7 habits of successful writers and how I built them

Neera

It is your dream to become a successful writer. You have been harboring the desire for a long time. You have been setting daily writing goals. You have been attending writing workshops. You have been scribbling here and there. You started writing a book five years ago and you keep promising yourself that one day you will finish it. One day, when the kids are out of the house, when work is less demanding, when you retire, when all the stars are aligned, you will become a successful writer.

If these thoughts resonate with you, you are not alone. This is what I used to think too.

This was until I really sat down and had a good look at what successful writers were doing that I need to do as well in order to be as productive as them.

Here are the seven habits I identified and adopted which remarkably increased my productivity.

1. Don’t just set goals, build habits

Years ago I was setting goals to write a certain number of words every day but failing at it miserably. Something always happened to consume my time and energy. I even used an online app 750Words where people write for years at stretch but I was not able to maintain my streak. I was averaging twenty days a month. I have participated in National Novel Writing Month multiple times and won three times writing 50,000 words followed by months of no writing.

My writing pattern matched my exercise routine and I knew I needed to fix both. Surprisingly it was by fixing my exercise routine I was able to fix my writing.

Almost two years ago I started going to the gym every weekday. I set a time for it, 5:30 pm. This took the decision process out. By the time it was five pm, my mind would start reminding me. I always kept the gym bag ready in my car. When I did that a few weeks, all my resistance melted. Like any gym junkie knows that you always feel good after exercise (because of endorphins release). The habit brought a surprise benefit – I started looking forward to going to the gym. I even made friends there. They would ask me if they didn’t see me at my regular time. Another surprise benefit – my stamina increased and exercise became easier.

I did the same for writing. I bought a journal with 365 pages and started writing a page a day, no matter what. A page fitted roughly 250 words. If I didn’t fill the page it didn’t matter. As long as I wrote something there I had fulfilled my pledge. I did that every morning without fail. If for some reason I missed the morning, I did it at night.

Writing a page a day is a habit now. The day I don’t write doesn’t feel like the day I have lived. With time my stamina increased. I write close to 1000 words a day.

2. Understand writing is a three-step process

When I was a newbie writer, I thought that as would I move my hand on the page or punch the keyboard, beautiful writing will emerge on the other end. Something that could go straight in a book. I called it publish-worthy material.

We all know it doesn’t happen that way.

Most of the people give up their dream of becoming a writer at this stage because the magic fairy didn’t move her wand over their fingers.

But those of us who stick around, we find a magic formula. That magic formula is – writing is a three-step process – Idea generation, drafting, and editing. As my mentor, Jeff Goins says, “Think of them as three buckets. Make sure you add something to each bucket each day.“

Keep a notebook just to capture ideas. Ideas will come all day, without any effort on your part. Your job is to capture them in the idea notebook. Then pick one and write it and put it aside. It is called drafting. You will never be in a position when you have time to write and can’t think of anything. And when you have something already written, it is very easy to fix it and make it publish-worthy.

And this is what I do now and it works like magic.

3. Manage your time

I thought when I don’t have to go to work, I will have eight hours extra in my day. I will be able to devote all of that to writing and even the commute time and time wasted on getting ready for work. Within a month I realized how wrong I was. So many things are fighting for our time. Housework never ends. My house is still as messy as it was when I was working full time.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days.” – Zig Zigler

Two things I observed. One, work expands to the time available (Parkinson’s Law). Second, I only get blocks of time available for writing. I started using those blocks most effectively. To learn more about those read my post Use 90-minute bock technique to get more out of your day.

4. Become a smart reader

Writers are avid readers. Sometimes our writing suffers because of reading but sometimes our reading suffers because of writing. Recently I was not getting enough time to read so I went on to find ways to include more reading in my schedule.

