Leave a comment and I'll gift you one of my novels or a subscription to my Wellness Ezine.

Leave a comment and I'll gift you one of my novels or a subscription to my Wellness Ezine.
Follow me by email, below right
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts

Friday, July 6, 2012

Five Ways Fridays: Too many Writing or Reading Projects

Whether your a writer or a reader, spreading yourself too thin can be draining. I ought to know. Just a while ago, I was working on eight books, that's right, count them one...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight.

Whew, it's hard just counting to eight. It didn't work out too well. What was I thinking? Multi-tasking is one thing, but octo-tasking is another.

But...I think I've finally steadied my writing ship. Here are 5 things I learned doing it.

  1.  Although it's good to have a lot of ideas, writing a little here and a little there dilutes your effort.
  2. Find someone or something to help you decide what to focus on. Get as much information as you need to make a good decision.
  3. When in doubt, ask your readers (if you're a writer) or a trusted friend (if you're a reader). If you're both, then, aren't you lucky? You'll have two sources of answers.
  4. When a trusted reader gives you information, listen. If it sounds logical, at least try it. In this case, my   trusted reader asked me, are any of these books part of a series? Of course, then it became logical to choose to work on the series book, which by the way, happens to be the best seller.
  5. Once you've decided, follow through and stick with your decision. In this case, it hasn't been hard because I'd already finished 1/4 of the book and had detailed notes for the rest. Although I'm writing this as a writer, I've also tried to read several books at the same time. That dilutes the experience, too, so maybe all of these steps also apply to readers...at least they apply to me as reader...
Let me know what your experience has been with writing or reading too many books at once.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

NEW IDEAS FOR STORIES

People sometimes ask me how I get ideas for my books. Here's what I tell them..."I have too many ideas and not enough time to write all the stories."

As a result, I'm sometimes working on two or three stories at the same time. "Don't you get them mixed up?" People say.

"No, they're like my children. I can tell them apart."

Do you get ideas for stories? Do you write them down, or stick with what you're working on at the moment?


What is your creative process like? Even if you're not writing books, you have a creative process. What is it?

Keep reading, writing and thinking. It's what sets us apart from other creatures...or is that because we watch TV?