Hey guys,

I’ve been a bit quieter than usual lately, so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been working on that’s been keeping me so busy.

I was invited to teach on a site called SkillShare, where students can access thousands of different courses on a wide variety of topics for a single monthly payment. (Unless, of course, you're one of my students - in which case, I can get you a two-month membership for free.) ;)

I decided to accept the invitation, and this week, I published my new course, Low-Cost Marketing for Small Businesses and Freelancers.

In it, I explain how to:

1. Choose the target audience that needs you most and is the most likely to buy from you

2. Create an awesome service package that makes you stand out

3. Describe that offer in a way that makes people want to buy it

4. Overcome objections in a way that creates connection and trust instead of feeling pushy or salesy

As a teacher on the site, I’m allowed to do something special for my followers:

I can get you two months of FREE premium access to SkillShare, which includes my course and all the other courses you’d normally have to pay to watch.

Click here to check out my class and sign up.

I don't know how long this promo will last, so if this is something you’d like to take advantage of, please claim your two months of free premium membership right away!

I'm planning to create more classes in the future, including a tutorial for drawing snowflake patterns like the ones I've been publishing lately. If you want to stay updated on my new classes, please follow me on SkillShare.

When you get an idea for a story, do you buckle down and finish it?

​Or are you constantly bouncing from one shiny idea to another, leaving a mountain of unfinished projects and disappointments in your wake?

If you're one of those frustrated authors who constantly starts new projects but struggles to finish any of them, check out my guest post on Adazing, where I reveal how I self-published four novels in less than five years despite having a rampant case of ADD-Ohh-Shiny.

If you found this article helpful and want to support me, and if you want early access to my completed materials and exclusive access to works in progress, I hope you'll consider joining my inner circle on Patreon!

​

If you're interested in character design, you've probably seen your share of tips. Some are good advice that should be followed, some are absurd, and some are misguided and pretentious attempts to apply blanket rules to a field with lots of variables.

But there are a few rules that I believe are universal, and that far too many character designers seem to blatantly disregard.

Here are some practical, commonsensical tips you can use to make your characters' appearances feel more real and fit the characters better, without restricting your creative freedom to "their outfit must have X number of colors!" in the process.

Character design tip #1: The character's outfit should fit the situation.

This especially goes for people who design female characters.

OK, it goes for all genders, but fictional women seem to be the most frequent victims of character designers who pretend their creations are smart, strategic people, and then send them into battle moronically and suicidally underdressed.

If your badass supersoldier spy is going undercover at a cocktail party, sure, you can put her in a flattering dress.

But if she's going into battle with her cleavage bared, against opponents who won't be distracted by that sort of thing, you're ignoring the basic storytelling principles of keeping characters in-character and making their decisions plausible just to shoehorn in a bit of extra boobage.

Granted, there are exceptions to every rule. Having a fancy battle dress is practically a requirement for being a magical girl, and their magic powers tend to make up for the disadvantages their wardrobes present, so there is some leeway there.

(Though, come to think of it, I'd love to see a magical girl series where their transformation resulted in armor instead of dresses. That would be a smart, interesting twist.)

Anyway, back to character design tips.

When it comes to armor, if you're thinking of depriving your character of that protection so their movements won't be restricted, bear in mind that a well-constructed suit of armor has approximately the same range of motion as the person inside it.

So while you don't want a stealth-based character who needs to sneak around, slip through small spaces, or blend into crowds clanking around in full plate armor, a character on the battlefield needs a better reason than "I need flexibility" to go unprotected.

Also, if your knight with girl parts is wearing boobplate (a 'breastplate' that cups and emphasizes her boobs separately, as opposed to covering the whole chest in one smooth curve), her blacksmith needs to be fired for being bad at their job and recklessly endangering their customers.

Because boobplate is suicide.

Here are some practical questions you can ask yourself to determine what outfit is appropriate for the character's situation:

1. What is the goal of their outfit?

Are they trying to blend in? Look sexy (for a good in-story reason, NOT a meta-story "sex sells" reason)? Protect themselves in battle? Carry every high-tech spy gadget invented by every sapient species at once, just in case?

Their outfit should reflect this goal.

2. What resources are available to them?

If your character is dirt poor and unwilling to steal, they might not be able to acquire armor or fancy clothing. Unless, of course, they have a benefactor who's willing to help them, whether out of altruism or because it's required for the mission for which they're being hired.

Your character's clothes should reflect their era, their geographical area and its culture and available clothes, and their current and past financial situation.

I mention 'past financial situation' because they might, for example, still have nice clothes that they bought before their finances crashed. Their whole life needs to be taken into account, to the same degree to which their past influences their present.

3. What is the weather like?

Unless they ended up in a location they didn't expect to visit, or the weather changed suddenly, your character should be dressed for it.

Unless their wardrobe comes with built-in thermal regulation, they're innately temperature-resistant, or they need their suit of armor regardless of the climate, it makes no sense for them to have the same type of outfit in a tropical or temperate location and a snow-covered forest. (CoughBlackWidowCough)

When taking the weather into account, be sure to consider how much time the character has to prepare and acquire/pack clothes, whether or not they would see this kind of weather coming, and whether they'd have the resources to get appropriate clothing with the amount of notice they had.

Character design tip #2: The outfit should reflect their personality and abilities.

This is closely related to tip #1, but is distinct enough to warrant its own section.

If a character is cocky, unwise, rebellious, or wants to mentally throw the people around them for a loop, they might deliberately choose to dress in a way that's inappropriate to the situation.

For example, they might enjoy showing up in court with a pair of bunny ears on their head, or striding onto a battlefield shirtless because their healing factor will make up for it and the sight of their wounds healing will demoralize their opponents.

Or they might just charge into battle shirtless because they're way too hot-blooded and reckless to care.

But if a character is very serious and practical and has no superpowers, they should dress accordingly, especially when going into battle.

If a character is very comfortable with her body and sexuality, is too innocent to think much of showing skin, or simply doesn't give a crap what other people think of her, then it makes sense to have her show up in a crop top or revealing dress.

But if she's very shy or modest, or has openly expressed disdain for women who use their sexuality to get ahead in life, then showing her cleavage off will probably be out of character in most situations.

(CoughAerynSunCoughCleavageInBattleCoughWTFCough)

Their past, and the beliefs and coping mechanisms they developed as a result of it, should also play a role in your outfit decisions.

A character who's been sexually abused or assaulted might try to hide their body and attractiveness for fear of getting the wrong kind of attention. Or they might deliberately dress sexy in an attempt to reassert control over their sexuality.

Or they might just continue dressing the way they did before, whatever that way might be.

Once again, it depends on their personality and decisions.

Whatever clothing choices your character makes, the basic rule holds true: it should be in-character, and should fit their beliefs, personality, ability and situation.

Character design tip # 3: The character's body should fit their lifestyle and profession.

Can we talk about Lara Croft's arms? Her skinny little arms, with which she supposedly pulls herself up ledges? This woman should have some serious upper body muscle tone... but in some iterations, she doesn't.

This is an example of what NOT to do when designing a character, and it isn't just the ladies who get hit with it.

While females tend to be more consistently shoehorned into a single, sometimes implausible body type, characters of other genders have also been given this treatment.

Here are some examples of how a character's lifestyle might affect their physical appearance:

If your human character has a highly active lifestyle involving frequent feats of strength, give them the musculature they'd realistically require for the tasks they perform.

(Obviously, supernatural/alien/shapeshifting characters get some leeway here.)

If they frequently get into fights that involve cuts and/or burns, are not perfect at dodging, and don't have the medical technology or superpowers required to swiftly and flawlessly heal wounds, having some scars would be more realistic than their skin being smooth from head to toe.

If they live in a hot climate and are outdoors frequently, they should probably have a tan, unless they have a skin condition or wear clothing that prevents tanning.

For that matter, they should probably also have body parts that aren't tanned, unless they were out there nude.

Depending on their hair type, their hair might also get bleached by the consistent exposure to the sun.

