Tag: goals

I always encourage writers to write every day. That’s what I do. Slow and steady wins the race. I learned that as a kid from the turtle in Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” The turtle is wise. The turtle embodies discipline. The turtle has focus. I applied turtle thinking to my writing because I wanted to finish; I wanted to win.

I think all writers should act the same way, but not all do. Some writers work in spurts; they’re binge writers. Though I don’t personally know any binge writers, I have heard about them. When they have a deadline looming or another incentive, they jump into their writing like a rabbit, going at it as fast as they can. They might write the first draft of their book in two weeks, working ten to fourteen-hour days, seven-days-a-week. Then they stop and rest, often for weeks or even months. If you write in spurts, you get this. I don’t.

Though there are days when I put in extra time to finish a project, reach a goal, or meet a deadline, I could never work all day on the same project. And I could never string together multiple days like that. If I tried I’d get cranky, and my writing would falter. My wife wouldn’t like me, and I wouldn’t like what I wrote. I’d have to redo it, a little bit each day. Slow and steady wins the race.

So, unless you’ve proven that binge writing works for you, I encourage you to work like a turtle; write some every day. Plod along with persistence towards the finish line.

Now when I say to write every day, this is not absolute; it is more of a trope. What I mean is to make a writing schedule that works for you and then stick to it the best you can. For you this may mean writing Monday through Friday; it may mean writing every weekend or just on Saturdays. Perhaps carving out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings is what works for you, or maybe every other day. For me, it first meant weekdays, then six days a week, and now seven. But I had to work up to it – and I wanted to work up to it.

Whether you write like a tortoise or a hare, the important thing is to write.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

If you are reading this blog, it’s likely because you are a writer (or at least are moving in that direction). Why do you write? What motivates you? What causes you to put in the work when other people or pursuits beckon?

If the answer is fame, money, or easy work, you hold unrealistic expectations. While it is possible to garner a bit of recognition or earn some money, these will not likely happen in abundance. Only a fortunate few realize these outcomes. As for writing being an easy job, that is far from true. Writing requires hard work, dogged determination, and sacrifice.

Being a writer is a difficult choice: dealing with isolation, people who misunderstand, rejection, disappointment, and fatigue. Why then, do we write? Though the reasons vary, they usually boil down to having a message we feel we must share, an idea that will explode if we don’t let it out. It’s critical we identify our specific motivation behind this.

It is, then, an inner drive that forces us to write. It’s important we embrace this. If we write but don’t know why, we will surely give up when roadblocks derail us, criticism deflates us, and frustration discourages us.

But if we know why we write, if we fully understand our provocation, then these threats will not thwart our progress. We will persist; we will prevail. Though there may be momentary hiccups along the way, nothing will prevent us from the work we know we must do.

If you understand why you write, great! If you aren’t sure, spend some time to discover the reason; uncover your inner angst or personal unction that fuels your writing. Then when our work is attacked, be it from the outside or within, we can confidently push through because we know why we write.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

Have you ever said or thought any of the following?

1. I’m not really a writer.
2. I’m just an aspiring writer.
3. My work is not getting better.
4. What I write doesn’t matter.
5. I don’t want anyone to read my words.
6. I’ll never finish writing my book.
7. No one will ever buy it anyway.
8. I don’t actually care if anyone buys it.

While these may appear as cautious statements to protect us from disappointment, they are really lies that conspire to hold us back from embracing the writer within.

While we are all writers to one degree or another, if we’ve ever been the least bit intentional about stringing words together to communicate with others, then we are in fact writers. For us, these eight statements are mere mental roadblocks to success.

Yes, I’ve said or thought most of these lies at one point or another. However, I’ve now banned them from my vocabulary and barred them from my mind.

I am a writer, and I am getting better; I want people to read my words and buy my books; what I have to say does matter.

I hope you will join me in rejecting these eight lies and replacing them with the truth. It all begins when we say, “I am a writer.”

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

I thought it might be fun to start the New Year by sharing our writing accomplishments from last year. I’d go first, and you could add yours in the comment section.

Just as quickly I realized that was a bad idea.

We are all at different points with our writing, having different goals and expectations, which produces different points of celebration and despair.

One writer may be ecstatic for having published her first article, only to be discouraged by someone who published his first book, who may likewise be discouraged by someone who published two best-sellers and had a prior book turned into a movie.

No matter how successful we are, there will always be someone who is more successful.

Conversely, no matter how much we struggled to reach even the tiniest of achievements, someone else struggled even more and realized less.

When we compare ourselves to others, we always lose.

If we look at an author who achieved more, we risk lessening our progress and becoming discouraged with our journey; even worse, we may become envious of her. In extreme cases, we stop writing and abandon our dreams.

If we look at an author who achieved less, we risk elevating our successes, even inflating our egos. We may look down at the other author, act with condescension, and even pity him.

Comparing ourselves with others is never a good idea.

We should even avoid comparing ourselves with our past. Maybe we had a rough year; when compared to the prior year, we judge ourselves lacking. Or perhaps we had an extraordinary year, one that will not likely repeat; by comparison, next year is sure to disappoint.

We should skip all forms of comparison and ask ourselves two essential questions:

1. Did I produce the best work I possibly could?
2. Did I do all I reasonably could to share it with others?

If we answer “yes” to both questions, we should be content with our writing, regardless.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.

As a magazine publisher, I deal with submission deadlines all the time. Without deadlines, nothing would ever happen; writers would invariably ask for additional time or, more likely, they’d never make time to write in the first place.

I don’t set submission deadlines to frustrate people; deadlines are necessary to move towards publication. Deadlines are also not arbitrary. They are but one item on a tight schedule I must follow to produce each issue on time.

As a publisher, I understand the critical importance of deadlines, which motivates me as a writer to never miss one. In fact, my goal is to beat every submission deadline I’m given. Though I’ve cut things close a few times, I’ve never missed one yet; usually, I’m a few days early. I know how much editors and publishers appreciate timely submissions and even more so how much they welcome early arrivals.

While I excel at meeting other people’s deadlines, I’m awful at the ones I set for myself. With no outside pressure to propel me forward, I invariably find a reason for the delay. My excuse is I need more time to make it better.

The problem is I can always make it better. This is the tyranny of perfection. As a recovering perfectionist, I still struggle with my inner voice that whispers, It’s not done; it can be better; you need more time.

Thus, my self-imposed deadline slips. I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with that.

Learn more about writing and publishing in Peter’s book: Successful Author FAQs: Discover the Art of Writing, the Business of Publishing, and the Joy of Wielding Words. Get your copy today.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book Successful Author FAQs for insider tips and insights.