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Struggling to Write? How to Stay Motivated When Life Gets in the Way

by Kimberley Grabas

Struggling to Write? How to Stay Motivated When Life Gets in the Way | YourWriterPlatform.com

Even if we love what we do, we may find our motivation waning from time to time. It happens to the best of us, and when it does, it can compromise our focus, productivity and confidence. Guest author Angela Baker shares some of her best ideas on how to stay motivated even when life gets in the way.

Books don’t write themselves and lack of motivation can be one of the biggest impediments for aspiring authors.

Maybe you’ve written a few books already, but don’t know how to get them out there and you feel like your voice will never be known. Or maybe a personal problem is taking its toll on your creativity and you’re experiencing writer’s block. 

No matter what keeps you from moving forward, experiencing ups and downs is a normal part of your writing career.

Even the world’s most famous and talented writers struggled with lack of motivation at one point, but it’s important to keep going and develop a strategy to pick yourself back up when words no longer come easy.  

Write Every Day, No Matter What 

Maya Angelou’s ‘just write’ strategy isn’t always easy to apply.

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’

– Maya Angelou

Forcing yourself to write every day, no matter what, can actually be tedious and painstaking, especially if you tend to be self-critical.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Productivity Tagged With: planning, productivity, writing

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up: The Definition of Marketing (Issue #28)

by Kimberley Grabas

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up #28 _ YourWriterPlatform.com

This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Marketing May Have to Change Its Name

Marketing is simply the process and activities involved in creating awareness for a product or service, typically aimed at a specific group.

And, although there can be many definitions and variations on the theme (based on the intentions and the values of the one actually doing the marketing), the core concept itself isn’t especially unfavourable.

Intuitively it makes sense that there be a mechanism for connecting what you have to offer, to the group you’d like to offer it to.

The issue that arises for many authors is the suspicion and negativity associated with marketing that has evolved over time: smarmy undertones, cheesy or self-serving tactics, and the in-your-face aggressiveness of mediocre marketing strategies gone bad.

But, I think ‘marketing’ has gotten a bad rap.

The theory is sound, it’s the application that is–in many cases–somewhat less than stellar.

But, marketing your work as an author is a must, so if it still makes you feel dirty, just think of it this way: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Resources Tagged With: author, blog audience, book marketing, book promotion, book sales, marketing, platform, promotion, social media, target audience, Weekly Wrap-Up, writing

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #25)

by Kimberley Grabas

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #25) | YourWriterPlatform.comThis post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Write. Publish. Repeat.

Can you imagine publishing more than a dozen novels, totalling close to two million words?

Can you imagine doing it in a single year?

If you thought NaNoWriMo was painful, imagine the schedule that previously pro-bloggers, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant keep. Because in 2013, they did just that.

I’m a big fan of the Self-Publishing Podcast (I’ve even included it in a list of my favourites in Wrap-Up Issue #21), which features the writing duo and is a fantastic resource for writers.

But their new book, Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success), is the bee’s knees.

It’s an über informative guidebook as well as a motivational “get-your-head-on-straight” pep talk for authors who are willing to put in the work to develop their writing careers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Tools & Resources Tagged With: blogging, self-publishing, social media, Weekly Wrap-Up, writing

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #13)

by Kimberley Grabas

The Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #13)This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Don’t Waste! Recycle Your Content

You’re convinced that building your writer platform is a necessary evil, and you’ve even managed to set up your author headquarters and create content for your website with some regularity.

But seriously!

Who has the time to continually produce ‘epic’ content for a website, rock several social media platforms with brilliant wit and casual banter AND knock out a respectable daily writing quota?

Not me, and I’m betting not you either!

So here’s a short checklist of ways you can repurpose the great content you already have, as well as get extra mileage out of your future posts:

  • build on a theme or idea that you’ve already written about; go deeper or try approaching the topic from a different angle.
  • turn an in-depth post into a video series, discussing each point separately in 5 minute mini-productions.
  • transcribe an interview or podcast, tweak it and turn it into a blog post.
  • take a pillar post and create a slideshow presentation for Slideshare.
  • mine your blog post or interview for great quotes that you can turn into Tweets, Facebook conversation starters or beautiful text-on-image graphics for Pinterest.
  • use an older, but evergreen post, to develop a PDF download or email opt-in series to give away as your ‘ethical bribe’ to incentivize new subscribers to sign up to your email list.

Now that you’ve got some ideas for making your content work harder for you, take a breather and enjoy this week’s wrap-up of featured articles and resources! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Resources Tagged With: book marketing, book promotion, platform, self-publishing, social media, writing

The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #12)

by Kimberley Grabas

Writer's Weekly Wrap-Up (Issue #12)This post is part of a weekly series on YWP, aptly titled “The Writer’s Weekly Wrap-Up”.

Each Sunday, I will endeavour to provide you with a curated list of the best articles I have seen throughout the week that relate to building your platform.

The featured articles cover topics on book marketing and promotion, blogging, social media and self-publishing. (I may even throw in a few inspirational and fun posts, just so that it’s not all work and no play!)

Don’t Sell; Engage

What do your readers want?

What do you want as an author?

What can you share that your audience desires, and what will you receive in return?

Engagement develops from finding the common ground, the similar interests and the mutual needs between you and your readers.

This shouldn’t be difficult, forced or phoney–but real and genuine.

“Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.”

– Brian Solis

So strive to include this simple premise of engagement in your efforts to build your writer platform.

Commit to your readers not only by developing yourself as a writer, but by sharing the most important and relevant parts of your growth with them.

Ensure that those that should be aware of your work, are.

Listen to–and acknowledge–their compliments, criticisms and interpretations.

Include your readers in the process of your artistic expression, and let them share the journey with you.

If you do this well, you will never have to ‘sell’ another book. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Tools & Resources Tagged With: book marketing, book promotion, platform, self-publishing, social media, writing

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