If they use crutches or a manual wheelchair a lot, their arms should show the effects of the muscles being frequently exercised.

When you're designing your character's body, consider where they live, what experiences they've had, and what kind of activities they frequently do.

And for the love of all things holy (or at least, for the sake of plausibility, good-quality storytelling, and not making me roll my eyes at you), don't just design them for sex appeal in a way that makes no sense in light of their lifestyle or their past.

Please. Just don't.

Character design tip #4: Their voices should fit their background.

While watching Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon, I noticed a weird pattern:

The adults spoke with an accent that their children didn't share.

Rapunzel had never heard any voice other than Gothel's since she was a baby, yet for some reason, she never picked up her "mother"s accent.

And while the adult vikings all spoke with a Scottish accent, their children didn't.

This seemed weird and unrealistic enough to break immersion a bit, even in stories where hair glows, horses act like hyper-intelligent dogs, and dragons exist.

TL;DR: Keep your character designs plausible and in-character.

Sure, there are other, more nuanced and advanced facets of character design that someone who's studied the field in more depth could get into.

And even then, there would probably be exceptions to most of the rules they laid out, or rebellious try-hards who would take their "don't do this" as a challenge and find a way to make a maligned design practice work. (CoughProbablyMeCough)

But at the core of the process of designing your character, a simple, universal principle holds true:

Their appearance and wardrobe should make sense in light of their personality, environment and activities.

It's just that simple.

I recently received a special announcement from another writer: a fellow blogger of A Writer's Path, Ryan Lanz, has announced the launch of his new initiative: A Writer’s Path Writers Club.

After looking at the writing market for years, he noticed a need for a Writers Club of this kind.

​Sure, there are Facebook groups, writers groups, etc., but those are usually just gatherings of writers, and they lack some very important features that many authors need.

Ryan wanted to create a club whose sole purpose is to solve headaches for writers. Here are some of the headaches he's looking to solve:
 

• It’s hard to find reviewers for my book
  
  
• Writing-related service providers (editors, book cover designers, etc.) are expensive
  
  
• I don’t know if my writing is good enough and I need feedback
  
  
• I need more promotion for my book
  
  
• I don’t know if my blurb or summary is good enough
  
  
• Not enough readers know my book exists
  
  
• I don’t know enough about what other successful authors have done to be successful
  
  
• I don’t know if my book cover encourages readers to purchase it

 
The club also offers some fun activities for writers, such as giveaways and contests.
 
Here’s the full list of benefits that are available in the Writers Club:
 

• Discounts from writer-related service providers, such as editors, book cover designers, proofreading services, ghostwriters, social media marketing, book advertising, template design, audio book narration, and more.
  
  
• Contests and giveaways for free services and books.
  
  
• 2 free book promotion posts on A Writer's Path blog every year (example here). Every post generates a social media shout-out of your book to Ryan's Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, and Google+ account (total of 12,900 followers). He'll set reminders for himself to notify you when your next post is ready.
  
  
• Exclusive articles not seen on the A Writer's Path blog.
  
  
• Access to free blurb coaching.
  
  
• "Book of the Month" lottery. The winner gets their book featured for a month on the A Writer's Path blog in a tab along the top of every page/post. They'll also get a promotional post featuring their book, summary, cover, and purchase links, which is sent to all 25,000+ subscribers. There is one drawing per month.
  
  
• Help to find you reviewers and critique partners (optional).
  
  
• A free copy of his eBook, The Idea Factory: 1,000 Story Ideas & Writing Prompts to Find Your Next Bestseller. ($2.99 value)
  
  
• Free critique of your book summaries and book covers (optional).
  
  
• Insider tips from published authors in short, bite-sized articles.
  
  
• Links to free books that are normally offered at full price.
  
  
• Opportunities to show off your book to the other members.
  
  
• Exclusive author interviews.

 
Feel free to check out the A Writer's Path Writers Club here.

I recently had an interesting conversation with some of my fellow writers who were struggling with social media addiction.

They wanted to focus on creating content, but they felt compelled to continuously check their notifications on their favorite social channels.

