It sounds simple, but it isn’t so easy, actually.

Writing is something most of us do alone. We might collaborate on a screenplay or something, but with a book or a blog, we are alone in front of our computers, tapping out our thoughts. It’s not like the reader is sitting behind us, looking over our shoulder making comments. We’re pretty disconnected from whoever it might be who will ultimately be benefited by our work. For this reason, it’s hard to remember that, well, people will actually be benefited by our work.

Add to this, most writers don’t think there work really matters. I’ve met writers who have sold thousands of books and still don’t think anybody’s life has been changed by their efforts. There’s an enemy whispering in their ear, I think.

I wrote four books and sold millions before I realized I was helping anybody. Sure I knew people were reading my stuff, but I didn’t realize they were making better decisions because we’d sat down for a few hours and I shared my heart.

But these days, that’s about all that’s keeping me going. Just the thought that somebody out there might not leave their spouse, or quit on that book they’re writing, or change their career or find God. In all those books about writing filled with tips and tricks, I think loving the reader is the best motivator I’ve found. And it keeps the quality up, too. We do tend to put our best foot forward when we care about somebody.

So the next time you sit down to write a blog, just remember somebody is going to read it and be encouraged.

The Best Writing Advice I’ve Ever Received is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Sunday Morning Music, Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Jupiter is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Today is the last day to get the pre-registration price for the Storyline Conference.

If you’re needing a bit of clarity in your life, or wanting to jump-start the story you are living, come visit Portland in June with hundreds of other people who will be mapping out their personal storyline at our two-day conference.

How long has it been since you’ve performed a life evaluation? Here are five reasons to attend Storyline:

1. Because you can walk out of the Storyline conference better understanding what you want to do with the rest of your life.

2. Because you’ll come to understand why some roles in life don’t work for you and others seem to work great. You’ll understand the “kind of character” you play in life’s story and be able to shape your story around that role.

3. You’ll have a broad map showing you where you currently are in your story and be able to list the priorities you can focus on now so the story is as impacting as you hope it can be.

4. You’ll meet people from all over the country who are interested in the kind of life you are interested in and are hoping to tell the world a better story with their lives.

5. You’ll get to spend a few days in Portland, one of the best cities in the world. Come on out and join us!

Five Reasons to Register for Storyline is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Basically, there are just paths. Or maybe there’s just woods, and you have to cut your way through the woods.

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies is from Wonderboys, when Katie Holmes character reminds Professor Tripp that “writers have to make decisions.” What she meant was a book only starts taking shape when a writer decides to go somewhere and then takes action in that direction.

Kinda like life, I think. Just decide and move. Just write the thing.

*the above image was a proposed book cover and title for Million Miles. We debated for weeks whether to take the cover that direction. Who knows whether it would have been received differently. Once you cut a path, there’s no looking back.

The Thing About Choices is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

1. Think about how many books you’ve purchased and given away. Count them on your fingers and toes.
2. If you bought them for a book group and got paid back, it doesn’t count.
3. If you bought them with a company credit card or church credit car, unfortunately it doesn’t count, either.
4. If you shoplifted them they don’t count.
5. If you bought them so you could burn them they don’t count.

6. If you are my mom, they don’t count.

Take the number of books you bought and let me know in the comments how many you’ve given away. The five people who gave away the most books will get a free case delivered to their door. We will contact you through your e-mail address in the comments. The contest closes sometime in the vaguely near future.

In all seriousness, it means a lot that you guys have spread the word about Million Miles. I’m very grateful. It’s awesome to be able to put more books in the hands of the people who’ve been the biggest supporters. Can’t thank you enough.

Get a Free Case of Million Miles! is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

If you’ve read the book and would like a free copy of the paperback, simply:

1. Embed the below video on your blog and come back to the comments section here and post a link to said blog.

2. Link to the book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Powells Books within your blog.

* or post the video on facebook.

The first thirty people to do so will get a free paperback in the mail (somebody will contact you for your mailing address) so you can give it away or read it again and not care if you spill coffee all over it. And check back tomorrow because I am giving away several cases!

You can get the code to embed the video off of the Vimeo site where the video is housed, or by clicking here. Thanks so much!

* We will probably go over 30 pretty quickly. If you post the video, though, we will e-mail you a link to a free download. Thanks again.

Get a Free Copy of Million Miles! is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A guy I met once ran into Norman Mailer at an airport and asked him what he was working on. Mailer politely declined to answer the question, saying that when he talks about a book too much, it steals his motivation to write it. I agree with Mailer, and I also think it was a brilliant way to get out of answering a question most writers are asked fifty-thousand times a day! Regardless of his intention, it’s true that when we talk about our work, we give ourselves the feeling that we are working on something when truthfully, we aren’t.

If you sat down with a pen and paper and counted the hours you’ve been working on your project, would the number be embarrassing?

Lets stop talking about our work over coffee with friends. We can talk plenty about it when it’s done.

A Creator Doesn’t Just Talk About Their Work, They Work is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Here’s how I structure my phone-free time:

1. I wake up early. I’m usually awake by 5 or 6AM. I respond to e-mails and text messages using my phone. I check the news on my phone too. Then, even before people can respond, I shut the phone off. This marks the beginning of my phone-free hours. Because the hours are so early, few people are trying to reach me anyway. Most people, even on the east coast, don’t start calling till 8AM or even 9AM, after which I’ve already gotten a couple hours work done.

