The Worst Ways Writers Waste Time (and What to Do Instead)

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No matter how much you love creating stories, writing is a hard, introspective, and mind-consuming task. Everyone, from hobby writers to professionally published authors, struggles with time management, but it can feel particularly devastating when you realize your progress on your novel is at a standstill because you keep getting sidetracked. To help you identify and deal with some common time wasting habits, in this video I go over the worst ways I see writers spending their writing time and how to productively circumvent them.
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GREAT BOOKS ABOUT WRITING/PUBLISHING:
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MORE WRITING ADVICE:
How to (Finally!) Finish Your Book: • How to (Finally!) Fini...
What Are the Differences Between Beta Readers and Book Editors?: • What Are the Differenc...
Destructive Writer Habits that Are Holding You Back (and How to Overcome Them): • Destructive Writer Hab...
THE WORST WAYS TO SPEND YOUR WRITING TIME:
02:19 - Mocking up book covers
05:45 - Obsessively proofreading
08:39 - Doomscrolling #WritingCommunity posts
11:26 - Chasing shiny new story ideas
13:59 - Getting feedback from the wrong sources
ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey-whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
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Опубликовано:

26 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 55

@custardflan Месяц назад

One of my time wasters is watching too many videos about writing rather than writing. Not a criticism. I really get a lot out of your videos but I have to turn them off and get back to work sometimes. Keep up the good work.

@BudsCartoon 4 месяца назад

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="572">9:32</a> - Nothing makes me feel better about my writing than reading other people's writing.

@cjpreach Год назад

RE: "Quality over quantity" in getting feedback. SO TRUE! I made that mistake once, and only once. When we request feedback we should ask each individual for the specific feedback he/she is capable of providing. We don't have time to run down every rabbit hole suggested by those who don't happen to be qualified for this particular work.

@vCoralSandsv Год назад

I chronically chase shiny new ideas, but recently I decided to spend more time on my already-in-progress stuff. 2023 WILL be different!

@AlyssaMatesic Год назад

Yes! Best of luck!

@letsnotgetstressed8552 Месяц назад

Was it different?

@vCoralSandsv Месяц назад

@@letsnotgetstressed8552 lol I only got distracted by 1 idea, which is good for me! I'm actually working on an old WIP from 7 years ago right now! It needs a lot of work lol

@samfowler2073 Год назад

Me who has just sat down to write, not knowing whether to watch this video or not...

@suburbangorilla5515 17 дней назад

Watch it. Worthwhile content.

@andyclark3530 Год назад

I definitely have an excessive proofreading habit, which I'm going to work on this year. This is very well covered elsewhere, but for the writer whose working a full-time job and has family commitments and probably other things going on, it's always a challenge to find time. I think my biggest time waster is not getting to my writing sessions until it's late and the day and may lack the "karmic energy" for writing. I'm at the age where blowing off sleep does not turn out well, so I'm thinking a shift in schedule is coming.

@soccerguy325 Год назад

Wow, I don't experience any of these issues! The way I waste time is more so by getting distracted on the Internet while I'm supposed to be working, often while I don't feel any inspiration for my story. I wonder how common this trope is? Would be great if you could do a video on that, Alyssa!

@andreabknight Год назад

I have the internet browsing problem too- and I have heard the same from other writers. Its definitely a thing 🙂

@maryhobbins Месяц назад

I've done so many of these time-wasters! Doom-scrolling was a big time-waster for me; hopefully I have that under control now. I would find a site that I really liked because it would offer some great advice, but then I would get caught up in discussions that I now remember nothing about. I learned it is much more productive to ask a specific question or do a search for a specific topic than it is to look for that same advice in a group of 50,000 members. I've also thought a lot about book covers, but creating visual art is definitely not my talent, so I keep telling myself to leave that to the professionals. Searching for faces of my characters are really helpful, even if I don't make a board for it. It satisfies that need for a visual image and it seems to help me form a stronger connection to my characters. My third time-waster is spending too much time on research. Some of it is pertinent and some of it isn't.

@aliciarosemusic Год назад

I've recently realised I have the problem of repeatedly self editing before I've even finished the story, and I suspect it's likely the reason I have failed to finish a first draft up until now. So, this time around I'm trying to straight up write and leave all the mistakes and typos until later. It's working.

@sandyhausler5290 3 месяца назад

I do not believe that designing the book cover of your book is a thing. Proofreading is definitely a thing!

