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Writing Tips: 5 Ways to Quiet Your Inner Editor

December 13, 2019 by Creative Guest 1 Comment

Every creative person, including authors, deals with an internal critic. Children's book writer and editor Heidi Fiedler shares five ways we can continue being creative even when our inner editor is trying to get the upper hand.

5 Ways to Quiet Your Inner Editor

We all have that voice in our heads, the one that says, “Careful now. That probably won’t work. We need to get it perfect. Perfect means no one can criticize you. Perfect means safe. So maybe you should just wait to write until you know you can get it perfect. Maybe you’ll be ready in twenty years? Maybe then you’ll finally be able to get it right.”

Our inner editors can be incredibly harsh.

And they know exactly how to get us to slow down, play it safe, and generally get in our own way.

Five years ago, I was working as an editor in a publishing house, rushing to add to the hundreds of books I had already worked on. The end goal was always the same: publishing perfection. It was unrealistic corporate nonsense, but that was the goal.

And as an editor, I didn’t just hear the voice, I was the voice. I rushed writers, nagged them to clarify their thoughts before they were ready, and made sure we cleaned up any messiness that developed in the creative process.

Today I’m happy to report I’m an independent writer and editor. I work from home. I decide what’s successful. And I try to be a generous boss to myself.

I've traded in the culture of perfectionism for a process that allows me to experiment, make and mend mistakes, and create something original. The work I do is more playful. It's more creative. And it's more personal. I pour my heart into it.

Old Paper Sketch Book With Hand-drown Heart Over Vintage Wooden

Along the way, I’ve developed a few practices that help me get creative and quiet my inner editor. I’m sharing them here today with the hope that they will help you too!

1. Dance Around the Document

When you start a new project, try working outside the document as long as you can. That might mean making loose notes in a notebook devoted to the project. I like to call my pre-writing notebook a Nebula Notebook, because it reminds me to stay dreamy and open to drifting through a field of ideas.

You might dictate notes into a voice recording app. You could even make thumbnail sketches to remind you what happens in each scene.

If you’ve already written a draft, try printing out the manuscript and only making notes at the end of each chapter, rather than making notes line by line or in the margins. It will help you stay focused on the big-picture elements. And when you review your notes, jumping from section to section, you’ll make connections you wouldn’t have made if you were treating the margins of your manuscript as a to-do list.

The point is to wait as long as possible to start typing, because once you’re in the document, it’s too tempting to start cutting and pasting, tinkering with a word, and generally letting your inner editor get bossy.

2. Journal

If you’re feeling stuck, try journaling about what you want your book to be about. Imagine writing a letter to a sympathetic friend, or write about what you hope readers will love about your book one day.

Your inner editor will feel content knowing you’re making progress and organizing your thoughts, but you will still feel free to try different directions and experiment with loose ideas.

journal

3. Travel

Try doing your writing work in one place, and saving your revising for another location. When you need to read through a draft or work on a tricky passage, try working in your car or somewhere that feels casual and fresh.

Don’t try to do your most creative work in the same place that you do your tightening and polishing. It’s too easy for your brain to think it’s time to go into editor mode.

4. Track Something New

If your inner editor is convinced you need to write 500 words every day or you’re not making progress, try tracking how much time you spend writing rather than how many words you put down on the page.

Or if you’ve been tracking time, try tracking milestones like finishing a draft, submitting to your agent, or getting a critique.

finished

You could even keep it super simple and just track how many days in a row you think about the piece you’re working on. Make yourself a little calendar or a worksheet, so you can fill in some bubbles or give yourself some gold-star stickers. The trick is to help your inner editor visualize all the progress that’s being made.

5. Give Yourself Permission Not to Know

Inner editors love to act like if you would just listen to them, the next draft would be complete, and you could check this enormous task off your list.

Remind yourself that everyone struggles with writing, even editors! Don’t feel like you have to make all the revisions in one draft.

[Note from Joanna: For more on dealing with your internal critic and getting your writing out into the world, check out my book The Successful Author Mindset.]

Give yourself permission to not know how to fix a problem. Let it take time. Expect to meander. You can totally confuse your inner editor by challenging yourself to write something weird and unproductive. You just might surprise yourself with a poetic little gem. And like everyone else, inner editors tend to relax if you remind them the goal is “progress not perfection.”

