Pomodoro-To-Go

Post by Jenny

Lately I’ve noticed that I’m pretty good about budgeting my money when I shop, but I’m a spendthrift with my time. I wander, I become distracted (oooh, clearance!), I forget things and have to backtrack, and then backtrack again. Before I notice, thirty minutes have passed, and I’m still only half-finished.

I recently had a long list of errands and did not want to spend an entire day completing them, so I decided to apply The Pomodoro Technique. (Read my previous Pomodoro posts here and here.) My goal was to spend twenty-five minutes or less at every stop. Those of you with smart phones can no doubt avail yourselves of any number of fun timer apps, but my phone is pretty basic (think: Flintstones), so it served as my clock only.

In what amounted to a shop-it-off aerobic workout, I completed seven errands in less than three hours. Considering that two of my stops were at the biggest time-sucking black holes in my life (Target and Sam’s Club), I think I did pretty well—though the manic gleam in my eyes no doubt alarmed everyone who crossed my path .

So, you may ask, why does time management—whether it’s the Pomodoro or Cricket McRae's hourglass—matter to a stay-at-home mom/writer who, in theory, should have time to spare? In my perfect world, it wouldn’t matter. Every activity would require the exact amount of time I wished to spend on it. No child would come down with strep throat or need to make a clay sculpture of an eastern lowland gorilla before school the next day. Dogs would be incapable of vomiting. There would be no Dr. Phil. (That’s right, I said it.) Yes, that world would certainly afford me more time to write. I’d just have less to write about.

Time is tricky for me because it is both fixed and subjective. It flows steadily (sometimes relentlessly) along in a predictable, measurable fashion, but it also rushes, it eddies, it stagnates. Frankly, I doubt I’ll ever truly master the art of time management. But even if I can’t manage time, I can respect it, so that whenever—through dumb luck or careful planning—I have a few extra minutes at my disposal, I won’t dispose of them. I’ll put my butt in the chair, and I’ll write.

What are your time-stealers, and how do you combat them?

Best of the Blogs: Crafting Characters

By Brooke Favero
And now for something completely different. Since most of the blogging world is canoodling at Book Expo America, I thought I would focus on one particular topic and then find the best blog links related to it. Right now I'm steeped in revision and struggle with living, breathing characters. So how do you make your characters come alive?

Your Protagonist
Rachelle Gardner recommends a proactive protagonist.
Kidlit helps identify what makes a great character.
Guide to Literary Agents says your protagonist must be likeable and relatable.
Blood-Red Pencil offers exercises to create a three-dimensional protagonist.
Nathan Bransford says your characters need to make choices and asks if you know what your characters want.
Brooklyn Arden says your plot must have a character-based view.

Crafting Characters
Alan Rinzler recommends a voice journal.
Nathan Bransford illustrates how to create dynamic character relationships.
Guide to Literary Agents lists 5 links for creating characters and gives tools for character building.
Bookends counsels against alliterative characters.
Rachelle Gardner breathes life into your characters.
Janice Hardy helps flesh out your characters, write bad guys, and identify mildly bad guys.
Matilda McCloud shows how to create off-the-nose characters.
Kidlit cautions writers to watch your character count.
Stet identifies the different types of characters in a story.

How do you breath life into your characters? What helps you?

Is there another topic you would like to see in the best of the blogs? (querying, marketing, plot, etc.)

Ye Be Warned

Post by Trai

Every month, I’m going to post a scene from a favorite screenplay, something written with flair and craft. Most folks have never seen a screenplay before and believe it to be too much of a mystery to take on, but in actuality, it’s not that hard to learn.

My Spring 2010 LCCC class of Beginning Screenwriters were writing at a very high level within 14 weeks; several finished their screenplay, even having never seen one before. If a teacher isn’t handy (and one is), do what all writers do to learn their craft: read. But Ye Be Warned: Screenwriting can be addictive!

EXT. PORT ROYAL - HARBOR - DAY

The skeletal remains of four pirates, still clad in buccaneer rags, hang from gallows erected on a rocky promontory. There is a fifth, unoccupied gallow, bearing a sign:

PIRATES - YE BE WARNED

The top of a billowing sail passes regally in front of them. On the landward face of the sail, apparently high in the rigging, is a man for whom the term 'swashbuckling rogue' was coined: Captain JACK SPARROW.