As a result, they were struggling to actually make time for writing, because they were spending so much time online.

But as I pointed out, social media addiction isn't 100% a bad thing. I have the opposite problem: if left to my natural tendencies, I'll sink into content creation mode and forget to check my social media for weeks.

If it isn't in my calendar, it probably just isn't happening!

​I have to schedule dedicated social media times into my calendar several times a week, to make sure my messages and replies don't end up sitting neglected.

Obviously, writing is important. But if you don't put your work out there and engage with your audience, then all that content creation is nothing more than a secret hobby.

How can writing hermits and social media addicts find balance?

Obviously, this isn't a question with a one-size-fits-all answer. Different audiences hang out in different places and want different levels of engagement, and different authors have different strengths, styles and challenges.

In this section, I'm going to give you some guidelines you can use to create a social media management schedule that works for you.

1. First, get clear on your goals and needs.

All the planning in the world is worthless unless you know result that plan is supposed to create.

That being the case, your first step is to get clear on what you want to accomplish through your online interactions.

Do you want to build a highly engaged audience that eagerly snaps up each new story you put out, and that readily shares your content with their friends?

Give people a way to contact you and to stay informed about your latest projects?

Learn about your industry and hone your craft?

Just have fun?

Once you're clear on what you want to accomplish, you can work from there to create a plan to accomplish it.

2. Determine what you're good at and what your writing career needs.

As noted above, different authors have different strengths and styles, and different people have different needs.

So in this step, you need to look at what you need and what you're equipped to provide.

If you're self-published and doing most of your book marketing yourself, being a social media addict can work in your favor, as long as you focus your social time mostly on interacting with current and potential readers or with people who can give you exposure to more readers.

If you're more of a hermit, like me, then you should probably still spend some time on social media, but you may need to deliberately set aside time for it.

Put it in your calendar to check your social media channels every day or two, answer any messages or replies you have, and post helpful comments and questions in groups that are relevant to your genre.

But what if you're traditionally published, your career doesn't need that level of social media interaction, it DOES need you to spend more time on writing, and yet you still can't pull away from the siren song of your notification icons?

3. Set boundaries.

If your social media addiction has reached the point where it's preventing you from writing, there will be times when you need to draw the line.

If you can't have your social media page open without constantly checking it, then log out, close the tab, and mute any notifications that you can get even when you're logged out, if that's what it takes.

You don't necessarily have to do this all day, but if you can't focus on your writing for any length of time unless you do this, set aside a chunk of time and commit to working until that time is over.

How long this time increment is will depend on your attention span. If you can work for an hour straight, awesome! If not, try scheduling four different chunks of fifteen minutes into your day.

One method I use is to find an hour-long song compilation or a fifteen-minute song extension on YouTube, set it going, and keep working until the music stops.

This makes writing more enjoyable, and it's a constant audio reminder to stay focused. It also gives me a clear indication of when the assigned time increment is over, without the threat of a jarring, startling alarm hanging over my head and tugging the edges of my concentration.

But what if closing out your social media windows feels like too big a commitment, and your reluctance to finish your social session and close the tabs actually makes you spend MORE time on the sites?

In that case, I recommend putting all your social media tabs in one window and minimizing that window, so you aren't constantly seeing the tempting tabs while looking at your other tasks.

4. Use scheduling software to avoid temptation.

If part of your social media strategy involves posting on your page or profile once a day, and you can't do that without getting sucked into the inexorable whirlpool of your notifications or timeline feed, it's best to find a way to post content without even seeing that temptation.

If this is an ongoing challenge for you, a social media scheduler that can post content to your channels without you actually logging into those channels can be invaluable.

Personally, I use Hootsuite, but there are other options available if you don't like that one.

Do you have any tips to help writing hermits engage with their readers, or to help social media addicts to focus on their writing?

I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Few things take more concentration than creating a work of fiction.

You need to keep the plot consistent, keep the characters in-character, make the descriptions compelling yet concise, write convincing and entertaining dialogue, and so much more...

