As the new year unfolds, it's the perfect time for writers like us to reset, reorganize, and rejuvenate their creative process. Whether you're crafting mysteries, spinning tales on your podcast, or shaping influential essays, staying organized is key to success.
Let's explore some practical ways to streamline your workflow, interspersed with personal insights and tools that I use in my own writing journey. These things help me write books, produce two podcasts, write two newsletters, run a business, and market everything I do. I did the math, and these tools and processes combined easily save me twenty hours of work a week.
1. Set Clear, Achievable Goals
Don’t get overwhelmed by expectation. Start by setting clear, attainable goals for the year. Whether it's completing a novel, growing your podcast audience, or reaching 1000 subscribers on your newsletter, having concrete objectives keeps you focused. Break these goals into smaller, manageable tasks and set deadlines to keep yourself accountable.
2. Organize Your Workspace
A cluttered workspace can lead to a cluttered mind. Dedicate time to create a writing environment that's conducive to productivity. This doesn't mean you need a complete overhaul; sometimes, a tidy desk, comfortable seating, and a little personal touch can make all the difference.
Less is often more when it comes to a productive workspace. A minimalist approach doesn't mean a bare office, but rather a space where every item has a purpose and a place. This approach not only clears physical space but also helps in reducing mental clutter, leading to improved focus and efficiency.
For example, I made an effort to clear off my cluttered bookshelf, which is the backdrop to my Zoom calls with clients and podcast guests. I have packed it with so many books and trinkets that it looks like a thrift store bargain shelf! So, I gave away a dozen or so books and have moved some of my keepsakes elsewhere. It looks better, and other people get to enjoy some wonderful books guests on my show gifted me for review.
3. Embrace Digital Tools for Workflow Management
Leveraging digital tools is a game-changer for staying organized. For instance, I use Harvest for project management. It's a versatile tool that allows me to track my progress as a PR consultant, writer, and ghostwriter. Similarly, tools like Evernote or Google Keep are excellent for jotting down ideas and organizing research. And I simply could not keep up with producing my podcasts if it weren’t for Calendly, which creates workflows that help me automatically book, pre-interview, and communicate.
4. Time Management Techniques
Time management is crucial. Techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in focused intervals, can significantly boost productivity. I am also a big fan of the Eisenhower Matrix, which I have written and podcasted about. It helps you manage by illustrating the difference between the urgent and the important.
5. Invest in Writing and Design Software
As a writer and podcast host, I rely on a combination of writing and design software. Scrivener is a fantastic writing tool that helps in organizing complex writing projects, while Canva is excellent for designing graphics for my blogs and podcasts.
And don’t be afraid of AI—it’s a tool (just like spellcheck, Grammarly, etc.) that can help you organize your thoughts, create images, and more. It is not a substitute for creativity—but used correctly, it will enhance your work magnificently.
These tools not only streamline the creative process but also add a professional touch to your work—and save you money.
6. Regular Reviews and Adjustments
It's important to regularly review your goals and workflow. This could be a monthly or quarterly review to assess what's working and what needs adjustment. Flexibility in your approach ensures you stay aligned with your evolving objectives.
7. Networking and Collaboration
Don't underestimate the power of networking and collaboration. Platforms like LinkedIn or writer groups on Facebook can be great for sharing ideas, getting feedback, and staying inspired. Plus, you never know when a connection might lead to a new opportunity. The biggest reason I podcast is to network with new people. It has paid off in spades, professionally, financially, and personally.
8. Personal Development
Invest time in personal development. Attend workshops, webinars, or courses to enhance your skills. Platforms like MasterClass or Coursera offer courses on writing, marketing, and more, which can be immensely beneficial. Join a local writing group or beta circle to make friends who understand the journey you are on. Real talk: this is advice I need to heed, myself.
9. Physical and Mental Well-being
Lastly, take care of your physical and mental well-being. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and adequate rest are crucial. If I did not work out five to six days a week, I would be in a world of hurt physically and emotionally. Get out of the house, get your blood flowing! Remember, a healthy body fosters a healthy mind, which in turn nurtures creativity.
The Key to Successful Writing
As we step into the new year, let's embrace these strategies to stay organized and productive. Remember, the key to successful writing isn't just talent; it's also about how effectively you manage your time, workspace, and resources. Here's to a year filled with achievements, growth, and, of course, fantastic writing!
What strategies and tips keep you on track for the year? Is it one of the above, or something else entirely. Please do share with us down in the comments!
