Leonelle - The 8-Minute Writing Habit: Create a Consistent Writing Habit That Works With Your Busy Lifestyle

Contents

The 8-Minute Writing Habit

Create a Consistent Writing Habit That Works With Your Busy Lifestyle

Get on the ARC List!

If you're interested in getting Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) of upcoming books in the Growth Hacking For Storytellers series, please go here for instructions: ProseOnFire.com/Reviewers

As an independent author, reviews are one of the most important ways I have to get the word out. Your review will encourage others to grab the book. Go to ProseOnFire.com/pof8 if you want to leave a review of The 8-Minute Writing Habit and help others discover a new way to write!

Introduction

Do you ever wonder what it would really take to get your project or book done, finally? To not only get your book done, but to do so amidst all the commitments that you've already madeyour full-time job, your spouse, your children, your friends and family, your continuing education, and all the other commitments you've made to your church or community?

My name is Monica Leonelle, and when I published my first book on writing productivity, Write Better, Faster , I didn't expect it to be so popular among people who hadn't yet published books. Because I am a full-time author, I figured it would be more helpful to other authors who already had a solid system for writing, but were just looking to tweak their processes and find optimizations that would help them write faster than they currently were.

What I found, however, is that the people who needed the book most were struggling writers. They were people who had full-time jobs but lots of side projects, people who had families but a small bit of free time, and people who had big dreams to publish either their first book or series in the next year.

Most of my readers were at the beginning of their writing journeys, where they were trying to figure out how to sit down and write a book. For some of those readers, Write Better, Faster helped things "click" for them. I started hearing stories from hundreds of people who had unlocked their writing potential using Write Better, Faster :

"Even though I'd been aware of how beats work, I didn't fully get it until this book, and then went on to churn out a novel in 5 weeks instead of my usual 12 - 18 months." ~ Sable Jordan, author of the Kizzie Baldwin thriller series "Even with these hacks and as a pantser (a seat-of-the-pants writer who uses only a minimal outline)I'm hitting 2400 words per hour. I've written over 20K words in about eight days, and that with a day or two off." ~ Numinous Dreamer, an Amazon reviewer "I've already begun putting some of these ideas into practice, and with very little effort have raised my writing speed dramatically... After a little trial-and-error I'm already averaging at 1,500 words per hourwhich is a lot faster than before!" ~ Edison T. Crux, author of The Enoc Tales series "Some great tips from Monica, and every writer, no matter where on the journey, can learn something new." ~ Joanna Penn, NYT and USA Today bestselling author of thriller under J.F. Penn, author of How To Market a Book and founder of TheCreativePenn.com "One of the best how-to-be-a-writer books I've read in the last year. Worth 10 times the price." ~ Kevin Kruse, NY Times bestselling author, Forbes columnist and serial entrepreneur "Record today: 538 words, 8 min. Thanks Monica, you've really inspired me to write more better faster." ~ Honore Corder, Executive coach and bestselling author of Prosperity For Writers, Vision to Reality and the Successful Single Mom series "Although I'm nowhere near 4000 words an hour, I do see a tangible improvement. Pomodoros, in particular, have worked very well for me, as I'm the kind of person who gets easily distracted." ~ G. M. Giudicelli, author of Le premier homme sur Mars sera une blonde "The information about the Pomodoro Method alone helped me to triple my writing speed." ~ M. Barstow, Amazon reviewer "Just did 20 mins of writing new fiction words. 2613 word count in 20 mins! Yup, saw that right." ~ Winter Bayne, author of the Hawkhurst Saga "I felt like I was reading a book I wrotewithout having to do all the workReading the journal section was like reading thoughts that I have on a daily basis and I found it helpful that she did all the legwork in self-discovery." ~ Plume33, Amazon reviewer "I've always avoided spreadsheets for tracking my work, but I started doing it after reading this and it helped tremendously." ~ Michael La Ronn, author of the Android X series "Since I've started reading this book, I was able to triple my weekly word count." ~ Julia Mayer, author of the Old Souls series

Despite all this amazing feedback and these fantastic testimonials for how the Write Better, Faster framework could truly work for others, I also started hearing feedback from people who loved the book but weren't necessarily seeing a ton of progress in their current writing habits.

Hold up! For those of you who don't know me very well yet, I'll be honestI'm not the type of person who gives up easily when I set my mind to something. When I wrote Write Better, Faster , I wanted to show people that writing didn't have to be hard, time-consuming, painful, or something you do only once in awhile.

That's why it KILLED me to see people who had so much potential but who were still struggling to create a consistent writing habit, even after reading Write Better, Faster .

So, I surveyed past readers of the book to get to the bottom of this and uncover what gaps I had left in my original book that could be addressed going forward. I was flooded with some surprising insights that I didn't expect.

Do you see yourself in any of the following?

"I have a hard time keeping myself writing daily. There are times when I think to myself, 'Would I be better off getting a second job?'" "What if I write what I'm passionate about and it doesn't sell?" "Not sure I should allow myself to expel the effort in a potentially high risk/low return field." "I'm stuck in a place where I'm just not sure what the next steps are to building my career, so I will just keep creating more work and hoping that sooner or later something gives." "I keep trying to find ways to make money, because I don't have the confidence I can make a living off my books. When I sit down and tell myself to just write, my anxiety level goes through the roof." "I don't think I'm particularly good at doing more than one thing. For example, I can write or I can market, but doing one drains me of the will to do the other." "How do I get buy-in from my family?" "Actually sitting down and doing the work is my biggest obstacle." "I don't have a clear workspace of my own it can be hard to stop others from (unintentionally) interrupting me." "The big hurdle, I think, is keeping myself focused." "My day job sucks up my creativity and energy." "My struggle is limited time (I have a full-time day job) and limited energy." "I work full time, I get very tired. I know if I prioritise it, I can find time, but it's hard to keep track. Work drains my creativity too." "I have a full-time job and take care of 2 awesome kidsleaving me with little time and energy to write what I want to write." "Need to hack my way out of my current schedule somehow will maintaining my commitments to my priorities (job, family)" "I have a day job and I fell that it's taking most of my time and energy. So usually, when I get home at night, I can't write anymore." "Fighting my Internal Perfectionist. It's hard for me to see where there really *is* a problem, and where it's just my Inner P being critical." "I am totally stuck and in my head." "I'm stuck in research mode." "I need to focus better on the writing at hand. As it is, I have been spending writing time for research." "I'm not confident in my planning process." "I'm blocked on rewrites!" "My first draft is a holy mess & facing it in all its ugliness feels overwhelming."

I realized quickly that my first book had made a terribly incorrect assumption. I assumed that most people who wanted to write were looking for how to get it done faster . When in fact, in looking at the feedback, it became clear that many people were struggling to write at all or consistently.

Next page