I used Pierre Bayard’s method (How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read), to select which books I wanted really read, re-read, refer to, skim, and never wanted to open (read my post So many books, so little time). Using the system, I got rid of several books and prioritized the rest. Then I chose five strategies to get more reading done – set a dedicated reading time, read at least 20 pages a day, sprint reading at times, subscribe to audiobooks,  and quit reading early if I don’t like a book.

5. Show your work

I have been writing on and off for twenty years. I have boxes full of notebooks and countless files on the computer of my writing. But none of it was any good. Why? Because I was not revising it and making it worth sharing. It was only when I started writing for this blog that I started growing as a writer.

Showing your work, even if it is on a blog, makes you a better writer. Because now you are writing publish-worthy material. If you are serious about your writing, start a blog in a quiet corner of the internet and start sharing your writing with an audience. Even if you don’t want an audience you can publish for yourself. No one will find your blog unless you actually tell anybody. The notion that someone might read it will make you work harder.

6. Have multiple pieces of work in the pipeline

For years I was working on one novel. I wanted to focus all my energy on it. No distractions, I would tell myself. But the novel didn’t go far. I ran out of ideas. In fact, I got sick of it. I parked it aside and started writing short stories. Some I was able to finish, others just wouldn’t go anywhere. Then I started a non-fiction book. Last year I got into blogging.

All this time my novel was incubating in my head. Suddenly the whole story became crystal clear. Now I am able to go back to it and finish it. The same thing happened with some of the unfinished short stories.

Successful writers never stop at one book. They might be concentrating on one at a time but they have several in the pipeline.

7. Understand the higher purpose behind your writing

Most people dread writing, consequently, they won’t write even if their lives depended on it. Yet some of us find our calling in writing. I believe if some higher power has selected us to write, it will also give us the aptitude to write well.

One of my writing teachers used to say, “Writing is receiving.” That was why at the beginning of each session she would make us sit quietly and write. An act to receive with gratitude whatever we were given.

Our job as a writer to write, keeping in mind the teachings of The Bhagavad-Gita, “Do your labor without expecting the fruit of your labor. Labor is in your control, the fruit is in the control of the higher power. It will decide when to bring the fruit of your labor.

Want more?

Here is a related article worth reading 21 Productivity Hacks from 21 Prolific Writers.

What writing habits have you been able to develop? Share them here with other readers of the blog.

Photo by Kat Stokes on Unsplash

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Finding a writing voice

Neera 2 Comments

Who am I? What is my message? What is my writing voice?

I had never thought I would be pondering these questions in a blogging course, yet here I am. In the last two days, I went through an unexpected self-discovery journey which is worth sharing here.

When I started this blog I picked two topics I was most passionate about – writing and creativity – and started writing about them. Then I went traveling and travel writing got added to the mix. I am still extremely passionate about these topics I am not sure where they are taking my blog.

Am I confusing my readers? Are all my readers interested in all the topics I am writing about? I know some of my readers are reading just the travel articles and other only creativity or writing tips.

In comes the blogging course Intentional Blogging by Jeff Goins.

The first thing that strikes me in the course is that blogging is not about picking the right topic and writing about them but about finding your voice.

Your writing voice is your unique way of sharing whatever it is that you’re going to say. It’s your particular perspective. It’s the way that you view the world.

There are three aspects of a powerful writing voice. It is distinct, it is attractive and it is personal.

Jeff Goins

How to find your writing voice?

Jeff has a three-word exercise to find writing voice to be done in three steps.

“First, review a piece of your own writing and describe it in three words, or short phrases, but try to use adjectives such as funny, smart, and super-cool.”

Okay.

“Second, select at least five of your favorite writers and list three words to describe their writing voice. This will indicate the kind of voice you like, read and engage with.”

Done.

“Third, ask five of your readers to describe you in three words or phrases.”

Not too much to ask on the surface.

But when I put the question to my father-in-law, first-ever reader of my blog, he had to go for a walk to think about it.

My devoted, encouraging lawyer-daughter wanted to know the purpose of the question. “It’s to determine what my readers would want to read?” I offer.

“That is a wrong approach,” she cried, “You can’t ask us what we want to read. It is up to you. You should write what you want to write about.”

“Yes, but it will help me find my writing voice.”

“I like what you are writing,” she said.

“But it is too broad. I need to narrow it down. I probably need to drop travel writing.”

“But you are traveling. You should write about your travels. Some of your best writing is travel writing. I like your post Words are better than 1000 pictures. I love the anecdotes there.”

In a roundabout way, she told me she wanted me to include anecdotes in my writing. Like the everyday stories post, I wrote earlier also Aunt Grace’s Philosophy, A story that will touch your heart, Evoke the senses with your writing, only that she wanted to write my stories, not other people’s stories.

“I don’t have a word for it,” said my son-in-law, “but you say in your writing you did such-and-such and you found so-and-so.”

“Learnings that it. Life’s learnings.”

“Your writing is not preachy but informational. Information based on personal experience” chimed in my husband.

“Insights, is the word.” said, my daughter.

“Seeker, courage-of-conviction and go-getter” declared my father-in-law, the three phrases he thought during his walk.

“Diligent, creative and consistent,” said my brother.

How finding my writing voice exercise led to important discoveries

At night I sat quietly and looked back at the arc of my life, from a child to a young woman to an aging adult. I was surprised at all the transitions I have gone through. First I was who I was. Then I didn’t know who I was. Then I became what everyone around me wanted me to become. Then I invented someone I really wanted to be and became that. And finally, I am what I am again.

It is a privilege to be my own person.

When we are young we don’t know what we are. As we go through life we learn about love, about marriage, about betrayal, about failing, about falling and getting up again, about work, about staggering towards success, about raising children, about caring for the aging parents, about what matters to us and to the world around us.

And when we get towards the end of life we learn who we are.

“Life must be lived forward but understood backward.”

Soren Kierkegaard

It is interesting to note that most of our learning happens not in a classroom or in a library but in the school of life. We can look back and identify the moments – the friends’ betrayal, the work promotion, the careless comments, the difficult forgiveness, the silence, the debates, the hurt. All these things shape us, make us the person we become and give us the wisdom to share.

Two discoveries:

  1. We learn about life in retrospect.
  2. The wisdom of everyday life is timeless and worth sharing.

My daughter was right. It is the anecdotes that capture the essence of my writing voice. My father-in-law was right too, I am a life-long seeker. Seeker of answers, seeker of knowledge, seeker of wisdom. My son-in-law pointed out another one of my traits, learnings from trial and error. And my husband said the evident – I am not a preacher. I just say my truth.

This exercise has changed the focus of my blog from a topic-based blog to a personal blog. I have discovered I have so much more to share now. My passions give me a unique perspective on life, my seeking, learning, and insights give my writing voice a distinct flavor that hopefully will attract the right audience.

“Curious, insightful and inspirational.” I wrote down on the course notes and went to sleep.

Use 90-minute block technique to get more out of your day

Neera 1 Comment

Let’s face it. There aren’t enough hours in a day to do everything we want. ‘Failing to plan is the sure recipe to fail’, but what if after all the planning and good intentions you still can’t accomplish what you set out to do in a day.

I have been struggling each week to write three posts, the first draft of a new non-fiction book, editing the second draft of the novel, doing a drawing course, reading at least one book a week and doing daily research and interviews for the book and blog. I am not going to waste your time by listing the housework, which I am sure you all do as well.

Ever since I have quit my job and started working for myself I thought I will have plenty of time to do scheduled activities but also the impromptu activities such as meeting a friend for a coffee, start a singing group, sorting out millions of family photos and of course read newspaper in the morning with a cup of tea.

Boy, was I wrong!

I am working more than ten hours a day, there is no clear end to my working day, sometimes it goes literally till mid-night. I have tried all kinds of planning tools but none so far has given me the kind of control I am looking for.

