How Does Your Environment Affect Your Writing?

This morning I woke up to a beautiful sight. I live in a wooded community, and we had snow last night. This morning the snow was still sticking to the trees. That’s rare. It gets windy up here, so snow usually blows off the trees right away.

The view made me think about how this environment sometimes impacts my writing.

The view this morning outside my office window was gorgeous. And mornings like this put me in a relaxed state where I tend to get a lot of writing done. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful. It’s beautiful. You can’t go wrong.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the circumstances), that isn’t always the case. The woods aren’t always so lovely. Sometimes they’re downright scary, especially during storms when these monstrous trees sway so hard they look like toothpicks on the verge of snapping. We’ve had huge branches come crashing down. We’ve heard the wind howling through the trees some like some demonic creature was on the loose.

We also live at the end of our road on a cul-de-sac. That means there’s only one way out. Neighbors are close enough to see, but not close enough to hear you scream unless they’re hanging around outside. And we’ve been dealing with a seemingly crazy neighbor for over a year who almost randomly decides to terrorize us and other neighbors with extreme noise levels and gun-related harassment. As beautiful as it is, it can feel like a pretty scary place to live sometimes.

Normally that’s unfortunate. It’s not what we expected when we moved here. I was just looking forward to a quiet place to write and a place where we could be left alone.

But sometimes it’s the fearful elements that make it easier to write. That’s especially true when I’m working on my mystery novel or any work in the horror genre (like the short story series I’m working on now). My environment makes it possible for me to physically experience the same kinds of fear I sometimes write about. And while it’s not a pleasant feeling at the time, I feel like it gives my writing more authenticity.

In my case my environment affects my writing in different ways depending on how it makes me feel on any given day. This morning that means I have a quiet writing haven and I’ll have a productive day editing a children’s book manuscript and blogging. Later, as the sun goes down and the neighbors likely come around, that comfort will be gone. And I’ll use that time to finish the first draft of one of my horror short stories and a new chapter or two in the mystery novel.

How does your writing environment affect your work?

Planning a Mini Writer’s Retreat

Sometimes everyday life gets in the way of writing (and sometimes writing is that everyday life). But in the former case, one of my favorite things to do is go somewhere else — plan a mini writer’s retreat of sorts.

I’m doing that with my husband this weekend. We’re heading to a B&B called Sayre Mansion, about an hour from where we live. We stay in a gorgeous suite which was part of the house’s old library. And the back room of the suite still has that library vibe — a few lovely old chairs, a writing desk, and two huge built-in bookcases filled with books.

My hubby’s taking me this weekend as a birthday getaway because I’m in some serious need of unwinding time. And I plan to tuck myself away for several hours in the back room of the suite, writing away. I can’t wait.

I think all writers should have somewhere else to go when they need to isolate themselves or put themselves in more of a writing mood. It doesn’t have to be a hotel. It could even be free — your favorite corner at the local library or a spot under your favorite tree at a local park for example. It’s just about changing the scenery once in a while to make it easier to re-focus our energies on our books.

What about you? Do you have a place where you occasionally take a mini writer’s retreat? How often do you go there? Tell us about it in the comments.

Should You Turn Your Blog Into a Book?

Are you interested in publishing a nonfiction book? Do you already have a blog in that niche? If you answered “yes” to both of those questions, you might be a prime candidate for turning your blog into a book.

This is largely what I’m doing with my own nonfiction book, The Query-Free Freelancer. I used my freelance writing blog to help me organize the book outline, and much of the basic content came from the site (although in an edited and sometimes completely rewritten form). I also added a lot of content to the bits taken from the blog, but that isn’t always necessary.

Let’s look at some of the reasons you might opt to turn a blog into a book, and some questions you should ask yourself before doing so.

Why Turn a Blog Into a Book?

Here are some of the ways turning a blog into a book can be good for you as an author.

1. You already have a basic organizational structure.
2. You already have much of the content required for your first draft.
3. You already have readers (meaning a built-in customer base).
4. You already have somewhere to promote the book when it’s released.

