Creating an Ideal Writing Space

Guest Post from Teresa Siqueira of Porch.com

Whether you’re a long-time writer or just beginning to explore the possibilities of a writing career or hobby, you’ll need to create a writing environment that’s conducive to getting work done. You can transform a nook or room of your home into your ideal writing environment. With a comfortable space and a strong work ethic, you can build upon your writing skills and begin to accomplish your goals. Use the following tips to design your perfect writing space.

Benefits of Writing

Whether you choose to write as a profession or hobby, you can look forward to earning income or extra money from this pursuit. Good writers who possess the requisite skills are in demand today by numerous industries and the businesses within them. When you take up writing as a daily activity, you can look forward to benefits in addition to income, such as:

  • Improved concentration

  • More organized thought processes

  • Expanded vocabulary

  • Improved communication skills

  • Stress reduction

  • Creative outlet

  • Enhanced research skills

  • Learn new things


Writing can be both professionally and personally gratifying. While there are many types of writing and associated careers you might focus on, you can explore these different possibilities to find one that suits you.

Setting up the Perfect Writing Environment

To create your ideal writing space, you’ll want to consider the following:

Desk and Seating

Look for a sturdy desk or writing table that offers enough space for your laptop or computer, as well as a writing tablet (to make notes) and any research material you may wish to peruse. An ergonomic chair or furniture that’s both comfortable and supportive is perfect for those long writing sessions. You may also want to keep a bookcase nearby to house your reference materials.

Lighting

Many people prefer to work using natural light, but if you intend to write on dreary days or during the evening, you’ll need artificial light too. In any case, try to set up your writing space near a window; otherwise, ensure that you have plenty of bright light so you can ward off eye strain. 

Writing Tools

Although some writers still prefer to write by hand, in order to submit your work, you’ll need a computer and writing program. No publishers, either traditional or online platforms, will accept handwritten manuscripts. Look for a computer with a decent processor and plenty of memory. You should also invest in a backup hard drive or save your files to the cloud.

Location

Choose a space in your home where you’re unlikely to incur distractions. You may want to limit distractions such as your phone when you’re working.

Ambiance

As you set up your writing space, choose paint colors that make you feel creative. Add in some artwork and plants. Surround your writing space with items that inspire you. Be sure that you try to keep your area neat, calm, and organized to maintain its pleasant ambiance.

 

Types of Writing

As you think about working in your space, take time to investigate the different types of writing you might pursue. Learning about the various types of writing will help you narrow them down to an ideal option for your interests and skillsets.

Blogging

Today, writers blog about nearly anything. Some blog for companies and publish material related to the business and its industry. Other writers blog strictly about subject matter Keep of interest to them, such as food, health, fashion, gardening, films, technology, etc.

Journalism

Many types of publications seek unsolicited manuscripts, including essays and articles. If you’re interested in non-fiction subject matter, this might be the ideal outlet for you.

Journaling

Keeping a journal is a great way to manage your stress or even a mental health condition like anxiety. Journaling about your life is a great way to record it for yourself or your family.

Fiction

You can devote your writing space to writing novels, short stories, or scripts. Try writing for a specific genre like mystery, psychological thriller, fantasy, or romance. You might even try your hand at writing children’s stories.

Speeches

Consider writing speeches and pursuing a speech writing career. You can convey important messages on many different topics/issues to a wide range of audiences. 

Poetry

There are many types of poetry. You can focus on a style that suits your preference. You can share your work online or submit it to poetry magazines for publication.

Handwriting/Calligraphy

Writing can be a visual art form. You can transform your writing space into a writing studio where you house all of your special implements and papers. You can sell your work on your own website or sites like Etsy.  Writing can be both professionally and personally gratifying. While there are many types of writing and associated careers you might focus on, you can explore these different possibilities to find one that suits you. You will find there are endless benefits of handwriting. 

Music/Jingles

You can combine your love of writing with music to write jingles or songs for commercials, television, and more. Be sure your space has plenty of room for your piano, guitar, or other instruments too.