He gazes keen-eyed at the display as they pass. Raises a tankard in salute. Suddenly, something below catches his attention. He jumps from the rigging --

-- and that's when we see that his ship is not an imposing three-master, but just a small fishing dory with a single sail, plowing through the water -- the Jolly Mon.

And it leaks. Which is why he has the tankard: to bail.

Jack steps back to the tiller, and using a single sheet to control the sail, and the Jolly Mon comes around the promontory, the whole of Port Royal laid out before him.

Can someone guess the film?

Visual Aids

My eyes have been getting very tired when I work lately, so yesterday I went to the eye doctor and got my first prescription for reading glasses. The doctor told me that one eye hadn't developed all the way because it was weaker to begin with, so it just relied on the other one to do all the work. Psh, I thought. What a slacker.

And so my new glasses are supposed to stimulate my weaker eye to make it want to work harder, and cooperate with my stronger eye instead of just letting it do all the work. Who knew there could be so much drama in the ocular workplace?

All of this talk about working together to help me see better had me thinking a lot, naturally, about critique groups and how valuable they are. I realize every time I submit my work to my critique group how much I can improve my writing just because they helped me see it more clearly.

Their disorientation and confusion over what I thought was crystal clear may be disheartening at first, but it's also invaluable. It lets me see where I'm leading the reader astray in my writing. I long to be subtle and witty and evocative (my new favorite word), and yet, well, I'm not. But with help from their eyes, I might still get there.

In much the same way a dedicated group of readers can quickly identify the things that are missing, they can also see things I had no idea were there: relationships, connections, possibilities, deeper and different meanings. It's like putting a figurative magnifying glass over the essence of the story. It's a beautiful thing.

I'm grateful for all of the people and prescriptions that help me see better. What helps you see your own writing more clearly?

Turtle Power

Post by Jenny

My younger son recently decided that I should collect turtles, and he should be the one to give them to me. On Mother’s Day, I received the third from him—a stone pendant he found at one of our favorite old town shops, Nature's Own. (That’s her in the picture.) The other day when I put it on, I realized that turtles and writers share some important traits:

We’re patient with a slow pace. Writing can be slow. Revising can be slow. Editing can be slow. When the polishing is finally done, the submission process can be the slowest part of all. Thanks to email, some industry folks are quite quick these days—I once received a “no thank you” to an electronic query in the time it took for me to grab a ‘congratulations-I-sent-it’ cookie (which then became a consolation cookie). But many others still take weeks, if not months, to reply, which can test the most steadfast resolve.

We’re persistent. I've read that the jaws of snapping turtles sometimes don’t unlock even after death. Although this does evoke the unsettling image of me sitting at my desk in full rigor mortis with a copy of The Writer’s Market clamped in my hands, writers are well-served by that kind of persistence. Grab onto your dream, and don’t let go for anything.

We have thick shells. Even the personal, encouraging rejections sting a little. And the others…well, if you’ve been there, you know what I mean. A hard carapace is very useful for ego protection.

Turtles have been on this planet for 230 million years—ages longer than Euripides, Shakespeare, and Ray Bradbury combined. As one might expect from such ancient residents, turtles and tortoises figure prominently in myth and folklore from all over the world. They are generally seen as creatures of endurance, strength, longevity, fertility, wisdom, and perseverance. These are all qualities I gladly embrace as a writer. (Turtles are also an auspicious feng shui symbol, which fits with my plan to improve the chi of my work space.)

I do have days when I wish my career would leap, hare-like, from the starting line a la Stephanie Meyer’s. But, as I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen, I’ll just keep moving steadily forward. And if I take some chances by sticking my neck out from time to time, I may find I was closer to my goal than I thought.

Thanks to my son, I found a little inspiration in an unexpected place. I love when that happens. How about you?

This Week in the Writing World...May 21

Post by Brooke

Welcome to the jungle. As Barnes & Noble gets into self-publishing and iPad takes on Kindle (or is it the other way around), e-books offer a whole new app: the Vook, a smoothie of writing, video and social networking. Many authors/entertainers embrace the new media and this week the New York Times announces the Guns N' Roses' Vook. Whether you agree or disagree with that sweet child, Alan Rinzler thinks the Vook is an opportunity for writers.