How do you quiet the voice of your inner editor? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

Heidi FiedlerWriter and editor Heidi Fiedler has worked on more than 300 books. Whether it’s a poetic picture book, a zippy chapter book, or a kid-friendly take on the physics of time travel, her books are quirky, playful, highly visual, and often philosophical. Learn more about Heidi, her books, and the classes she teaches at helloheidifiedler.com or say hello on Instagram @heidifiedler.

Productivity For Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize your Author Life, and Decide what Really Matters. Out Now!

December 11, 2019 by Joanna Penn Leave a Comment

Do you want to write more but feel frustrated at your lack of time? 
Are you doing ‘busy’ work instead of moving toward your creative goals? 
Is your To-Do list overwhelming?

It’s time to stop, reassess and take control. Productivity for Authors will help you discover the path to becoming a productive writer.

Available now in ebook, paperback, Large Print, hardback, audiobook and Workbook editions!

Learn how to:

  • Identify what’s really stopping you from reaching your goals
  • Say no and set boundaries for others — and for yourself
  • Find more time to write
  • Make the most of your writing time
  • Dictate your words for a more efficient and healthy writing life
  • Use outsourcing to buy yourself more creative time
  • Work with co-writers to produce more books
  • Use tools for specific aspects of productivity
  • Focus on physical and mental health to boost your productive time

I’ve been writing and publishing for over a decade and in this book, I’ll share my lessons learned in order to help you become more productive and, hopefully, save you time, money and heartache along the way.

If you want to become a more productive writer, download a sample or buy now.

Available now in ebook, paperback, hardback, Large Print, audiobook and Workbook editions.

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Buy eBook Direct from the Author

Audiobook Preview

Workbook edition in print is available!

productivity for authors workbook Click here for more about the workbook edition.

The Key To Long Term Success As A Writer With Kevin J Anderson

December 9, 2019 by Joanna Penn 7 Comments

https://media.blubrry.com/thecreativepenn/p/content.blubrry.com/thecreativepenn/Podcast_KevinJAnderson1219.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:15 — 50.6MB)

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If you want to have a long-term career as an author, it's a good idea to listen to those few writers who have successfully navigated the many changes in the publishing industry over the last 30 years.

Kevin J Anderson sold his first novel in 1988 and with over 140 books under his belt, he is still enthusiastic about learning new ways to reach readers. In today's show, he gives some tips on planting lightning rods as a writer, dictation and multiple streams of income.

In the introduction, sales of audiobooks are set to overtake ebooks in the UK in 2020 [The Independent].

If you want to be more productive in 2020, check out Productivity for Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize Your Author Life, and Decide What Really Matters, out now in ebook, paperback, hardback, Large Print, audiobook (narrated by me), and workbook editions.

Plus, Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting, and Voice Technologies is now on pre-order, coming 10 Feb 2019.

kobo writing life
This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Kevin J. Anderson is the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author of over 140 books selling over 23 million copies in 30 languages. Kevin has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files and Dune universes, as well as his own sci-fi fantasy, thriller, steampunk and horror books. He runs WordFire Press with his wife and fellow author Rebecca Moesta, has ed edited numerous anthologies and written comics, games, song lyrics, and he's also a professor in Publishing at Western Colorado University.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

Show Notes

  • If you want lightning to strike, then plant lightning rods with your writing
  • Why your writing career is like popcorn
  • How to get better using dictation for first drafts – check out Kevin's book, On Being a Dictator
  • Using dictation for brainstorming and character-building
  • Teaching a graduate program that covers both traditional and indie publishing
  • Why learning to deal with change is the one constant in publishing

You can find Kevin J. Anderson at Wordfire.com and on Twitter @TheKJA

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Writing Tips: What Writers Can Learn From Bodybuilders

December 4, 2019 by Joanna Penn 2 Comments

Writers know that there is always room for improvement in terms of our craft. In this article, Dave Terruso explains how stretching our artistic comfort zone is good for our work. Plus, we all need to stay physically healthy as writers and personally, I lift weights several times a week so this is a great metaphor!

What Writers Can Learn From Bodybuilders

The most important thing to strive for as an author is growth. Consistent growth in your craft and creativity.

