Episode 116
How Do You Keep Your Head in the Writing Game?
In this episode of the Writing Momentum Podcast, hosts Gena and Christopher Maselli discuss the importance of staying engaged in the 'writing world' for both emerging and experienced writers. They explore what constitutes the writing world, including the processes of writing, publishing, and marketing. The Maselli's emphasize the ease of distraction in today’s world and the necessity of keeping writing goals top of mind. They suggest various methods for staying focused, such as listening to podcasts, reading or listening to books on writing, and participating in writing groups or conferences. The hosts also share personal challenges with maintaining momentum and offer solutions like setting appointments to write and seeking encouragement and advice from fellow writers. Furthermore, they discuss the benefits of attending writers' conferences to stay abreast of the latest industry trends and technologies. The episode concludes by inviting listeners to join their online writing group and encourages writers to form connections with others in the writing community to share successes, challenges, and to learn from each other.
- 00:00 Welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast
- 00:14 Exploring the Writing World: Staying Focused and Motivated
- 03:10 Practical Tips to Stay Engaged in Writing
- 05:48 Leveraging Community and Resources for Writing Success
- 08:53 The Value of Writing Conferences and Networking
- 16:10 Closing Thoughts: Join the Writing World for Success
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
How do you keep your head in the writing game?
Speaker:We can help with that.
Speaker:Hi, and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast, I am Gena Maselli and this
Speaker:is my husband, Christopher Maselli.
Speaker:Hey, good to talk to you today.
Speaker:We are here talking today about something that's pretty important to us as writers,
Speaker:having been in this business for 30 years.
Speaker:Both of us.
Speaker:Well, I would say you've been in it for 30 years.
Speaker:I've been in it for 20, 25 years, the marketing 30 years, if I count marketing
Speaker:and publishing and that kind of thing.
Speaker:But really what we're talking about today is if you've heard us talk before,
Speaker:we've talked about the writing world and how important it is to stay in the
Speaker:writing world for emerging writers, for even experienced writers, there is an
Speaker:important part of staying in the writing world, but that begs the question,
Speaker:Chris, what is the writing world?
Speaker:What do we mean by that?
Speaker:The writing world is How can I say it better than this
Speaker:whole world of writing, right?
Speaker:It's everything that has to do with writing.
Speaker:It's keeping your head in the game with your writing, your publishing,
Speaker:your marketing your book, whatever it is you're focused on right now.
Speaker:It's making sure that's top of mind for you.
Speaker:Because, you know, this world is full of all kinds of distractions.
Speaker:And it's very easy to get yourself out of the writing world to forget
Speaker:why you are doing what you're doing.
Speaker:And so staying in the writing world is about keeping yourself
Speaker:focused on what's important to you.
Speaker:Yeah, it definitely is.
Speaker:You know, it's real easy to get caught up and to really even have a goal of
Speaker:something you're wanting to write, but then the world gets busy around you.
Speaker:And before you know it, time has passed and you're like, wait a minute,
Speaker:whatever happened to that book?
Speaker:Whatever happened to that blog?
Speaker:Whatever happened to that, those series of poems that I would,
Speaker:I was going to keep writing.
Speaker:And it's because you kind of get your mind off of it.
Speaker:We're all wired to whatever we focus on, that's what we move toward.
Speaker:And so for someone who's interested in becoming a published author or a writer
Speaker:of any type, it's important to keep your focus on writing and the writing world.
Speaker:So let's talk about that.
Speaker:Well, that's, it's your motivation, right?
Speaker:It's what keeps you moving in the right direction every single day.
Speaker:Because that's the thing.
Speaker:Most of us get excited at one point or another, we start what we want to
Speaker:do, we'll do it for a little while, and then we'll slowly lose that
Speaker:motivation, or we'll get, like I said, distracted, or something will come up.
Speaker:This happens all the time with exercise for me, right?
Speaker:I am motivated, I say I'm going to start exercising, and I do really well
Speaker:for several weeks, and then, Maybe you get sick or maybe you've got an
Speaker:appointment somewhere and you can't exercise that day or you know, something
Speaker:happens that interrupts your rhythm.
Speaker:And when that happens, it's so easy to stop.
Speaker:And so this is about making sure you're that writing is at the top of your mind.
Speaker:So you don't stop and you keep your motivation up.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So let's talk about some of the ways that you can keep
Speaker:your head in the writing game.
Speaker:And this seems pretty easy.
Speaker:You're already doing one of them right now, just by watching this podcast.