But with apps like these, will e-book piracy become a problem? Wired doesn't think so, as long as the publishing industry manages it right. And how will it trickle down to the author? PubRants explains e-book royalties.

Building Your Platform
Guide to Literary Agents offers ten tips for marketing online. #7: Be careful what you say online. Of Blog agrees. Do you know when to be silent with your opinions? You should. Rachelle Gardner says there is more than one reputation at stake.

Querying
Pimp My Novel shares his wisdom on writing a great query. Nathan Bransford reminds us that every writer gets rejected. Stet says writers have good days and bad days. Odyssey Workshop asks when should you give up on a story? And when you sell your first book, can you quit your day job? Kitlit gently slaps every writer with a reality check.

Crafting
Claudia Gray defends outlining. The INTERN outlines a book that sells. Marshall Payne tells you to watch your "it." The Blood Red Pencil gives tips for building characters and The Book View Cafe finds value in a writing notebook.

New Agent
Sarah LaPolla at Curtis Brown.

And finally, Combreviations asks who you gonna call? Naturally, Ghostbusters. (Honestly, college kids have way too much free time. But today I'm glad. Enjoy.)

Are there blogs that I'm missing? Who are you reading that should make my blog round-up?

The View From the Bottom

Post by Trai Cartwright

When I got my start in Hollywood, I did it the way almost everyone else did: as a temp. Once upon a time, the entire town was almost entirely manned by temporary workers, the magical creatures who knew the infrastructure of every studio and could be plugged into any department, any desk, anywhere and keep things rolling.

From this vantage, I was able to soak up an astonishing amount of how-to without being stuck in the job for more than a few weeks. All of this immersive work did two things for me: it made me a pro before I’d gotten my first “real” job and created a vast network of contacts that would serve me well in years to come.

Temping led me to at least three great jobs, including my all-time favorite as the assistant to five producers at a company called Prelude Pictures. Peter Saphier, the president of the company, took me under his wing.

Anyone’s who’s had great mentoring knows what this can do for a person. Here was the man who’d made “Scarface” and “The Deerhunter,” who’d brought the book “Jaws” to Universal, giving me the keys to the store. I flew up the ladder, helped make two movies, produced one of my own, run hundreds of movies looking for “the one,” and helped take over three dozen films through development.

Why do I tell you about my experience at the bottom? Because without it, I would never have gotten anywhere at all. The bottom is where the real work is done. No matter what our dream – including all of us who dream of success as a writer – it has to be stated somewhere, a place where we know nothing and can’t begin to fathom what it’s going to take to get to where we’re going.

The view from the bottom isn’t so bad. The pay is terrible, we sleep poorly, we are underemployed and under-appreciated, but the education is astonishing. Pay attention. Do the work. And when you get your shot at the big time, you’ll be ready.

Walk, Work and Welcome

Post by Kerrie

As I continue with my busting out of the box idea and allowing myself the freedom to just write, I have a hodgepodge of things to share with you today.

Walk 
Last month I shared with you my new treadmill setup where I can work and write at the same time. From March 15-April 16,  I walked for 8.7 hours and covered 14.6 miles. This past month I didn't "travel" quite as far, but I am still pleased that this was time I would have normally spent with my BIC (Butt In Chair). 
April 16-May 16--5.2 hours and 9.4 miles.

Work

I am happy to announce that my latest article is up on the WOW! Women On Writing Website. It is my interview with award-winning Screenwriter Robin Swicord. She was an amazing person to interview and I learned not only about her, but about how books are adapted into screenplays. I must admit, I have a new-found respect for that process. I hope you enjoy the article.


Welcome
Over the past couple of weeks I have been teaching some blogging classes. I want to welcome the following folks to the blogosphere. Please help me in welcoming them by stopping by their blog and saying hello. Many of them are just starting out and learning how this all works. :-)

http://mimsprose.blogspot.com

http://thewordbutcher.blogspot.com

http://grandma-mitch-travel.blogspot.com

http://lindalhenk.blogspot.com

http://wordsbybob.wordpress.com/

http://www.writing-roads.blogspot.com

http://www.shaywrites.blogspot.com/

http://www.samsmom-heathers.blogspot.com/

http://dreams-and-creativity.blogspot.com\

http://kerrieluginbill.blogspot.com 
 
http://janetmondlane.blogspot.com


Special Thanks:
I want to send a special shout out to my new Twitter friend and fellow writer, Heather McCorkle. Yesterday she highlighted me on her blog, Heather's Odyssey and I really appreciate it. 

