How to Make Time to Write and Develop a System to Take Notes, with Bryan Collins

Bryan Collins relies on a simple system that captures notes and ideas that flow directly into his projects when he sits down to write. His writing routine doesn’t take all day yet achieves significant results. Find out how he works and test it out. When you combine that with his simple system for collecting inspiration for all of your writing projects, you’ll be on your way to completing a full manuscript. Ready to do the work and write the truth? Learn from Bryan: Hear how Bryan has “green-lighted” himself Learn how to capture ideas with Bryan’s systems Discover the magic of building your body of work in a surprisingly small pocket of time Find time for writing in your day like Bryan did Develop a flow for reviewing your own ideas and the notes you Try his advice for breaking out of writer’s block Meet Bryan Collins Bryan Collins is a USA Today best-selling author whose books include The Power of Creativity, This Is Working, I Can’t Believe I’m A Dad! and a best-selling series of books for writers. He was a journalist and copywriter for years and has contributed to publications like Forbes, Lifehacker and Fast Company. Today he runs his website Become a Writer Today, with the help of a team of writers, attracting several million visitors each year. And he hosts a popular writing podcast by the same name, where he deconstructs the writing processes of New York Times best-selling authors like James Clear and Daniel Pink. Resources: Become a Writer Today, Bryan’s website Become a Writer Today, Bryan’s podcast I Can’t Believe I’m a Dad, Bryan’s book (affiliate link to paperback) Bryan’s interview with me: Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing with Ann Kroeker Zettelkasten System Day One app ambient noise on noise-canceling headphones (to minimize distractions) brain.fm (for focus and flow) otter.ai, rev.com (for transcription/dictation) Medium Wattpad for fiction Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (affiliate link for 30th anniversary paperback ed.) Twitter for microblogging Story by Robert McKee (affiliate link to Kindle ebook) Choose Yourself, by James Altucher (affiliate link for Kindle ebook, on sale at the time of publishing this interview; about green-lighting yourself) Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (affiliate link to paperback ed.) Inspiration: singer Nick Cave and author Stephen King Listen to the interview, or read the transcript below. Bryan Collins Interview This is a lightly edited transcript. [00:00:00.190] – Ann Kroeker How would you like to develop a simple writing routine that doesn’t take all day to achieve significant results? And what if you could combine that with a simple system for collecting inspiration for all of your writing projects? Today I have Bryan Collins of Become A Writer Today on the show, and he is sharing his one-two punch of a system-routine combo that turns out an impressive body of work. I’m Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach. If you’re tuning in for the first time, welcome. If you’re a regular, welcome back. I’m sharing my best tips and training skills and strategies to coach writers to improve their craft, pursue publishing, and achieve their writing goals. Bryan Collins is a USA Today best selling author whose books include The Power of Creativity this is Working, I Can’t Believe I’m a dad, and a best selling series of books for writers. He was a journalist and copywriter for years and has contributed to publications like Forbes, LifeHacker and Fast Company. Today he runs his website, Become A Writer Today with the help of a team of writers, attracting several million visitors each year by the same name, where he deconstructs the writing processes of New York Times bestselling authors like James Clear and Daniel Pink. Let’s hear his practical advice for writers. Ready to do the work and write the truth? [00:01:32.770] – Ann Kroeker Well, we have Bryan Collins on the show today. He is a podcaster and an author and a writer, and I cannot wait to ask him all kinds of really practical questions that we can pass on to listeners today. Bryan, thanks for being on the show. [00:01:45.590] – Bryan Collins It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me on. [00:01:47.450] – Ann Kroeker Thanks for taking the time. We’re in different time zones and I am excited to hear more. Would you share with listeners a little bit about your own writing, your own writing past and what brings you to today? [00:02:03.090] – Bryan Collins Sure. So, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer and earn a living from the written word. I was a big fan of Roald Dahl back in the day, children’s author, and I figured the best way to do it was to become a journalist when I became 18 and it was time to pick something to study in college or university. But I went to journalism college and spent more time going out to parties than I did actually taking notes. And I found it really difficult to find paying work. So I kind of drifted in and out of various freelance writing gigs during my 20s. I’m 40 now, by the way, for some context. I got really frustrated with writing and I wasn’t a very good journalist, if I’m being honest. So I drifted into other careers that really weren’t suitable for me. But I still want to earn a living from writing, so I took a series of creative writing workshops that made a big impact on me. I started by writing short stories and then entering short story competitions. I made a few mistakes. I spent a lot of time writing the same short stories rather than getting feedback. [00:03:05.670] – Bryan Collins And after about two or three years, I got frustrated with that and I was about to give up on writing altogether. But then I said, I’ll try something else. What if I try blogging and writing about the one thing I do know something about, which is the craft of writing? So I had a technology blog that wasn’t getting a huge amount of traffic, which taught me the basics of WordPress and writing online. So I transitioned that site to become a writer today. For a long time it was like a hobby. This is around 2014, so it would have been in my early 30s. For a long time it was a hobby, something I did around the side of a job. I was surprised, or pleasantly surprised, when it turned into a part-time and then later a full-time business. And then to give a bit more context, I did find work. I was working as a copywriter for a British software company. So I did get paid to write. And more recently I’ve left that job. I was there for about eight years, so now I’m working on my own business full time. So that’s an overview of some of the ups and downs of my writing career to date. [00:04:05.670] – Ann Kroeker Would you describe the work that you’re doing through the podcast as part of your full-time work that you’re doing as a writer? [00:04:13.470] – Bryan Collins What I do today is I have a site for writers, and I used to write all the articles. Now I commission freelance writers to produce the articles, and then I have a set up a couple of other sites in different niches, or niches, as you say in the United States. I don’t write content for those, but I kind of replicate what works for my site for the other sites. So I guess the business is a content publishing business and one of my jobs is to edit articles, so I’m using some of the skills I learned along the way in the business. I self published books, so I was big into self publishing for a few years and I self published a parenting memoir last year, which was my fifth or sixth book. And then I like podcasting because I get to talk to authors and experts like you. And as any writer or listener can attest to, writing can be quite lonely and isolating; you’re by yourself in a room, which can send you a little bit crazy. That’s why I podcast. It’s to talk to people and to connect with other writers and share stories or anecdotes about what’s working or not working. [00:05:19.350] – Ann Kroeker Thanks for sharing that. Do you feel like looking back at your journey there’s any one decision you made or one avenue you took that made a big difference? [00:05:32.290] – Bryan Collins Yeah, like said, it’ll be deciding to write online. I think anytime during my writing career where I’ve sought permission from somebody, it’s never worked out well. By seeking permission, I mean going to an editor and asking them to hire me as a reporter. A few editors did hire me and then they let me go. Or going to a writing competition and asking a judge to pick my story over to hundreds or thousands of others who are trying to get a book deal, all of those kind of things. Whereas any time I pick something that doesn’t involve gatekeepers or permission, such as self publishing—such as writing online or starting a podcast—I’ve always felt more comfortable with it personally, and I’ve had more luck with earning an income from us an...