2. I am very intentional about the phone-free hours. I go for a walk to start the morning, letting the dog do her business. Then I come back, sit at the desk, and enjoy a few hours knowing it isn’t possible to be interrupted. It’s amazing how much mental clarity is freed up when you are not able to be contacted at all. There’s no question I’ll get more done in the next two hours than I will for the rest of the day. Try it and you will see. I think this is so true that if I had a company, I’d make everybody turn off their phones for the first two hours of the day. My guess is productivity would go through the roof.

3. When my brain is done writing, usually when I’ve got a thousand words or more into the computer, a couple blogs written and I’m getting sloppy, I turn my phone back on. I normally have a couple text messages and a few e-mails and rarely a voicemail. When your phone is off, people tend to find a solution that is smarter than you could have come up with.

4. I respond to everything immediately. People have been waiting, so I get it all done at once. This work is normally completed in about ten minutes. No kidding. An entire morning of interruptions that would have derailed my work is taken care of in minutes. I’ve never had anybody dissatisfied with having to wait a couple hours for a clear, focussed response.

5. I leave my phone on for the rest of the day, handling calls and text messages as they come in. The rest of the day I deal with side work, stuff like getting a package out, a letter written, a meeting with a lawyer or something like this.

Since I’ve adopted the phone off morning, I’ve noticed I am less stressed throughout the day. In fact, if my morning gets derailed by an interruption, I can’t help but think I didn’t get enough written that morning, and well into the evening, when I am with friends, I am still thinking about how much I have to catch up on the next day. But now, I am not thinking about work at all. If the writing is done, and if I gave it a focussed few hours, I am a much better friend, and I’d even say a better person in general.

Want to be Productive? Turn off Your Phone is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

I learned a good lesson spring cleaning my house years ago, and I’ve continued to apply it. Whenever I go through the house on a deep clean mission, I place anything I haven’t used in a year in a pile on my bed. Clothes, shoes, electronics, cooking utensils, anything. The first time I did this, I had a valuable pile of perfectly good stuff on my bed. It was hard to do what came next: I gave them all to Goodwill. Yes, I could have sold the stuff in a garage sale, but honestly, the work days lost hosting a garage sale would have cost me, and a few other charities, more than the garage sale would have made. I got rid of all the stuff. I remember holding separate pieces wondering how I was going to live without them, then realizing I’d not used it in a year, I took them away.

Here’s what I found: I didn’t miss anything I gave to Goodwill. Nothing. And my closets were leaner, my space were more organized, and my desk was sparse, save work. My life felt better. As I type, I can’t remember a single thing I threw out.

That said, I used Facebook a lot more than once a month, but the question I ask myself with digital communication is different: Did I or anybody else benefit from this the past year? That’s a harder question to answer. Did anybody benefit from seeing my pictures from that retreat? Maybe. Did I benefit from knowing it was so and so’s birthday, or that so and so was in a relationship? Maybe, but probably not, to be honest. I’d rather find out that so and so was in a relationship when they came through town, stayed in the guest room and we caught up while listening to whatever music we discovered. So I decided Facebook should go.

Twitter, I’ll keep. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people. It keeps us all on the short and genuine. It also takes almost no time away from my work or your work. Comments on the blog, I’m debating. I may take a couple months and disable them to see how it goes. There’s a small community that have found each other through the blog, and I’d not want to see that go, but at the same time, when you are moderating hundreds of questions, it becomes a full time job, and that takes away from the quality of whatever book I’m working on. And for that matter, it takes away from whatever you are working on too.

My question, as a creator, are you benefiting from all the digital media? Are you scared to let it go because you’ll be out of touch? In my opinion, you will gain more creative time by throwing it out than you’ll gain by knowing that your friend Mike is dating some girl he met at Sea World.

Handling Digital Clutter is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

What I mean by this is writing is not an exact science. It’s not like screwing bottle caps on bottles, in which each day you can measure your accomplishments. There are too many mysterious forces in writing. It’s more like playing basketball, I’d say. Some days you’ve got a jump shot and other days you don’t. Who really knows why. But like in basketball, there are things you can do to increase the chances of a ball going in. You can practice, for example, and you can stay in shape.

In writing, it’s all about routine. My job is not to get up every day and write two-thousand words. My job is to do this:

1. Go to bed before 9PM. This assures I will get up early and be ready to write.

2. Wake up at 5Am or so. Respond to a few e-mails, then turn off my phone. Take the dog for a walk and think and pray about what I’m going to be working on.

3. Don’t force the inspiration. I sit down and ask myself what I feel like writing. I remind myself that I have a book, and need to stay within that range of topics. I also remind myself that I have some chapters in that book, and that the book has structure. I dig around a little within that structure to see if there’s anything there. On most mornings, something, a thought transpires, and I write it down, letting the words come. Once the thought is finished, I try to find a place within the existing structure where that thought might fit. I then file it on my computer for review later when I start compiling the book. I repeat that process until my mind gets just a little bit sloppy, which is normally just before noon. That’s the end of my writing day, and the beginning of my day as a manager of a writers life.

But that’s what my writing responsibilities look like. Some days I walk away from the computer having accomplished a mountain of work. Some days just a little pile of words. Today was a pile of words. But I don’t feel bad at all.

Now, I turn my phone on and there will be voicemails and text messages that, had I left my phone on, would have derailed me completely. I have the rest of the day to not worry about the book. I’ll start thinking about this book at 7PM tonight, when tomorrows writing day starts with me slowly orbiting my bed, brushing my teeth, walking the dog, reading a few articles, watching a television show before I lay down a little nervous and excited about what might get written in the morning.

A Successful Defeat is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog