Put in the Big Rocks First: Time Management for Writers

The story is told of a business consultant giving a lecture about time management. He set a large glass bowl on the table and put in a bunch of fairly large rocks. He turned to his audience and said, "Is this bowl filled?"

Everyone agreed it was. Then he took out a bag of small pebbles and poured them in around the rocks. Again he asked: "Is this bowl filled?" Again the audience agreed. He then took out a bag of sand and poured it in filling the spaces around the rocks.

Then he said, "What does this tell us about time management?"

An eager young junior executive shouted out, "No matter how busy you are, there is always room for more work?"

"That is NOT the lesson!" the consultant said. "The lesson is that you will never get the big rocks in unless you put them in first."

Whenever I offer a lesson on time management, people think I'm going to show them some magic trick to find large blocks of unused time in their day or maybe bend the laws of physics to get an extra couple of hours added to the clock. That is not going to happen. If you want time to write (or do anything else for that matter) you have to make time for it. That will probably mean dumping something else. Right now, there is a TV show on I'd like to be watching, but I'm writing this lesson instead. I made a choice. I decided that this is more important than watching a rerun of a show which will likely be run again later. I made this a priority.

What are your priorities? We are often pushed around not by important tasks, but urgent ones. I can hear you saying, aren't those the same? No, they are not. Urgent means it needs to be done quickly or it won't be done. That doesn't mean it is actually important. Some things don't matter if they are not done.

We often let low priority items push out the high priority ones. Look at your calendar for today. Mark each item on it with 1-3. One being the highest priority and three being the lowest. What low priority items can you eliminate to make time for your writing? If you mark everything as a high priority, take another look. Odds are, not everything you do today is essential to one of the priorities for your life.

If you want to write, you have to make it a priority. Ask yourself as you look over your schedule today, "Compared with writing my novel, studying my craft, editing my articles, research my book how important is this event. Is it more important? If not, then why should I be doing it instead of writing?"

What things can you eliminate from your schedule or at least cut down in terms of time to get more time for writing? Post a few ideas here.

What a Character: The Creative Calisthenic Way to Build Great Characters

Be sure to read through to the end for a special offer from Education Wants to be Free.





A story stripped of everything else is simply some people doing something somewhere. But notice the construction of that sentence. The people come first. Without well developed characters acting in character, your writing will be stilted and lack realism. 


Here are a few exercises to help you develop great characters:


Background Check

Read to the end to find out how to get your copy

If you find yourself wondering what your character might do next, then you may need to get to know your character better. Try this exercise. Pretend that your character is under investigation by the police as a "person of interest." The detective turns to his sidekick and says, "Run a background check on ___" What would they find? 


What's their credit like?
What are some of their past jobs?
What's their education?
Were they ever arrested? For what?
Where did they live before the start of the story?
Do they have relatives? Who are they? Where do they live?
What organizations do they belong to?
How many times have they been married? 
Do they have children? Grandchildren?
What are their hobbies?
What awards have they won? 
Where do they work? 
Where did they work in the past?


You get the idea. Even if none of this goes into the story itself, it helps you understand that character. That understanding will make it easier to know how that character will respond when he or she gets into some sticky situation.


Home Beautiful


Everybody has to live somewhere. Whether it is a mansion on Nob Hill or a cardboard box in the Tenderloin, it's home to somebody. Where does your character live? Here are three ideas for bringing your characters home to the readers.


Create a Floor Plan.  What direction does you character turn when leaving the kitchen for the living room? Is her bedroom at the rear of the house? Is his study so close to the kitchen he can smell the roast cooking in the oven? A simple way to keep track is to draw a simple floor plan of the house. You can base it on a real floor plan or create your own. If you want to get fancy about it, you can buy computer programs that will help you lay out your rooms complete with furniture. 


Decorating style.  Describe your character's decorating style. Is it ultra-modern, colonial or country cozy. Maybe it's eclectic. Maybe it's just a jumble of stuff s/he likes. How does your character feel about the décor? Is the husband happy with his wife's choices for his study? Is the wife happy about her decision to let her husband decorate the den? How does the parent feel about the posters of pop stars adorning the walls of their teenage daughter's room?


Real Estate Brochure.  Pretend that your main characters are selling their home. Write up a brochure. Cut pictures out of magazines to illustrate the rooms. What are the big selling points for the home? Large backyard? Pool? Close to schools? 


Find the Emotion Inside You


You have probably heard of method acting where the actor finds in himself or herself the emotions the character is feeling and uses that to create a depiction of that character. Well, that's a good way to understand the emotions of your characters as well. 


 It starts with a sense memory of an event. Let's say your character is being chased by bad guys. S/he is running for his or her life. Take a piece of paper and write down a detailed description of some time when you were terribly scared of something. Be specific. What were your feelings? Did you heart pound? Did you perspire? What did the perspiration feel like? Smell like? Taste like? What about your breathing. Since your character is running, remember a time when you were running (whether you were running from someone or not) what was that like? Pain in the balls of the foot, blisters, limping, perspiration burning the eyes? 


Once you have those memories clearly in mind, write the scene, drawing on those experiences. 


Help Wanted: Great Characters


Here's something that happens to a lot of fiction writers. We come up with a great premise and a bit of a plot, but then we realize that plots and premises are fine, but it's people who make the story go forward. Even when we have a good idea of what the main characters might be like, we have the supporting cast and a whole host of "bit parts." To help get a good idea of what these characters are like write a help wanted announcement.  Here's one for my work in progress which takes place in an underground settlement on the moon which looks a lot like a small town. 


Wanted: proprietor of a general store on the moon. Must be conversant with the odds and ends of daily life. From everyday china to hammers, nails, screwdrivers, screws and umbrellas. Your job is to keep people supplied with what they need. You should also be able to deliver a little folksy wisdom. If people underestimate you or consider you eccentric all the better. Some side work as a spy may be included in your duties. 


A follow up to this exercise would be to write out a series of interview questions for different "applicants" for the job. What would they list as their qualifications, prior jobs, hobbies, skills, etc. It can be a different and enjoyable way to create a backstory. 


Award Dinner 


I came up with this one while talking to one of the other speech instructors at the college. One of the assignments she gives her students is to prepare a presentation speech for an awards banquet. I thought, "What a great idea for developing a fiction character?" 
One of your characters is receiving an award. What award is it? Who presents it to him/her? What does the presenter say about the recipient? How does your character feel about the award? What does he or she say when accepting the award?


Now, try your hand at one or more of these. Share your results. Also share ways you get to know your characters.


This is adapted from Creative Calisthenics: The Ultimate Workout for the Writers Imagination. Email me to receive a free e-copy of the book (A Five Dollar Value) as well as an anthology of Carolyn Masters Mysteries called Lunar Calendar including one story never before published introducing a pintsized genius and a robotic cat, an exclusive excerpt from Dark Side of the Moon, and a $20 pre-launch discount on premium upgrades to courses offered on the new EducationWantsToBeFree.com website. For complete details of this special offer good through November 30, email me at webservant2003@gmail.com and put “Free Book” in the subject line. 

Calm Down - The Meta Tags are Coming!!!

Don't Panic!!! I'm going to talk a bit about HTML code. I said to stop panicking. Okay, take a big drink of water and calm down. These are simple pieces of code you can add to your website to make them more accessible to search engines. These are called META tags. Don't ask, I don't know why. Each of them begin with the word META. The two we will look at here are 'description' and 'keywords.' We will also talk about the 'title' tag.

These tags all go into the "head" section of the code. When you open up the code, you will see a lot of stuff that doesn't make much sense unless you know HTML. Even if you do know code, it can still look confusing because each programmer lays out their code differently.

Just look for the the tags <.Head> and <./Head> (Note: I added a period in front of these terms to keep the system from reading this as actual code. Remove the period before using any of these pieces of code. Better yet, type it in without the period.)

This is the place where you will place your Meta and Title Tags. Let's start with the Title.

The title tag is simple:

<.Title>Your Wonderful Title<./title>

The title should be descriptive and include at least one search term. So, if you have a site that reviews Science Fiction called Starry Eyed Observations, you could have this title tag:

<.Title>Starry Eyed Observations: Reviews of the Best in Science Fiction<./Title>

META tags have two parts: the identifier and the content. The Description tag looks like this:

<.META name="description" content="In about 15-25 words describe your website. Avoid any type of sales pitch, just describe what the reader will find.">

This description will sometimes show up in the search engines or at least part of it. Make the first few words the most descriptive since it may get cut off in the listing.

<.META name="description" content="Starry-Eyed Observations reviews Science Fiction books and websites. Features reviews of new Science Fiction books and interviews with Science Fiction authors.">  Yes, it is redundant. But I got in a main search term three times. Save the great writing for your website.

The second is the keyword meta tag. In this you will list all of the keywords and phrases that people are likely to use when searching for a site like yours. Don't repeat exact key words, but you can repeat those key words in phrases. Also consider including common misspellings.

<.META name="keywords" content="science fiction, science fiction novels, science-fiction, book reviews, book reveiws, interviews, interveiws, literature">

These should be included on each page and customized for each page. So, if one page has links to book reviews of your novel, then emphasize reviews in your description, title and keywords. If it is an excerpt, then emphasize literature, novel, etc.

Okay, breathe slowly. That wasn't too bad was it?

Family Matters: Balancing Family and Writing

Okay, this is a tough one, I admit, but we might as well attack it head on. Sometimes the biggest distraction we have in our lives from our writing are the ones we love the most. Between soccer practice, recitals, "date night", school, church, club functions, family matters can take up a bunch of time. However, there are ways to stay a loving spouse/parent/daughter/son/sister/brother/aunt/uncle/grandpa/grandma/cousin and still find the time to write.

1.Love does NOT mean never having to say "no." I know this may come as a shock to some of us who take the phrase "Family always comes first" a bit too literally. Truth is, that there are times when family does NOT come first in certain practical matters. You go to work everyday, and if Jane calls up in the middle of the work day because Jimmy is "looking at me," you will probably tell them that it's okay for him to look at her and to only call at work if something happens involving people in uniforms. You won't rush home to check out the offending look.

Saying "No" or "Not now" are part of any parent/spouse/family member's vocabulary for a large variety of things. You can use it for writing as well.

And, it is good for children to learn they cannot get everything they want when they want it. It is part of learning about the world, deferred gratification and setting boundaries.

2. Negotiate Writing Time. Sometimes we have problems with others we live with because we don't communicate. If we have a nice family dinner, watch a bit of TV, and right in the middle of a family night, I get up and walk out to my room and start typing away, I'm probably going to offend someone. However, if we set down as a family, and especially setting down with a spouse, and have a discussion about needing some time everyday or every few days to write, and working out a schedule together, things will go more smoothly.

Just a note here. If you have yet to publish anything or you publish sporadically, don't talk to your spouse about it like a business. You can do that when the time comes that you have enough publication going on to quit your job, move to the Bahamas and sit on the beach drinking lemonade and typing up your next best seller. Non-writers do not understand our own sense of mission and the importance we attach to writing. Instead deal with it like an enjoyable hobby, and a fairly inexpensive one. That's something people can understand. Doing something recreational like watching or playing sports, scrapbooking, music, flower arranging, fishing and hunting, hiking or marathoning is something they can understand.

Of course, negotiations means giving as well as taking, so you might have to let him have his sports package upgrade or for her to go to that church women's retreat. Remember, if you are asking for some "me" time to write, you also need to give some "him/her" time to do some things as well.

3. Set limits on your writing. If you negotiate an hour a day Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7, don't take two hours. If your family knows you will be writing until 8, then they can be more willing to wait to talk to you than if they don't know when you are coming out.

I had an online student (who had the same problem with family interrupting her studies) who put a sign on the door of her office at home, "Mommy is in class. She will be out at 7". They discussed it in a family meeting and they were to treat is just like she was at school during that time. Nothing short of an actual emergency (something involving people with uniforms) would interrupt her work.

She said that having a set time helped. Admittedly, everyone was standing at her door with every issue they wanted to discuss at precisely 7, but it gave her time to study.

I do know some of can get carried away with our writing. The time can fly by. I found a wonderful little program. It works with Windows and Linux. It's called Workrave http://www.workrave.com . You can set a time limit and the program will lock your keyboard after that limit for a set period of time. It's a great way to remind you to take a break. In fact, it even has a rest break function that includes exercises for you to do to reduce the stress of working online during the break. But as a reminder that you have been working too long and it is time to leave the computer, it's great.

I also use it for power writes.

4. Family Time Multi-tasking. Okay, I don't have kids, but my sister had eight. She said she had my kids for me, but I never came to pick them up. But I have picked them up many times when my sister's car wasn't working, which was most of the time when the kids were growing up. I took them to sports practices, school and church functions, play rehearsals, proms, even on dates.

That meant I spent a lot of time in my car waiting for them to eventually say good bye to their friends and get back to the car. I took a book with me on those occasions. You would be surprised how much reading I got done. Now, I would probably take my computer and do some writing. Or you can print out your recent work and do some pencil and paper editing.

