Surround yourself with Wisdom

You’ve heard me mention many times about the networking group I participate in, the ProVision Network. Last week I was at a Leadership meeting for our particular chapter and we talked a bit about mentorship. Then Saturday night I heard a man talking about the need to develop wisdom.

As often happens, I began to churn and synthesize these ideas together to see how they could help us become more productive and successful authors. What information could apply directly to us as writers?

The most obvious thing would be the need to attend writer’s conferences and learn from other writers. I think the success of my Writing Career Coach mentorship program is a proof of the benefit that comes from learning from others.

Not everyone can attend a writer’s conference, however, so there are also blogs by authors, editors and agents. Those of you who are developing their writing skills right now don’t realize the huge advantage you have vs. those of us who started years ago. Even as recently as 2003, there were not the variety and quality of blogs as we have now by people in the industry. While there is a great deal of fluff online, once you identify great sources of information you have a resource worth far more than you can imagine. Try to find ONE action step or one useful bit of information from each blog you read. Don’t let the information be passive. Make it your to-do list each week.

Finally, set the goal to read 1 or 2 books each month. I’d suggest reading a novel and a business book. There are so many that are now available on tape from libraries that it should not be prohibitive to anyone.

The key to growing as a writer is growing in wisdom. It shakes the cobwebs of and inspires creativity. Pursue wisdom whenever and wherever possible. All of us have things still to learn. The sooner we get at them, the sooner we become professionals.

Getting Ahead of the Game

This past week my kids left to spend a week with their grandparents. It is the point that marks the downward swing of summer. It also corresponds nearly every year with our anniversary. We love our kids but having 4 daughters so close in age [there are 4 ½ years between the oldest and the youngest] can be exhausting. We enjoy having a week to do whatever we want, whenever we want [without an entourage].

This year we started thinking about what we wanted to do for our “vacation” and we decided that we were going to use the week to get ahead of the game. There are always so many things to be done, so many projects to pursue, that it can feel overwhelming. Most days I feel torn between the sudden growth of Writing Career Coach and my need to be a wife and mom. How can a person write a website on The Balanced Life and live such an insane schedule?

When I was in college I learned that if I spent the first two weeks of each semester doing double the work then the balance of the semester I could read a reasonable amount, study a reasonable amount and maintain a 4.0 GPA [despite taking a good number of honors and upper level classes].

The same is true for you as authors. The start of a new project is when it is fresh and exciting. It is when there is a surge of creativity and you seem to hear voices around the clock.

Why do authors not capitalize on this surge of creativity? Because we convince ourselves we are too busy. I don’t believe it, however, because every year hundreds [actually thousands] of people do NaNoWriMo and write an entire novel during the second busiest month in the whole year.

So, really all we have are excuses. Why not decide this week to get a jump start on things? You are always going to be busy so decide to add one more thing to this week’s plate. Get that one project done you’ve been meaning to do.

If that is too much then start small with this, think about who your ONE target reader is for your current WIP [work in progress]. What does that person read? Where does that person shop? What does that person like to eat? Think about who that person really is deep down. If you can’t answer those questions then how do you know if they’ll buy your book?

Writing Articles

As you start to plan your writing schedule for next week, take some time to consider the value of writing articles:

1. They force you to take a large amount of information and condense it to a short space. This will help with query letters.

2. They force you to write a strong hook. You have to catch a scanning eye. Without a strong hook the person won’t stop.

3. They help you plow through to the 1 millionth word. My mentor told me you have to write 1 million bad ones before you get to the good ones. Writing articles gets you there faster.

Look at what you’ve learned in researching your current book. What article idea is waiting to be birthed, and pitched and sold?

Grow from Success. Learn from Failure

I think it is a result of modern education and its focus on top grades and standardized test scores, but people are afraid to fail. I can speak on this subject with great authority because I was a perfectionist. I took more than the required number of honors courses to graduate from the Honors college of my university, I had a cumulative GPA of 3.903 and scored above the 95th percentile on my ACT [99th percentile in the English section].

America is not alone in this focus on excellence. The German and French Education systems are also standardized test focused with a series of tests determining your entire future.

Failure at just one can, and does, impact your entire life.

However, in my studies of society’s most successful people I have found a few common characteristics: revolutionary thinking, a circle of wise advisors, and FAILURE.

Failure is an absolute prerequisite to significant success in business or life. It is from these failings that we learn what doesn’t work. Edison is quoted as having said “I didn’t fail 100 times [in inventing the light bulb]. I found 100 ways not to do it.”

In fact, the most meaningful quote TO ME by Edison is on the wall of my office, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

As writers we much face rejection [failure] constantly. Even those who have broken in to publishing will routinely be rejected for future projects, be rejected by readers, or even be rejected by fellow authors. It is important to see the benefits that can be captured through failure. They offer the opportunity to refocus and improve.

Success is the water station along the marathon of life. We can take a sip to quench our thirst and we can splash some on our face to cool off, but then we need to get back to running. We need to keep conditioning. We need to build and grow.

So, if you’ve recently experienced success: GREAT! I’m seeing dramatic success in my blog and article traffic. I’m also seeing a surge in clients. There are many people recognizing this economy for what it is: a time to CONDITION in anticipation for the next up-swing.

However, if you’re facing constant rejection, don’t lose heart. Keep pushing on. Look at what is being rejected and why. Take the time to focus on improving those areas. That is what will distinguish you from those who drop out of the race.

A great resource

I am excited to share a great resource with all of you today. I heard about this through a writer’s group I participate in. I’ve shared with you many times the importance of being a part of both national and local writing groups. This is one of the reasons; they are a great source of information.

This resource is by Roxanne Rustand and it is available at her website here. It is the top article “Face-off: the many faces of Romance”. (But look at the others. She has great information here).

There are a few things that are really nice about this resource [beyond just the information she shares]. First, it illustrates something I am constantly telling you guys-you must provide useful content. Roxanne’s website offers articles to her readers [just as Writing Career Coach offers blogs and articles at Examiner]. It also shows a sample of some of the information you might learn if you attend a writer’s conference. It also shows how writers work together. Roxanne gathered this information by asking other authors. This is why networking is so crucial.

What is exciting about this is that it also leads in to a series of articles I’m writing for Examiner.com about Writer’s conferences. I spoke about them briefly in a recent article and was thrilled that someone posted a comment asking me who should attend conferences. I’m now going to do a three part series for Examiner answering that question. It will start Tuesday. Sign up at Examiner.com to be sure you get it.

And on that topic, I’m glad to see so many of you take advantage of the paying market at Examiner. I’ve received more emails telling me you have signed up. I’d love some of you to email me privately to tell me your success stories. I can tell you it has been a wonderful experience for me.

This is going to be an exciting week at all of my blogs. I’ve learned a great deal from some of the people I met with this last week and I’m excited to share it with all of you. So, go enjoy Roxanne’s great article and let her know that you learned about her here.

And Roxanne, if you read this blog, say hi in the comments section!! I’d love to hear from you.

The important or the Urgent?

Last week I was speaking to a highly successful businessman about time management for business owners. I was talking about a few of the tasks on my to-do list for the week and how a couple of them were crashing in to each other. He made a statement that made me pause:

“It is the Important vs. The Urgent”

I had heard him make this statement before at networking meetings but for some reason last week it really made me stop and think. We cannot sacrifice the important for the Urgent. Nor can we allow procrastination to create a sense of urgency on every project.

“I work better under pressure.”

Many writers have told me this [and college students too]. In reality you don’t. You are addicted to the adrenaline of urgency. You have trained yourself to rush and hustle to get things done under a clock rather than training yourself in the discipline of doing bits at a time consistently.

It is important to market your business, but getting the kids to their play date is urgent.

It is important to work on your manuscript but writing the column that is due today is urgent.

It is important to contact writer’s groups about speaking opportunities, but it is urgent to finish your manuscript that is due to the editor next week.

It is important to read and spend time with your kids, but it is urgent to book some speaking events to pay this month’s bills.

See, each of these events were important but you put them off until they were urgent. Many times it wasn’t actual work that put them off it was the “urgent” email or the “urgent” need to play solitaire for 2 hours on your computer to “combat writer’s block”.

Discipline and time management are the only cures to these addictions. Furthermore, learning to pace yourself will open you to more opportunities when they come along. You will no longer miss them because of the looming deadline. You’ll be able to accomplish them because of your consistent effort.

Don’t sacrifice the important for the urgent or you will find yourself sacrificing to better for the good.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/

Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group’s next event.

Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.

Learn more about Tiffany’s Marketing techniques on her main blog.

Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website. [www.TheBalancedLife.com]

Read Tiffany’s award winning manuscript “A Face in the Shadow” on her fiction blog.

She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer’s Rest.[http://writersrest.blogspot.com]

Get Discovered!! Writing opportunity and Writing Contest

With vacation time in full swing this week we’re going to share a few lighter things. There will only be two postings as July 4th is a holiday here in the US. For my international readers you may email me with pressing questions or participate in this week’s webinar [sign up for Writing Career Coach Playbook and select ‘webinars’ to receive the special announcement that is coming.]

Today I want to remind you that we are approaching the final day where you can sign up to be a writer for Examiner.com and give the person who referred you a bonus. [See the full benefits by reading the original article here] The deadline is June 30th so if you’ve been thinking about it, and haven’t, do it today and let them know I sent you. I’ve been on examiner about a month and have had over 1,000 page views there alone. Not bad for building a new market!

A few people have taken advantage of it. Check out their articles! Jennifer AlLee. Read her article about the Vegas book festival’s search for authors.

And Ronald Thibeault, the Atlanta Protestant Examiner. His series of articles includes a book review. Check it out here.

Check out this announcement of a contest. Last year two people who entered SOLD their MS!!

The countdown for the 2009 Launching A Star contest has begun! You won't want to miss your chance to enter this terrific contest where last year's acquiring editors and agents requested an amazing 10 manuscripts, resulting in at least two sales.

This year, we've added new categories – Romantic Suspense, Inspirational and Novellas – in our efforts to bring you the most value for your contest dollars.

To enter, submit the first chapter (25 page max) of your romance in any of our nine categories. All first round judges (2 per entry, one trained, one published in romance) will provide constructive comments on every entry. Two industry professionals (one agent and one editor) will judge each category in the final round.

Complete details and entry forms are available on the STAR Chapter website: http://www.authorsofromance.com/

But hurry! You must send your entry in no later than September 5th. Launching a Star 2009

Sponsor: SpacecoasT Authors of Romance Chapter (STAR)

Fee: $25-$30, SASE

Please Note: The deadlines listed in RWR are incorrect. The correct deadlines are: Deadline: Post-marked by September 5th, Received by September 12th
E-deadline (for non-US residents only): Emailed by September 5th, received by September 6th.
Eligibility: Unpublished or not PAN Eligible
Enter: The first 25 pages. No synopsis.
First round judges: One trained; one published.
Final round judges: One editor and one agent for each category
Single Title – Editor Selina McLenmore, Grand Central;
Agent Becca Stumpf, Prospect Agency
Romantic Suspense – Editor Sara Goodman, St. Martin's;
Agent Kimberly Whalen, Trident Media
Inspirational – Editor Natalie Hanemann, Thomas Nelson;
Agent Rachelle Gardner, WordServe Agency
Historical – Editor Talia Platz, NAL; Agent Elizabeth
Pomada, Larsen-Pomada Agency
General Paranormal: Editor Heather Osborne, TOR; Agent
Laurie McLean, Larsen-Pomada Agency
Fantasy/Futuristic: Editor Meredith Giordan, Berkley/Jove;
Agent Deidre Knight, The Knight Agency
Series Contemp: Editor Susan Litman, Harlequin Special
Edition; Agent Michelle Grajkowski, 3 Seas Agency
Young Adult: Editor Kristen Daly, HarperCollins; Agent
Elaine Spencer, The Knight Agency
Novellas: Editor Angela James, Samhain; Agent Roberta
Brown, Brown Literary Agency

Prizes: Star named in honor of overall contest winner; Engraved paperweights for all First Place in category; Certificates for all finalists
FMI: http://www.authorsofromance.com/

So, enjoy your leisurely summer but don’t pass up on these great opportunities.

Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at http://www.writingcareercoach.com/
Tiffany is a speaker and teacher. Find out about available topics for your group's next event.
Tiffany is a National Examiner. Read her articles here.
Learn more about Tiffany's Marketing techniques on her main blog.
Common-sense money management is free at The Balanced Life website.
Read Tiffany's award winning manuscript "A Face in the Shadow" on her fiction blog.
She writes a blog for the Christian writer Tuesdays at Writer's Rest.