If you are working a day job, have a family and are wondering how you can find any extra time to write, you’ll find this interview with bestselling author Jim Heskett super helpful 😉
Jim shares how he squeezes in time to write while having a day job a wife and a toddler. Tune in, to learn his tips on how to be productive…
In the intro, I share what I’ve learned from an inspiring blogpost by Nina Amir this week on how to prepare yourself for opportunity. There are also some very useful books/resources that you might find helpful in your author journey: 1)Learn how to get unstuck and be a productive writer in Jim Heskett’s book for writers, The Juggling Author: How to Write Four Books A Year While Balancing Family, Friends and a Full-Time Job. 2) A really helpful book to help you map out your novel, that I’ve been re-reading is The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson.
Watch the Video Interview
Jim Heskett was born in the wilds of Oklahoma, raised by a pack of wolves with a station wagon and a membership card to the local public swimming pool. Just like the man in the John Denver song, he moved to Colorado in the summer of his 27th year, and never looked back. Aside from an extended break traveling the world, he hasn’t let the Flatirons mountains out of his sight.
Interview Highlights:
Writing tips for the Pre-Production process:
1.Keep a notebook of ideas.
2.When you’re ready to write your first draft, take an idea from the notebook and come up with a synopsis.
3.Next, figure out who the good guy and bad guy is. And write details about those characters. That’s a good jumpstart to brainstorming story ideas.
Secrets to Writing your First Draft :
1.Write fast and short. In this interview, Jim says that’s 90% of the keys to his success. He encourages writers to leave out some of the dialogue and flowery descriptions in the first draft and just write the spine of the story.
2.Focus only on writing and finishing the first draft. Get it out and onto the blank page as fast as you can.
3.Set and keep self-imposed deadlines. Adding deadlines can really help you get things done in a good amount of time.
Beta Readers and Self-Editing Tips:
2.Ask for Beta readers after you’ve finished the 2nd draft. Jim encourages writers to meet their Beta readers on Facebook or Goodreads and get to know them. But, careful that you give your manuscript to someone you trust.
3.Read through the constructive criticism from Beta readers and if more than one person points out the same thing, then take a look at it.
Helpful Tools and Resources:
1.Pro-Writing Aid and/or Grammarly to check for errors in your manuscript.
2.Stephen King’s Book: On Writing.
3.Goal Tracker App called GoalStreaks to help you manage your to-do list.
Jim encourages writers to do something everyday to move your author career forward: writing, self-editing, writing emails to your mailing list, scheduling a promotion, etc. He then uses the GoalStreaks app to string days together to make a chain of ‘X’s for everyday that he checks off items on that list. As of this writing, Jim now has 4 1/2 years under his belt and is still going strong.
Tips on staying motivated to reach your goals…
Do you best, not to compare yourself with other writers. If you do, it’s too easy to get discouraged and want to give up.
Instead compare yourself to where you came from.
Hold onto the feeling you had when you reached certain milestones:
The first time you had a review from someone you didn’t know.
The first time you held a paperback of one of your books in your hands.
The first time someone paid good money for one of your books.
“Remembering important milestones will help keep you motivated and inspired to keep writing. Get that next book out. Take that next step. Do a little better today than you did yesterday. Most of all, keep writing.” Jim Heskett
Connect with Jim at his fiction website or at his nonfiction website for writers here. You can also chat with Jim on Facebook or Twitter.
How do you find time to write, while juggling family, friends and a job? Please, do share your thoughts in the comments 🙂
Thanks for having me on the show!
Thanks Jim for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat! You shared so many helpful tips for indie authors… appreciate it 🙂
Thanks so much for mentioning me in this podcast!
Happy to mention you Nina! Your blogpost on the topic of being prepared when opportunity knocks, really spoke to me and inspired me… so thanks for writing that 🙂 Have a wonderful week in all your blogging, writing and coaching!
Great show thank you. It’s great to get into learning new things which you mentioned at the start of either this podcast or the one before. Glad to hear you are challenging yourself with your goals. Do you find that you get a bit of a hit after you have intentionally learnt something? I’m learning to things at the minute. As well as learning how to write also learning to be an instructional designer. As soon as something makes sense to me I get that satisfaction. Makes me go back for more! Also read Jim’s book and it is good, thanks for the interview.
I’m happy you found the show helpful, N Dixon! I am learning new things and challenging myself with my goals… sometimes it feels like I’m consistently having to reset goals… but then I just set new goals and go after them again 🙂
I do find that after I have intentionally learned something that I right away get a backlash of resistance and obstacles that try to set me back. It can be frustrating, but that’s usually when I attack whatever I’m struggling with even harder.
Struggle does cause us to grow as writers and creatives and produces perseverance, humility and tenacity… all those great things we need in our character to help us sustain anything we get 🙂
That’s great that you are writing as well as learning to be an instructional designer… how fun! It is true, after we figure out a step in our learning process that makes sense, it does give us satisfaction… and makes us want to learn more. That’s what I’m finding too.
Glad you liked Jim’s interview and found his book helpful N Dixon. And thank you so much for listening to the podcast! Have a great writing and designing week 🙂