The issue is not that overcommitting but less productivity. Working from home has its challenges. There are more distractions and lots of interruptions. I realized I don’t get a solid seven or eight hours as I used in an office environment.

After months of trials, I have come to realize I have only three blocks of time available throughout the day. In the morning before breakfast, in the afternoon after lunch and at night after dinner. My challenge is to use these blocks in the most effective way.

This is when by pure accident, I came across the 90-minute block schedule.

90-minute block schedule became popular in middle and high schools in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional schedule, where four core blocks of 90 minutes replace the traditional six to eight classes of 45 to 50 minutes each day. The success of this idea in schools is attributed to the less wasted time between classes, the opportunity to dive more deeply into content and using multiple learning methods in addition to traditional teaching by ‘lecture.’

But a 90-minute block schedule is also used as a productivity tool by professionals and entrepreneurs.

Jonathan Vieker writes in his post Time Blocking: A Brilliant Time Management Tool:

In researching and writing about time management for the last couple of years, I’ve explored multiple approaches, but I’ve gradually come to advocate one approach above all others. It’s called time blocking, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it can change your working life. In the two years I’ve been using time blocking, I estimate that my productivity has roughly doubled. That’s the kind of efficiency gain you don’t find every day!

Recently time blocking was made famous by the author Cal Newport in his book Deep Work, in which he suggests to pre-schedule completely distraction-free blocks of time to do deep work. He shares his time-blocking technique in his blog Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day. He says “it generates a massive amount of productivity, and even if you’re blocking most of your day for reactive work, the fact that you are controlling your schedule will allow you to dedicate some small blocks (perhaps at the schedule periphery) to deeper pursuits.”

Here is a quick animated summary of Cal Newport’s book Deep Work.

I have now adopted Newport’s technique and blocked the 90-minute block for writing, editing, researching, and reading.

It is the best way to beat Parkinson’s Law, which says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” By limiting my sessions to 90 minutes I am making sure that I finish the task in that time span.

Steve Pavlina argues that a typical American office worker only does about 90 minutes of real work per workday. The rest of each workday is largely spent on distractions like reading the news, web surfing, socializing with coworkers, snacking, taking coffee breaks, shuffling papers around, processing irrelevant emails, needless delay tactics, playing games, and daydreaming.

He suggests that a knowledge worker can do a whole day’s work in a 90-minute period of peak productivity. He makes the following suggestions to maximize time-block productivity.

1. Pick one theme – Instead of doing a bunch of random actions, pick one clear theme for the block.

2. Define the finish line – See your focus block as a fast dash to the finish line. But where is the finish line? What does it look like? Having a clear goal that’s only 90 minutes away will help you focus. Don’t worry if you don’t cross the finish line each time; it’s there to help you focus, so aim for it, but accept that sometimes you’ll miss.

3. List the action steps – List the specific actions you’ll take during this block. For some blocks, this is really helpful. For others, it may not be necessary if the steps are already clear.

4. Ensure zero interruptions – Do whatever it takes to ensure that you will not be interrupted under any circumstances during your focus block.

5. Work fast – Think fast. Move fast. Work fast. Imagine that you’re in a race, and you have to maintain a strong pace for the full 90 minutes. After that, you can rest. With practice, this gets easier.

6. Allow no distractions – During your focus block, you must do your pre-defined work and nothing else. Keep your cell phone off. Turn off any notifications. Don’t check the internet. Do not check email during this time. Do not take a coffee break or snack break. Use the bathroom during this time only if you must.

Do a Full Day’s Work in 90 Minutes by Steve Pavlina

In Steve Pavlina’s view, the way to do the less important tasks is to group them together and do them as one block. It prevents frequently switching gears and gives you structure and helps you stick to a schedule.

Kevin Kruse, author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, recommends time blocks instead of to-do lists “because of the discipline and order it applies to your tasks.”

Organizing your schedule instead of making a to-do list takes productivity one step further. Because you’re dedicating specific windows of time to your work, everything finds its place. Tasks aren’t floating around in your mind. There’s a time set aside to get it all done.

Kevin Kruse

“Time blocking will force you to confront reality, avoid over-committing, and help you leverage the power of deadlines,” says Kruse ” and it might even help you sleep better at night.”

Was today’s post helpful? Have you used the time-block technique to structure your day? Share your experience through the comments section.

 

10 Learnings from the first year of blogging

Neera

Today marks the one year of this blog. 27 July last year, was a turning point in my life. After a lot of apprehensions, I bought my name as the domain name to start blogging. I finally came to terms with the fact that if I want to take my passion for writing seriously I need to start putting my work out there.

The same evening my father passed away. It doesn’t matter how old you are when you lose your parents, you lose a part of yourself with them. Overnight I grew up from being a daughter to a mother. With that came the realization that my time here is also going to end sooner than later.

Losing parents bring us face to face with our own mortality. Was I ready? Had I done all that I wanted to do? The truth shook me to the bones. Like everyone else, I was postponing life. Too busy with the busyness of the life that I was not even living it. “It is not death that a man should fear,” wrote Marcus Aurelius, “but he should fear never beginning to live.”

Work was not fulfilling. House was empty. There was emptiness all around me. In that silence, I could hear the tiny voice in me. It said: Make something. Do the things you used to love. Read the books you want to read. Write. Draw. Leave some legacy behind.

I decided to make writing my life’s mission and blog my portal. But if only it was that simple. It is easy to set up a blog but it is hard to write something worth sharing regularly. Then there is the technology that chews up your precious time in learning new skills and troubleshooting. I persisted and learned a lot.

The whole year has been a steep learning curve not only in blogging but in life’s lessons. Here are ten things worth sharing here:

1. Choose creativity over the competition. All my life I was raised to compete. It is the survival of the fittest, our generation learned from Darwin. The only way to lead a better life is to be the best student, get the best job, be the best employee, win promotions, marry an ambition person, accumulate wealth, own the biggest house, drive an expensive car and have holidays at exotic places. Nowhere there was room to slow down, to take it easy, to get in touch with the creative soul in yourself and you will have to compete for anything. Wallace D. Wattles imparted with the knowledge more than a hundred years ago, “…a man must pass from the competitive to the creative mindset to achieve whatever he wants to achieve; otherwise, he cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence, which is always creative and never competitive.”

2. Start whatever you want to do because the boldness has the genius, power, and magic to it. Doing anything worthwhile takes a lot of courage and commitment. So many times we feel so overwhelmed and paralyzed with the enormity of the task that we don’t even take the first step. Yet it all we need to do to begin any journey doesn’t matter however long. Once we are on the path and concentrating on just the next step, we overcome many obstacles that otherwise seemed insurmountable. I experienced this first hand this year with my blogging journey. And I will continue to test this theory with my other endeavors.

3. How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, pointed out Annie Dillard. Get hold of your days and you will have a hold of your lives. Seneca, a Roman Philosopher wrote two thousand years ago “You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.” Don’t let other people make demands on your time. Put your life’s goals first otherwise one day it will be too late. In Seneca’s words, “In guarding their fortune men are often closefisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most extravagant.”

4. Find your calling. “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” wrote Robert Byrne. We are not here to earn a living and raise children. Even animals do that. All the intelligence that Nature bestowed in us is for a higher purpose. Each one of us has to find our own calling and then fulfill it. “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” said Pablo Picasso.

5. Follow your bliss, says Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth. It will help to fulfill your purpose much easier and joyful. “If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. It is no rocket science when you are in touch with yourself but very hard to know when you are far removed from your own soul.

6. Art is innate to humans. Art is not a painting or a drawing or a statue. “Art is a habit,” explains Seth Godin, “Creating art is a habit, one that we practice daily or hourly until we get good at it. Art isn’t about the rush of victory that comes from being picked. Nor does it involve compliance. Art in the post-industrial age is a lifelong habit, a stepwise process that incrementally allows us to create more art. Art is passionate and personal. Great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator. Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn’t matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another. Art is not perfection. You can be perfect or you can make art. Pay attention to what art is and then make art. Because art is a worthy legacy to leave behind.

7. Never doubt your creativity. Learn to listen to the tiny voice inside you which wants you to create. To make something that will make you happy as it used to when you were a child. It doesn’t care whether it is good, sellable or will make any difference in anyone’s life. It wants you to create something which will make a difference for you. Something that will make you happy. Listen to that voice because if you don’t, it will die. And with it, a big chunk of you will die too.

8. Build stamina. Put the hours in. Stamina is very important. “Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. 90% of what separates successful people and the failed people is time, effort and stamina,” advises Hugh Macleod who can’t be beaten on stamina.

9. Listen to everyone, do what your heart desires. There are too many people advising too many things. Listen to all of them and then ask yourself what you think. Meditate on it. Your answers might be different than others. And that is your truth. Try to bring that out. Follow your own path. You never know where it might lead you.

10. Continue to learn. Never stop. Never give up. Make several tiny adjustments like the airplane does through its course. There is a solution to every problem, you haven’t found it yet. Whatever you are trying to do, someone has done it before you and left behind lots of notes or at least a number of clues. Persist and you will figure it out too. Too many people get frustrated and give up. Don’t get counted with those. Get counted with the few who go all the way and fulfill the purpose of their lives.

I am looking forward to next year’s learnings. Here are ten of my favorite posts that really enjoyed writing.

1. How to find the purpose of your life

2. Finding Balance

3. How not to waste time

4. Become a “scenius” rather than a genius

5. Work-life balance – have we got it all wrong?

6. Who are you writing for?

7. So You Want to Write a Novel

8. How new-age creatives not only surviving but thriving

9. Words are better than 1000 pictures

10. So many books, so little time

Do any of my learnings resonate with you? Let me know which of my posts you enjoyed this year.

How New Age Creatives are not only surviving but thriving

Neera

There was a time when art and creativity were linked to poverty. A struggling artist is a common image in everyone’s mind. That is why parents force their artistic kids to also have some professional qualifications as well in case they can’t make a living from their art.

That is why Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic not to stress your art by demanding it to make money for you.

…long before the Internet and digital technology ever existed – the arts were still a crap career. It’s not likely back in 1989 anybody was saying to me, “You know where the money is, kid? Writing!” They weren’t saying that to anyone back in 1889, either, or in 1789, and they won’t be saying it in 2089. But people will still try to be writers, because they love the vocation. People will keep being painters, sculptors, musicians, actors, poets, directors, quilters, knitters, potters, glassblowers, metalworkers, ceramicists, calligraphers, collagists, nail artists, clog dancers and Celtic harpist as well. Against all sound advice, people will stubbornly keep trying to make pleasing things for no particularly good reason, as we always have done.

That is the reason Hugh McLeod advises to keep your day job in his book Ignore Everybody.

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs. One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills.

Austin Kleon agrees with them in How to Steal Like an Artist and advises to find work that pays your bills but also teaches you something that helps you with your art like being a librarian or website developer helped him to establish himself as a writer.

But what if they are all wrong? What if they are being over cautious? What if artists can make living with their art?

What if art is the only thing that will get rewarded in the twenty-first century?

Jeff Goins in his book Real Artists Don’t Starve makes the point that you can make a living as an artist and that you don’t have to starve to follow your passion.

He tells the story of Michael Angelo to break the myth of starving artists.

I don’t know how much you know about Michelangelo but usually they taught us that he kind of struggled like Vincent van Gogh.

For centuries, historians believed that Michelangelo, the great Renaissance master, struggled like Vincent van Gogh . That he was just another starving artist. Michelangelo himself embraced this image, living frugally and often complaining about money.

But it turns out he wasn’t telling the truth.

