I hesitated to use the name Urban Fantasy in this article, mainly because these days it is often too closely associated with Paranormal Romance, which does nothing to describe the kind of books that I write. To me, Urban Fantasy describes a type of fiction that features supernatural characters in a realistic setting, which can…
Sometimes being a writer is the easiest thing in the world. Those times when ideas are clear and words seem to flow without effort—when the act of writing itself is pure joy—those times are awesome and they make you glad you chose to be a writer.
Other times being a writer is the hardest thing in the world. Those times when ideas are few and far between and what ideas you do have are woefully inadequate. Those times when the words refuse to come, when it appears you are suffering from a mental block that stifles your creativity.
While I can’t comment on which one of these scenarios you most find yourself in, it’s a pretty sure bet that all writers find themselves in the latter scenario more times than they care to mention.
But what causes this negative downturn? How do things go from good to bad seemingly overnight without any logical cause?
The answer to that lies in writer’s doubt.
In any creative endeavor, productivity matters. You can be as creative as you like, but that won’t matter if you don’t finish anything or get your work out there for all to see.
As a writer, if all you do is write and don’t publish anything, or worse, don’t finish anything, how is that being productive?
In my book, that’s about as unproductive as you can get.
But what is the main cause of being unproductive?
In a word: perfectionism.
It’s a curse that helps no one.
If you want to know how to beat it, read on.
Finishing the first draft of a novel for the very first time is for a writer akin to finally learning to swim.
You’ll have spent so much time struggling to complete a finished draft—floundering in a sea of confusion, frustration and procrastination—that when you finally finish it can seem like you’ve been saved from drowning.
You have learned to swim and you are now free to take yourself in any direction you want to go. Suddenly, it’s not about keeping yourself from drowning, but about staying afloat and swimming towards the goal of a fully completed novel.
The choppy seas have calmed somewhat, making it easier for you swim.
Once you know you are capable of finishing the first draft of a novel, things change. A mental shift occurs and suddenly you have the confidence to feel like a real writer.
You now have what it takes to write novels.
There’s no going back after that.
You’ve done it, you know you can do it and you will keep doing it.
It’s a milestone that every novelist has to cross in order to find success, which is why it is so important that you do all you can to insure that first draft gets completed.
If you still struggle to finish the first draft of a novel, don’t despair, all is not lost. It’s not as hard as you think and there are things you can do to make reaching that goal even easier.
It’s no great secret that people who have excelled in one discipline will often excel in another when they turn their attention to it.
Why?
They have learned the art of mastery.
The previously mastered discipline is not important.
What are important are the lessons to be learned from it.
For the purpose of this article, we are going to be looking at some of the lessons to be learned from mastering a particular discipline, then we are going to apply those lessons to writing.
Mastery is the same across all disciplines, whether in sports, the arts, science or whatever.
To master your discipline—in this case writing—there are certain things you must do in order to make that possible.
If writing means more to you than superficial success—and if you want to master writing and being a writer—learn and apply the following lessons.
When it comes to writing for an audience, either through books or blogging, one of the biggest mistakes writers often make is that they try to write for too wide an audience.
Of course we all want as many people as possible to read our stuff, but in trying to please too many people at once you will weaken your writing and reduce the chances of your work connecting with people.
If you want your writing to have more of an impact, one of the best things you can do is to narrow the audience you are writing for.
By impact, I mean that your writing will be truly useful and valuable to a select group of people, the people that your content is targeted towards. These people already want what you have to offer, you just have to find them first.
Having little or no impact comes from people reading your work who don’t care about it, simply because they have no need for what you are offering.
It makes sense to target people who will give a shit, not those who won’t. The best way to reach those people is to define who they are first.
The old saying of it’s better to burn out than fade away may apply to rock stars and flaming celebrities, but it certainly doesn’t apply to writers.
There is nothing glamorous about burning out to the point where you stop production and loose your grasp on being a writer.
If you stop writing you are no longer a writer. Why would you want that?
You wouldn’t want that of course, but if you are not careful, that’s exactly what can happen.
In this article I’m going to show you how to spot the signs that indicate writers burnout is just around the corner, if not already there. That way, you can do something about it before it hits and causes real damage, otherwise you may end up writing your twisted memoirs on an imaginary typewriter in the wing of a mental hospital somewhere, and no one wants that.
Writing isn’t all about the craft. The craft is important yes, but so is the groundwork you lay in order to practice the craft of writing to its fullest extent.
There are things you can do before you start to write that will make a big difference to how you write once you actually begin.
It’s about the laying the proper groundwork so you can write at your fullest potential.
Read on to find out how you can give yourself the best chance of producing great work.
If you could, would like to take your writing to the next level?
What I mean by that is, would you like to step up a gear as a writer, to tap more of your potential as a writer?
I’d like to think that you would. After all, we all want to be better writers, right? At least better than we are now.
I’m going to show you how you can tap more of your potential as a writer.
You may think you are firing on all cylinders at present but we can always do better.
Here’s how I managed to tap more of my potential as a writer, and how you can to.