I decided this week to turn my blog over to an author I have a lot of respect and admiration for. I am honored to be able to call her my friend and she has given me permission to share one of her blog posts. Here is writerly wisdom from Kristen Lamb. Enjoy!
Posted by Author Kristen
Lamb in Success on December 9, 2015
In my tenure in this profession it
is sad how many truly talented writers I’ve seen who never made it. The reason?
Talent is useless without mental toughness. It takes true grit to make it in
this business.
Too many writers are simply not
going to make it because they don’t have the sticking power. And while this is
an easy observation to make, I am here to do more than point out the obvious.
I’m here to give some practical ways to improve psychological toughness, get
better at being disciplined, and eat goals and deadlines for breakfast (they
have ZERO calories, btw).
Relax and enjoy the holidays.
Refueling is vital. Bookmark this. Let it soak in and then be ready to act come
January 1st. These tips work for anything you want to accomplish, btw.
So…
Seven Tips for True Grit
One…Set
Goals
No really and don’t roll your eyes
at me :P . Set them. I know you hear this all the time but it’s true. Write
them down and make them real. How can you map a course if you don’t know were
you are going?
When I was in sales we had a saying, Fail to plan. Plan to fail.
If you have a goal to eventually
replace that day job with being a full-time writer? Write it down and then plan
your escape. Studies have shown that we’re far more likely to reach goals once
we have written them down and that isn’t shocking.
To write them down we have to name
them, claim them and define them. We take them out of the “nebulous gray.” It
is far easier to reach for concrete benchmarks than existentialism.
Two…Forget
Realistic—Realistic is For Wimps
Most of us underestimate what we can
accomplish. When you write your goal, rewrite it just a little bigger. What’s
the worse that can happen? You accomplish more than you thought you
could?
Years ago I did this. I wrote
down, In 2011 I am going to get an agent. Then I crossed it
out and wrote In 2011 I am going to sign with one of the best agents in
NYC.
See, we never know what is going to
happen or what chain of events might open what door. In early 2011, I wrote a
little book called Are You There, Blog? It’s Me Writer. I was
still an unknown and this was also during the days that most people were
unconvinced social media was fundamental shift in global civilization we all
NOW know it to be.
When I wrote the book, I needed
blurbs, so I made up a Hail Mary List. These were authors who
I loved, who were SO BIG I doubted my e-mail would ever even get through.
On that Hail Mary List was
NYTBSA James Rollins. Not only did I get through, he’d actually read
my first book We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media
and was MY FAN *falls over dead*. He asked if it would be okay of he sent my
book to HIS agent…who later that year signed me (who happened to be one of THE
biggest agents in NYC). I not only got a blurb and a friend, I
got an agent.
What if I’d limited my goal?
Three…Visualize
Process NOT Fantasy
A critical mistake I made when I
first decided to become a writer was I spent far too much time “visualizing”
the success. In my head I dreamed of sales, wealth, book tours and being able
to travel the world to research and people lined out the door to meet me and
seeing stacks of displays of my books.
Nothing per se wrong with that but just
that is fantasy and can be unhealthy.
To reach any big dream, we must fall in love with the process.
I am up almost every morning at 4:15
a.m. That seriously sucked in the beginning. I had to learn to fall in love
with it. Blogging? SUCKED for the first 2 years. It was so hard week after
week, month after month writing thousands of words to entertain CheapXanaxANDYoungCoeds.com.
But I knew I was honing my skills. I
was learning to write leaner, meaner, faster and cleaner. I was training myself
to eat deadlines for breakfast. I was training out my perfectionism that held
onto things instead of shipping. I was opening myself to public criticism,
gaining fans, feedback and thicker skin.
Through a lot of really humbling
lessons, I had to fall in love with all of it, not just the fantasy of what
“one day” might be. Writers’ groups are all filled with people who never have
pages to read, who never finish what they start. They don’t blog, don’t build a
platform, but all have dreams that HBO will be replacing Game of Thrones with
their series.
Nothing wrong with that goal, btw.
Just don’t leave it at that. Do the WORK.
Four…To
the Pain—Set Accountability
In the New Year we all have goals.
Maybe you want to finish the novel by a certain day or query by a certain day
or publish by a certain day. I love pleasure but pain is good for the soul. Put
some stakes on it. Go purchase something you really want. Preferably something
a close friend (ideally a mean friend) also wants.
Maybe it is a $50 gift card. Maybe a
new gaming system, spa package, or 90 minute massage. Whatever.
Put it in the pot and then, if you
make your goal by the date it’s yours, if not? It goes to your accountability
partner. Yes, rewards and treats are all fabulous but they are a tad too easy.
Often we are far more motivated when it will cost us
something. The more it costs us, the more motivated we are to accomplish said
goal.
So if a loved one gives you a fat
gift card for Christmas, maybe throw that in the Goal Pot and take a gamble for
a greater ROI. Use that $100 Amazon card for cool stuff you want to reward
yourself with, but also as fuel to finish all revisions by February 15th ;) .
