Amanda is a writer, book coach, and food writing columnist for DIY MFA. She began her career with acting and improv, she shifted focus to food writing which led to her being the first dedicated segment producer of Facebook Live for Time Inc.

While in that role, she oversaw more than 300 live segments and created the company’s Food Media Junket, bringing in James Beard award-winning and Michelin-Starred chefs for over a dozen food and lifestyle brands. These days, she helps food folks through the book writing process, helping them craft a story only they can tell. 

Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Time, Southern Living, Food & Wine, and more. She lives in Nashville, but a piece of her heart will always belong in California.

In this episode Amanda Polick and I discuss:

• Why food writing can encompass so much more than just the “how-to” element.
• How to find your own voice and discover what is unique about you in your writing.
• The importance of challenging yourself as a writer and what you can learn in the process.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Amanda Polick

Amanda Polick is a writer and book coach. After saying “see you later” to her acting and improv career, she fell into food writing which led to being the first dedicated segment producer of Facebook Live for Time Inc. There, she oversaw over 300 live segments and created the company’s Food Media Junket, bringing in James Beard award-winning and Michelin-Starred chefs for over a dozen food and lifestyle brands.

With over 20 years of storytelling experience and helping hundreds of writers, Amanda now guides food folks through the book writing process. She believes in using her clients’ work as a whole to craft a story only they can tell. 

Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Time, Southern Living, Food & Wine, and she’s a food writing columnist for DIY MFA. Amanda lives in Nashville, Tennessee now, but a piece of her will be in California forever. 

You can find Amanda on her website.

Link to Episode 385

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 385: Life Lessons from Food Writing – Interview with Amanda Polick appeared first on DIY MFA.

While September has not been a month in which I’ve only worked during the weekday, I can say that most months, I’m able to keep my working hours . . . manageable.

The truth is I’m no expert and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t work at night after my daughter went to sleep or never turned on my computer on a Sunday morning. But over the past year, I’ve made it a priority to strive toward work-life balance and I’ve learned that I’m far more effective when I’m rested and not overworked. I don’t write particularly well at midnight. I don’t do anything particularly well at midnight, except binge Netflix and then regret staying up until two because my body doesn’t allow me to stay asleep past 7 am no matter what time I go to bed.

So yes, I’m writing this on a Saturday, but yesterday I took the day for myself. I spent the afternoon with a friend, relaxed, had a lovely dinner, came home, tackled a few emails, and then spent the rest of the evening with my family. I traded Friday off for a Saturday workday and, to me, that is one of the best things about having an author’s schedule.

It wasn’t always like this. 

The first five years of my writing career were a blur of deadlines, late nights, and juggling two jobs. I was hungry for storytelling, my brain was on fire with ideas, and I sucked at time management. I tried to work from 8pm until midnight, then sleep, go to my day job, where I would forgo lunch so I could squeeze in twenty minutes of authoring, then sneak in another hour before I drove home, picked up my daughter, tried to mom and make dinner, and tackled bedtime with a child who thought sleep was for the weak.

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Needless to say I became an overworked, overwhelmed shell of a person. I knew that even after I quit my day job, I’d have to figure out the best way to manage my time and while I’m not a master, I think I’ve come up with effective strategies for creating a work-life balance.

Have a Plan and Write It Down

Lists are your friend.

I love lists. They’re a visual reminder of what needs to be done and every time I put a checkmark beside an item, I experience a surge of gratification. I start most days with a list, especially if I have a number of things that need my attention. I organize the list from most important/pressing to least important. 

Some days I get everything done. Some days the least important items get moved to the following day. But making a list keeps me accountable and helps me stay focused.

Set Realistic Goals

Pick a writing goal that is manageable for you. If you’ve never written ten thousand words in one day, don’t set that as a goal. I think the most I’ve ever written in one day is 8k and the next day I was basically useless. I was exhausted and my brain felt like it was leaking out of my ear. I had that one banner day, but was it really worth it in the long run? Probably not.

When I was writing part-time and working another job, it was very, very challenging to move projects ahead. Carving out writing time between family obligations, work, and life can be difficult. Writing time is precious, and setting reasonable word goals is essential to avoid feeling defeated. Some authors can write like the wind, some plod along slowly. 

Know your pace, set your goals accordingly.

Set Long and Short Term Goals

I’m a planner. To a certain degree. 