All while life insists on happening in the background, dragging your mind away from the words on your screen.

So how do you block out all that noise, and keep your mind on your story?

Personally, I've found instrumental compilations to be absolutely invaluable. They help me stay focused for an hour or more, while making the process of writing more enjoyable and keeping the world's ambient noise at bay.

If you need help to concentrate on your work and to block out surrounding noise, here are some of my favorite one to two-hour instrumental compilations to help you keep your mind on your writing:

1 Hour of Dark Winter Music & Gothic Music
​
This hour-long compilation is one of my personal favorites; it's beautiful and atmospheric, the kind of thing you can just sink into for an hour and feel the tension draining out of you.

1 Hour of Elf Music
​
1 Hour of Fairy Music and Fantasy Game Music

These two collections of beautiful melodies are varied enough to be interesting, yet unobtrusive enough not to demand your attention.

Best Relaxing Piano Studio Ghibli Complete Collection 2016

As the name implies, this is a sweet and relaxing collection that will create a peaceful atmosphere for your work.

World's Most Breathtaking Piano Pieces | Contemporary Music Mix | Vol. 2

Beautiful and varied, this collection definitely earns its name.

​2 Hours Epic Positive Music (Epic Fantasy Uplifting Orchestral Vocal)

This is a good one if you want some songs with a bit more energy to them. It contains a couple songs that have lyrics in English, but it's easy enough to skip over them if songs with words hurt your concentration.

World's Most Emotional Music | THE BEST OF MIX

Some of these are dramatic, some peaceful, all beautiful. As with the one above it, there are a few that have lyrics, but those are easily skipped.

I hope you found this collection helpful. If you have any instrumental compilations you'd like to share in order to help your fellow authors concentrate on their work, please feel free to share the links in the comments!

For many authors, describing the character's surroundings without turning that description into a pace-killing infodump is a challenge.

So is showing a character's personality through their actions, instead of... *shudder*... TELLING the reader what they're like.

Fortunately, there's a way to accomplish both at the same time.

In this blog post, I'm going to give you a simple technique for showing off your character's personality AND describing their surroundings at the same time, so you can turn those vivid word pictures into an intriguing exploration of the character's mind.

Check out these two writing samples, and focus on the differences between them.

Sample 1:

As the bar's thick door opened in front of him, the music hit Leo full in the face, along with the welcoming scent of booze, sweat, and several different types of perfume.

From the steam that rose from a fellow patron's glass, and the intricate layering in another drink, it was clear that this was not a bar where one ordered the basics. This was a place where people paid extra to look and feel fancy.

At least, until they got hammered enough to hit the dance floor. Not that the two women who were currently grinding against each other looked sober enough to tell that their air of fanciness had flown out the open window and into the night sky.

The sight of their lithe, writhing bodies sent a tingle of fire through Leo, but he knew better than to act on it. Either they were doing this for show, or they were more into each other than they were into men; either way, it wasn't worth the trouble.

But he could still watch. At least for a few seconds, until the siren call of the beverage menu lured him away.

With a smooth, practiced motion, he slid onto a barstool, relieved to turn his eyes away from the flashing rainbow of dance floor lights. They looked nice on the smooth hardwood floor, but when they hit the eyes directly, they were stabbing, burning... but still infinitely better than the flashing lights he'd once had to get accustomed to.

Anything was better than gunfire. Especially drinking.

Especially drinking enough to forget the gunfire. Screw looking fancy - he wanted something simple and strong.

The name of his favorite drink slipped from his mouth without the need for thought, and he found it telling that the bartender had already started pouring it before he voiced the request.

He'd forgotten how many times he'd drowned his sorrows here, and he didn't care to remember. He wasn't here to remember things.

He was here to party, try to enjoy what was left of his life, and drink enough to forget why he couldn't enjoy it when he was sober anymore.

Sample 2

The bar's thick door swung open easily, far more so than barriers like it had in the days of Reuben's youth. It was strange, to think he had once been so small and weak that he could have used the kind of service he planned to perform tonight.

As he entered the building, he gave a brief, courteous nod to the towering bouncer who stood to the left of the door, surreptitiously noting the presence of a second man looming on his right. They were both equally large and intimidating, but his research told him that only one was likely to be a threat.

Still, one was enough. Simply dragging his target out through the front door probably wasn't an option; he was good, but not take-on-three-people-when-one-of-them-could-fight good.

Besides, he wasn't keen on going to jail anytime soon. He would have to play this smart.

As he strode further into the bar, Reuben pretended to let his eyes be drawn to the gyrating dancers. The turn of his head enabled him to get a better look at the patrons who were watching the two women, as well as the wall behind said onlookers.

Above the rows of booths and tables, a window had been opened to let out the heat, and it also offered some relief from the thick miasma of sweat, perfume and alcohol that permeated the air. It wasn't big enough to let him out, but at least it made the room more bearable.

He hated the smell of booze.

​But at least this wasn't the same smell that had taught him that hatred - not the kind a person turns to to forget their past, their civility, and the difference between son and enemy.

No, these were fancy drinks. The kind most people ordered for the purposes of looking good, enjoying the taste and socializing, not for getting drunk on the cheap.

Not that that stopped everyone from getting sloshed, but it did mean there was a higher chance that any participants in a fight would be more inhibited and less stupid, and there was less chance of starting a fight that didn't involve him in order to cover his escape.

A particularly overzealous flare-up from the dance floor's flashing, multicolored lights drove Reuben's eyes to the hardwood floor, and he used the excuse to look a bit further to the right, directly toward the people watching the inebriated dancers.

Ah. There you are.

A slightly round, clean-shaven face, framed by messy blonde hair. A small red birthmark on his neck, shaped kind of like Australia. A wedding ring on his hand, worth considerably more than the promise it symbolized.

And, most importantly, an intent, predatory stare that told Reuben most of what he needed to know about the plans the man had for the dancers he was watching, and the reason why a certain angry mother had hired him to visit this particular bar.

Both characters saw the same things, but they observed them very differently.

The jaded hedonist, Leo, saw a lively nightclubbing and dancing scene, with hot women, good drinks, and a chance to forget his past.

The mercenary, Reuben, observed the room in a far more tactical light, noticing exit points, strategic disadvantages, and indications of the presence of a predator.

They also reacted very differently to the smell of alcohol; one found it welcoming, while the other despised it.

In these descriptions, you saw a bit of the characters' personalities and backstories, as well as hints of events to come. They weren't just plot-halting infodumps; they gave you insight into the characters, and moved the plot forward.

When you want to describe your characters' surroundings, ask yourself:

1. What would the POV character notice in this situation?

2. How would they feel about it?

3. What would they half-notice, and dismiss as unimportant?

4. What would they think they noticed, and believe was important for completely personal, non-objective reasons?

5. Can they notice any of these surroundings in the process of doing something, so they can keep moving through the plot while describing their world?

This will help you to write more interesting place descriptions, while moving the plot forward and helping the readers to get to know your characters in the process.

Want to see more of my characters, plots and place descriptions?

If you enjoyed those two quick samples of my writing, there's lots more where that came from!

I have four novels available, and more stories in the works, so click here or press the button below to check out my books.

For many people, monetizing their artistic talent isn't the first path they take in their quest to make a living.

You may have an existing career that you want to keep until your art or writing business takes off, or to keep indefinitely if you like it enough.

For example, I love helping business owners to connect with more of the clients who need them, and I'm also passionate about writing novels and drawing webcomics.

​After several years of treating the latter passion as a spare-time activity, I realized I wasn't happy with that.

I wanted to make creating content for my readers a more consistent priority, both to serve them better and for my own happiness.

Of course, this presented a challenge: how do I find enough time to run two businesses, while giving both of them the care and attention they need?

If you're in the same boat, hopefully my experience will help you.

Today, I'm sharing a few specific strategies I used to make a time management system that works for me, and I'll explain how you can use those strategies to have more time for your writing or art while getting things done.

Strategy #1: Know yourself and how you function best.

