The Busy Writer's Kickstart Program: The Busy Writer

By M. R. McAlister

The Busy Writer's KickStart Program gives you an 8-Step Plan to get your writing on track again—or to set you up for success from the very start, if you're a beginner. You will learn:

• How to clear your life from physical, mental and emotional clutter
• How to treat your writing like a project, so you stay on track
• How to set yourself up for success by changing the way you look at time
• Typical roadblocks for writers and how to get past them
• The importance of feedback, support and rewards
• Strategies for improving your technique
• Insights into plotting and characters
• How to keep yourself heading along the road to success

Follow an 8-week plan, assigning one week to each step, or modify the KickStart Program to suit your way of life and your writing agenda.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Gem Publishing
• Release date: May 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9798201566364

Book preview

Introduction

Over the many years that I've been mentoring writers, I've realized that one of the biggest hurdles is simply getting started. After that, the question becomes: How can I motivate myself to keep writing regularly? 

Well, guess what? Motivation only lasts a short time. Ongoing success comes from forming new habits: finding the determination to establish a routine and then sticking to it.  

Let me ask you this: how often have you felt that you'd finally finish that book… if only you could shut yourself away from the world with nothing to do but write?  

How often have you blamed your family, your job, or your health for not being able to write as often as you want? How often have you berated yourself about your lack of motivation, wishing you could wave a magic wand to generate more enthusiasm?  

None of these outside influences are really to blame. Yes, they might be part of the story—but the truth is, success in achieving any goal is all about a single-minded focus on what you want. It's about establishing a system and sticking to it. It works for losing weight—and it works for writing a book.  

This KickStart Program is all about establishing a workable system. It offers guidelines that you will need to adapt for yourself. Everyone has different circumstances; different challenges. Setting up a workable strategy to help you achieve your writing goals is not easy—but it is incredibly worthwhile.  

There are eight steps in the KickStart Program. You can follow them over eight weeks or compress the time to suit yourself. Some parts of it you may be able to skip because you've already got it covered. Tweak the program to suit your situation—as long as you TAKE ACTION. 

Remember, writers don't just think about writing. 

They don't just talk about writing. 

They sit down and WRITE.  

So let's get started!

1

Clear the Decks

Did you think I would start by telling you to sit down and work out a daily timetable for writing? To set some goals? To just write and see what happened? All of these things have a place in this program, but that's not your starting point. 

To set worthwhile new habits, you have to get rid of the clutter in your life—mental, physical, and emotional. That's what this week is all about. You can tackle these three areas in whichever order you like. You might find that the physical effort of creating a writing space (or cleaning up an existing one) gives you time to think about how to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for your new regime. 

On the other hand, if you're over-committed, you may need to start phoning around and saying 'no' to people before you get started. Here's what you need to do to clear the decks. At the end of Week 1, you should be ready to embark on your writing program. 

Physical Clutter

A: Your Writing Space

Do you have a quiet space to write? Most writers work better with a place that's just for writing. If you work well with family chaos all around you, then, by all means, go ahead. The main thing is that you establish a writing space that's right for you. Some points to consider: 

Computer time: you don't want other family members constantly harassing you because they want time on the computer. To write, you need only a very basic computer, and you can use Google Docs, a popular word processor, completely free of charge. A laptop is probably the best choice since you can easily take it to a quiet room and with you when you travel.

Comfort: You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a good office chair and desk these days. Check out office supply stores, second-hand stores, or Facebook marketplace. You need to be comfortable during the time you spend at the computer. 

Reference & Computer: Have some shelves within easy reach of your writing area. You're sure to want to keep reference notes and drafts somewhere. A few shelves and a small filing cabinet should serve your needs. Most research (and communication with other writers) is done on the Internet these days. If you have a paperless office, organize the files on your computer, in the cloud, or both.

If you already have a writing space, use this week to clear the clutter and make sure you have everything you need at hand. If you have old reference books and files that you never look at anymore, get rid of them. To increase your efficiency, you need to make sure that your surroundings work for you.

B: