SPA Girls Podcast – EP110 – Interview With Screenwriter Kathryn Burnett
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This week we were lucky enough to have a fantastic repeat guest – Kathryn Burnett, the well-known New Zealand playwright and screenwriter. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Kathryn is chocka full of useful knowledge on the craft of writing as well as the mental game of staying focused and being productive. Today she talked us through doing an end-of-year Writing Audit, as a prequel to setting our goals in the new year. We found it hugely helpful to answer the questions she posed, and to look back on our year in order to critically assess what went right, and what went wrong, and why. If you’re wondering why on earth you’d want to look back in this way, just listen in… Kathryn also tells us how to use this kind of analysis to set us up for an awesome 2018!
“Celebrate the small wins – they give you resilience and remind you that you can do it!” ~ Kathryn Burnett
To help you stick to your goals, Kathryn offers a free Creative Writing Plan at www.CreativeWritingPlan.com
Her Writing Room Club is an in-person and online group for writers who want to write more often, stay inspired and achieve their writing goals with the company of other writers. Learn more here
About Kathryn
Kathryn has significant film and television writing credits and has developed numerous television series for New Zealand’s major production companies.
She was the Executive Director of the New Zealand Writers Guild between 1997-2000 and the screenwriting tutor at South Seas Film and TV School between 2003 and 2007. She is also an in demand Script Consultant/Assessor who has worked with numerous writers and production companies.
Learn more about Kathryn’s workshops and writing advice here: www.Kathryn-Burnett.com
Episodes 100 – 200 List
200 What we’ve learned so far…
199 Interview with Adam Croft – Mindset and Marketing
198 Find Your Sparkle – with Julie Schooler
197 Hack Your Muse – with Kelly McClymer
196 Public Speaking For Authors – with Alena Van Arendonk
195 The Magic Pill – with Laura Van Arendonk-Baugh
194 A Day In The Life Of A Writer
193 Keep It Simple
192 Interview with Skye Warren: Money Mindset and Facebook Ads
For Authors (Part Two)
191 Interview with Skye Warren: Time Management & Advertising
For Authors (Part One)
