Motivation and the Writing Life

Confidence is Key to Eliminating Writer’s Block

April 28, 2017April 17, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @Elizabethscraig

When I hit rough patches (and I do nearly every book), I keep going without feeling blocked. That’s because I’ve done it before. Every couple of books I seem to hit a major issue. It becomes less of an issue because I realize I can power through it. Whether I fix the issue then or fix it in the draft, I know it will be fixed. I know that the story will end up turning out fine.

This is true in other arts, as well. I saw an interesting video that Open Culture posted online. It depicts legendary B.B. King, with the confidence of a lifetime of performing, changing out a broken guitar string in the middle of a performance at the Live Aid concert in the mid-eighties. Without missing a beat, he fixed his broken string in front of a crowd of 80,000 people.

At the same time I was watching the video, I was in the middle of reading actor Bryan Cranston’s autobiography, A Life in Parts. He echoed what I’d noticed with the B.B. King performance (p. 133) about the importance of confidence as a professional artist:

“This whole business is a confidence game. If you believe it, they’ll believe it. If you don’t believe it, neither will they. Today, when I’m in the position as a director to hire actors, I don’t feel entirely comfortable hiring someone who doesn’t emit confidence. If an actor comes in, and I feel flop sweat and need from them, there is almost no chance I will hire them. Not because they are untalented, but because they haven’t yet come to the place where they trust themselves, so how can I trust they’ll be able to do the job with a sense of ease? Confidence is king.”

What if you don’t have confidence through experience? What if you’re not yet at the point, as Cranston says, that you trust yourself?

The obvious answer is to continue writing. But I think that other things can help, too.

Keep reading and see how other writers succeed and fail (especially in your genre).

Note your successes each day to make your progress easier to track.

Finish what you start writing. This helps build confidence that you can at least finish a book, even if it requires major revision.

Have you developed confidence in your writing ability?

Self-confidence is key to beating writer's block: Click To Tweet

Photo credit: Tomek Nacho via Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND

Organization: Top Time Savers

February 24, 2017February 23, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the last post of the time saving series. You can find the first post here (on social media), post two here (on saving time writing), and the third post here (on book production). Today, I’m focusing on general organization. I’ve found if I’m better organized, I can free up more time for writing.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got tons of information to organize and work through. It could be writing craft posts. It could be research for your book. It could be ideas and images for blog posts.How do you store this information so that you can easily access it?

I use a couple of different tools for organizing information: one is Evernote and the other is OneNote. Both are free (Evernote has a paid version if you’re an especially heavy user). This post will include both the writing-related and personal uses of the apps because, in my house at least, if I’m not organized with both home and writing it impacts my writing time.

Writing Conferences and Festivals

February 13, 2017February 12, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve been to a variety of different conferences over the years and tried to get the most out of each experience. Sometimes I had a better time than others, but I invariably learned something.

Types of conferences:

In-person writing conferences are where I’m usually in my element. There I meet and talk with different writers, learn more about the craft, and hear more about the latest promo techniques.

Online writing conferences can also be incredibly useful. What’s more, you don’t even have to leave your house (which is wonderful! I’ve even been speaker at some of these events from the comfort of my own home). My favorite is the Indie Author Fringe conference, which runs online at several points throughout the year. This year it will be held March 18, June 3rd, and October 14th. The best part is that it’s free and has experts in a variety of different writing-related areas. More information here and see the event archives here:

For the first time, I’m actually part of a reader-facing online mystery conference this week (which is why this topic was on my mind when I wrote the post). It’s Mystery Thriller Week: If you’re a mystery writer or reader or are just interested in seeing how a fan festival could work online, take a look here. It’s designed to bring readers, book bloggers, and mystery writers together online. I’ve got a few posts scheduled to run this week (they’ll show up in my Twitterific this Sunday), but here are a couple of links in advance: My interview with Michelle Dragalin and “Three Ways for Writers to Use Deadlines” (which will go live at noon EST today). My books are also getting reviewed by different bloggers. This will be a yearly event, so if you’re a mystery writer, make a note to contact the organizers so that you can participate next year.

Book Festivals: The ones that probably make me the most uncomfortable are the ones that have me sitting at a table, hawking my books. I’m not much of a hawker. In fact, the last time I was at an event like this, I left my table and wandered around the building to see everyone else’s books and to meet other writers. Although I’m not really a shy person, I can be very shy around readers. I know…leaving my table wasn’t the right way to sell books. Now I’m aware that this is not the kind of event I need to attend. That’s also something important for writers to know–what is the type of conference or festival that’s more valuable for them?Continue reading

Top Time Savers for Writing

February 10, 2017February 10, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I rely on a lot of time savers to help me stay productive. I’ve spoken to writers before who’ve asked me how long I spend writing each day. I usually spend no more than thirty minutes writing, but that thirty minutes is enough for me to publish 2-3 books a year and get a head start on another.

I think it’s because of these time saving tricks. Not everyone wants to be a faster writer or needs to be a faster writer. If you’re someone who is already trying to increase your writing speed, here are the things that work for me. Some of them help me stay on track and fight distraction. Some of them are memory crutches that help cut my revision times dramatically. Continue reading

Creative Challenges for Better Productivity

January 13, 2017December 30, 2016Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Sometimes I think that we need something to spur us on and get us going.

We need something different to help us either grow or keep ourselves engaged. Maybe we’ve been working on one book for a long period of time. Maybe we’ve been working on a particular series so long that we feel we’re getting stale. Maybe it’s that we’ve been writing a single genre.

Sometimes we’re just weighed down by our story.

For me, the best thing I can do is to shake things up a little bit.

Write at a different time of day.

Write in a different place (my favorite is the library).

Read something really good. For me, this is usually something in a genre I’m not writing. Or, maybe, I’m reading a mystery, but it’s not the same subgenre. Or I’ll read an inspiring autobiography or biography on an artist.Continue reading