We live in a world of distraction. Distraction is an enormous challenge for almost all of us, rearing its shiny head to peel us away from the work we care about or need to do. We recently talked about active and reactive work, but no matter our best intentions, distractions all-too-frequently take us away from accomplishing either. How do you fight distractions?

Recommendations from the episode:

• Forest App for iOS, Android, and Google Chrome
• Focus App for Mac
• F.B. Purity and News Feed Eradicator, for removing or altering the newsfeed in Facebook
• This one weird trick will save your attention span!

Recommended reading: 

• Deep Work – Cal Newport

 

Download episode 2.25.

Day to day, choices are forced upon us, from the moment we get up to check our inbox and messages, to the many interruptions at work. Often, we get few opportunities to do the work we really want to do because we’re too busy reacting. Important work requires willful action to drive it, but the art of executing this requires battling the forces of reaction that surround us.

Recommended reading:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey

Download John’s weekly planner.

 

Download episode 2.24.

Plotting and pantsing are often described as diametrically opposed concepts, incompatible with each other and mutually exclusive. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In reality, we all fall somewhere in between on the spectrum of plot and pants. We plotz.

Recommendation:

• Wired for Story – Lisa Cron

 

 

Download episode 2.23.

We move on to discovery writing, the exciting world of writing by the seat of your pants. It’s a nebulous topic, but we’ll do our best to cover it adequately. We shall endeavor to cover whatever we miss in a future episode. Enjoy!

Recommendation:

• Author Accelerator – authoraccelerator.com

 

Download episode 2.20.

The first of three episodes taking a deeper look at plotting, pantsing, and plotzing. While we podcasters aren’t exactly outliners/plotters, we discuss what we like about the hard work of outlining. In the future, we’ll bring in a bona-fide outliner to expand more on the topic.

Recommendations:

• The Snowflake Method for Designing a Novel – Randy Ingermanson
• 2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love – Rachel Aaron

 

Download episode 2.21.

We have talked about digitally marketing your book, but what about non-digital communication? Conventions, bookstores, reading events, cafes—what’s the best strategy for getting yourself out there, out there?

But beyond the discussion of marketing, what of the writing life? Writing can be a solitary activity, but the reality is that the world of writing is vibrant and dynamic, with conventions, seminars, cafes, readings, and more touching the world of writing. Should you venture out?

Recommendation:

Find a convention! Go in disguise. Or, conversely, reach out to your local writing community in whatever way is most comfortable for you.

 

Download episode 2.20.

Most of us have much more than writing to fill our days. We have day jobs, pets, interests, lives. Where do we fit writing in?

A few episodes ago we talked about making a living as a writer, and we concluded that there are as many ways to work full time as a writer as there are writers who are pursuing that career. This episode, we focus on what our daily lives look like, whether as full-time, part-time, or hobbyist writers.

Recommendation:

Look up The Magic Spreadsheet, a gamified daily word-count tracker that encourages friendly competition. If you want an invitation to our own, private version of The Magic Spreadsheet, let us know in the comments or get in touch on Twitter or via email.

 

Download episode 2.19.

The age-old debate among writers with no correct answer: should I outline or write by the seat of my pants? These come by many names: plotters and pantsers, architects and gardeners, outliners and discovery writers…there are many ways to describe the duality. The reality is that most writers fall somewhere in between, because the process is more like a spectrum.

Prompt: 

Write two 2,000 word stories. Outline one, and discovery-write the other.

 

Download episode 2.18.