Episode 112
Habits That Will TANK Your Writing - Part 2
In this episode of the Writing Momentum Podcast, hosts Gena and Christopher Maselli discuss everyday habits that can negatively impact your writing progress. They address the dangers of comparison and disengagement from the writing community, emphasizing the importance of staying connected and involved. The conversation highlights how distractions and perfectionism can halt a writer's momentum, offering practical solutions like using focus modes on devices and understanding the creative versus technical aspects of writing and editing. Additionally, they talk about the fallacy of the solitary writing venture and advocate for collaboration and networking within the writing community, including the benefits of joining writing groups and attending conferences. The Masellis stress the importance of making small, manageable changes to overcome these detrimental habits and invite listeners to subscribe for more insights.
- 00:00 Introduction: Everyday Habits That Tank Your Writing
- 00:26 Recap of Previous Episode: Comparison and Disengagement
- 03:06 The Importance of Staying Engaged in the Writing World
- 03:35 The Power of Community in Writing
- 07:41 The Dangers of Distraction and Perfectionism
- 12:18 The Role of Perfectionism in Writing and Marketing
- 20:01 Taking Small Steps Towards Improvement
- 21:00 Conclusion: Subscribe and Stay Tuned for More
LINKS:
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
What are more everyday habits that will tank your writing?
Speaker:Hey, let's find out together.
Speaker:Welcome back to the Writing Momentum Podcast.
Speaker:I'm Gena Maselli, and this is my husband, Christopher Maselli.
Speaker:Hey y'all.
Speaker:It's good to see you today.
Speaker:We're glad you're here because we are talking about.
Speaker:Something that's pretty important to us and that is everyday habits
Speaker:that will tank your writing.
Speaker:Man, last episode, it was a little bit convicting, right?
Speaker:When you think about, we talked about comparison.
Speaker:If you missed last episode, you want to check it out.
Speaker:It's episode 111.
Speaker:And we talked about comparison, and we talked about getting
Speaker:out of the writing world.
Speaker:You want to make sure that you're not comparing yourself to other writers,
Speaker:whether it be their writing, or their writing style, or their way of marketing,
Speaker:their way of networking, whatever it is.
Speaker:Their writing process.
Speaker:Yeah don't compare yourself with other writers.
Speaker:And also, Don't let yourself get out of the writing world.
Speaker:Keep yourself in it, because that's gonna make you a stronger writer.
Speaker:And those are two habits that many times writers do.
Speaker:They get themselves comparing themselves with others, and they
Speaker:allow themselves to get in this habit of not being in the writing world.
Speaker:Yeah, they disengage from it.
Speaker:Disengage, that's a good word.
Speaker:It really does tank them.
Speaker:It takes them out of that world.
Speaker:And I think it slows down your process of becoming an even better writer.
Speaker:You know what it's funny as we've been recording each one of these, I've just
Speaker:found myself charged and I haven't had any caffeine, which you would think I
Speaker:would have, the way I'm charged with, but I think that's because I realize
Speaker:that if you listen to what we're talking about here and put this into practice,
Speaker:you are going to become a better writer.
Speaker:I'm becoming a better writer just as I hear ourselves talk about these things
Speaker:because sometimes having the clarity of seeing what can tank your writing
Speaker:can help you make sure that those things don't tank your writing and
Speaker:it makes you a better author, right?
Speaker:I mean, sometimes it's just that mental understanding that gives
Speaker:you the breakthrough you need.
Speaker:And I think sometimes you start listening to podcasts like this or you start
Speaker:reading books and things like that.
Speaker:And you're kind of going along and maybe it seems foreign to you at first.
Speaker:Maybe some of the things they're talking about don't really
Speaker:resonate or they don't hit you.
Speaker:But the more you read, the more you listen, the more you kind of start going,
Speaker:Oh, I know what they're talking about.
Speaker:I know what they're saying.
Speaker:I understand what they mean by that.
Speaker:And Oh, then you start connecting the dots to your own writing and you say,
Speaker:Oh, I know how to make that scene work, or I know how to make that chapter
Speaker:work, or I know how to market my book a little bit better, or, you know,
Speaker:I've got a great idea for the cover of my book and I really didn't know
Speaker:where it was going to go, or maybe the way I'm going to write my backliner
Speaker:is going to be a little bit different.
Speaker:I think it's just so important to stay in the writing world and to keep
Speaker:yourself charged also and just learning.
Speaker:You know, this is, I'm going to sound like a broken record when I talk about
Speaker:this, but we have, I think, become we've come where we've accept this idea.
