Creative people sometimes believe that they need to wait for inspiration, for the incredible idea, for the muse to visit, before they can begin work. But based on my experience, it’s the other way around. You inch forward with whatever creativity you can muster, and as you work, the magic happens.
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Maya Angelou said, “When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come…’”

So it’s not: If inspired, then write.
But instead: If write, then inspired!

​I‘ve lost track of the many times I’ve experienced the inspiration that comes after I begin. For example, maybe I’m not sure what happens next in a story. Then I convince myself to muddle through, to start writing anything, and it’s while I’m working that insights occur. As Pablo Picasso said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

​Of course, when inspiration and creative time coincide, it’s a wonderful, glorious thing. But it shouldn’t be something productive writers count on. In Deep Work, Cal Newport quotes Mason Currey:  “. . . waiting for inspiration to strike is a terrible, terrible plan. In fact, perhaps the single best piece of advice I can offer to anyone trying to do creative work is to ignore inspiration.”

In Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport discusses four different methods for accomplishing focused work. (He defines deep work as the "act of focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.")

One method is to focus on a project to the exclusion of almost everything else. While this “monastic” philosophy isn’t necessarily practical for most writers on a regular, long-term basis, it can work for a limited time, like at a writing retreat. (For info on his three other philosophies, see my summary at  Creativity, Rituals, and Deep Work.) 
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I recently had the chance to spend a few days of “unworkshop” time at the Highlights Foundation in Pennsylvania. They provide a room (either a personal cabin or a more inn-like space at The Lodge), plenty of food (three divine meals a day, plus snacks), and spaces to write (the Granary was my favorite). The rest is up to you. 
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Part of the magic of a retreat like Highlights is that there are limited distractions. There are no household chores and no family members/pets to care for. There isn’t much to do at all—in a good way—which means the writing takes precedence. (I did check email, but not first thing in the morning.) Much like Newport’s “monastic” philosophy, a retreat like this allows deep immersion into creative work. I was able to think deeply about my novel in a way that was gratifying.

When I returned home (a few days ago), I tried to spontaneously reconstruct the retreat concentration—and failed. Phone calls (unplanned), social time (planned), errands, and chores all needed to be taken care of.

I do wonder if I can better manage my week to create a “retreat” day by grouping errands and chores together, mapping out meals ahead of time, and staying offline—it can’t last forever, but the productivity might be worth the planning to make it happen. Have you ever tried that?
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On to the IWSG Blog Hop. . . .
Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for creating IWSG and appreciation to this month’s blog co-hosts: Kim Elliott, Melissa Maygrove, Chemist Ken, Lee Lowery, and Nancy Gideon.
​May 4th question: It's the best of times; it's the worst of times. What are your writer highs (the good times)? And what are your writer lows (the crappy times)?

I’ll stick with the positive! Some highs include loving when a scene captures just the right emotion, researching all kinds of interesting things in the name of story, celebrating a launch with friends and family, going on a personal writing retreat 😊, and discussing writing with other creative people.

"If I organize my life in such a way that I get lots of long, consecutive, uninterrupted time-chunks, I can write novels. But as those chunks get separated and fragmented, my productivity as a novelist drops spectacularly." ~Neal Stephenson, “Why I Am a Bad Correspondent”

Multiple productivity articles warn against checking email when you begin the day. The reasoning: reading email derails your productive focus, even if you decide to respond later. Unanswered messages can create stress that distracts you from an important task at hand. And if you do choose to respond, this is reacting to other people’s priorities versus making proactive progress on your own goals. In the Forbes (possibly pay-walled) article Why Checking Your Email First Thing Is Killing Your Success, Jodie Cooke says, “Why start the day on someone else’s agenda when you could use [the morning] to master your time and own the day?”

Confession: I’m aware of this advice. Yet I *always* check email (and social media) before I start my writing day. And I fully intended to make this blog post about why reading email in the morning is just fine, thank you very much. I understand the concepts. I just intentionally choose not to regard them. Starting my day by knowing what’s arrived in my in-box is not really an issue.
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Except . . . maybe it is. In the process of drafting this, I realized it’s actually more problematic than I thought.

​I’m fortunate that I have a lot of control over how I schedule my days. After some coffee and morning journaling, I do a “quick” email and social media check and save the messages that require a more thoughtful response for later. But as Cooke says, “Checking email feels productive because the task goes in the work category of your mind. But it should go in the distraction column along with social media. . . . You know it’s not what you should be doing but you’re kidding yourself that it matters.”
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That gave me pause. Was I kidding myself? The very day I was drafting this post, I received an irritating email, and even though I put it aside until later, the annoyance weighed on me as I started my *real* work. And I've noticed that my writing time has been creeping to a later start each day, which can leave me scrambling in the evening to fit everything in.

