Read Online The Busy Writer's Book of Checklists by Marg McAlister - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Marg McAlister
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tense; first person, second
person, third person; who/whom
(3) Sentence structure - conjunctions (and, but); run-on sentences; comma splice; sentence
fragments
These are just a few suggestions.
Substitute your own particular bugbears, and add more as they are brought to
your attention. Unfortunately, you'll probably need feedback from someone else
to alert you to errors associated with grammar and language.
c. Career Development.
What do you need to do or to work on to
build your writing career? Make a list of anything that seems relevant, then
break it down into manageable chunks that you can chip away at. Some examples:
(1) Join or form a writers' group
(2) Buy a book on dialogue
(3) Do a course on plotting
(4) Research viewpoint on the Internet
(5) Attend the next writers' conference in
your chosen genre
(6) Do a writers’ workshop
(7) Send out query letters to publishers or
agents
(8) Research Indie publishing and how to
write, format and upload an e-book
(9) Do a course on public speaking; join
Toastmasters
(10) Learn how to build a website or start
a blog
(12) Create a media kit for download from
your website and/or to hand out to journalists
d. Home Office and Equipment.
(1) Buy a new laptop
(2) Organise writer's reference library
(hard copy or on your computer or e-reader
(3) Buy a new printer
(4) Shop for a new chair
(5) Organise filing cabinet
(6) Investigate or upgrade software
(7) Buy new noticeboard/whiteboard
(8) Organise computer files
(9) Buy external hard drive for backup
(10) Learn how to filter email and create
folders in your mailbox
Five More Ideas for Checklists
- Organise a writer's group (e.g. organization and procedure)
- Improve your writing technique (e.g. learning from books, courses, Internet, forum)
- Learn new skills or software (e.g. how to do podcasts, how to create a promotional video or book
trailer for YouTube)
- Steps in building a network of
writing colleagues (e.g. what kind of writers would
you like to know? How can you meet them?)
- Moving from 9-5 work outside the
home to freelance writing work (step by step: what
you need to do to make the transition)
You will actually find a few checklists
in this book that fit the above examples.
Some Tips on Making Any Checklist
More Effective
(a) Make it personal! Yes, this bears repeating. Don't leave in anything on a checklist
template that you don't need or want.
(b) Break it down into small tasks. Do this for EVERY CHECKLIST YOU
CREATE. Keep breaking down topics until every item you have on your checklist
is achievable in one working day.
(c) If you have particular difficulty with one item, analyse it to find out
why. Do you need to fill a knowledge gap before you can do a task? Or is
this something that you don't really want to do? If you don't, how can you make
it easier/more palatable? If you STILL don't want to do it, do you need to
think more carefully about what you really want? If you need money to achieve
it, how can you earn that money? (Sell things on eBay? Get a part-time job?
Work overtime? Have a garage sale? Ask for what you want as a combined
Christmas/birthday present from family?)
An Example of a Recent Checklist
I have a number of different blogs and
websites, and I use WordPress on a lot of them. I wanted to add my Busy Writer
books to the sidebar – and, with the theme I’m using, that involves quite a few
steps. I wrote them down as I went along, and now I have a checklist to follow
every time I want to add a clickable image to any sidebar in WordPress.
Here’s what the checklist looks like:
Checklist for Adding Clickable Images to a WordPress
Sidebar
# Using Irfanview, resize images of
book covers to 125 px wide.
# Using a new browser window, upload
book covers to Photobucket, creating a new album called 125px covers.
# Open all books at Amazon in separate
tabs in same browser window.
# Log in to blog.
# Open widgets area
(Dashboard/Appearance/Widgets).
# Open Left Panel
person, third person; who/whom
(3) Sentence structure - conjunctions (and, but); run-on sentences; comma splice; sentence
fragments
These are just a few suggestions.
Substitute your own particular bugbears, and add more as they are brought to
your attention. Unfortunately, you'll probably need feedback from someone else
to alert you to errors associated with grammar and language.
c. Career Development.
What do you need to do or to work on to
build your writing career? Make a list of anything that seems relevant, then
break it down into manageable chunks that you can chip away at. Some examples:
(1) Join or form a writers' group
(2) Buy a book on dialogue
(3) Do a course on plotting
(4) Research viewpoint on the Internet
(5) Attend the next writers' conference in
your chosen genre
(6) Do a writers’ workshop
(7) Send out query letters to publishers or
agents
(8) Research Indie publishing and how to
write, format and upload an e-book
(9) Do a course on public speaking; join
Toastmasters
(10) Learn how to build a website or start
a blog
(12) Create a media kit for download from
your website and/or to hand out to journalists
d. Home Office and Equipment.
(1) Buy a new laptop
(2) Organise writer's reference library
(hard copy or on your computer or e-reader
(3) Buy a new printer
(4) Shop for a new chair
(5) Organise filing cabinet
(6) Investigate or upgrade software
(7) Buy new noticeboard/whiteboard
(8) Organise computer files
(9) Buy external hard drive for backup
(10) Learn how to filter email and create
folders in your mailbox
Five More Ideas for Checklists
- Organise a writer's group (e.g. organization and procedure)
- Improve your writing technique (e.g. learning from books, courses, Internet, forum)
- Learn new skills or software (e.g. how to do podcasts, how to create a promotional video or book
trailer for YouTube)
- Steps in building a network of
writing colleagues (e.g. what kind of writers would
you like to know? How can you meet them?)
- Moving from 9-5 work outside the
home to freelance writing work (step by step: what
you need to do to make the transition)
You will actually find a few checklists
in this book that fit the above examples.
Some Tips on Making Any Checklist
More Effective
(a) Make it personal! Yes, this bears repeating. Don't leave in anything on a checklist
template that you don't need or want.
(b) Break it down into small tasks. Do this for EVERY CHECKLIST YOU
CREATE. Keep breaking down topics until every item you have on your checklist
is achievable in one working day.
(c) If you have particular difficulty with one item, analyse it to find out
why. Do you need to fill a knowledge gap before you can do a task? Or is
this something that you don't really want to do? If you don't, how can you make
it easier/more palatable? If you STILL don't want to do it, do you need to
think more carefully about what you really want? If you need money to achieve
it, how can you earn that money? (Sell things on eBay? Get a part-time job?
Work overtime? Have a garage sale? Ask for what you want as a combined
Christmas/birthday present from family?)
An Example of a Recent Checklist
I have a number of different blogs and
websites, and I use WordPress on a lot of them. I wanted to add my Busy Writer
books to the sidebar – and, with the theme I’m using, that involves quite a few
steps. I wrote them down as I went along, and now I have a checklist to follow
every time I want to add a clickable image to any sidebar in WordPress.
Here’s what the checklist looks like:
Checklist for Adding Clickable Images to a WordPress
Sidebar
# Using Irfanview, resize images of
book covers to 125 px wide.
# Using a new browser window, upload
book covers to Photobucket, creating a new album called 125px covers.
# Open all books at Amazon in separate
tabs in same browser window.
# Log in to blog.
# Open widgets area
(Dashboard/Appearance/Widgets).
# Open Left Panel
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