Jessica Bayliss Writes BLOG

Deal Announcement: TEN AFTER CLOSING, Sky Pony Press, 2018

1/27/2017

I thought my dreams came true when I was accepted into Pitch2Publication in 2016 (I worked with the amazing Rebecca Faith Heyman) and signed with my rockstar agent, Dr. Uwe Stender. Now they've REALLY come true because, thanks to my agent and #TeamTriada, I just sold my debut novel, a Young Adult Thriller, to Sky Pony Press! Editor Alison Weiss has worked on some fabulous projects already (including another TriadaUS book, TIMEKEEPER by Tara Sim), and now I get to work with her on
TEN AFTER CLOSING. I am so thankful, so excited, and my mind is still a little blown. (More than a little.)

You can see this announcement in Publishers Weekly right here.

Look here for more news as we approach publication in Spring 2018! (It's going to be here before we know it!)

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ZOMBIE CHUNKS is now available!

1/13/2017

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You will find my story, "Care of the Undead Dog," along with many more great zombie stories in this anthology. Another highlight is "All Dressed in White," which was written by my dear friend, G. Marie Merante. (Now we're book sisters!)

Congrats to all the authors and a big shout out to Dead Silent and Christian Bentulan on the incredible artwork.

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It's a Writer Thing #12: Goals versus Outcomes

1/10/2017

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Happy New Year, wonderful writers! Welcome back to It’s a Writer Thing.

Today, I want to talk about goals. In my work as a clinical psychologist, I help people set goals to improve their health and overcome challenges. I’m a firm believer in making commitments to ourselves, regardless of our life strivings are.

But the way we set goals matters.

Here’s what I mean. Take someone who is trying to lose weight. Their goal might be to lose ten pounds or twenty pounds or whatever. But actually, number of pounds isn’t actually a goal; it’s an outcome. A goal is something completely different.

Definitions

Outcome: the long-term thing we’re trying to accomplish through our day-to-day efforts: losing ten pounds, quitting smoking, being more socially-active, writing a book, being a successful author. All of these are outcomes.

Goal: the day-to-day behavioral steps needed to reach our outcome.

Applying These Concepts

In the weight-loss realm, a goal might be to cut 500 calories a day or to exercise for 30 minutes, five times a week. This will result in the outcome of fitting into those super-cute jeans.

In writing, a goal might be to write every day from 5AM to 6AM and for 3 hours on Saturdays. Or, to write 1k each day. Or five hundred. Or five thousand. If we’re revising, we could aim for one chapter a day or send our MS to three critique partners by the end of the week. For querying authors, an outcome is to sign with an agent. The goal might be to query two new agents each week or to always have ten queries out at any given time. Or to learn how to actually write a query because that’s another totally different skill we must master (and it’s frickin’ hard).

These goals can all help us reach the outcomes of writing that novel, getting an agent, and being a published author.

WHY DOES THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN OUTCOME AND GOAL MATTER?

There are two main reasons:

1) Outcomes aren’t always behaviorally-driven. In other words, the thing we’re trying to accomplish isn’t directly under our control.

We can cut calories at will (even though that’s frickin’ hard too), but we can’t lose weight at will. Whether we shed or gain pounds is due to many complex factors, including our behaviors and processes inside our bodies; we can’t predict exactly how much we’ll lose or how fast.

In the writing realm, there is a mind-boggling number of uncontrollable factors, like what others think of our work. We can (and should) always practice to get better, but we can be the best writer the multi-verse has ever seen, and someone will still call our book very bad names. We can’t control when the agent will read our query or whether that editor will request the full.

Another challenge of writing is, we can control the number of words we write, but we can’t control how those words will come together to form a story. Or, to be more specific, we can control how the words come together, but it takes many passes to get it right. That brings me to number two.

aviors to be successful.

2) Outcomes require many steps and sustained effort. In other words, we can’t accomplish them quickly in one day or one sitting, and they require multiple types of behaviors to be successful

In weight loss, we have to cut calories, change the kinds of things we eat, and increase our physical activity.

In writing, there’s drafting, revising, editing, getting and incorporating feedback. And don’t even get me started on the process of querying and submissions. There are many steps (and sub-steps, and sub-sub-

steps, and sub-sub-sub-steps) that are needed to become a published writer.

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION

If our jeans are still tight after a week of effort, or if that book doesn’t simply pour out of our fingers onto the computer screen, it’s easy to quit, to say we’re not cut out for success, or—worst yet—to say bad things about ourselves for not being successful.

If, however, we focus on behavioral goals, we stay tuned-in to the small but steady ways we are making progress toward our outcome every single day. If I hit my calorie count, even if my jeans are still making my feet go numb after a week, eventually they’ll fit better. They have to, as long as I don’t give up. If I get my 1k, that book may not be done this week or this month, but it will get done as long as I don’t give up.

We need to celebrate our goal-achievement every day. And when we nail it, we have more motivation to hit it hard the next day.

As always, a HUGE thank you to Amber Gregg for having me on “Judging More than Just the Cover.”

And, until next time, You can do it! You can write!

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I <heart> books. (Don't we all?)

1/9/2017

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It's a Writer Thing #11: It's all about control

1/4/2017

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Hello lovely writers! Welcome back to my It’s a Writer Thing mini-series on stimulus control and generalizability. As you may recall, I’m a clinical psychologist, which means I get to take advantage of all those great psychological theories and put them to work for me in my writing, and I want to share that with you.

In my last two posts, I talked about the benefit of ingraining a very powerful urge to write by creating a habit. Writing under the same circumstances every day for a few weeks can create stimulus control in which the environment triggers our writing behavior. But I also cautioned that we can sometimes hinder ourselves if we limit our writing to only that special circumstance. We don’t want to limit ourselves! We want to be productive no matter where we are, right? So, to avoid that, once we’ve established a good habit, we need to vary our writing environment (while still sticking with our routine) so we can train ourselves to write under a variety of stimuli. This will allow for optimal productivity.

Today, I want to add in two new concepts: cognitive control and locus of control.

Definitions

Cognitive control refers to the way people’s behavior can be driven by mental constructs such as plans, instructions, goals, and prior events. It also refers to the way our behavior can vary in real time, allowing it to change as our plans, goals, and values (etc.) vary. This allows our behavior as a whole to be flexible instead of rigid.

Locus of Control: In other words, to whom or what we attribute our success (or failure). Is it because of things inside of us (i.e., internal locus of control) or things outside of us (i.e., external locus of control)?

How does this all fit in with stimulus control and generalizability?

STEP 1:
First off, we must recognize that external stimuli impact our behavior. That’s exactly why stimulus control and generalizability work, right? Whether we’re talking writing behavior, eating behavior, study habits, whether we get on Facebook or get to work on that MS instead, we can’t ignore the impact of external factors on what we do. If we try to, we’re losing out on some potentially helpful stuff and maybe even setting ourselves up for failure (like if we minimize the impact of a coworker bringing donuts to work when we’re trying to count calories).

So, step 1, just remember that external factors impact us.

STEP 2:
External factors don’t have to be the end-all be-all of our behavior. Yes, stimulus control is powerful, but so is your brain. We need to remember that the executive control of our behavior lies within us.

All too often I hear people saying things like:
- I can’t work out today, because I got stuck in traffic. Or
- There’s no point eating a healthy lunch because I’m going to have an unhealthy dinner. Or
- There’s no point writing; I’ve only got a half hour and I need at least 45 minutes to make it work. Or
- Why try to write? My kids are being all loud and making a mess.

What do all of these situations have in common? They all are examples of external locus of control. In other words, they’re all examples of situations where we assume the external environment has the ultimate power to decide what we do.

Cognitive control is like our trump card, the one that bypasses all of these barriers. By putting the locus of control back inside us, we exert cognitive control. Instead of letting the environment drive our behavior, we can use other important stimuli to drive it instead. Stimuli like: our goals, our values, our decisions, our plans, our prior preparations, the deadline we committed to with our editor/agent/critique partner.

Stimulus control and generalizability are tools to increase our writing by training our behavior around external stimuli. They’re perfect for helping us get productive. Cognitive control and an internal locus of control mindset are tools to overcome barriers and stay productive even if the environment isn’t aligned in our most optimal set-up.

Your comfy chair and tatty robe won’t write your story for you, right? YOU write your story. And you can do it whether you’re in the perfect spot or in your really uncomfortable work clothes or surrounded by a lot of distraction or with a glass water instead of a huge-ass mug of coffee or jazz instead of polka (you know who you are).

No matter how powerful the stimuli in our environments, we are always the ones with the executive control. We are in the driver’s seat. We get to veto all the other stuff and put our brains to work for us. So, when I use the mantra shared with me by my dear friend, You can do it! You can write!, I’m literally invoking our powers of cognitive control.

This concludes my mini-series on stimulus control and generalizability. How will you put these powerful psychological tools to work for you and your writing? Feel free to leave a post in the comments and share.

Thanks to Amber Gregg for hosting my posts on her fabulous site, “Judging More than Just The Cover,” and don’t forget…You can do it! You can write!

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Happy New Year! 2017 is here!

1/2/2017

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Deal Announcement: TEN AFTER CLOSING, Sky Pony Press, 2018

ZOMBIE CHUNKS is now available!

It's a Writer Thing #12: Goals versus Outcomes

Definitions

Applying These Concepts

WHY DOES THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN OUTCOME AND GOAL MATTER?

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION

I <heart> books. (Don't we all?)

It's a Writer Thing #11: It's all about control

Definitions

How does this all fit in with stimulus control and generalizability?

Happy New Year! 2017 is here!

Categories

Archives

Deal Announcement: TEN AFTER CLOSING, Sky Pony Press, 2018

ZOMBIE CHUNKS is now available!

It's a Writer Thing #12: Goals versus Outcomes

Definitions

Applying These Concepts

​WHY DOES THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN OUTCOME AND GOAL MATTER?

IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION

I <heart> books. (Don't we all?)

It's a Writer Thing #11: It's all about control

Definitions

​How does this all fit in with stimulus control and generalizability?

Happy New Year! 2017 is here!

Categories

Archives

WHY DOES THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN OUTCOME AND GOAL MATTER?

How does this all fit in with stimulus control and generalizability?