Getting the Words on the Page

While attending a cookout a few weekends ago, a friend introduced me to one of her acquaintances. When this woman found out I was a writer, her eyes opened wide. 

“I would love to do that!” she said. “I have so many ideas . . .” 

We chatted for a few more minutes about what types of writing I do. She mentioned trying to join a local writing group she found years ago online. But when she got to the restaurant where they were all meeting, she said all the women there worked in the industry, either in a freelance capacity or working on staff at local news outlets. She said she felt intimidated because she hadn’t published anything and slunk away that evening, vowing never to return. She mentioned all the Post-It notes she has scattered around her house, thoughts that tumble out of her head and onto the tiny pieces of paper. 

But from what I gathered, this woman (who is several years older than me) hasn’t completed anything. She didn’t mention any essays, poems, or short stories. Just her ideas. 

We exchanged phone numbers so we could talk more about writing. But as I walked away, I thought to myself, “She has writing paralysis.” It made me sad, because I’ve seen it before. My own daughter has it. She loves writing for fun and journaling but when it comes time to produce and submit something creative, she hedges. As she describes it, “I get too much in my head about things.” 

I could tell from speaking to this woman at the barbeque she likely has the same thing. She has romanticized the idea of being a writer so much that she has talked herself out of doing the writing. I’ve been thinking about what advice I could give her. 

Take a writing workshop or online class. There are so many affordable options out there, including the ones here at WOW! While the idea of sharing our work can be intimidating, at the very least, it will require you to put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard and complete an assignment. You’ll probably have to submit it to the instructor or others in your class. You will get to read examples of other people’s work and see what topics bode well in essay or short story format. When I helped WOW! instructor Ashley Harris out with a poetry webinar earlier this summer, I was so inspired I came away with five new poem drafts. I haven’t written poetry in years, and I’ve never published any, but seeing her presentation, which included submission markets, lit a fire underneath me. 

Enter a contest. Again, these have tangible deadlines that force you to write. The WOW! quarterly flash fiction contest only requires 750 words. Yes, it’s difficult to produce a compelling short story in so few words, but it’s also very achievable. If you purchase a critique to go along with your entry, you’ll get ideas on what worked and didn’t work in the story and receive encouragement to keep going along the way. Our monthly markets newsletter is also chock full of places to submit, complete with deadlines. I’m listening to an audiobook right now called The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick. It takes place in the late 1960s, and one character, Margaret, decides she wants to enter an essay contest a national magazine is sponsoring. She has to go out and rent a typewriter just to achieve this goal—talk about a physical barrier to entering a contest! Thankfully, things are much easier on writers these days. The only barrier we have is ourselves. 

Participate in a writing or journaling challenge. Years ago, I read Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way and got so much out of her daily morning pages exercises. If you’re struggling with what to write, begin a short journaling practice with your morning tea or coffee. Subscribe to a few Substack accounts like this one  and read other people’s work for inspiration. Jodi Webb wrote a great post with 15 writing challenges for writers of all types. You’ll be inspired in no time! 

I promise that if you’re suffering from the dreaded “writer’s paralysis,” you won’t be for long once you begin putting the words on the page.

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and host and creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.

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1 comment Renee Roberson, writing advice, writing contests, writing productivity

A Day in the Life of Working from Home

I primarily work as a freelance writer, podcaster, and aspiring novelist. But if I’m to be honest, I spend most of my days being distracted by bright and shiny objects. Something tells me I’m not alone in this. Consider what an average day looks like for me. 

Wake up anywhere between 7 and 8 a.m. Get my coffee, catch up on the national news (most of the time I regret this), drink a glass of water, and make breakfast. From there, I get dressed and walk my two dogs. One is an elderly dachshund who is not too keen on walking, the other is a feisty chihuahua terrier who will NOT have her walk cut short unless it is raining, or she hears thunder in the distance. 

Once we return from this walk, I try to get in a quick strength training workout. Then I consult my to-do list for the day. This usually includes about an hour of planning or research before I break for lunch, if I don’t have a podcast interview scheduled. 

After lunch is my most productive time of day. I work on research for the podcast, write scripts, and if I’m caught up on that, tinker around with essays and any fiction I’m working on. Unfortunately, I’ve become discouraged with my fiction writing as of late, so I’ve spent more time working on creative nonfiction and podcast content. However, I’m prone to falling down rabbit holes during this period of time. 

