“What app do you use for writing?”
That’s a common question I get from people just starting out building a blog or writing a book.
And it’s one I wish people would stop asking. It’s not a bad question all together, but it’s the wrong question. At least for the majority of people asking.
These are people who have yet to write anything substantial and certainly haven’t established a writing habit. At this stage you can write in anything. Scrivener, Pages, hell even notepad or TextEdit are fine. The text editor isn’t what will make a difference.
If you start with a sub par editor you can always copy and paste your first draft into something better.
But everyone wants an app. They want to install some killer piece of software that will jumpstart their progress and guarantee success.
Luckily for you, I’ve got one. It’s the only app you need to become a better writer. And it’s already on your computer…
The biggest writing mistake
I’ve always talked about how you need to build a writing habit by writing every day. Whether that is 1,000 words or 10 minutes it doesn’t matter, so long as you make slow consistent progress.
And that’s true, but it’s missing a critical component.
You need to schedule a specific time to write. Don’t fit it in whenever you find time. Schedule it.
I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.
—William Faulkner
The killer writing app
The killer app that will make you a better writer and help you finish your book is actually your calendar. Use iCal, Google Calendar, or even Outlook. I won’t judge.
Schedule a specific time—a meeting with yourself–to write.
Then schedule another time to publish. Do both consistently.
My friend James Clear—who I seem to reference a lot lately—talks about how he doesn’t know which of his essays are going to resonate with his audience or go viral. The times he tries to predict it he is most often wrong.
Since James can’t know what will resonate, he focuses on what he can control: writing and publishing on a consistent schedule.
Real writers don’t find time, they make time to write.
Set a goal to write 1,000 words a day. But make sure to schedule a specific time to write.
It turns out, your calendar is the killer app to become a better writer.
* * *
It’s time to make a living from your writing
I’m tired of hearing about poor, starving authors. Books can be wildly profitable and I’ll prove it to you in these next couple weeks. The new edition of Authority—my step-by-step guide to writing and publishing a profitable book—will launch on May 27th.
Everyone who purchases between now and then will get a free upgrade to the new edition.
Between now and the 27th I’ll share: case studies of 4 new authors who have made over $10,000 on their book launches, how to add 1,000 email subscribers in one week, and how to design a book sales page that sells.
It’s time to make a living from your writing.
I can echo that statement that you never know what will go viral. My most popular post to this day is one that I wrote in haste two years ago while I was on vacation. It can be hard to keep going when you have several posts in a row that seem to drop with a thud and receive no traction, but then again, when you hit those “viral” posts…it’s all worth it.
Thanks for this reminder. I haven’t been writing daily like I have been wanting to, just focusing on one post per week. However, the habit of writing every day will open up more opportunities for guest posts, making progress on a book, or crafting a new email course.
Thanks for sharing this Nathan!
Lol, so true and it is the one app that ‘forces’ you to write.
Great buildup on *the* killer app, Nathan! Now if someone can just teach George R.R. Martin how to pull up the calendar from the command line (as I read somewhere he still writes his novels with DOS?)