3 Enemies of Productivity for Writers

September 29, 2016 by Lorna Faith

Writers have 3 enemies of productivity that we should be aware of each time we sit down to craft our words.

These enemies, are time wasters that sneak up on us over time.

It’s these subtle and disturbing time wasters that I’ve really struggled with over the past few months.

So if you’ve been wondering why you’re not as productive a writer as you’d like to be, I hope these tips help you too.

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Be Aware of these 3 Time Stealers…

Imagine that you are all excited to start a new book. You have the start of an idea. You’ve done a lot of reading and research on writing and on your idea.

You sit down to write. You open up your document on the computer. Your fingers excitedly hover over the blank page staring back at you.

And… nothing. Suddenly you’re paralyzed. You don’t even know where to start.

The obstacle you face, could be one of the following:

1.Uncertainty. You might be unsure of what chapter or scene you’re supposed to be working on. This can cause all sorts of problems. What I’ve found that helps is to write a short summary of where the scene is going for the next time I come back to write.

If you sit down at your computer with no idea of what to write, it will stop your writing in it’s tracks.

Solution: prepare ahead of time for what you will write the next day. Whether it’s research, or digging deeper into your character arc, or simply doing more brainstorming by asking helpful “what if” questions.

2.Excuses. This is simply, coming up with many reasons why you can’t do something. I’ve learned that excuses are cunning things that have a way of slowly sneaking up on us. We say things like: I only have 30 minutes spare time, so I can’t write today; I have to answer this email and reply to friends on social media, so I’ll have to put off my writing for awhile.

Solution: Change you’re: “I can’t write because of this reason…” and change those words to say: “Okay I can see what I can get done in this short amount of time.” or you can say “Maybe I can’t do what that other person is doing, but what tips can I learn from them and what can I try instead?”

3.It’s too Overwhelming. Anytime something seems to complex or hard to do, it becomes something that you don’t want to work on. It seems overwhelming and then it becomes frustrating to even try.

Solution: Take some time to sit down and write down everything you have to do. Whether you’re writing a book, or creating a project, or whatever. If what you’re working on seems too big, break it down. Make a chronological order of each of the small steps you need to take to carry out the project from start to finish.

As you become more and more aware of these 3 enemies of writing productivity, then you can get rid of the habits – one by one – and put them out of your life.

Seriously. Kick these three nasty time stealers out of your life. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s what I’ve been working on lately too. I’ve realized that when something is too complicated, then I feel overwhelmed… and it paralyzes me. If it’s a book project, I stare at the screen, feeling frustrated that no ideas are coming to me… oy!

So, with my book, I decided to write down more details of the outline and dig deeper into my main character’s fatal flaws, false beliefs, motivations and goals. And guess what, the ideas are racing around in my head again – and I feel excited to write again. That’s a big bonus.

I want to encourage you to try to catch yourself: 1)If you are uncertain and have no idea to write, begin your own Auto-Focus system. Take a minute to listen to this video by Jonathan Milligan on how to set up your own Auto-Focus system everyday. It has been super helpful to me. 2) If you make excuses on why you don’t have time to write, ask yourself what you can do to get your writing done? 3)Anytime something seems too overwhelming, break it down. Begin to make a step-by-step list of the next things you need to.

Then watch as your productivity grows by leaps and bounds as a writer.

Do you struggle with being productive as a writer? What are your tips to push past resistance? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. We can learn from each other 😉

026 Learn the Secrets of Creativity with Geoff Talbot

September 22, 2016 by Lorna Faith

Subscribe: iTunes | Android

Awhile ago, I had a great chat with Geoff Talbot.

Geoff is a Blogger, a innovative Film Maker, a Transmedia Producer and a Social Media Marketing strategist. He is originally from Auckland, New Zealand and moved to Los Angeles a few years ago where he married his wife Athaliah. They now have two children. Geoff’s inspiring blog for creative entrepreneurs and dreamers is at sevensentences.com and you can find his amazing short films here on YouTube. Also he’d love to connect with you on Twitter or Facebook.

In the update I talk about how I was encouraged by the New book Inspired Writers, by Bryan Hutchinson. If you’ve been feeling stuck in your writing process, this short ebook might be just what you need.

Also, Todd Henry has a new audio/podcast out, called the Louder Than Words BookCast. Each episode is based on each chapter of his book Louder than Words and I’ve found that it has helped me to get clarity on where I’m headed with my writing as well as an author entrepreneur. So I hope it helps you too!