Do you have any special outs you want to give?

Have a great day and as always, Happy Writing!
~Kerrie

Trying Out Something Sacred

A few weeks ago I went to the AWP Conference in Denver and attended a session all about the "Sacred" art of writing. I wasn't quite sure what to expect--something spiritual or religious, maybe involving yoga? What I found was a panel of writers who simply talked about their writing practice--when and where they get it done.

So I looked up the word sacred, and in addition to those religious connotations that I always associated with the word, it also simply means "devoted exclusively to one service or use (as of a person or purpose)." Not quite as glamorous, perhaps, but distinctly more functional.

I decided, of course, that I needed a Sacred Practice and I needed it right away. I had an assortment of multicolumn lists and priorities for finishing projects that pay the bills, and big dreams of finding a cool planner on sale since the year is almost half over only to find that they actually make 18-month ones that start in July so I'm actually a month early and everything is still full price.... sigh*

Amidst all this impending chaos I wanted to set something straight--I could not lose sight of the one thing that I really want to be doing, which is writing my stories, whether those take the form of short stories, novels, or essays. And I believe it was Mark Twain who said 'write for free until someone pays you to write.' I'm definitely still in that writing for free stage, but without the practice I'm not likely to make it to the point where someone wants to pay me to do it.

Thus, my very own sacred practice is born--2.5 hours that at the moment I'm setting aside in the mornings. It could just as effectively be done at night, or even in the middle of the day, I suppose, but at the moment it works best to start the day with it. I begin with a half-hour of free writing, by hand, in a journal. I use a timer for each section (recall Jenny Sundstedt's recent post), which allows me to just keep writing without feeling any need to check the clock. I follow that with one hour of writing and/or revising my stories. And the hour after that is devoted to blogging--writing my own and reading others'.

The rest of my schedule can change day to day depending on what other work I need to do, but I think all of that will fall into place as long as I keep my sacred time sacred. It may not pertain to anyone's religion, but I can definitely see it as a spiritual practice--checking in daily with my muses as well as my attitude.

What does your sacred practice look like?

Spring Cleaning Part II - Staging for a Sale

This post by Jenny

The last time my husband and I sold a house—ten years ago—“staging” meant vacuuming, dusting, kicking the shoes under the bed, and lighting a candle to make the place smell like apple pie. Now, if I am to believe what I see on HGTV, droves of professional stagers roam the country with paint cans, fabric bolts, and trendy accessories, ready to make any home worthy of a magazine spread.

According to WikiHow, potential buyers decide whether or not to purchase a home within thirty seconds of entering. I’m guessing that’s about the same amount of time an overworked literary agent spends considering a query or proposal. First impressions are undeniably important, so I’ve borrowed the following home staging tips from WikiHow and modified them for writers:

· Declutter – All writers have a certain amount of clutter in their drafts. It’s a natural byproduct of the process. The trick is identifying what’s clutter and what’s not. I, for example, never met a simile I didn’t like. But using too many creates the equivalent of a flea market.

· Make Repairs—Fix structural problems: spelling, grammar, punctuation, dialogue tags, etc.

· Depersonalize—Separate the writing from the writer. I hope my unique style always comes through, but if all my characters sound like me, I’ve got trouble.

· Have fliers for prospective buyers to take away—At the very least, print up a few business cards for conferences and other networking opportunities. Other promotional items—bookmarks, postcards, magnets—are relatively inexpensive.

· A house showing should appeal to all five of the senses—This goes without saying, but writing should do the same.

If your manuscript has been on the market for a while without any contracts or offers, check around. Are the comps selling? (Publisher's Marketplace lists the industry deals.) If not, be patient and hang in there. Yours may be the next hot property. But if you’re the last one on the block with a For Sale sign, your work could need additional sprucing up.

Consider enlisting a new pair of eyes to give it a look. Entering a contest can be a great way to get impartial, and very honest, feedback. Or hire a reputable professional—a writing coach, an editor. (There are NCW members who provide these very services.) Like the best investments, it just might give you a great return on your money.

What do you do to ‘stage’ your writing? And has it helped you make the sale?