Jeff Goins in Why the Story of the Starving Artist Needs to Die

Jeff Goins goes on to say, “Thanks to the power of this myth, many of us take the safe route in life. We become lawyers instead of actresses, bankers instead of poets, and doctors instead of painters. We hedge our bets and hide from our true calling, choosing less risky careers, because it seems easier. Nobody wants to struggle, after all, so we keep our passion a hobby and follow a predictable path toward mediocrity.”

Now is the best time in history to do creative work. Seth Godin has been giving this message in his books for a while now.

When you were rewarded for obedience, you were obedient. When you were rewarded for compliance, you were compliant. When you were rewarded for competence, you were competent. Now the society finally values art, it’s time to make art.

I have collected three examples of new-age creatives who are not only surviving but thriving.

750Words

Buster Benson, an IT geek who wanted to become a writer, has long been inspired by an idea he first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages.

One fine morning Buster decided he was going to build an online app where he can type morning pages. His idea was, it is easier to reach for a computer these days than finding a notebook and his hand worked better on the keyboard than on the notebook. So he builds an app and called it 750Words, which he made available for others for free.

Writers liked it so much that in three years’ time Buster had to install more servers to keep up with the demand. Today the app has 455,111 members, out of which approx 4500 are paid, members. I will let you do the math how much Buster (and his wife Kellianne who provides support to the members) make from just one bright creative idea they implemented. Of course, Buster has many more up his sleeve, check him out.

Psychotactics

Sean D’souza, of Psychotactics, is a graphic design turned cartoonist turned marketer who has built a massive community of small business owners worldwide working from New Zealand. He passes on to them what he learned from Leo Burnett’s advertising agency which he considers one of the best advertising agencies in the world. Not only that, he runs online cartoonist courses each year which gets sold out within 14 hours of release. Recently he stopped doing online business mentoring saying no to $150, 000 a year so that he can concentrate on other things. Such is the demand for his expertise.

Brain Pickings

This is what happens when a 23-year-old worker of an advertising agency notices that her co-workers were circulating information within the advertising industry around the office for inspiration. The world’s most famous literary blog gets started. Because 23 years old work had different ideas. She thought creativity was better sparked with exposure to information outside of the industry one was familiar with. In an effort to stir creativity, she starts sending emails to the entire office containing five things that had nothing to do with advertising but were meaningful, interesting, or important.

From that humble beginning, email originated Brain Pickings a blog read by millions making its writer Maria Popova an online celebrity. She is said to make the US $250,000 to $500,000 a year from her blog.

What are your thoughts on striving artists? Have you got any examples of thriving creatives you would like to share here? I would love to hear from you.

So you want to write a novel

Neera 1 Comment

You think there is a book in you. 

It might be a memoir, or it might just be a novel. You are not sure. 

Some scenes keep playing in your head again and again. You have even met the protagonist.

She comes into your dreams and talks to you. She has shared some secrets with you—just some. You know there are more secrets, but when you ask, she remains quiet. Then she disappears. You push her to the back of your mind and get on with your life. Then one day, when you have forgotten all about her, she is sitting on the corner of your bed, in tears, accusing you of abandoning her.

She wants you to write her story. You have no idea how to. You tell her that, but she won’t leave you alone.

Drip by drip, she feeds you her story but not enough to make sense. You faithfully record what she is telling you. You even try to fill in the missing bits with your imagination, but they are not authentic. You need to hear it from her.

What can you do? Should you write her story as best as possible, or should you tell her to leave you alone and let her story die?

This is the decision only you can make. No one else can make it for you.

Writing a novel is hard.

If you decide to write that story, and you have never written one before, let me tell you something you don’t perhaps know. Instantly you rise to the category of a select few. Writing a novel is hard. Very hard. That is the reason only a handful of us dare do it.

There are books and books written on how to write a novel by experienced authors. The gods of the writing world — Stephen King, William Zinsser, Anne Lamott, Dean Koontz, Annie Dillard, James Scott Bell, and Margaret Atwood — have shared their wisdom. 

