Umpteen surveys say that most of us want to publish a book. For many people being a published author is something they’ve dreamed about for years. So what separates writers who publish from writers who don’t?
The answer probably won’t surprise you. Published authors write. A lot.
As a writer, I’ve gone through periods of extreme productivity and extreme sloth. Although I have written more than a dozen books, in 2010, I released exactly zero.
For a variety of personal and business-related reasons, I went through a creative burnout like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Writing, which had always been fairly easy for me in the past, was suddenly extremely difficult.
I also discovered that the less I wrote, the less I wanted to write. Talk about a lack of productivity! I learned first-hand why so many of my clients have trouble finishing their books.
In an effort to understand my clients, I spent some time looking back at what happened after I emerged from the nadir of my creative slump. I realized my lack of writing productivity stemmed from three issues:
- Lack of ideas. The stressful events I experienced caused my creativity to simply shut down. To jumpstart my mind, I surfed to online writing sites (like StoryaDay.org!), used random-word and writing-prompt generators, and started talking to my husband about my various writing thoughts for outside feedback and support.
- Lack of motivation. As noted, a bunch of things that happened last year brought me down. Creativity does not flow when you’re depressed. I decided to make a commitment to exercising and started reading more inspirational materials on creativity, writing, and life balance. (The library is full of wonderful FREE books just waiting to be read!)
- Lack of time. You’ve read it before, but I’ll say it again: you have time to write if you make time to write. During my slump, I wasn’t working smart. Part of me already knew it, but I had to forcibly reacquaint myself with the methods I’d used in the past to carve out real productive writing time. I opted to make a commitment to write every morning and also started thinking up ideas for articles and posts the night before. “Sleeping on” a writing idea really works!
I’m happy to report that the old adage “writers write” is true. Since I got my writing mojo back again, I have been writing regularly. I have my next book completely outlined and 19 case studies/interviews input so far. I’ll be speaking at a conference this summer and plan to release the book in time for it. (Deadlines help motivation too!)