Take yesterday, for example. I was reading a back issue of a newspaper, specifically an article about a missing woman’s body being found in 1989, when another headline caught my eye. It read, “Young Man’s Success Ends with Bizarre Death.” A college-student created a lucrative business selling balloons and other celebratory items and then is shot to death when he tried to enter a random home in town? I had to learn more. I took out my true crime notebook to write down the headline and publication information for a future podcast episode. This happens frequently, as does me posting a reel on Instagram and then getting distracted because my favorite store is having a sale. But I digress. 

Thursdays I reserve afternoons for recording or editing my podcast. Throughout the week, if I feel I’ve been less productive during the day, I’ll carve out an hour or two at night to catch up on work. I try to read a few chapters of a book before I go to sleep, as it helps for a restful night of sleep (unless you’re reading a book like “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix. I'll never make that mistake again. Talk about some vivid dreams). 

Somehow, even with all these distractions and stops to take in food, drink, walks, and other exercise, I manage to be productive on the projects I most care about. I’d love to hear when you do your best writing! 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer who also produces the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas. She’s currently seeking representation for a novel about, what else? A podcaster trying to solve a mystery. Learn more at www.FinishedPages.com and www.MissingintheCarolinas.

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3 comments a day in the life, procrastination, Renee Roberson, writing advance, writing productivity

Affirmations for Writers

 

My husband is big on affirmations. He likes to write them on post-it notes and put them either on his bathroom mirror or above his workspace here at home. They say things like, “I am a healthy man” or “My kids are successful” and “I will make X amount of dollars this year.” I feel like this practice helped him land a dream job in the past year that he is thriving in. I’ve also dabbled in affirmations, but as with a lot of things I start, I haven’t written them in a gratitude journal.

I need to change that. I have much to be grateful for. My daughter is in her second year of college seven plus hours away, absorbed in a tough STEM program, and while I know there are days she wants to throw her laptop against the wall, she’s toughing it out. She’s finding ways to embrace her artistic interests and learning how to cook. She also knows there are things in our world that need to change and is figuring out how she can help do that with her career. My son has applied to seven colleges, been accepted to two already, and has been invited to the honors colleges at both. He is discovering his writing voice and joined the campus news publication. He has a passion for sports media and communications, and every time he publishes something, I see how much pride he has in his work. 

I started a health program three months ago to reset my metabolism and it worked! I’m lifting more weights, focusing on walking 10,000 steps a day, and balancing my nutrition by counting macros (protein is my number one nutrient). I’m sleeping better than I have in years, have more energy, and have gone down at least one dress size. I think that has helped me become a more productive writer. I took my podcast to a weekly production schedule in September, the downloads have increased, I have the opportunity to create a spin-off show, I have more e-mails for cases in my inbox, and I’m close to completing a major revision of my suspense thriller novel. 

The life of a writer can be frustrating, with highs and lows, ebbs and flows, and episodes of self doubt. I’ve had my share. But once I stop to make a list of all the things that are going right, they far outweigh the number of things that have gone wrong. I went online to see if I could find some positive affirmations specifically for writers. Here are a few I found from the Midwest Writers Workshop.

• I am a writer. 
• I have a voice. 
• I can set goals and reach towards them one step at a time. 
• Other people’s successes do not detract from mine. 
• Someone out there is waiting for my words and needs to hear them. 

Write on, my friends. We’ve got this!

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer, aspiring novelist, and creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas, which recently passed 150,000 downloads. 

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3 comments affirmations for writers, creative writing, focusing on positive aspects of writing, Renee Roberson, writing productivity

Curate, Then Create

Sometimes I get impatient and don’t let things marinate properly before diving in. Case in point. I wanted to enter a short play in a local play festival for Halloween. I didn’t have a 10-minute-play written, but had a short story I thought might work. I reformatted the short story, inserted simple stage instructions and setting, and read it aloud a few times. Then I went and read the submission requirements for the contest. (Yes, I should have done that first.) The theatre company only wanted five characters max. I had double that. I tweaked the play once more, condensing characters and turning a scene between two people at the end into one character talking into a cell phone. Then I dashed off the play via e-mail, one day before the deadline. Not surprisingly, my play wasn’t selected. I probably should have spent more time reading the submission guidelines and going over the play carefully before submitting. 