190 Dragon Wrangling with Scott Baker: secrets for
Successful dictation
189 Interview with Patricia McLinn: Writing by the seat of
Your pants
188 Interview with Morgana Best: Writing & Marketing
Cozy Mysteries
187 Interview with Geoff Symon: Wounds & Crime Scenes
186 Interview with Natasha Bajema, WMD for Authors
185 The Writer’s Detective with Adam Richardson
183 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part Two
182 Facebook Advertising with Maria Luis ~ Part One
181 Learn dictation with Kilby Blades
180 Interview with Brian Meeks, Mastering Book Descriptions
179 Interview with Tara Cremin, Kobo Writing Life
178 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part Two
177 Interview with Larissa Reynolds – Newsletters Part One
175 Wrangling Facebook: How To Make It Work For You
174 How To Write A Regency Romance
173 How Do You Identify Your Writing Weaknesses?
172 Interview With Dan Wood, D2D
171 Interview With Serenity Woods
169 5 Goals You Need To Make In 2019
168 Jumpstart Your 2019 Marketing with 31 Quick To Dos for Jan.
167 Scheduling For Writing Success
166 Our 2018 Roundup
165 He Said, She Said: Creating Dazzling Dialogue
164 Interview with Steffanie Holmes: Reverse Harem
163 Interview with YA author Kelly St Clare
160 Amazon Excl v Wide – things to consider and how to market
159 Interview With Kathryn LeVeque
158 Some Like It Hot – Or Not. Heat Levels In Romance
157 Interview With Louisa George
156 The Kindness Factor: Helping You Achieve More and Stress Less
155 Editing
153 Characters: From Cookie Cutter to Kapow
152 Interview with Tina Dietz: Audiobooks
151 Interview with Grace Burrowes
150 Should You Prune Your Mailing List?
149 RWNZ18 Interview with Damon Suede & Geoff Symon
148 Interview with indie superstar, Bella Andre
147 Top Ten Traits for Success
146 Write Better Faster with Becca Syme
145 Newsletter Ninja Tammi LaBrecque
144 Looking After Your Creative Health
143 Interview with Carlyn Robertson from Bookbub
142 Personal Branding For Authors with Lauren Clemett
141 Ten Free Online Tools For Authors
140 Tempting Taglines & Heartstopping Hooks
139 Findaway Voices with Kelly Lytle
138 Get Your Writing Mojo Back
137 Interview with Toni Kenyon: facebook live & serials
136 Dealing with misinformation and change in Sp-ing
134 Interview with Kevin Tumlinson, Draft2Digital
133 Interview with Sara Rosett
132 Organization For Authors – how to keep track of your
research and book details without losing your mind
131 Interview with Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy
130 Critical Care: Leveraging feedback for success
129 Brand You
128 SAS Special: Interview with Johnny B. Truant & Sean Platt
127 Industry Insiders with Damon J. Courtney of Bookfunnel
& Christine Monroe of Kobo
126 SAS Debrief with Jami Albright
125 SAS Special: Interview with Michelle Spiva
124 SAS Special : Interview With Michael Anderle
123 Sports Psychology for Authors – Interview With Nate Vella
122 Using Sub Plots To Amp Up Your Writing
121 Interview with Scott King: Outlining Your Novel
120 Pen-names Pros, Cons and Possibilities
119 Reader Engagement with Nalini Singh
118 Writing the Small Town Setting
117 Handling Negativity and Naysayers
116 Tough Mindset Questions For 2018
115 Interview With Nicola Davidson: Sex and Sensibility
114 Tropealicious
112 Interview With Honoree Corder & Ben Hale: Write Like A Boss
111 Ten Health Hacks For Writers
110 Interview with Kathryn Burnett: Your Writing Audit For Future Success
109 Interview with Melissa Storm: What Readers Want
108 Interview With Zoe Dawson: Writing Across Genres
107 Interview With Dave Chesson, The Keyword King
106 Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited
105 Why YOU should do Nanowrimo
104 Ten Truths For New Self Publishers
103 Find 30 Minutes A Day EXTRA!
102 Your Christmas Presence: Maximizing the Holiday Season for Authors
101 The Writing Life: Interview with Katie Cross
100 100 Episodes! Retrospective with funny moments; changing AO title
SPA Girls Podcast – EP167 – Scheduling To Save Time
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If you’re trying to find a few more minutes in your day for writing, then this episode is for you. We talk about how you can use scheduling to be more productive, free up time and get stuff done.
Each of the SPA Girls uses different kinds of scheduling to make certain repetitive tasks easier and faster, and we share them all for you in this informative episode!
SHOW NOTES:
WHAT IS SCHEDULING? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
It’s easy to let the time fly away through your fingers, telling yourself it’s only five minutes on Facebook, a quick check on Twitter. But if you add up all the procrastination, the tiny bits of time each day that you spend doing nothing… It’s scary how much time you actually spend NOT WRITING.
Scheduling your day, your time is one way to claim back your writing time, to make sure you’re using your day to the best of your ability.
We’re all busy, have limited time in our day. Scheduling is the best way to claim back more hours in your day for what’s important. Writing!
There are several different aspects to scheduling. One is scheduling your day, planning out what you’re going to do. You could also schedule on a longer term basis, like how much you want to write that week etc. You can also schedule things like Facebook posts ahead of time, using blocks of time, instead of small amounts of time all over the show.
HOW DO YOU SCHEDULE?
There are different ways you can schedule. Here are a few examples:
- Chunking – where you plan your day in chunks of time, and do something for that period of time, then stop.
- Timed activities – You could do on the hour writing, so that at 9am, you start writing, until you read 1000 words, then you can stop and do something else (like washing, or marketing or whatever) and then at 10am an alarm goes off and you sit back down and write another 1000 words. Same again at 11am and so on.
- Plan big and then make it small – Get a diary, plan out what you want to achieve over the whole year, divide it into manageable weekly and daily chunks, and then use those goals in your daily work like.
- Write lists – Write daily lists and make sure you cross everything off the list
- Schedule social media in chunks – Instead of going in every day for a few minutes and then getting lost in the abyss of social media, try scheduling posts in chunks on one day a week. Sunday night, do all your posts for hte week, and then you just have to pop back in to check on comments.
- Working out a writing schedule
- Dividing the time allocated to your writing into writing time, and marketing time etc
- Work out when you do your best work – are you a morning person or an evening person? Monitor yourself for a few weeks, work out when you’re doing your best work, and then make sure you save that time for writing.
- Also collect data – each time you sit down to write, make sure you write down how much time you spent, how many words you wrote. That will help with planning your schedule.
- Know how you work best – work out your writing routine. (music, silence etc)
SETTING GOALS AND PLANNING AHEAD
- Set goals that will motivate you to stick to your schedule
- Parkinson’s law – things will expand to fit the time you have.
