As you might notice, I’ve been absent for almost a week. Yes, I spent time fixing my website and putting my novel back on retail sellers, but that wasn’t the main reason I haven’t blogged for 6 days. I was sorting out priorities. I already figured out that writing is a business. Listening to podcasts, I’ve learned that one can live a decent life while being an indie author, but only if one does everything
Several years ago, I overheard a line of conversation between a child and his grandpa. The boy was hurrying the old man, and he replied: “Slowness takes you far.” That sentence has been resonating ever since in my mind. Take for runners for example. Usain Bolt runs faster than any person has ever been able to. Compared to him, any ultra marathon runner is significantly slower but they go farther. It all goes back to
A month ago, I’ve started a 30 days no stats challenge. The reason for that was my obsessive number checking at Google Analytics, Medium and Mail Chimp. If I had any books on sale, I would’ve been checking these numbers, as well. I was addicted to stats checking. Each time my numbers would grow I would get a dopamine injection and I would be happy for some time. When my numbers dropped, I would feel
It is most likely that you’re going to quit when you burn you fuel. At these times, nothing seems to work. All your efforts and hard work are pointless. You made none progress for ages and everyone else seems to be much better than you do. At these times, I remember what Seth Godin said about the Dip. Everybody falls into it. The only difference is whether we find our way out and reach to
The key to getting a job done is to treat your writing as a proper project. It’s not just sit down and write some words and everything will take care of by itself. You need to make a list of required mini tasks. Usually, it looks like this: Preparation: Get the idea Think of a character Figure out the character’s goal Think of a setting Think of an outer conflict Think of an inner conflict
Your ‘To-Do List’ is huge and you don’t know where to start. It feels as if you will accomplish nothing. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged. Remember, you need to do one thing at a time. Each morning, just after you wake, make your to-do list; put everything on it. How many items do you have? 10,20? Now, find the three most important tasks you need to do and cross out the rest of
Just as it is essential to practice monotasking at your everyday routines, it is likewise significant to focus on a specific major project. During the last year I struggled to pull off many tasks, and I accomplished none. I’ve tried to: Complete my second novel. Marketing my first novel Build my website Translate my short story Write a blog Think of a non-fiction book Make a gift for my non-fiction readers The only thing that
How often do you feel trapped and you wish to have more time to do the things you love? Perhaps you have a job, and you can’t wait for the weekend to come. Once the weekend is here, you are more relaxed and you know that you’ll have plenty of time for everything that you’ve planned to do. Two hours later, you catch yourself scrolling through your endless feeds and you feel guilty. Instead of
Consistency is the key to success in writing. If you want to write a novel, you must do it bit by bit, and you must do it every day. Writing is like a muscle; the more you do it, the stronger it becomes. The same way humans have difficulties to exercise regularly, they are struggling to write daily. A writer is in a constant battle with the Resistance; the force which is standing on a
When your boss gives you a daunting task, you do it anyway. You don’t like it; in fact, you hate it, but you are going to finish it. You don’t say: I’ll finish it later. I don’t feel like doing it now. Let’s scroll through social media instead. Let’s do something fun. I deserve a little leisure. No. You have a job to deliver and you do it. It might be for the sake of