The Physical Life of a Writer

Some jobs come with some major physical risks.

Writing is not one of them. Our major risks are back pain and carpal tunnel. It does not take huge amounts of physical strength and prowess to be a writer (one of the reasons I like it). That does not mean, however, that we should abandon concern for our bodies. I truly believe that our physical health directly effects our mental and emotional health. Just in that sense, it behooves us writers to take care of ourselves physically.

My biggest concern about investing time and energy in taking care of my body is the time it takes, which could be used for other things, like, for example, writing. But it really doesn't actually have to take that much time, and the time it does take is worth the sacrifice. Scheduling in time for your body will help everything else run more smoothly, I think.

There are lots of options here, in terms of exercise. Join a gym, recruit a workout buddy, everything from that up to training for marathons. There is one type of exercise that I'd like to highlight, though, one that I think is perfect for writers: taking walks. Simple and easy. You can put just as much time and energy into it as you want to, and best of all, as you're walking around you see new people and places, experience new things, smell new smells and hear new sounds, all of which are creatively inspiring. If you can find a convenient way to carry a notebook with you, you could even walk to your favorite cafe or park and do some writing.

So, the moral of the story is, buy one of these:

They'll keep you on your toes.


So happy walking and happy writing!
Sarah Allen

Don't Look Back, Just Write

I am a nit-picker. Like, a major nit-picker. I could sit and fenangle one sentence for a week. Unfortunately, this doesn't get books written. Over-stressing about each word puts major breakers on your productivity, and honestly, probably doesn't make the words that much better anyway. In most cases, its your story that makes readers pick up your book, not brilliantly lyrical prose (unless your Norman Maclean or Wallace Stegner), and your story is what you have to get down in that occasionally torturous first draft. The beautiful prose can come later, when you get to the editing process.

I have had to train myself to remember this as I write. I'll finish a paragraph and think, mmmm, that could be better, I could use a better metaphor in this description, or whatever, but then I tell myself, yes, maybe you could, but do it later. Right now, finish this chapter.

Maybe you guys are better at just getting the words out there. Do you have any tricks for how to keep things flowing? Movie soundtracks have actually been a useful tool for me, because I'm not distracted by words, but the music helps me keep writing forward instead of constantly looking back. Like I said, I've had to train myself to keep writing, or else I could never reach my 1000 words a day.

I'm not saying that you have to be okay with sub-par writing. Thats what editing is for. I plan to go back and fix all the things that need fixing, after I finish the first draft. But right now, its the finishing of the first draft that is important.

Happy writing!
Sarah Allen

5 Writing Tools to Carry in a Conspiring Universe

Is it just me, or do you feel like every time you start a new project, the universe conspires against you to take away all the time you thought you had to work on it. You finally get started, and then you look on your calender and realize that the next several days are a string of doctors appointments, meetings, helping your friend move, the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors, and you wonder where your time went. The past few days have been like that for me, just when I got started on my new WIP.

So what do you do? Being busy doesn't just happen at the beginning of projects, it happens all the time. Many of us are balancing jobs, parenting, school, and all the other things going on in our lives with our writing and writing careers. How do we balance the two?

1) Carry a notebook. That way, when you're sitting at your kids kindergarten waiting for school to get out, you can pull out the notebook and jot down a few sentences. You can outline the next chapter of your novel while sitting in the lobby of the doctors office.

2) Carry a book. You could fit in a good page or so while filling up the car at the gas station. To be a good writer you must be a good reader, and I imagine that sneaking bits of writing time helps your brain keep at high functionality throughout the day, just like sneaking crackers or apple slices helps move things efficiently through your digestive system. Poetry and short story collections and literary magazines are particularly suited for this.

3) Carry business cards. Take the time for some guerilla marketing. Sneak a card into one of the magazines on the coffee table at the doctors office. Give your card or even a copy of your book to your kids teacher or school librarian. Whatever you think might work.

4) Carry a planner. With writing time tightly squeezed, its useful to plan ahead and know exactly when you will be able to actually sit down and write. Even if its just ten minute chunks. And then, once you know when you'll be at your computer, while you are out and about, plan ahead and know where and how your going to start up again when you get back. That way you will minimize the unproductive staring-at-the-screen time.

5) Carry an iPhone. Or something like it, if possible. That way you can update your blog or Facebook fan page while sitting at the lecture you didn't want to go to in the first place. Get your emailing and social networking done while you're on lunch break, and then when you get home and finally have your own time, you can use it for the actual writing instead of having to catch up on all the businessy type things.


Life will still be crazy and busy, no doubt, but carrying and efficiently using these tools can help maximize your writing productivity. Are there any other tools you think might be useful?