I like to know what I’m going to write and when. I work with multiple publishers which means I’m often juggling multiple projects and deadlines. We block off time for each project, including the brainstorming, writing, and editing phases. Over the years we (my agent and I) have modified and adjusted my writing schedule based on the evolution of my writing.

When I’m scheduling writing months, or time to write, I’m also taking into account when I’m going to receive edits for different projects. When I can slot things into timelines, set reminders, and make sure those goals are realistic and attainable, it’s much easier to find work-life balance and compromise with my time.

Know Yourself and Learn from Your Mistakes

I can’t work on two projects at the same time. My brain does not work that way. I get overloaded and I can’t accomplish anything. 

This month has been particularly heavy. I have a book to finish writing, but with so many other projects requiring my attention I need to set it aside until next month. Is that hard to do? Absolutely. But I have deadlines to meet. And stepping back gives me space and perspective.

It takes time to learn your process. This year I made a rookie mistake. I’m eight years into this career. I should know better. But I made a decision in February and I’m feeling the ramifications of that now. I tried to cram too much into my schedule and while in the end it turned out okay, I’m aware I don’t want to lock myself into another unforgiving writing/publishing schedule moving forward. 

The important part is learning from mistakes so you can avoid repeating them.   

Give Yourself Grace

We’re all human. Some days we just aren’t the most productive versions of ourselves. Life happens. We need to grocery shop. We need to have coffee with a friend. We need to sit on the couch and do nothing. And guess what? That’s perfectly okay.

Writing is my full-time job. And at the beginning, I felt like I needed to account for every single hour in my day. I don’t think it helped that writing is one of those careers where people have these romantic notions that we all sit around waiting for the muse to hit and ponder our existential existence. 

I work my butt off. 

For a while, I felt like I needed to prove that I was, in fact,, working. All the time.

Now when I’m on deadline, sometimes my work hours are longer, but for the most part I’ve learned to break it all down into manageable pieces. The work is still going to be there tomorrow. Life, on the other hand, is fleeting, so remember to appreciate it and the people in yours.

Find your balance.

Tell us in the comments below: How do you manage a work-life balance?

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Helena Hunting lives outside of Toronto with her amazing family and her two awesome cats, who think the best place to sleep is her keyboard. She writes all things romance — contemporary, romantic comedy, sports and angsty new adult. Some of her books include Meet Cute, Pucked, and Shacking Up. Helena loves to bake cupcakes, has been known to listen to a song on repeat 1512 times while writing a book, and if she has to be away from her family, prefers to be in warm weather with her friends. Learn more at https://helenahunting.com, or catch up with her on Twitter: @helenahunting

The post Finding Work-Life Balance as a Full-Time Author appeared first on DIY MFA.

I usually only share this technique with my DIY MFA 101 course, but in light of a question I got from a listener, I felt like it was especially important to share on this podcast. This game-changing lesson has helped so many writers I have worked with achieve balance between their writing lives and their real lives. I hope it can help you too.

First off, I want to give a shout out to one of our listeners, Erin, whose question inspired this episode. A few weeks ago, Erin emailed me and shared this about her writing life:

I am a stay-at-home mom with two small children and I am struggling with my writing career. I want to take my writing more professionally, but I feel lost on how to do so. I only have a few hours each day that I’m not running after my kids, making sure dinner is ready or the laundry is done, etc. I try to make sure I write every day as well as read and connect with other writers but I am still not feeling like an actual writer. Am I ever going to feel like one? Are these feelings just something that naturally evolves over time? I fear that I am missing an important task that I should be doing or that I’ll just have to wait for my kids to be in school to have a little more free time to devote to my writing.

Thank you so much, Erin, for sharing your struggle to find balance between real life and your writing life. First and foremost, you are not alone. I know lot of writers can relate to this exact same thing. I know I can relate because have two small children at home (my little girl turns one tomorrow!) and it’s a very real struggle for me because I can’t just put my life on hold to write. My kids won’t let me.

Part of doing DIY MFA means embracing the fact that you have a real life, that you can’t just be immersed in  your writing. Somehow your writing has to co-exist with that real life (and good news: It CAN!). The most critical thing you need to do as a writer is Honor Your Reality.

A lot of experts spout “best practices” for being a writer. They will prescribe a certain number of words per day or tell you to write every single day, as though giving you a formula for how to be a writer would help you write better. Here’s the cold, hard truth: it won’t. This is why I don’t believe in a formula. I believe in doing what works.

The only “best practice” is the one that works for you.

