Consistency in Routine: It's True What They Say

In June, I decided to post about consistency because it's a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately, as an editor, a writer, and a quality assurance manager at my day job. If you caught my previous posts, you know I talked a lot about consistency in your actual writing and provided some (hopefully) helpful tips to provide a manuscript that won't be full of errors or inconsistencies.

But today, I want to approach a more controversial topic and one that I think is timely given how 2020 has been full of change, disease, protests, racism, and uncertainty.

If you hope to make progress as a writer, whatever that means to you, you have to be consistent in how you approach your writing routine. 

That's sometimes an unpopular thing to say. A lot of creative people don't like to hear the words routine or schedule. They shudder at the mention of "discliplined." But when I talk to people who are stuck or have writer's block or can't finish any piece of writing they start, one thing most of them have in common is: there's no consistent routine to their writing.

Look, I get it. I do. It's hard to get up and write every morning. Or it's hard to write in the evening after the kids go to bed. Or it's hard to sit your butt in the chair and write in the mornings (if you are retired or a full-time writer). But if you're having trouble making progress, it could be because you're not consistent.

This post is not meant to scold you or make you say all kinds of bad things to yourself right now. We are in the middle of a year that is unprecdented in our lifetimes. I wanted to indie publish a ton of books this year. One of them that I worked consistently on every day for four months was a book about how to do school visits. Enter the pandemic. Enter sheltering-in-place and distance learning. Enter a school year that won't look the same until a vaccine is found and widely available. I have an entire manuscript and book cover almost ready to go that I'm not going to publish right now; and for a while, I let it throw me.

But a few weeks ago, I said to myself: You were consistently productive in the morning before COVID-19. You are getting up so early because you have a crazy puppy who wants to get up at sunrise (and that's before 5:30 am right now, folks). So before you start editing for someone else or planning your daughter's day or insert anything here, work on your own pieces.

And I so I did. That's what I'm doing from about 6:30 am to 8:00 am every day. I feel better. I am making progress. I am consistent.

More than anything, I hope you understand that if you're hard on yourself, if you're negative self-talking, or if you're not allowing yourself grace because you're upset about the violence, or you want to organize a protest, or you're at home with three kids who have had their entire summers canceled, I want you to first be kind to yourself. You will not accomplish anything, consistent or not, if you do not give yourself grace.

Then look at yourself realistically. Where can you be consistent with your writing career? Can you work in the mornings? Is there an hour during naptime? Can someone watch your kids two times a week? Are you a weekend novelist? Whatever works FOR YOU, find it and stick to it. You will make progress. Consistency equals progress toward a goal. It really does.

What does work for you? Have you found this to be true in your own life? Let us know!

Margo L. Dill is a writing coach, writer, and editor living in St. Louis, MO, with her daughter and her dog. You can find out more about her at https://www.editor-911.com or take her next online novel writing course which starts on July 3 by clicking here. 

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5 comments consistency series, Margo L. Dill, write every day, writing progress, writing routine

Checking For Consistency When You Are Done (Consistency Post 2)

At the end of May, I wrote a post introducing a series on consistency. As an editor, I’ve realized that consistency is one of the elements that makes a piece of writing successful. If you aren’t consistent. no matter what you write, readers can be taken out of your story, post, novel, or article before they even get to enjoy the content.

I asked if anyone had consistency questions, and one of my fellow bloggers, Sioux Roslawski, asked me: How do you check for consistency when you’re dealing with a long piece like a manuscript? Do you print out a physical copy and start highlighting details in different colors? Do you do a readthrough and use post-its?

This is a great question and a perfect one to start with. Many of us write a first draft and realize when we get to the end that there’s still so much work to do! Sometimes, there’s more work to do than before we wrote this 75,000-word manuscript. The strategies that Sioux mentioned in her question are ones you can use to check for consistency. But even using different color highlighters can become confusing if you are reading a 300-page document. So my advice is to tackle consistency before you type "the end" for the first time.

Here are some strategies to try:

1. Keep a manuscript bible. Fantasy and science-fiction writers will often keep what they call a series bible. This is a separate document in Word or sometimes a physical notebook. This is where writers keep track of their worldbuilding rules and regulations, setting details, character descriptions, and everything that makes their fiction world run.

You don’t have to write one of these genres in order to keep a bible. To stay consistent with your characters, setting, timeline, or anything else you need to keep track of in your story, keep a story or series bible. There are several software programs that can help you do this, such as Scrivener, Microsoft OneNote, or even the Notes app on your smartphones. Some people like to use a plain old notebook like what they bought when they started elementary school each year. It doesn’t matter what format you keep your bible in, but keep track of details, so that when you write your character dyed her hair red in chapter three, you can remember that fact in chapter ten.