Writing is solitary. That’s certainly the way we’ve come to view it, at least. It is a common trope in fiction to present an author as desperate for the opportunity to shut the world out, to find a quiet place where they can be left alone to work. Spend some time on social media and you’ll see no end of people engaging with memes offering a hypothetical deal like, “You have to stay in this cabin alone for 30 days with no phone or internet, but at the end you’ll be given a million dollars” and see authors asking what the downside is. And at a surface level, this solitude is accurate.
You can and most likely will do the bulk of the task of writing by yourself. But this can lull authors into the unproductive and potentially destructive mindset that they shouldn’t accept help or seek collaboration. Worse, some are of the opinion that they can’t seek help or take input, because that would somehow make them “not a real writer.” This line of thinking can lead an author into some unnecessary pitfalls and dead ends. So, while if you’re reading this you’re probably not a strict observer of zero input writing, let me take a moment to make a simple recommendation: Listen to advice.
If you know where to look, you’ll find valuable advice available at all stages of the writing process. So let’s take a look!
Before you start
The preparation stage is arguably the most contentious place to seek help as a writer. This is thanks in large part to the enormous variety of reasons that people write. Many authors start writing because they had a brilliant idea that they simply had to write. And surely if the whole reason you’re writing is to share something unique and personal, then what good does outside input have? But there are plenty of reasons to seek out advice at this stage, or listen to earnestly given advice from people in the know.
Let’s suppose your idea is your first novel.
Regardless of how brilliant the idea is, having someone with greater experience in the craft there to give you some pointers on pacing, structure, and potential stumbling blocks to avoid can save you literal months along the way. And even if you’re a seasoned writer, if this new idea is a step into a new genre, it’s easy to miss genre conventions if you don’t have a word with people who are more familiar with reading or writing in that genre. Ask me how I know.
An example
Okay, I’ll just tell you. As I’ve recounted elsewhere, I’ve frequently switched genres to try new ideas and new settings. Some, like sci-fi, were right in my wheelhouse and I was quite comfortable with my ability to navigate the defining traits. Others, like steampunk, were a little less familiar. And though I wrote a story that found its own legs, I missed the mark on multiple elements of setting. I did a secondary world rather than Victorian England, for instance.
And then there was my foray into urban fantasy. I did a lot of research into this, reading over a dozen books in the genre. I soaked up what I thought made for a “proper” piece of urban fantasy writing. But it turned out the kind of Urban Fantasy books that attracted my attention were outliers. The ones I picked lacked some subtle but highly indicative features of the genre. For example: first person narration and a focus on existing supernatural entities like vampires and werewolves versus creating new ones.
In both cases, to varying degrees, I was able to get my ideas across and find something of an audience. But I had to overcome friction that I could have easily avoided if I’d reached out to someone for advice.
While you write
When we construct stories in our heads, we know everything about them. We know the facts, the motivations, the idiosyncrasies, and the other minor points of the story. We know that our hero knows that the evil chancellor is betraying her because she overheard him plotting thanks to the echo of his voice through the drafty halls of the great palace. Thus, it might not occur to us that we didn’t set that fact up, or maybe even forgot to mention it.
It is devilishly simple to leave crucial information or necessary foreshadowing out of our story. Over the course of the months, or years of writing, we start to lose track of what’s on the page versus in our heads. Sure, we can catch these things by carefully re-reading and revising. But getting a view from outside your head is a much more reliable way to catch things that have been left out.
Connecting with others
A great way to get advice like this is to join a writing group.
In addition to other valuable things, like helping you keep your productivity up by making yourself accountable to others, or exposing yourself to other people’s writings to learn from their tricks, flaws, and assets, it makes sure that a person who doesn’t already know the story can still follow the story. Doing this while you’re writing means a small change now can achieve what might have needed a full rewrite later.
If you have the money, this is also often where you’ll be working with a developmental editor. I won’t go too deeply into the importance of considering the advice of a development editor, though, because considering how much they cost I certainly hope you’re listening to what they have to say. Though if you do need advice on how to take their advice, then read on.
Finishing Up
Even those who vigorously evade interactions and input on their writing tend to have some fairly significant collaboration after a draft or two. That’s when you’re likely to hand things off to an editor for clean-up. Thus, even if you haven’t had to do so before, now’s the time to learn not just that you should take advice, but how you should take advice.
The first, and most important thing is this: You don’t have to. It seems silly to write an entire article about taking advice and then tell you to ignore it. But this article isn’t about taking advice. It’s about listening to advice.