Speaker:We regularly, every week.
Speaker:We come and we talk about writing and we talk about publishing and
Speaker:we talk about marketing books and we talk about the writing world.
Speaker:And we do that because we want this to be a resource for writers
Speaker:and emerging writers, new writers.
Speaker:We want to help pass on what we have learned over the past 30 years about
Speaker:writing and publishing and book marketing.
Speaker:Yeah, and it's easier today than ever to stay connected in the writing
Speaker:world because all you need is a pair of headphones and whenever you go
Speaker:for a walk or go for a drive in your car you can put on that training like
Speaker:this kind of training or you can find other podcasts, you can find online
Speaker:videos, you can find lectures, whatever you want, that talk about writing.
Speaker:You can even take nowadays, you can take blogs that you're interested in,
Speaker:save them and have your computer read them to you when you're driving, right?
Speaker:So there is very easy to stay in the writing world with content like
Speaker:this and I think that's a big part of it because that keeps us focused.
Speaker:It does and you know the other thing that when I'm listening to or reading
Speaker:books on writing, or I'm listening to podcasts, or I'm listening to conference
Speaker:lectures or things like that about writing or marketing or publishing,
Speaker:you know, all of that is part of it.
Speaker:It's amazing how many times I come back and Chris can attest to this because then
Speaker:I just, I go, you know what I thought?
Speaker:And I give him all my ideas that came to my mind as I was out walking or
Speaker:running around or God help him when I'm getting ready in the morning He's
Speaker:not as much of a morning person as I am, but I, that is when a lot of
Speaker:times I have those ideas and I'm like, you know what I was thinking about?
Speaker:And he just looks at me like, can you just, deer in headlights, can
Speaker:you please just give me an hour?
Speaker:And then we can get back and talk about this.
Speaker:But the idea is by listening to those things, your mind starts going
Speaker:and you start thinking of how that can apply to what you're doing.
Speaker:And so as you listen to content, you're going to start going, Oh, maybe I could
Speaker:do this with my book, or maybe I need to do this with a chapter in my book, right?
Speaker:Maybe I need to write this a little different.
Speaker:And you'll start to get those things in your head, and you'll find yourself
Speaker:writing more than you ever have before.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And not only writing, but writing better, because you're incorporating
Speaker:these new ideas that you wouldn't have thought about on your own.
Speaker:So we've talked about podcasts.
Speaker:We've talked about conference lectures that you can get, even if you're
Speaker:not able to go to the conferences, you can still a lot of times get
Speaker:the lectures after the fact, and you can listen to them as you go.
Speaker:You can also, there's other online resources out there.
Speaker:There's Facebook groups, different online forums that you can be a part
Speaker:of, different websites that you can be a part of, and there's even places
Speaker:within your community, probably.
Speaker:Oh, this is a big thing, right?
Speaker:Because in your community, it becomes a social something then.
Speaker:You start to talk to other writers, other people who are just interested in
Speaker:writing sometimes, but that will spur you on too, because you're going to find
Speaker:that people are at all different levels.
Speaker:And even if you're a beginner, you may find yourself not as much
Speaker:of a beginner as someone else.
Speaker:And so as you're helping other people, you will again, spur this
Speaker:whole writing thing within you.
Speaker:You'll keep your head in the game.
Speaker:That's what this is about.
Speaker:And you'll find yourself moving forward.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you find those a lot of times you can check your library, your local
Speaker:library will have reading like book groups, but they'll also have writing
Speaker:groups that you can talk things out.
Speaker:You can look on some of the different associations online that
Speaker:you can find for your particular genre that you like to write in.
Speaker:A lot of times those are there are groups.
Speaker:And if there aren't, you can start one yourself.
Speaker:And we also would be remiss if we did not invite you to join ours.
Speaker:We have an online group that meets every Wednesday at noon central Writing Moments.
Speaker:We get together with other writers and we have a short training with
Speaker:either Chris or myself or our our contributor, Rene Gutteridge.
Speaker:She's there as well.
Speaker:And we get together and one of us will do a short training after we
Speaker:do a little bit of meet and greet.
Speaker:We like to keep up with what's going on and everybody's
Speaker:live and just hear from them.
Speaker:And then we'll do 45 minutes of just co-writing together, and we do that.
Speaker:It's a great way, Chris, to just get together and write together,
Speaker:but also to encourage one another and also to learn from one another.
Speaker:You know what I love about it is that it's an appointment
Speaker:you can put on your calendar.
Speaker:When I have writing moments on my calendar each week, I know that day, at that
Speaker:time, I'm going to be writing, right?
Speaker:There are too many things in this world that can take our writing time away.
Speaker:But when we have a set appointment on our calendar, where we go and meet where
Speaker:there's other people there, even if they're just on video in the corner of
Speaker:your screen, there's something about that.
Speaker:We just had someone just this last week who told us, Hey, I just finished my book.
Speaker:What I came into writing moments to do because this was here.
Speaker:Having that appointment every week made all the difference.
Speaker:So please, yeah, join us.
Speaker:Go to writingmomentum.
Speaker:com and you can find all about it.
Speaker:But whatever you do, you want to get together with other people.
Speaker:And another place you can do that, of course, is Writers Conferences.
Speaker:We've talked about those.
Speaker:They're all around the world, no matter where you live.
Speaker:There are Writers Conferences, usually within driving
Speaker:distance, that you can go to.
Speaker:And a lot of times you can find them genre based too, so you might find one just for
Speaker:children's writing, or just for mystery writing, or just for romance writing.
Speaker:Right, exactly.
Speaker:And they're at different price points too, you know.
Speaker:If you go online and you look them up and you're like, Oh my gosh, they just
Speaker:suggested something that was $1, 500.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:The $1, 500 one may not be where you're at right now.
Speaker:Start with a smaller one.
Speaker:There are ones that are in local communities, all over the world, like
Speaker:Chris said, that are maybe just an evening or maybe just a one day conference.
Speaker:I like those sometimes.
Speaker:I like the one day ones cause you go in and it's like this intense for one day.
Speaker:It's an intensive.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:And when you go to these, let's talk about what you're going to, you can expect to
Speaker:learn when you go to any of these places where you will be in the writing world.
Speaker:What's one thing that you like to go and learn, Chris?
Speaker:Well, I always loved learning about some of the latest techniques, right?
Speaker:We all write a little different.
Speaker:So I love going somewhere and learning about how does
Speaker:this author plot their book?
Speaker:Or how does this author, you know, even come up with ideas?
Speaker:Because you'll find that everyone does it a little differently.
Speaker:I've seen authors who You still use a pad of paper and a pen and that's
Speaker:how they write and plot their books.
Speaker:I know others who use these very technical programs.
Speaker:Some use spreadsheets.
Speaker:Can you imagine using a spreadsheet to plot your book?
Speaker:And yet, you know what?
Speaker:When you see what they do, it's super effective because they're able to track
Speaker:all their characters, all their locations.
Speaker:All the plot points, make sure they hit all the beats.
Speaker:So don't disparage any kind of plotting device.
Speaker:If you find something that works for you, use it.
Speaker:Yeah, and you know, the other thing that I love to go is and think
Speaker:this is so important, this market, this industry, is changing so fast.
Speaker:It is changing so fast.
Speaker:You go back and you read things that people were talking about just 15 years
Speaker:ago about publishing and a lot of that information does not apply anymore
Speaker:because things are changing so much.
Speaker:So that's one thing that I think is fascinating is to learn about the
Speaker:publishing process and about all the opportunities that are available to
Speaker:people and to writers and because now, you know, when we first got started, it
Speaker:was all about traditional publishing.
Speaker:Unless you were a huge organization, you, that was the only way that you were
Speaker:going to self publish and be successful.
Speaker:That is no longer the case.
Speaker:There are a lot of very successful independent authors that are publishing
Speaker:their books, but they're learning about what other Is available to them.
Speaker:How are they gonna do it?
Speaker:Not only that, but we have seen Independent writers who've been approached
Speaker:by large publishing companies to say hey come Let us go ahead and distribute
Speaker:your books and you know what they said No, I know that I can do a better
Speaker:job myself because they've learned What a lot of writers don't know and
Speaker:that is how to navigate that world on their own and so you've learned that
Speaker:kind of thing at writers conferences and I think it's always telling.
Speaker:You can kind of tell when you talk with a writer just for a short bit of time.
Speaker:If they've been to a conference in the let's say, the last three to five years,
Speaker:because if they haven't, they're gonna have very different views of writing
Speaker:than you might have if you've attended conferences because you're gonna be up
Speaker:to date on some of the latest approaches versus those who maybe are stuck in a
Speaker:little older school way of thinking, which there's nothing wrong with that because
Speaker:we can always learn from each other.
Speaker:But, when you're up to date with the latest modes of writing and publishing,
Speaker:you're going to find it so much easier to find success than if you don't
Speaker:know how the market works today.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And I think there's a lot of those situations that come up, whether
Speaker:It's the craft of writing, the publishing process, or marketing.
Speaker:There are these common questions that if you are sitting by yourself
Speaker:in front of your computer trying to just write without being in the
Speaker:marketing or in the writing world, it'll be really easy for you to think.
Speaker:That what you're facing is unique, that you're the only person dealing with it.
Speaker:And when you get into the writing world and you start getting around to
Speaker:other writers and just that whole, the people who are in the publishing world,
Speaker:people who are in the book marketing world, you realize these are common
Speaker:things that we're all dealing with.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:That person I just met at that conference or that person I'm talking to online or
Speaker:that person at that writer's group or whatever They've already been through it
Speaker:and they figured out how to navigate it.
Speaker:They figured out how to cross the hurdle
Speaker:Yeah, and there's something to be said to about just finding people
Speaker:who can be friends, that you can be friends with, that are writers,
Speaker:that you can get together and just talk about writing things with.
Speaker:Okay, so we've talked about groups, we've talked about conferences,
Speaker:we've talked about, you know, all these different things you can do,
Speaker:but sometimes it just helps to have some people in your life that you
Speaker:can share about writing one on one.
Speaker:So when you go to a conference, or you attend a writing group.
Speaker:Look for people that you're like, Hey, I might be able to connect with them.
Speaker:And then invite them out to coffee, right?
Speaker:And talk about writing, talk about just what you've learned or what you've
Speaker:heard lately and what you'll find is you'll be sharpening one another and
Speaker:becoming even better writers together.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:I mean, and Chris and I have been part of Masterminds too with writers.
Speaker:That's another opportunity.
Speaker:It's just a small group that you get together with online.
Speaker:But it is so fun, when these writers have very full lives, they have full
Speaker:families, they have full work lives.
Speaker:They have all these different areas that are just full, but you know what?
Speaker:They still need some writer friends who understand the struggles
Speaker:that they're dealing with.
Speaker:And also some of the exciting things that happen.
Speaker:You know, have you ever told somebody something that was really great and then
Speaker:they just look at you like, Oh, great.
Speaker:They have no frame of reference, but you know what?
Speaker:Those writers are going to understand your frame of reference.
Speaker:They're going to understand, oh my gosh, this book or this
Speaker:chapter has been so hard.
Speaker:And I finally figured it out.
Speaker:And I finally, it finally came together.
Speaker:And oh my gosh, it was better than I expected.
Speaker:They're right there with you.
Speaker:Or I just published my book on Amazon and 10 people downloaded it and
Speaker:they will celebrate with you, right?
Speaker:Where other people may be like, huh, I don't get it.
Speaker:Even people who love you, even your mom and your spouse and your partner, they
Speaker:are going to still be excited for you, but they're not going to totally understand
Speaker:until you connect with the writers.
Speaker:So that's why join the writing world.
Speaker:That's why keep your head in the game.
Speaker:Because as you do, you'll become a better writer overall.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I also want to say that being a part of writing and as
Speaker:you start connecting with them.
Speaker:There's also the element that you are going to leapfrog ahead in your
Speaker:learning and you're going to bypass hopefully some of the mistakes that
Speaker:are very common that can tank your book or your writing that can keep
Speaker:you from going to that next level.
Speaker:So there's some of those writing or publishing or marketing mistakes
Speaker:that or things that you're just not going to know as well that they're
Speaker:going to help you leapfrog forward and get to where you want to be.
Speaker:Yes, 100%.
Speaker:Hey, we appreciate that you have made us a part of your writing world today.
Speaker:We really count it a privilege to be able to talk with you
Speaker:about some of these things.
Speaker:That's the whole reason we're doing this is we just want to be able to share about
Speaker:writing with others and hopefully make us all stronger and sharper together.
Speaker:Now, if you have found this beneficial, would you go ahead and like and
Speaker:subscribe if you're on something like YouTube or in your podcast app so
Speaker:that you don't miss another episode.
Speaker:And, tell a friend about it.
Speaker:If you have a friend who you think this would benefit them, they need to
Speaker:have their head in the writing game.
Speaker:And this, just knowing that, knowing some of the things we've
Speaker:talked about will benefit them.
Speaker:Go ahead and share this with them and let them know, because we believe that
Speaker:it's all of us united that make this all come together in a better way.
Speaker:Because together, Gena, what?
Speaker:We have Writing Momentum.
Speaker:Bye bye.