I also had to take a step back a few weeks ago when doing planning for my podcast. After taking a hiatus over the summer, I came up with the ambitious idea of batching two months’ worth of podcast episodes in the month of August, so I could begin running them in September. That planning came to a screeching halt. First, I needed to come up with ideas. Pulling from the skills I used to utilize as a magazine assignment editor, I opened my notebook where I keep all true crime notes. I sent out e-mails to prospective interview subjects. I scheduled an interview with one of my favorite local true crime authors. I consulted the calendar of national holidays to see where I could align episodes. I noticed National Cyber Security Awareness Month is in October and felt cyber crimes could tie into a podcast about missing people. I put a call out for experts and lined up calls (the site Qwoted was a huge help here). I looked at notes I’ve jotted down over the past few years and fiddled around with themes (such as “Missing South Carolina Kids from the 1980s"). At the same time, a friend of a friend asked if I would be willing to let a high school senior intern with me so she could get experience for her college applications. I outsourced another podcast episode to a freelance writer. See how much work it took just to plan a batch of scripts? It’s a lot. 

During the few weeks I was working on the planning, my head was spinning and I tried not to get discouraged. But I also felt the thrill of things coming together. It gave me a hope that someday I’ll be able to have a small team execute ideas and take some of the pressure of me. But I’ve also told myself it takes time to do things well, so curating before creating is necessary, no matter how excited we are to start writing.

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.

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1 comment content planning, curating material before writing, Renee Roberson, writing productivity

Maturing as a Writer

 

I recently read a quote by a writer named Meredith Ireland that said, “As a writer it’s easy to feel like people are passing you by—getting agents, book deals, etc. But no two writers ever have the same path. We’re not horses in a race. We’re possums stuck in trash bins, and you get out in your own time.” 

First it made me laugh, then I nodded my head. I am a possum. Although I trained as a journalist in college, I was never formally trained as a fiction writer. In my thirties I applied for two low-residency MFA programs and was rejected. I loved reading though, and always told myself I would write a novel one day. Well, I have written multiple novels at this point. Have any of them ever been published? No. But well into my forties I feel I have finally matured enough as a writer to be crossing that threshold. 

I spent too many years “pantsing” my creative projects, falling in love with the process of creating characters and arranging their life paths, obstacles and all. (By the way, a pantser if a person who writes without an outline). I created music playlists to go along with these books and worked out unresolved teen angst in more plot lines than I care to admit. I sent out a few queries to agents, got rejected, and put those manuscripts away for another time. Then, as any good “pantser” would do, I decided to try my hand at short stories. I discovered that form of writing came easier to me and earned awards, encouraging me to continue the craft. 

Short stories come easier for a “pantser,” in my opinion. But for my most recent project I’m working on, I put that method aside. I “architected” the story, chapter by chapter, story beat by story beat, and put post-it notes on my wall. I wrote a first draft. I took a step back, put it away for a while, and came back again. I added in more chapters, took out some chapters, renamed characters, and went back to editing. Periodically I would go back to my wall and say to myself, “This chapter is out of place. It needs to be moved here.” 

I’m more than halfway through this latest book (a mystery/suspense novel) and I am proud of the maturation I’ve experienced as a writer. My prose is not beautiful, but I can outline and tell a good story. I can (I believe) write pages that keep people guessing, wanting more. I realize I need to add more sensory details and descriptions of places, but that can be done in the next round of edits. I am a possum who never should have believed my first attempt at writing a book would be a raging success. The chance of that happening is rare, although it has been known to happen. You must be committed to putting in the work. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made, the sweat equity I’ve put in, and the ability to keep going even when it got hard. 

How have you matured as a writer? I’d love to hear your stories! 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer who also hosts the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.

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4 comments maturing as a writer, Renee Roberson, writing fiction, writing productivity

The Writer's Juggle

 

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels.com

I sit down to work on my to-do list. As a freelance writer, this looks different each day. I try to be mindful of my various production deadlines by using the free project management tool, Asana, which I’ve written about before. I make my list. 

-Write a 400 to 450-word blog post for a client.

-Meet the members of a local community choir for coffee so they can tell me about their organization for a local lifestyle magazine.

-Research the next podcast episode.

-Write 500-1,000 words on next podcast script.

At first glance, this list looks manageable, right? It's only four items--shouldn't take that long to knock those out. Ha! Not when this list turns into something more like this:

-Write a 400-450 word blog post. (Sort through recent writing e-newsletters for ideas. Wait. Oh! A well-known digital publication is looking for a content editor? That could replace one of the gigs I'm looking to let go of in the future. Spend 45 minutes to an hour writing a new cover letter, updating resume, and pulling relevant clips. Done. Get back to writing new blog post. Another 45 minutes.) 