At first, I tried splitting my work days in half. Four hours on my coaching and marketing business, and four hours on content creation and marketing for my fiction work.

For some people, that might have been a good arrangement. But after a few weeks of trying it, I found that it simply did not work for me.

I'm one of those people who does not switch gears easily. When I'm in "marketing business mode", I work better if I can just settle into that mode and stay in it until the job is done, even if that means working longer than expected.

The trouble with that was, my days often DID bring more work than I'd anticipated, and this work was usually of the kind that involved commitments to others that I didn't want to break.

This meant my marketing business work often ended up spilling into the time I'd reserved for my art and writing, which left me feeling frustrated, resentful, and out of control of my schedule.

​Working when I expect to be working is fine, but working when I expected to be doing something else is another matter entirely! Especially when there's a touching or hilarious scene that I'm dying to write, but I feel obligated to postpone it until I've fulfilled my promises to non-fictional people.

To make matters worse, I always felt like I wasn't spending enough time on my marketing business, even though, for purposes of an even split, I was spending too much time on it!

I don't like feeling like I'm going halfway on something, and splitting my days 50-50 basically guaranteed that I would chronically feel that way toward BOTH of my businesses.

For me to create a better time management system that worked for me, my first step was to get a better understanding of how I work.

First, I took a bit of time to observe the way I emotionally reacted to the work scenario I'd created for myself. I noticed that, on the days when I simply expected to work all day, I could work from the moment I got up to the moment I went to bed without having a problem with it.

But on the days when I expected to be done by a certain time and wasn't, I got upset and resentful in a way that I couldn't seem to talk myself out of.

Based on this, plus the abovementioned difficulty in switching gears, I concluded that it was time to adjust the way I distributed my work hours.

Strategy #2: Understand your desires and goals.

When my time management system failed to satisfy me, I took a few minutes to do an exercise I learned from Mary Morrissey: I asked myself, "What would I love?"

Not "What seems feasible at this time?", but "what would I LOVE?"

The answer I came up with was, "I want to continue helping people to connect with more clients, but I'd also love to wake up on most days and know that I have few or no obligations to anyone except for creating stories."

This seemed like a big stretch; I was already working longer hours than I planned to on my marketing business. How was I going to create weekdays when I could focus almost exclusively on my writing and art, when I was having trouble just setting the evenings aside for it?

I didn't want this shift to come at the expense of my valued clients, so I needed to find a way to make more time for both of my businesses.

Strategy #3: Remember that you have more control than you think, and be willing to experiment.

I've learned better than to assume that my circumstances are outside my control. We create our own circumstances more often than many people think, and even when things outside our control affect our lives, we can still choose how to respond.

So rather than assuming I was too busy and couldn't do it, I wrote up a new schedule for myself.

On Monday and Tuesday, I would spend two hours each day on my coaching and marketing business. On those days, I would catch up on the emails that came in over the weekend, complete high-priority tasks, and put out fires.

The rest of the day on those days, I would work on the stories that have captured my heart.

On Wednesday through Friday, I would work on my coaching and marketing business from when I woke up until I got everything done, even if that meant copyediting a project while I brushed and flossed my teeth at bedtime. If I got finished early and got some free time, bonus - but I wouldn't frustrate myself by expecting it.

With this arrangement, I would be devoting entire days to each business instead of just select chunks of those days, so I could serve all of my clients without feeling rushed to get everything done by a specific time of the day.

And my impossible little dream of having four days out of the week to work on my stories and art became reality.

All because I took three simple steps: I was honest about what I wanted, I paid attention to how I function and chose to work with that instead of against it, and I chose to create and implement a specific, actionable plan to make those goals happen in a way that works for me.

What was the result of my experiment?

Since I started managing my time this way, I've found that I'm more productive in both of my areas of passion.

I'm creating content far more quickly and consistently in my art and writing business, and I'm serving my marketing clients with more joy and focus, which helps both our relationships and the quality of my work.

I'm spending more hours per week on each of my businesses now than I was before, but it feels like less, because I'm doing it in a way that's in sync with my natural process instead of fighting myself.

