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This blogpost was originally published as a guest post about the third volume of the 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner for Ally from Fabulous and Brunette.

My all-time office favourites

As a writer, editor, and writing coach, I tend to be working on different projects in the space of one day. It means I need quite a few items within reach at all times. Of these things, these are my absolute office favourites, those items I wouldn’t know how to live without.

Disclaimer: I wrote this post last year, and I’ve since then moved on to the Moleskine Pro Weekly Diary. Not because I no longer loved the Paperblanks business planner, but because the shop I usually get my planners from didn’t have the latter in stock anymore. I do love the Moleskine one though, so I’m not unhappy about this change.

Paperblanks business planner

Surprise! One of my office favourites is a planner… Who would have thought? I discovered the Paperblanks business planner last year, and I’ve been in love since. It works perfectly with my…

…52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner

Which is another office favourite. I use 52 Weeks of Writing to track and plan my writing goals for the week, and I use my Paperblanks planner to keep track of deadlines, appointments, and non-writing related projects, such as the editing or translating work I’m doing for clients.

‘Quote’ book

This little notebook contains all my clients, the work I did or am doing for them, the estimates I’ve quoted, the deadlines we’ve agreed to, how often we will be meeting per week or per month, and so on.

Desk calendar

This calendar was made by CopsCats, the Trap-Neuter-Return charity I volunteer for here in Cyprus. It contains pictures of our colony cats, the cats we feed and look after medically once they’re neutered and released.

The cat on the picture is Alexis, who was dumped at one of our feeding stations when she was barely weaned. A colleague and I tried to socialise her, to see if we could turn her into a housecat because she was so young, but she was still feral after two months and we had to release her again. This picture was taken eight months after.

Hand cream

I have rather dry skin and I can’t stand typing with dry hands. I’m still looking for the perfect vegan hand cream, one that absorbs instantly, so if anyone knows just the brand…

Deskbike

When I moved to Cyprus, the thing I missed most about my old office was my Deskbike. It took me ages to get one shipped to Cyprus, but it finally arrived last August!

It’s made in the Netherlands—we love our bicycles—and it’s basically a home trainer without the front, which allows you to cycle while sitting behind your desk.

Ergonomic mouse and keyboard

Aside the standing desk and the Deskbike, which I got for my health, I also use an ergonomic mouse in combination with a mini keyboard. Before I started working with this combination, I suffered badly and often from RSI, but those days are gone!

Laptop stand

A laptop stand is one of the essential items if you want to create a more ergonomic office set-up, but I love mine in particular because it also allows me to work from the couch without entirely ruining my posture and inviting neck and shoulder pain. It cost me about €30, and it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

My pen, sticky note, and marker collection

Which writer doesn’t have a ton of different pens and pencils, sticky notes, and markers to make them feel much more organised than they actually are?

I do. Anything to feel in control and on top of things.

My citrine stone

According to crystal lore, it’s financially beneficial to keep a piece of citrine in the left corner of the room where you do business. Citrine is one of my favourite gemstones so I have citrine all over the house, and I often wear it around my neck or wrist as well. The biggest piece I have is just under seven kilograms, and that’s the one I keep in the left corner of my office.

Before I moved to Cyprus, it was the pride and joy of my then office. So when I left the Netherlands, I wrapped it up in scarfs and sweaters, stuffed it in my suitcase, and took it with me. Everyone thought I had lost my mind, but I’m so happy I did.

Tea

If I don’t have tea and water within reach, I dehydrate. I easily get absorbed in my work, so I have to make sure I have enough fluids nearby. It’s why I favour giant mugs. This is the biggest one I own and it holds 550 ml.

And no, I don’t mind drinking my tea cold. There’s always the microwave…

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This blogpost was originally published as a guest post about the third volume of the 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner for Sandra’s Book Club.

Three challenges writers face and how to overcome them

As writers, there are so many different challenges we face. Now we’ve left 2021 behind us, I want to share the three main challenges that came up for the writers I coached that year.

I struggle to stay accountable to myself

For some writers, it’s rather easy to keep themselves motivated. For others, it’s harder. I don’t have an answer as to why some writers need more external motivation than others, but I do know it’s become harder generally to stay motivated since the You-Know-What started.

If it has been a struggle to keep yourself motivated and moving forward with your writing, I highly suggest you find yourself an accountability partner. This could be a fellow writer, but it doesn’t have to be. An accountability partner doesn’t have to have similar goals. Perhaps one of your friends or colleagues has set some intentions for the new year and you could keep each other accountable?

Whoever you pick, make sure you are on the same page. You both need to understand the kind of motivation the other person needs, and you need to be comfortable giving that kind of motivation. I once had a client who asked me to be meaner to her when she didn’t achieve her writing goals, but that doesn’t align with who I am and the kind of coaching I do.

You also need to set some rules about who is reaching out first and how often. Make sure you’re not creating any loopholes for yourself to get out from doing what you said you’d be doing! If you want write every Tuesday morning, but you’ve been struggling to get started, it might not be helpful if your accountability partner waits until the Thursday to ask whether you got your writing done. Neither is it helpful if they text or call you while you should be writing. So think through this and figure out together what makes the most sense for you both.