Create a Writing Routine

Writers work. Even if you don’t expect a visit from your muse, write anyway. Establishing a solid writing routine will help you banish the idea of writer’s block and leave no time for procrastination. Here are some tips for setting up and maintaining your work routine:

  • Design a writing schedule (i.e., three hours in the morning/three hours in the afternoon or evening)

  • Use a calendar and set writing deadlines (or plugin deadlines established by your publisher or clients)

  • Set a daily word count

  • Create a weekly writing plan (i.e., your writing to-do list)

  • Schedule breaks (take walks or break for snacks to get a recharge)

 

Tips to Find Writing Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many forms. When designing your writing space, add features that will inspire your creativity. The following tips can help:

Prepare for Writer’s Block

Sticking to a writing routine is a highly effective way of working through writer’s block. Try using writing prompts or performing research related to the topic you want to write about.

Join a Writing Group

Consider signing up for a writing group. You can join an online or in-person group. These groups are ideal for sharing your work and obtaining helpful feedback. To learn more about a community for journal writers, visit The International Association for Journal Writing. 

Rely on Art

You can find inspiration from other writers as well as film, television, music, and painting. Be sure to read the work of other writers, too, to gain insights into the craft.

Prepare for Feedback

If you’re writing intending to earn income, you’ll want to prepare for feedback. Remember that even the most renowned writers have racked up rejection letters. Consider feedback carefully. In some cases, you may wish to revise your work. At other times, you may simply want to submit your work to other potential publishers.

Use Motivation Writing Techniques

Various writing techniques and practices can motivate you to write regularly. Experiment with freewriting. Try the Pomodoro technique; set a timer and writer for 25 minutes. The goal of the technique is simply to work in short bursts. Remember, you can always revise later.

 

Develop a Writing Process

Developing a writing process will support your writing routine. When getting started, you may wish to experiment with different processes. Find a method that works best for you. 

Make a Plan

While some writers prefer to sit down and start writing without much forethought, many others craft a plan, even if it’s just a mental one. Some planning tasks might include forming an article’s outline, writing a single chapter, revising an article, etc. When you sit down to work, have a clear intention about what you want to do for the morning or day.

Research

Even writers who prefer to write about topics they’re familiar with, need to conduct some research. If you’re writing about nonfiction topics or realistic fiction, research is simply a matter of course. These days, you can research online or spend time at your local library.

Prewriting

Some writers prefer to do some prewriting before attempting a formal draft. Prewriting helps you generate ideas, explore different perspectives and topic angles, and form a plan for your outline. 

Drafting

Initial drafts allow writers to get their work written. Once your drafts are penned, you can make changes later. 

Editing

Editing and proofreading are crucial for writers. When editing, you’ll want to focus on refining the content as well as checking for correct grammar and usage. You may want to share your work with your support group or another editor at this point to gain helpful feedback.

 

Monetize your Writing

Finally, consider outlets for publishing and selling your work. You might sign up with freelance writing agencies that can help you find clients. You can also begin to submit your work to little magazines or major publications. You can also search for an agent who can help you find a publisher for your manuscript.

 

Writing can be a rewarding career on many different levels. It’s enjoyable but can also be lucrative. Think about your goals and make a plan for achieving them. Use the tips outlined here to help you create your ideal writing space and reap the benefits of writing.

https://porch.com/advice/create-ideal-writing-environment

Anatomy of a PR Campaign

Valerie Britton-Wilson reports in regarding the promotion of her excellent book “A Touch of India”

You asked to hear news of promotional stuff - I’m not sure how much info you want but I’m attaching here all the successful exertions of Wendy McWilliams - it’s her ‘Media Report’ doc and has more than you need - but if you scroll down from page 18 onwards you will find pretty much everything. She was very good indeed.

But even so, book sales generated during her efforts nowhere near covered costs. Hiring a PR person, even at Wendy’s more moderate rates, is expensive - I put a cap on it at the outset and would recommend others do the same as the chargeable hours mount up v quickly.

I still have not got a handle on FaceBook or blogging though I have tried. (I even paid a teenager for a few hours of lessons!)

I’ve got a few book groups and speaking events coming up so that will help.

I’m so glad I put a gmail address on the back cover because the biggest pleasure for me has been feedback from strangers.

Here are a few of them:

Love the photos. It's interesting, the photo of your mother on the back cover does make her look perfectly beautiful, but in other shots, I can see what you mean, that she was lively and appealing, rather than classically beautiful. There's a photo of your parents both laughing, where she looks absolutely irresistible.