This Week in the Writing World...May 14

Over at Do the Write Thing for Nashville, writers, agents and publishers auction books, manuscript critiques, phone interviews, art, etc. to raise money for the victims of the Nashville floods. This is a great cause and some of the items up for auction are worth every penny to aspiring writers--who wouldn't want a 30-minute phone call with Rachelle Gardner? Publisher Weekly spotlights the publishing industry's generosity toward the Nashville victims. Our prayers go out to them.

Contests
There are two contests for finished manuscripts. Guide to Literary Agents' Dear Lucky Agent Contest for Fantasy and SciFi ends May 26. And Miss Snark's First Victim Secret Agent Contest for Chapter Books, MG & YA starts Monday, May 17. Both contests focus on the first 250 words of your manuscript. Good luck to those that enter.

New Agent
Nicole Robson is new to the Fischer-Harbage Agency. She's looking for fiction and nonfiction. She has a particular interest in narrative nonfiction and history.

Querying
This week there was a lot of advice on pitching and querying. Books & Such cautions about being too clever in a query--not everyone will get your humor. BookEnds doesn't recommend comparing your work to others (This was news to me, because in the past other blogs recommended comparison.) Once you've perfected your query, can you resend it to agents that rejected your rookie query? Editorial Anonymous says yes, but tread lightly. Kidlit explains how to get into a closed house. PubRants demystifies how long an agent should keep a full manuscript. Rachelle Gardner identifies a great pitch and Nathan Bransford shows how to break your pitch down.

Pimp My Novel defines the different departments in a publishing house. And finally, Moonrat commiserates over title issues. I completely sympathize to this one. A week before I began querying my first story, another middle grade book released with a very similar title.

Building Your Platform
It's important to build an online presence, but can it be too much information? KT Literary asks if you can know too much about an author? While Chip MacGregor gives tips on marketing.

Crafting
The New York Times questions whether poetry matters? TalkToYoUniverse asks what your characters will learn during the story. And Nathan Bransford explains how to find your voice.

It seems every writer has a weakness. I'm a great plotter, but I'm terrible at character development. What's your strength and weakness?

Film Affects

New Thursday Edition to The Writing Bug: SCREENWORKS is about what works on screen! Join Trai Cartwright on a through-the-looking-glass exploration of the wonderful world of cinema. Part craft, part cinema studies, part fan-girl ravings and part Hollywood Insider!

ScreenWorks is a blog about what works on screen – and yes, sometimes about what doesn’t work on screen. Part of our modern communal pop culture experience is sitting in a darkened theater (even if it’s your living room) with high expectations for the latest film by your favorite star or favorite director. All across the world, people love the movies.

Why? There are a million theories. It’s escapism from a high stress world, we’re born storytellers, it’s comfort “food” we remember from our youths, it’s how we learn about ourselves or pretend to be someone else entirely. My personal favorite is Roger Ebert’s posit that the speed of the film strip through the projector is at just the right cycles-per-second to trigger our brain’s pleasure zones. Literally – the flickering creates a meditative state. We’re being biologically manipulated to love movies.

Do you suppose the first filmmakers knew any of that when they started making films? No way. And yet, from the first moment a train came tearing across the screen, the audience bought in. In fact, half of them were so certain the train was real and about to leap into their laps, they fled the theater.

Film affects us. It’s a language everyone understands – we don’t require subtitles, summaries or reviewers to induce a love of a really great film. Across the world, we as a race are united through a love of visual storytelling: massive displays of emotional power, impossible action and unifying themes. That and Will Smith.

ScreenWorks is my tribute to the good times I’ve had watching, writing and making films. Because for me, there’s no better time to be had.

What are some of your favorite movies?

---------------------------------
TRAI CARTWRIGHT is a 20-year entertainment industry veteran recently transplanted to Fort Collins. Currently, Trai is a writing consultant who teaches all kinds of writing across the Front Range for community colleges, writers groups and one-on-one.  She oversees Fort Collins’s only teen writers critique group for NCW, and run the Explorati Teen Writers Boot Camp summer program.  To work with her, contact her through her website: www.craftwrite.com. 

Lost Voice

This Post By Kerrie

I admit it--I am a total Gleek. I am obsessed with Glee. If you have been in a cave for the last couple of months and don't know, Glee is a new Fox network show featuring the fictional high school glee club, New Directions, under the leadership of Will Shuster. Cleverly written, with amazing music and a brilliant cast, this one hour of television is one you don't want to miss.

