Month: February 2013

Normally,
I write 2,500 fresh words a day.
During this past week,
I was presented with some opportunities
that were too good to pass up.
To take advantage of them,
I wrote 5,000 fresh words a day.

Yep, I doubled my output
(same quality, double the output).

Pushing it did a number of things.
I took advantage of the opportunities.
I became more excited about my writing.
It proved to loved ones/partners/clients
I was serious about my career.
I learned I COULD do it.

I couldn’t write 5,000 words every day
without suffering from burnout
but I could easily bump my production
to 3,500 words a day.
This would give me an extra 365,000 words a year.
Those are game changer numbers.

Try pushing it for a week.
Work full out.
It might change your game also.

It is flu season.
If you’re pushing your business forward,
meeting with perspective partners, suppliers, customers,
(and if you’re not, why aren’t you?)
you are also meeting with folks with the flu.

Employees have sick days.
When they get the flu,
they take a sick day.

When entrepreneurs take a sick day,
we often lose income.
We slow the success of our businesses.

I plan my current week
assuming I’ll be ill the next week.
I take as many face-to-face meetings as possible.
I work like the devil
to get ahead on projects, blog posts, deadlines.
I try to complete as many mission critical projects
as I possibly can.

If the flu strikes,
I switch my communications to email
(which I read and reread before sending).
I work on projects with longer deadlines
(to allow me to redo work).

If the flu doesn’t strike,
I’m ahead in my projects.
I’ve fast tracked my goals.

Assume the flu is coming for you.

Many new writers will be super protective
to the point of paranoia
about their story ideas.
They’ll develop the story idea
in isolation,
write in isolation,
revise in isolation,
and then submit their story to publishers/agents.

These paranoid writers usually don’t sell.

Why?

Because they have no idea
what a good idea is.

Established writers will pitch story ideas
to agents, editors, or trusted writing buddies
BEFORE they write the story.
If there’s excitement,
they’ll write the story.
If there’s no excitement,
they’ll revise the idea
or move to the next story idea.

Entrepreneurs are often no better
at judging their own product ideas.
Successful serial entrepreneurs
have advisers they talk to about ideas.
They don’t develop products in isolation.

Don’t tell the world
about your idea
before you’re ready to go to market
but DO consider telling a trusted somebody.

Are you in the comfort zone,
not growing or pushing or advancing?

What IS the comfort zone?

Doug Sundheim,
author of
Taking Smart Risks
explains
“Being caught in the comfort zone
doesn’t mean that you’re sitting around
doing nothing.
It’s more nuanced than that.
You could be making progress,
but not quickly enough.
You could be taking chances,
but not boldly enough.
You could be going out on a limb,
but not far enough,
and the extra push is
what will make a difference.”

As a buddy once told me
“If you’re not living on the edge,
you’re taking up too much space.”

We’re here on this planet
to make a difference.
Push outside of your comfort zone.

Leading into today’s Super Bowl,
some of the buzz is
whether or not Beyonce will lip synch.

Beyonce lip synched during the Inauguration
because she didn’t want to take a risk
during such a large event.
She wanted her performance to be perfect.

I understand.
Perfect is safe.
Perfect doesn’t anger people.
Perfect doesn’t risk anything.

Perfect is also boring.
Perfect doesn’t surprise.
Perfect doesn’t enchant.

In romance writing,
it is the imperfections in characters
readers love and readers talk about.
The scar on the hero’s face.
The heroine’s frizzy hair.
The awkward conversations.
The beat up VW Beetle the heroine drives.
That’s where the magic is.

Beyonce is an experienced performer.
I suspect she knows
she’s trading magic for safety.
She has a huge fan base.
This might be a great decision for her.
But it was likely a conscious decision.

Know the trade-off between
imperfect and buzz vs perfect and safety.
Make a conscious decision
for your brand.

When I first started writing romance,
I was told I had a modern, contemporary voice
so I wrote modern, contemporary romances.

Paranormal romances were hot sellers
but I stuck to contemporary romance
because that was what I wrote.
I held out for years.

Then my contemporary romance muse
went on holiday
and, for fun, I tried writing a paranormal romance.

I LOVED it.
I found more joy in writing that paranormal romance
than in all of my contemporary romances combined.

I missed out on fun AND sales
because I was too stubborn
to try something new.

As Bruna Martinuzzi shares
“If we want to accomplish anything,
we need to continually update what we do.

An advertisement from
The Boston Consulting Group reads:
“There are no old roads to new directions.”

We become stale
when we continue to do the same thing
over and over.

A business owner who prides himself
on being “old school”
may deprive himself of the opportunity
to learn the art and science
of engaging a modern workforce.”

Try something new.