Here’s an unlikely metaphor for writing: bodybuilding.

When I first started working out, my goal was to get bigger arms and a bigger chest. So I would find a heavy weight that I could lift 3 sets of 8 reps with. And I would do those 3 sets once a week for two weeks. Then I’d add 5 pounds to that and the next two weeks would be 3 sets of 8 with that new weight. Then 5 more pounds added, and 3 sets of 8.

I was getting stronger, but I wasn’t seeing any significant growth in my arms or my chest.

After a couple years of getting nowhere, I decided to research how bodybuilders get such big muscles.

And I learned their secret: lifting to failure on purpose.

See, if I were trying to do my 3 sets of 8, and on the third set I could only get to 6, I thought I’d failed, and I was mad at myself. Then I’d lower the weight to finish my set. But it turns out that lifting a weight that’s just heavy enough that you can only do a few reps before you struggle with it is the key to getting bigger muscles.

You have to push your muscles to their limit. Lift until you hit that rep where your arms shake and you get the weight halfway up and then have to stop because you have nothing left to give.

Muscle growth comes from muscle repair. And muscle repair happens when the muscle fibers get damaged.

Weightlifting is basically damaging your muscle fibers on purpose so they’ll get bigger through the repair process. You create this damage either by lifting a heavy weight a few times or a lighter weight a lot of times.*

laptop blanket cozy

How does this translate to writing?

Two words: comfort zone.

Being a great writer takes a lifetime. There are hundreds of skills that all work in tandem, and then there’s the mental and emotional maturity earned from experience that makes your fiction resonant.

It’s very tempting to get to a point where you’re pretty good and just stop. You’ve found your comfort zone. You say to yourself, “I’m a good writer now, this is the kind of stuff I write, and it’s working. I’ve found my place and I’m going to stay in this lane for life.”

It’s such a relief. No more struggle. No more failure. Consistent success.

At least that’s how it seems.

In reality, your comfort zone as a writer is a path to stagnation, to atrophy, to becoming a plagiarist of yourself instead of a creative writer.

The temptation of the comfort zone is exacerbated by the publishing industry. Publishing is a business first and foremost, and the strategy is usually “this made us money, so do it again and again!”

Many successful authors fall into this repetition pit and spend the rest of their careers regurgitating their past successes ad nauseam. Authors need to make a living just like anyone else, and a comfortable life doing what you love is an admirable goal for a writer. Right?

I would posit that this is an unfulfilling life for a writer. A life of diminishing returns, and of slowly, steadily waning quality.

The only way to grow as a writer is to consistently step out of your comfort zone.

sapling growth

You need to fail to grow

If you’re really good at writing novels, but you’re a terrible short story writer, make a concerted effort to master the short story form. It’ll not only add another tool to your toolbox, it’ll also improve your novel writing.

The best thing I ever did for my novel-writing ability was master writing screenplays. I came back to novels with a much better economy of words and a tighter sense of act structure.

Identify your comfort zone, then find one or more blind spots and work on them.

Maybe you only write in first-person point of view. Maybe you only write historical fiction. Maybe you only write short stories. Get rid of that “only” and branch out.

Write in omniscient POV. Write a futuristic sci-fi story. Write your first novella. It doesn’t have to be good. Just try your best.

Not only is it okay to suck at certain aspects of writing, it’s a requirement for artistic growth. Some of the best growth comes from trying things that are outside the bounds of writing.

Body builders also use something called muscle confusion to help with their growth. Every month or two, they’ll change or modify their regimen of exercises because muscles start to adapt to the movements they do repeatedly, and the muscle gains will decrease if they don’t change it up.

Take an acting class and you’ll come back to your writing with stronger motivations for your characters.

I once had a bit part in a play where my only lines were “Yes, sir” a dozen times, and one line of exposition. Trying to act as this character was difficult because I had no idea what he wanted. That frustrating experience led me to vow to never write a yes-sir character in one of my novels, to always give every person that populated my stories, at the very least, a desire or a quirk.

Acting classes and stand-up classes will also give you a better ear for dialogue just from hearing the words spoken aloud. An improv class will give you the courage to invent something on the fly and see what develops.

Writing is not something you do in your room alone. It’s not an excuse to hide from the world. Don’t let your home become your comfort zone. Get out and experience life or you won’t have anything interesting to write about.

