The Coronavirus Pandemic = Your Chance To Finish Your Book!

A silver lining for all writers out there stuck without transport, concerts, sporting events, shopping malls, and parties?

We’re told to stay at home, not travel, stop seeing each other, and wait for the plague to pass over our roofs…so without all the distractions of weekend barbecues, Little League games, and the TV sports you were going to watch, why not bury those procrastinations you always use and open that Word file and crack on?

Why Now?

Without much else better to do, people are flocking to Amazon to dig into new reads. Take this opportunity and finally get around to publishing and promoting your eBook!

Here are a few ways to get started.

Work From Home

Maybe your office has been closed down. Maybe your store or your cafe cannot open for business. Seize the day, work from home! A Stanford study has found that working at home improves productivity by a staggering 37%!  That’s at least two or three hours a day you can afford to take a break and get some pages written.

Lose The News

It’s only going to tell you how everyone is going to die soon and how there’s no toilet paper left in your county. (I’ve always wondered about toilet paper in The Walking Dead though…) Turn it all off before you go crazy. If anything really bad happens, someone will call.

Close Down Social Media

You can use a program such as Freedom or Self Control (Mac) to stop yourself from going onto Facebook or Instagram while you’re writing. There are only so many songs to sing while washing your hands.

Shut The Door

Stephen King is a great advocate of “shut the door.” Your family have to learn that when you shut that door you’re writing. It’s a hobby, could be a career. Get over it. King says, “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right — as right as you can, anyway — it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it.”

Make A Plan

If you spend only two hours a day writing, and promise yourself 3000 words a day, you’ll have a solid book’s worth (over 80,000 words) in three weeks or so. Come on, start now, and stop watching reruns of Extreme Makeover!

Keep Well!

Writing can be hazardous to health. Once you’re on a roll, don’t forget to eat, drink, and take those vitamins!