The way that works for you may be very different from what works for anyone else. There’s only one “formula” that can capture all the individual differences, challenges, and experiences of different writers and that’s honoring your reality. This means honoring who you are and where you are in your life, and choosing methods and techniques that will work for you.

I never like to give a rule across the board. I don’t like to say “write this many words per day” or prescribe specific schedules because each writer is different. Instead, I like to give suggestions and it’s on you to decide which of of these ideas and techniques to put into action.

Let’s look at the phrase: “Honor Your Reality.” What does it mean?

It means you’re going to respect what’s going on in your life. It’s not about “if only” (“if only I didn’t have two small kids…”, “if only I didn’t have a day job…”, etc.). Honoring your reality means looking at your life with all of the good, the bad, the ugly, the messy, the difficult, and also the beautiful and the easy. Your life would not be the rich experience that it is without the good and the bad together.

Honoring your reality is about embracing the struggle. It also means recognizing that writing is part of your reality. You can’t ignore it. Honoring your reality means finding a way for your real life and your writing life to co-exist. They’re not competing. They can work together. This is NOT to give you an excuse to be lazy and avoid writing. That would not be honoring your reality either because writing is part of who you are, just like everything else.

When you’re not writing, examine why you’re not writing. Is it because you honestly do not have the time? Because that’s ok! You honor your reality by recognizing that you have other things on your plate. At the end of the day, the writing will still be there, waiting for you to pick it up again.

Now if you find that everything else is always requiring time from you, that you’re using “Honor Your Reality” as an excuse not to write, then that’s not honoring your reality. You have to dig deep, to look at your life and decide, “Am I honoring both my life and the writing that I need to do?”

“Life is short, but also wide.”

There is a certain level of flexibility to reality. You have to look at the width, the breadth of your life and see if there isn’t room to fit your writing in. Look for pockets of time (like during your daily commute) to fit in different aspects of your creative life. I like to listen to podcasts or read when I’m on the subway heading to meetings. This is hands-down my most productive reading time and the only time I can fit the Read With Purpose part of DIY MFA into my life.

There are plenty of great little portable productivity tools and apps available to help you fit your writing into your day. But the goal isn’t to give you tools and tactics. This isn’t a strategy or a magic bullet. Honoring your reality is all about understanding who you are, what is important to you, and what you’re going to invest your attention in.

Be mindful, be present, be here now.

When you are truly honoring your reality, that means you agree to be fully present in what you are doing each moment. It means recognizing that everything that is part of your reality not only is important but also contributes to your ability to write. This means you must be fully present wherever you are.

Here’s the thing. Human beings were not built to multitask. Whatever we’re focusing on gets 100% of our attention. “Multitasking” just means that you’re constantly shifting your attention from one thing to another. And when you jump from task to task, you’re actually less efficient.

When you honor your reality you ask yourself “What needs my attention right now?” and then you give it 100% of your attention until it is completed. That means that when you are writing you are writing (not checking Facebook or your phone), and you need to do whatever it takes to guard that time, to keep it focused on writing and protect it from interlopers.

Get rid of the “shoulds.”

Whatever you’re doing at the moment is what you’re supposed to be doing. There are no “shoulds” when you honor your reality. The great thing about applying this principle to your life is that it takes away so much guilt.

Here’s an insight that changed how I think about guilt and the should-monster: having extra guilt doesn’t make you any more efficient or prolific as a writer. If you need to take time away from writing, OWN IT and don’t feel guilty. Piling on extra guilt when you’re not writing won’t make words magically appear on the page. Instead, give yourself permission to focus on what you are doing right now and be present in that moment.

To be clear, by telling you to honor your reality I’m not giving you permission to be LAZY. I’m giving you permission to live your life. Remember that all of those rich experiences, the good ones and the bad, make you the unique, wonderful person that you are and that person will come across in your voice and in the stories that you tell. Give yourself the freedom to live your life.

When you embrace both your writing and your life together, you are creating a situation that is sustainable for the long haul, that you can keep doing for the rest of your life.

Finally this.

To wrap up, I want to remind you that you have a story to tell and that story is important. You need to write it and no one else can do that but you. Honor your reality, both the real life that makes you the amazing person you are and also the writing side of your life.

You can do this! It might be hard (trust me, I’ve been there), but it does get easier over time.

If you enjoyed this episode, please send me an email or comment below. I’d love to hear about the reality that you’re honoring, and how you’re going to balance that with your writing as well.

Link to Episode 47

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 47: Honor Your Reality appeared first on DIY MFA.