Fit Novel Writing into Your Busy Life

Gina Kammer Author

When you take your writing seriously and balance it in your life using tools like those found in the Time Freedom Accelerator, you can enjoy it more.

Fit Novel Writing into Your Busy Life

Take your precious time…BACK!

When I coach science fiction and fantasy writers, one of the biggest hurdles they face is fitting writing into their already packed schedules. It’s hard for them to take time for themselves and their stories when they feel guilty for not spending that time “more productively”—or at least on things that seem less selfish… such as spending that time with their family or friends instead.

Shouldn’t they be working on the million and two other tasks that need doing? Or focusing more on the job that gives them more financial stability?

Working on their novels feels like a waste of time for many writers. They love it, but they also struggle to juggle this work that rarely has any financial payoff until much later.

But Your Story Is NEVER a Waste of Time.

A new study measured the connectivity growth in the brains of teenagers in relation to their type of thinking—higher, abstract thinking. And it kind of makes sense, right? Teens who exercised higher thinking made greater brain gains, rather like muscles that are exercised.

The results of the study showed that those teens who thought “transcendently” were more likely to have not only more connectivity between two important brain networks, but greater happiness with their identities and lives later on.

“Transcendent thinking” here is defined in the abstract as making “deep meaning about the social world and self.” These are thoughts and reasoning that move beyond the concrete to broader systems and ideas at play—or abstract thinking.

The implications are that it could benefit teens to have more opportunities to engage in transcendent thinking as their brains are developing for such thinking. While the study used true stories of teens from around the world to measure participant responses, many of the same skills are required in engaging with and thinking about any story—fiction or nonfiction. 

We already know that one of the things readers subconsciously desire in stories is the meaning they derive from it. As long as readers can apply such meaning to their own lives (which is usually the case from what we know about readers—they engage their own emotional memories for immersion in a story and focus on themselves subconsciously), it seems it would follow that fiction could produce a similar higher-thinking exercise for readers’ brains.

Furthermore, the study discussion states that it didn’t matter whether the participant agreed with the viewpoint or meaning they derived from the story. What was important was that they engaged in more abstract thinking at all. 

So if readers are already engaging in a level of higher thinking, that’s important for their brains’ development and satisfaction in their own lives. 

Not just teens, either! As the study suggests, exercising such complex thought processes likely acts like a muscle. If it’s not used, it doesn’t grow. And it’s this connection growth that can help lead people to greater outcomes in life.

So when I tell you someone needs your story… I mean it! Working on your story is absolutely not a waste of time when it can have such an impact on the lives of others.

Knowing these things and keeping them in mind might help you to a better mindset about your writing. But it doesn’t yet solve for the problem of having enough time to work on your story at all. 

That’s where my new program bonus comes in!

Time Freedom Accelerator

To give authors the mindset shift and tools they need to take back control of their time and invest their energy for more freedom, focus, and productivity, I partnered with Tanessa Shears. Tanessa Shears is an experienced health consultant for entrepreneurs who want to optimize their health and achieve sustainable energy and focus without it feeling like ANOTHER demanding task or time constraint.

Tanessa coached me for six months, so I can 100% attest that this is true. In that time, she gained me back my time, healthier sleep habits, and so many invaluable mental wellness tools I never really knew how to put into useful practice. And now authors can get one of my favorite trainings from Tanessa right in my book coaching program for science fiction and fantasy authors, Enchant Your Readers.

Your BRAIN is the most important asset in your author business. And yes, even if you don’t think of your writing as a business, it absolutely is! And that makes you an entrepreneur too. I mean that even if you aren’t yet making money of any sort from your writing.

If you’re writing your story with any intent to share it with readers, you are in business. Your story is a product for readers to consume. It seems weird as authors to think of our work that way, but it’s detrimental NOT to. 

Why? Because if you’re serious about sharing your work and impacting readers with it in some way, you need to think like an entrepreneur. In other words, you need to think about your readers.