Speaker:That the writing life is a solitary venture.
Speaker:It's something that we do alone.
Speaker:We go in our writing office, we buckle down with our laptop,
Speaker:we put our earbuds in, right?
Speaker:And we completely do this whole thing alone.
Speaker:And I think that's a lie.
Speaker:If you want to become a really good writer, you have to realize you
Speaker:are in this together with other writers like Gena and myself.
Speaker:You're in this with us.
Speaker:As far as we're concerned, you're on our team, right?
Speaker:We're not competing against one another.
Speaker:We're stirring each other up.
Speaker:And if we realize that writing is something that we do together, Right?
Speaker:This is something where if we're starting to feel like, Oh man,
Speaker:I can't get my writing done.
Speaker:Don't just feel like you're in this alone.
Speaker:No, reach out to other writers, right?
Speaker:Join a writing group.
Speaker:Join us for writing moments every Wednesday at noon.
Speaker:We'd love to write with you.
Speaker:That's what we do.
Speaker:We get together.
Speaker:We have a short teaching and then we just put everyone on mute and we all write
Speaker:together on our own individual projects.
Speaker:I mean, it's such a simple thing, and yet, this has been a huge deal for
Speaker:us, it's been a huge deal for others.
Speaker:If you want to do it locally, find a local writers group.
Speaker:If you want to go to a writers conference, find a writers conference.
Speaker:Whatever it is, don't do, try to do this thing alone.
Speaker:It's just, it's going to take you a lot longer to get things
Speaker:done if you try to do it alone.
Speaker:You want to put yourself on that fast track to success.
Speaker:That's why we call this writing momentum, right?
Speaker:Because we like to give our writing momentum.
Speaker:We want to help others leapfrog over the hard things that are to do the things that
Speaker:they feel like they have to do them alone.
Speaker:Let's do this together.
Speaker:Let's make our writing better.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm going to get off my soapbox now, but that's so important.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:Can I add something to your soapbox?
Speaker:I'm going to climb up on it with you here for just a minute.
Speaker:Here's the other thing about trying to, if you have bought into this idea
Speaker:that you are going to write alone and that you don't need anybody,
Speaker:especially for book writers the truth is you can write that book alone.
Speaker:I personally think that you will benefit by being in the writing world because
Speaker:you will be learning as you're writing it and you will become a better writer.
Speaker:But marketing, when you are trying to market that book, That is
Speaker:definitely not something that you are going to do on your own as you
Speaker:begin to connect with other writers.
Speaker:You're gonna find people that oh, maybe they have you on their podcast.
Speaker:Oh Maybe they have a book that's kind of in a similar genre to what you're
Speaker:in and all of a sudden You can promote their book to your people and they
Speaker:can promote your book to their people.
Speaker:There's this there's a synergy that happens that we begin to work together.
Speaker:Especially in that, I think it happens in the writing part as well,
Speaker:but especially when you get to that marketing part, you are going to be
Speaker:in a place where you're going to be, if you wait, you'll be sitting there
Speaker:with your book and wondering, now what?
Speaker:You need to be getting in the writing world before you release that book.
Speaker:You need to start making some connections, whether it's writers
Speaker:conferences or whether it's listening to different podcasts
Speaker:and learning different strategies.
Speaker:All of these things will go in and make the marketing side so much easier.
Speaker:So, there you go.
Speaker:A big part of marketing is, in other words, selling your book, right?
Speaker:We don't have to use these fancy business terms.
Speaker:If you want to sell your book, a big part of that is making some connections.
Speaker:Now, In the world we call this marketing, we call it networking.
Speaker:Those, for most of us as authors, are very negative words because we are
Speaker:introverts, we don't want to network.
Speaker:We think that networking is getting into a smoke filled room and rubbing
Speaker:elbows with the right people and trying to get them interested.
Speaker:That's not what it is.
Speaker:So Gena and I are going to have an upcoming podcast on this, so if you
Speaker:haven't yet, Smash that subscribe button.
Speaker:I want you to subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the channel
Speaker:on YouTube, whatever it takes to make sure you don't miss an episode
Speaker:like that, because I'm telling you.
Speaker:We have a very different view of what networking is that I think
Speaker:you as an author, especially if you're an introvert, are really
Speaker:going to love hearing more about.
Speaker:And we're going to talk about that soon, but that's not what
Speaker:we're talking about today.
Speaker:Today we're talking about everyday habits that may tank your writing.
Speaker:And one of those habits is, believe it or not, the thing that just happened to me.
Speaker:And that is distractions, right?