5. Engage them in the writing. You know, writing can become a family activity. Often you can make your family your helpers in a project. Look for ways to engage them. You can ask your spouse to read and critique your work. (Just remember to keep things in perspective. Don't get mad about a critique you would take easily in a writing group.) If you have a spouse who is good with grammar, spelling, etc. You can say, "You know, I could use some help. You are much better at grammar than I am, could you look over this chapter?" Now, don't do this when they are actually engaged in something else. Remember the idea about "me" time working both ways.

If you have children of the age you might be writing for, you can use them as a live in focus group. They can read the story or if too young to read, you can read it too them. Watch their reactions. Ask them specific questions about the characters and story. Don't ask, "Did you like the story?" They will try to please you and say "yes." Ask instead, "Did you know what Joe was going to do at the end of the story?" "Have you ever felt anything like Mary felt?" "Did this remind you of another story?" As they talk about the specifics of the story you can catch on what they might have liked or didn't like.

Of course, the most "honest" audience could by your teenagers. If you are writing a story, though, which includes teens (even if the story is not for teens specifically) ask your teen to see if the teenagers in the story are realistic and, if not, how could you make them more believable.

In each of these cases, you are having family time and writing time at the same time. You are also helping your family understand through participation your passion for writing.

What are some ways you use to help balance family, work, social activities and writing?

Jumper Cables for the Mind: Dealing with Writer's Block

Okay, most of us face writers block at one time or another. We sit staring at the computer screen, our fingers hovering over the keys, but seemingly suspended in space wondering what to write. Here are a few ways to beat the block:

Writing Prompts

Keep a collection of writing prompts handy. Sometimes all you have to do is get writing about anything to break the creative logjam. Keep a bunch of silly ones around as well. Sometimes writing about what kind of monster you would be if you could be a monster or what you would do with the gift of invisibility will be enough to get those creative juices flowing. For a bunch of writing prompts go to CreativeCalisthenics.com.

Word Association

Sometimes, if I'm slow to start, I'll play the word association game. The way it works is that I will type a key word relevant to the topic of the article or scene in a story. Then I write down the first word that comes to mind after seeing that word. Then I write down a word suggested by the second word and so on until I shake those creative thoughts loose.

The Dramatic Quote

Simply write down the most dramatic quote you found in your research. Use this quote as your lead and ask, "What comes next?" Even if you don't use the quote as your lead in the final draft, it can get you writing.

Understand the Block

Resistance always has meaning. One way to approach a writer's block is to find the meaning behind it. Open a new file in your word processor or take out a notebook and begin to "interview" yourself. Ask, "What am I afraid will happen if I write something?"

Very often, our fears keep us from being truly creative. We have those voices of others who laughed at our dreams of writing, belittled it, or patronized us when we brought it up. Maybe we believe that what we write down will be "wrong." Maybe we are afraid of the responsibility of people reading our words and taking action because of them. Once you understand what those fears are, then ask yourself, "Are these fears real and, if real, are they significant?"

Write about the Block

Just begin to write about being blocked. You can simply stay "in the now" and write, "Okay, I'm sitting at the keyboard. I don't have anything to say. I've got writers block. I wonder why they call it a block. Is it wooden and square with a letter on the side of it? I liked playing with blocks as a kid..."

Diversion

The more you think about the block the more blocked you will become. Therefore, one good way to beat the block is to do something entirely different from writing. Physical exercise or doing mundane chores are good diversions. Work out, take a walk, mow the lawn, do the dishes, or vacuum the floor. Don't think about the paper or writing at all. That way you can come back to the writing with a fresh perspective.

Relaxation

Sometimes the best way to overcome writer's block is to simply lie down on a couch and clear your mind. One good way to do this is to imagine in your mind a peaceful scene. It could be an ocean shore, a meadow, a woods or mountaintop. It doesn't matter as long as it is peaceful to you. Soft music can help as well as relaxation tapes.

Switch Writing Instruments 

Each of us composes our manuscripts in different ways. Some writers like to write out the paper long hand and then transcribe them on the computer. Others, like myself, compose at the keyboard. If you compose with pencil and paper, try using the computer. If you compose at a keyboard, try writing long hand. Sometimes switching writing instruments will be enough to shake loose those creative cobwebs. Sometimes, I'll switch between typing on the keyboard to using voice recognition software. Hearing the sound of my voice can be enough to give me a fresh perspective on what I'm writing.