234 Writing through Summer: Productivity Tips

Pencils&Lipstick podcast · Jun 11, 2024

Transcript

Hello everyone. Welcome to Pencils and Lipstick. This is episode 233 and I'm Kat Caldwell. And we are a day late and a dollar short, but here we are at the podcast. With graduation and everything going on, honestly, it slipped my mind. I don't know how. But I wanted to

get on this is our last episode of I guess what we call the season I take off this summer because I tried to do well I actually ran the podcast for two summers and it was it was rough y 'all because summer is summer and that's what I want to talk to you guys about today how to be productive during the summer how to get some writing done during the summer and I think that might be that might take a little bit of a mind shift for a lot of us. So we are going to get into that today. It will probably be a little bit of a shorter episode because it's just me. We're going to get through this giant list that I have of ideas where we can stay creative, we can stay engaged with our story, we can even get some writing done. And I don't know if you can finish the book that definitely depends on where you are in the writing process but but you know you'll still feel like you haven't totally set it aside which I think is going to be easier than setting it aside and then

starting up again in September just cold turkey right so before we get into it if you would hit subscribe you will know in September when we go back on it will be first week of September, but you'll get a notification. You can go back this summer and listen to episodes that you didn't catch before. We had a lot of wonderful, wonderful guests and I will be posting those on social media just to remind you all of how many awesome guests we had on. We talked about writing, we talked about publishing, we talked about just getting books on. We talked to different authors. So there is a lot that you can go back and listen to and catch up on. But wherever you're listening to this, if you would hit subscribe or share it, it will help you remember that we're still here in September. Podcasts are a little funny. Like everyone's kind of shifting and yeah, there's just different, different changes happening. In the meantime, if you need a new podcast, you should check out the Book Tribe podcast. I was on there a few weeks ago. It's a new podcast. I hope that you check it out. I'll put the link in the show notes below. Actually, I'm going to

write a note so that I do that. And let's get into productivity in the summertime because this is one of my, this is something that I have struggled with for long time. So being primarily a stay -at -home mom, but a mom that is sort of between two continents. So my husband is from Spain and I'm from America and we have lived in both countries plus other countries. And you know, summertime is always the time in which we take the kids to the grandparents that don't see them. You know, depending on the country that we live in. So I'm a lot of times not in my own house. We also want to take a vacation as a family. the kids are home so they are just there right besides the fact that they have like their little activities that they want to do my kids are now teenagers so they want to be with their friends but they don't drive yet because we live in Arlington and people are insane drivers around here and the rules have changed so hopefully the oldest will be able to drive her sisters

around next year, but you know, that's next year. And so I've always struggled with this. I've always, you know, changed it up every summer and tried to like figure out what is the right way to do this. One thing that I do, and this is something that you're going to have to think about yourself is I mindset set shift when I am with the in -laws or my family that I don't put any expectation on myself to get any writing done and I still struggle with it but when I take the expectation off I don't get crabby about it let's say you know there still might be this sort of inner struggle of like I would like to go write you know I would like to go do this and a lot of times I get some writing done at night just because my brain is is still working and I kind of want to get it out but I don't have the expectation to do it and so when things come up like you know aunt or uncle take the day off and they want to go all to the pool together

I don't have that sort of inner anxiety of I planned to write today but that sounds silly to not go to the pool right so that might be one of the things that you do. Um, so one of the mindset, mindset shifts, this is difficult for me to say mindset shifts that I've had to make recently is how much I put, how much I expect myself to write. So going into this season after coming back from Cuba, there were so many things going on, um, a lot of little travels for graduations and different things. And so my expectation is usually when I sit down to write, I kind of expect to write 1500 words. And that is what I consider a writing session. And so I was talking to a business coach, um, and he suggested that I bring it down to 500 words a day. And at first I thought that's insane. But what he told me, and this has a lot to do with your personality, right? It's like I'm a really high achiever. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get things done. And so he was saying the problem with that personality trait is that when you put the 1500 words on yourself, if you don't reach it, it's as good as not having written anything, which is true.