2. Pick a style. Whether you are traditionally or indie published, you need to be consistent with your grammar and punctuation rules. Let’s take for example the Oxford comma. In Chicago Manual of Style, the Oxford comma is present. In AP style, there is no Oxford comma. This may seem like a small detail. But there are a lot of rules to grammar, and these "small" rules add up.

• Does the punctuation go inside the quotation marks or outside the quotation marks? 
• Should I capitalize this noun or should I not? 
• How do I write numerals up to 100?

These rules exist to help writers be consistent when they write. If you follow these rules, and you are consistent, then your reader will not be taken out of the story. Pick a style. It’s fine if the publishing house you choose to query uses AP style when you are using MLA style. The important thing is that the editor knows you worked hard to be consistent, and there will be minimal edits to get this manuscript in tiptop shape. Don’t decide halfway through what style to follow or switch it up to another style. Be consistent from the beginning and stick with it.

3. Find a beta reader. When we finish the manuscript, almost every single one of us knows that there’s probably something in the story where we were not consistent. It can be as simple as a character sat down and then stood up twice or eye color changed. You definitely need to set the manuscript aside for a length of time, so that your mind can clear, and you can read it with fresh eyes. When you read the manuscript with fresh eyes, try to do it in a short amount of time--taking no longer than a week if possible. Take notes on any plot point, blocking, character element, or anything else in the story that causes you to worry you weren't consistent. Then find a beta reader. This does not have to be another writer, just someone who likes to read and will look for the points you are concerned about.

If you are looking for consistency in a manuscript, the best way is to do as much as you can while you are writing. Then when you are done, after some time, read through your manuscript as quickly as possible and make notes for someone else to check, too.

Stay tuned for MORE consistency posts coming in June!

Margo L. Dill is a writer, editor, and writing coach and instructor, living in St. Louis, MO, with her nine-year-old daughter and her one-year-old lab mix dog, Sudsi. To take Margo's next novel writing course, go here and sign up before June 5! She will help you be consistent when writing your novel or memoir.

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3 comments book editing, consistency series, Margo L. Dill, revising, revising a novel, revising manuscripts

Why Consistency Is So Important to Your Writing (and What Should We Do About it?)

One thing that may have many of us feeling unsure or out of sorts right now is the conflicting information that can come with stories and information about the current pandemic. Some of it is because we live in a 24/7 news cycle, and scientists and doctors are making new discoveries daily. Some of it is rumor and hype. But when I talk to my friends and family, this is one topic that's often brought up: Everything feels so inconsistent. People are asking: Who do I trust?

Think about your best friend or a relative you are close to. You've established trust and a bond, and one of the ways this happened is because the person was consistent. He or she followed through on promises and showed up when s/he said they would. S/he was always there for you with consistent behavior.

So consistency is important to human beings; and as you know, human beings are your readers--at least for now, until we teach other creatures to read or life is found on another planet. (I'm only kidding--sort of.)

When I was thinking about this post, I thought of many, many ways that we have to be consistent when we write or because we are writers. I decided I would turn this topic into a series of blog posts. Today's post gives you an overview of the topic; and then in other posts throughout the end of May and into June, I'll provide some tips in different areas for how to be consistent in your writing and keep your readers happy!

Here are some areas where consistency is important both in your writing and in your career:

• Point of view character
• Worldbuilding
• Characters' descriptions
• Characters' names
• Characters' motivations and feelings
• Spelling (i.e., U.S. vs U.K.)
• Formatting
• Branding
• Correspondence
• Social Media

and more...

This is where you come in. Where do you think it is crucial to be consistent, in both your stories, novels, essays, or whatever you write and in your career and marketing. Is there an area where you excel or one where you struggle? Please let me know in the comments. Plus, if you have any questions in this area, please also leave them in the comments, and I will answer them in following posts.

Here's to being consistent in an area of our lives we can control--our writing! 

Margo L. Dill is a writer, editor, and writing coach and instructor, living in St. Louis, MO, with her nine-year-old daughter and her one-year-old lab mix dog, Sudsi. To take Margo's next novel writing course, go here and sign up before June 5! She will help you be consistent when writing your novel or memoir. 

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3 comments author branding, consistency series, editing, fiction novel, Margo L. Dill, marketing, Memoir writing, novel writing, revising, writing fiction