All the threads are fascinating. The bios of your parents, and your feelings for them. The extraordinary story of the Indian great-grandmother, the poignancy that you could find out no more about her, the illusiveness, some care and love for her which was good, but so removed from the record. Your impressions of India are vivid and thoughtful. Thoughts on Indian culture, politics, history all extremely interesting. Bits of history always just what I needed; never felt like information dump.The stories from people you knew in India. All those threads are very well woven together, which is very impressive and effective. Very difficult to pull that off, I would have thought.

It is intriguing – did you find this disconcerting? – that her writing style is somewhat similar to yours. Voices in families are often similar. Great quotes from all the primary sources. The letter from the fiancee is utterly heart-breaking. Can he really have written hundreds of thousands of words to her? All buried in the jungle.

Your relationship with your parents, your scattering of their ashes, is very moving.

MOTI was a remarkable achievement, especially since neither you nor Sue really had any experience in fashion design, let alone the business. It was perfectly pitched – wearable, flattering, but really interesting and stylish design. Pearl is such a nice name. I've been waiting for it to come back into fashion, but that doesn't seem to have happened.

I found A Touch of India such a compelling read and enjoyed every page. I wanted the story to go on forever and saved the last few chapters to read very quietly by myself at home.
When I arrived at the part which mentioned Pearl receiving Woody's letter I could feel my eyes brimming with tears which did not stop until well after the Postscript: Note to Mabel.
I commend your courage in writing about your family with such honesty and sharing with readers your personal thoughts and feelings.

I just have to tell you how much I am enjoying your book. I ordered it from the local library because I thought it looked interesting but I had no idea that it was in part the biography of Mr Britton. It is so beautifully written. I love the humour. I have not visited India but your descriptions tell me that you have a very deep love of the country.

I knew your dad in his capacity with music education in Brisbane. I had asked different people about him some time ago but nobody knew where he lived at that time.

I found your book in the Hill of Content Bookshop the Saturday before lockdown, and I read it from cover to cover at Pellegrini's Coffee Shop over the next two hours. I too have had a long association with India, and found it very evocative with many similar experiences.

Audiobook production by Australian Narrators

As recommended by an author client, this audiobook production agency would be worth considering for those thinking about trying an audio format for their book. The site’s blurb states that:

“Jacqui & Brenton Edgecombe are Australian audiobook narrators and recording professionals ready to create an ACX standard reading of your book  for distribution via all audiobook platforms. We look forward to bringing your words and your story to life for those who prefer to enjoy their books audibly.

All work recorded in our Adelaide-based home studio. We use Rode Mics, Logic Pro recording softwater and Izotrope RX7 for audio analysis.”

https://www.australiannarrators.com/

Streamline Publishing presents Events for Authors

Bookings are now open for a series of author-centric events held by Streamline Publishing here in Melbourne. Located above the Eltham bookstore.

  • June 19: Jackie French AM, well-loved author for all ages, wombat whisperer, guest TV gardener and conservationist, will talk to us via private Zoom on ‘Writing for Children’. Entry to this Zoom event includes a Jackie French paperback title of your choice and light refreshments.

  • June 26: Bookseller Meera Govil: ‘How readers, writers, illustrators, publishers and booksellers can create meaningful books’.

  • July 3: Editor Cathy Oliver: ‘What makes the best Non-fiction books for children?’

More events to come in August:

August 7 ‘Publishing options in 2022’.
Traditional, Self, Indie? Open access? What do these terms mean and which is right for you? What costs are typical?

August 14 ‘The publishing process’.
From the final first manuscript to a finished book: what do editors do? Editorial and production schedules and costs. How much control will you have over your work?

August 21 ‘What do publishers want in submissions?’
Tips and some models.

Cultivating Superfans from Reedsy

Reedsy has an interesting newsletter item on superfans. I cannot find a link to it, so here’s a bit a text dump, with apologies to Ricardo Fayet. Make sure you sign up for their newsletter.

So if you missed it, here’s the huge publishing event of this week: two days ago, science fiction and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson launched a Kickstarter campaign for four secret novels… which has already raised over 18 million dollars in less than 72 hours!

“Great, but how is that relevant to me?” you may ask. “I’m not a NYT bestselling author who’s been dubbed as the new J.R.R. Tolkien in epic fantasy. I don’t have millions of followers. There’s no way I could pull that off.”

