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Community Publishing for the community

A Productive Week - Emma Baird

19/6/2015

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Bless her cotton socks. The muse chose to grace me with her presence this week… This was not a happy accident. Self-discipline played its part.

As I make a (poor) living from writing, the paid work always comes first as prioritisation goes, but with a little extra zeal I resisted shilly-shallying and enforced certain rules for the paid work – no checking emails mid blog and no faffing about on the internet unless research was really necessary – to get it done as quickly as possible.

Apparently, people get a dopamine hit these days from being able to find out something instantly. Say you are watching a TV programme and you recognise an actor, but can’t remember the name. A quick look at IMDB and you are all the wiser, instead of having to rely on that “A-ha!” 3am moment when said actor’s name finally pops into your head.

I am one of those poor souls, my brain peppered with holes from all those dopamine hits I take throughout the day as random thoughts cross my mind and demand instant answers.

  • ·         Ooh – lamb would be nice on Saturday. How do you cook a leg of it?
  • ·         What’s on at Cineworld on Friday?
  • ·         Am I going to need an umbrella tomorrow – what’s the weather doing on Tuesday?

[Given that I live on the west coast of Scotland, the answer is “raining” more often than not.]

Not giving into those instincts to instantly find out the answers makes you much more efficient – and therefore able to clear the necessary paid work in good time. And that frees up more time for your own creative writing.

Self-discipline needed for creative writing… revelatory, hmm?


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    CONTRIBUTORS

    Gordon Lawrie is the founder and managing director of Comely Bank Publishing, and the author of Four Old Geezers and a Valkyrie. The Discreet Charm of Mary Maxwelll-Hume and The Blogger Who Came in from the Cold. He is also a flash fiction aficionado. He’s currently in search of that book that earns him a fortune. 

    Emma Baird is a freelance/blogger, and the author of Katie and the Deelans. Since then she's moved onto pastures new where she self-publishes experimental YA and chick-lit novels both online and as print-on-demand.

    Jane Tulloch is the author of Our Best Attention (published 2016) Attention Assured (2017) and now has a further lease of life as an expert on the history of Edinburgh's lost department stores. She is relishing the freedom of writing an (almost!) complete pack of lies after years of writing very serious reports on her professional topic of autism in adults.

    Eric J. Smith lives in Maryland, USA, and is the author Not a Bad Ride: Stories from a Boomer's Life on the Edge, which is available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.​

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