Friday, July 24, 2009

Think You Can't Write More? Think Again!

Many of you expressed interest in learning how to squeeze more writing out of each day. I had the extreme pleasure of sitting in Stephanie Bond's two-hour workshop on how to make a living writing romance novels. If you ever have the opportunity, take one of her workshops.

She's an amazing woman. Very classy, very professional, and very down-to-earth. Everything she said helped me. I took eight (eight!!) pages of notes! One of the topics--writing more pages each day--really struck home with me and I'm sharing it with you all.

She encouraged us to do the math with our writing. If we write one page a day, 350 days of the year, we will have one single title book at the end of the year. One page doesn't seem daunting, does it?

If we write five pages a day, 350 days of the year, we'll have 1750 pages. That's two single title books (700 pages), three category length books (650 pages), and two novellas (300 pages). Can you imagine producing two single titles, three categories, and two novellas in ONE year?

Okay, okay. But I take weekends off. And my life is very busy. Let's do the math. Five pages every weekday yields (5days/week x 50 weeks = 250 days) 1250 pages. That's still two single title books, two category length books, and one novella. Amazing!! And you have two weeks off for vacation with your weekends free.

But how do we write five pages every day? We're busy, right?

Ms. Bond gave tips on how to squeeze in extra pages. She highly recommends purchasing a keyboard simulator, such as the Alpha Smart (around $200). You can slip it in your purse and write on your lunch break. You can write in bed for twenty minutes. She said her Alpha Smart helped her squeeze one extra page out every day and that's one single title book. The great thing about keyboard simulators is you plug them into your computer with a USB port and they download directly to your word processor. How cool is that?

How long does it take you to write one page? You don't need to spend money on an Alpha Smart. Look for ways to sneak in an extra page of writing whenever and however you can.

She also said she writes her books in 20-30 minute chunks. She wrote while working full time until she had several books contracted. She would get up and write 20 minutes before work. Then she'd slip out to her car at lunchtime and write for another 20 minutes. She writes a page before she goes to bed at night. If you can write a page in 20-30 minutes, you can write three pages a day using this method. I'll bet many of you can write a page even faster.

For anyone interested, Stephanie Bond offers articles about writing, business plans, and career issues. You can find them at Amazon Shorts, and you'll receive 3-4 articles for the low price of 49 cents each. Talk about a steal!

Please feel free to ask any questions on this topic and I'll gladly share anything I know.

Happy Writing!

26 comments:

  1. Thanks, Jill. I'm always looking for ways to squeeze more writing into my busy days. I like the idea of a keyboard simulator. What a wonderful thing to have when you're sitting at soccer practice or other kids' activities.

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  2. It's worth working it in and finding time for it. I'm averaging over two books per year and I am serious when I say my time is extremely crunched.

    Hope you have a laugh-inspired weekend!
    ~ Wendy

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  3. Now just to come up with the ideas for each of those pages! LOL

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  4. When you crunch the numbers it makes sense, doesn't it? How much time do we really spend in other activities we don't need to? Like TV?
    But then as I read this I thought what if I can't think of enough to write even with that time???

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  5. i'm going to check out the amazon shorts. i got something about query letters from noah lukeman for free that way. great post.

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  6. Wow, that makes total sense. It's to be disciplined to write those 5 days a week and have the content fall into place. I'm thinking there needs to be editing/revision time allotted for in that formula though which would bring the total number of books/year down, but still you'd be ahead of the game I think.

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  7. Good morning!

    Heather: You're a genius! I hadn't considered the never-ending kids' sports practices. I'd gladly squeeze in extra pages there.

    Wendy: Writing more shouldn't be about making our life more complicated and hectic. Sometimes we're in a phase of life where more writing doesn't make sense. But that phase passes too. Two books is really, really good.

    MaryBeth: Yeah, when you figure that out, come back and fill me in!

    Terri: Ha, ha! I know what you mean. And it is important to have downtime--isn't that what HGTV and magazines are for?

    Jeannie: Yes, Amazon Shorts offers a wide selection of articles, short stories, you name it.

    Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  8. Eileen: We all thought that too, but Ms. Bond (my new hero!) insists you can turn out new material every day. I'm thinking she writes very clean pages, because she revises as she goes, uses a critique partner, and even trades 50 pgs at a time with her editor to avoid the dreaded lump of revisions.

    I'm not at that point. Craft is still an issue for me, so revising takes me a long, long time. But when I listened to her, it hit me that I'm not writing new material for months of the year because I'm stuck revising. What if I wrote even one page a day of new material (say for 30 minutes in the morning) and kept at my revisions after? I'd have a really nice head start on my next book when revisions were over.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. That makes so much sense...it's like a lightbulb coming on. Hmmm... I could squeeze in two or three 20-30 min sets during the day. That's the avg length of Dora or Pinky Dinky Doo. :)

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  10. These are really great tips. I know I often complain about not having enough writing time, when I'm the only one to blame for that. :)

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  11. This was an AWESOME post! Thanks for sharing Jill. Especially useful to me as school is starting in two weeks and my summer will be over. I'm already in mourning.

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  12. Ralene: Yes! It's a Pinky-Dinky-Doo! I know I could squeeze in 20 minutes for a new page every day.

    Erica: Don't we all? I don't think anyone is advocating spending every free moment writing, but if we can get a little extra in painlessly, why not?

    Katie: :( I'm mourning with you. Especially since many of your 20-30 minute segments will be filled correcting papers.

    Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  13. Great ideas! I think all amounts to making the most of the time we have. I'm sure many of us can carve out a few good chunks of time during our days for writing. But often when we have that time, we end up day dreaming or checking twitter or something else that takes away from our concentration. I know I definitely need to get better at focusing during my writing time and not letting those other things pull me out of my zone!

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  14. She used to have articles on her website and I think I read almost every one! Very knowledgeable lady. I'd def. want to go to one of her classes.
    The only thing with this formula is that it doesn't seem to take in account revisions. Or did I miss that?
    Thanks for sharing!

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  15. Sounds like it was a great workshop, Jill. Thanks for taking such thorough notes and sharing what you learned with us.

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  16. Thanx. I've been thinking about getting that keyboard. I would never take my lap top everywhere but that one I could take without hesitation. I am a firm believer in squeezing in as much as humanly possible. Even with my four kids there is a spare moment or two when i'm not at my lap top. Great idea!

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  17. Jody: Sometimes I really need to get pulled out of the zone. My head starts hurting! Isn't Twitter and Facebook a nice distraction? :)

    Jessica: She still has plenty of articles on her website. And the revision question.

    She's at a point where she doesn't need to revise at the level I do. She said she writes pages in the morning, revises them later that night, and goes over them with her critique partner once a week. She sends her manuscripts in 50 page chunks to her editor and as soon as she gets them back, she revises them. There is no huge lump of revisions when she's finished because the book is polished as she goes.

    Obviously, that doesn't work for many of us writers. I think if we're interested in generating more pages, we can take the ideas that work for us and leave the ones that aren't realistic.

    Keli: Love to do it!

    T. Anne: "Even with my four kids..." Okay, I'm giving you a huge salute! You rock!

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  18. Wow, that is so encouraging. I'm homeschooling for the first time next year and wondered how in the world I was going to be able to write too!
    And I've never heard of an Alpha Smart, I'm going to have to check it out!
    Thanks Jill:)

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  19. Kara: Homeschooling! You're amazing! There are a few other writing bloggers out there who homeschool; I bet you could trade tips! Good luck,and thanks for stopping by!

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  20. Jill: How motivating; thank you for sharing all these goodies from your conference.

    I wonder if writing a non fiction page takes longer or shorter than fiction? Sometimes I deliberate for five or ten minutes over one WORD!!!

    I had never heard of the Alpha reader; it sound great!

    Happy Weekend, Jen

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  21. Great post Jill! I will definitely check out those amazon shorts!

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  22. Jeanette: I couldn't help you on the non-fiction Jen! But I do understand getting stuck on the "right" word.

    Sherrinda: I'm going to check them out too. I only have a few articles and they've been very helpful.

    Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  23. Great post, and so true. It's amazing what we can accomplish one step at a time. Thanks for sharing! :D (You have an award waiting for you at my blog. :))

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  24. Danyelle: It is amazing what we can accomplish by steady work. And you are too nice! I'm coming to get it!

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  25. Thanks for this post! I needed to hear it. Apparently, according to my husband, I need a real job. Huh? Anyway, I've been worried about how I'd ever find the time to write if I had a "real" job. These tips made me realize it's possible. Great post!

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  26. Lazy Writer: A real job--say it isn't so!! Hey, this economy reeks. I understand. Yep, you can fit in writing even with a real job. It might be tiring, it might not always be fun, but you'll still make progress toward your goal. What could be better than that? Good luck!

    Thanks for stopping by!

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