organize

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Are You Fighting Your Project? 7 Tips to Get You Writing Again

011216-FrustratedWriterDo you ever have one of those projects that you just struggle and struggle with? The type that no matter what you seem to do, it just keeps falling apart?

When I’m working on a writing project, 95% of the time, it just flows. Pretty much effortlessly. (It’s okay, you can hate me now!) But I’ve come to realize that when a writing project DOESN’T flow, it usually mean that something isn’t working in the pre-work of the project.

Here are my seven tips when a project isn’t working:

1. Do you have all your research compiled?
A lot of the time, when I’m fighting the words, it’s because I haven’t researched my material enough to know where I’m going. This research may be the typical type: Googling facts, reading articles, blogs, magazines, and books, interviewing experts. Or it may be the thought exercises of thinking, outlining, and planning.

2. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired?
Seriously, this matters! There is one chapter in “Pitch Your Tent: A Family’s Guide To Tent Camping” that I just struggled and struggled with. Then I realized I was trying to write this long, technical chapter late in the evening, night after night. I dedicated an afternoon to it and BOOM! Written. The same goes for when you’re brain isn’t functioning at peak because you’re hungry or thirsty. Brain snacks and plenty of water!

Keep Reading!

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Get Organized: Organizing Your Book’s Materials

111015-OrganizeForYourBookLast week I went over what you’ll need to be organizing for your book. Here’s a quick recap:

  • Ideas
  • Research
  • Notes
  • Drafts
  • “Other” materials

So now let’s dive into just HOW to organize your materials. The first decision you’ll have to make is physical versus digital. Now before you get all high and mighty and Declare (yes, with a capital D) that you’re going to use one or the other system, I have some news for you.

You’re going to use both.

Think about it…

You’re waiting to get your hair cut, flipping through a magazine. And you suddenly come across something that is the PERFECT idea for your book. What do you do? You make sure nobody’s looking and tear out the page!

Unless you’re me. If you’re me you just stuff the WHOLE magazine up your sleeve and casually walk out! Shhhh! Don’t tell!

Do you plan your book digitally or physically? Here's how to get organized! #amwriting Click To Tweet
Keep Reading!

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Get Organized: What Your Book Needs

110315-OrganizeForYourBookWhen people talk about book organization, you usually hear things like “front and back matter”, table of contents, foreword, about the author, etc. But have you thought about how you actually organize your writing?

Something that one of the experts on the Brew Your Book Telesummit, Jeanne Demers, said really stuck with me in our interview…

Jeanne shared that her biggest obstacle to overcome in the writing wasn’t how to put the book together but how to organize the pieces of the writing AS she was writing. After the recording was over, I thanked her for her candor and honesty around this – and she promptly became embarrassed about being “that author who didn’t know how to organize!”

But let’s think about this…

Where are we TAUGHT how to organize our thoughts?

Were you taught how to organize your thoughts and ideas? Here's how to do it for your #book! Click To Tweet

The other place where I saw this idea of needing to be taught a process for something that people THINK should be just known is Marie Kondo’s book on tidying. Once she points out that being tidy isn’t something we’re magically born knowing how to do (or figure out) it was a huge relief. Keep Reading!

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