Will you do it the same way? Who knows.

Maybe working from wake up to lie down on one business three days a week doesn't work for you. Maybe you'll function better if you split your days half-and-half.

What's important is that you know what you want and how you function, be completely honest about what you'd love, and create a strategy that enables you to do what you love in a way that works in harmony with your natural tendencies and strengths.

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If you'd like to see completed art, stories and other projects early, get exclusive access to works in progress, and to support me as an artist and storyteller, I invite you to join me on Patreon.

There, you can pledge a monthly donation to support me and my work, in exchange for special access and rewards. Click the button below to see what kind of cool stuff is available to you!

If you don't have natural talent as a writer, should you keep on trying or give up? In today's blog post, Ryan Lanz shares his thoughts:

Guest post by Ryan Lanz
 

• tal·ent [tal-uhnt] noun: a special natural ability or aptitude.
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• skill [skil] noun: the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.

 
What if you don’t have natural talent? Does that mean you may as well give up?

It’s not quite the chicken or the egg debate, but it’s up there. I’ve heard people go in circles about which comes first and which is necessary.

At what combination of both does one continue the grind and attempt at success? I’d be surprised if you haven’t asked yourself that question. It’s a part of being human.

What does each really mean?

This comes from the university of my opinion, but I would describe talent as the natural ability that needs little to no refinement, and skill is the unnatural ability that you have to develop.

For those of us who’ve played sports (myself excluded), I’m sure you’ve all encountered someone who strides onto the field and makes it all look so darn effortless.
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This person hardly shows up to practice, and you have a fairly good idea that it took hardly any effort to accomplish. Same with the person who aced every test in college with little preparation, leaving you in study hall time after time with a bucket of coffee.

You must have missed at least three parties because you had to cram for the Calculus exam, right?

Which is better?

Good question. And one not so easily answered. Sure, we would all like natural talent that we don’t have to pour so much effort into, but sometimes that doesn’t quite pan out.

Often, we are born with enough talent to have an affinity for a profession, but the rest has to be made up with skill. In writing, there are dozens of abilities that need to be present to make a good novel, such as foreshadowing, prose, description, natural dialogue, pacing, etc.

Let’s say that you have a knack for writing dialogue, but your setting description rambles on and on. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and you’ll have to practice at writing setting description over time to develop it into a skill, even if it’s not a natural talent.

​To be fair, natural talent does get you to the goal quicker.

The combination of the two
 
If Tiger Woods is not the best golf player of all time, then he comes very close. He started golfing on professional courses at the age of two years old and was featured in a golf magazine at the age of five.
 
Tiger spent 545 weeks combined total as the world number one. In my opinion, that is some superb natural talent. Although Tiger has mounds of it, he still had a golfing coach (and probably still does) through most of his career.
 
That’s combining the natural with the refined skill that creates that sweet spot. Think about how you can make a similar combination.

Is it so bad if you don’t have natural talent? Should you give up?
 
The one downside to having natural talent is that you don’t have as much appreciation for the effort.

Let’s look at two writers: one who writes his/her first book and quickly becomes published, and the other is a writer who labors for ten years to even become noticed. Both eventually become published and successful, let’s say.

I think it’s fair to say that the latter writer has more appreciation for the effort of the craft. There are small nuances of writing that I feel are best represented when someone has to massage and mold their skill over the long-term.

I believe that about anyone can accomplish about anything if they were to dedicate their entire life to it, even if that person doesn’t have a drop of natural talent. Ask yourself what craft you can master if you were to invest 20 years in its perfection.

​So, no, don’t simply give up on it. You may have been born with talent in a profession you’re not interested in. That’s okay, just work to catch up in a profession that you are.
 
Conclusion
 
If you sharpen your skill enough, people will believe that you’ve had talent from the very beginning, regardless of how much you actually had to start with.

Original post here.
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Guest post contributed by Ryan Lanz. Ryan is an avid blogger and author of The Idea Factory: 1,000 Story Ideas and Writing Prompts to Find Your Next Bestseller. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.