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Just Say "NO!" To Procrastination
In today’s PWR, I’m going to share with you how I finally finished my manuscript. It took me five months to ghostwrite an autobiography
for a person on the other side of the world, whom I interviewed only twice.
It’s
not too late to finish your manuscript and release it at the beginning of 2024. Here’s how you’re going to get it done:
Fix your eyes on the prize. Imagine the relief you’ll feel, the freedom, the exhilaration, when you hold that book in your hands.
Take a moment and visualize the feeling.
Doesn't it feel amazing?
Now let that feeling break you out of the doldrums.
Two weeks ago, I had two chapters left—and we were going out of town the next week. I didn’t want to work on it while I was on vacation. But the Tuesday before we left, I met with Eric
Protzman, my business coach.
“I’m so stressed out,” I told him. “I don’t know how
I’m going to get it done.”
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” he said. “You’re
going to finish those two chapters before you go out of town. Cancel all your appointments. Write ten hours a day, if you need to. But next week when you’re out of town, you’re going to feel so good.”
It worked!
Count the cost. I know I sound like a broken record, but before every writing project I sit down with my wife and we discuss the sacrifices we both will need to make in order for me to finish it.
During that crunch week, one of my daughters flew in from out of town to celebrate another daughter’s birthday. That Saturday the rest of the family went on a birthday hike while I stayed home to write. Major FOMO.
But at 5:30 that evening, I finished it. The next morning, Kelley and I left on our trip at 7:00 am sharp.
Of the twenty-some books I’ve written, none were finished without major sacrifices.
Suck it up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself
and get it done. I know, I know, the kitchen is calling you by name to tidy it up. You need to balance the checkbook. Facebook needs a little attention. Blah, blah, blah.
Distractions are your biggest enemy. Tell everybody on Facebook that you’re going offline until you finish your manuscript. Shut off your email box for a few hours. You’ll quickly learn that the world keeps spinning.
Get up early in the morning before anyone can bother you. I read an interesting quote recently, “An hour before 9:00 is like three after 5:00.” In other words, you can accomplish as much in an hour, first thing in the morning, than you can in three hours at the end
of the day.
Tell everyone about your
goal. There’s nothing like publicly committing yourself. Ask your friends to ask you how your manuscript is going. Tell everybody—even if they don’t care.
Employ ChatGPT as your assistant. Without the help of ChatGPT, I would still be working on my manuscript. The research cut my time in half. After spending 100+ hours on ChatGPT since the beginning of the year, I’ll never write a book again without using it.
I asked it to write a 500 word essay on a historical event.
I copied and pasted research and asked it to piece everything together.
When I got stuck trying to smooth everything out in a paragraph, I copied and pasted it into ChatGPT and told it to refine my writing.
One word of caution: ChatGPT tends to make stuff up, so you need to verify any research it does for you. Also, the application tends to
be wordy, so you’re still going to need to tighten the writing further, but it’s a very handy tool.
A few weeks ago, Karen Bouchard and I hosted a “Write Better with ChatGPT” workshop. The turnout was amazing but Zoom’s servers were moving in slow motion, so we’re going to re-record it. I’ll make it available to you in the next few weeks. Nevertheless, the feedback from many of you was over the top.
Schedule a Christmas vacation trip. The last thing you want to do is write during your Christmas vacation while you're working on your tan in sunny Florida. That’ll
drive your family nuts!
Hard deadlines with rewards at the end are great
motivators. The same works with penalties.
Eight years ago, I ghostwrote a
book for the father of man who was running for president. My contract stipulated that I needed to write 70,000 words in seven weeks (you read that right!). And if I was late, I would be penalized $250 a day.
I had never written that much in my life, but I sure as heck hit the deadline.
Enlist a book coach. Unsure about your manuscript or your writing abilities? Or maybe you need a sounding board? We have veteran book coaches with tons of experience in traditional publishing. Contact me if you’re interested.
Put
some skin in the game. I can’t tell you how many authors have told me, “I would have never finished the manuscript if I hadn’t signed a contract with you.”
Once you execute the contract, it’s hard to go back. And if you have a significant other in your life, you KNOW that special person will be hounding you to “Git’r done!”
Once your manuscript goes into copyediting, we can usually turn it around in 8-12 weeks without it being a rush job.
But let me be clear…
YOU. CAN. DO. IT!
Finish your manuscript by mid-September and Illumify can have it ready to go by the end of 2023.
If you're interested and feeling motivated, let's talk. You can schedule a meeting with me today by clicking here.
Let’s bring your book to life!