I struggle to stay true to myself in my writing

I’m quite sure that this is something writers have always struggled with, simply because we don’t exist in a vacuum, isolated from people with opinions about what we’re writing. There’s also always been a writing market, with its supply and demand and publishers and agents trying to make money of our work, telling us what stories are and aren’t selling right now.

Of course, not all writers face this challenge, because there are those who are perfectly happy writing certain pieces simply because they sell well, even if it’s not exactly the genre they would have picked themselves. But there are a lot of writers who do feel like they’re stuck between what they want to be writing and what they think they should be writing instead, if they’re to make any kind of money with their work.

If you feel similarly caught between these two options and wish to return to yourself, it could be useful to grab a journal and write down why it is you’re writing. Why do you write? What does it bring you? What do you want it to bring you?

Once you’ve figured out the answers to those questions, think of what you want to be writing and ask yourself why this is. Why these particular works? Why this genre? What do you love so much about it? What does it allow you to say?

Now look at what you think you should be writing and be honest with yourself: Could writing this kind of work give you the same as what you want to be writing? Does it feed your soul in the same way? If the answer is no, you know what to do. In the future, you can use these answers as guideposts to help you decide what to do when you next feel forced to write a particular kind of work.

I struggle to set boundaries around my writing

This, too, is one of those struggles that seemed to have been here forever and isn’t likely to go away any time soon, if at all. The You-Know-What made it even harder to set boundaries, especially for those with families. I mainly coach women writers and we’ve talked a lot about how most of the extra work the pandemic created ended up in their lap. Some ended up full-time mothering again, while others lost their dedicated writing space to their spouse, who suddenly needed a home office.

The thing about boundaries is that you can only set them properly if you:

  • believe in what you’re doing, and
  • feel worthy of what you’re asking for.

If you, on some level, don’t believe you can write or have nothing interesting to say, it’s going to be hard to set boundaries around your writing time. But even if you believe in your writing, you still have to feel worthy of taking time away from whatever else goes on in your life.

For example, if you, on some level, feel that locking yourself up in a room with a sign on the door that you’re not to be disturbed unless the house is on fire makes you a bad mother, it’s going to be really hard to set and stick to that boundary. Likewise, if you feel that setting time apart to write makes you a bad partner because you could be spending that time with and on them, it’ll be hard to keep it up, if you manage to do it at all.

So before you start asking yourself what kind of boundaries you need in your life, you need to have another honest conversation first. Do you believe in what you’re doing? If not, how come? And what do you need to do to start believing in yourself? What do you need to let go of? Do you feel worthy of setting boundaries around your writing? If not, what is that based on? What do you need to do to start feeling worthy? And what do you need to let go of to make that happen?

If you’re facing any of these challenges, I wish you all the luck in overcoming them. I hope today’s post will help you get there.

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This blogpost was originally published as a guest post about the third volume of the 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner on J. Lynn Rowan.
Disclaimer: I wrote the original post in December 2021. During December 2022, I couldn’t get myself to write down goals beyond the next six months. This is a first for me, and I’m attributing it to having flirted with burnout too often over 2022 and finding my way back to myself after being forced to finally work through some deep-rooted personal issues.
I’m positive I’ll get my groove back eventually and I’ll just write down my long-term goals when I do. Because I’m sticking with the advice given in this post: it’s a really good habit to have.

Starting your writing year on the right foot

It may seem obvious, but I start every year filling in my own author journal and planner. Each volume of 52 Weeks of Writing is undated, so you can start whenever you want, but even before I published it, I was used to plan out the year ahead somewhere during December. That’s why I crack open a copy for personal use at the end of each year.

I’m not saying everyone should buy a copy of 52 Weeks of Writing, that that’s the best way to start your writing year on the right foot. I do want to talk about a planning habit of mine that made it into the journal/planner because I’d been doing it for years already, and with great success.

In 52 Weeks of Writing, during Week 1, I ask you to write down your long-term goals. Where do you see yourself in ten years? Five years? Three years? Two? Where do you see yourself in a year from now? In nine months? Six? Three?

Over the past two years, I’ve often been asked why I ask after long-term goals backwards. Wouldn’t it make more sense to start small and then expand? Well. No. Not in my experience. And that’s because I don’t just believe in setting goals. I believe in setting realistic goals.

I’m very much in favour of dreaming big dreams, but the more unrealistic your goals, the more you’re setting yourself up for failure. And consistent failure is not a great motivator. Consistently achieving your goals, that’s a great motivator. That’s what causes those dopamine hits that’ll keep you moving forwards.

So plan for success, that’s how you start your writing year on the right foot. Planning backwards is helpful here because it makes you ask over and over: ‘So if I want to be there in ten years, where do I need to be in five years’ time? If I want to be there in five years, where do I need to be in three years’ time? And if I want to have achieved that in the next three years, what does that mean for my two-year goals, my one-year goals, etc.?’

