Stuck with not moving ahead on your writing project? Too much advice from too many people – and none of it works for you?
The first step to success as an author is to identify your author personality. By knowing your author personality you can save yourself pain and frustration as you move through the research/write/market/produce/repurpose cycles of a writing project.
There are several questions to ask yourself to determine your author personality. Each of these questions affects, to a lesser or greater degree, your success in the different cycles of a writing project. Consider #1: Are you an extrovert or an introvert?
If you are a mid-to-extreme extrovert, you may find that locking yourself away to work on a writing project is not only difficult, but impossible. You need PEOPLE to discuss your ideas with, PEOPLE around you in your environment, PEOPLE interrupting you frequently before you start daydreaming about other projects, PEOPLE to take your mind off the work, and PEOPLE to reconnect you to your content.
If you are a mid-to-extreme introvert, you avoid people so they won’t distract you from your work and so you can concentrate. Period.
If you have heard about authors who go away to where there is no phone, internet or contact with humans for weeks at a time to write, you can be sure that if they have successful writing, they are an introvert. Extroverts begin to get stir crazy after the first four hours, and search out the closest Starbucks within the first 24 hours to regain their social sanity. Escaping to the woods to write is not a successful strategy for extroverts.
Keys for writing success for extroverts:
1. Minimize the aloneness of writing by scheduling social time into your day so you know how long you ‘still have to work’ before you can take a break and communicate with another human. Acknowledge your author personality – the goal is to get the project done, not to get it done a certain way.
2. Work in coffee shops and restaurants where there are humans about you, but not necessarily ‘with’ you. Pay attention to where you are the most productive: is it an upfront window seat where you see people walk by or a back table space that is quieter?
3. Frequently get feedback on your ideas from colleagues. Pick up the phone, call by Skype or meet in person to verbalize an idea that you are trying to flesh out. Extroverts need an opportunity to bounce ideas around more so than introverts.
4. Writing is an alone activity and extreme extroverts will be easily distracted not only by other humans, but by other tasks. Set up an environment where only your current writing materials surround you. Box up all other material that you won’t be focusing on until after the writing project is done, label the boxes and put them in another room, in the basement, or even in storage.
Keys for writing success for introverts:
Most information on writing is for the introvert author personality. Writing itself is a solitary role that introverts are more comfortable with than extroverts. But think about these ideas:
1. Identify your best writing times – as an introvert you may be driven to write long hours and some of those hours may be more productive than others. Pay attention to these swings in productivity and energy so you know when you are in a declining return and better served by resting or doing other tasks.
2. Be willing to tell others that when you are writing you need to be left undisturbed. If you don’t live alone, this may require some tough conversations to identify a quiet place where you can work. Consider going away to be alone to work if you can’t find the quiet and undistracted space at home, even if it is at the library for a few serene hours.
Distraction is a powerful obstacle to completing a writing project. Recognize your author personality and put into place the guidelines you need to succeed.