-Meet the members of a local community choir for coffee so they can tell me about their organization. (Put on actual blazer and dress, fix make-up, drive 20 minutes to the coffee shop, spend almost an hour on the interview, drive 20 minutes back home. Save the writing of the article for another day, but at least the interview is complete!)

-Research the next podcast episode. (Open your journal where you keep all your “true crime” ideas. Remember an episode of “Forensic Files” that featured an unidentified victim, and the state college experts who identified her forensically. Realize the man identified as this victim’s murderer also confessed to killing two other women during the course of his job as a long haul trucker. Spend two to three hours digging up articles in local news archives, perusing a website put together solely to find victims of this man, read up on how the F.B.I. began to realize long haul trucking lends itself to these types of murder, etc.) 

-Write 500-1,000 words on next podcast episode. (Doesn’t get done. When will you learn that immersing yourself in research and cranking out part of a script in the same day isn’t likely to happen?) 

When I make my list, I always have the best of intentions. But as you can see, I get distracted by many other things, and this is only a snippet of what a day can look like. I have a tendency to get carried away. 

The writer’s juggle is a struggle. Can you relate? 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and editor who also produces the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.

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4 comments freelance writing, Renee Roberson, time management for writers, writing productivity

Can a Virtual Assistant Help My Writing Business?

Time for some real talk. I’m almost 45 years old and have been working as a freelance writer and editor for a long time. Because the flow of my various projects, gigs and responsibilities has always fallen into that “feast or famine” category, it has taken me almost all those 20 years to come to a realization—I really suck at organization and project management. I’m not complaining, but I’m at a point in my career where I have plenty of writing and editing work, but my organizational skills are abysmal, and people are starting to get irritated that e-mails to me are going unread and I’m tired of apologizing for being overwhelmed. 

This is not a good trait for a freelance magazine editor, I realize. Part of the issue I’ve been having with my current job is that I am the sole editor. In other magazines I’ve worked for, I’ve at least been able to job share or have an assistant editor to bounce ideas off or be able to split a certain number of tasks so that I don’t carry such a heavy load. In addition to my freelance magazine gig, I also have a blog, a podcast, ideas for new articles and a novel I’d like to finish outlining. It’s a lot, and I’m not going to lie and say I’ve been the most productive or efficient writer I can be. But I enjoy having different projects to work on. 

I’ve been working recently as a copywriter for a new client, where I’m essentially part of a writing team. We have a leader who does nothing but set expectations, deadlines and calendars and we have at least two short, 25-minutes a week to keep us on track and the content flowing. Because, as most of us creatives know, we could sit around all day chatting about “ideas” and never really getting down to the content creation part if someone wasn’t driving us. 

I was having a conversation with my husband last night, and he flat out told me, “Organizing and planning is not your strong suit. You are a visionary—someone who wants to create but can’t get projects off the ground because you don’t have anyone holding you to any deadlines.” 

This is true. I’ll admit it. I brought up the idea of finding a virtual assistant—someone who can create calendars and timelines for me and make sure I stick to them, so that I’m not saying, “Eh, I’ll get that new podcast script written when I get around to it.” I know I’ll get overwhelmed with external deadlines and NEVER get around to it. I may finally be at the point where I can try a virtual assistant for a small number of hours each week for a trial period, maybe 90 days. If the trial period ends and I finally have a podcast schedule laid out, in motion, affiliate marketing set up, pitches crafted and sent out and consistent blogs written that I can post, this may be the solution I’ve been looking for all along. In every “entrepreneurial” podcast I’ve ever listened to, I’ve been told to outsource the things you aren’t good at so that you can excel and make money at the things you ARE good at. 

Has anyone here ever worked as a virtual assistant or had experience working with one? I’d love to know if it helped your writing or editing business become more productive and streamlined.

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and magazine editor who also hosts the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas. Learn more at her website, FinishedPages.com, which is in desperate need of new content that she can’t seem to upload off her hard drive.

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4 comments hiring a virtual assistant, outsourcing tasks, Renee Roberson, writers and organizational skills, writing productivity

The Monthly Work Cycle of a Freelance Magazine Editor

As I sat thinking about how I’m going to start organizing my daily calendar for the new year, it also occurred to me that readers may be interested to know what a day in the life of a freelance magazine editor looks like.

No day ever looks the same. The magazine world runs in production cycles, so each week looks a little different. Also, the majority of the staff of the magazine I work for are remote. Working from home has pros and cons, as I’m sure you can imagine. I get paid a set salary per issue, and can also pay myself out of the editorial budget if I have to write individual articles (besides the editor’s letter). This position offers no benefits, however, so it is strictly contract work.

I thought it would be simplest to break down the cycle by week:

Week of Jan. 6, 2020. This week, writers and photographers are busy tackling the assignments for the February issue I gave them over the last few weeks, and we are behind due to the December holiday. This is the week I focus on things I need to write myself, such as the calendar of events in the back of the magazine (which also requires me to request photos), an article I write each month called “Renee Wants to Know,” the editor’s letter, a nutrition article I haven’t been able to assign and several advertorial profiles of medical professionals for a special advertising section on health and wellness. We also have our monthly staff meeting on Jan. 9 at a local coffee shop, where I’ll distribute the finalized editorial budget to our sales staff so they can make any last minute sales calls.

Week of Jan. 13, 2020. The creative designer takes my final editorial budget, coupled with the final page count from the publisher, and puts together thumbnails of the magazine. I check over the thumbnails on my end to make sure all stories are accounted for in the layout. I will continue writing and editing things assigned to myself in this week. Because we have a special advertising section, I will make revisions on the profiles from the advertisers as they come in and upload them to the Dropbox account we use to share content as they are finalized. I’ll also edit stories as they come in from writers and upload them, as well as request invoices from the writers. As photographers send me their photo galleries for stories, I’ll make a selection of five or six images and upload them to the assigned story folders in Dropbox, which is how our designer gets everything to lay out the magazine. Because of the way the month falls, I will most likely be proofreading the first few drafts of the magazine over the weekend, and sending my edits to our designer to make.

Week of Jan. 20, 2020. We are scheduled to go to the printer Jan. 21. I will be looking at the final proofs of the magazine this week and making sure everything looks good. I also take one last look at the PDFs of pages as the entire book is being uploaded to our printer. During this week I also ask any writers for invoices that I may not have received and submit them to the publisher. This is a good week to file all my e-mails related to this issue and look ahead at my Excel spreadsheet where I keep my departments organized for each issue. My goal will be to have stories for the March issue assigned by Jan. 24.

Week of Jan. 27, 2020. I continue filing e-mails and plugging in any story holes for the March issue and respond to e-mails from writers and PR professionals I may have put on the back burner. I'll also file future story ideas in a folder or into my Excel spreadsheet with the corresponding issue.

Then I'll start the process all over again for the following month.

I hope this post has been helpful for you. I’d also love to hear your observations about this type of cycle and any questions you may have.

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and magazine editor who also blogs at Finished Pages.

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10 comments freelancing for magazines, Renee Roberson, the production cycle of a magazine editor, writing productivity

4 Ways to Waste Time (and How They Can Help Your Writing!)

Me, wasting some time in Target.

As I sat here trying to come up with a clever topic for today’s blog post, my mind drifted to a conversation I was having with a co-worker in the office today. We chatted about how we had gotten sucked into the documentary on “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” now playing on Netflix, and then she asked me if I had watched another one on the streaming service that is trending.

“No, but I’ve been wanting to watch that one!” I said. After finding out it was only about 90 minutes long as opposed to the four-hour Ted Bundy show, I then said, “I’ll watch it this weekend and we’ll talk about it next week!”

Yes, my name is Renee and Netflix takes up way too much of my personal time when I should be writing. But in my defense, that Ted Bundy documentary is going to help my writing because part of it wove itself right into the narrative of a young adult novel I’m revising about a stalker. That, my friends, is what we writers like to call double dipping.

In addition to watching Netflix and Amazon Prime, here are three other time wasters, and how I try to use them to improve my writing.

Listening to Podcasts. I consume these like a madwoman, and I’m completely addicted to the true crime ones (shocker). But I mostly listen to downloaded podcasts while I’m out exercising, doing mindless chores around the house, or driving. I tend to gravitate towards podcasts that have a specific formula, such as interviewing a guest on each episode or introducing products in different segments (like the Hungry Girl podcast “Chew the Right Thing"). There’s one I listen to called “Unsolved Murders” where actors act out the featured case, which requires a script to be written ahead of time. I mine these podcasts for topics I can use in short stories or novels, and try to absorb what kind of writing style appeals to the masses the most.

Reading Gossip Magazines. These are also a vice of mine. It didn’t help that my mother-in-law got me a subscription to People for Christmas (thanks, Linda!) People is not a bad magazine to read though, because I get a good mix of celebrity gossip and style, human interest stories, recipes, and there is often an investigative piece thrown in there. But my other loves, like Us Weekly and Life and Style, are not as substantive. The benefits of reading any of these magazines is that I can get a refresher on journalistic writing, how to put together a catchy headline, what types of photos catch the eye, and I often get a sneak peek of upcoming novels I may want to check out.

