Angela Booth's Life Stream

Writing and more...

100 Day Writing Challenge: Day 1 -- Get Started

Our 100 Day Writing Challenge has started. If you haven't enrolled, please be aware that enrollments close on September 25.

Here's a little taste of the challenge, an excerpt from today's message:

Please write this down: "a task is something which takes no longer than 10, 20 or 30 minutes." 

If a task takes longer than that, it's a project. In other words, you're chunking everything right down, into slivers of time.

Think of it this way:

Intention => Goal => Projects => Tasks

When you chunk every down into slivers of time, it stops you procrastinating. If you only have 20 minutes to do a task, you'll do it. :-)

To help you to chunk, get a timer utility. Search Google for "timer utility". You'll find little software applications for both the Mac and PC. Pick one, and install it, and USE IT.

I have one on my Mac, called oddly enough (smile) Timer Utility. I use it all day, every day, to time my tasks. Once the timer ends, that task is DONE. If it's incomplete, it becomes another task for later today, or for tomorrow.

If you're not familiar with chunking, the way I use it is similar to the Pomodoro Technique.

Happy Challenge to you. Enjoy your 100 days. 

100 Day Writing Challenge: Starts Tomorrow

Are you ready for the 100 Day Writing Challenge?

The challenge kicks off tomorrow, so clear space in your writing schedule. Aim to spend an hour a day on it, if you can.

Here's the basic information:

* The Challenge's primary aim is to ensure that you're making at least $200 a day more from your writing than you're making now, and that you'll be well on the way to making at least $70 an hour from your writing;

* The program's conducted via email, you'll receive one or two messages a week;

* Budget at least an hour a day to work with the program and your writing;

* The program is helpful for writers at varying levels of experience, so whether you're a newbie or a pro, the program will help you to take your writing career to a whole new level;

* You can use the program to write anything at all -- develop a copywriting career, write a book, write for the Web... anything you choose.

Be accountable: blog your challenge

Several writers are blogging their challenge; it's a great way to be accountable. You can blog your challenge-experiences on your own blog, and /or on Fab Freelance Writing Blog too (contact me if you're up for the latter.)

I'm excited, and I hope you're getting excited too.

I've had several questions about your Challenge goal. Don't worry if you haven't set a goal yet. You'll set your goal in the first few days of the challenge.

More tomorrow -- enroll to join us.

Ready, Set, Enroll! 100 Day Writing Challenge

Judging from the numerous messages I've received, you're champing at the bit to get started on your writing challenge. Excellent! :-)

Enrollments to the 100 Day Writing Challenge are now open.

We'll get started on September 22, so get prepared. 

Please remember that the enrollment is time-limited; enrollments end on September 25. I want us all to be on the same page, so to speak, as we blast through the challenge.

Enjoy -- I'm looking forward to writing with you. And yes, I'll be working with my own personal challenge too. Just as you do, I want to finish 2010 with a bang, and head into 2011 with all guns blazing. :-)

Want to Document Your Journey?

If you'd like to share your personal experiences with the writing challenge, I'm looking for a couple of writers who'll document their journey on the blog. Just get in touch if you're enthusiastic.

Join us -- enroll today. I promise you you'll have fun, AND you'll achieve your writing goals for 2010.

100 Day Writing Challenge: "Where's the signup form?"

Over the past couple of days, since the 100 Day Writing Challenge site was launched, I've received many "Where's the signup form?" queries.

The form isn't live yet. Enrollment will be for five days only, so expect it to be live within the next couple of days. (The program starts on September 22.)

I'll announce that enrollment has begun in a short message to Fab Freelance Writing Ezine subscribers as soon as the form goes live.

The 100 Day Writing Challenge in a nutshell:

* The program starts on September 22 and ends on January 1;

* Its aim is to ensure that you're making at least $200 a day more from your writing than you're making now, and that you'll be well on the way to making at least $70 an hour from your writing;

* The program's conducted via email, you'll receive one or two messages a week;

* Budget at least an hour a day to work with the program and your writing;

* The program is helpful for writers at varying levels of experience, so whether you're a newbie or pro, the program will help you to take your writing career to a whole new level;

* You can use the program to write anything at all -- develop a copywriting career, write a book, write for the Web... anything you choose.

If you're up for a challenge, the 100 Day Writing Challenge is for you. Join us, we'll have fun. :-)

100 Day Writing Challenge site launch

Just a quick note to let you know that the site for the 100 Day Writing Challenge has launched.

You'll find a countdown timer to the launch date of the program (September 22, 2010) at the bottom of the home page.

