Latest / Reality Writes / Getting Organized—Tips and Advice for Writers

Transcript

Getting Organized—Tips and Advice for Writers · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am author Ellie Alexander and I'm here with the Dug Guy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hello.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hello.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 0:18
  unknown: Great.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast where we peel back the curtain a little bit and talk about all things writing, publishing, bookish.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna tackle writer organization.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get into that, uh be sure to follow us on your favorite podcasting app or YouTube, uh, where we are on video.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're on video on Spotify now too.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the podcast should be available anywhere you listen to podcasts.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're enjoying the show, please drop a review for us and let us know how we're doing.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um and if there's anything you'd like us to discuss on reality rights, drop that in the comments.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Love to hear from you.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're always up for topic ideas and darling input for sure.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, today's topic comes um sort of doublefold, and I think it will be something interesting to readers too, and certainly uh focused on uh potential darlings who are writing or are new writers.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is busting this myth that if you are a professional creative, that um you are completely disorganized.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're just we're getting right to it, okay?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's that's interesting to me.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: It would seem to me that um if you are a professional, uh, whether it be writer or anything, that organization would be a good thing for you.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of important.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's super important.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's one of those things that doesn't get talked enough about um, you know, strategies and ways that you manage time to make your writing the priority, which is what has to happen.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are all these other things that go into writing, like we've talked about, you know, uh marketing certainly being one of them, and all the other deadlines and things you're gonna have to hit, whether you're going traditional or indie in terms of your path to publication.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the number one thing that you can do as a writer is write.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not writing, then you know, you're not sharing, you're not putting books out in the world, you're not creating.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for me, that's my happy space.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I always want to be writing over anything else that's on my to-do list.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So early on, implementing some organizational strategies and figuring out how to manage your time is such a critical skill and not something that gets talked a lot about or taught, you know, and it's not necessarily something that is innate to a lot of people.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I imagine not.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's um writing can also be um, I mean, any I I imagine it's like any creative uh endeavor that uh, but especially with writing, I think there's um uh you it's important to keep an order to what you're doing, right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and to not just jump around doing anything.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like brewing beer or making candles or whatever.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: There are steps that I like more than others, but I can't I can't just do those because that's what uh what I like and what I want to do at the time.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's a specific order to uh to things that I have to do.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to have that list of steps kind of outlined before I get started and stick to it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I don't, the end product is not gonna be what I'm hoping it will be.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not gonna be great.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are gonna be so many demands on your time as a writer.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: So figuring out ways to protect that and manage that, I think, is a critical skill.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then there is, again, we always end up, I feel like, talking about myths on this podcast, but there is this pervasive myth that if you're a creative, you're just sort of scattered and ideas come to you and you don't have structure.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's not to say that there aren't creative personalities that work like that.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And some writers might just be writing, not just, might be writing for the sake of writing and telling a story.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this I'm really talking about in terms of being a professional writer, trying to carve out a career, whether that's full-time, part-time, quarter time, you know, if you're somebody who's serious about your writing and you want to take it to the next level, then implementing some organizational skills is gonna be.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I can say for a fact, um, having worked for decades with creatives, um that as uh uh from the project and resource management side of things, that um there are creatives out there who would they they don't want to be bothered by schedules, they don't want to be bothered by budgets and everything.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: But the most successful creatives that I've ever worked with, and I have worked with some absolutely insanely talented creatives, the most successful ones are those who respected schedules.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Just knowing where where the start and end was supposed to be for the process and and everything that needed to be done in between, and having that kind of sketched out with the help of a project manager.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, talk a little bit about that.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like writers don't, you know, if you're if you're now if you're if you're like at the Stephen King or or you know, um like maybe Blake Crouch or some of the other authors we've talked about on this podcast before, if you're at that level, maybe you do have a project manager.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: But most most writers probably don't have a personal project manager.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're your own project manager, exactly.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we I gotta take uh just a moment to recognize your t-shirt.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't paying attention earlier.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh darlings, he's rocking his Taylor t-shirt.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've got my Taylor t-shirt on.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are you vibing that there's gonna be some kind of like rep TV draw?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, well, she kind of told me not to talk about it yet.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, all right.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's a good right.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: She yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, you know, Taylor and I do touch bass from time to time.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and so she just she didn't want me to spill the beans yet.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's fair, it's fair.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's coming soon, though.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's coming soon.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love a good Easter egg.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've already here first.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: You've already here first on reality rides, darling.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but what if we will it into existence?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm fine with that.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, back to organization.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if I'm not playing uh tortured poets department, I am working now.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I think uh one strategy that um I have learned to employ, and this happened pretty early on in my career, and this relates to readers too, because um, if you email me, you're likely not gonna get a response back within minutes.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: As much as I would like for that to happen, um, my priority is writing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so my writing time is blocked out first and foremost.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then what I've learned to do is batch things.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So one example of that is batching email responses.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I will put together chunks of time each week and I just file reader emails into a folder.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, when I have a chunk of time, maybe on a Thursday afternoon, I'm like, okay, I've got an hour, I'm gonna go through and respond to all those emails now.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I it sounds silly, but it is a very simple way to not get distracted.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I was checking email throughout the day as I'm trying to get my word count done, and as we've talked about, I usually write two.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I've been writing about 3,000 words a day.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would never hit my word count because it would be like bing, oh, I'll respond to this person.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, bing, I'll respond to this person.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's headspace too, because I'm in a creative headspace, I'm in the flow, I'm in a story, and I don't want to be taken out of that, but I definitely also want to respond to darlings.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I just find windows of time and I respond to emails during that chunk.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's so smart um because it doesn't, it doesn't take you.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, honestly, like for those people out there that um you'll hear a lot of people talk about their ability to multitask and how they're expert multitaskers and they're able to do like eight things at once.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And um, those people are not being honest with you.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's scientifically proven that the human brain cannot, it doesn't work like artificial intelligence.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: We can't have multiple threads going at once and be able to focus and concentrate on those different tasks at a hundred percent at the level that they need to be focused on and achieve great results.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: It just cannot be done.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so if you're trying to do multiple things at once, chances are you're doing at least one of them pretty poorly, and you're not gonna be happy with the results.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're just not you don't want that to be your writing, yeah.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't, yeah, you don't want it to be your writing, or you don't want it to be your responses to your readers.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So for the darlings out there who do write into authors and and um which is great, all authors want to hear from their community, absolutely.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Don't expect a response in the in the first hour, don't expect a response in 24 hours.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you get a response at all, like cherish that because you have to understand that you're probably one of hundreds or thousands of people who are emailing this this writer, and they don't have the time, the bandwidth to respond to respond to everyone.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So um unlike Taylor Swift, when she messages me, I know it's her.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's her.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and she gets back to me right away.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right, totally.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Unlike that, uh, writers don't always have the time.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so the worst thing that you can do is email them again to let them know that they haven't heard from you.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is uh that is not like what?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, it is not or you haven't heard from them.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: We knew where you're going.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: That is that is not that it's not gonna that that wastes your time.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it just it it it probably it probably uh guarantees that you're not going to get an immediate response.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just gotta be honest, like yeah, right.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I have I have systems set up so like certain email goes into certain buckets, and obviously if it's something like critical from an agent or an editor or something that I have to respond to right away, I will.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: But as a general rule, I try to chunk my time out in that way, and then I'm able to respond to almost everyone without fail who writes to me, which is another priority to me.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want those connections, and I appreciate any time a reader has taken their time to send me a message.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's the best thing that you can hope for as a writer.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's just finding those chunks of windows, which leads me to my second point, which is batching social media.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something you initially were like, hey, yeah, we got to get on this.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta get on this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta get on this.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, again, it it has to do with that focused energy and the focused like mental space, right?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're if you're spending 15 minutes putting together a social media post every single day, you're probably spending more like 30 to 60 minutes away from whatever else it is that you wanted to focus on.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, going back to how the human brain works, you cannot instantly switch.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's no like magic, like bam, and now I'm in marketing modes.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: There, now I snapped on it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's all bam.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like you instantly go from social media back to writing the next great scene in a chapter.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't work that way.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing is, I don't know if anyone's heard of this, but uh social media can be addictive too.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're on social media, if you're taking a break in the middle of your writing and you jump on social media, I will be willing to bet good money that you're going to get caught up in looking at uh what did I just send you?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just sent you something.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the the tortilla slap, the TikTok college.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I wasted like 15 minutes of my day today just watching that.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then I wasted 15 minutes of your time by sending it to you.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't feel like it was wasting time.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it from you are it wasn't, but I would not have sent that to you if I knew it was uh if it was writing time, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I just like well I I may have sent it, but you wouldn't have you wouldn't have watched it.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Which everyone in my personal life knows that too.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, like especially back in the day when Sky Guy was in school.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, we know, trust me.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, they know.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um when Sky Guy was in school, you know, I would have like an alert if in case like, you know, he was sick and I had to go pick him up.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: But again, um, I'm not gonna respond to texts from anyone while I'm writing.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think social media too, it's its own creative energy and it's different creative energy, but it's certainly creative.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And especially I think, you know, the way that we try to um have fun and bring new energy into um anything that we're sharing on social.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So to be able to again batch that and have windows of time.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So usually what we'll do is we will sit down at the beginning of the month and um here I ready here.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wait for it.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have a like fun little calendar that I'll put together and you'll help and we'll do like a little creative plan, and then I'll know, like, okay, if I'm going to be sharing two videos this week, I'm gonna film those on a Monday afternoon, and then they're ready to go.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't have to think about it.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm already done with my word count for the day, and I'm in the headspace of like, ooh, how am I gonna have fun creative energy on social media?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh here's a pro tech tip, uh tech by tip, uh TGT.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's trending hashtag if you look at it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, uh when you batch your content, uh you should also you because then you can schedule the posting of that content.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And as a writer, you should make sure that you're you're scheduling that content to post at a time that you have to focus on engaging with your social media audience, because the thing is the algorithms are going to see the people watching that, and it they will the algorithm will look at engagement.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not available to reply to those comments as they're coming in within the first hour or two of that uh post being live, the the uh algorithm is just gonna like push it down, down, down, and um uh it's gonna say bye-bye bye.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and so you you you and you don't want to be in the middle of your writing space and have you know your phone blowing up bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, because uh, you know, you just put out the next great viral uh reel or tick tock.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly, which you probably are.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, totally.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm still sad.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I keep going back.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: We were just talking about writing time and everything, and I think we do if we should revive that reel that we did.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I thought it was hilarious.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's for dinner?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: The what's for dinner reel.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That was yeah.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we gotta do a 2024 version of that.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, the updated.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I like it.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, one of the things that we do when we're recording these is we record a couple back to back.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, that's a peek behind the curtain.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna mention it, and then I thought, man, maybe I shouldn't, but you just did, so you're going to.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a little secret episode 13 that you may or may not have just listened to.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: We recorded that like 30 minutes ago.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we're wearing different clothes, but we recorded another episode, so it's not really next week.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we we record a couple at a time because honestly, like we're doing this on a weekend, it's our personal time, but we're still working.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: We are we we grind it out, so but we love doing it and it's fun.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we we're in the headspace again.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, in fact, we were just talking about this.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: We had like we gotta go, we got we have our weekly grocery shopping trip that we do together, and we were talking about well, we just recorded one, and then we did the after party for the patrons, and and um uh for those of you who don't know, for the darlings out there who don't know, there's a there's a like a little bit racier after party for each episode that's racier.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Does the feelers come off?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like what's happening?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa, no, there's like all clothes stay on.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like totally that it's uh yeah, the language gets a little saltier.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I should say saltier, not racier, saltier, saltier.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, for for those patrons out there uh over on Patreon, they get to they get to um listen in on that.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we had some epic tech fails in the last after party.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: It was great, but anyway.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: We were thinking, well, it's good.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes we always choose the hottest days of the week to do this too for some reason.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: So like right now it's like approaching 104 in my office right now.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but we were thinking, oh, you know, we we just did one, we just did that, and so we got we were eating some lunch and we're like, oh, let's go, let's go grocery shopping.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then we thought, now we're but independently, we both came to the same conclusion.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, we should jump back in to the to episode 14 because we're in that mind space, and it'll be much harder if we break for even longer to come back to it.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so here we here we are.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are, right here.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and um it's also the logistics of like the our spaces are set up.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have to run a wire into my office, and we have special lights that we turn on and the microphones, and like my desk doesn't usually look like this.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have my I'm not um chatting with myself like this when I'm writing, you know.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have all of that set up, kind of like if you're potentially recording videos or content for social media, you could batch that for just that reason alone.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: That okay, I don't have to restructure my space four times in the next four days.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you if you don't, if you're not able to focus, you forget things like I just realized while you were talking that I forgot, like what you said, we have lights and stuff.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a little like portable light that I usually put on in the background here.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: So my I have a nice blue highlight back there instead of that glaring gray background behind me.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I missed it because I was I was trying to multitask and I forgot something.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing that I think is important is as writers, carving out specific writing hours or chunks of time in whatever way, shape, or form that looks like for you.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and one thing that I teach in my Mystery Series masterclass and when I'm working one-on-one with um my coaching students is that that is completely up to you as an individual.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like what works for me may or may not work for you.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I am an early riser.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: I do my best creative thinking between this window of 9 a.m.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: to 2 p.m., which is why I do a lot of the other work of writing, like email responses and social media later in the afternoon, because I have headspace for that, but my creative energy by that point in the day is pretty zapped.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so those are my writing office hours, so to speak.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, short of some kind of an event, I treat those like I would treat any sort of office job.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I show up for myself.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I hit my word count during that period of time.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now that could look very different for somebody else.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I have writer friends who write in like 20-minute chunks.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is really for me, I'm at a place now where I um writing is my full-time job.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: But as I was building my career, I was working full-time and part-time, and also, you know, we were raising our son together.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so having these specific chunks of time that are non-negotiable for your writing is so important because otherwise that time just gets lost.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, totally.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think another important point with that is um experiment.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, don't, you know, just if if you're trying to do like the nine to noon thing for your writing time and it's just not working, like that's okay.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's totally okay.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Try something different, get up earlier, you know, do it later in the day, do it at night after everybody's gone to bed, whatever, whatever works for you.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't, you can also, it doesn't have to be the same every day.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like if if your schedule, if you if your life schedule is such that writing from you know 9 to 11 a.m.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: on Mondays and Tuesdays works for you, but then you have to do it after 4 p.m.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: the rest of the week.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do that.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's there are no rules.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, the only thing is you just you you make the rules, but you need to be consistent so that you after once you've experimented and you found what's working for you and everything, that's where you know when when you hit that level of you know, uh comfortability, is that a word?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Comfortableness, sure, whatever.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're going with it.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's reality, right?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's my podcast.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I can say whatever.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh once you hit that level, like then then you need to you need to have the discipline to stick with that so that it does become successful.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and then I I guess the other thing would be like just do.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't go too long with if if you feel like it's not working, try something else because the worst thing you can do is try to force it.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: You can't you can't force creativity.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, you definitely cannot force creativity.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, and I think your point is valid because I have writer friends um who will write with a glass of wine or like a hot cup of tea from like nine o'clock at night until one in the morning.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: I thought you were gonna say nine a.m.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, whoa, those writer friends might have a problem.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a glass of wine at 9 a.m.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: 9 p.m.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: 9 p.m.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Got it.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: One o'clock in the morning.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would be just you'd be wrecked.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, you'd be you'd be wrecked.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, for the darlings out there who don't know, I've probably talked about this a million times on the podcast, but it takes us like probably on average, I would say, three, three tries at watching a mystery on TV.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um because she falls asleep.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like and then there's this whole this whole like banter that goes out, are you asleep?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was just resting my eyes.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, yeah.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: What just happened?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they were they figured out the thing in the at the place in the in the in the in the building.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh gee, okay, yeah.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: I know, which is a funny thing because I have had so many darlings ask me, like, do you ever sleep?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I love my striction.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm quite militant about my sleep.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: I can I can I can definitely vouch for your sleep.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're yeah.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Our room is like it it is as dark as dark can be.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and yeah, and there is a very strict schedule.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I would I would say for for both our health, it's like it's important to so I guess that's the other thing too, is that if you do find that writing from 9 p.m.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: to 1 a.m.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: works for you, just make sure you're getting enough sleep because it is so important for brain health that you're getting an appropriate amount of sleep.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because the the day will be stressful enough without being short on sleep, that's for sure.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that tracks back to this idea of like, I think the the the reason that ask happens is because darlings are like, well, how do you get it all done?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you must not sleep.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I really I do sleep and I'm usually done most days by like five o'clock because this is my job.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have working hours and I just catch those hours and I'm structured and organized with how that happens.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's not to say that there I might not be on a deadline or there's a special project coming up, or we have an evening event like a live stream, but like as a general rule, I treat this like any other job, and my job is done at the end of the day.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I think you and I both have um uh easy way to describe it or play way to describe it would be strong work ethics.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um we um we uh you know the it's the weekend and we're recording podcasts because we love it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we like we like creating uh content, we love sharing knowledge, and um and I mean you're always gonna get the the real story here on reality rights, which is it, you know, not everything we do works and not everything we do is a success.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna tell you about the failures just as much as we are the successes because that's how we learn and that's how we move forward.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: So this podcast itself, it was born out of failures of other content things that we've tried to do that just didn't work out and were really grinding us down in terms of creative and mental energy because we just didn't we didn't have the time and we were trying to force things, and so we found that this is a great outlet and allows us to just share with the community a lot more.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, fun doing it.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We love it.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: We wouldn't be spending a Sunday afternoon doing this if we didn't love it and we weren't having fun together doing it too.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um the other piece that I think is very important from a writing lens is having a structured writing and editorial calendar.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So um what I will do is I'll think of think forward into when the pub date is and then work my way back from that.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll set myself a deadline.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if if the next pub date is August, let's say, then I'm gonna start a first draft of that book in January and I'm gonna give myself six weeks to finish it and then let it rest, and then come back to it a month later and edit.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you um knowing your deadlines and when you want to hit them really helps because then that innately builds in these blocks of time and you have an idea going in, like, oh, okay, I know that I need six months to finish this book, eight months, whatever it is.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but that's not always easy to do when you're first starting out because you have to have the self-discipline to be able to say, like, okay, I'm gonna publish this book, whether you're independently publishing it or you're turning it into an editor at a publishing house, I'm gonna have this book done by August.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have your own sense of, to your point, like, all right, I'm gonna be dedicated and get those dates on the calendar and then commit to finishing them.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that's something um, I mean, I've learned a lot from you in that regard.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I have a career as a project manager, and I'm learning about discipline like that from you, but and scheduling.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I and I think that's why you've been such a successful one of the reasons, not the reason, one of the reasons that you've been so such such a successful that is hard to say, such a successful writer.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: But also you you've helped, I mean, how many coaching clients and writing students with this same thing?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because um setting a schedule and sticking to it, especially when you're starting out, it's really easy to go, well, I said I was gonna get that done by the 12th, it's the 11th, I'm way behind.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna say it's the 30th now, you know, because there's no, there's there's no repercussions.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think part of that, you would not be where you are today if you didn't have that self-discipline.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because being a traditionally published author who is now both traditionally published and indie published, yeah, those content calendars are complicated.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're like there have been there have been a couple of years where you know, we've had five or six books being released.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um, well, and that'll be the marketing side.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in a minute, but but on the writing side where you have deadlines for like five or six books, and like maybe three of them are traditional and and two of them are indie, but because of the way publishing works, you can't just sit on that stuff.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got to like hold solid on that that schedule.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, early on in your writing career, if you don't have those external deadlines coming from somebody else, how you then intrinsically motivate yourself.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that that's a real challenge.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and one of the things that I love most about coaching, um, because I feel like it's a real skill set that someone can develop.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's a myth that you can't.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I have had students that are like, no, I I can never hit a deadline.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they do, they do.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to like do a little math, figure it out, and uh you'll get there.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: Talk a little bit about re rewards, because I know that's something that that you believe really strongly in.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that that is something that's helped, you know, your students uh in the past for sure, based on the success stories that I've heard.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think you need to like incentivize yourself if you, you know, if you don't have, especially if you're not somebody who is intrinsically motivated and you need those external motivators.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that can be just a little thing like, oh, I'm gonna buy myself a special pen or take myself out to the library for an outing after I hit X number of words and you mark these little milestones, I gamify it for my writers, which is something uh you love.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I know that.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, that's how I succeed at everything is if if you gamify something, I am going to win.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um hands down.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you turn something into a game and uh I joke with my doctor because all the time, because I'm like, hey, uh, okay, I gotta do this to lower that, or I gotta do this to raise this, no problem.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let's set a date and I'm gonna hit that because I'm like, okay, now I gotta go and I've got all the steps I've got to do to to uh to achieve that.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's everything.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: We had that uh that step count uh competition that at work, you know, with like a couple thousand people like competing, and I was like, I'm gonna win this thing.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there were a couple nights that we went out after, like, I don't know, 10 o'clock at night where you're like, I still need a I need a thousand more.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and that was after I'd run a 10K too.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: There were some like uber like strong runners in that competition.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't know I didn't end up winning, but I achieved more than I ever thought I could, which was a win for me.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You crushed it, that was amazing.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, let's talk a little bit about um the marketing side of things in terms of organizational strategies.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's it's funny because it it kind of mirrors exactly what you do on the writing side, it's just they're separate calendars, and we kind of have to overlay them to see where they come out because of everything we've just talked about, right?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're um your uh right as an R-I-G-H-T.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, not Dominion.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um right.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: When you have uh when you have a lot of projects going, a lot of deadlines for writing, we have to get pretty creative.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Pun totally intended.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: On uh on um uh oh you just you did that, you made me want to look over here and and get the uh drum roll, but uh I don't have I don't have the the sim rim shot.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I don't know, that is good.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um but we have to figure we have to get creative in the way that we schedule out the marketing aspects of it because there's so much work that goes into that cover reveals and like live stream release parties and podcasts and you know, all the social content.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: And even if we're batching that stuff, if you're in the middle of writing two or three projects, you know, it it gets like our time gets really short because we have we actually have lives outside of uh outside of this too.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have another job outside of this.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you know, it's uh yeah.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's the same thing, uh, where we are thinking, but maybe even farther out, we're thinking about release dates, and especially so we've got the traditionally published books, which we don't have any control over the release dates for those, um or very little.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can have we can give suggestions based on timing and everything, which you've been successful at um in getting some of those changed.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then um with the indie stuff, it it's really up to us.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: But again, we can't um we can't just sit on things and just have them waiting for eternity in in you know in in the drawer or whatever.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so we it it it takes a lot to put together the calendar and see how that overlays with the writing schedule so that we can hit all those steps and we're not just disorganized, like bouncing around from project to project and and and everything.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so that that is another thing where it takes usually a weekend.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: We'll sit down and we'll plan out like the next six months.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what does that look like?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes more than that, depending on what projects are ready to go and and upcoming, and and then figure out okay, um, once we have the schedule down, then we have to figure out what are we doing for each release.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: And and yes, and those are just the releases.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Then we've got the evergreen content that has to go on after it because contrary to popular belief, once you release a book, it doesn't just market itself, like it doesn't just gain traction and everybody starts reading it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of work that goes into that.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, we were just talking last weekend about the calendar for 2025 for the entire year, because I have a chunk of projects that have been waiting in the wings, ready to go.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and next year is the year that we're gonna make that happen, but that means starting now, basically.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because there's everything that goes into, and we talked about this, I think, in one of the first couple of episodes of Reality Rights, everything that goes into launching a book, and and you know, it's everything from cover design to back matter to back cover copy to marketing um ideas and schedules, all of that needs to be done months in advance of the book actually releasing because it needs to be scheduled and ready to go.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then and then it goes back to the whole thing again of like, well, if we know that the the marketing is dropping uh on X date at X time, like you need to be ready to then start interacting with people as they see that and react to it.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then the last sort of organizational tip that I have for writers is that idea of working smarter, not harder, and um utilizing tools where you can.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, um, like AI, for example, AI is my favorite new thesaurus and dictionary.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I always have a window open, and as I'm writing, you know, before I would go like, you know, to dictionary.com or um I have lots of thesauruses.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know, you should look it up in a thesaurus.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll ask chat just a second.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but now I have um an AI window and I just go in and I'm like, okay, uh, give me 12 words for blah blah blah.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Boom.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that before would have taken, I don't know, maybe five or 10 minutes to look it up or you know, go to a different browser.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: It seems silly, but it's like seconds.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what a smarter way to work.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um, and so in the marketing world, uh, advertising world, we like there's this notion of force multiplying.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that is when you can take a process that would normally take you like five minutes, and you can now do it in 10 seconds, and you can do that 10 times over the course of a day, or let's say 12 times to make it easy.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now you've taken a process that used to take you one hour, 12 times five is 60, 60 minutes, one hour of your day, but suddenly it's only taken 120 seconds, and that is down to two minutes.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you went from one hour down to two minutes just by using tools that helped automate things and get you the information that you could find yourself without those tools, but in a much, much faster, you know, way.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that just it multiplies over the day, and that just exponentially grows to save you time.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's time that you can spend doing other parts of the process, you know, uh scheduling out your calendar or whatever, or it's time that you can spend on self-care.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you can do something fun, you can take a break, you can do whatever.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, AI, as if you can't tell, super exciting.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: I personally think it's a super exciting topic.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do probably a couple of podcast episodes.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: But we're also gonna be we're also gonna be working on, I haven't even talked to you about this, but I've got it all sketched out.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be doing a whole uh uh webinar and course on the subject of AI and how it can help writers.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this is to help writers write the books that they're already writing.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is not gonna be a course on how you can use AI to write a book.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you are just having AI write a book for you, please stop.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: Please stop.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're not you're you're not generating like good content.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're not creating, yeah.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: AI is AI is just a tool that you can use as a writer to help you create content and and accomplish more in less time.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it is not a tool that should be used to create the content itself, it's a tool that should be used to help you refine the content that you already have in your head.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean there's so much more I can say, but I do I think we should do a whole podcast on this.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll leave it there.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um we'll have AI help write the script for it.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you can tell that this show is so scripted too, can't you?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, totally.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know why it says script.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe I'll maybe I'll add a third window and we'll just have Chat GPT right there responding to us, talking to us as we as we uh do the podcast.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And giving us um constructive feedback like yeah, you're back on topic, back on topic.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's tech guy, tech guy, you forgot the blue light in the background.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so I think that sort of wraps up this episode in terms of the concept of the importance of organization structure, finding these things that work for you, taking little bits and pieces and you know, massaging them like clay and figuring out like, oh, okay, this is definitely the tool that is gonna help me maintain um my ability to tell more stories and share them with readers.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: And again, if uh if you know somebody that might benefit from hearing an episode or two of reality rights, you know, somebody that's starting out being a writer or somebody who's been writing for a long time and just wants to find a community that uh they can connect with and learn more and contribute along the way, please share the podcast with them.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you just drop them a link and and uh and introduce them to the world of reality rights.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um the world of reality rights.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now that did sound scripted.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm impressed.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: Just made it up on the fly.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: Did it use AI?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: On the fly, no AI.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: On the fly, no AI.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty, darlings.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay organized.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time.