Fail. Learn. Grow. Repeat.

It’s the only way to become the best writer you can be.

How do you stretch yourself out of your comfort zone in order to grow as a writer? Please leave your thoughts below and join the conversation.

David TerrusoDave Terruso is a novelist and stand-up comic based in Philadelphia. His latest novel is Alter Ego: The Other Me. A detective is hired by an archvillain to uncover the secret identity of Blue, the world’s first and only superhero. Once he uncovers who and what Blue is, the sleuth risks his life to protect his city’s supernatural savior.

You can read the first two chapters of Alter Ego: The Other Me here. You can also follow Dave on Instagram and Facebook.

*Please note: Dave is NOT a fitness expert. This is an oversimplified look at weightlifting for the purpose of the metaphor. Don’t try what he's describing without getting instruction from an actual fitness expert. He doesn’t want you to get hurt.

How To Effectively Work From Home With Amanda Brown, The Homepreneur

December 2, 2019 by Joanna Penn 4 Comments

https://media.blubrry.com/thecreativepenn/p/content.blubrry.com/thecreativepenn/Podcast_AmandaBrown1219.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:09:45 — 56.6MB)

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Working from home has great benefits — flexibility in working hours, more time with family, no stressful commute amongst other things; but it also has its challenges and many writers underestimate the adjustment needed in order to have a happy and healthy work-from-home life. In today's interview, I discuss the pros and cons with Amanda Brown, The Homepreneur, and we both give some tips from years of our own experience.


In the intro, The HotSheet reports on cashflow issues with some traditional publishers and the IBPA notes that publishers should be diversifying their sales channels, echoing my soapbox of multiple streams of income 🙂 The ALLi blog shares data from The FutureBook conference including, “There are big differences between the UK and US markets. US price points are higher. Book sales sustain over a longer period in the UK. And the big 5 have only half the market share in the US they do in the UK.' Plus, James Daunt says Barnes & Noble must “rip out the boring.” [Publishing Perspectives]. 

In my personal update, I give an update on Audio for Authors: Audiobooks, Podcasting and Voice Technologies, now available for pre-order, coming 10 Feb 2020.

Findaway Voices
Today's podcast sponsor is Findaway Voices, which gives you access to the world's largest network of audiobook sellers and everything you need to create and sell professional audiobooks. Take back your freedom. Choose your price, choose how you sell, choose how you distribute audio. Check it out at FindawayVoices.com.

Amanda Brown is the author of Homepreneur: How to Overcome the Challenges of Running a Home-Based Business for Optimal Work-Life Balance. She has worked from home for over 20 years as a small business strategist, having previously worked in accountancy and banking.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

Show Notes

  • Advantages and disadvantages of working from home
  • Tips for finding community on and off line
  • Creating a healthy working space at home
  • Making exercise a priority to stay healthy working from home
  • Tips on accounting software and practices

You can find Amanda Brown at Homepreneur.co and on Twitter @Amanda_Brown

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  • Writing Tips: 5 Ways to Quiet Your Inner Editor
  • Productivity For Authors: Find Time to Write, Organize your Author Life, and Decide what Really Matters. Out Now!
  • The Key To Long Term Success As A Writer With Kevin J Anderson
  • Writing Tips: What Writers Can Learn From Bodybuilders
  • How To Effectively Work From Home With Amanda Brown, The Homepreneur
  • Writing Tips: Common Mistakes In Police Procedurals
  • Writing With A Family. Productivity Tips With Andrea Pearson
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Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to, but The Creative Penn is also a business and my livelihood. So please expect hyperlinks to be affiliate links in many cases, when I receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase. I only recommend tools, books and services that I either use or people I know personally. Integrity and authenticity continue to be of the highest importance to me. Read the privacy policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna

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Most of the information on this site is free for you to read, watch or listen to, but The Creative Penn is also a business and my livelihood. So please expect hyperlinks to be affiliate links in many cases, when I receive a small percentage of sales if you wish to purchase. I only recommend tools, books and services that I either use or people I know personally. Integrity and authenticity continue to be of the highest importance to me. Read the privacy policy here. Read the Cookie policy here. I hope you find the site useful! Thanks - Joanna

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