Lately I’ve also been re-reading James Scott Bell’s short and helpful ebook, Self-Publishing Attack. In this book, he lays out a strategy on how to continually increase your stream of income by writing ebooks. I’m someone that really needs these consistent reminders, so I’m always re-reading books that have really helped me to grow as a indie author. So that’s been the new stuff I’ve been learning in the last couple of weeks. I’d love to hear what you’ve been learning as a writer or author entrepreneur – please share in the comments 🙂

Summary of the Interview

Geoff Talbot shares his own story growing up in New Zealand as the youngest of 4 children to conservative parents who were of the Builder Generation. He says he took their advice and went off to College, graduating at 22 years old as a Veterinary Surgeon. But it wasn’t until he had been working for 6 months in that job that he realized that this was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

This is when he had an Aha Moment – realizing that he had a lot of creativity, depth and a lot of other skills that wouldn’t be able to be expressed in this career even though he liked it. So he went to Drama School for 2 weeks, to see if he’d like it even though he’d never done anything like that before. At the end of the course one of the teachers took him aside and said “Oh my goodness! You must, you must do more of this.” He said he didn’t know what he was doing, but was doing it, giving himself over to the creative process and doing things on instinct… not second guessing himself.

*He says as he started the chase his dreams, he didn’t have a lot of support from people around him. He had to ask himself questions like: What am I created to do? Where do I feel most alive? What’s in me that needs to come out? Geoff remembers as he continued to grow, leaning into more of who he was, that he remembers someone else who came up to him, who he didn’t know who told him I just have this feeling that you’re going to use the Internet to do something amazing with your life. He says at the time he was skeptical about this word of advice, but he began to think about these things wondering how that might look.

*Geoff says it’s important to have those moments and to remember those times when people speak into your life. Because it helps you in the process of becoming. He says we need to learn to be those kinds of people too, who encourage and inspire and help others. Listen to and learn to really see people and then encourage them in what you see their gifts and talents are.

* SevenSentences.com, started out as a way Geoff could share his film making journey with his friends. It didn’t take too long until it morphed into a website where he could help people discover their dreams and he also helps others find social media strategies.

*Geoff talks a little about how artists and Creative people can get their message out into what has become a noisy world. He says Social Media is similar to being in a crowded Shopping Mall when its close to Christmas. You can talk as loud as you like, but the chances are that no one is going to hear you. Everyone around you is trying to make themselves heard by shouting, but it doesn’t work. So the only way to really be heard in a crowded room, is to know who you want to talk to and get really close to them. Either pull them out of the noise and talk to the privately, or get really close and whisper in their ear.

*In order to build relationships and grow your brand you need to know who it is you want to talk to and then you need to find a quiet space to talk to them. Like you blog, a personal message on Twitter or Facebook… somewhere that its not so noisy. Building relationships with like-minded people is important. It’s important to make it real and something that will bring value to others. This is something that Geoff does to help people grow their business and brand online. He says part of building a strong business online is know who to connect with and build relationships with people that will help move you in the direction of what your end goals are.

*Geoff says the really hard work, is discovering first ‘who am I really? what do I have to give to the world” and building your brand around that. He tells a story that helps to understand this process – when they had their first son. When he arrived they didn’t have a name for the first 24 hours. Geoff says it got to the point where he gave up and told his wife “I don’t think God wants me to name our child. You name him.” He says it wasn’t 30 seconds later that he walked past him and the name “Gabriel” came out of his mouth. Geoff says they needed to see him and experience him before they put a name on him. He says its important as you are discovering who you are and your brand and what you offer to people – its important, when you have a dream you’re chasing, to explore what it is before you name it. If you’re patient enough to wait, and do the hard work first, you’ll save time and money in building your brand.

*He says being patient and having a strategic approach to your life and following your dreams is critical. He feels like he failed at times because he’s risked everything many times. Geoff says if he could talk to himself 15 years ago, he would tell his younger self to be strategic with money and plan things out a little better. As Creative Entrepreneurs we can see the end goal very easily and it seems like its only a leap away – we don’t see the long process – we need to be process oriented so we have a place to leap from. Wisdom comes from being prepared to wait… and yet not procrastinating.

*Sometimes we have all these ideas but we can’t do them all at once. We have to look at them in order of establishing what we need to do first and building on that. As Creative people the ideas never end, so we need to think strategically.

