By W. Terry Whalin
As a writer, do you have habits? I'm a creature of
a series of habits which I've developed over my years in this
business. For example, I begin each day
spending time reading the Bible. It's a pattern that I've done for many years.
Each year I select a different version of the Bible to read throughout the
year. This year I'm reading Eugene Peterson's The Daily Message. It's
part of my spiritual habit that feeds into my life as a writer and editor. Your
habit for meditation may be different but I encourage you to have some sort of
meditation to begin your day.
Besides spiritual habits, I have habits with
Twitter. In past entries, I've
detailed how each day I'm using tools (mostly free) to grow my presence in the
market and community—and also increase my presence on social media. These habits
do not take much time but have consistently grown my presence—so they will be
something I will continue in the days ahead.
I have a number of other habits in my
life—consistent practices and actions. During the last year, I've stepped up my
consumption of books by listening to more audio books through Overdrive. Recently I completed listening to the audio
book of The Power of
Habit by Charles Dihigg. The book explains the science and
practical nature of habits including how we form new habits and replace old
ones. I found the stories fascinating and informative. Until listening to this
book, I didn't know about the history of the creation of toothpaste and how
brushing teeth became a habit. If you want to learn about this important aspect
of life, I recommend you track down this book through your library (Overdrive like I did) or purchase a copy and read it, then
apply it to your own life.
Another resource on habits that I recently read is
Millionaire Success
Habits by Dean
Graziosi. I enjoyed the book and learned a great deal from it. Apart from
the book Graziosi has created The Better Life Challenge where in 30 days you can transform
your life in as little as three minutes. This resources is FREE and you don't
have to read the book—but simply take action every day for 30 days. Just use this link to
learn more details and sign up to learn through this tool.
The writing life is much more of a marathon than a sprint. I
often meet writers who believe that one book or one action will propel them to
bestseller status. Sadly this belief is a publishing myth. Repeatedly I hear
about writers who are called an “overnight” success because they've suddenly
sold a lot of books. Yet when you look into the details, you will normally
discover this author has been in the trenches faithfully working for years to
achieve such a position.
What skills or habits do you want to develop in the
months ahead? Are you taking consistent action to gain the knowledge and
insights you need to get there? Tell me about your plans in the comment below
and if I can help you, let me know.
Tweetable:
Are you developing writer habits? Check out these resources. (ClickToTweet)
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W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James
Publishing. He is the author of more than 60 books including Book Proposals
That Sell, 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success. Terry has almost 200,000 twitter
followers and lives in Colorado.
Writing, publishing, book marketing, all offered by experienced authors, writers, and marketers
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5 comments:
I like to check my Amazon Vine account to see what they are offering for review that day. It doesn't take a lot of time, and it's sort of gets me started. Don't try to talk me out of it, Terry! I have to get my fingers in shape.
Carolyn,
I don't use Amazon Vine so it is not one of my habits. I'm glad you find it worthwhile.
Terry
Terry, great writing tips and tools. I like the idea of reading a different Bible every year. And, I love the idea of transforming one's life in as little as 3 minutes a day!
Karen,
Thank you for the feedback. I'm always looking for new ideas to try and incorporate into my daily habits.
Terry
Terry, I enjoyed your terrific post. It's a big help to me because I'm preparing to launch my first book and need all the good habits I can get!
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