Backtracking like this gives you a great sense of whether you’re expecting too much, too little, or exactly the right amount of yourself. Perhaps you see yourself having published ten novels in ten years. As you figure out what your other goals have to be in order to achieve that big ten-year goal by then, you might realise there’s no way you can possibly pull that off, not while, let’s say, working fulltime and are thinking of having another baby.

Maybe you set out to have been published in ten literary magazines over the next ten years. But, as you spell out for yourself what that means for your five-year, three-year, and so on goals, you might come to the conclusion that you could be doing much more with the time you have for writing.

Of course, having ten novels published or having been published in ten literary magazines in the next ten years might be utterly realistic for you. We’re all different, we all want different things from our writing, and we all find ourselves in different circumstances. That’s why this exercise is so useful, because it will demonstrate quickly what can and cannot be realistically done within your specific situation.

As you do the exercise, don’t forget that goals aren’t set in stone. I use goals as guidelines, as something to keep me focused, but I revisit them at least annually to see if anything needs to go or needs to be added.

And whatever goals you set for yourself, don’t forget to celebrate each and every milestone. In 52 Weeks of Writing, I explicitly ask you to write down how you’re going to celebrate each of your goals as you achieve them, because it’s all too easy to ignore the small steps and just keep going. But we wouldn’t reach our big goals without those small steps, and they should be honoured as such.

 

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This blogpost was originally published as a guest post about the third volume of the 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner on Lisa’s Reading.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. There was a time, when I was very young, when I wasn’t afraid to say so when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think it was my mother who said: ‘Good luck earning any money with that.’ Then there were others, telling me writing doesn’t bring home the bacon.

Of course, none of these people knew I’d become a vegan eventually. And neither, I think, were they aware of the impact their words had on me. How their casual comments made me lie about what I wanted to become and embarrassed about all those words I kept writing, in secret, afraid of being found out and told I was wasting my time pursuing something I really shouldn’t.

And then one of my uncles brought home a girlfriend. He didn’t just ‘bring her home’; she was from the United States, where he had worked for a couple of years, and she was moving to the Netherlands to be with him.

This girlfriend wasn’t only terribly smart—she was a lawyer who had just won a big case—and kind and funny and pretty and cool because she was from the United States, she loved books the way I did and let me borrow anything I wanted. I had never let anyone read my writing—it was all done in secret, after all—but she was the one I eventually trusted with a couple of pages, the start of a novel.

I remember the scene so vividly. We were out together, having a drink in a little bakery after visiting a fair, when I told her about this story I was writing. I had printed the pages when no one was looking and had put them in my bag in case I would somehow find the courage to show them to her.

I still have those pages and they were bad. Not just in terms of craft—I was fourteen or so—but the start of that story was so clearly based on the last series we’d been reading together… It was painful. Reading those words now, it was so very painful.

Now, over twenty years later, I can’t remember whether she said anything about those pages. The only thing I remember is that she didn’t say anything bad about them. In fact, she asked me about the rest of the story and I spent the entire afternoon telling her about all the ideas I had.

In that little bakery, I gave her the power to wreck me and she didn’t. I was steeling myself to hear about all the bacon I wouldn’t be bringing home, the harsh, penniless life I wanted to willingly sign up for, but she gave me none of that. And it has made all the difference.

Writing still wasn’t something I talked about with anyone else and it took me another fourteen years to tell another soul that I wrote stories and let them read my work, but that terrible fear of anyone finding out lost its hold on me. I no longer hid it from my direct family—I even bought myself a typewriter because the thought of having one alone made me feel more like a writer—and soon it was just something I spent a lot of time doing. If any more discouraging comments were made, I must have been too high on the support I’d received to not register them.

I might have never stopped writing, no matter what my uncle’s then girlfriend had said on that faithful day, but her treating it as something that was OK to be spending my time on, as a dream I was allowed to have and an interest worth pursuing? It did make a difference. She eventually moved back to the United States when I was seventeen, but I will never forget that day and I will never stop being grateful for all the things she didn’t say, all the hurt she didn’t inflict, and all the hope and joy and love for writing she handed back to me in that little bakery.

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This blogpost was originally published as a guest post about the third volume of the 52 Weeks of Writing Author Journal and Planner on Joanne Guidocco’s On the Road to Reinvention.

As a writing coach, I come across so many limiting beliefs about writing and being a creative person. Below, you’ll find ten affirmations that will help you live your best creative life. Most of these affirmations can also be found in my Seven Simple Spreads series, in which I combine creativity, cartomancy (the reading of cards, such as those of the tarot or oracle cards), and chakra philosophy.

1. I honour my creativity
2. It’s safe for me to create
3. I deserve the joy and pleasure of living a creative life
4. I can create whatever I want to
5. I love everything about my creative self
6. I enjoy all parts of my creative journey
7. I walk my creative path with an open heart
8. I acknowledge and celebrate all of my creative wins
9. I trust my creative purpose
10. I easily turn my creative dreams into plans