Author Diary Entries
Author Diary Entries (formerly known as the Indie Author Weekly podcast) features your host, Sagan Morrow, as she shares diary-style personal stories of life as an indie author and her behind-the-scenes journey of writing and publishing books as an authorpreneur.
You’ll learn more about the books Sagan writes, her insights and stories of being an author and a multipassionate creative, and a peek behind the curtain of a writer's life.
The Author Diary Entries podcast is hosted by Sagan Morrow, a Kamloops-based writer with more than a decade of experience as a small business owner. She is also a hobbyist burlesque dancer and performs on stage as Babe Maverick.
Sagan started out as a blogger and freelance writer (and editor) around 2008. In 2016, she began teaching other freelancers how to improve productivity and time management through her online courses. She is an internationally board-certified Success & Life Coach who specializes in personal fulfillment, solopreneurship, and anti-hustle productivity.
Sagan writes the Polyamorous Passions romantic comedy series, and has published several business books in addition to her work as a romance novelist. She published her first work of fiction in 2018.
RECOMMENDED STARTING POINT: "Ep 179: Author Update (one year later)" AND "Ep 140: Welcome back to the podcast!" AND "Ep 50: What made me start writing the Polyamorous Passions series" AND "Ep 53: Top 5 episodes from the first year of podcasting on Indie Author Weekly (and why I started this podcast)".
The first 12 episodes of this podcast were originally published on a “secret” platform only for email subscribers, but you can tune into all of those original episodes right here. Access bonus materials to go along with podcast (including cheatsheets and spreadsheets relevant to the episode topics), plus full episode transcripts, sample chapters of her novels, and additional resources, at https://saganmorrow.com/secretpodcast. This podcast was rebranded from "Indie Author Weekly" to "Author Diary Entries" in April 2025.
Learn more about Sagan’s published works and upcoming novels at https://saganmorrow.com/books/. Connect with Sagan on Instagram & Threads: @Saganlives
Author Diary Entries
034: How to practice self-discipline as a writer (10 tips)
In this episode, I want to answer a question that I’ve seen come up a few times over the past month from aspiring authors: how do you practice self-discipline as a writer, and how do you force yourself to write when you’re not in the mood for it?
The timing of this question is rather interesting since I have recently been working on a brand-new e-course for the side of my business where I teach solopreneurs about productivity. In fact, the new program is called Productivity Powerhouse, and it is all about how to manage your time and energy effectively. So to see this question crop up on social media lately from new authors is really timely!
And since authors are a type of solopreneur, if this is something that you struggle with, then you might want to check out Productivity Powerhouse. Visit SaganMorrow.com/productivity-powerhouse to learn more.
But for today’s episode, let’s address that question about how to manage self-discipline as a writer.
Self-discipline is absolutely crucial to your ability to start and finish a project. This is especially true for indie authors: with a traditional publishing house, you’ll have deadlines to meet based on your contract with that publishing house.
But as an indie author, you’re really working with your own deadlines. You are the boss of you. You get to decide when your book gets published. And that can be a great thing—after all, it gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility… but if you struggle with managing your time and energy effectively, then it can be problematic. You might never get around to actually finishing that book of yours!
The other side of the coin, when it comes to self-discipline as a writer, is that sometimes, you might not want to write. You might not be in the mood for it.
Tune into the episode for 10 practical tips for how to handle it when you are struggling with self-discipline as a writer!
Resources & links mentioned in this episode:
- Productivity Powerhouse e-course: SaganMorrow.com/productivity/powerhouse
- Learn more about all of Sagan's books: SaganMorrow.com/books .
- Episode 32 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: list of writing prompts .
- Bonus: writing prompts to get to know your characters better (worksheet): SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
- Bonus: writing prompts to play with your story (cheatsheet): SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
- Episode 5 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: how I wrote a book in 10 days .
- Episode 33 of the Indie Author Weekly podcast: benefits of writing novellas .
- Toggl time-tracking software .
- Bonus: word count tracker spreadsheet: SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast .
- Access sample chapters of Sagan's novels, transcripts of each episode, cheatsheets and spreadsheets relevant to the episode topics, and additional resources, at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast.
- Submit your questions for future episode topics at SaganMorrow.com/question