The show this week focused on voice. Not in terms of physical voice, but the one that identifies who we are as people. The Glee Clubber's assignment was to sing a song for the group that represented their voice.

It was clear from the start that the students had lost their way. Kurt, the openly gay, very feminine member showed up to class dressed in a baseball hat and flannel and sang John Mellencamp. Puck, the school bully and star football player, sang a Sammy Davis tune. Although the songs and styles they chose were good, they did not accurately represent these young men.

As writers, the same thing can happen to us--we can sometimes lose our writing voice. Maybe we get caught up in trying to please someone else, maybe we lose our confidence or maybe we start focusing too much on the end product. The result is writing that is flat and lifeless.

I have blogged about voice before (Your Writing Voice & American Idol) and why it is so important to take the  time to develop it. It becomes our calling card, our brand, it is what identifies us as individual writers. The genre or format, shouldn't matter, our voice should always permeate our writing, making it clear that we are the one's that wrote it.

Nurture your creativity...
Let your true voice shine through.

Have you ever lost your writing voice? What did you do to get it back?

Freedom and Time Management

Post by Jennifer Carter

Back when I was still just contemplating a move to full-time freelancing, I would waver between boundless ambition (I can get at least 9 solid hours of work in a day!) and hopeless laziness (maybe I just don’t want to work at all and that’s my problem?). Now that I’ve been reporting to my home office for a week, I see that neither of those is really true, and a new thing to worry about has evolved—effective time management.

It’s kind of exciting too, though. I had blamed 9 years of being chained to a desk for most of my waking hours for the encroaching hydrogenation of my body. I am determined, now that I have control of my own time, to take advantage of that flexibility to walk every day. So far so good. Last week I tried walking first thing in the morning, then mid-morning, then closer to lunchtime, and each time my actual time working would have to be adjusted. I have several things on my mind that I know I need to be working on, but I also have a tendency to want to focus on a single project once I’ve started it.

For example, I feel like I should get through all 30 hours of my proofreading project before I can do anything else, which means another project might go a week without my attention. And even though I felt like I was working diligently on this one project, I reviewed my time sheet for it, which I use to keep track of my own “billable” time, and it would appear that I’m not working quite as consistently as I had thought I was. In fact it might even appear that I’ve been, as they say, farting around. But where did all that time go? I was here the whole time, except for those walks!

So this week I have a plan: I made a list. But not just any kind of list, this is a multi-column list, and on it I have boxes as opposed to single items. Each box represents an “area of emphasis,” like Proofreading (which is important because it’s my primary source of income) and Writing (which is important because it’s what I really want to be doing with my life).

I have seven areas of emphasis at the moment and putting them down helps me not only keep track of them, but also prioritize them. And once I can see them all spread out, I make little sublists under each one to decide what writing I want to focus on first, or how many hours I have left to go on my proofreading project. This in turn gives me the information I need to write an effective schedule for my next day. I now know that I need, unapologetically, two hours for lunch so I can walk and shower and eat, and then I will get back to work.

My system may change as I get more used to working from home, but for now I’m enjoying the challenge of all this freedom. I’m still reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and she says this: “I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it.” Easier said than done, perhaps, but it’s a good reminder to me that freedom is not about not working and being lazy as I had feared. It actually requires a lot more work than sitting at someone else’s desk, at least for me. But I think of it like learning to ride a bike without the training wheels. It’s so much more rewarding to figure it out for myself—to find my own balance and learn to trust it.

What time management techniques have worked for you?
 

Thoughts on Mother’s Day

Post by Jenny Sundstedt

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and I’d like to say thanks to my mom. I can’t completely credit her for my desire to be a writer—I’m pretty sure I would have had that in me, regardless. But I can, and do, give her a tremendous amount of credit for never stomping on my dream. As an elementary and junior high school teacher, my mom encouraged hundreds of kids to read, write, and think creatively. But nobody benefited from it more than her two daughters.

A true lover of story, my mother slogged her way through my early manuscripts—the unpublishable messes I now refer to as ‘learning experiences’—without complaint. Abidingly positive, she can always find something good to say about what I’ve written. And even if I don’t necessarily agree with her more critical assessments, they never fail to give me food for thought. Most importantly, she continues to stick with me through all my growing pains as a writer—which have lasted considerably longer than even the angst-filled teenage years.

My mother will turn seventy-five in September. I hope that when I’m her age, I have her creative energy and enthusiasm for writing. I hope I can still dream big, as she does. (Though I will no doubt also share her inability to master any and all technological advances.) And, boy, do I hope I’ve published a novel by then.

To my sons…thanks for making me a mom. I’ll do my very best to support you in your creative endeavors—as long as they don’t involve extreme tattoos or piercings, man-eating reptiles, speeds of greater than 75 miles per hour, clown college, changing your names to numbers, or throwing anything sharper than a Frisbee. And worms. You know how I feel about worms.

Finally, a few thoughts on mothers from some of the writers who have said it best:

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.
~Alice Walker

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime.
~William Shakespeare

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
~Victor Hugo

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
~Mark Twain

What women have inspired you in creativity and life?

Help Wanted: Advice for Bloggers

On Monday I will be teaching a class at the Northern Colorado Writers studio on blogging. This class is designed for bloggers who are ready to take their blog to the next level. They are interested in delving further into the blogosphere, getting more followers and even monetizing their blog.

So, for those of you have been blogging for a while, I would love your input on this: what do you know now that you wish you would have implemented earlier on in your blogging journey?



~Kerrie

This Week in the Writing World...May 7

Post by Brooke Farvero

This week, Writer's Digest passed out their reputable 2010 Best Websites for Writers icons. To get their complete list, you'll need to pick up a May/June issue. The Guide to Literary Agents highlights their favorite agent blogs from the list. Did your favorites make the cut? (Mine did.)

Cutting a Deal
The Guide to Literary Agents lists three things you need to know when signing with an agent. While Chip MacGregor points out the bad things you don't want to see in a contract.

Querying Perfection
Nathan Bransford illustrates how to focus your query. Anne Mini gives pointers on writing a synopsis with multiple protagonists. The Guide to Literary Agents helps you write a thriller synopsis. Pub Rants identifies when your story starts in the wrong place.

Crafting
Combreviations addresses animals as plot devices. The Swivet warns about throwing in a dragon. Janice Hardy wants you to keep tension high by controlling multiple POVs. Rachelle Gardner highlights writing wisdom from Dave Cullen. The Guide to Literary Agents posts an incredible list of articles on improving your voice. And Alan Rinzler encourages eavesdropping to improve dialogue.

Do you know your category? Kidlit emphasizes its importance. And if your category is Science Fiction and Fantasy, Blood Red Pencil helps identify subgenres.

To series or not to series? Editorial Anonymous has an opinion. If you do series, then you'll need a Series Bible. Nathan Bransford explains how.

New Agents
Roseanne Wells at Marianne Strong Literary Agency and Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Literary Management.

Shew. Man, is it Friday. Enjoy. Werner Herzog Reads Madeline. Bill Murray reads poetry. And just in case you need a little demotivation. (My favorite is sanity.)

Once you check out some of these great posts, come back and share which are your favorites.

~Brooke

Delegation, The Key To Happiness--and Success

Post by Kerrie Flanagan

Back in January I won a blog contest. Part of the prize was 30 hours of a virtual assistant through the website TaskUs. This week I finally started cashing in my winnings and had my new assistant do some menial tasks I had been putting off. I now have a detailed spreadsheet of small business grants I can apply for and another spreadsheet of upcoming writers conferences. A new world has opened up for me. It reminded me of the importance of delegating.

I remember reading about delegating in Jack Canfield's book The Success Principles and more recently on his blog. He encourages people to focus on their core genius and do what they do well and then delegate the rest.

In theory this is an awesome idea, but for some people, like myself, it isn't always easy to implement. Often when I start down the path of finding or hiring someone to help me with tasks, I realize that I will have to explain what needs to be done and then I second guess whether or not they can do it as well as me (or as well I think I can do it). By this time I usually throw in the towel and do it myself.

The idea that "I can do it all"  is not an effective one.  I found this out first hand at my third Northern Colorado Writers Conference. I literally tried to do everything for this conference myself. I did all the marketing, decorating, collecting money, graphic design, picking up people from the airport, making schedules for all the presenters, setting up, making the name tags, taking photos and being the point person for everything. During the conference I ran around like a crazed mad-woman and after the conference I was immobilized for 2 days.