Speaker:Going down a rabbit trail.
Speaker:Sometimes I do that and that distracts me, but I think that was
Speaker:a good rabbit trail to go down.
Speaker:The kind of rabbit trails you don't want to go down are things that
Speaker:distract you when you're writing and distraction, get this, write this
Speaker:down, distraction can become a habit.
Speaker:It can become something that you get used to doing, to where when you're trying
Speaker:to write, you find yourself jumping all the time to social media sites.
Speaker:Or maybe even stopping your writing and going back and editing what you write.
Speaker:Yes, that's a distraction.
Speaker:That can be a distraction, editing your own material, because it keeps
Speaker:you from progressing and going forward.
Speaker:That's a habit you can get into.
Speaker:And if you're not careful, you'll never get the book done,
Speaker:never get the chapter done.
Speaker:Because you keep editing yourself.
Speaker:You keep distracting yourself with perfectionism.
Speaker:Well, that, that was, that convicted me a little bit too, right?
Speaker:Well, I know that's actually our next point that we're talking about.
Speaker:So you're talking about distractions.
Speaker:I would even say email can be distraction.
Speaker:And that is why I like to use my focus setting on my laptop.
Speaker:So I will put that on focus and I will say for the next hour or until my next
Speaker:event or whatever, that I'm not going to allow any distractions to come through,
Speaker:which email is a big distraction for me.
Speaker:So that is one way that you can help with distraction.
Speaker:If you find yourself distracted by different things, I'll
Speaker:even quit, different programs.
Speaker:I'll actually not just minimize them, but I will quit them so that
Speaker:they're not grabbing my attention.
Speaker:There's this thought in the world right now that everything needs to have balance,
Speaker:and so I need to have balance, and you know what I'm going to do, I'm going to go
Speaker:ahead and leave that email program open, because I can check my email once in a
Speaker:while, no balance with this, here's what you got to do, close the email program,
Speaker:turn off all the notifications, so I want to dive into this just for a moment, the
Speaker:technical side of this, and I'm not going to get too technical on it, but I want you
Speaker:to understand how this can work for you.
Speaker:If you have a Mac computer, and if you have an iPhone, they can sync up
Speaker:together and what you can do is you can go they on your phone in your settings
Speaker:It has what's called a focus mode.
Speaker:Okay on your computer It also has what's called a focus mode and they'll
Speaker:sync together If you turn on the focus mode what it does is it prevents you
Speaker:from getting phone calls, messages, text messages, notifications from
Speaker:email, notifications from social media, notifications from other apps.
Speaker:It'll stop all of that for like an hour if you want it to.
Speaker:And it keeps you from getting distracted.
Speaker:And you only have to turn it on one of those two devices if they're synced up.
Speaker:If you turn it on your phone, it stops all notifications from there.
Speaker:You turn it on your computer.
Speaker:It'll also turn it off on your computer so that you're not getting
Speaker:notified from any of those things.
Speaker:And that's a beautiful thing when you're writing to not be getting those
Speaker:distractions thrown at you, right, in front of you as you're working.
Speaker:And it's so easy to do just by clicking a button.
Speaker:Now if you're working on Windows, there are apps that will do that.
Speaker:You'll have to search them out, find out what they are.
Speaker:But there are apps that will keep you from getting notifications,
Speaker:there are also apps on both of these that will prevent you from going to
Speaker:certain sites while you're writing.
Speaker:So you can get apps for your Mac or for your PC that say, I don't want
Speaker:to be able to go to Facebook, I don't want to be able to go to Instagram.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I don't want to be able to even go to my email program while I'm writing.
Speaker:Go ahead and make those so that they essentially don't
Speaker:work for me for the next hour.
Speaker:And those apps will do that.
Speaker:The one we use is called Focus.
Speaker:And it helps you, you click on it, everything kind of shuts
Speaker:down except for your writing.
Speaker:And any kind of website that you need to use while you're writing, right?
Speaker:If you've got something, if you're writing about a certain something
Speaker:and you want access to a specific website and you need that's fine.
Speaker:But what you want to do is try and make that writing environment
Speaker:as sanitary as possible, right?
Speaker:Make it so that it, you can't get distracted.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Now, you mentioned this next one that we're going to talk about here,
Speaker:and that is well, perfectionism.
Speaker:Yeah, that is a killer.
Speaker:It not only kills you it'll tank your writing, because like Chris said, just
Speaker:from a productivity standpoint, you won't be able to get your writing done
Speaker:because you won't be able to get past that particular chapter or section or
Speaker:whatever, but I also think perfectionism tanks your motivation because you begin
Speaker:to doubt that your work is good enough, that your writing is good enough.