- Pareto rule – 80/20 – get the data
WHAT TOOLS CAN YOU USE TO SCHEDULE?
Facebook Scheduling
Keep a file with quotes or facebook pre-prepared tiles/Share others posts
To schedule a post:
Start creating your post at the top of your Page’s timeline.
Click next to Publish and select Schedule.
Below Publication, select the date and time when you want the post to publish.
Click Schedule
Twitter Scheduling
Keep in the same file as above and use the Facebook content that you have prepared/Share others posts
Use Tweetdeck which is a free app. https://tweetdeck.twitter.com
- pomodoro,
- Cut and paste document/outlook shortcut keys.
- writing with others
- Sprints, in person or online.
HELPFUL LINKS:
Bria Quinlin’s Author Life Planner: http://briaquinlan.com/authorlife-planner-is-now/
Audrey Ann Hughey’s 2019 Author’s Journal: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1790831105/
Marie Force’s blog: https://blog.marieforce.com/for-writers-how-i-doubled-my-productivity-this-summer/
Trello: www.trello.com
Pomodoro Technique: https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Online Time Trackers we’ve tried (free plans):
Hours Stack: https://hourstack.io/
Harvest: https://www.getharvest.com/
Toggl: https://toggl.com/
Officetime (paid phone app) : http://www.officetime.net/
Complete Guide to Bullet Journalling for Writers: https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/complete-guide-bullet-journaling-writers/
SPA Girls Guide to: Kick Overwhelm To The Curb
https://www.getapp.com/p/sem/scheduling-software
SPA Girls Podcast – EP139 – Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices
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This week we have Kelly Lytle from Findaway Voices with us in the SPA to talk about creating audio books for Indie authors.
If you’ve ever considered creating an audio book, but were concerned about the price, the technology or the difficulty involved, then this episode is a must listen. Kelly takes us through the whole process of creating and distributing an audio book with Findaway Voices, from the very moment an author contacts them, to finding the perfect narrator, to pricing, and then to the recording and approval process. He demystified the whole process for us, and showed us how doable it actually is!
It’s a fascinating subject, and Kelly was a great sport about answering all our silly questions, and giving us the kind of in-depth information on audio books that we’ve all wanted to know, but have been too afraid to ask. (Or maybe just too lazy? It’s a close call. It’s nice and cozy in the SPA.)
Findaway Voices is part of the larger Findaway company which is world’s largest B2B audiobook delivery platform.
Findaway Voices is an audiobook creation and distribution service built to help independent authors and small publishers create and distribute their audiobooks. They are a fully non-exclusive platform to the largest network of audio sellers in the world and have recently partnered with Draft2Digital which allows authors to easily port their ebook’s metadata over to set up an audiobook at Findaway. Importantly for those of us outside the US, Findaway Voices, unlike Amazon’s ACX, allows international authors to create and distribute their audiobooks.
Like D2D, Findaway Voices has a very “author-first” approach to authors retain complete control over their pricing, distribution and choice of narrator. Wendy also talks about her very positive experience in producing her first audiobook.
It’s a great episode – especially if you’re thinking of diversifying your income by doing audio books at any time in the future (which you should be!)
Resources:
SPA Girls Podcast – Episode 123 – Interview With Nate Vella
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Using Sports Psychology To Help Your Writing
This week we talk with elite sportsman, Nathan Vella, about using tools from sports psychology to help writers. Nate has been a professional rugby player for the last seven years. In that time he has played in both New Zealand and Europe, and has amassed over 100 first class games, winning several championships. His strength besides his physical ability is his mental toughness.
Nate talks with Wendy, Cheryl and Shar about applying what he has learned in the competitive high-performance environment he thrives and works in, specifically:
- Importance of preparation
- The top two inches
- Visualization
- Why is Process the key?
- Dealing positively with negativity when you hit a challenge (or get a bad review!)
- Physical fitness goes alongside mental fitness
- Techniques for getting out of “the red zone” and into the (productive) blue zone
- Standing strong (literally)
- The importance of a great team culture – and how you can build that as a solo indie author
What’s the difference between Rugby Union and American Football? (no, it’s not just that we don’t wear protective gear!) : http://www.americanfootballinternational.com/9-differences-between-rugby-and-the-nfl/
Further reading about Sports Psychology and Business:
https://sportsandthemind.com/business-sport-psychology/
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/applying-sports-psychology-to-business
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superheroes/201107/why-you-may-want-stand-superhero
TED talk with Amy Cuddy: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are/transcript
