This is K.M. Island and you are listening to the 283rd episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast. I implemented something of a radical new schedule this year

one full day of fiction writing each week and one other day away from business work to do other things.

Plus I've been really concentrating on streamlining my internet activities.

I've gotten rid of the bookmarks for sites that were really just pointless

time wasasters, even my main news source MSN bit the dust, and I concentrated on unsubscribing from the vast majority of email mailing lists.

It's been a big change and it's taken me pretty much all of January and February to settle into it,

but I'm really starting to feel the benefits. It's been great

to be able to focus more on fiction, and I am amazed by the amount of time I've freed up just by

doing the simple little streamlining tricks on the internet in my email.

I've never been someone to waste time and I'm all about economy of motion and making the best use of time,

but I never would have guessed I was wasting so much time on seemingly little non-essentials.

The latest post in the video series on my blog is How to drive your readers wild with hints and story hooks without frustrating

them. It talks about one of the most common misconceptions about a great hook for your

books beginning and it shows you how to take

grabbing your readers to the next level. To find the post, visit my site at

helping writers become authors.com. And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast entitled

Most Common Writing Mistakes Part 39 referencing characters by title rather

the name. In the time it takes you to write two small words, you might be

dramatically distancing your readers from your story's narrative. Scared?

You should be, but don't be that scared,

because this is one of our most common writing mistakes

that is just as easy to fix as it is to commit.

...