And so when you bring it down to 500 words, it's a doable amount in, let's say half an hour, 40 minutes. And you can check it off. If you get 500, you can check it off if you get 1500. but the the bar has been a little bit lowered. So I have been doing that for the last three weeks and I have a little Canva calendar where I get to put a little typewriter on the day that I write and I put an X on the day that's that I don't write and we decided that a good week would be considered if I get four to five days in which 500 words get written and so far I've been able to do that and interestingly enough my my activator like no my achiever brain has been okay with that which is really nice so I don't have that anxiety of like oh my gosh I have to get this done and weirdly enough because of that I think that this book that I am struggling with that last little part it has actually I I have parts of the scene. So like 500 words is what? A third of a scene for this book, just sort of how it tends to be. And so I've been writing, you know, these sort of thirds or a little bit more.

And I realized yesterday that I probably only need maybe three more scenes and it's gonna be done. But I also realized that I just need to move a couple. they're actually not in order now because it just works better and I've been anyway all that to say my thinking brain has had more time to think about it as I lowered the bar on the word count. So part of the problem of summer is mindset. So what I want you to do is redefine your goals and then make them very clear. So my goal is 500 words a day, four to five days a week. Now I might change that when I go live with my mother -in -law. I might change it to three

days a week, three to four days a week. But I'm going to write it down and make sure that I remember that, right? So I've clear defined goals. So I want you guys to sort of reevaluate your goals. I also want you to to prioritize the goals. So this will depend on where you are in your writing career and in the book that you're working on now. So what what is the priority of summer in regards to your writing? Is it research? It's a great time to do research. Like if you're writing a historical, this is a great time to just relax outside while the kids play and read up on all the books that you know you should read for your research. This is a great time to do that. Is that a priority? Are you kind of done with the book and your priority is rereading structure and self -editing and maybe taking a few courses that you bought during the year and haven't had time? Have you published and launched a book this year and your priority is actually taking some time to market that book. Now summer's not quote -unquote a great time to seal a huge spike in sales, but I think it's a great time to experiment with your marketing and with your social media. Is this possibly the right time for you to write your author newsletter or to write it in such a way that you have several newsletters sort of scheduled into the future so that when September comes you don't have to worry too much about it. So author newsletter ideas that can be scheduled out are a newsletter about your characters, a newsletter about how the book idea came to you. A newsletter about possibly a Black Friday sale and you just sort of set the reminder to put the links in there, right? Have you scheduled promotions? Write out the newsletter already and just sort of schedule the reminder to put the links in once you get those links. Writing the newsletters about possible collaborations that you have set up. You can pre -write all those newsletters. You don't even have to schedule them yet, they're just in your drafts and half or two -thirds of the work is done. So what is your priority this summer? Is your priority to work on craft and possibly do that by writing short stories or flash fiction? Is your priority to develop new characters for a new story that's brewing in the back of your mind? And why is that not part of your work? That still counts, right? That is still part of everything. Like, as writers, we tend to think that we have to do everything at the same time, but we don't have to be writing the book as we develop the characters. We can actually allow ourselves to take the time to think about them, to observe people in the pool, to observe people at barbecues.

What kind of character traits can I take from people in real life and add to my book? Is it time to try plotting out a book? Could you could you prioritize within a month? I'm gonna plot a month. Louis George said has a great idea where he says give yourself 48 hours or maybe 72 in which you have to write down 50 ideas for scenes for one book and it's sort of this like struggle against yourself and your creativity and your own brain and you just sort of, you know, push yourself to get it done. And from those 50, you'll probably five to 30, find the 30 to 35 that you can use in your book.

It's a great idea. That's awesome. Wouldn't you feel so accomplished if you got that done and then you can take like the rest of the month off, right? So prioritize your tasks after you've set your goal, whatever your goal is, right? Take advantage of early mornings. the kids are you know probably waking up at 5 a .m. to watch cartoons even though they didn't wake up until like five minutes before the bus came all during the school year like let's just be honest but it's usually a time in which they're so unless you have really really little ones it's usually time in which they're just, they're content to just sort of be around, right? So I do struggle waking up early. So this is great, especially for you early birds. I prefer to go for a walk in the morning. I force myself out of bed. Actually, my husband forces me out of bed so that we walk the dog. And so I say this to a handful of you, but even if you don't wake up early, but take advantage of those early mornings. You know, if you're just writing 500 words, you can probably get that done

while Mickey Mouse or Blue's Clues again is in the background, or your teenagers are just languishing and snapping their friends, whatever is going on in your house. And it's usually a beautiful time to sit on your porch. There aren't as many mosquitoes, right? You can just sort of take a deep breath, get your morning beverage of choice. But think of that because I'm more of a night owl. Like I said, I tend to write at night even in the summer. But nights fill up really quickly, right? The spontaneous barbecue, the spontaneous bike ride, the spontaneous like get together and glass of chilled wine, whatever. So to push it and expect that you're going to get it done at night, it's probably, you have more of a chance of it not getting done, right?

You also need to incorporate breaks and incorporate summer into your life. Like even if this is your full -time job or you want it to be a full -time job, it is still summer. You need to go on that bike ride. You need to take a walk with your, with your kids. You need to go to the pool with your kids. You need to play croquet with your kids or badminton. I, like we played badminton the other day with the neighbor kids. Highly recommend it especially for like the teenage years it's it's awesome it's a great game you need to have the picnics you need to walk to the park you need that time to do that without the anxiety that you didn't write and you know what's why not bring a notebook or your tablet and the little pen thing if you're fancy and write while your kids are swinging right nobody said that you had to always be at your computer. That being said, another thing that like you do probably need to minimize distractions when once you have your goal and you've prioritized it. When you're sitting down to accomplish that goal, you need to somehow get rid of the distractions, right? And this is difficult. Like let's say you're up in the morning and there's Blue's Clues going on and the kids are, you know, squabbling over who gets the last piece of toast, because unless that's only my house, you need to somehow be able to focus. And I have fallen in love with noise canceling headphones. It's not that I can't hear the squabble still, but oh, my brain can focus a lot easier. So whether you have, you go to the basement and you just hide and no one knows that and mom's actually awake. I say mom, dad's too, you know, but whatever, I'm a woman.

So you hide, you get the noise canceling headphones. This actually also like going to a specific spot or doing a specific thing, like putting on your noise canceling headphones. If you do that over and over again, your brain and your body will start to realize that right now you are in focus mode. It's really weird. Like our brains are very scientific, right? and that they'd like to have this sort of habit. So look for what you could do that will help you focus. Is it listening to that god -awful green, white, blue noise? I just don't know how you guys do that. Is it putting noise -canceling headphones on?

Is it going to the basement, going to the attic, going to your closet? I don't know. Going to the porch where, weirdly enough, the kids never find you. You've got to also like maintain a positive mindset and I am I'm a very realistic thinker and so I'm not a naturally overly positive person but it's sunshiny outside and it is Summer and we don't want to burn out and we want to have good physical bodies, right? And so the days that it doesn't get done We've got to be kind to ourselves and talk to ourselves like we would to a friend and say It's okay Tomorrow's another day. You can't get everything done. You're gonna be alright Let's look at the positive today today. I took the two -year -old for a walk and the two -year -old told me a story, you know, about flying through the trees. Today I, you know, took my teenagers for lunch or today I was a, I drove them all around the city and like and I have a hard time with that because it's like oh and I want to spend all my day in the car but I got to listen to a podcast or catch up on that or listen to a craft book and I I just got to spend time with them. Today I just took the day off to enjoy the beauty of the summer. And you know what, that's okay

because we need to enjoy our life as well. As much as my brain is literally always thinking about the five books I want to write, I have to push myself to remember I also need to enjoy life, right? go get some ice cream, go watch the sunset. Allow your brain to think and organize all of those thoughts and see how much more refreshed you will be the next day. You need to, you know, in order to do this, you plan for some fun. You plan to do what like symbolizes summer to you, symbolizes a vacation to you. Is it going down to the volleyball sand court that's finally open? Go do it. Join a volleyball club. Is it going to play tennis with your friends or your kids? Is it playing badminton in the yard? Whatever symbolizes summer to you, whatever is fun to you, we gotta have fun, right? And then I would, the last little tip, I would say every few weeks, just sort of reflect and see how far you've come. It doesn't work to change something up and to not reflect on whether or not it's working or how you feel about it because let's be honest if you change something for the summer and you feel great about it like this 500 word thing for me there's no reason to just keep it for the summer. So you need to take the time to talk

to a friend, talk to a fellow writer, talk to your business coach, talk to your spouse, talk to a tape recorder or journal it and reflect on, does this feel right? Like I've had to realize that feeling like I'm working all the time does not mean that I'm actually being as productive as I hope I am. And that, I know a lot of people are talking about that constantly, but it really depends on you and your personality. Sometimes when we're just running around in circles, we're just running around in circles and we feel busy. And especially as Americans, that makes us feel good.

But are you actually getting anything done? and could you get as much done as you did running in circles and yet enjoy the life and not have that underlying current of anxiety? So definitely reflect back every couple of weeks. How does this feel? And I say that like, you might get the idea of like, this feels like I'm not doing enough. And then you gotta reflect, but am I doing enough? How much did I get done? Should I add more? Do I have to add more? That will all depend on you and how you're moving your business forward. So, just to finish a couple other goals

that you could have for the summer. Write 500 words a day. Write a short story a week. Write about, journal four to five days a week. Write half a scene, that could be a goal. Work on your character development. You could work on writing prompts. Maybe you're in between projects and you're looking for a new idea. Work on writing prompts. Do your research. Do your reading. Do your craft reading. Do your fiction reading. Maybe read a different genre. Catch up on the courses that you've bought, either this year or during COVID because you know we all have those.

work on your marketing work on your social media get ahead in your author newsletter or start one work on the blurb doesn't matter where you are in the stage of the book you work on that blurb and honey you get that blurb done by the summertime you are in good shape because oof that blurb write up some marketing material for the rest of the year maybe you can even work on the graphics that you can use for the rest of the year. You can work on editing, go back and read it and figure out how, you know, make sure that you're going, going well in the story. Plot out, like I said, set the 48 hours to 72 hours and plot out 50 scenes. You can join a writing group at your local library, meet some other writers. You can look for a cover. That's a great thing to do when you just have to like, Be there cuz the kids, you make sure no one drowns Scroll for covers save them screenshot them. I don't know like what about this one? What about that one, right? So you have a lot of things that you could do That you could actually be out in life and get done at the same time and isn't that awesome. It's amazing We don't always have to be inside in front of our computer and we don't have to set the goal to be

finish my book this summer because that might not be possible right all right so those are my tips and ideas for the summer click the links below for all the things my website's getting a bit of a revamp so that will be exciting bended love and bended loyalty are on up for pre -order the paperbacks will be up for pre -order by the end of June and then July for bended love because you can only do it 90 days out. But I love these two books. If you like contemporary fiction, I'm gonna toot my own horn. I think that you should get them and see what happens in Tristan and Scarlett's life. I want to hear all about what you guys are doing for this summer. I am on social media. I now have like three social... three Instagrams, a couple Facebooks. I'm getting a little bit more on Twitter. I can't stand threads. I'm sorry. But you can get on my author newsletter. I am actually working to get quite a few fun writing tips scheduled. So if you just need some more encouragement, we're going to talk about perfectionism in the writing newsletter. I also have a reading newsletter. So you can sign up for those at katcaldwell .com or you can find the links also in my social media. But otherwise, everyone have a wonderful summer, eat lots of popsicles, take lots of walks, swim, get a tan, I don't know, just have fun. Make sure that you're out there in life and you're getting some exercise and you're moving your body and thinking about your characters and just enjoying life as well. And I will see you in September unless I follow you on social. So follow me, I'll follow you back, and we can keep up with each other through the summer. Bye!