I vowed to never do that again, and when it comes to the conference, I have followed through with it. For the past 2 conferences I enlisted help and delegated anything I could. It has changed the way I approach the whole event and everything runs much smoother, making it more successful in the long run.

I realized this week with my TaskUs experience, that we as writers should be following this whole idea of delegating. Could I have taken the time to compile that information I wanted for the spreadsheets? Of course I could have--but would it have been the best use of my time? I don't think so. Instead of getting hopelessly sucked into the World Wide Web for hours and hours, I used that time to write queries and articles. And isn't that what being a writer is all about--actually writing?

As I think more about it there are probably many tasks I can delegate in order to free up time for writing: research tasks, household chores, blog posts, finding appropriate markets/agents and updating my website.

By delegating, we can spend more time on our writing, which will inevitably lead to more success.

What is one thing you can delegate to free up some writing time?

~Kerrie

On Freelancing

I was afraid I would wake up this morning and think--what have I done? or just OMG! I'm unemployed! But remarkably, I did not. You see, I quit my job yesterday and this morning, for the first time in 9 years, I am not relying on getting paid to sit at someone else’s desk. I know many of you already experience this on a regular basis and have weathered the ups and downs of freelancing without flinching. I applaud you.

When I got out of college 11 years ago I did my first freelancing and loved the lifestyle. My aversion to things like planning for the future, getting up early, and budgeting soon caught up with me though. I like to think I’m older and wiser, and after processing mortgage loans for seven years, which I can almost say now without triggering my gag reflex, I have seen a lot of the consequences of not planning and budgeting.

I’m still ignorant of many of the things I’m sure I will need to know to make freelancing work for me, but I am ready to figure them out. I get up early, I sort of have a plan, and I have gathered my resources—newsletters and websites with job opportunities, the Writer’s Market, and most importantly, everyone I know. I left work for the last time yesterday with something unexpected—leads! When I told people I was freelancing and what my skills were, they were quick to point out a number of people they knew who might need me in the future. It’s like I was networking and I didn’t even realize it!

I missed the freelance lifestyle all the while I was working an 8-5 job, and trust me there were so many times I wanted to try it again. But the difference between just wanting to do it and feeling like now really is the time was undeniable to me. I simply couldn’t take it anymore. And I feel like I have enough resources at my disposal to get started.

I’d love to hear how you veteran freelancers got started! And I’d also love to hear from those who are considering trying it.

~Jennifer

Spring Cleaning, Part I Feng Shui Your Space

The rumor is true. Spring is here. And when spring arrives, can spring cleaning be far behind? This year, I’ve decided to go a step beyond my regular seasonal tidying and use some of the principles of the ancient art of feng shui to increase the creativity and productivity of my writing space.

The computer desk is one of the places in my home where the daily tides deposit a fascinating array of household flotsam and jetsam. But this leads to clutter, and clutter is feng shui enemy number one. After just a few minutes of web browsing for feng shui fixes, I learned that I should have no more than nine objects for everyday use on my desk. For maximum benefit, these items are best placed according to a feng shui map, or bagua. Find a map, and more tips, here. Fast Feng Shui also has lots of helpful information.

A major office overhaul is not practical for everyone, including me. I am not in the market for new furniture, nor do I have room on my desk for an aquarium, a fountain, or an arrangement of candles/stones/mirrors/chimes/crystals. Although purple is the color of creativity, I don’t plan to ask my husband if he would prefer for me to paint the walls iris or plum—I already know the answer is “neither.” Fortunately, feng shui is not an all-or-nothing proposition; many small changes can add up to a big improvement. Removing the scissors from the ‘money’ corner of my desk is a great place to start. (Cutting + wealth = very bad juju.)

In her article, Feng Shui for Writers, Master Feng Shui Consultant Kathryn Weber points out that “good feng shui is like creativity; it must be flowing.” Likewise, fluid prose is a pleasure to write and a joy to read. Writers owe it to ourselves, and our readers, to arrange our work environments so they facilitate the flow of creative energy, not hinder it.

By the way, the term “feng shui” translates as “wind-water”—two elements whose inherent movement promises change. This has inspired my new motivational, though less-than-poetic, motto: “Stagnation Sucks.”

What have you done to improve the chi (energy) of your work space? Do you notice a difference in your writing?

~Jenny