Bridge Of Writing (Domination #2), DeYtH Banger [read my book .TXT] 📗

phase of sucking at it.

I’ll use numbers to illustrate the example:

Take the number .00002. If you double it becomes .00004. If you double it again it becomes .00008. These jumps don’t seem like much. Double it 36 times, however, and all the sudden the number is 1.3 million.

A party balloon requires a lot of air to fill it initially, but once it reaches a threshold the rest of the balloon fills up easily.

Your writing skills are like the small decimal number and the party balloon.

I promise you. If you put in the work consistently, you’ll get better.

Be honest with yourself — are you putting in the work or are you complaining too early?

Your Need for Approval

If you have supportive friends and family, that’s great. Often, however, the people around you might not be receptive to the idea of you becoming a full-time writer.

They’ll tell you it’s impractical or “risky.” They’ll tell you not to get your hopes up.

It’s not because they don’t want you to succeed. They care about you and don’t want you to be disappointed.

It took a while for my fiancee to take my aspirations seriously. Once I started making some money and gaining momentum, my progress opened her eyes to the possibilities. She never discouraged me, but deep down I knew she wasn’t sold yet, and that was okay with me.

You have to realize when you deviate outside the normal path, people aren’t always going to get it.

I didn’t announce my aspirations of becoming a writer to anyone. I just started writing and kept writing.

It doesn’t matter what your friends and family think. It doesn’t matter what society thinks.

When it comes to writing, the only thing that matters is the page in front of you.

Now is the best time in human history to become a writer. You don’t need anyone’s permission to create and publish.

You don’t need a publisher to tell you whether or not you’re a good writer. Let your audience be the judge.

Your mission is to build a small empire around your words. To do that, you’ll need thick skin, because not only will your friends and family fail to see what you see. Sometimes you’ll get backlash for the things you publish in your comments from trolls or people who genuinely think your work is bad.

Don’t put your identity in someone else’s hands. Trust yourself and trust the process will work.

Your Laziness

Certain aspiring writers are like patients who go to the doctor because they’re feeling fatigued or “off” in some way. Nine times out of ten, their “health issues” have a simple remedy — eat better, exercise, and sleep more. The doctor checks the patient out, and instead of feeding into his hypochondria, he suggests he take better care of himself.

Are you the patient wondering why he feels off?

Don’t look for elaborate answers to why your writing career isn’t taking off.

You don’t write enough. Period.

This is maybe my 500th blog post. One of my favorite writers, Seth Godin, has written 6,000.

How many blog posts have you written?

How many words do you have under your belt?

Do you write every day or just “once and a while?” Do you focus when you write or do you check the web and social media?

You know the answers and you know how to move forward.

I know sometimes the words don’t come out on the page the way you envisioned them in your mind. I know you sometimes feel like you’re not cut out to be a writer.

Suck it up.

If you want to learn how to build a writing habit that sticks, I have a guide for that.

If you want to write a book, I have a 5,000-word guide for that.

I have posted on starting a blog, finding a writing topic, developing a solid mindset, and getting your work in front of the right people.

I just listed out resources with step by step information to get you where you want to go.

Unfortunately, most of you will “x” out of this page and continue to get nothing done.

That’s okay. I wrote this post for the small handful of you who are sick of being stuck and want to get to work.

Your Excuses

I just laid down the gauntlet.

It’s all on you now.

I sincerely believe everything you want in your writing career is possible. I want you to succeed, badly.

But I can’t want it more than you do.

Do me a favor, for the next week, 30, or 90 days — just shut up and write. No more putting off starting that blog, writing that post, or outlining that book.

No more excuses.

Go.

 

The 7 Habit of Highly Success Authors

 by Kristen Kieffer

 

 

 

Habit 1: Highly successful authors almost always follow-through. 

It sounds easy: do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it. But we all know how hard it can sometimes be to follow through. Funnily enough, highly successful authors don’t have some superpower that allows them to get everything done on schedule. Instead, they have one secret: they don’t overpromise. 

Overpromising can lead even our best intentions astray, and it often results in not-great work. Bestselling authors have a strong understanding of the way they work, what they need to accomplish something, and what is (and isn’t) realistic for them. Agents watch for this from Day One of signing an author, because we know what lies ahead: an author who overpromises is setting herself up for failure and frustration, and those things can deflate even the most motivated person. 

We also know that perpetually broken promises can be red flags for either fear (an author is procrastinating on a project because it feels scary to her) or lack of focus (an author is overextending herself and trying to do too many things at once).  Either way, both things can eventually stunt an author’s success during the publishing process, as well as make it triply stressful. 

Habit 2: Highly successful authors treat every single person they encounter with respect. 

This is a big deal, and you’d be surprised how often the emotionally-charged process of publishing a book can send anyone on a finger-pointing spree. 

But turning on your publishing team is the worst thing you can do when things get stressful—that’s when you most need your agent and editor on your side, so that they can cheer you on, rather than duck for cover.

Unprofessional behavior can undermine and ultimately destroy the relationships authors most need in order to have long, happy careers. I’ve seen authors be dropped from their agencies, and even from their publishers, because they struggled to play nice. 

So even when things go wrong (and they inevitably will!) remember that working with your team, rather than against them, is the best way to fix it.

Habit 3: Highly successful authors understand purpose-driven marketing. 

What’s the most common cause for a book not succeeding? Not enough marketing behind it.

What’s the most common cause for an author not marketing enough? Fear. (And as Elizabeth Gilbert says, all procrastination is fear.) Deep down inside, many writers are scared to share their work with the world, and they’re uncomfortable with the entire idea of marketing. 

But highly successful authors have made peace with these fear demons way before they enter the publishing process, because they’ve been spreading their work out into the world all along. They also understand that authentic marketing is not about self-promotion—it’s about serving others.

Most bestselling authors believe, at their core, that their purpose in life is to improve readers’ lives through their work. Once you believe this, sharing your work becomes an effortless habit.
 

Habit 4: Highly successful authors love to wow people.

The most successful authors I’ve ever worked with make everyone around them say “wow” all the time.

You ask them to implement a new marketing tactic? They do it right away and go full force to support it. A magazine editor asks for an original article? They write an excellent piece and turn it in two days early. You introduce them to a connection? They are the epitome of graciousness and gratitude. 

This doesn’t mean the same thing as overachieving, which is dangerously close to over-promising. In fact, this habit is rooted in a deep sense of both quality and discernment—highly successful authors don’t do things half-heartedly, half-well, and half the time. Instead, once they agree to something, they zero in on doing it at the highest level they possibly can.

To them, it’s all about saying a big, excited “Yes!” to the things that matter, and a polite “No” to everything else. 

 

Habit 5: Highly successful authors are endlessly curious.

They want to know everything there is to know about writing and book publishing, and they get excited when they find a new source of information and insight. Bestselling authors have carefully studied their craft, and they understand that they need to approach both failures and successes with curiosity, rather than judgment.

If a book flops, they try to understand why. If a chapter isn’t working, they dig in deep to dissect what’s going on. If they launch a bestseller, they take time to look back and analyze what worked so well and what could work even better next time. 

They also understand that, without time to reflect on their careers, they’ll miss the valuable lessons that every task can teach them. This means taking time to pause, rather than always running on the hamster wheel of a to-do list. 
 

 

Habit 6: Highly successful authors are persistent.

We’ve all heard this a million times: never give up on your dream. But we’ve heard it a million times because it is flat-out true. The only wait to fail, truly, is to give up. Highly successful authors have spent years and years building skills before they even get their first book out, much less reach the peak of their careers.

It may have started when they read their first book as a child, but it continued on, relentlessly, through every book-related thing they do today. They know that no word read, written, or contemplated is ever wasted—it’s all building their library of thought.

Often highly successful authors will say that they kept at it because they didn’t know what else to do with themselves. That’s the fascinating thing about passion: when you can’t imagine doing anything else with your life, persistence becomes your only path. And literary agents love to see that level of dedication!

 

Habit 7: Highly successful authors are people first, authors second.

That’s right, highly successful authors aren’t successful all the time, and they’re not even authors all the time. They’re just people: flawed, funny, willing to laugh at themselves, in love with their work, but just as much in love with family time and a good dinner. 

The one thing that I believe most sets successful authors apart from struggling authors is that successful authors make room in their lives for the things that fuel their creativity. Without time to be just a person, or a parent, or a friend, creatives can burnout, lose focus, and even lose their love for their work. But most importantly, a life without balance isn’t a life worth living, and just like anyone, literary agents want to work with happy people. 

So the best thing you can do to succeed as an author? Focus on becoming a happy person, one whose career fuels your purpose in life, but doesn’t define your existence. These are the authors who we agents feel honored to call clients, and those are the clients who become our friends.