It happens to all of us: you make a beautiful plan, you’re pumped and ready to go. Then life happens, things go sideways, and you suddenly find yourself weeks behind. If you don’t do something drastic, you aren’t going to hit your goals.

What the heck do you do now?

For most of us, our plans need significant adjustment midstream more often than not. The problem is that most people don’t feel comfortable with what to do at that point. Do I give up? Do I pull some all nighters to make up ground?

Many folks either get a bit paralyzed or just do whatever occurs to them first. In both scenarios, people tell me that the result was not satisfying or comfortable - they didn’t feel like they made a sound decision. For many people, it’s a reason that they don’t use planning and execution systems at all.

To help combat this problem, the goals for today’s episode are to help you A) make a good decision about how to revise your plan when things break down and B) how to feel good about that decision.

The Weekly Writing Routine Workbook is now available at getyourwritingdone.com as well as Amazon and other major online retailers. The workbook is a companion to The 12 Week Year for Writers. It will help you develop a powerful, custom writing routine that fits the way you work.

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We’re all getting the message every day. Generative AI is changing the world at warp speed. Every week reveals new possibilities for working more efficiently. Nothing will be the same. A robot is going to cook all your hamburgers and fries. No one will have a job within 10 years. And writers will go the way of the dodo.

To that I say: raspberry sound. Humans will always have a place in the loop.

In this episode I:

• Explain my human centric theory of AI
• Discuss the limits of AI and why writers should not fear losing their jobs
• Describe several strategies and provide examples for using AI today to write better, more quickly, all while amplifying your unique voice.
• Introduce you to Tr3v0r, my new custom GPT writing coach buddy
• End with a few tips for using AI safely.

Links:
GYWD: Writing Like a Human Resource Guide
GYWD: AI Tools for Writers Resource Guide
Google Notebook LM
ProWritingAid
GetYourWritingDone.com

The Weekly Writing Routine Workbook is now available at getyourwritingdone.com as well as Amazon and other major online retailers. The workbook is a companion to The 12 Week Year for Writers. It will help you develop a powerful, custom writing routine that fits the way you work.

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Get the Books
The 12 Week Year for Writers
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Do any of the following scenarios sound familiar?

• You know you need to do some research for your book, but you have no idea where to start
• You want to write a book about a new topic, or a novel that takes place in a new setting perhaps, but you are so worried that you won’t sound authoritative or convincing enough, so you spend months doing research, never sure whether you’ve done enough
• You’ve just created a great plan, and doing research is in the plan, but when you start doing the research you can’t figure out if it’s helping you get anywhere
• You’re in the middle of your book, but run into a topic that you want or need to know more about. Weeks later you realize you have fallen down a rabbit hole of research and haven’t started writing again.

If you’ve ever found yourself in one of these situations, you’ve fallen into the research trap.

I define the research trap as “The act of conducting unnecessary research or conducting research in an inefficient or ineffective manner.”

The research trap can lead to aggravation. It can make you miss deadlines. It can keep your work from being the best it can be. But maybe worst of all, it can add up to weeks, months, even years, of wasted time.

So, that’s the goal of this episode: understanding the research trap, why people fall into it, and discussing strategies to avoid it.

The Weekly Writing Routine Workbook is now available at getyourwritingdone.com as well as Amazon and other major online retailers. The workbook is a companion to The 12 Week Year for Writers. It will help you develop a powerful, custom writing routine that fits the way you work.

Support the show

Connect with Me
Join the newsletter
Follow me on X.

Get the Books
The 12 Week Year for Writers
The Weekly Writing Routine Workbook