9 ideas to improve your productivity as a writer

In July I hosted a free teleclass on the subject of productivity for writers and at the end of that session, I asked the participants to outline their key learnings from the class, as well as the commitments they would make as a result of the class.  The class was a rich learning environment and it was such a pleasure for me to witness the sharing that occurred during the hour we spent on the phone together.  I wanted to share my own thoughts on the subject of how writers can be most productive, but the class also provided a great opportunity for people to talk about their experience to date and to learn from one another. 

Now it's my turn to share some of the class learnings with you.  These are the key 'take-aways' that the participants reported - in no particular order.  What follows are direct quotations from participants who fed back to me,.  Occasionally I also summarise to make the point more clearly:

1. "At the inception stage of a work, we should ideally get into a more diffuse 'right-brained' mode of working, allowing ourselves to free-write, to dream, to journal."  It is more important to 'get black-on-white' than it is to 'get it right'.  In the words of Hemingway, 'every first draft is shit'.  Don't let the inner-critic get in the way at this stage.  Only later, once the voice has formed, once you know your characters and main story thrust should you allow your 'left-brained' mode more sway.  At that stage more planning becomes important.  We can start to think more about structure.  And even put self-imposed deadlines in place.
2. "Instinct can be vital in shaping a piece also."  Again, allow oneself the freedom that is necessary to create.  Organic growth is necessary if we are to create truly original work.  In the early stages of the writing, you don't have to know how the work is going to happen--explore--don't worry too much about form or shape.
3. "When planning one's daily activity, keep it simple and focus on 3 most important tasks."  This one came from me and I learnt it from Leo Babauta at Zen Habits whose work I highly recommend.  My 'three tasks in a Moleskine' habit is now deeply engrained.  I make this a 'Will Do' list as inspired by time management guru Mark Forster.
4. A quotation from one of the participants:  "During the call I realised that if I were being offered a fortune, I could up my rate. I realised I had someone waiting for my work and associated the two ideas."  (Jacqui's note:  I got this idea from Michael Neill . His question 'could you do it in that timescale if someone offered you a million dollars for it'? had got me thinking in relation to completion of my fourth novel.  I got to the words 'the End' within two weeks of reading this.)
5. One participant reported "For me it was a ("back-to-basics") reminder that the act of writing enables us to access parts of ourselves that we wouldn't usually."
6. Another wrote "I was also struck by the point that we 'give away' so much energy to people through responding to emails etc - I've been doing that a lot recently.  Sometimes it results in really meaningful relationships, opportunities etc - but often not - so I want to work out how to be more disciplined and write first then do emails"
7. "For me, the single most important thing I learned was to understand that the only way NOT to be productive is not to write at all!  While I have been angsting about not being as productive as some of the more macho, gung-ho writers of my acquaintance, I have been ignoring my own work rhythms and ways to get things done.  I do have a tip to pass on which it only occurred to me the next morning when I woke up, inspired by the conversation.  I have become more productive this week since I *limited* the amount of time I write every week.  Instead of setting "Sunday afternoon " aside as writing time, I have limited myself to 60 minutes every morning, over coffee, and 60 minutes in the evening, with a glass of wine.  But 60 minutes, and nothing else - no reading, no revising, no email.  The rest of the day is free for work, family, reading, or mucking about.  I'm doing about twice as much work now as I was a week ago."
8. "The most important thing I have taken from your class is to make sure my story has a beginning, middle and end. I am staying conscious of that as I organize my manuscript outline as I go along, to see if I am following that rule. Where I have strayed during my freewriting, I keep it in mind when going back to do some review and cleanup work. I even have a note hanging in my home office, on the wall next to my monitor, to remind me of it's importance. Kudos to that lady who mentioned it when she was sharing!  Also, though I still keep paper and pencil available wherever I go, I have included keeping my hand-held recorder with me wherever I am. When I go to bed, I make sure it is on the nightstand. I have even carried it with me when I am out walking around my property, I try to remember to put it in my pocket and if I have forgotten and words start flowing, I head to the house to get it. I live and breathe my book(s) and am constantly thinking of what needs to be included to put in them and how to word them. Using the small recorder is invaluable when I need to include much more than just a few 'tickler' words. I speak into it in paragraphs instead of those few short words."
9. "The most important thing for me that came out of the class was to remember that every writer has doubts and creative struggles, to affirm that writing is a long-term commitment and a process, and really to hear from so many like-minded people."

The Productivity for Writers teleclass was a taster class for my eight week course which begins on Wednesday 10th September at 8.30pm.  A few places still remain on that course, but I encourage you to sign up quickly as the course will soon be full.  The course is limited to only twelve participants and my aim is to enable you to write more confidently and productively than ever before this Autumn. 

On the free call, the participants also made commitments to the writing process. 

Here are a few of those commitments.  I do hope they inspire you to add your own commitment below:

1. I commit to writing at least 20 pages a week or more instead of my lazy 10. Since our call I've written 8 and they are largely re written all from the main characters pov.
2. I have committed to choosing spaces away from my computer desk in order to solve creative problems and to use free form writing at least once a week in order to move my writing on and get out of ruts!
3. I made to myself for the week or two following the teleclass was to organize my outline and copious tickler notes and place them in the body of the manuscript where they would possibly belong in the story - then I can expand on them as I come to them. I am not completely done with this, but I have made good in-roads. This has proven to be quite helpful in my productivity and focus. Especially my focus!
4. To write every day and keep writing.
5. My commitment was to return to putting time in my diary for writing as I used to when I was working on my last book.
6. To complete 5 chapters of substantive first draft over the 8 week course. But for this week I want to commit to a daily 20 minute freewrite followed by 500 words of first draft, starting tomorrow.
7. Starting out with a 20-30 min free write 500 words, 2 hours a day (whichever comes first), 4 days per week.
8. I commit to 2 hours of writing 4X per week
9. My commitment on the call was to try the three things in a notebook technique (which I managed to blow on the first morning when I had 4 and couldn't find one to leave behind!) and to dedicate what the writing time I have this week to a revision of a single project.  (Jacqui's note.  Generally I have three MITS or main important tasks for the day and then, following Babauta's principles, I have 3-4 additional small tasks which I batch together at the end of the day.  Again this stops one being distracted by small tasks and allows one to be more productive with the tasks that really matter.)
   

What will you do to make this Autumn your most productive yet?  I'd love to hear your ideas and commitments... And if you attended the teleclass, feel free to update us on your progress by leaving a comment.

If you are looking to make regular commitments to the writing process, you can also join the Writing Coach group on Facebook here.  There's only a week now until the Creative Vision Group kicks off.  Naturally I would love to have you in the group.  I will be completing my agent's suggested revisions on my own novel during the course of the eight weeks and look forward to sharing my learnings with the course participants during this process.  If you are considering membership and have any questions, do please get in touch as I would be happy to speak with you about it. 

Membership of this group is also the last opportunity to work with me directly as a writing coach (in terms of having my feedback on your writing work).   After my creative vision group intake, I will no longer be taking direct writing coaching clients, as I move towards focusing on my new business Essential Artist, which centres around life coaching for creative individuals and coaching creativity in organisations. 

Please don't worry however as my new consultants will still be available for feedback on writing work and for  literary consultancy, I'll still be working behind the scenes and this blog will continue to thrive.  More announcements on the Essential Artist launch to follow in the next few weeks...

Comments

[fiona robyn]

I love tip seven. Great stuff.