Fantastic, accelerated learning experiences
“Get it wrong quickly”
My top 5 mistakes
1. Diving into action without a plan
I realise that for many people planning is probably even less preferable than having a tooth pulled, but it really can save quite a bit of wasted effort and heartache. I’ve dived into a few things related to setting myself up as an ‘independent author’ without really planning them (just in case you are worried, this doesn’t include the books themselves). The most obvious thing I failed to plan was my website, or should I say, my previous website, now firmly deleted from the WordPress universe. You may well argue, though, that this current website too could benefit from a bit more planning (if so, please let me know your thoughts on my contact page here!). Anyway, having decided I needed a website, the first thing I did was go onto wordpress.com and start bashing about and setting one up. I hadn’t really planned what was going to be in it and how it might look. After a few hours of said ‘bashing about’, I decided I just needed to take the proverbial axe to the website and just canned it completely. I then spent about 30 minutes one evening brainstorming this one and then set it up in about another 30 minutes a few days later. A lot less elapsed time and effort for a much better outcome.
2. Too much time researching, not enough doing

Obviously there are lots of moving parts to this ‘self-publishing’ and ‘independent author’ thing and I am still getting to grips with it. That is not an excuse, though, for spending whole days doing ‘internet research’ into it. I realised very quickly I was using research as a proxy for action. If you are buying a house, choosing your child’s school or looking for a job (pretty big life choices) then days of research is fine and probably to be recommended. If you are thinking about how to set up a Twitter account and how to use it, days of research may not be very worthwhile (I know this now). I’ve since realised that the amount of time researching should be proportionate to the importance and complexity of the decision or action that will follow it.
3. Believing ‘time out’ is wasted time
Have you ever had an epiphany in the shower or suddenly worked out what to do about that delicate situation at work while walking the dog? If you are anything like me, you often do your best and most creative thinking away from your desk or normal work environment. Although I probably knew this somewhere at the back of my mind, I would often force myself to forego anything more than a 5 minute break and any form of prolonged relaxation because I thought this was wasted time and I couldn’t justify it. However, a little like taking a few minutes to plan before starting something, time away from your main work is an investment that will save you time in the future. If nothing else, it will mean you are more productive in the hours that you are working, and in all likelihood it will also mean you come to that work with many more ideas.
4. Not treating writing like any other job
If you’ve read my previous posts, you will be aware that I am hoping to be able to make some form of living from writing. Something you make a living from is also known as a job (just in case you were wondering). However, I was not treating writing as a job. If you want to do something professionally, you have to approach it professionally. Jeff Goins, a great writer and blogger (go check him out if you haven’t), talks about the importance of ‘turning up’, i.e. you have to put in a day’s work and take writing seriously if you are going to get anything out of it (I paraphrase. Jeff puts it better me than me on his own site). So I now schedule writing and things related to it just as if it were a crucial meeting at work.
5. Editing as I write
Do you spend ages at work writing and re-writing the same sentence of the same email, thinking of just the right way to phrase it, instead of just writing the email? You can’t see the wood for the trees. I’ve done it myself many times and have caught myself doing it quite often while writing my first two books. This is, in effect, multi-tasking (something which we men, of course, are not meant to be able to do and something which I certainly cannot do) as writing and editing are two very different skills. I’ve now learned to turn off what many other writers call the ‘internal editor’ as I write. That is to say, when I’m writing, I’m just writing. I then worry about editing and finessing the words later. This is definitely more time-efficient and leads to a more cohesive piece overall.
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