Episode 175 #HowtoUseaBurnChart

The burn chart mindset, whole book project management, and a how-to for finding a progress tracker that works for you. KJ’s an avid user of burn charts. Sarina uses a desktop variant (and has her own style). Jess doesn’t entirely see the appeal. What’s the difference between a burn chart and to-do list? Maybe nothing, if your to-do list goes all the way to the end of your project—and maybe everything, if you’re not paying attention to the difference between what you’ve got on your list, and what has to be done by when and by who in order to meet a deadline. This week on the podcast, KJ tries to talk Jess into the burn chart mindset, Sarina talks whole book project management, and we all come down to a how-to for finding a progress tracker that works for you. Episode links and a transcript follow—but first, a preview of the #WritersTopFive that will be dropping into #AmWriting supporter inboxes on Monday, September 9, 2019: Top 5 Reasons You Need a Burn Chart. Not joined that club yet? You’ll want to get on that. Support the podcast you love AND get weekly #WriterTopFives with actionable advice you can use for just $7 a month. As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes and a transcript every time there’s a new episode. To support the podcast and help it stay free, subscribe to our weekly #WritersTopFive email. LINKS FROM THE PODCAST Pacemaker Planner KJ’s Burn charts: Happier Parent, left; The Chicken Sisters revision, right. Sarina’s Pacemarker chart, left and burn-up columns, right. #AmReading (Watching, Listening) KJ: The Beautiful No, Sheri Salata (As you consider this one, you might want to take a look at KJ’s Goodreads review here.) The Writer Files (a podcast) Sarina: The Rest of the Story, Sarah Dessen Jess: Daisy Jones and The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid Dani Shapiro’s Family Secrets (a podcast) #FaveIndieBookstore Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template. Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here. If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship. Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.) KJ: 00:01 Hey all. As you likely know, the one and only sponsor of the #AmWriting podcast is Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps writers all the way through their projects to the very end. Usually Author Accelerator offers only longterm coaching and they're great at it, but they've just launched something new inside outline coaching, a four week long program for novelists and memoir writers that can help you find just the right amount of structure so that you can plot or pants your way to an actual draft. I love the inside outline and I think you will too. I come back to mine again and again, whether I'm writing or revising. Working through it with someone else helps keep you honest and helps you deliver a story structure that works. Find out more at www.authoraccelerator.com/insideoutline. Jess: 00:57 Go ahead. KJ: 00:58 This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone like I don't remember what I was supposed to be doing. Jess: 01:02 All right, let's start over. KJ: 01:03 Awkward pause, I'm going to rustle some papers. Jess: 01:06 Okay. KJ: 01:06 Now one, two, three. KJ: 01:15 Hey, welcome to #AmWriting podcast. Jess: 01:18 I'm Jess Lahey. I'm the author of the Gift of Failure and some articles you can find if you Google my name and a forthcoming book on preventing substance abuse in kids. Sarina: 01:28 I'm Sarina Bowen, the author of 30 romance novels. The next one will be called Moonlighter. KJ: 01:35 And I am KJ Dell'Antonia, author of How to Be a Happier Parent, former lead editor and writer for the New York Times Motherlode blog and author of a novel forthcoming next summer, a beach read. And if you are a regular listener, you might've noticed a little difference in our introduction today because we are now #AmWriting The Podcast and now with more Sarina. Jess: 02:01 Now with more Sarina and you may have noticed some weird hesitation in our voices as we were doing the intro cause it's been a couple of years doing the regular intro and I'm happy to make a change. KJ: 02:11 Yeah, this fall we're sparking it up. There's going to be three of us sometimes. We're going to do lots of interviews, we're going to do some great new projects that we are excited about. But today we're just doing a podcast on one of my favorite dear to my heart topics, which is the burn chart. Jess: 02:33 This is very timely because in the #AmWriting Facebook group, someone posted just a few days ago, could someone please explain this whole tracking software burn chart thing. And we've talked about burn charts a couple of times because KJ likes them. And because I've never really used them, I wanted to know more about how to use them, especially, you know, with this deadline looming. But you and Sarina are so good at planning your time I think it's something I could really learn from. KJ: 03:03 Well that was something I was thinking about was I thinking, is there a difference between a burn chart and a to do list? And the answer is not necessarily, If your to do list goes all the way to the end. Jess: 03:19 Well, where are we now? KJ, you still use burn charts? Sarina, do you use burn charts? Sarina: 03:24 Well, I use a thing called Pacemaker and I can't wait to hear how much like or different it is from KJ's burn chart. Jess: 03:32 Okay. KJ: 03:32 And this is perfect because that is clearly a software thing, right? Sarina: 03:37 Yup. KJ: 03:37 Yeah. So I, I'm the paper burn chart. You, you are the digital version. All right. Jess: 03:44 And I'm the one who just sits in the chair and hopes that I get enough words on the page to meet my deadline in October. KJ: 03:51 Yeah. Well I mean I hope you're doing a little bit more than hoping, but if not, Hey, we've got time. We've got time to like rein you in. All right, so a burn chart is a physical manifestation of two things and one is the amount of time that you have to go towards your deadline. And the other is your is tangible markers of your progress towards that deadline. So just to really make it incredibly easy. If for some reason you knew that you had to write 10,000 words and it doesn't matter what they say, just that you just have to write 10,000 words and then you have five days in which to do it. Obviously at the end of every day you need to check off tha… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe