Eat Your Frog!

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

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The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

 [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the show Writing in the Tiny House. I am on a mission to abolish the idea of the tormented artist by sharing what I know about writing, publishing, and just life in general, so that you can have the tools to produce the content that you have been eager to write. If you have the steps in place, you can produce a short story in as few as three months or a novel in as few as 18 months.

And hopefully through the ideas in this podcast, you will have the wisdom to adjust that timeline if you need to. I am Devin Davis, the guy who lives and writes in a tiny house in Northern Utah. Thank you for tuning in and please enjoy today's episode of Writing in the Tiny House. 

[00:01:00] Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Writing in the Tiny House. My goodness friends. It is toward the end of June. Can you even believe it? This has been the most eventful June in the history of ever for me, at least, usually June is kind of that forgotten month in the summer before all of the vacations happen.

And before the weather gets really, really hot, and it seems like I tend to forget that June even exists. However, with pride and with different things like that, this June has been crazy busy and it has been super eventful. Please tune into all of the other episodes this month. There's like three, all of them.

And yeah, they've been super personal. They have been very inspirational at the same time. When it comes down to the nitty gritty of writing, that's kind of not what this month has really been all about. So today we are just going to do a bit of an [00:02:00] update as far as writing goes. And little bit of tips and tricks with some stuff that I have learned as I've been compiling some of these more special episodes.

So you get to know that as of today, I have finished the first draft of Tiz which I have found out because of its word count is a modest novella. So it's about I think, 23,000 words, which makes it a novella according to the measurement of some. And that is super exciting. It means that I can delve right into editing and I prefer editing to drafting anyway.

And so I have been itching to get this far. The next episode that we have with Writing in the Tiny House is going to be more of a clip episode that brings you along for the ride with Tiz, with doing this first draft. That is something that I have never done on this show before. It is nothing that I have heard of in a podcast episode anyway.[00:03:00] 

And so it should be a pretty good experience. And I'm really eager to share that with you. Sometimes it's fun to talk about what the steps are, what they look like. Sometimes the mental tracks that we go down and the thought processes that we have along the way, and other times, it's fun to demonstrate what all of those things actually look like.

And so while I have been drafting Tiz I have been recording thoughts and just feelings and challenges that I have encountered along the way and this way, as I compile another clip episode, you can kind of get the idea in real time, sort of in real time in the moment like live in the moment, but you understand what I'm saying?

So Tiz the first draft is finished and I will keep you abreast as to what the other steps look like, just because it is going to require a lot of editing. They [00:04:00] all require a lot of editing, but this is the roughiest rough draft I have ever done in my life. And that is the whole point of today's episode. So I have learned the value of dictation.

I can dictate four times as many words that I can write and so this doesn't mean that I still have two hours to simply dictate because that is really overwhelming. And that's not what I can handle.

What it does mean though, is I can dictate the same amount of stuff that I could write in two hours in 30 minutes instead. And because I am a person who has no free time, and this is something that really stresses me out, being able to dictate what I would do in a day in 30 minutes, frees up a lot of the stress and gives me a lot more of my time back to me.

And this matters just because I tend to be a person to stress [00:05:00] and worry about a lot of things. I also don't really allow myself to rest very much and I am prone to burnout. So to know that drafting is only going to be 30 minutes. It doesn't take me as long to fall into the groove of drafting. When I am blabbing to myself as a voice note into my phone, as it does, if, if I were to sit down and write, it takes longer for me to get into the flow and.

Like I said, I can crash through this a lot faster. The draft is rough. I'm not going to lie about that. But to me, the magic of writing actually comes through editing more than it does through drafting. And so I'm eager to take this to the next place just because it requires a different part of my brain.

It requires different energy. And I have been eager to get into that energy with this novella with Tiz. TIS has turned out to be a very special project. I am [00:06:00] eager to get it ready and to get it released. I'm also eager to start the next project, which could be another novella. It may actually end up being a novel called Mateo.

It is the next installment of tales from Laar. So be sure to tune in for more updates with that. So we all noticed, I'm sure that the title of today's episode is eat your frog. Mark Twain once said when he was talking about being productive, he said this, if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs. It's best to eat the biggest one first. I am a fan of these fun little sayings when it comes to being productive in whatever else. This is mark Twain's way [00:07:00] of saying whatever is the hardest for you to do prioritize it and get it done first.

So for me, the priority right now, Is actually taking care of myself and allowing me to rest. And so just a, a review of some of the things that I do in my day, I have a full-time job and I have found out that unless I come home and rest for about an hour and a half, I am really going to be grumpy and hate the things that I work on for the remainder of the evening.

So. The first thing that I need to do that is a priority above all of the rest is to allow myself some R and R. However, the next thing that I need to prioritize. So it is my job in a way in the evenings, the frogs that I get to eat , which is a really unpleasant way of saying writing and getting my drafts done.[00:08:00] 

But the thing that makes me the very happiest is making progress in my first drafts and making progress in my projects. And so that is the next thing that I have to do first.

The idea is get the horrible thing done in the morning so that it doesn't ruin the rest of your day. And if you need to eat two frogs eat the biggest one first. So to me, writing is important. Writing makes me happy and all of these other things that I also do, like the podcast. I love this podcast. I love writing more though.

So, because I've discovered this trick of dictating. and because I can get as much done in less time, it is less of a commitment for me to write. And so it is easier for me to simply get that done to simply get 30 minutes of writing done before I do all of the rest, I had to record a lot of things with the podcast today.

You can hear that I revamped the [00:09:00] intro and at the end of this, you're going to hear that I revamped the outro and yeah, that was the smaller frog. So I got the writing done and now I did the podcast editing and now I am recording a podcast and soon I am going to be recording a, a second podcast that I do for work.

So that is the little tip and trick for today. If your job is to eat a frog, it is best to get it done in the morning. And if your job is to eat two frogs, it is best to start with the biggest one first. 

And that is it for today. Just a reminder that "Brigitte," Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor is available on Amazon as an ebook and on Audible and Apple Books as an audio book. And I provide advanced reader copies of these short stories as I release them to my patrons. So become a patron today by visiting patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse to support both my [00:10:00] writing and this podcast. And lastly, be sure to follow me on social media. My Instagram is @authordevindavis and my Twitter handle is@authordevind. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today and have fun writing. We will see you next time.