Speaker:And I think that is a bigger hurdle to get past because if you let that
Speaker:little earworm in to convince you that your writing is not good enough.
Speaker:And you begin to compare, we talked about this last time, but you begin
Speaker:to compare yourself even against what you think you should be writing.
Speaker:You're comparing yourself toward kind of your idealized writing self.
Speaker:All of that will convince you that you can't do it and it'll keep
Speaker:you stuck for a really long time.
Speaker:I have had two people email me this week that I've never met before.
Speaker:One was a man, one was a woman.
Speaker:And they emailed and said, I have not been able to finish my book for years.
Speaker:They both said the same thing.
Speaker:Haven't been able to finish it for years.
Speaker:And they said, this idea we shared on another podcast about how if you
Speaker:can just go ahead and finish writing.
Speaker:Just finish your writing, even if it's lousy, finish it.
Speaker:Finish the book.
Speaker:Then you will find it so much easier to actually get the
Speaker:book where you want it to go.
Speaker:Because it's so, it's difficult to write.
Speaker:When you're writing, you're creating something from nothing.
Speaker:When you're editing, you've got something that you're already working
Speaker:with, that you're making better.
Speaker:That's an easier job than writing from nothing.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:In order to get yourself to the easier part, you've got to
Speaker:push through the harder part.
Speaker:The easiest way to push through the harder part is not to edit yourself as you go.
Speaker:Don't try to make it perfect.
Speaker:If you're always trying to make it perfect, and you can, well,
Speaker:you may not get it done, right?
Speaker:And you can do this, literally, I've found myself doing this sentence by sentence.
Speaker:I'll be writing a sentence, no, that's not quite what I want
Speaker:to say, and I stop writing.
Speaker:And I think about it.
Speaker:And I try something else.
Speaker:Nah, that's not what I want.
Speaker:And I keep going back, trying to fix that sentence.
Speaker:That's not the time to fix the sentence.
Speaker:Not when you're writing.
Speaker:When you're writing, you say, eh, it's not perfect, I'm just gonna keep going.
Speaker:I'm gonna make sure that this character gets from point A to point
Speaker:B by the end of the chapter, right?
Speaker:I'm gonna make sure that happens, even if it's not exactly what I know needs
Speaker:to happen that way, I'm gonna get them to point B so that I can get on to the
Speaker:next chapter so I can finish this book, so that I can now have a completed
Speaker:book that I can go back and deep edit.
Speaker:And when you get into those deep edits, that's when you want
Speaker:to strive more for perfection.
Speaker:And at that point though, it's a lot easier to do because you've
Speaker:got something to work with.
Speaker:You're not starting from a, from point zero, right?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I even think that you're using different parts of your brain when you're in the
Speaker:creative process versus when you're in the editing technical process.
Speaker:I think there are two different sides.
Speaker:Now, true, when you're editing and you're reworking a scene or you're reworking
Speaker:a chapter or something, there is a creative process that's happening there.
Speaker:But a lot of times, there's something different that happens
Speaker:when you're in that creative mindset.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, I think Chris is right.
Speaker:You want to be careful about getting stuck in that editing or stuck in that
Speaker:perfectionism that you can't move past.
Speaker:It really will keep you locked down and it'll cause you just to go blank
Speaker:where you're not able to do it.
Speaker:And we don't think of things like perfectionism as a
Speaker:habit, but it really is.
Speaker:The more we strive to do it, the more we try to make things more and more perfect.
Speaker:And we're talking a lot about writing here, but this also can happen when
Speaker:it comes to other things you do in connection with your writing.
Speaker:When it comes to trying to sell your book and find out the best way to sell
Speaker:it, it's very easy to not actually get around to selling it because you
Speaker:keep taking more courses on what to do and you keep trying to learn more and
Speaker:more until you say, okay, now that may be the perfect thing I'm looking for.
Speaker:That may be the golden nugget, right?
Speaker:Don't keep looking for that.
Speaker:Look.
Speaker:When you find something that might work, just do it.
Speaker:Go and do it first and then look for the next thing.
Speaker:Don't keep listening and trying and, you know, and just trying
Speaker:to find that perfect answer.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Wait for that until you've actually already started to lay that foundation
Speaker:of different ways that you can market, put yourself out there.
Speaker:And then as one of those start, we'll start to pick up, right?
Speaker:One of those will start to work.
Speaker:And when the one starts to work, then start to perfect that.