I am a mere mortal who is still struggling with her first novel for more than five years. What can I tell you about writing a novel?

Perhaps not much, other than — writing a novel is like carrying a baby, it gets heavier and heavier with time, and one day you have to deliver it. 

Sometimes you have a miscarriage, sometimes a stillbirth, but never it is that you can keep the baby inside you.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” — Maya Angelou

If you are one of those who are carrying a novel in you, if you are the one who really wants to write it, there are a few things I have learned that I would love to share with you.

1. Your first-born is yours to keep

Like any first-born, he is going to be your dearest, and rightly so. It was the most difficult pregnancy and most painful delivery. Yet, it is not a baby you can show to the world. He is yours and yours alone. The sooner we understand this fact, the sooner we come to terms with his role in our lives and ours in his.

Our role is to bring him out in the world, and he is to prepare us to give birth to more.

The first draft is just you telling yourself the story. — Terry Pratchett

Don’t tell yourself it is not worth it, or it will take too long, or you don’t have the skills, or even if you write one, no one would want to publish it, and even if it gets published, you won’t make much money from it unless it wins the Man Booker prize and if it doesn’t, what is the point of writing one.

Just write it for yourself.

2. Infertility is the thing of the past

Remember those days when you were told that you couldn’t have a baby because your eggs couldn’t descend, or there was some problem with your fallopian tubes or sperm count was less … things like that. Those are all things of the past. Now there is artificial insemination, test-tube babies, surrogate mothers…

The limitation that you can’t write a novel doesn’t exist anymore.

James Scott Bell, a lawyer and thriller writer, wrote Plot and Structure that he wasted ten years of a prime writing life because he was fed a big lie. He gave up the dream of becoming a writer in his twenties because he was told writing couldn’t be taught, that the writers were born, that you either have it, or you don’t.

Then at age thirty-four, he read an interview with a lawyer who’d had a novel published. In the interview, the lawyer said something which hit James like a stack of bricks. He said he’d had an accident and was almost killed. In the hospital, given a second chance at life, he decided the one thing he wanted was to be a writer. And he would write and write, even if he never got published because that was what he wanted.

James wanted to write too. So he went out and bought his first book on fiction writing. He taught himself writing and became a writer of more than 25 novels and countless other books.

Infertility is a thing of the past. There are so many options available now. Explore and use. Don’t lead the life of despair.

People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it. — R.L. Stine

3. Conception is delightful

More than twenty years ago, I read an interview of Barbara Cartland (she was more than ninety years old at that time) where she said she was still writing a novel a year, only that she was now dictating it rather than typing it. There was a picture of her with the article, where she was lying on a four-poster bed with a pink canopy in a gilded bedroom. She was wearing a pink dress, a white fur scarf, diamonds, and full makeup, and I said to myself, Wow!

I will never forget that picture of her. That was then I conceived the idea of writing novels.

The beauties of conception are always superior to those of expression — Walter J Phillips

I was seduced not because Barbara Cartland was living the fantasy life she was writing about in her novels, but that she was writing one each year, in her nineties and from her bed. How many professions are there where you can have that kind of productivity at that age?

Writing a novel is a worthy goal for any writer. Like Anne Lamott says, “Writing can give you what having a baby can give you; it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up.”

For the past few days have been reviewing my half-written novel. Chapter 1 needs tightening, chapters 2 and 3 are perfect, but I am not sure about 4 and 5 where POV changes from protagonist to another character. Should I keep it that way or get rid of them altogether. But they move the story forward. I like chapters 6, 7, and 8. My protagonist finds her inner strength here. 

There are places where I think, did I write this or someone else wrote them, and my heart pumps with pride.

I am up to chapter 11 now, and I love it. I can’t wait to hold this baby in my arms because it is mine and mine alone.

Photo by Rhiannon Black on Unsplash