Five…Ditch
Negative People, Whiners & Complainers
Seriously. You wouldn’t let someone
bring their dog in your house and let it crap on your floor, would you?
Yes, if someone brings a pet over and once in a while there
is an oops? OKAY. But that is very different than someone bringing over their
dog and using your living room as a kennel floor.
So why let people crap non-stop in
your head? Sorry for the gross image but that’s what that is. Whining and
complaining do nothing but increase stress levels which shrinks the size of the
hippocampus leading to us being progressively more stupid.
Yes, science has proven that hanging out with whiners makes us
stupid.
Everyone has a bad day and that
isn’t what I’m talking about. Give them 60 seconds and then enough. Start
talking about solutions. People who are chronically negative or addicted to
whining? Bye.
I’ve learned to determine the
ASKHOLES in my life and get rid of them. You know what an askhole is? That is a
person who is always in a crisis, who always needs advice and after they have
derailed your life and gotten your advice? Does whatever the hell stupid thing
they are going to do anyway…often leading to the next crisis that you WARNED
them would happen.
Turn them loose.
Six…Surround
Yourself With Accountability & Excellence
We are who we hang around. Character
is contagious. When I was new as a writer I didn’t understand how important
this was. I thought I could fight the inertia of mediocrity with sheer
willpower. I also thought that if I was part of a group of people who said
they wanted to be writers, well then they wanted to be writers. Right?
No.
Actions speak louder than words.
Writers write. Not all critique
groups and writing groups are good for you. If you want to join a writing
group, look to how many people in the group are published, multi-published,
awarded, writing full-time, blogging, etc. If it’s just a bunch of people who
meet and have coffee and talk about writing? Your time is better spent at home
writing. Hanging out with that garbage is like hanging around radioactive
material and thinking you are fine.
NO.
Negativity and mediocrity are
invisible particles that punch your will and your dreams full of tiny holes
until they collapse and die. Yes, you can try to ward it off and buffer from it
but the best course of action? Stop growing strawberries
writing dreams at Chernobyl crappy writing
groups.
One of the things I’ve worked hard
to do is to make myself available on W.A.N.A.Tribe. Back in
November during Nanowrimo I introduced writing sprints in the Main Room IM
field.
I rallied everyone at 8:45 a.m. CST
and we did as many as 5 sprints. 30 minutes per sprint. Write as much as you
could. Report back the numbers. Then we took a break and came back at 3:30 p.m.
CST and did more sprints.
Everyone who participated finished
Nano. I finished in 16 days WITH the flu while blogging.
Once Nano ended, I changed the plan.
We now still meet every morning at 8:45 a.m. CST and we do what I call
Blackouts. 40 minutes to do as much work as you can then report back to the
group what you accomplished.
Writers now get to see MY
operational tempo, since I’m almost always leading the team. We do as many as
five Blackouts before lunchtime. Then, we rally back at 3:30 after I get Spawn
for more Blackouts. I generally do about 3 more.
Writers get to see what I accomplish
in that 40 minute block. What is my word count? How much did I get edited? How
many Blackout sessions did it take to get my blog written and posted?
This doesn’t mean people need to
copy me, but I tell you, it helped me TREMENDOUSLY when social media peeled
back the curtain and I started seeing how authors I admired worked and got so
much accomplished.
Also, this current system offers
accountability and makes all of us push harder. There is a level of healthy
competition and since we are a TEAM, it is far harder for me to say, “Eh, I
think I will take today off.”
Seven…Up
Your Operational Tempo
Believe it or not, I am not the
strongest member of my team, merely the best looking #ITSACURSE. There are
writers on our Blackout Team who blow ME away. Always look to surround yourself
with people stronger than yourself and don’t buy your own excuses.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
You may not be able to do this on
your own. You may lack the discipline so come over to W.A.N.A.Tribe
and join out Blackouts. Sometimes, you need guidance from a pro. Take one of
the classes listed below. Or, feel free to e-mail me at kristen at wana intl
dot com. I do consulting for social media, blogging and branding, but I also
can help with your books. Instead of wasting another year
revising or rewriting, a small investment in time with me might save you months
or years of work.
This job is never easy, but it is
always AWESOME.
What are your thoughts? Do you see
some suggestions here that might improve your odds of reaching your goals? Do
you try to go it alone too much? Do you give negative people too much
permission to crap in your life? Do you think you might go a tad too easy on
yourself? I hope to see y’all over at W.A.N.A. Tribe! No excuses this year that
you have no system of support :P .
About Kristen Lamb:
Kristen Lamb is the #1best selling author of "Rise of the Machines--Human Authors in a Digital World", "We Are Not Alone--The Writer's Guide to Social Media" & "Are You There, Blog? It's Me, Writer." She's the founder of W.A.N.A. International, a company dedicated to training authors of the Digital Age. She's a contributing blogger for Huffington Post and was named among Writer's Digest's Top 100 Best Websites for Writers.
Homepage: http://en.gravatar.com/warriorwriters