I think one of the things that chills people to the idea of getting input on their stories is the false belief that advice, once given, is somehow an obligation. You can always disregard a recommendation if you feel it doesn’t suit you. This is your story, after all. But always listen. Always know what they were suggesting, and try to know why they suggested it.
Sometimes skipping that advice will have consequences. If you want to maintain your voice by keeping a grammatical quirk intact, you can do that! But chances are the editor isn’t the only one who’ll flag it as a mistake, and customers tend to do that with lower star ratings and snide reviews.
Suggestions that don't make sense
But lots of advice you’re bound to get–particularly from people who aren’t professional editors–will come in the form of some veiled version of “You’re not doing this the way I would have done it. Change it to how I would have done it.” And those are notes you simply don’t have to take. But even when you disregard the specifics, there is value in understanding why the advice was given.
The thought that goes through a beta reader’s head will go through a reader’s head. And if they interpret something differently from how you’d intended, it may be worth a change even if it isn’t the one they recommend.
Changes that do make sense
Then there are the changes that do make sense.
Plot holes, inconsistencies in characterization. Little things you missed. These should be easy pieces of advice to take, but for some even these feel… wrong. It’s not hard to understand why. You’ve spent time, in some cases years, sculpting this story. It is in a very real way a glimpse into your mind, a more personal and vulnerable window into your thinking than most people will ever create.
A criticism or an observed flaw can feel like an attack. But it is important to temper those feelings. Even if someone is blunt or harsh, remember that their words are directed at the story, and try to metabolize the wisdom of every critique before you raise your defenses. And believe me, when it’s really important, you’ll be raising those defenses.
Questioning Choices
Piet Hien said, “Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back.” He was a scientist, so he probably wasn’t talking about the protagonist of a sci-fi story causing a purse to burst open in a zero-gravity slap-fight, but the spirit of the quote remains true.
Those parts of your story which you feel compelled to defend? Consider why you need to defend them.
It’s not really in good taste or form to have a protracted debate with your editor about plot points and such, but if you feel the need, then you know that the focus of that criticism is close to the heart. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself why you want it the way it is, and why they want it changed.
If the answer is “pride,” sorry, not good enough. But if the answer is “That’s how that character would act!” then there’s something to that. If you have a close friend doing beta reading for you, it’s probably worth going back and forth a few times. You may still end up taking the advice, or you may end up ignoring it, but in either case you’ll know why and that will make you a better writer.
Marketing your books
If you’ve reached the point of marketing your books, I hope you’ve learned to know when to take advice and who to take it from, but this is a place where a lot of people can trip up.
Unless you come to writing by way of a job in advertising, there’s a strong likelihood you know less about the market you’re going into than the craft that went into the book. I highly, highly recommend seeking advice from those who have gone before you and considering all evidence and all recommendations you get. The clearest example I can give you for how this has worked out for me is the cover of the first book I had any success with, The Book of Deacon.
An example
My first cover was… not great. I made it myself, and I didn’t do a great job. I knew that. The second one wasn’t all that great either. But when I got some money, I sought out a cover illustrator/cover designer. And boy, let me tell you, I put some serious thought into what that cover should have.
“Okay, so the hero’s story starts when she finds this sword. So I want her in a snowy field finding the sword. There’s a dead figure in the snow, and she’s holding the sword she’s salvaged from the fallen soldier and investigating it.”
The artist said.
“Um. First, you don’t need a faithful representation of a precise scene from the story on the cover. The words are for telling the story, the cover is for giving a feel of the story. Let’s simplify.”
So I said,
“Oh. Okay, well, she’s got the sword then, and she’s looking at it.”
“She should be looking at the audience, inviting us to learn her story. Your main character should have a connection with the audience.”
“... But then she’d just be holding a sword.”
“So skip the sword.”
Bit by bit, almost every part of the staging of the cover was reconfigured. The result was a focused, determined woman who radiated strength, alone in an icy storm, clutching a source of mystic power and in all other ways mysterious. It remains my most iconic cover, and is responsible for more of my success than I’ll ever know.
I could have easily dug in my heels. He would have drawn what I described, and it would have been a beautiful cover, but I’m quite sure the result would have been missing the wisdom, design instinct, and visual storytelling that perfectly complemented my literary storytelling.
Hard Mode
What I’ve said above is basically all you need to know. Seek advice when it’s available, learn why that advice came up, and take the advice if it makes sense.
But there is a final branching path. The reviews. Technically, every book review contains some semblance of advice. Even the ones that are just stars. A five star review says “Trust your instincts! They made a good book!”. A one star review says, “You failed to make something universal in its renown.” But a lot of reviews will contain more specific points.
There will be discussions of disappointment about choices you made, or excitement about potential.
Now, overwhelmingly I’m of the belief that you should NOT READ YOUR REVIEWS. It is a psychological gauntlet at the best of times. But sometimes, if you’re really getting roasted, it’s worth either taking a look or having friends take a look to see if there’s a common thread among the negativity. Seriously, you might learn–as an entirely random and certainly not specific example–that all of your italicized words are set to “black” instead of “Automatic” in the font color settings, so when your book is read in dark mode, italic words are invisible.
The point is, if there’s a lot of bad to be said, you owe it to yourself to learn if it was something mechanically wrong with your writing. But don’t make a habit of reading those reviews. They hurt.
And that’s it! That’s the advice I have for you.
What are some of your stories related to taking advice?
* * * * * *
About Joseph
Joseph R. Lallo took a crooked path to authordom. He was educated at NJIT, where he earned a master’s degree in Computer Engineering, and paid his bills in the world of Information Technology until Sept of 2014, when he finally became a full-time storyteller. The international bestseller The Book of Deacon defined his early career, and he has since written dozens of novels, short stories, and novellas. These include the critically acclaimed Steampunk series Free-Wrench and the thrilling sci-fi adventure saga, Big Sigma.
Outside of writing, he has co-hosted multiple self-publishing podcasts over the years, including the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing podcast.
I’ve always had trouble coming up with ideas. It’s my constant weakness. Give me an idea and I can articulate the hell out of it, finding all sorts of interesting nuance that bears on the story. But ask me to come up with ideas? No bueno.
I used to do that thing all the time where I’d stare at the blank Page One of a book, then realize suddenly that it’s extremely important that I walk circles in the living room and feed my dog twice.
(Don’t act like you haven’t done this.)
I stated in my last post that the writing life can be a beat-you-up pain in the ass. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the problems usually come from our emotional reactions to reality, not reality itself.
Yes, you can get rejected and yes, your new book sales can vastly underperform expectations, but chances are the rejection itself or the book sales alone probably aren’t what’s beating you up. It’s probably the associated emotion and the way you react (and then go into a tailspin) that does that. Especially if your day was already kind of crappy when the news hits you.
As writers, we often work alone. When you’re alone, it is easier for emotions to run amok because you are the only one able to change the situation. Unfortunately, my friends, sometimes we are the problem in the first place.
Something we’ve all done
Check reviews. Oh, there’s a bad one. It makes me feel terrible. Then we check reviews again. That same bad one is still there. Now it’s like I’ve gotten two bad reviews.
Look at that voodoo: One bad review, read twice, feels like two bad reviews. Read it a third time and it’s like the same big meathead keeps right on hitting you. Why do we do that? It’s like inflicting freaking black magic on ourselves.
And so I started thinking: What if I could make some white magic to counter it? What if I could thwart the “solo writer freaking out because they don’t have any good vibes to help shake off the bad” situation by making some better vibes for myself?
Friends. Romans. Countrymen.We are creators. We make things up for a living. We exist every day in fantasy lands that other people can’t possibly imagine.
We can use the benefit that our everyday lives are better than hippie trips to our mood-boosting advantage. Maybe, during the days when badness is having its way with us, we could channel our profession’s natural fantasticalness.
Dealing with misconceptions.
So. Circling back to my argument above. We all have bad days, weeks, and even months, but I believe much of that ill feeling comes from a few very specific, very misguided misconceptions.
Misconception #1
We tell ourselves that we need to force out the writing even when we feel crappy. I do, anyway. As the higher-up pull-out quote says, though, it probably makes more sense to use our creativity to GET OUT of the crap instead of making it one more thing that holds us down.
In other words: Do whatever it takes to find joy in writing when you’re down instead of saying, “I must write no matter what, to get the job done!” Writing should uplift us, not be one more rock on our backs.
Misconception #2
The goals we think we should have are often out of whack with our real goals. (See my last post.) I’ll go for weeks disappointed that I’m not #1 at the local Barnes and Noble, then remember that being happy, earning enough, and having a small group of devoted fans and supportive friends is all I actually wanted.
A solution.
We need to allow our working world to be the amazing, magical place it should have been all along. Because if we begin in a bright and sunny place (or, rather, acknowledge that we’re already in a bright and sunny place), any darkness that comes will never stand a chance at defeating us.
Inspiration is everywhere.
Inspiration isn’t just about ideas. It’s about magic, remember?
