“The best time to plan a book is when you’re washing the dishes.”
-Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha's pretty great, isn't she?
It's amazing how inspiration can strike anywhere, at any time. You can sit in front of your computer for hours, agonizing over the next step on your character's journey and get nothing - but BAM! Right as you're standing in the grocery check out line, it comes to you.
This is one of my favorite aspects of writing. I came up with the idea for my company during an Uber ride. I've been hit with ideas for stories and novels at a carpet store, Musso & Frank's (obviously), and walking down the halls of a hotel at a writer's conference.
Pushing my daughter in a stroller up and down the streets of our neighborhood used to be my dedicated brainstorming time. (Now she walks everywhere and my baby son HATES the stroller, so I'm going to have to pivot, I think!)
Where have YOU been inspired?
Has it been on the bus? At your kid's school play? During a boring work meeting/Zoom call? While reading someone else's book?
What did you do when those ideas came to you? Did you scribble them down on a receipt or in a notebook? Send yourself a voicemail? Type them into the notes section of your phone? Or did they vanish with the wind? (I hope not.)
One of the things to remember about writing is that so much of it comes down to opportunity. Just like in all aspects of life, rarely does much happen exactly when and where we want it do.
We find ourselves scrambling for a pen when a fabulous line of dialogue enters our head, desperate to not let this moment pass us by.
We need to be the same when it comes to actually writing. Rarely are we afforded the writing schedule we crave - we have (other) jobs, kids, spouses, housework, and other interests to contend with.
If you can find five minutes to work on edits while you're waiting for your kids at school pick up time, or if you can find fifteen minutes to sketch out a scene while you're between calls, do it.
Make your writing a priority. No one else is going to do that for you.
Take advantage of the gifts you're given, however small and infrequent they may seem.
Five minutes turns to hours and hours turns to a finished book. And that's what you want the most, right?
Get that book written. Write today.
And who knows? You might inspire someone yourself.
To you and your book!
Introducing the Author’s Roadmap, a boutique service offered to authors who are ready, really ready, to realize their long-held dreams of being published.
First we’ll begin with a 60-minute call in which we’ll get to know one another. You tell me about you and your book and what your big, audacious dreams are for getting it published (and even after that). You ask me whatever questions you have and together we identify which roadblocks are keeping you from getting to your last stop.
After we meet, you’ll send me your manuscript and I’ll dive deep within it, identifying which aspects will be most attractive to publishers, literary agents, and readers – and which might need a little work (and then I’ll tell you how to fix them).
Finally, I’ll give you the steps you will need to take to get your book published, and beloved by readers everywhere. Looking for a literary agent? I’ll tell you how to get there. Self-publishing? I’ll get you there, too.
It can be hard to know which way to go, and the options can feel overwhelming.
I’m here to get you where you need to be: published.