The Ninja Writer Secret Weapon

This little printable packet will make all the difference.

The difference between wanting to be a writer and actually being
one.
The difference between amateur and pro.
The difference between thinking about your book and a finishing the
draft.
Here’s what you get:

FRED.
The Folder for Reaching the End of the Draft is my number one most
favorite accountability tool. It’s so damned effective.
Here’s what you do: Fill out the calendar for the current month.
Make your tipping point goal. That’s the goal that’s just small
enough to be psychologically more difficult to blow off than to just
sit down and meet.
For me, that’s either ten minutes or 500 words of writing a day,
depending on ambitious I’m feeling at any given time.
When you meet your tipping point goal, give yourself a sticker.
On the second page of your FRED, keep a log of your work every
day. Just a little note about what you wrote, the progress you made.
You’ll be shocked at how that adds up, even if you really are only
writing 10 minutes a day.
Keeping a writing log is a great way to remind yourself that you’re a
professional. You’re the boss of your writing career. Expect good,
solid, daily work from yourself.

Priorities worksheets.
You get two of these. One for your top three priorities and one for
your next three.
These, obviously, don’t need to all be writing goals. Chances are only
one, or maybe two, will be.
The goal of the priority worksheets is to help you figure out the
whole working writing into your life thing. It doesn’t have to be all or
nothing.
You don’t have to write 3000 words a day or nothing at all.
You don’t have to slam out a novel in 30 days or nothing at all.
You don’t have to choose between your family, your job, your
hobbies, and your writing.
You’ll only need to print these periodically. Maybe once a quarter?
Twice a year? Even once a year, depending on how long-ranging
your goals are.
Write down your top three priorities on the first worksheet. Then
think about each one and write down the next steps you need to
take to in the direction of making that priority a reality.
Here’s an example:
Maybe one of your priorities is to run a marathon.
That’s a super long term goal, right? I mean, unless you’re starting
out a current marathon runner.
If you’re starting out as a couch potato (and not the kind who has a
hope of getting to a 5K in eight weeks), your next steps might
include:
 Build up to walking for 30 minutes.
 Join a gym.
 Hire a personal trainer.
 Finish a 5K.
 Finish a 10K.
 Finish a half marathon.
 Finish a marathon.
See? You want big next steps. In a minute we’ll talk about breaking
those down to the next steps for your next steps.
You might have ‘run a marathon’ as a priority for a year or longer
before you actually get there. And that’s okay!
Novelists are not afraid of long-term goals, right?
If you need a little help coming up with your priorities, here are
some ideas. Come up with a priority pertaining to:
Writing.
Relationships.
Home.
Health.
Money.
And something completely outrageous.

Month-over-two-pages Planner.
This printable isn’t designed to replace a regular day planner.
The month-over-two-pages planner is your whole month at a glance.
It’s a place to schedule in your next steps toward the next steps in
your Priorities Worksheets.
In the top box, fill in the next step for each of your six priorities.
So, let’s look at the ‘run a marathon’ priority. The first ‘next step’
there is to build up to 30 minutes of walking. That’s what you’ll
write into your Monthly Planner’s ‘priorities’ box.
Then, in the weekly boxes, write in the next steps for those next
steps. Depending on your starting place, they might include things
as small as walking to the end of your driveway.
That’s okay. In fact, it’s kind of great.
Broadly schedule your next step’s next steps in your monthly
planner. We’re going to break them down even further next.
Weekly Docket
None of these tools are designed to entirely take the place of a
weekly planner. Think of them as enhancers. They’re things that will
(hopefully) make it more likely for you to actually do the things you
write in your planner.
I love my Weekly Docket so much.
There’s a little redundancy involved with using it. You’ll be re-writing
your top three goals, your writing planner, your 10X100 goal, every
week.
But you might be surprised at how powerful it is to actually write
those things out every week.
I print out a stack of these and keep them on a clipboard that I hang
on my wall right where I can see it from my desk.
I kept the top left little calendar blank, but I always, always use it to
write in a weekly meal plan. It’s blank for you, because maybe you
don’t need a meal planner. Use it to keep your work or school
schedule.
Under that are a habit tracker and a Writing Log tracker.
Just tick off the day of the week when you’ve met your goal and
write a few words about what you did.
On the right side, there’s space for your top three goals.
Look at the next steps you filled into your monthly planner.
Choose three and write them into your Weekly Docket. Then break it
all the way down.
If one of your priorities is ‘write a novel’ (it is, right?) then your
Monthly Planner next step might be ‘finish writing Act I.’ Your
Weekly Docket might include a habit of writing for 10 minutes a day
and a goal of finishing chapter three with next steps of writing 500
words a day and planning chapter four.
Let’s say that your priority is running a marathon and your next
step is to build up to walking for 30 minutes. Your Monthly Planner
next step might be to build up to walking for thirty minutes.
Your Weekly Docket next steps might include a habit of exercising
for 10 minutes a day, and a goal of building up to 10 minutes of
walking with next steps of walking to the end of your driveway,
walking to the end of your street, and walking around the block.

