I’m running a poll on my writing blog (please vote) asking writers about their greatest writing challenge.

To date, 40 per cent have chosen “completing projects I start”.

My theory is that it’s hard for writers to complete projects (especially long projects like books) because it’s hard to manage all their material. Their research, notes, ideas and multiple drafts, can lead to confusion. And this confusion leads to procrastination. I give you a wonderful writing process to follow in my Easy-Write Process, which eliminates procrastination because you always know what you should be doing next.

But how do you manage all the bits and pieces you need for even the smallest writing project?

My solution, and that of many other writers, is Scrivener.

There’s an excellent case study on managing lots of drafts and information here. This article, Literature and Latte – Scrivener Case Studies, describes novelist Monica McCarty’s process. She keep’s her series’ Bible in a separate Scrivener file:

“McCarty’s Series Bible is divided into three folders: ideas, proposals and books one through to 12. ‘When I transferred the information from Word it consisted of about four different folders containing some thirty plus documents from all over the place,’ she says. ‘Now, if I suddenly have an idea for book 8 I can go straight in to the right place and add it rather than having to scroll down an entire document and look around all night for it.”

If you don’t want to splash out for Scrivener, I suggest you keep a project journal.

John Steinbeck’s journal for East of Eden, kept as a series of letters, has been published: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, of course.

Your aim in writing your book’s journal shouldn’t be to have it published; it’s to keep you “in” the book as you’re writing it, and to keep track of all your materials.

Before Scrivener, I kept all my project journals in MS Word documents. If I misplaced a piece of research, a simple search helped me to locate the section of the document in which I linked to the research on my computer, or on the Web. It wasn’t an ideal solution, but it proved effective.

Big tip: do keep all your thinking about the book in Scrivener, or in your book journal too. Get all your complaints and angst out of your head, and onto your computer screen. (Don’t delete these.) Making your thought processes conscious in this way keeps you writing: your negative thoughts don’t get a chance to fester.

Writing a book is a long project. You’ll complete your book if you stay organized.

Want to get published? Here’s a tip, if you’re writing a novel: pick a genre.

In the four years since I wrote this blog post, First Steps To Write A Novel: Pick A Genre, I’ve had several ill-informed comments from unpublished writers who think they know how to write and sell.

That’s fine — when you’re writing a book, it’s your book, so do what you please.

But it’s advice you should consider if you’re serious about writing a book and getting published.

You can even create your own genre, as Mary Higgins Clark has done, over many years.

As this article, Mary Higgins Clark: The Case of the Best-Selling Author – WSJ.com, points out:

“Ms. Clark has perfected a formula that appeals to a broad swath of mystery readers, 70% of whom are women. Her novels feature beautiful, intelligent women in danger, who often orchestrate their own escapes. Her heroines tend to be ambitious, self-made professionals—doctors, lawyers, journalists, interior designers. “

Why pick a genre? Essentially, because readers want what they want, and they want certain types of books at certain times. Paranormal novels are a genre, which Amanda Hocking has mined to the tune of $4 million in a year.

Suspense, romance (and its many sub-genres), science fiction, mystery etc are all genres.

If you’re a new writer, writing in a genre may seem to constrain you, however those boundaries can teach you how to write — and if you’re serious about writing fiction, it’s something you need to learn.

Books surpass their genres to become mainstream bestsellers every year. So just write the best book you can.

The Write A Book Collection — the ultimate toolbox for writing and selling your books

These days it’s crazy to spend years writing a book, without having any idea as to whether or not you can make money from it. If you want to write, you can – you have a global market, which is hungry for information and entertainment. And YOU can provide it… even if you’re a brand new author.

As you may know, I write and sell many writing guides. I also sell information products in many other areas than writing.

I want to show you how you can do the same, if you wish. Your dreams of writing a book can be the spark which changes your life.

I’ve collected everything I know about writing and selling your books into my brand new Write A Book Collection: it’s the ultimate toolbox for anyone who wants to write and sell books in 2010 and beyond.

Amanda Hocking has just signed a four-book $2 million deal with St.Martin’s, for the world English language rights.

This article, Amanda Hocking Sells Book Series to St. Martin’s Press – NYTimes.com, reports:

“‘I’ve done as much with self-publishing as any person can do,’ Ms. Hocking said in an interview on Thursday. ‘People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don’t have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer.’”

Let’s see… she earned $2 million from her ebooks, and then St. Martin’s paid $2 million for the rights… that’s $4 million in around a year. And her books are still earning, AND she’s being launched by a major publisher…

Very nice.

There are many lessons you can take from this, the primary one being that the gatekeepers are gone, and that you can publish what you like, when you like.

Huge congratulations to Amanda, who’s still very young. I can’t wait to see where she goes from here; she has an amazing future.

What’s your candidate for the best book title in the world?

Mine’s William Manchester’s A World Lit Only By Fire… I can’t think of a more evocative title for a book about the Middle Ages.

OK, over to you — what’s your candidate for the best book title in the world? Send me a message on Twitter.

If you’re in the process of writing a book, chances are that you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a great title. Relax. You’ll have plenty of time to change it before publication, and your editor will weigh in on the title too.

I asked whether you should publish your book on your blog, yes or no? It’s definitely a viable option, if you want to get known quickly.

Now here’s someone who’s taken online publication about as far as it can go.

In Tweeting an Ebook: “Take Control of Your Paperless Office” , Joe Kissell describes publishing an entire ebook on Twitter, tweet by tweet:

“But how do you shred an ebook? It’s easy: rip it into 140-character strips and feed it to Twitter! “

I can’t imagine doing that manually (or even at all); he’s using a script.

It’s a fascinating experiment. You may not want to go to such an extreme, but you certainly could post excerpts of your book to Twitter to build your readership.