I’m not talking about magic mushrooms, although I do know folks for whom psychedelics work better than antidepressants. I’m talking about channeling whatever makes your world feel just a bit more peaceful or ethereal, and less like it’s filled with terrible monsters.
But that right there is the whole point: the world feeling more ethereal instead of feeling like a monster.
It’s the same world, people. If I feel good and if you, standing right next to me, feel bad, it’s not the world that’s different. The problem lies with the baggage we carry and how it tints our perceptions.
Finding clarity.
Seeing problems and failure all around you is like wearing glasses covered with mud. That’s the state we fall into when we’re alone, spiraling out of control with no one there to anchor us. Those are the times when we fail to see the beauty and magic and inspiration that’s all around us.
What if instead, you could live in a world...
..where everything has something to teach you?
..where everything helps your art instead of convincing you it’s trite and you’re wasting your time trying?
What if instead of being constantly discouraged by toxic thoughts, you felt constantly encouraged by the world?
That would be a pretty kickass world.
I have plenty of bad days, but getting my priorities straight (see last post) took away a lot of that angst because it made me see that I’m doing pretty well on my real needs and wants even when my fake needs and wants (the ones the internet and society and comparisonitis give me) are lacking.
And finding a way to feel inspired all the time? Finding a way to use that mindset to face darkness from a place of light and positivity? Well, that was some serious icing on the cake.
Searching for inspiration.
Recently, I started writing down one thing every day that inspired me.
It was difficult at first, because I used to think you needed to sit by a waterfall or meditate on a mountaintop to find inspiration. That’s just silly. In truth, there’s a lesson in everything. We’re just too much on autopilot to see it.
Recent Inspiration
Here are some of my recent musings, drawn from totally mundane things around me:
Today I noticed how hollow most of our everyday interactions are. It got me thinking about how every background character in a book has their own backstory, and every backstory could birth a novel.
Today, I learned that my 12-string guitar didn’t sound right because I was using the wrong kind of capo to change its key. It made realize that amping up anything creative might be as simple as trying new tools.
Today, I noticed that there is never NO sound, and that instead, a background hum is always present. It made me wonder how unnoticed elements of my books are influencing reader perceptions without me — or maybe them — even realizing it, and how I could use it to my advantage in the future.
Why did I phrase them this way?
They’re phrased the way they are because I started writing them up as posts for my blog readers in the same way some people find benefits in Morning Pages. It’s a word-of-the-day thing for my readers, who tell me privately that seeing what ordinary things I find inspiring actually makes them inspired, too.
Even cooler, there’s a meta thing that happened with this exercise.
Writing “Noticings” helps me to feel more of that daily magic and live in a much better place … but it got even better when I learned how my ridiculous little habit was helping other writers who read my blog, or who listen to the accompanying podcast.
We are not alone.
That's what I think is really the point of all this: We are not alone. But...because creative people are deep thinkers, we often overanalyze things. Or catastrophize things. Or turn everything into a long harrowing story because (duh) we're storytellers.
That's what storytellers do.
But the stories are mostly just stories. If we cut through the garbage we add to our bad days, more often than not we’ll see that we’re making our own madness.
But we’re not alone. All of the other creatives out there are just as crazy as we are. Keeping that in mind takes away a lot of the sting. At least it does for me.
Final Thoughts
I started writing the “Noticings” blog and recording the accompanying Art of Noticing podcast because I was kind of messed up one day and knew I had to do something. But the “something” I chose to do for myself had a ripple effect.
For one, it made me notice my own disempowering stories. I began to see that there’s a lot more to love in a creative life than there is to hate. There’s more joy than there is pain, even when there’s plenty of pain.
When those posts did the same for others, it was like the benefits doubled. So yeah. despite the work I’ll keep doing it. Because community is what this is all about.
This thing we do isn’t easy.
But who cares? I’ll keep doing it anyway.
What dumb stories do you tell yourself? Do you have any misperceptions, writerly or otherwise, that derail you or get in your way? We'd love it if you shared them down in the comments!
About Johnny
Johnny B. Truant is the bestselling author of Fat Vampire, adapted by SyFy as Reginald the Vampire starring Spider-Man's Jacob Batalon. His site at JohnnyBTruant.com publishes his 10-minute Art of Noticing podcast and the accompanying “Noticings” post series, both for writers and other artists.
Johnny's other books include Pretty Killer, Pattern Black, Invasion, The Beam, Dead City, and over 100 other titles across many genres. Originally from Ohio, Johnny and his family now live in Austin, Texas, where he’s finally surrounded by creative types as weird as he is.