*Geoff also shares how he helps people identify their purpose and dreams. Having a strategic approach to following your dreams. You can achieve a lot in 7 days if you set a window of time to really sprint and get clear on what you want to do. A big part of the program is throwing away the end goals – for a short amount of time – and finding what is your unique value you give to the world. He says he encourages people to use their imaginations and seeing themselves at the end result of their dreams… in terms of relationships, resources and time. The accomplishment of a dream is about the achievement of step-by-step process.

*The best piece of advice Geoff says is to just do it. Unless you start heading toward your dreams, you will never finish. If you see something you want to do, figure out how to start it and just begin. Sometimes as creatives we fear our work isn’t good enough or that its been done before. Those feeling are normal and real, but the problem is we get focussed on right or wrong – success or failure – instead of focussing on the process and just loving exploring and finding what’s in us.

“Trying to be good is a real killer of creativity.” Geoff Talbot

Geoff encourages creatives to come up with 5 really bad ideas… and that’s often when we uncover really good ideas. We need to stay in love with the story that’s in us. Worry about refining it later. Refuse to self-judge.

Chat with Geoff on Twitter, Facebook or catch up with him on his blog.

3 Clues to Uncover Your Authentic Writing Voice

September 15, 2016 by Lorna Faith

There are clues that help writers uncover their true writing voice.

You might be asking, why is finding your authentic voice so important? I asked the same thing for years, before I finally understood something.

Understanding your authentic voice is really about understanding who you are. It’s about becoming fully aware of who you were made to be. When you know that, writing becomes so much easier.

Your voice is where your passion and your audience’s needs meet. It’s your unique way of communicating what you want to say.

You can’t write books that are meaningful or grow your readership if you don’t know what to say or more important, how to say it. It’s critical to understand what makes you… you.

This is the only way to have a solid foundation, to stand tall in who you are, with what you love so that you can continue to write long-term.

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3 Clues to Help Uncover Your Authentic Writing Voice

There are many people who want to be writers, but not everybody wants to do what it takes to become one: to show up without pretense and really listen to themselves; to do battle with the inner critic; to let go of perfection and to connect with readers.

Writing is not easy. There will be many times when you want to quit.

But, the rewards are amazing. As begin this process of uncovering your voice as you continue to practice writing each day, it will help you uncover who you were meant to be all along.

The challenge I want to toss your way, is to take that first step to becoming more aware of your writing voice.

Each of us have been given clues that inform us of our voice… of who we are. For your words and message to have the impact you want them to have, it’s important to develop the art of listening.

A great place to start is to ask yourself these questions:

1.Find your voice in the experiences in your past. Look back at your childhood and your growth into adulthood and ask yourself, what did you naturally to doing when you were younger?

2.Find your voice in the struggles. What are areas in your life that you’ve struggled? In what areas have you searched for the answers to certain questions? Examples: how to find your identity, how to write a novel, how to manage money, etc.

3.Find your voice in the questions others have for you. What questions do others naturally come to you, looking for answers? Maybe you’re good at understanding design, or how to teach your children, or how to overcome obstacles in your life to reach your goals, etc.

For instance, I got a glimpse of the questions others had for me when I started to have more and more people ask me if I could teach them the steps to write and self-publish their book. I realized that many people dreamed of writing their own book, but were looking for a simple step-by-step process they could follow. When I started to have many people asking me questions, I decided to write a self-publishing book along with The Storyteller’s Roadmap mini-course – both which you can get FREE when you click here.

I’ve discovered that when you answering these questions, it helps you discover places where your unique ability and passions, meet up with your natural gifts and inclinations.

Here’s how you’ll begin to realize more and more that you’ve uncovered your natural writing voice: Writing will feel almost effortless.

Don’t get me wrong, writing will still be hard work, but you’ll have a new comfort with your words that wasn’t there before.

The result of this new freedom to write with your natural voice, will attract more people. This will build your confidence and the quality of your work will improve. More readers will follow.

Have you uncovered your natural writing voice? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments ~ let’s learn from each other 😉

025 How to Find Your Authentic Voice with Joel Boggess

September 8, 2016 by Lorna Faith

Subscribe: iTunes | Android

Do you want a chance to believe in yourself again? Are you struggling to believe that the second half of your life could be better than your first half? Then you’ll want to listen to this interview with content creator, podcast expert and speaker, Joel Boggess. He wrote the bestselling book, Finding Your Voice and he hosts the Relaunch Show(#1 Podcast in iTunes New & Notable).