And that’s what we do using the three keys to reader enchantment in my program. We consider reader expectations, how we’re enlightening them, and their immersive reader experience. 

We think about these things in planning and writing our stories as well as marketing our work. Because, unfortunately, if we want the readers who really need our stories to read them, we need to let them know it exists. But the good news is that these readers will want to know. And so you should, at least in some capacity, think about yourself as an entrepreneur in the author business. 

Rather than sucking the joy out of your writing or making you a sellout, a healthy entrepreneurial mindset can help you sustain your love of writing over the long term. When you take it seriously and balance it in your life using tools such as those found in the Time Freedom Accelerator, I am certain that you can enjoy what you do even more. 

Because when your brain is sharper, you work more efficiently and get things done faster. This frees up YOUR time to either make more money or spend that time living the writing life you crave. So that's what Tanessa brought into the bonus training, the Time Freedom Accelerator. 

How to Invest Your Energy for More Freedom, Focus, and Productivity

I know you’re already tired after you put in all your best hours for your job. How can you find the creative energy to work on this other job—this author thing that you feel might not even be going anywhere?

How do you reach your word count goals and finally finish your novel? Maybe it’s already been years, and you still have little to show for them.

Your family and friends keep asking you when your book will be published and you’re frustrated that you don’t have an answer for them. And I get it too. I really do. Between your family obligations, trying to make scant time for friends, and working your other job to pay the bills, your author job often gets the back seat. 

But what if it didn’t have to? What if you could find more balance, feel more accomplished, and actually get more done in less time? 

It sounds like a dream come true, right? But it can be reality. I know, because with Tanessa’s help, I did it. My journey to better balance with my work and time is always going to be a work in progress, but I did make progress. Significant progress.

And it all started with Tanessa’s excellent coaching and the same trainings in the Time Freedom Accelerator bonus I’m sharing with you in the Enchant Your Readers program.

First, you need to change your mindset about your time. Otherwise, you won’t get anywhere near time freedom.

But the first bonus lesson, Time Hacker, will help you start making those mindset shifts that you’re going to need to be successful in this change.

It’s not a one and done kind of thing. It’s something you’re going to have to keep working at. But even getting started and understanding a few of the crucial things Tanessa teaches you in this bonus were things that helped me in some big ways.

Next, because Tanessa likes practical, sustainable steps as much as me, she walks you through setting up a schedule for yourself that actually works. At least, it did for me! And it works for her too. It was a practical way for me to put my mindset shifts about my time into action and keep them going.

I’m also always improving on my scheduling piece of the puzzle, but it’s the piece that has made me both more productive AND more balanced in my life. The best part is that I can also rest easy each night, feeling like I got plenty done and achieved enough for the day.

I don’t know about you, but that was always a big contributor to my insomnia! Not feeling like I had gotten enough accomplished. So it was a snowball effect from there—once I shifted my mindset about my time, I could implement a more practical, feasible, and sustainable schedule for better balance. Once I did that, it paved the way for me to get better sleep, which of course impacts my mental health, physical health, and in turn makes me more productive and efficient the next day.

That’s what I want for you too. And that’s why I’m so excited that Tanessa agreed to bring these trainings into the Enchant Your Readers program to share with you. Because you CAN do this writing thing that you love so much—that you likely feel better for having done… and might even make you grumpy when you don’t.

And you can fit in your writing without unbalancing your life and health. You CAN make it sustainable and be productive.

Your family and friends might notice the difference in you too.

So waste no more time in getting to these trainings and implementing them for you and your author business. Enroll in the Enchant Your Readers program now, and get the Time Freedom Accelerator bonus completely free!

Then go follow Tanessa on Instagram, listen to her podcast, and join her coaching program, Becoming Limitless, with my wholehearted blessing. It might make all the difference for you.

Categories: editing, manuscript stages, novel drafting, novel planning, writer mindset