When is it time to clear out some of your clutter? As Beth Morrissey said in a 2010 issue of The Writer Magazine, it’s time to clear out the clutter when “disarray” has reached “dismay.” So what to do, what to do? Where should you start?

How about getting started with the book clutter you have amassed? Writers have many, many books. We’re starting with our books as a way of clearing the clutter because you will see an immediate improvement and will be motivated to continue with some of the de-cluttering that may be more difficult.

1. Buy book ends. Sounds simple. It is. Do this first.

2. Stand up all your books that are on shelves with their spines out.

3. Grab any and all books that are lying on their sides and put them in the vertical position.

4. Grab any and all books that are lying face down on flat surfaces. Put a post it note on the page so that it extends past the edge of the page. Write down the reason you had this page marked (i.e., why it was lying face down) on the sticky note. If you can’t remember why, just close the book and put it on the shelf vertically (spine out, of course).

5. Look in the drawers of your work space. If there are books in any of them, put them on the shelves, too.

6. Look in your file cabinet drawers and if you see books there, put them on your book shelves.

7. You should now have every book you own on a book shelf, placed vertically, with the spine out. Check and make sure that you do.

8. Start on the topmost shelf on the bookshelf that is the furthest from your desk. Regardless of whether it contains 20, 30, or 40 books, remove one of those books to give away to someone else. If you are so inspired, challenge yourself to remove more than one book, but you must at least release one book from each one of the bookshelves.

9. Challenge yourself to ultimately have 6″ of free shelf on each of your bookshelves that contains books. That means 6″ of each individual shelf. Note: This is why you needed bookends because your shelves are not ultimately going to be “edge to edge/wall to wall” with books.

10. Set aside 15″ each day toward this project.

Your books didn’t become a cluttered, less-than-productive mass in just a day or two. Don’t expect that you can rectify the situation in a few minutes. Spend the time needed and you will get that time – and energy – back in multiples.

How do you talk to yourself as a writer?  How do you talk to others about yourself as a writer?  Are you clear on your boundaries – or is it a little fuzzy, both to yourself and to others?  Take a look at these five ‘talking points’ and use what fits with your style and need.   

1. “That’s my scheduled writing time – let’s find another time (or not).”  While there are times to be flexible, you don’t always have to be the person who flexes and thus flushes out your writing time. You may offer alternatives to the other person and he or she can flex – or not. It depends on what the priorities are for either of you. If someone really doesn’t ‘get it,’ and says, “Oh, pooh. You can write anytime,” ask that person if that’s what he/she has found to be true.

2. “Right now, while my ideas are flowing, I want to capture them, so…” You just let this drift off – or you can end your sentence with a specific request such as, “…I want to capture them, so, I can’t really talk now” or “so, I need to get back to what I was working on,” or “so, I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to put my headphones back on to block out the plane noise,” or any other appropriate ending. You can also say everything you need to say but the expression on your face when you say, “so….”

3. “I’ve got some of my pieces to edit today.” This helps you know that today is not a composing day; it’s an editing day. Since there is a definite difference between composing and editing, clarifying for yourself that today is an editing day helps to get you in the frame of mind necessary.

4. “What are you writing these days?” Just as it’s normal to ask other professionals what they are working on, no matter what their job might be, it is normal to ask other writers what they are writing. Find other writers to talk with about the very normal endeavor of writing.

5. “I learned something today while I was writing that I never knew I knew.” Say it to yourself to reinforce how magical writing is in terms of letting us know what we know – or helping us know something we didn’t know we knew. And, say it to others to validate the power of writing.

Whatever you say about yourself as a writer…reinforces that idea for you.  Take a look at when you can use one or more of the ideas from this article in the next few days.  Then come up with some of your own that give YOU and others the message that you ARE a writer. 

Heaven only knows that being writers, we can all procrastinate. Anyway, rather than postponing the actual writing of this article by meandering around with words, let me get to it for you. Here are three tips to apply starting today to begin to postpone writing procrastination:

1. Clean off your desk. You might think that this is actually a way to procrastinate, and it can be. What I am suggesting here though is the idea that when it is time to write, you have a cleaned-off surface. Depending on where you write, this may be the surface of your desk or it could be the space around your computer. A clean and clear desk eliminates many distractions, with those distractions being the last thing you need when you are trying to avoid procrastination so that you can write.

2. Notice when you are messing around and only pretending to write. I will make the assumption that you are an adult and that you have the executive control functions required to be a productive grown-up. Given that fact, you know perfectly well when you are fiddling around and not writing.I am sure you could list all kinds of “pretend” writing that you do. Tinkering with margins, changing fonts, tracing back over words on a pad, making sure all your pencils are sharpened…you know what I mean. Call yourself on these behaviors and get back to writing.

