Excerpts from Writers Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know Excerpts from the Writers Tricks of the Trade book | Page 21

WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
life blood from you. When temptation strikes, hold your ground.
That’s the only way you’ll stay on track. We don’t want a book enti-
tled, Vampire Internet Turns Author into Zombie.
Try tacking sticky notes by your computer to remind you of things
you MUST do. Use a few different colors to indicate urgent, gotta do
soon and can stay on back burner. That way the urgent ones will
jump out at you and when the deed is done, throw that note away.
Unless you need it for reference, don’t amass clutter by keeping
notes that are of no further use to you. Almost every writer I know
has enough legitimate clutter to fill several boxes. It is so sweet to
finish something you set out to do!
Keep a follow-up file so you don’t forget to keep the ball rolling on
certain things like submissions. Outlook, Google or other calendars
with reminders work well for that. All of a sudden the notes pop up
or the buzzer rings, snapping you back into action mode. If you wor-
ry about computer crashes or keeping an electronic calendar
doesn’t appeal to you, an old-fashioned card file sitting on your desk
is a good idea. Long-ago, back in the days when I was a marketing
representative, everyone in sales and marketing had one of those
boxes. They were called tickler files, and the index cards were filed
by date. Sound like a possible idea for you? Remember, if another
follow-up is called for, just move the card to the next date, but first
make a note on it to remind yourself about the next step. Also make
notes to yourself about things like Martin had a bad cold. It will
prompt you to ask Martin how he feels the next time you speak to
him, which makes him feel important because you remembered.
Use cards of different colors to indicate priority.
Don’t take on more than you can handle. “No” is only a two-letter
word, but sometimes it’s the hardest one to say. When you stagger
under the load of things you’ve committed to, something has to suf-
fer. If it’s the quality of your writing, the entire purpose has been
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