Tag: know your strengths

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The Intentional Writer

How to Optimize Your Writing Sessions

The intentional writer

Do you feel guilty because you can’t crank out two thousand words every morning like your writer friends? Have you ever been frustrated when you tried a writing expert’s sure-fire method to write faster, only to find you’re writing time was worse than ever?  

Me, too.

The fact is, each of us needs to figure out what writing process works best for the way our brain works, and our unique writing personality. That being said, most writers fall into one of two general categories, those who work best in small spurts and those who work best in longer, more focused writing sessions.  We all have a sweet spot that represents the optimum number of words our particular writer brain likes to handle in one sitting.

Optimizing writing sessions for small spurt writers

Are you a multitasking pro? Do you enjoy writing in coffee shops or the local park, and you often squeeze little spurts of writing into your life when you can, you are probably a short spurt writer. If so, your optimum writing session is probably in the 400 – 600 words range. If you’re a small spurt writer, you can productively use small pockets of time to work on your project. However, when you force yourself to keep working until you’ve reached 1,500 words in one sitting, you’ll struggle. You’ll find it tough to keep focused, so your productivity will drop, and you’ll feel frustrated.  

Good news! You can reach that 1,500 word goal, but you’ll be more successful when you do it in two or three smaller sessions rather than one continuous stretch. Also, you’ll probably write better at each session if you switch tasks and work on something else in between your writing sessions.

Optimizing writing sessions for deep focus writers

If you need silence and solitude to do your best work, you are probably a long session writer. Your optimum writing sessions are more like 1,000 – 2,000 words. You write best when you can go deep into your story world. It may take some time to get into the flow, and once you find it you don’t want to be dragged away until you’ve finished the whole scene.

Like all humans, you eventually need to come up for air and give your brain a brief rest, but you may find that you can utilize your time most productively when you allow yourself to focus on several writing sessions in a row, rather than switching from writing to other tasks and then back to writing.

Which is best?

The one that works for you!

Neither style is any better or worse. The key to becoming a more productive writer is to figure out your optimum writing session scenario and then plan your writing accordingly.

Do you need to stop beating yourself up because you can’t concentrate on writing while waiting for your kids to at soccer practice? Do you need to give yourself permission to quit forcing yourself to complete marathon writing sessions?

If you’re not sure which style works best for you, experiment. Try setting a variety of goals from short 300-word sessions to longer ones of 1,000-words or more. See how long you can work before your brain starts to lose focus.

This isn’t rocket science, so don’t get hung up on finding your exact ideal word count. The goal is to determine the approximate number of words or length of writing sessions that works best for your brain, and then do what you can to create writing times around that length.

A note on editing: Editing is not the same kind of thinking as composing. Therefore, most writers have a different ideal writing session length when it comes to editing their ms.  Once again, you can experiment to find your optimum editing session length.

Learn more

If you want to learn more about optimizing your writing sessions, I recommend you read The Chunky Method Handbook by Allie Pleiter.

I hope this post has encouraged you in your writing journey this week.

Lisa E Betz

An engineer-turned-mystery-writer, Lisa E. Betz infuses her novels with authentic characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her debut novel, Death and a Crocodile, won several awards, including Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021). Her second mystery, Fountains and Secrets, released in January, 2022.

Lisa combines her love of research with her quirky imagination to bring the world of the early church to life. She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in the Livia Aemilia Mysteries. Lisa directs church dramas, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit her at lisaebetz.com or her Facebook page, LisaEBetzWriter.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Know Your Strengths

Because of my brain injury, I’m a big fan of making progress. I learned after my accident progress is measured in baby steps. For a T.B.I survivor every baby step is a huge victory.

As 2020 forges ahead, most people have set goals they want to reach by the end of the year. A popular theme this year is the “debt-free decade” movement. We know we don’t become debt-free overnight, but through the process of lifestyle changes that help us cut back on weekly expenses. Each penny saved helps us get closer to the goal of being debt-free.

Others are more concerned about their health and are taking steps to improve their lives through daily healthy choices: eating healthier, drinking more water and fewer sodas, and being more active.

But, before anyone can begin the journey to debt-freeness or improving their health, we must first understand where we’re at. A lot of banks offer financial assessment tools for new account holders and most gyms give health assessments to new members. It’s also why we get annual physicals.

When I started rehabilitation, I had to go through a series of exams to assess my abilities. Tests ranged from cognitive to visual and physical activities.

These tests were embarrassing to me at times. I was in my early 20s and didn’t want to think anything was wrong with me. It wasn’t until I walked into a doorjamb during a physical therapy session that I realized the need for these tests. It’s pretty standard for brain injury survivors to go through a series of comprehensive exams.

  • Speech and language tests – a speech pathologist evaluates a patient’s speech and language skills, this includes monitoring the patient’s strength and coordination of muscles that control speech {personally I spoke monotone during this test.}
  • Cognitive and neuropsychological tests – the processes of thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, information processing, and memory.
  • Physical and ambulatory deficit – the patient’s ability to function physically {I was in a wheelchair for about a month after entering rehabilitation and I couldn’t wheel myself.}

Assessment tests are fairly standard within the writing community as well. If you decide to pursue writing as a professional career, more than likely you’ve already taken your share of writing assessments. As writers, we need to know our strengths for many reasons: understanding, training and career focus are just a few reasons to assess your writing skills.

Assessments?

Schools use different assessments to test a student’s strengths.

Before non-native English speaking students enter college, they have their English skills tested through the TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language. The test assesses foreign nationals’ mastery of English in four areas (reading, writing, speaking, and listening.)

Colleges require students to take English assessment tests upon being accepted. The assessments help place students in the classes at the appropriate level for their understanding. These tests assess punctuation, grammar, organization and other areas of the writing craft.

When I entered a professional writing program, my first instructor had a unique way of judging my writing capabilities. I’ve shared before of a lesson I learned the hard way.

Upon receiving my acceptance and introductory packet, I hastily emailed my instructor to introduce myself and hit the send button without stopping or missing a beat.

A few days later I received her reply and was heartbroken. She told me she didn’t believe I was ready for the program and needed to go back to school and take some remedial English classes and I was promptly kicked out of the program.

Later, I opened my assignment workbook to find my first assignment was to email my instructor and introduce myself. The problem was I didn’t know and never proofread my email.

I quickly contacted the head of the program and explained my story. Jerry B. Jenkins decided to give me a second chance, but offered some sage advice. “From now on you have to think of yourself as a professional writer. Everything you write needs to be proofread and edited, even if it’s only a letter to your sweetheart.”

This assessment of my skills has turned me into the ferocious self-editor I am. Although I still make mistakes, I am determined to find them and have them corrected.

The incident in the hospital taught me to pay attention to my surroundings, focus and avoid distractions. I believe these now have become my strengths. Living with a disability has given me limitations, but I’ve learned to use my strengths.

Hitting a doorjamb showed me where I needed to start.

Where to start?

Most people will start fitness routines because they know their health isn’t where they want it to be, they know their weaknesses already.

Unfortunately, they don’t know where to start. When I’m working out at the gym I always tell people that a healthy lifestyle starts at home. That’s where to start if you want to get stronger. Below are four basics you can work on at home to improve your health.

  • Better nutrition: Eating healthy is only part of a healthy lifestyle.
  • Hydration: Drinking less coffee and sodas doesn’t substitute for drinking more water.
  • Sleep: No one can make up for lack of sleep; I cannot overemphasize the importance of sleep.
  • Stay active: You don’t need a gym membership to be active, get going and keep moving, no excuses.

Knowing where to start can help our writing also, because writing is more than just sitting down and spewing words on a page. Preparation is the starting point; this involves research and studying, time management and goals. I’ve shared before my writing process, now it’s time for you to know your strengths.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writer Encouragement

Know Your Writing Strengths

I recently watched an interview with best-selling author John Grisham and was delighted to hear him talk about his strengths in writing. On the opposite end, he also spoke of his weaknesses.

In this interview, done on the release of his 5,000th book—perhaps I exaggerate—he shared a story about writing a love scene for one of his novels. He said he asked his wife to read it to see what she thought. Instead of constructive feedback, he said he could hear her upstairs, laughing uproariously. Having read a “love scene” in one of his many books, I wasn’t laughing at him but I definitely agreed with his wife that writing romance was not his strength. 😉

As a writer of historical romance, I can testify that kissing scenes can be a challenge. But when it’s well written, it will bring your readers back to your swoony novels again and again.

 

Now, if you were to ask me about writing scenes in an action thriller or a fantasy novel, I’d probably stare at you with a lost expression on my face. I’m always in wonder when others can carry these genres off well, with believable plots and characters. Me? I’ll stick with a tender kissing scene any day. 😉

So what are your strengths? If you’re not sure, ask yourself a few questions:

  1. What are your favorite books to read? Do you ever imagine certain scenes being written in a different way?
  2. Can you imagine scenes playing in your mind as though they are a movie image in your brain?
  3. When you write a scene and read it back to yourself, does it move you in some way, whether to tears or perhaps to stir adrenaline from the suspense?
  4. Perhaps most important, do you have an honest person who supports you in your writing endeavors yet will be truthful in their critique? Someone like John Grisham’s wife?

By understanding your strengths, it helps you then to understand your weaknesses. Does that mean you should never write anything in which you feel lacking? Not necessarily. But it should send you a signal that, if you want to write a love scene or a police drama or a comedy, you may need to study up and improve your skills in that area.

 

Perhaps for Mr. Grisham, he is wiser to stick with his legal dramas that he pens so well. Even he had to admit in his interview that he was not adept at writing a love scene.

I actually found encouragement in his interview. Not every writer has to do everything well.

Carry on

Elaine Marie Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherless and Bethany’s Calendar. Her latest release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She penned the three-book Deer Run Saga and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She freely admits to being a history geek. Look for her upcoming series set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. The 4-book series is entitled Dawn of America and begins with a prequel novella (War’s Respite) and Book 2, a novel entitled Love’s Kindling. You can visit her site at www.elainemariecooper.com