Sarah Allen

Business Strategies for Beginning Writers

There is a crazy amount of talk in the news and around the blogosphere about the MAJOR changes going in the publishing industry right now and how it could affect writers. The changes are very exciting, and I believe if approached correctly mean more opportunities for us writers. However, the difficulty is that their is no longer just one road to publishing and writing success, and we writers (especially the newbies) need to have a certain level of business savvy to negotiate properly and make the decisions that are right for us.

And there are plenty of big decisions to be made. On the one hand, Big Publishing is still the best way to get your book out to the largest number of people; on the other hand, you maintain so much more control and higher sales percentage if you publish yourself. On the one hand, Big Publishing says it will not accept unagented submissions; on the other hand, there are horror stories about agents ruining writers careers, and some people are saying that writers should submit to editors directly anyway. On the one hand, self-publishing and all the marketing, design, etc that self-publishing entails is really hard, risky, and there's that stereotype that writers are bad at business and need to be taken care of and left to work on their art; on the other hand, in todays publishing world, whether you are self or traditionally published, the writers who will have the most success, make a good living and not get screwed over are the ones who put the time and effort into the business side of their writing career.

So, what is a beginning writer to do? We don't have the benefit of a long backlist like the mid-lists do, who get to put that backlist back on the market thanks to ePublishing and print-on-demand, and get to keep most of the rights and money for themselves. Agents and editors are tuning in to this awesome source of revenue that they missed out on and trying to keep more and more of those out of print, ebook rights from us beginning writers who are just signing on. So, does that mean self-publishing is the better idea? But what about really getting your book out there? Though its becoming more and more workable, there are still very few exceptions to the rule that self-publishing doesn't really bring in much. The decision is up to the writer which risks to take: try traditional publishing and risk getting jipped, or try self-publishing and risk getting nothing.

This is all based on what I've been hearing on blogs and in the news. If I am inaccurate or missing any important information, I would love to know. Based on everything I know about todays publishing world, the plan I've decided on for myself is to try a mix of both traditional and self-publishing. I would like to go the traditional route for my first novel at least, and plan to fight until that works out. I will be the smartest I can be about contracts with agents and editors, but the risks involved with this route are worth getting my book out to as many readers as possible. Once I have done everything I can to set myself up in the traditional publishing world, and once my name is out there, I hope to start self-publishing books alongside the traditionally published ones, so I can see how that works out and keep more rights and a higher sales percentage for myself. This means writing a lot and fast, and I'll do the best I can with it.

I hope this all makes sense. What are your thoughts? Beginning writers, what do you plan to do? What can you more experienced writers tell us beginners?

Happy writing!
Sarah Allen

Marketing Your Writing Blog

Part of me feels apprehensive about writing this post. The fact that I'm writing about marketing a blog makes me feel a bit greedy and hypocritical. Its a bit self-serving in the fact that I would love some of your ideas about promoting a blog and growing readership, and I'm also not the most knowledgeable person to be giving advice on the subject. However, I think this is something that's important to many writers, I have been asked directly how I do it, and I'm assuming most other bloggers are as grasping and excited about readers as I am. So here are my three main ideas for blog marketing:

1) Quality content: This does not seem directly related to marketing, but think about it. If you stumble across a blog and the posts are poorly written, scattered, or irrelevant, you're not going to remember it, come back, or follow. Before you can really focus on marketing you have to make sure you having something good to offer. Don't get too stressed about it, either. Do your best and be yourself. Nobody's perfect and this is something we're all working on.

2) Guest posts/interviews: This is an area I have left sadly lacking on this blog (though that will be remedied in the near future). But I know it works. Get friends or other writer/bloggers to do a guest blog or interview for you, then when the guest post/interview is up they link to it from their blog and bazinga, more readers. This has the added bonus, too, that you don't have to think up a post for that day. (p.s. If any of you are interested in doing a guest post for this blog, send me an email with your ideas and I'll see if I think it would be a good fit.)

3) Comments: This is my favorite tool of the trade and is probably how many of you have found this blog. The means of promotion that has worked best for me is to go to some of my favorite author blogs, many of which have hundreds of followers. Followers who I know are interested in reading and writing because they are following an author blog. I click down the list of followers and see which followers have their own blogs. Then I go in, read the posts, and leave comments with a link to this blog. Not only has this been great for blog promotion, but I've read some great stuff and become acquainted with some awesome people. This does take time, but its worth it.

Now its your turn. What are your ideas? Any special tactics that have worked particularly well? Any nifty websites that do a good job of promoting blogs? What blog marketing techniques do you use?

Sarah Allen