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🗓 Previously…

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🎙 Interview

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📇 Biography

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📜 Transcript

Daria White Osah

Daria White Osah: [00:00:00] But I also know that for a lot of us, time is an issue, even though you have the best intentions. It’s like time keeps slipping away is always something. And if you’re like me, you just have this book that just doesn’t go away. It nags at you in a good way.

David Gwyn: Hey everyone. Today we have something special. It’s a sneak peek inside the storyteller society. So, depending on when you’re listening to this, we’re currently collecting a wait list of writers who are interested in joining.

The storyteller society is a community of thriller mystery, suspense, and crime fiction writers who are hell bent on traditional publishing. You’ll have access to a community platform where only the serious writers are hanging out. No more dodging trolls, bots and terrible news on wonky or dying social media platforms. We have bimonthly writing, sprints feedback sessions, polls, and questions, goal setting check-ins

and way more so if you’re committed to making 2025, the year you signed with your agent then check out the [00:01:00] storytellers society, because your best writing friends are waiting to meet you.

There’s a link in the description to find out more.

Last week on the podcast, I talked to David McCloskey about his opening pages.

David McCloskey: you do not have to have lived something to write well about it, but you do have to do your research and you have to have friends or contacts who are willing to talk to you in order to render a, you know, a world effectively.

David Gwyn: He gave a masterclass on how to create tension and suspense and how to hook readers, right from the start. I even read some of his book back so that he could explain how he was doing what he was doing. , so if you haven’t listened to that episode yet, definitely check it out.

It’s linked in the description.

I’m David Gwyn, a writer navigating the world of traditional publishing during the second season of the thriller one-on-one podcast.

We’re going to continue our focus on building the skills necessary to write the kinds of thrillers that land you and agent and readers. During this season, I’ll be sharing some of my own insights while also talking to agents authors and other publishing professionals about the best way to write a [00:02:00] novel.

But as this is a sneak peek, I wanted to share just one of the important points that Daria white Osah. So shares in her presentation to the group.

So here it is, time pockets.

Welcome everybody to today’s session with Daria White Osah. Daria’s journey as a writer is really, really interesting. She grew up in Texas and never imagined being becoming an author. She didn’t really enjoy reading as a kid, which, which I actually didn’t either. So I was, I was really, I loved reading this because like, okay, there’s someone else out there who wasn’t like a bookish kid growing up.

And Daria’s love for storytelling really developed later in life, and she has really built an impressive author career spanning various genres. But her contributions don’t stop at just being an author, which is why she’s visiting us today. She has a mentorship program called No Time Writer.

Throughout her time writing, or sorry, throughout her time running the mentorship, Daria has empowered over 300 authors around the world to write more than 100, 000 words. And she’s an absolute master at helping writers find balance, prioritize their craft, and achieve their goals, even if you have a very busy life, which many of us do.

[00:03:00] Obviously, you know, who doesn’t want to write a book faster than we already are? So so today Daria is going to share insights on, on that topic that we all wrestle with, right? The how to create a schedule that balances work, life, and writing. She’ll discuss how to prioritize writing like a business meeting make use of time pockets, building a writing first routine that can transform your productivity.

So please welcome me in, in having Daria here.

Daria White Osah: Thank you so much, David. Hello to each and every one of you. It’s interesting, David, that you mentioned that because I did not like reading. I hated it. I thought it was boring. But I think things shifted when I wrote my first short story in middle school.

So that kind of just sparked my imagination. And then I was like, okay, let me give reading a try. So I started reading and then it just blew up from there. So I’ve enjoyed it. For those of you that don’t know me, I am a fictional author. So I do write sweet romance. I have cozy mystery titles, and I also write some Christian fiction.

So if I want to [00:04:00] write it, I write, I don’t put myself in a box. But I also know that for a lot of us, time is an issue, even though you have the best intentions. It’s like time keeps slipping away is always something. And if you’re like me, you just have this book that just doesn’t go away. It nags at you in a good way.

It’s like, I want to write, but how do I write around work? Or if I’m running a business or if I have kids, we’re coming up on the holidays. It’s like, how do I do all that without burning out, but still focusing on my passion? So that’s what I want to give today. So I’m going to get right to it because again, we’re here to save time.

We’re here to maximize it. So. With this concept, and of course, if you have questions as David said, we’ll take them, and if something comes up, just put it in the chat. How to create a schedule that balances work, life, and writing, because again, you know, I think for a lot of authors, they feel like they have to wait to these perfect, ideal circumstances, and the truth is, There’s no such thing as a perfect time. So with my first point of prioritize your writing like a business, I will ask the question and you can reflect on it. Is your writing non negotiable? or is it optional? it all boils down to is your writing non negotiable, prioritizing it like a business, like a business meeting that, you know, hey, I’m going to show up for it.

So think about time pockets. Now, how I typically do this is I map out everything for the week. So whether you use a typical calendar. Or let’s say you use an app. A lot of us have apps on our phones now who doesn’t have an app. But if you have an app that keeps up with your schedule or if you want to write it down, I like to map out everything that I do for the week.

And I do weekly goals because I feel like it’s easier to manage, but feel free to do daily if that works best for you. But mapping it out and saying, okay, these are my work hours. And then, okay, this is family time. Okay, this is my personal time. [00:06:00] Okay, this is time for this. And then once you have everything mapped out, go back through the week and see where those time pockets are.

You may discover, wait, I may have something, you know, Tuesday afternoon. You know what? It looks like I can write early Wednesday morning. You know what? I have another time pocket on Saturday afternoon. Seeing it plain like that, really gets it out of your head, because to many of us, like, I’m so busy, I’m so busy, I’m so busy, but the authors that I work with in my program, when they lay it out like that, they’re like, I’m not as busy as I thought, or I have more time than what I realized, because again, it’s stuck in your head, and we’re just doing our thing every single day, but when you map it out, like, oh, okay, I can fit in some time, and those, and those time pockets may only be two days a week.

That’s okay, because that’s the starting point. It can always grow from there. I think some of us feel like it has to look a certain way, but if you can only do two days a week because you have a full time job, and by the time you get home, you’re exhausted, two days a week is fine. It can grow from there.

If [00:07:00] you can only write 500 words during those time pockets, it’s still better than zero words. So, maximizing that. And then you’ll see the progress that you’ll make, because once you get to the end of the week, you can look back and see, okay, I wrote Let’s say 5, 000 words for the week. Great. If you can do it again with your schedule the following week, because the words will add up over time.

But when those time pockets come up, maximize it, and then you’ll be able to see it grow with time. So just starting small, breaking it up into those chunks. 

So I want to :pause here because this writing first mentality is so important to developing as a writer. If you’re a right, whenever the mood strikes you kind of writer, then that’s fine. But if you want to make writing and publishing a reality, you need to take it seriously. So do you block times in your day when no one can bother you? I’m a big morning writer, but some days, because I have small children, my mornings are disrupted. And [00:08:00] so one day a week, I go to a coffee shop after work, but before I come home and I ride for about an hour and that time has become absolutely sacred for me.

It’s before I have the endless distractions of being a parent

and. and it’s something that my wife and I have scheduled before the start of the week, having something like this in your schedule can be so important. Now the community got to ask Daria a ton of great questions and she is an absolute wealth of knowledge, but I will share just one of the questions that I asked her, because I really liked her answer.

So here’s that question. And then her answer So you’re in like the perfect community for this because when you’re, you’re talking about kind of like that writing first mentality. Well, this is a group of people who are, who have committed to, to writing, , and to publishing and so I think you’re in like the ideal group to talk about how important kind of writing first is.

And so I’m curious, and you talked a little bit about this. And, and I’m wondering if you can expand on a little bit, which is like when, you know, productivity ebbs and flows and our [00:09:00] writing ebbs and flows, like we hit hard spots and we hit hard times in lives and, and, and all those things. And if you fall off the tracks a little bit when it comes to your writing, like what, do you have any like methods or suggestions for writers to find a routine again and get back into the groove of writing?

Daria White Osah: Well, one of my favorite things to do, especially if it’s been a while or if I found myself in a writing slump, I like to look up free writing prompts. So it’s not attached to my manuscript. It’s not something I’m personally working on. I just type in, do a simple Google search, free, fun writing prompts.

And then by me writing something completely random, something completely out of the box, It inspires me all over again to like, you know what, I think I want to go back to my story. It may have been a while I may have fallen off track and I’ll just even give a personal example, I wasn’t able to write probably.

probably the entire summer of last year. And again, circumstances, they were good ones. I was getting married. So [00:10:00] there was a lot of wedding planning. I was moving from Texas to New York and I’m just like, there’s just, I don’t have the time. But what I did do is I made a simple outline of my book. So though I wasn’t writing I made an outline to kind of prepare myself that way when things slowed down, I got settled into my new place with my husband.

I was able to give back to it. But in terms of the writer who feels like, how do I get started again, if you don’t feel inspired because maybe you fell off instead of falling into the writer’s guild and feeling bad and beating yourself up, like, okay, you fell off. It’s, it’s, it’s okay. It happens to every single one of us.

David Gwyn: Like I mentioned, I love this advice from Daria first. Remember that this kind of ebb and flow happens all the time as we’re writing and second to continue working on your writing, even if you can’t write.

And I know that sounds crazy, but if you’re struggling with one project, that’s fine. Go ahead and outline your next one. Or if you’re just stuck on that particular story, write something different, write a piece of flash fiction. There’s a lot of [00:11:00] ways to continue working on your writing and on craft without just working on the manuscript. You’re in. Okay. So I hope you like this sneak peek of presentation to the storyteller society. Be sure to head down to the description,

to learn more about Daria White Osah. I’ve linked a really great resource that she shared for writers. So definitely go check that out it’s all about protecting your time is. It’s all about protecting your time as a writer. And I found it really, really helpful. And while you’re down there, take a peak at cohort, two of the storyteller society.

If it seems like your kind of thing, the wait list is getting pretty long, so don’t wait.

I had to close registration early for cohort one because too many people were interested. So don’t miss this chance. I’m not sure when we’ll be opening again. Here’s what some members of cohort one have said. One said my request rate just got really high in December. I participated in a query critique group.

And that’s one of the sessions that we have in the storytellers society. She went on to say it seems to have made a huge difference. I currently have eight requests out, seven full and one partial. [00:12:00] Another writer said the most impactful part of the community for her

was meeting writers of the thriller genre who were going through the same struggles as me. The community has been so friendly and welcoming. So if you’re interested in hearing more, click the link in the description for this episode, if you want access to guests like today’s two times a month, along with consistent and supportive community. On an ongoing basis by monthly feedback sessions, group writing sprints agent pitch sessions, and more than check out the link in the description. So if you are interested at all or want to learn more, just head down into the description where you’ll see a link to learn more. All right, I’ll see you next week.