Write Right

We live in a world of distraction. Distraction is an enormous challenge for almost all of us, rearing its shiny head to peel us away from the work we care about or need to do. We recently talked about active and reactive work, but no matter our best intentions, distractions all-too-frequently take us away from accomplishing either. How do you fight distractions? Recommendations from the episode: Forest App for iOS, Android, and Google Chrome; Focus App for Mac; F.B. Purity and News Feed Eradicator, for removing or altering the newsfeed in Facebook; This one weird trick will save your attention span! article on Medium.com; Recommended reading: Deep Work - Cal Newport

Day to day, choices are forced upon us, from the moment we get up to check our inbox and messages, to the many interruptions at work. Often, we get few opportunities to do the work we really want to do because we’re too busy reacting. Important work requires willful action to drive it, but the art of executing this requires battling the forces of reaction that surround us. Recommended reading: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

Plotting and pantsing are often described as diametrically opposed concepts, incompatible with each other and mutually exclusive. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In reality, we all fall somewhere in between on the spectrum of plot and pants. We plotz. Recommended reading: Wired for Story - Lisa Cron

Discovery writing! Gardening! Pantsing! How do you do it? What are the benefits and difficulties? Do we write linearly? How much do we know when we sit down to write? Recommendation: Author Accelerator (authoraccelerator.com)

Let's take a closer look at plotting: techniques, benefits, issues—the whole thing. How do you do it? How do you not? Recommendations: The Snowflake Method and 2K to 10K by Rachel Aaron.

Writing can be a solitary activity, but the reality is that the world of writing is vibrant and dynamic, with conventions, seminars, cafes, readings, and more touching the world of writing. Should you venture out?

. Where do we fit writing in? Recommendation: The Magic Spreadsheet! Look it up or get in touch to receive an invitation to our private sheet.

The great debate with no correct answer: plotting or pantsing? The answer is often a combination of the two.

Making a living on novels alone is difficult—in fact, the odds are stacked against such success. But becoming a full-time writer who can support themselves doesn’t mean hitting the bestsellers list with every book you write, it means diversifying your income. How can you make a living as an independent writer? Recommended reading: The Five Day Novel - Scott King

How do we measure our achievements against personal goals? How do we learn to feel proud of our writing achievements without throwing the rest of our lives out the window? Recommended activity: write for one hour every day.