What would happen if I focused on my creative writing THE VERY FIRST THING instead of reading email (and, I admit, scanning social media)? What if I used those less important tasks as a reward for getting a big chunk of writing done? 
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I decided to do an experiment for the week before I posted this. Lessons learned:

• Breaking a routine is hard. I left myself a "DO NOT GO ONLINE" post-it as encouragement each morning. Then I did my writing first. On two days, I even surpassed my goal. 
• The lure of checking email/social media (I know they're not the same, but I tend to lump them together in process) is a nice reward. I finished my work earlier than usual each day. 
• Doing “pomodoros” (timed work sessions) virtually with friends can help keep me on task.
• Despite my desire to check email first thing, there was never anything time sensitive that couldn't wait until after lunch.
• When I do catch up online, it helps if I set a timer so that a few minutes don't become an hour.

This new routine definitely requires more will power, but I think the benefits are worth it. Do you check email first thing or do you wait?

Types of Accountability

​In case you missed my last productivity post, I discussed setting creative goals and Gretchen Rubin’s analysis (in her book, The Four Tendencies) of how people handle internal and external expectations. To recap, some people do well with quietly setting internal goals. Others do better with the pressure of meeting external deadlines. A smaller percentage rebel against expectations in general. (You can take her quick quiz for the price of your email address if you're not sure which category might best fit.)
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How can writers use the idea of accountability (meeting internal/external expectations) to stay on track with creative goals and increase productivity?
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Here are a few ways:

• Mention your goals publicly— through your website, for example, or by taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo which runs every April. (It’s not too late for this! You can set word count or time goals for the month.)
• Make a promise to yourself. For example, write a letter outlining what you want to accomplish and why. It can be for your eyes only.
• Declare goals to an accountability partner. I’m sending end-of-day emails Monday through Friday to a dear writer friend with my revision progress. Having to admit it to her if I don't achieve my goal adds another level of motivation.
• If the idea of accountability is de-motivating, (Rubin’s “rebel” category), consider leaning into your identity as a writer. You might remind yourself, “I’m the kind of person who can complete a manuscript if I want to,” and set appropriate goals in that way.
• Play with a productivity app. Habitica, for example, lets you set easy, medium, and hard tasks, and success leads to pet eggs and potions to hatch them. You can join forces with other users on quests, which also helps to hold you accountable, because if you don’t complete a goal the health of your team suffers. Another app, Forest, increases focus by growing virtual trees if you work for a set time. (I downloaded the app and planted my first tree composing this post!)

IWSG Blog Hop
Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for creating IWSG (and congrats on his latest book, CassaDark) and appreciation to this month’s blog co-hosts: Joylene Nowell Butler, Jemima Pett, Patricia Josephine, Louise - Fundy Blue, and Kim Lajevardi. This months question: Have any of your books been made into audio books? If so, what is the main challenge in producing an audiobook?

​Pandemic was made into an audiobook and narrated by Monika Smith. Since the process was done through Audible, I didn’t have any challenges in the process. 

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. To raise funds through #WritersforHope, I’m donating a Pandemic “Book Club Bundle” (eight signed paperbacks and a zoom visit). Bid through April 8th and check out all the other awesome items available!

Under the Madness Magazine is a new online literary journal, published by teens for teens. "Under the Madness brings together student editors from across New Hampshire under the mentorship of the state poet laureate to focus on the experiences of teens from around the world. Whether you live in Berlin, NH, or Berlin, Germany—whether you wake up every day in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North or South America—we’re interested in reading you!" Other than prizes for specific contests, this is a non-paying market that publishes short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

In an interview with Editor-in-Chief Alexandria Peary, she offered the following guidance:

My advice would be to play tennis: keep the faith and, upon rejection, send the work out immediately, ideally that very day. Keep the energy in your hands. I maintain a log of all my submissions, with entries labeled “R” (rejection); entries labeled “W” (work that I’ve withdrawn); and entries labeled “A,” (acceptance, frequently followed by a flourish of handwritten stars). The R’s far outnumber the A’s, but that’s the nature of publication. Sure, some rejections ego-sting, but I keep in mind that there are multiple reasons for why an editorial staff returns your work—none of them are personal or a reflection on who you are as a writer. Editors become tired; editors read a huge amount and sometimes throw in the towel; editors face their own limitations when it’s a group decision or when the magazine simple doesn’t have space for your piece.
 
