Your protagonist dreams of a brave, new world where everything is rainbows and butterflies, and everyone thinks he/she is the best. This person is probably feeling trapped, ostracized, or enslaved. But, once they get to their salvation, they realize what they had before wasn't so terrible after all, and they long for nothing but to return to life the way it was.
5. The Cinderella Syndrome - Poor girl/guy comes to fabulous riches through some means. It can be hard work, a fairy godmother, or a stroke of luck (like a winning lottery ticket). Your protagonist must be rewarded greatly. Be sure it doesn't turn into a Grass is Greener situation.
6. Cold to Hot - When the bitter heart of another is morphed into love once again. We all like to think people can be saved (even when at their worst), so this tale is about the most terrible villain brought to love once again by the most unassuming thing. Usually works best with something you never thought could bring a baddy to his/her knees.
7. The Little Engine that Could - Someone from humble beginnings sets the world right again. Basically, you're crafting a future hero for the people. 
8. Obtaining the Unobtainable - Many people have tried, and failed. But your protagonist succeeds. Think of lost treasure or a super power/bit of knowledge others have died trying to own.

As you can see, there are many structures for novels. When you get crazy fun, you can twist the plot to look like you're taking down the bad guy, only to have the worst person not be the one in the line of fire.

I suggest letting that happen organically. If you see it coming, your reader will, too.

No matter what structure you use, be sure you're writing in the genre expected by the reader. You don't want to bill it as a romance then kill off the lover at the end, or have your heroine running for her life while being chased by a mainiacle killer the whole time. Make sense?

What's your favorite structure/plot? Are you a Boy She Can't Have fan, or do you tend more toward The Cinderella Syndrome? Inquiring minds wanna know!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Rough Drafts to Completed MS - 10 Step List

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'd like to talk about rough drafts and how many steps there are between that and a completed book. I'm elbow-deep in Melody and nearly finished with the last chapter. But that's my rough draft. So, how long will it be until the book is finished? That all depends on how busy my editor is when I'm done with my first two rounds of edits. Here's what goes into polishing up that rough draft:

Step one: Read for content and slash/add.
This is where I re-read all the books in the series and make sure things are matching up the way they should be. Yes, I have copious notes about facts, dates, events, and visions. But I still goof up now and then, as we all do. I just have to make sure those oopsies don't make it into print. I also cut scenes, add scenes, and re-write scenes.

Step two: Check for tension.
I read each chapter and grade it on a tension scale of 1-5. If it's ho-hum or boring, I add and cut until it has the punch I'm looking for.

Step three: Grammar/Spelling/Punctuation checking.
This is where I dissect every sentence and make sure there are no dropped words, errant commas, misspellings, or pronoun confusions. I also check each sentence and paragraph for repeated words; changing them when necessary.

Step four: He said, she said.
While this is okay to use now and then, many of them can be changed to action tags to move the story along, rather than letting it all go stoic and be bland on the page by two people just gabbing at one another.

Step five: Off to the editor.
This is when I send my work over to my editor. She goes through steps 2-4 and tells me if I missed something important or used the wrong word.

Step six: Application of suggestions.
I put her suggestions and changes to good use.

Step seven: Resting period/cover design.
I let the MS sit for a week while I design the cover, then proofread.

Step eight: Off to the proofreader.
My proofreader catches the little things (because that's what she's focused on).

Step nine: Formatting.
This is where I format the book for print and prepare it for digital distribution across all channels. I don't want to have to mess with formatting it ever again.

Step ten: Publication.
I upload and hit the publish button.

A lot goes into any novel before it's put out there for public consumption. If you're skipping one of these steps, I have to ask why. Are your reviewers commenting about it?

How many steps do you take?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo