4 Tips to Keep on Track by Linda Charles

4 Tips to keep on track - by Linda Charles

We create characters who are active people going about their ordinary lives, and we keep tossing things at them to force them to perform and push their way through all sorts of conflict to find a place of love, calm, acceptance and happiness. To give our characters a push along we introduce an antagonist. It’s often said we’re the antagonist in our own lives.

How many of us at the end of the year look back at what we’ve achieved in our writing life? What do you take from it? Are you happy with it?

From my experience, it can often look at little scatty, a few stories started and maybe one finished, but to achieve that I’ve allowed the social media marketing part of my writing life to drift.

We all want improvement in our writing life. We all want to see growth in every area covering our writing, sales, networking, newsletters – the list can be endless and daunting. To keep on top of it all it’s quite the juggling act. Each area needs attention and has to be faced and it’s sobering to remember all those arms are inter-connected and don’t survive without the other.

Here are a few things that have helped me come up with a plan to start making some progress:

Lists

They are so helpful in all sorts of ways. They keep you on track of the immediate you need to do and for forward planning.

Re-read your lists, don’t toss them in the bin once you’ve completed them. Sometimes they spark a new thought and it can be that idea that brings together a few other adventures/projects together. Create a few lists which help you plan ahead:

Immediate – next hours

Medium – within the month

Long term – without six months

Yearly – within the year ahead

Habit

Change – to grow you have no choice, but to change. It means swapping one habit for another one. Don’t resent it, take it slowly, one change per week, or per month until it’s routine and then move onto the next habit. My new habits included making lists, sticking to them and working on each sub-list generated from the medium list. For me, producing a sub-list proved vital especially when it came to researching books planned a year in advance. I now turn up to write a story prepared rather than spending days and weeks researching.

Follow through

Have a weekly meeting with yourself and chart progress. Charting progress is so important. The meeting can take as long as you like, but it does help to keep you on track and to refresh your goals if needed. It re-engages and re-energises you with your current story and the future one. It helps with planning social media engagements which take up a fair amount of time.

Honesty

Be honest with yourself. If something isn’t working, think of ways that work for you and take the necessary steps to make it work. There are so many self-help books, apps, and advice around that it’s easy to take on someone else’s plan for growth that doesn’t quite work for you. It’s so easy to get caught up with another person’s enthusiasm about their plan and put it in place. It doesn’t hurt to pause a little, reflect, and make a few adjustments. Here is the time to be honest with yourself and work through what is not working. You’re not in competition with other people, but you do want growth in your writing life. We all work in different ways and it won’t hurt to re-evaluate the plan you’ve taken on board. Take a long and hard look at it and make the necessary changes that fit for you to make things happen.

Writing this blog has cemented some of my own plans and given me time to re-think a few of my own action plans. If you have any habits that work for you, please let us know. 

Thank you for the invite to write this blog. I’ve been fortunate to be part of the https://bindarracreekromance.com/a-town-reborn/ and have just released the third book in the series – No Looking Back. It can be found on Amazon - https://amzn.to/303nrQW

About the book:

Sometimes it’s good to take a risk…

Hannah McKenna loves working with horses and is trying hard to keep it altogether after her first horse syndication deal turns sour. Since then she’s been careful and played life straight, and has had enough. She runs into trouble when she meets Blake Hudson – the man who put together the failed deal – who rescues her when she takes a nasty tumble from a horse.

Blake Hudson is known as Mr Nice Guy, but there are dark shadows in his past. He’s the dealmaker, the perfect go-between who puts together horse syndications and once the deal is done he moves on. Problem is, Hannah is the exception and he can’t keep away, but fears she will walk if she knew the truth about his past.

He hadn’t bargained on dealing with a mischievous third party called attraction.

When she discovers the truth, both realise they could lose everything, including each other.

Linda Charles has been reading romance since high school. Her reading life started very early, but changed direction after she read Gone with the Wind. She was born in Sydney and spent her teenage years in drama classes, and then taught Speech & Drama for many years.  She still loves to go to the theatre, but her plan was always to write. Linda lives in Newcastle and when she's not writing, she can be found walking, browsing the bookshops or planning her next holiday.

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No Looking Back: Bindarra Creek: A Town Reborn

Hannah McKenna loves working with horses and is trying hard to keep it altogether after her first horse deal turns sour. She runs into trouble when she meets Blake Hudson – the man who put together the failed deal – who rescues her when she takes a nasty tumble from a horse. She likes him, simple as, and finds plenty of reasons to make him want to stay. 

Blake Hudson feels like an imposter because he knows loved ones would walk if they knew the truth. He’s the dealmaker, the perfect go-between who puts together horse syndications and once the deal is done he moves on. His life takes a turn when he meets Hannah, the woman at the centre of his worst deal. Problem is he can’t keep away, but fears she will walk if she knew the truth about his past. 
He hadn’t bargained on dealing with a mischievous third party called attraction.

When she discovers the truth, both realise they could lose everything, including each other.

Buy on:

Amazon Kindle

Amazon Aust

Amazon UK