Joel has a passion to help listeners of the Relaunch Podcast, to learn to believe in themselves again. You can find Joel at his ReLaunchShow.com website, or connect with him on Twitter.

Watch the Video Interview

In the intro, I mention a couple of books that have helped me to move beyond of self-doubt everyday – Gifts of Imperfection, by Brene Brown. Also, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg, is helpful in understanding how the habits and routines we choose, can move us toward success or away from it.

Plus, if you have a dream to write your own book or if you’re struggling to write and finish your book, you can grab your copy of a Free eBook and begin the Free Storyteller’s Roadmap mini-course. This is a simple step-by-step guide on how to write, self-publish and market your book successfully to your unique readers.

Summary of Interview

Joel Boggess shares his own story and how he spent many years from childhood to adulthood, trying to figure out how his own voice should naturally be expressed. When he was 5 years old he nearly lost his life and came out of a coma at age 6. His parents were divorced but still struggling with their own demons; his dad with alcohol and his mom lived with an abuser from time Joel was 6 to 13 years of age. He learned how not to treat women from living through that.

From all the struggles Joel went through, he came to a point where he realized He needed to express himself the way God created him to be.

Joel encourages people to find their authentic voice in all the struggles by…

Looking back in your life to things you’ve always done that have come easy to you.
ask people in your sphere – family, friends, coworkers – what they see in you? What do they hear you talking about solving or being part of? What kind of people are you attracted to? What have you always seen me do?(People will see things in you that you either don’t see, or that you haven’t assigned value to).
Looking at hobbies – how you spend your spare time, which can be turned into something that would add value to others and doing it full-time.

Joel talks about how he taught little kids Karate, then later swimming lessons and he realized in both he was teaching people the same inner qualities: confidence and having belief in yourself. He says he does the same thing now, only as a coach and professional speaker.

The answers you get from others around you, can help you perceive yourself differently. We all need to explore more of who we are – our voice – with every relaunch we’re getting ready to embark on. Whether you’re relaunching into a new book, a new genre, a new business, a new relationship, etc.

Joel recommends looking at 3 areas if you’re considering a ReLaunch:

Resources: whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, you have to have the best training available. Starting a blog, writing a book, starting a podcast, etc. You’ve got to have the resources to help you learn whatever you need to learn to move forward into some type of new endeavor.
Relationships: Think of it as finding 5 or 6 people who you can link arms with. People that want you to succeed. It’s important to have the right relationships in our lives. It’s up to use to make sure we have the right players on the right team and while it’s not always easy to switch players, sometimes it’s the only thing you can do for your health or your sanity… for your embetterment.
Routines: These are the things you do over and over again that will either set you up for success(e.g. getting up an hour earlier to write, exercise, meditate, etc.), or set you up for failure(e.g. going to Happy Hour every day, etc.). The good news is that we’re responsible for the routines we participate in for the most part.

When you line all 3 of those things up the fear will go away. Habits/routines are verypowerful in a person’s life and it affects how we perceive the world around us and how we perceive ourselves. Your self-image – how you see yourself- influences your self-esteem.

“If you see yourself as being a person of character that makes a difference, that will influence your self-esteem, which will affect your actions. Your actions affect your results every single time.” Joel Boggess

Joel encourages people to make a habit of saying affirmations about yourself every day. Your “I AM ___” statements are critical to your success. Figure out what works for you and how many affirmations to say each day.

“We’re talking to ourselves even if we don’t know that we are. We get to choose which conversation we’re going to play over and over again.” Joel Boggess

Some tips to help you find your voice if aren’t sure where to start…

First: Understand what you don’t want and what does that mean?

Second: find one thing you want in your life an develop that more thoroughly and write out the vision you want for you life. When we begin to see glimpses/sneak peaks of things that are possible, we develop that image into a picture, and the picture into a plan and then take the plan into a process to get where we want to go.

Joel encourages authors that if you have a nonfiction book, develop a talk around your book. Speaking is one of the #1 ways you can raise awareness of your message. Think of finishing a book, that it’s just the beginning for you. You can develop speeches/workshops/seminars/retreats/ around one or more of the concepts of your book. That’s what Joel did with his book Finding Your Voice, which was published in 2012. He continues to speak on that topic. He encourages authors to use the content they’ve already created. More is not always better.

You can learn more about Joel’s new podcasts, books or speaking engagements by going to ReLaunchshow.com and you can connect with him on Twitter .

What steps have you begun to help you find your voice? Please do leave a comment below, we can learn from each other 😉

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