First, the cool stuff: I’m sitting at my desk, reading galleys for my first book as J.K. Beck — WHEN BLOOD CALLS, which is Book One in the Shadow Keepers series! It’s so cool! It’s been a long time since I’ve been Julie Beck, and I’m really excited about this series. So fun stuff! Yay!
No, this isn't real cover art. That's coming. Can't wait! But hey, pop over and register to win a Kindle!
Moving on ….
So here we are on Thursday with (drumroll) Writer’s Corner, and one thing that is constantly on my mind lately is balancing work and life. Whether you’re published and under deadline or trying to get published and working to finish a manuscript, it’s remarkably easy for life to interfere. “I need to write four pages today, but, oh, I need to de-lint the dryer. I’ll just skip today and catch up tomorrow!” (Note: That person talking is not me, but an imaginary Whine Sister. I rarely remember to de-lint the dryer…).
I used to work with goal sheets–literally, excel spread sheets that said how many words and/or pages I needed to write to hit a deadline. Actually, I still use these, but I supplement with a fun little game that I find really helps me. Maybe it’ll help you, too: Post-it Notes.
No, really.
Let’s say I need to write 2000 words on Monday. I’ll put 4 Post-its on my wall, each representing 500 words. And then I’m “on task” until a Post-it note comes off. “Mommy, can you play a game?” “Sure, kiddo! Let me get through this Post-it note!”
And what’s really great is that if the writing is going slow, you have something physically tangible to work toward. And if it’s going great, then when you end a chapter or simply take a rest and check your word count, you may find that you get to rip down every single one of those Post-its. And trust me when I say, that is very cathartic!
Give it a try and let me know if it works for you!
For that matter, what tips and tricks do you have for staying on goal? Give us a shout out!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Julie, my writing is coming along slowly (for a blog…I’m not yet courageous enough for a whole book!) so I’m going to try your Post It tip in hopes that will help. I also like Jacquie’s idea of setting a timer for some intensive writing!
Also, your photo caption says pop over to the J.K. Beck website, but there’s no link on the photo or on the caption – what’s the URL? Thanks for your help – I can’t wait to read it!
Well, poo! I put the url in to click through the picture
Anyway, it’s theshadowkeepers.com
check it out and register to win!
This post made my day, Julie! It’s very comforting to know, as an unpubbed writer who struggles with keeping butt in chair and putting words to paper, that even mega-, multi-published authors struggle with it too.
Still doing galleys….just sayin’
Major congrats on the J.K. Beck series!
Thanks!
I’m too old to be structured. I’ve tried to stop the self-imposed stress.
However, I do write every day of the week. I write short chapters of 14-15 pages and try to complete a chapter by Friday. If I don’t finish, I spend a couple of hours on Sat. & Sunday to get it done. Then on Monday I can begin a new chapter.
My goal is to be Julie. She has all kinds of nifty tricks to keep her organized and on target. They all annoy me because I never think of them and can never figure them out when she breezily tells me about them (Evernote, I am talking about you).
Amen.
Hey, Kathleen O’Reilly’s the one who told me about Evernote! I want to be her:)
What a great idea. Thanks!
In November I complete over 50k words for the NaNoWriMo challenge. I stayed on kept a spreadsheet to keep me on task. I finished my story 2 days early. I did a great job at writing my daily word count. Now that November is over I have gone back to revisions of one of my two completed manuscripts. It took me 9 days to revise one chapter. I would like to have the remaining 11 Chapters revised by the end of December. I may try the post-it note idea to keep me on track with my revisions.
That’s a good trick with the post-its. I’m not very structured. At all. It’s amazing that I’ve accomplished anything. But somehow I make it all work.
That’s a great idea, Julie and I’m definitely going to give it a try. I use similar reward systems for myself. The two I use the most are:
1) I’m not allowed to check e-mail for visit a favorite website until I finish a page (or two–whatever I’ve set-up), and 2) I set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and I write intensively for that period–no fooling around, daydreaming, checking mail, etc–just writing. It never ceases to amaze me how much I can accomplish in a mere 30 minutes.