This is the last blog for 2019!
Busybird is closing tomorrow, Friday 20th December, at 1.00pm, and will reopen Monday, 13th January, at 9.00am.
During the break, we want you to think about your writing.
Did you write the book that you wanted to write in 2019? If so, great! Fantastic! Well done!
Did you contribute a sizeable portion to its development? Excellent! Good on you! Keep it up!
Or did it just sit there, leaving you to think, Oh well – next year I’ll write it.
Hmmm.
Will you?
As a writer it’s important to understand what holds you back from dedicating yourself to your aspiration.
Here’s some things to ponder …
Pitch your book (content) in one or two sentences.
It’s amazing how many people don’t have a clear idea of what they’re going to write before they sit down to write. It’s fine if your content evolves in a different direction as you’re writing – at that point, you need to redefine your understanding of what you’re writing. But you can’t do that until you have an initial idea of what you’re attempting.
What is your market?
Have an idea where your book would fit in the market. You might think it’s trendy to have the first horror-slash-erotic-sci fi-cookbook, but publishers will want to know exactly where it sits, rather than in some nonexistent hybrid genre. As will booksellers. If you can’t place it, it’s unlikely they’ll take the chance.
At least know how you could pitch it specifically. This will also help with the previous point – how you see your content.
Why didn’t you write your book in 2019?
If your answer is that you steadily worked on your book throughout 2019, and keeping up the same pace in 2020 will see it finished, then you have a pass.
If your answer to not being able to write is TIME, then you need to be brutally honest about where that time went.
You can have legitimate reasons: business, kids, dialysis, etc.
But you can also have excuses: watching The Voice, re-upholstering the couch that didn’t need it, or doing anything that could’ve waited.
That sort of behaviour needs to be eliminated.
The Mathematics of Writing.
If you can manage only one hundred words every weekday, that’s five hundred words in one week. That’s two thousand words in one month. That’s twenty-four thousand words in a year.
Now this is using an extreme case where you write very little regularly, but it shows that writing a little daily does add up.
Don’t ever dismiss a little block of time as not enough time to write.
Persevere … Regardless.
Make sure you know when you’re going to write, and stick to that schedule. There will be times you don’t feel like it for whatever reason: tiredness, wrong headspace, lack of inspiration, etc.
Again, these all fall into the realm of excuses.
If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never write a single word.
Think of it like a job: if you were tired, in the wrong headspace, or lacking inspiration, would you stay home from work? Likelier, you’d go and push yourself through the day.
Writing is no different.
Get Educated.
If you feel you have shortcomings in your writing, get educated. Go study at a tertiary institution. Or do workshops. Or find a mentor.
All these are options where you’ll be exposed to stimuli that will fast-track your development – development that might otherwise take years, if it happens at all.
Write.
A book doesn’t get completed by talking about it. Sometimes, that’s all people do.
It’s understandable if you need research or some other contributing material, but sometimes you just need to sit down and go for it.
Identify whether you can’t go ahead because you need certain information, or if you’re just procrastinating.
Write Now.
Waiting for 2020 is just another excuse.
If you’re serious about writing, why wait?
Start now.
And don’t forget …
… we’re running our Pitch to Publish competition!
Pitch your book to us and you could win a publishing package worth $12,000!
Finally …
… the team here at Busybird Publishing would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
See you in 2020!
A huge thank you to Busybird for getting me back on track with my book project this year. The Bali Writing Retreat covered all the points mentioned in the blog post above and much more and showed me the path forward with my writing. I am feeling inspired, motivated and excited about seeing my book take form, and I am enjoying trying out my pitch in conversations and seeing people’s reactions!