@jerrel.writes Год назад

Incredible advice. Makes me feel less overwhelmed, especially bc it’s sooo easy to get sucked into a vortex of content on writing craft, when we should be focusing on the writing itself

@khironcentauras9879 Год назад

What an incredible presentation! Precisely what have been happening to me all these years! I finished my first draft of a novel in 2012 and made a fatal mistake of presenting it to a very dear and literary accomplished friend with a subconscious hope for appraisal but in reality... has anyone seen what a mature feral fox could do to a paper wrap with takeaway kebab ? Needless to say I am still nursing my wounds ...

@adrianwardingley5133 Год назад

The new story idea. If i do get an idea for a new story, then i just write it in a word document titled "New Ideas". then forget it, and carry on with my current project. If i hit a bad patch in my current project, i start on notes or plot points for my new ideas, which then helps me think about my current project. Then when my current project is finished, i start a new project before the first rewrite.

@AlyssaMatesic Год назад

This sounds like a great method for keeping those ideas that pop up while still focusing on your current WIP. Thanks for sharing!

@alancook9102 Год назад

Thanks for that. It probably gets better the more you do. If you want to make money out of writing it's a business. So we have to treat like one. You certainly know all the devious moves! Keep helping us.

@Axxman300 Год назад

When I'm drafting I line-edit as I go, after every chapter using a good editing software. Both versions are saved. This way I have a clean draft ready for the beta-readers when the time comes. It's done separately from my writing time, and rarely takes more than five minutes. I see where this can become a problem, and there are times where I finish five or six chapters before the initial line-edit process. Those shiny new story ideas are just evil. They always show up halfway into the WIP, and throw me off my pace. The fix is to open a Word doc, and jot down the plot, and come back to it later. I've never quit on a story to chase a new idea, but I have started two novels at the same time, knowing at some point one of them would fall away, or become over-powered by the other. I also have a WIP that I only work on when I'm bored with a current project. It's mostly just for me, and is easily the dumbest thing I've ever written, but it makes me laugh.

@AlohaTrev Год назад

The only real waste of time is the query process

@alvarieroberts720 Год назад

I have an issue of going to google and RU-vid to "research" then I get sidetracked. I also get sidetracked by videogames LOL. I am working on it.

@dirkbruere Год назад

I created covers because I used Lulu to print out my first draft to give to various people for their opinions. Much cheaper than using any other method. They also get a book rather than hundreds of loose sheets or a PDF

@chrispence4931 Год назад

self-sabotage is the new whiskey; my favorite distraction, coverage of Ukraine.

@michaelkelly6583 9 месяцев назад

This is an interesting comment. I too was working on a novel while being distracted by the Ukraine coverage. Eventually, I threw my hands up; I ditched my project, then wrote and published a novel about a mother fed up with the war. It’s sold out twice in my little world.

@SpaceCoastFlights Год назад

Excellent information and feedback. I am guilty of each point you discussed and presented. Thank you, it helps to hear the advice and critique.

@totadol 9 месяцев назад

Congratulations for the 30k subs already

@kristge7273 7 месяцев назад

I like your videos. They're well scripted, well presented, and well produced. I decided to snag the free assessment, and I knew of course I'd be turning over my email address. No biggie. Except that I did it twice, there is no self-assessment quiz, and now I will likely need to unsubscribe from 6/7 of these newsletters that also now share my info. Like, okay, I can accept that IF I actually received the assessment. I dislike when people operate with tricky business practices, it feels shady. Know what I mean? Tsk-tsk

@melvindodson6827 Год назад

This is great

@anaschmidt3695 Год назад

Thanks for this wonderful video again, I've seen so many of yours already! I definitely had the issue of trying to continue with my next projects before I have finished the first one. So many ideas in may head... but a good friend saved me with her feedback, so that I did finish my first book after all. Still drawn to the next two, though...

@AlyssaMatesic Год назад

Haha, I'm glad your friend saved you! Now you have two ideas and a finished manuscript :) Best of luck with the next project!

@jwstanley2645 3 месяца назад

What a pain. My current project takes place mostly in a fictional place within the context of a company. I have designed that company logo, and it is reflective of the literary images and themes. It is a part of the 'company culture' of the place, and the mind of the protagonist. I guess I would hope that if an editor or publishes considers the cover, they would at least consider the one most prevalent visual present in the story, which is not a stereotypic translucent image of a ghost, a half-naked man with a swooning woman in his arms, a knife in the act of murder or a photograph of a similar building, but a (fictional) company logo. I know there will be trade-offs in corporate publication, including possibly, changing the title of my book, but I dislike the notion that some 'professional' editor will read my story once, as quickly as humanly possible, and decide my title is not 'right,' and someone under the pressure to create a cover for this book will not even look at the artwork I have created for it. I know my intended themes far better, my characters far better, though perhaps not the marketing or shelf appeal. While I am not a professional graphic designer, I am no louse either.

@stannovoselski5770 Год назад

Catching this only 41 seconds after being uploaded! Thank you so much for all the insight and excellent advice!

@TheEccentricRaven 4 месяца назад

I think making covers is fine if you are doing it just for fun and don't plan to actually use it. I've had fun designing my own book covers, which can be inspiring, make me think about my end goal to publication, and is fun, but I assure I don't plan on sending any to agents or publishers.

@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319 Год назад

As for what I'm guilty of, I'd say I had obsessive proofreading which delayed a previous novel's finishing by about a year. But that book is done. Just unpublished at the moment. Years ago though my main problem was chasing shiny new ideas.

@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319 Год назад

It's mostly because of Doomscrolling - which is a new thing I learned today - that I've been avoiding Twitter and other social media platforms to begin with. But then as I discovered your channel and others, I'm told I NEED an account there to locate agents.

@marygeorge2467 Год назад

I'd like to know how you KNEW I'd opened up the doc of my third novel. Today! After months of working on the second one . . . a sign to either keep plugging away on the third one or get back to the second one . . . . drum roll, please.

@sidmarx7276 Год назад

The worst waste of time is writing itself. Publishers have outsourced editors, forcing authors to spend big bucks on a professional edit that they can't afford. And after the edit there's no guarantee which is a system ripe for abuse: look at all the scams. If a publisher really wants your book he should assign you an in-house editor, end of story.

@chrismeister884 Год назад

Could you comment on this: while my book is on query for started my second novel. However I keep getting distracted by having to go between the book and new novel so that I am not making any headway on the new novel

@moshecallen Год назад

I'm actually listening to this video while writing in another window.

@izzynizzy Год назад

Do you have any opinions about prologues? I’m working on my first book and have included a roughly 1.5 page prologue about two scenes that happened in the past of the two characters but will make much more sense once the reader actually reads the whole book.

@AlyssaMatesic Год назад

I have a whole video on prologues here!: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N5TtGTilvuU.html

@jimgilbert9984 Год назад

I actually have the opposite problem. I write almost every day. Life gets in the way sometimes, as it's wont to do, but I still manage to get in some writing almost every day. My problem is that I have trouble in stopping writing once I get in a groove. I'll skip meals (or postpone them), put off chores and errands, and even write late into the night so I don't lose my train of thought. I just love putting down my thoughts and ideas on my latest project too much. Because of this, I've written four books (three fiction and one nonfiction), several short stories (that were published in a magazine), three articles (that were published in a national homesteading magazine), and I'm currently working on my fifth book. I just can't seem to stop writing. The frustrating part of all this is that I still haven't found a literary agent to represent me and my books. Sigh.

@AlyssaMatesic Год назад

I wish you the best of luck, Jim!

@jimgilbert9984 Год назад

@@AlyssaMatesic Thank you.

@MagnusZero Год назад

The last point is so true. My recent attempt at asking for feedback was an awful experience, and all because I asked the wrong person. I asked for feedback on my book blurb. A lot of their feedback amounted to "these sentences feel too long," or "this word choice doesn't hook me well enough." On the surface, this sounds like good advice to give, so I inquired about it more and asked what I had to do to fix it. After I made edits, they essentially regurgitated the advice and just couldn't give me a precise reason as to WHY my sentences were too long, or whatever. So I'm left to just keep editing and editing it at random, trying to decipher it, and to no avail. This person was not an avid reader (especially in my genre) despite them writing things themselves. They even admitted to being weak in the areas they critiqued my work, so... I really felt stupid for wasting my time. Because if you're unable to specify what the issue is, the feedback only did more harm than good. It goes without saying that I just thanked them for their time and never asked for their feedback again. It's best to work with people who know what they're doing and have experience.

@marionvance3820 Год назад

I'm writing a horror written three books so far no acceptanance. I'm not giving up ba😂ust I believe in the story ik my writing grammary is bad but in startyng to use Grammary. After the story I have to go back to last book where agent said she's not denying but needs to be longer. When the work is finished on it shed be glad to reading again I'm hoping this good news

@DrakeEastwood Год назад

The first time waster in this video is the beginning <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="135">2:15</a>

@sandyhausler5290 3 месяца назад

What is doomscrolling?

@wiggleworm5423 5 месяцев назад

ItS NOT WORKING

@xChikyx Год назад

Idk, I think quantity is as important as quality regarding the feedback. The fewest beta readers, the more biased the results of that phase would be in my opinion.

@anthonycosentino463 11 месяцев назад

Can't you just say Contact? Why is it always Reach Out?? Most annoying phrase in the English language. And Journey is another one. Everything is a journey these days!!