So play tennis. How a writer handles rejection is a much more accurate indicator of their long-term success than any particular magazine acceptance.

She also offers her compliments to teen writers:

You have enough hutzpah to try something many adults hesitate—you actually push that “Submit” button. I’ve met many adults who regret not taking that step of seeking out publication. You’ve already moved past many of the road barriers of self-doubt. Take good care of yourself and your creativity during your journey as a writer.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m excited to explore ways that writers can be more productive. This post will cover some basics of goal-setting. The first step is to decide what writing “productivity” means to you. 
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​What are your creative goals? The traditional way of thinking of goals is by using the SMART acronym: goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. For example, “draft a short story this week” is more specific than the vague “write more.” Likewise, “set up a book pre-order campaign in the next month” is more achievable (and under our control) than “hit a best-seller list.” 

Once you decide on creative goals, think about how you can break them into specific steps and measure the results over time. Will you use word count? Time spent? Projects finished? That’s up to you, and it might change over the course of a project. First drafts might be measured in words, for instance, but might be tracked differently during revision (when word count might decrease or change minimally after hours of hard work).

I do find that the nature of writing sometimes makes the SMART approach tricky. For revisions, I track the hours spent each week and use that as my monthly goal. But if I set out to complete a novel revision, and one big change affects more of the story than I expected, the work expands. So as much as my planning brain wants a neat set of logical steps, I set a schedule for March, with a “reevaluate this plan in April” approach. (I’ll talk about technology and tools in a later post, but I use the free app Trello to create four weekly lists for the month.) 

You can set the bar low, too. Maybe fifteen minutes a day of reading poetry or rereading something you’ve already written is enough right now. You can decide to add to your goals next month. We all need to take good self-care.
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As you consider your goals, you might track how you currently spend your time. For bonus points, before you begin tracking, consider guessing: how many hours a week do you spend on creative projects? Then for seven days, monitor your time. You can handwrite your time notes, create a spreadsheet, or use a free app like Clockify.

Laura Vanderkam, author of several time management and productivity books, says, “Many of us think we know where our time goes, and we may even have a pretty good handle on this with work, but the rest of the 168 hours that make up the week can be quite surprising. . . If you want to spend your time better, you need to know how you’re spending it now.” (You can read more from my full interview with her.) 

If you want a shortcut, for one week, just track the time you spend on creative projects. Does it match how much time you thought you were spending? It can be interesting to compare our actual data with what it feels like we are accomplishing.
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The nonfiction book Free to Focus is corporate-oriented, but one of the concepts that Michael Hyatt suggests that can work for creatives is making an “ideal” calendar. Look at a blank schedule for a week, then fill in set obligations. Map out the remaining time in the way that works best for your writing goals. Maybe you prefer working in long stints, where you can take advantage of flow, so you set aside some chunks of time. Or maybe you prefer shorter power sessions, and you plan those. Either way, setting up a plan for the week is often better than waiting for inspiration to strike.
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Some people do well with quietly setting internal goals and meeting them. Some people do better with meeting external deadlines. Some people rebel against expectations in general. 😊 For more on determining your response to inner and outer expectations, you can take a quick quiz from Gretchen Rubin (author of The Four Tendencies) for the price of your email address. (I’m a “questioner”. Feel free to share your tendency in the comments.)

I’ll talk more about accountability and communities in my next post, but if you want to get a jump on Camp NaNoWriMo, it begins April 1st. Unlike NaNoWriMo in November, with the goal of finishing a 50,000-word novel draft, April is meant to be more flexible. Communications Manager Katharine Gripp says, "Participating in a NaNoWriMo event is always fun and exciting, because there's a huge community writing together and cheering each other on. Being able to set your own writing goal during Camp can take some of the pressure off while still tapping into that big wave of energy. I've used Camp as motivation to work on finishing a novel, writing poems, working on short stories, even writing my grad school thesis! It's a good opportunity to use the NaNoWriMo tools and community to explore different kinds of creative writing."
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Welcome to my updated blog, Word POP: Productivity Over Procrastination. I’ve written about various topics and offered lots of resources since my blogging journey began, but the one topic I return to over and over is writing productivity. I've decided to make productivity for writers this blog's main focus.
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What you can expect: Two blog posts a month (the first and third Wednesday) to help you make the most of your writing time.

Why now? I don't know about you, but by March, some of my New Year's resolutions have lost their shine. But using the energy of spring, it's a great time to recommit to writing in 2022.