10X100
This little worksheet packs a huge, powerful punch.
You’ll only need one every 100 days.
Take a look at your priority worksheets. Choose something you can
do in 10 minutes a day that you’d like to develop as a habit that will
serve one of your priorities.
Obvious for writers: Write for 10 minutes a day for 100 days.
If you already have a daily writing habit, you can really choose
anything.
Let’s go back to that “Run a Marathon” priority. I’ve used 10X100 to
develop a daily exercise habit and it changed my life. Try 10 minutes
of exercise a day for 100 days. It doesn’t sound like much, but just
see what happens.
Give yourself a sticker every day that you meet your goal.

Here’s what to do next.

Print a FRED for this month. (Pages 8 and 9.)
Trim it to fit neatly inside a manila folder.
Print your Monthly Planner for this month. (Pages 10 and 11.)
Staple your FRED to the inside of a manila folder. The calendar
should be stapled to one side and the log to the other, so they face
each other when the folder is closed. (You can get fancy and use
washi tape. I just staple.)

Trim your Monthly Planner, too. Staple that to the outside of the
folder. One on the front and one on the back.

Write in the month and year on the folder’s tab.

Fill in your FRED and writing log.
Spend a minute at the start of your day to note your writing goal in
your FRED.
Spend a minute at the end of your day to fill in your writing log and
give yourself your gold star!
Spend a few minutes at the start of the month to schedule your next
steps in your Monthly Planner.
Print your Priority Worksheets. (Pages 12 and 13.)
Fill out your priority worksheets, then transfer the next steps to the
planner. Keep them inside your FRED.
Review your Priority Worksheets once a month when you fill out
your Monthly Planner.
Once a quarter, decide if you need new Priority Worksheets.
Print out a 10X100 worksheet. Either keep it on your clipboard or in
your FRED, whichever floats your boat!
Print out a month’s worth of Weekly Dockets (page 15) and clip them
into a clipboard. Start using them. When the week is over, put the
finished docket inside your FRED.
At the end of the year you’ll have twelve FREDs to look back on, so
you can see how much progress you’ve made!
 FRED for: ___________________
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __ __ __ __
 Writing Log for: ______________
1 17
2 18
3 19
4 20
5 21
6 22
7 23
8 24
9 25
10 26
11 27
12 28
13 29
14 30
15 31
16
 Priorities

Start by listing your top three long range priorities.

1)
2)
3)

Now list your next steps for each of these priorities.

Priority:

Priority:

Priority:
 Priorities
Now list your next three long range priorities.
1)
2)
3)

List your next steps for each of these priorities.

Priority:

Priority:

Priority:
 Finally, schedule your next steps into the next month here.

Priorities
□
□
□
□
□
□

Week of: ___________________

Week of: ___________________

Week of: ___________________

Week of: ___________________

Week of: ___________________

Notes
 10X100
For the next 100 Days I will: _____________________ for
ten minutes a day.
Start Date: _____________ End Date: ______________
Give yourself a gold star for every day you meet your
goal.
 Weekly Docket
Week of:___________________________

Goal:________________________
M ________________________________
T Next Steps:
W ______________________________
T ______________________________
F
______________________________
S
S ______________________________
______________________________
100 Day Experiment
Goal:________________________ Goal:________________________
_____________________________ ________________________________
M T W T F S S
Next Steps:
M ______________________________
T
W ______________________________
T ______________________________
F ______________________________
S
S ______________________________

Writing Goal:________________________
Goal:________________________ ________________________________
_____________________________
Next Steps:
M T W T F S S
______________________________
M ______________________________
T
W ______________________________
T ______________________________
F
S ______________________________
S