3 Questions to Ask Before Turning Your Blog Into a Book

Before deciding whether you should turn your blog into a book or not, ask yourself these questions:

1. How much content does your blog contain? – If you want to turn your blog into a book, it helps to have a book’s worth of content already there. In my case, I probably had enough content for two or three books in the freelance writing niche, so I narrowed down the subject area, pulled the relevant content, and added to it where necessary. If your blog is still fairly new, you might not have enough content yet to convert it into a book.
2. Would the blog / content structure translate well into a book? – If your blog is mostly a collection of personal ramblings sorted by publication date, you might have a difficult time translating that into book form. On the other hand, if you have a well-organized category structure, your blog might be fairly easy to turn into a book — it’s like having a TOC ready to go.
3. Do you have a large existing audience interested in a book? – Writing a book based on your blog is best when your blog already has a built-in audience. Think of the blog as a market research tool. You get to see what your audience likes by publishing in bite-sized pieces. If you don’t have much of an audience yet, spend some time building one before converting your blog to a book. Not only will that help you decide what to put in and what to keep out, but you’ll have a large group of readers willing and waiting to buy the book when it’s published. That gives you a leg up on many indie authors who don’t have a solid platform before publishing.

Have you turned a blog into a book? Do you plan to? What was the experience like for you, or what do you hope will happen? Why did you make the choice? Leave your stories, thoughts, and tips in the comments below.

Managing Multiple Publishing Projects

Can you handle more than one publishing project at a time, or do you have to be completely focused on one thing? I fall into the former group, actually thriving when other people might feel overwhelmed. And there’s no reason to push yourself to that overwhelmed status in order to handle multiple projects. You just have to know how to set limits and work with a schedule.

In April I’ll have two major publishing projects to pursue in addition to running my usual business. Here’s what my plate will contain:

1. First-round edits for The Query-Free Freelancer manuscript
2. First draft of the first novel in a mystery series
3. Blogging (with at least a half dozen active blogs)
4. Work on three additional site launches tied to my fiction writing work
5. Work on another site launch related to authors and book research
6. Freelance client work

And of course there’s always the networking, marketing, and administrative side of running a business. It will be a busy month. I have no doubt that some of you will have even crazier schedules than I will next month. And there are different ways of dealing with a large work load.

For me that means scheduling blocks of my time. While drafting my nonfiction book for example, I learned that I write best in that capacity between 5:00am and 8:00 am. So I would work on the book draft first thing in the morning — before touching email, Twitter, my blogs, or anything else. I would reach my daily goal in two to three hours. Then I’d move on to client work. When that was finished I could focus on my own sites and blogs. Email, marketing, admin tasks, etc. usually came in between those larger time blocks. And for the most part I still finished work on time (noon) and could get back to enjoying that work-life balance I hold so dear.

For others it might mean working late on a regular basis until a project is finished. Or maybe you can flip between projects more frequently during the course of the day, maintaining focus far better than I could. We each have our own working styles. And if we identify what those are, we can manage a couple of publishing projects at the same time and even much more than that.

Out of curiosity, how many books or e-books do you generally work on at the same time? Does having projects in different phases matter for you? Do you run a business beyond those projects too? How do you get things done when the overall project load would otherwise be overwhelming? I know as I transition from writing nonfiction to fiction I’ll have to reevaluate my schedule and find a way to adapt to the changes. So if anyone has any thoughts on that, I’d love to hear them too. Leave a comment below to share what’s on your mind.

Two Free Word Count Trackers for Authors

Do you like to keep track of your writing progress with word count trackers? Then I have two you might want to check out. These were contracted for my freelance writing site a while back, but they’re equally valuable to indie authors.

Whether you’re working on your next great novel or a nonfiction e-book to promote your business, these tools can help keep you on track. By posting your word counts on your site or blog, your audience can help hold you more accountable (never a bad thing).

I have both a simple word count tracker and a more advanced word count tracker available (the latter can actually be used for much more than tracking word counts). I hope you’ll check them out.

Enjoy!

Simple Word Count Tracker

Advanced Word Count Tracker