Speaker:Well, and I think what you just said there was really key in that is that
Speaker:there are different things that you can do when you're talking about marketing.
Speaker:There are different ways that you can do it.
Speaker:There are different ways you can write.
Speaker:There's a different way you can write your scene or construct your book.
Speaker:If it's a nonfiction book, there's a different way that
Speaker:you can approach each blog.
Speaker:This is a creative process.
Speaker:This is not a check the box and everything's going to turn out perfect.
Speaker:That's not what this is.
Speaker:That's not what writing is.
Speaker:That's not what marketing is.
Speaker:It's about finding what works for you as a writer, for your readers when you begin
Speaker:to market for them and market to them.
Speaker:It's a different thing and it is a creative process that happens and boy,
Speaker:Chris and I can attest to the fact that when it comes to marketing, when it comes
Speaker:to writing, you start with one and you might learn something else and it'll cause
Speaker:you to pivot and make another change.
Speaker:So don't think that, well, one day I'm going to be perfect and
Speaker:everything's going to come together.
Speaker:Especially even with marketing your book.
Speaker:Cause I will tell you what is perfect or what seems the absolute best way to do
Speaker:it today is not going to be the best way to do it in a year or two years from now.
Speaker:This is an ever changing industry, and so we're all learning and you will find
Speaker:some things that just kind of feel right for you and other things that you're,
Speaker:you may find out that's great for that person, but that doesn't work for me.
Speaker:It just doesn't, it doesn't mesh with my style, with my work habits,
Speaker:with the way I want to do this.
Speaker:It just doesn't feel right and that's okay.
Speaker:You find what works for you.
Speaker:Do you see how these different habits that we're talking about, the tank your
Speaker:writing, all kind of link together, like what you just talked about, and
Speaker:we're talking about perfectionism, you mentioned comparing yourselves
Speaker:with others, you mentioned getting out of the writing world, right?
Speaker:These are all things that connect together, right?
Speaker:These are habits that fuel one another, and what you want to do is
Speaker:take that fuel out of those habits.
Speaker:You want to recognize that this is something that's been attached itself to
Speaker:you and you want to say, okay, I'm not going to allow that to happen anymore.
Speaker:Just wreck it.
Speaker:That's all we're asking you to do.
Speaker:We're not asking you to make big sweeping changes today.
Speaker:We're just saying, recognize that this is happening, and
Speaker:then make a small change, right?
Speaker:If you find the number one thing that's causing you to stumble and not
Speaker:getting things done is distractions, then just turn on focus mode.
Speaker:Make that your one step today.
Speaker:I'm gonna turn on focus mode the next time I write.
Speaker:If you find out that you've allowed yourself to get out of the writing
Speaker:world, then say, You know what, I'm gonna subscribe to a few writing podcasts.
Speaker:I'm going to watch some YouTube videos on writing.
Speaker:I'm gonna go to that writer's conference that I know is
Speaker:coming up in my area, right?
Speaker:Whatever it is for you that you need to do, make a small step today.
Speaker:When you make that small step I'm telling you, it could be the, you might look back
Speaker:on it and say that was the biggest step I made that made me successful as a writer.
Speaker:And that's worth the 20 minutes you just spent with us alone, right?
Speaker:Yeah, and sometimes it's those small steps that make a really huge difference.
Speaker:Hey, I tell you, we are going to continue this series in part three.
Speaker:We've got one more, one more big everyday habit that we're going
Speaker:to share with you that may just rock your world a little bit.
Speaker:It's rocked my world and I think you're going to love it, but we don't want you
Speaker:to miss it, that's the biggest thing.
Speaker:So here's what we want you to do.
Speaker:Subscribe to this podcast.
Speaker:Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so it pops up for you.
Speaker:Subscribe on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube.
Speaker:Make sure you don't miss this next one.
Speaker:Make sure you listen to the last one.
Speaker:We've talked about comparison.
Speaker:Getting out of the writing world.
Speaker:We've talked about distractions and we've talked about perfectionism so far.
Speaker:We got one more coming up and we don't want you to miss it.
Speaker:If this has been beneficial to you and you know it would be beneficial to another
Speaker:writer you know, don't let them miss out.
Speaker:Share the Writing Momentum podcast with them.
Speaker:Let them know.
Speaker:Go ahead and leave a comment, let us know if this has been beneficial to you.
Speaker:We will write back to you because we love getting comments.
Speaker:We love writing back.
Speaker:We love this writing community.
Speaker:We love the fact that we are not in this alone, none of us are because together
Speaker:we have writing momentum.
Speaker:Bye bye.