Target. I don’t think I’m alone in this time waster. I do the majority of the meal planning and cooking in my family, and each weekend I must make a SuperTarget run because it is the most affordable store for me to get all my groceries in one place. But as most of us know, you don’t just zip in and out of Target. If I need a caffeine fix, I’ll pop into the Starbucks and grab a coffee first. Then I have to check off the grocery items on my AnyList app, and scan each item with my Cartwheel app. Then I’ll meander over to the throw pillows, see if there are any new vases I need for my mantle, try on a few pair of shoes that I can’t resist, and the next thing you know, I’ve been away from my precious weekend writing time for three hours! But even though I waste a lot of time in this store, the groceries I buy there end up saving me during the week when I can quickly throw a simple dinner in the Instant Pot or prepare salads ahead of time for lunch. And occasionally I can stock up on some fun office supplies and pick up printer cartridges in the stationery section!

So these are four of my biggest time wasters and the pros I can find within each. I’d love to hear about yours and how they help you with your writing!

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and editor who also works as a marketing director for a nonprofit theatre company. She is seeking representation for a contemporary young adult novel, Between. Visit her website at FinishedPages.com.

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4 comments Renee Roberson, time wasters, true crime, writing advice, writing productivity

Friday Speak Out!: How to Drop the Preamble and Get Writing

by Katey Schultz

I used to be a big fan of taking my time. I loved free-writing morning pages by hand in my journal, then reading a few stories by a favorite author, then thumbing through old story drafts before actually starting to write new material. But becoming a new mother forced me to drop the preamble, and it’s working.

My decision to “drop the preamble” began one January at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, which hosts a week-long, by-invitation, artist residency called Pentaculum. In 2017, I attended with my 7-week old infant son. Without the pressures of work deadlines, each time my son napped, I turned immediately to the blank page. I never knew how long I’d have to write, so I didn’t waste a moment. To my surprise, I found I could be highly productive, without the preamble.

The first thing you need if you’re ready to write anytime, anywhere, without the preamble, is a willingness to play. To be imperfect. To simply delight in the few minutes you grab to type into your phone while in line at the grocery store, or the fifteen minutes you journal before bed (even as your eyes are half-shut), or the chores you skip on Sunday afternoon in order to finish a revision on that story you’re determined to submit to a contest. When you give yourself permission to play, you take some of the pressure off of yourself, and guess what? Often, your writing improves.

For me, sometimes play takes the form of a concrete, singular task. I might set a word count goal for myself (400 words in 1 hour, say). But if I’m tired or uninspired, word counts are too intimidating. I’ll work with existing work instead: Revise one scene. Re-read one draft and make annotations for revisions I’d like to tackle during my son’s next nap. However you feel that day, that moment, make the decision swiftly, and get to the desk. Keep it light. If it gets heavy, walk away and come back after later.

The second thing you need in order to be productive without the preamble, is gentle accountability. Not phone alarms or deadlines or “if this, then that.” But a simple, pleasurable way to check in with a greater literary community at regular intervals, so that the conversation of writing stays present in your life. Writing is hard enough. Enjoyable, yes, but also--let’s be honest--hard work. So many writers I mentor make it harder for themselves by acting as their own biggest bullies. But bullying doesn’t help in any sustainable way.

Live webinars are, even to this Luddite introvert, a surprisingly effective way to feel supported (rather than isolated), without taking a lot of of your time. If you’re new to “dropping the preamble,” I suggest a livestream class because the accountability--however gentle--is, in fact, real.

Community helps writers know they’re not alone. That others are eager to learn. That others set goals and fall short, or set goals and exceed them. That, for those of us in this for fun and the long haul, the slow and steady approach is what’s going to help us find our best words. We can drop the preamble, and still find a way to be beautifully imperfect. We can still be successful and have fun--with a touch of gentle accountability--all at the same time.

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Katey Schultz's story collection, Flashes of War, was awarded IndieFab Book of the Year and received a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America. She has won more than half a dozen flash fiction contests, been awarded writing fellowships in 8 states, and is currently seeking a publisher for her novel set in Afghanistan. Her newest online program, Airstream Dispatches: a worldwide book club for writers, brings together a group of dedicated creatives who want accountability, craft-based instructional writing prompts, and the community of other writers to feel supported and "seen." Explore her online classes, ecourses, and writing at www.kateyschultz.com. 

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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
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