Sometimes being creative is hard. Not always—there’s often a joy to the writing, a part of the process when the hours just disappear. And we need more of making THAT happen! Let’s face it, so many things about writing (winning an award, hitting a bestseller list, finding a traditional publishing home for a project) are out of our control.

What we do have control over: Getting the work done. That means brainstorming projects, creating first drafts, and revising the chapters, the pages, the sentences, the words.

But procrastination comes in many forms. Checking social media. Playing Wordle. Reading just one more novel for research. I’m guilty of all of the above, but my main form of procrastination is this: I study productivity. Ironic, I know. But reading a book about habits, finding a new “top tips for productive writers” article, or investigating the best organization tools is my absolute favorite way to not write.

Time is limited, and writing time is even more so. With that in mind, I’ll share resources, information, and tools to help you make the most of your creative energies. I’m doing the productivity research, so you don’t have to. And by reading my blog, you’re giving me more of a reason to productively procrastinate. Thank you!

I hope you’ll join me on this productivity-for-writers journey. Check back in two weeks for the next post or subscribe (using the box on the top right) so that you never miss an update.

IWSG Blog Hop
Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group hosts a blog hop with an optional question. Since this post has gotten lengthy, I'll be skipping this month's question, but check out the other blog-hoppers for their responses. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for creating IWSG and to this month’s blog co-hosts: Janet Alcorn, Pat Garcia, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence.

Some personal news: In January, I graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. The celebration was held virtually, but still included live bagpipes, an amazing commencement speech from author Linda Urban, and all the usual cheers and tears. 

IWSG Blog Hop:
Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group poses an optional question that members can answer in their blog posts. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for founding IWSG and to this month’s blog hop co-hosts: Joylene Nowell Butler, Jacqui Murray, Sandra Cox, and Lee Lowery.

Lisa Wolfson, a generous, kind-hearted person, a talented writer, and a helpful critique partner, died from pancreatic cancer eleven years ago this month. We first met standing in line for food at a winter NYC SCBWI conference when I admired her cigar box purse and she listened sympathetically about my Westie who just had emergency surgery. We continued the conversations over our meal, which led to several critique groups that spanned years of our writing lives. I still miss her.

Productivity

• Five "Efficiency Habits" That Are Actually Killing Your Productivity by Aja Frost. (Hint: Mileage may vary on "standard" advice -- you need to choose that methods that work best for you.) 
• Clocking Out: Work-Life Balance and Productivity. Since this was written by Evernote's staff, there are many mentions of their app. But overall, this provide some good ideas so that working/writing from home doesn't feel all-consuming.
• How to Stay Creative in Difficult Times with Mark McGuinness. "We have to trust that something will emerge." This interview by Joanna Penn in the early days of the pandemic lockdown is worth revisiting.​
• Which works better, habits (increasingly automated routines) or projects (an intense effort over time)? Scott H. Young says writers need habits *and* projects: "Good authors learn to combine both. They regularly set aside time to write. And they don’t kid themselves that writing a book is effortless, something they can churn out without much thought."

​Resources for teen writers

• The Echo is accepting submissions through February 28th with the theme of growth.
• Between the Lines, from the International Writers Program, is accepting applications for its two paid-for summer sessions. There is an information session on February 20th. Each summer, Between the Lines hosts "young writers at the University of Iowa for a cultural exchange program that focuses on the art and craft of creative writing. Participants ages 15-18 come together in Iowa City or online for an intensive two-week session."
• For more resources like these, visit my Resources for Teen Writers page.

This week's links:
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For reading: A free quiet horror ezine, The Quiet Ones, recently published its first issue, "Ghosts of the Ruin."

For writing: a round-up of 38 themed calls for submission from Authors Publish.

For productivity: Whether you're beginning NaNoWriMo or another endeavor, here's advice on How to Start an Ambitious Personal Project by Laura Entis.

IWSG Blog Hop:
Every month, the Insecure Writers Support Group poses an optional question that members can answer in their blog posts. Special thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for founding IWSG and to this month’s blog hop co-hosts: Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!

Um . . . both? I struggle with the best titles and concise summaries. Eventually, inspiration comes, but I wouldn't say either is easy.

​For writers: Jumpstart your writing with some fun prompts (works for illustrations, too)

Throwback to the Black Flowers, White Lies book launch! If you're looking for an October YA read, BuzzFeed said, "This suspenseful psychological thriller definitely won’t disappoint" when they put it on their list of 23 YA Books That, Without A Doubt, You'll Want To Read This Fall (for that year).

"Shrinking the time you have available to write may, counterintuitively, make it easier for you to work long stretches...." ~Advice on Building Creative Stamina by Mason Currey