3. Sit down. Maybe you don’t need this tip, but when I was a professor, I could not believe the number of people who would stand out in the hall or wander around the office area talking about how much they needed to write and complaining that the publication expectations were too high, etc., etc., etc. It was all I could do not to go out into the hall and suggest (nicely, of course), that they might want to get their rear ends into chairs and start writing instead of standing around talking about writing. Recently, Chris Clarke-Epstein said she had heard a quote (so I guess this is hearsay), that if you are hoping the Muse is going to visit when you write, it’s best if the Muse knows where to find you. So sit down and let the Muse know you are available for inspiration.

All three of these tips work in conjunction with each other. This means that if you have one of these under control, it will help you with the other three. So, which one will you start with – right now? No procrastinating, please.

You might be in one of the #HAHD challenges right now. Whether you are trying to publish 100 articles in 100 days or are trying to generate a large number of articles or other content to be ready to post at a moment’s notice, here are five tips to help you do just that. See which you can use as a treasure trove for yourself.

1. Previous articles you have written that were never published, but still have plenty of good content there. Look in your file cabinet and look on your hard drive. It’s surprising how much “good stuff” we never submitted and or we never tried hard enough to get published.

2. Course content you have developed. It is incredible when you begin to look at everything you have created for your classes, workshops, or other trainings and then start to think about how you can work with that content to create new articles, documents, or other written material. Take a look at what you have already amassed from your teachings.

3. Books (or other materials) you have written that have been published. There are so many publishing options and so many different copyright policies – so figure out whether you own the copyright (vs. the publishing company) and if it is you, well then, for heaven’s sake, start packaging that information into other formats. If someone else owns it, there are still many ways to re-view and re-write your information and see what you can generate.

4. Books you have written that haven’t been published. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that every single item that a writer ever wrote actually got published? Well, that’s not how it works. For whatever reason, you have books and other materials that didn’t make it to publication. Look at those with a fresh eye and see what you can mine.

5. Speeches you have given. Whether you have given speeches at conferences, conventions, Lions (or other service) clubs, commencements, or any other event, you probably wrote those out or at least had extensive notes. That is content you can use now for other writing you are doing. You’ll be surprised at what lurks in your file cabinet (physical and virtual).

I’m telling you from experience that you will be stunned by the amount of written material that you already have that can be revised, edited, repurposed or in some other way used to increase your published output.

No matter what your profession, being a better (and published) writer will increase your success. Here are some books that you will find useful to consider for your library of books about writing and publishing.

2010 Writer’s Market (Paperback).

Holy moly. This book is a treasure trove of information for anyone who is a writer. Just click on the link and once you get to the Amazon page, you’ll see several of this book’s brothers and sisters (including an on-line version), too. Note: It’s not necessary to purchase the Writer’s Market book every year, but if you intend to write and get your ideas out there in any number of different formats, then you need to buy one every couple of years, at least. You can also find this book at essentially every public library. Check it out!

Kremer, John. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books (for authors and publishers; paperback), 6th edition.

Are you kidding me? 1001 ways…. And it’s true. It’s quite the hefty book (704 pages) and it’s stunning the number of different ideas that are included. Out of that number, any one of us can surely find at least…10 ideas we can use. Or maybe even 100…

Manser, Martin H. The Facts on File Guide to Good Writing.

This book has chapters on preparing to write, revising, grammar, word usage, punctuation, etc. It’s a handy reference tool.

Winget, Larry. How to Write a Book One Page at a Time.

This book is apparently no longer in print, but maybe you can find a copy somewhere. I’ve included the link to Amazon, although you can only buy it from used booksellers. It is worth worth hunting for a copy.

McCutcheon, Marc. Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That? How Ordinary People Are Raking in $100,000 or More Writing Niche Books and How You Can, Too.

If you’ve ever had the experience of seeing a book and thinking, ‘Hmmm…I could have written this,” then you will want to read this book.

Sellers, Heather. Chapter After Chapter: Discover the Dedication and Focus You Need to Write the Book of Your Dreams.

This is a great book, especially if you are considering writing a novel. HOWEVER, and it’s a big however, I recommend it regardless. I am certainly not writing a novel and I have learned a great deal from reading this book.

Sellers, Heather. Page After Page: Discover the Confidence and Passion You Need to Start Writing and Keep Writing (No Matter What).

It’s hard to say which book in this list I recommend the most highly, but this is one of them. When I bought this book, I read a little bit of it each night before I went to sleep. I find it a scrumptious book. Both of these two books (Page After Page and Chapter After Chapter) are printed on great paper and in such an intriguing way. But it’s the content that will really be helpful to you (and has been to me).

Check out at least one of these books and see what you will learn that will keep propelling you toward more success in your writing and publishing.

1. Sanctioned - Say to yourself, this is my sanctioned writing time. It’s very honoring.

2. Protected - Say to someone in your family, “This is my protected writing time. Let’s work around that.”

3. Scheduled - Say to a person who asks for time when you are scheduled to be writing, “This is my scheduled writing time, but what about _____ as an alternative?”

4. Sacrosanct - This just sounds like a good word for a writer to say about his/her writing time, doesn’t it?

5. Strategic - Use this word to describe your writing time to someone who thinks strategically and needs to understand that writers are also planful and deliberate, not just playing.

6. Required - If you are a writer (and I assume you are because you’re reading this), you are required to write or you aren’t a writer any more.

7. Non-negotiable - There are people who consider their Saturday afternoon nap time non-negotiable so I think you can describe your writing time as non-negotiable. If it is, that is…

8. Dedicated - You may need to say this one to yourself.

9. No-Matter-What - You might use this one out of desperation when you are up against a deadline. Saying it out of desperation is not very powerful, but if it works, then use it. If, however, you have used some of the ones earlier on the list, you are less likely to get into a desperate mode.

10. Unless there’s blood or bone in evidence, not to be disturbed… Generally, this is one that needs to be used by mothers, graduate advisors, and the like. It’s when the “children,” (be they actual children or adults who act like children) can’t seem to make any decisions when the “parent” is not there to referee. Use this if you need to.

If you need to practice, then please do. Imagine the scenario where you have 10 – noon on Thursday as your protected writing time. When someone asks if you can meet then, you say, “I can’t meet then because that is my required writing time. How about meeting at noon or anytime later that afternoon?”

Note: When I was sharing this list with people in one of my writing groups, one person said that the word she uses to talk about her dedicated writing time is, “MINE!” I like it!

Has your e-book publishing produced enough results to make it worth the effort?

[MEMc] Well…what a question…ha! All of these things are so tied into one another that it’s hard to say what does and doesn’t make a profit. All of my teacher e-books are not exactly big sellers, but they were already created as physical books, so having them now as e-books should only generate income, but they took awhile to update and convert…so it’s hard to say. I am getting ready to have the Top Ten Productivity Tips as an e-book and I’m hopeful that this one generates an income… Lots of my other products that are available electronically are probably not yet in the black given how much time and energy I put into creating them.  Sometimes I have to remind myself to “STOP IT!” as Bob Newhart would say. 

But here is the thing….there are a jillion reasons to have electronic products, including ones that are free (as you know, I have TONS that are free). People come to my site, download something (they give me their contact info since I use http://theshoppincartmegginrecommends.com) and then I can contact them in the future and they may buy something later. I begin to build relationships with people through my various products. I have several speaking engagements this fall and next spring that are related to people who have gotten my free stuff for YEARS and they are finally getting around to hiring me to come to their university. It’s so interesting how that happens…but it’s not a speedy process, especially in terms of money showing up in your bank account.

SO, I think part of what you will have to decide is how much time and energy you have, how much $ you need to generate and how quickly, and what the options are for doing that. Having electronic products are one of the ways to get your name out there, but there are many others, too.

There are definitely reasons to have “e-books,” and making money is one of them.  It can’t be the first reason – but it can be a major reason – especially as you become more and more well known and as you have a better reach into your market.

If we tell the truth, procrastination and perfectionism are often related. I certainly cannot cure you of perfectionism, but I can tell you it is not your friend as far as writing is concerned. Here are three tips to help keep your writing going – and to halt (or at least postpone) your writing procrastination.

1. Perfection is not your friend.

There are no perfect books, perfect dissertations, perfect articles, perfect chapters. There are excellent books, dissertations, articles, chapters, poems, stories, and so forth. Go for excellence – and go for complete. If you’re going for perfection you will NEVER get there and you will fail as a writer. Sorry to be mean, but it’s true.

Stop yourself when you realize you are persevering on perfection. No one else can control this for you – even though they might want to.

2. Timers are your friends.  

Do you know what I mean?A shoulder devil is a plot device for dramatic — and humorous — effect in animation and comic strips. (Doubt me? Check out Homer Simpson!) The devil represents temptation and is usually accompanied by a shoulder angel representing conscience. For cartoon artists, these opposing personas are particularly useful for revealing the inner conflict facing any character.

Trouble is, my friend didn’t have an angel and a devil– she just had two devils! (For her, one was bleak and nasty while the other was humorous and nasty.) Talk about compulsive over-achieving in the devil department!

Then, it suddenly occurred to me that many writers have two devils on their shoulders — perhaps not all the time, but certainly while they’re writing. If this describes you, resolve to start looking for an angel immediately. Here’s what an angel should do for you:

1. An angel should see and remark on the good you do in everything– no matter how small. My angel forces me to write down the things I accomplish each day. Sometimes I feel a little bit silly while entering this list onto my hard-drive, but I do it anyway.

2. An angel wants you to achieve your goals. So if your goal is to write 250 words per day, the angel doesn’t care whether they are bedazzling, rave-worthy or pitch-perfect words. He or she just wants 250 words. Angels really care about goals.

3. An angel is more concerned about YOU than what you’re producing.The angel wants you to be happy. Yes, I know writing can sometimes feel like the LAST thing on earth you want to be doing and you may want to think the angel will give you a reprieve from it. Nope. See point 2, above. Your angel understands that to feel really good about yourself, you need to be able to achieve your goals.

4. An angel understands what it can and cannot do — and cleverly concerns itself only with the former. (The devil prefers to focus on the latter!) In terms of writing, angels know that they cannot score big publishing deals or create happy bosses/clients for you. They know their only job is to help you produce words. What happens to the words is beyond their control so they don’t worry about it.

5. An angel helps balance the voice of the devil. Isn’t it demoralizing to hear the constant negative talk of the devil? “Your writing is no good.” “You are boring your readers to tears.” “Your boss is going to fire you for this piece of garbage.” But remember: For every yin there is a yang. For every negative, a positive. Don’t let your devil get away with all of his/her negativity unchallenged.

OK, so now you want an angel. I realize a big question remains — where can you find one? Too bad there isn’t an angel-finding machine (kind of like a GPS).

My best advice is to create your own angel.For a while, this will seem phony and fake — you may even feel as though you are putting words in the made-up angel’s mouth. THIS IS OKAY. The technique of “acting as if” or “faking it until you make it” actually works. (For example, the act of smiling will make you feel happier, even if you don’t feel happy in the first place.)

So the next time your shoulder devil appears and starts criticizing your work, summon an angel to say only positive things about what you’re doing. You might even find it life-changing.

By the way, I just received an email from my friend with the two devils. Yesterday, an angel suddenly arrived on her shoulder, countering all the negative remarks from her devils. “Thanks for the suggestion,” she wrote. “I’m not sure how it arrived, other than just thinking of it.”

Maybe you need to think of it, too.

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Shared with permission.  ©2011 by Daphne Gray-Grant

Daphne Gray-Grant is a writing and editing coach and the author of the popular book 8½ Steps to Writing Faster, Better. She offers a brief and free weekly newsletter on her website. Subscribe by going to the Publication Coach.

Starting and stopping writing… not starting and stopping procrastination, although I guess if we are starting writing, we are stopping procrastination. Hadn’t thought of it that way, but it works. Once again, writing helps us know what we know.

So, what are some tips that you can use to start writing and stop procrastinating? Here are three:

1. Isolate editing and composing.

Editing is one part of writing. If you are intermingling editing with composing, you are cruisin’ for a bruisin’ in terms of your productivity. Editing and composing use different parts of your brain; when your editor is turned on and is judging, changing, questioning, fixing, and all the other jobs in which it is involved, then your composing part – which needs to generate, flow, put together, and create – is in conflict and your energy is expended trying to separate these two battling brains. Have days where you edit and days where you compose. Isolate the two practices – both of which are important – so that you can maximize your writing productivity.

2. Note when you finish where you’ll be starting next. Since the most difficult part of writing for many people is getting started (and this is also the crazy reason that many of us think that we have to have large blocks of time for writing, i.e., because it takes SOOO LONG to get started), using this one suggestion will make a major impact on your ability to bypass procrastination. Each day when you are a few moments from completing your writing time, make a notation about what you were going to do next.

• Were you getting ready to check a reference?
• Were you about to create a mind-map to give you insight into the next section of your article?
• Were you just about to write a list of definition of terms that you are using?
• Were you getting ready to recap the list of main points you have made in your manuscript.

What was the next step – the next action – you were about to take in your writing? Once you have that in mind, either type it in large bold letters in your manuscript – maybe even highlighted with an easy-to-spot color, write it on a Post-it note that you attach to a printed document, or in some other way, make sure you don’t “lose your place.”

3. Integrate writing into how you define yourself. Do you talk about yourself as a writer? Do you think about yourself as a writer? Do you define yourself as a writer?

It is more difficult (and more ridiculous) to procrastinate something that is really part of who you are. It’s hard for me to procrastinate being a sister. I am a sister. If you’re a parent, it’s hard to procrastinate being a parent. You are a parent. If you consider yourself to be and define yourself as a writer (among other attributes), then you are better able to focus on what you need to do to continue in that role.