I'll be adding an enrollment form over the next few days. The enrollment period is for five days only. We'll be an exclusive group. :-) I want to be able to provide you with reasonable support and guidance, so enrollments are strictly limited.

NEW For Authors: Publish in Kindle Format, and Access Millions of Readers

Are you writing a book? If so, there's a marketplace you may not have considered: Amazon's Kindle.

I've owned a Kindle for a while, and although I loved it at first, the dinky little forward and back buttons just annoy me. I'm a fast reader, and the buttons hurt my thumbs. Then I bought an iPad, and now I read my Kindle ebooks on that: forward and back with just a tap! Magic. 

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the future of books is digital, and you can read Kindle books on just about any mobile device, which makes for a HUGE marketplace.

To be honest, although I publish ebooks, I disregarded the Kindle. Then I kept hearing from writer colleagues that they'd just published their books on the Kindle, and that sales were great. One writer told me she was publishing a book a week. (Your Kindle books don't need to be long; they just need to cover what readers want to know.)

That raised my eyebrows. 

What raised them even more was when she told me of the income she was making, without doing much promotion at all; she was relying on Amazon's popularity.

This means that I'll be taking a fresh look at the Kindle's publishing format, and you should too.

Publishing for the Kindle is amazingly easy.

To show you how easy, I discovered this new video training, which shows you how to publish in Kindle format quickly and simply, and completely for free, using the tools you already have on your computer. 

Discover how you can publish your books in Kindle format today.

Ezine: Make $100 a Day From Web Writing

Are you making $100 a day from Web writing? I hope you are. While $100 a day won't keep the wolf from the door, it's a start.

This coming week, in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine we'll discuss how you can make $100 a day from Web writing, quickly. If you've surpassed that figure, great! You'll discover fresh insights which will help you to increase your income.

We'll be discussing mindset, skills, productivity, and more. Join us.

A heads-up: it's the final day for our prelaunch of PLR Magic.

Writing Jobs: Create Your Own

This week's theme in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is creating Private Label Rights (PLR) content. Creating and selling PLR content is perfect for you if you like the idea of creating your own writing job. Once you've established a reputation and have clients, you can make your own hours.

Here's an excerpt from the message which has just gone out to subscribers:

So, what is PLR? Basically, PLR content is GENERIC content. It's content that's bought to form the foundation of something else. People buy PLR content to launch websites, and to promote products and services. PLR content is created so that it can be edited, and transformed into something else... into whatever weird and wonderful things the buyer wants to do with it.

PLR works like this, sales-wise. 

Let's say you're selling an article:

Standard article: sold with (whatever) rights to one buyer. Depending on which rights you sold the first time, you may sell it again to another buyer.

PLR article: sold with all rights to many buyers.

Later this week, we'll cover:

* Creating your first PLR package; and 

* Promoting your PLR.

Learn more about PLR in the ezine.

Become a Confident Writer: Stop Listening to the Voices in Your Head

I've been working hard on the 100 Day Challenge material. What started as a fun little side project is taking on much more importance. I'm devoting more time to it; I want it to be the best hour-a-day you've ever spent.

Here's why. I've been reading many months' worth of email messages, both from my writing students, and from other writers. I'm trying to find common writing and personal challenges which we can address and eliminate in our 100 days.

There are lots of them, and we'll get to them all. I want you to end 2010 with a bang, and be ready to take on the world in 2011.

One problem in particular stood out. 

The sub-text of 95 per cent of the messages I studied is the writer's lack of confidence. 

Even writers who are GOOD writers (you can tell a lot from an email message) are making an unholy mess of their writing careers because they lack confidence.

It made me angry on their behalf. They were listening to the kvetching voices in their head which told them that they weren't good enough, had no talent, that they'd never make money... and on an on.

Your lack of confidence affects everything you do as a writer. Worse, if you don't realize that you lack confidence you can be destroyed: you'll give up all hope of a writing career.

So during the 100 Day Challenge, you'll learn how to become a confident, selling writer. In the 100 days, you'll discover what it took me ten years (no joke) to learn. (When I started writing, in the 1970s, I often sat at my typewriter and just cried.)

Here's a tip about your inner editor, inner critic, or whatever you want to call the voices in your head: stop listening. Write instead.

I'll be telling you more about the 100 Day Challenge in the ezine. Read the issues, because once enrollment opens, it will only be open for FIVE days. I want us all to be on the same page, so to speak, so after five days, enrollment will close. We'll be an exclusive little group. :-)