Smart You vs. Dumb You

We as modern writers have a lot of wide-ranging things on our list of responsibilities. We pitch to editors, interact on social media, blog, query agents, submit to literary magazines, do different types of marketing and publicity. And of course, we write.

Some of these activities take a lot of brain power. Particularly the actual writing. But we all have days when we feel like we're in a mental fog, and are just too exhausted or stressed or sick to do anything that requires a lot of mental effort. However, if we sort and prioritize our time effectively, we can be productive both on the days when we feel smart as well as the days when we're feeling...not so smart.

Take advantage of Smart Days (or even just average days) to get a lot of writing done. That is the most important thing, obviously. You also want to be on the top of your game when you're writing an agent query or magazine article pitch.

Keep in mind, too, that you can set things up to make things easier for yourself when you're having a Dumb Day. If you keep a list of blog topics then if you're having a day when you're brain just isn't working right you have a list to fall back on.

And if you have a pitch or query already written, then the heavy lifting is done and you can send out pitches and queries even when you're feeling squeezed. Other things you can do on not-so-smart days include scheduling things up for social media (looking up funny cat pictures might be just the right activity for Dumb Days anyway). You can read and comment on blogs and let other peoples smarts lift you up a bit.

Hopefully these ideas can help you keep some momentum even on doldrums days. Any other ideas for things you can make progress on when the mental juices aren't flowing?

Write on!

Sarah Allen

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