On Balancing Article and Novel Writing

Writing success can be like the story of the tortoise and the hare. The hare accomplishes a lot in a short time, gets tired, and takes a break. The tortoise takes it slow, doesn’t get tired, and passes the hare to win the race.

We sometimes follow the hare’s philosophy in our writing efforts. I know I have. I will spend four to six hours a day on articles or my novel and get a lot done. I feel like a writer on fire.

Then some milestone is reached and I realize life is missing something. It can’t be all writing, working, eating, and sleeping. Relationships are important. Entertainment is important too. I take a week or two off and then find it hard to get back into the writing groove.

The Japanese literary writer Banana Yoshimoto follows the tortoise’s philosophy. She spends half an hour a day writing. Every day. She has published 12 novels and 7 essay collections. Two of her novels have been made into movies. She’s made it as a writer.

How to Take a Break While Writing

You need to take a break from writing now and then. Many authors recommend taking a break when you know what you’re going to write next. That prevents you from returning to a blank page and finding yourself immediately stuck. Sounds like a good plan. Now what about those breaks? There are good breaks and bad breaks.

Some breaks are necessary. You must eat. You must sleep. You must go to your day job. You have other musts. I hope your life isn’t too musty.

Self Talk – I Am a Writer

Self-talk is the voice in your head that almost never shuts up if it has a chance to talk. It is usually quiet when you are listening or reading, but even then it may interrupt. Unwelcome interruptions are called attention deficit. By itself, attention deficit is not a mental health problem. It happens to everyone.

The voice, of course, is just your thinking. You may believe that the thinking is you; that the thinking expresses your personality. But, not everything you are thinking is you. It is a combination of your personality, what you hear and read, what you think about what you see, what you are influenced to think about by other people, and your knowledge and memories.

The Fringes of Prolific Writing

We all want to write more. Even when you’re happy with your output, you would like to write faster. What’s the solution?

The simple answer is to write more, but that’s not a great answer. We need some ideas. To be anything, we need to study it, discuss it, and practice it. What can we do to make sure we write more?

I’ve already posted a few articles about deliberate prolific writing methods. Today, I want to mention a few ways of being prolific on the fringes.

Write More By Reading Yourself

When searching for new topics and stories to write, you will often search for inspiration by reading material in the same subject or genre. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it keeps you busy reading instead of writing. Reading is so much easier than writing, isn’t it?

It can be difficult to get good inspiration from other writers because their writing style, topics and background are different from yours. It’s your unique focus that makes your writing interesting, not the ways you’re the same as everyone else. How can you keep your uniqueness?

Read yourself.

Book Reviews for Fun and Profit

How can book reviews be fun? That’s something you had to do for school? And profit? People give away their book reviews.

It’s not that kind of fun or profit.

I’m suggesting you write a review any time a book gives you something you can use. Books supply us with new information and ideas. A great idea that’s only in your head can get lost in the noise. Write it down and you will have it forever.

It may be something that gives you insights into your personal and social life or that demonstrates writing techniques worth imitating. With practice, you can find something that feeds your writing in almost everything you read.

When Should You Update Old Blog Articles?

If you’re thinking about reviewing your old blog articles and making changes, forget it. Who will see it? Almost nobody. The best way to update an old article is with a new article. The only update you need in the old article is a link at the top pointing them to the updated information. If both articles are significantly different, put the link at the bottom.

Linking related articles within a website is always a good idea. It keeps visitors on your site and improves their chances of finding the information they want.

How to Save Money on Books

Like many writers, I enjoy reading more than writing. It’s so much easier. We can always tell ourselves we’re learning more about writing by reading examples. And it’s true. We do pick up ideas for our writing from the ways others write.

The cost of books can be high if you read a lot and always buy them new. I’ve heard a few people complain about paying $20 a book. A book doesn’t need to be new to be good. The books on the “best books of” lists have been out for a few years, sometimes for thousands of years. Even the latest bestsellers make it into used bookstores quickly.

If you’re an experienced reader, what follows won’t be educational. You know all this. But, maybe there’s an option you’ve forgotten.

The Focus Factor in Writing and Researching

When you research something, you make connections that inspire you with ideas for new writing. There are good ways to combine researching and writing, and there are bad ways. The worst way to research is to treat it like entertainment. Passive reading minimizes your writing productivity. You can spend hours reading, get no inspiration, and produce nothing.

You need to refine the process to maximize the benefits of both researching and writing.

Think Less – Write More

One of the problems that plague writers is planning too much. Spending a lot of time thinking about what to write instead of writing is a form of writer’s block. You know the first draft is not going to be the final, yet there you sit searching for the perfect word. Let’s consider the same situation in reading and studying, related fields where you aren’t tempted to think before acting.