From Anne R. Allen’s Blog with Ruth Harris:
I’m a big believer in making the most of the time we have to write and getting the best possible output from it.
After all, for most writers, time is the ultimate luxury. We can always experience ebbs and flows in sales or followers, but time is truly a finite resource. Once it’s gone, it’s never coming back.
As a result, I’ve dedicated a lot of my writing life to finding the best ways to use writing time as efficiently and effectively as possible.
. . . .
1. Find Your Writing Tool
Most standard writing software, such as MS Word or Google Docs, isn’t really suited to the demands of professional writing. The lack of specific features you need, or the inability to create and compile lengthier writing projects, will likely result in a loss of writer productivity.Instead, I suggest taking the time to explore the specialist writing software options out there. A wide range of book writing software exists with specific features to help authors with their work.
My personal pick is Scrivener. I love it because it’s incredibly powerful. But it doesn’t force you to make use of all its depths if you don’t need to. It allows you to customize the look of your work easily with Scrivener templates that have been created by the writer community.
. . . .
2. Finding and Optimizing Time
The time of day when you write is important. Most people find they will be naturally more creative and productive at one time or another. If you know you are a morning person, or a night owl, you should factor this into the equation when determining your writing schedule.Personally, I’m an early morning writer. I like to get up around 4 AM in order to achieve some personal, distraction-free writing time, before my family get up and my attention is diverted.
Sometimes, it’s useful to experiment with switching up your writing time. While routine can be useful in writing efficiency, if you find yourself stuck in a rut, switching up the time of day you write can help you break out of it.
Link to the rest at Anne R. Allen’s Blog with Ruth Harris
My main takeaway from the OP was that it must be pretty hard for bloggers to get new consistently good quality guest content. The author of the OP had to pitch to the blog, including his credentials, and the blog has a max of 12 guest posts a year. So if slots are going to people whose only writing credential is the material for their book-marketing program, and the blog posts they wrote to help the SEO for their book-marketing website, then the bar is not so high.
Went to the OP. Worst Writing Advice Ever, and as I suspected, offered by a “writer” without a fiction credit to his name that I could find. The article does, however, provide would-be writers with several ways to avoid actually writing.
+1
+1
Hi guys, I’m Dave, the writer of that article. I’m sorry many of you found it so appalling, or as the “worst” writing advice ever. It’s a bit hurtful to read some of the destructive feedback on my article or the questioning of my intentions (remember, there are real people who put effort into their writing). But for those of you who provided constructive feedback, I’ll definitely keep that in mind and thank you.
We as writers (and yes, I have many books myself) are always open to people’s criticism and attacks. Bad reviews still hurt. But, we can’t let the words of some stop us from still putting our works out there.
Again, thank you to those who provided constructive feedback.
Sorry, Dave. It does get a bit snarky around here sometimes! Well, for what it’s worth, I really appreciated your article. Especially the bit about editing before you’re done. This has cost me many months (well, years, to be honest) when I could just have the thing done, actually see the book as a whole, and determine what actually needs to be saved.
(No sense perfecting the scene when – in the end – you end up cutting the scene entirely).
You know, jumping in with the snark isn’t always productive. And, as I suspected, it’s not true that Dave Chesson hasn’t written any books. From his website:
His writing advice may not work for you, DWS’s advice doesn’t work for other writers either.
I’m sorry I ever posted that comment.
No “snark” was intended; nor did I intend it to be “hurtful.”
If what I wrote saves some novice writer from purchasing Grammarly or writing sloppily with the intention of going back to “fix it” later, then to that writer maybe what I wrote was “helpful.”
But you’re right. I need to remind myself that what doesn’t directly affect my own work or success simply doesn’t matter.
On another matter, atually, I disagree with a lot of what DWS says. But I’ve never known him to parrot timeworn advice that is either common sense or doesn’t work at all. Nor does he hand out advice that can actually harm writers in their process. (Nor do I.)
On yet another matter, I did NOT write (as you asserted in your response) that he “hasn’t written any books.” I said he didn’t have “a fiction credit to his name THAT I COULD FIND.” Not the same thing at all.
Evidently, you found the OP useful. If that’s true, I’m glad for you. Seriously. I found it potentially harmful. And that’s okay too.
What did you find harmful in his advice?
Not sure why it matters, but in my response above, you’ll see “purchasing Grammarly or writing sloppily with the intention of going back to ‘fix it’ later.”
However, if you found his advice helpful, by all means follow it.
I was curious if it was the ‘don’t self edit til you’re done.’
For me, that is the hardest and most important one, just because I get so stuck in my head and self-critical.
It’s not that I haven’t heard it before but I just really like the way it was stated
Thanks, guys – I really appreciate that. It made my day a little better. Harvey, it means a lot that you responded so thank you. I fully understand your point and the difference of opinion and would never take offense to such a thing. It just wasn’t the best way to start one’s day.
Yes, you’re right. It’s not courteous or respectful. It’s not productive.
But it is a normal expression of the irritation and cynicism one experiences when presented with yet another self-titled book sales and marketing expert who claims to have had multiple best-selling books under multiple pen names. But which they do not share.
We can guess at the reasons the book sales and marketing expert wants us to take their success on faith.
Dave Chesson didn’t name any writing credits in his bio on Anne’s blog, from which I understood that he didn’t have any. If you’re giving writing advice, you name your writing experience.
haha…Teri. That was a great way of saying “with all due respect” which never worked for me when I was in the military. “But I did say “with all due respect” sir”…haha.
But I see your point. I can understand the “irritation” and “cynicism.” There are a lot of self-proclaimed “gurus” out there. If you’d like, check out the bio page or even the home page of Kindlepreneur if you need convincing my legit credit is listed there. The bio in that article was meant for the readers of that website (not this) where many are most familiar with my work on Kindlepreneur, or my podcast, or Youtube channel. So, it was designed for that. As I can tell, you aren’t familiar with myself or my writing.
Also, my content is absolutely free and I don’t sell a course. So, none of those shenanigans going on.
Under “removing distractions”…
Things not to do:
1) Let your cat help you keep your keyboard well-insulated
2) Get a puppy. You may think they will grow into a dog that will join his older brother and sleep quietly at your feet, but you will be wrong.
Not the Worst Ever, I think, but Bad Enough, (I can’t remember where I read the one I thought was the worst but perhaps PassiveVoice could hold a contest to find the worst ones and we could vote) and yes — he has no books. He is the author solely of blog posts on writing and marketing. I think he cribbed the whole piece from other sites.
This my favorite bad advice of his:
One of the biggest roadblocks to writer efficiency is the trap of self-editing.
If you begin to doubt your words as a writer, your inner critic’s volume increases, and your efficiency and output grind to a halt.
The key to overcoming this is to write without hesitation and judgement, and to come back to the work and improve it at a later time.
…Cause that just works so darn well.