Think: LIST!

You’d be surprised how many of your writing challenges can be solved simply: with a list. For me, everything I write starts with a list.

You can make lists of:

*    Ideas for anything and everything

I create lists of ideas for blog posts; projects I want to propose to a client (making proposals gets you more writing gigs); people I need to contact (usually past clients, but often people I just want to get to know — or compliment); fictional characters, and character attributes; scenes I want to write; what I need to cover in a book or an article...

*    Things to do

I use Evernote and OmniFocus for my task lists, and calendar. These are "macro" lists — big picture lists. For example, one daily task is "write three blog posts".

However, I also create lists which chunk these macro tasks down further, into micro lists of ideas, thoughts, insights, questions clients and students have asked me. So, by the time I’ve written down all this material, writing or dictating the blog posts goes very quickly.

*    Goals to achieve

Although I have over-arching goals with deadlines, I also create smaller goals. For example, I might create a goal of commenting on ten blog posts. This helps me to make Web browsing more productive. I’m a voracious reader, and if I 

allowed it, I’d spend an hour just browsing news sites on Web. At the end of that time, although I might know a lot of what’s happening in the world, I wouldn’t have achieved anything much.

* Things I want or need to learn

The more you know, the more you can write. Everything you write needs to have an underpinning of knowledge. This applies to fiction, as well as to nonfiction. Without a knowledge of how people act and react, as well as knowing a million other things, it’s a challenge to make your characters believable.

On my Just Write a Book Blog, I wrote "Know Your Genre To Avoid Looking Like a Klutz on Amazon" http://www.justwriteabook.com/blog/kindle/know-your-genre-to-avoid-looking-like-a-klutz-on-amazon/

It’s impossible to write the “perfect” novel, and never make mistakes. You will make mistakes in every novel you write. However, those mistakes shouldn’t be egregious. If something’s easy to look up — details of crime scene procedures, Regency-period forms of address — look them up.

The fear of making mistakes shouldn’t stop you writing. You WILL make mistakes. That’s fine. Just do your best to correct mistakes. ASK questions. Check your facts. For aficionados of a genre, an author’s mistakes, especially if they show the author’s been lazy, show disrespect for readers.

My favorite tool for lists: Scapple

I’ve found Scapple wonderful for creating lists, because the app is just a giant whiteboard. Although there’s a place for lists as hierarchical outlines, free form listing helps me to be more creative.

I also love the software app Inspiration. It creates cluster diagrams, as well as mind maps. This program’s been around for years, as and as soon as I begin a writing project, I create a diagram for it in Inspiration.

(You'll find links to these programs in the Resources.)

Exercise 4. Make a list of things you could list

What could you list today? Give yourself five minutes to write down everything you could list.