And you’d be right: he’s probably the only author (or even creative in general) who can break Kickstarter like he just did. But that aside, what is truly interesting about this campaign is that he didn’t achieve this thanks to his millions of followers. So far, his campaign has been backed “only” by 74,000 readers, meaning that each backer pledged $250 (!!) on average.

And this is really the key here: the success of this campaign largely comes down to the way that Sanderson has cultivated, over the years, a legion of superfans. Fans who, in other words, are ready to pay hundreds of dollars to get four premium hardbacks, merch, book boxes, etc. And that is definitely a lesson for all of us here.

It’s not all about numbers

You don’t need hundreds of thousands of readers to make a living writing. You might only need a few thousand. 

Most of the highest-earning indie authors I know write in a specific niche (or two). As such, they’re unlikely to reach a wide, general readership and become famous like Brandon Sanderson or J.K. Rowling. However, they have become prominent enough in their niche to have thousands of readers ready to buy every single book they release.

Think about it this way: you’ll earn just as much money from selling one book to 500,000 readers, as you would selling 25 books to 20,000 readers — and the latter is usually easier to achieve for indie authors (provided you’re prolific enough to write those 25 books, of course).

But it doesn’t stop there: if you’re able to build this kind of loyal following, you can start offering them premium, high-value items — like limited edition hardbacks, signed copies, book boxes, merchandise, etc. Which is exactly what Sanderson is doing with this Kickstarter (hence the $250 average pledge).

So how do you create such “superfans” in the first place?

Cultivating your superfan readers

Write amazing books

First, and most importantly, you need to write amazing books. The kind of books that pull readers in so much that they’ll immediately want to buy the next one — whether that’s because they loved your story, your characters, your voice, or the information in the book.

Of course, you then actually need to have that “next book” to sell to them. Which leads me to…

Be prolific

Think about the authors that you, as a reader, love the most. How many of their books have you read? I bet it’s more than one. Because here’s the thing: it’s hard to fall in love with an author after just one book. You might fall in love with the book, but not with the author. 

That’s why it’ll also take more than just books to sway readers all the way. You’ll need a proper relationship with your audience.

Build a relationship

The easiest way to achieve this is usually through a mailing list. Of course, you can also leverage social media for that — like Sanderson did with his YouTube channel. The end goal is that you want to make them feel part of a community, let them further into your world (both fictional and personal), and interact with them.

Yes, interact. It’s not enough to just send them information and content. You also need to be approachable.

Be approachable

Before the pandemic, Brandon Sanderson spent a third of his time traveling to cons and tours to meet his fans, give talks, hang out with them, sign books, etc. And guess what? Readers love that, because it feels like they have a special connection with the author.

Now, you may not be able to do book tours or speak at cons like that, but you can be approachable online. Answer emails, respond to comments on social media, engage in conversations, etc. Heck, look at Sanderson (yes, him again) on Reddit: he responds to people on a daily basis — which is exactly how authors should interact with readers on social media.

Thinking you don’t have the time to answer every single email? Weigh the time one email takes you against how surprised and delighted the reader will be to find out that you actually took the time to answer. That one minute you spent will have earned you a superfan for life.

Of course, all this isn’t easy. It takes time, dedication, positivity, and probably a bit of luck. But it very much is possible to replicate Brandon Sanderson’s success on a smaller scale. 

An Authors Report — A Winter Sowing

Adrian Caesar is a talented and experienced writer, the author of: Novels: The White: Last Days in the Antarctic Journeys of Scott and Mawson 1911-1913 (1999), The Blessing (2015), Collected poetry: Hunger Games (1996), Life Sentences (1998), The June Fireworks: New and Selected Poems (2001), High Wire (2005), Dark Cupboards New Rooms (2014).

He reports on the recent publication of A Winter Sowing under the Arcadia imprint with Australian Scholarly Publishing:

”I’m happy to report I’ve had some fabulous responses to A Winter Sowing in the form of twenty-odd personal emails, texts etc. Someone mentioned it on the ABC Book Club website and a small book club down here read it. All this is great, but it isn’t as yet translating into sales. I’m finding the contrast between reader response and sales frustrating but it was the same story with my previous book. My wife and I will plug on doing what we can. A couple of bookshops are interested in hosting events in late Feb and March and we’re thinking of hiring a student to do some marketing work via social media. I’ll keep you posted. I’m not giving up. I’m learning to live with the idea of ‘fit audience, though few’!”