Her secret? It’s all in the scheduling.

These days, Anastasia charts out her free time so that blocks of it can be devoted to various projects and bring them to completion within her deadlines. Sounds a lot like the time issues that freelancers in general, and writers in particular, need to deal with every day!

Do you find yourself pulling an all-nighter when your deadlines are looming? Wasting time at the front end of a project and then scrambling to get caught up? Juggling several projects poorly so that none of them gets your full attention?

Scheduling may be your problem, too.

So let’s talk about creating a schedule that works for you … and your clients, as well!

The first step is recognizing when you work best. One of the freedoms of freelance work is the ability to choose your hours … so choose them! I’ve found that I am the most focused and the most energetic in the mornings, so I’m up early and at my desk before most people have even hit the first snooze. I have an artist friend who is starting to wind down and go to bed at about the time I’m waking up. We all have internal clocks that tell us when we’re at our bast: take advantage of that and schedule your most difficult, most intense work for when you’re at your best and brightest.

Block time out for social media. I’m serious. Facebook may keep you in touch with your virtual water cooler, but checking it all day is a time sink. On the other hand, social media is about the best marketing tool that many of us have, and using it consistently and correctly is a strong path to success. So block out some time and be armed with a list for what you want to accomplish during your social media marketing periods.

Speaking of periods, many people find it easier to work in increments, rather than all at once. There are a lot of good reasons to do this. It keeps your mind fresh and your body rested. It keeps you from developing tunnel vision around a project so that you’re less effective at it. Working in pre-determined blocks of time will allow you to step away from your work, do some stretches, drink some juice, and clear your head before continuing.

While you’re blocking time out, remember to reserve some for client interactions. Again, this can take up your whole day if you let it, so resolve to check your email once an hour, and set aside the next ten minutes for responding to those emails that need instant input. Put your telephone calls together, too, and let your clients know when you’re available to them … and, perhaps more importantly, unavailable!

Scheduling your work will keep you in charge of it … and keep it from being in charge of you! Try it, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

The problem, of course, is that up until very recently, much of that resolution is/has been out of your hands. You may get the book into a literary agent’s slush pile; you may even get an offer to represent the book from the literary agent. But even that’s no guarantee of publication, this year——or any year.

The ebook revolution has made self-publishing a more viable option for many, though it carries with it a lot of caveats. Self-publishing is really for those who plan to behave like a publisher, and that includes spending money on outside professionals to edit, format, design, and create a cover for the book. So it’s not necessarily the easy way out, though it does offer the opportunity to be in charge of the process rather than sit and wait for the miracle to happen.

I’d like to suggest a different approach in 2012. You’ve probably heard of the SMART acronym for goal-setting: smart goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. And they are, at the end of the day, the only goals over which you’re going to have any control.

So how about breaking down that first resolution, that of getting your book published? If it’s really what you want to see happen, there are some components that will get you closer to it:

• Join a critique group (deadline: January 20)
• Have book critiqued in group; make changes/edits as needed (deadline: March 30)
• Study book proposals (deadline: February 15)
• Create book proposal (deadline: April 10)
• Have book proposal critiqued (deadline: April 20)
• Create query letter (deadline: May 5)
• Have query letter critiqued (deadline: May 15)
• Research literary agents/publishers (ongoing)
• Select 10 agents/publishers (deadline: May 15)
• Send query letter to selected agents/publishers (deadline: May 20)

And so on. You see the difference. Your resolution might be more along the lines of interesting an agent or publisher in your book; but with a set of achievable, measurable goals like the ones above, you won’t be simply sitting around waiting for publication to fall from heaven in a Glad bag.

What are your writing goals for 2012? Can you fit them into the S.M.A.R.T. formet? I’d love to hear about them. Let me know, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

One of the things I tell clients is that the best marketing doesn’t come from you, it comes from others. Whether you’re selling a novel you’ve written, your services as a writer or editor, or indeed just about anything else I can imagine, if someone has not yet heard of you (your book, your company, etc.), then it’s important to make sure they get the best possible picture of it.

I was reminded of this all over again recently, when I received a flurry of emails requesting my services, as well as an appreciable uptick in sales of one of my novels. What really stood out with this year-end activity was the stated reason for contacting me. In the case of the services, it was all about the testimonials from others that are posted on my website. In the case of the book, it appeared to correspond with a number of recent favortable reviews.

It’s all about word of mouth.

We’re fortunate to be living and working in an age where social media can help our marketing efforts. As marketers continue to puzzle out the precise return on investment they’re getting from their social media work, and fret about how to monetize Facebook, it’s refreshing to consider this newest use of the oldest form of marketing: word of mouth. We all ask our family and friends to tell us where to shop, what hairdresser to use, which book to read next. Participating in a forum where that pool of people offering suggestions is much, much larger can only be helpful to the marketer … as long as he or she is willing to put in the time and effort to ask past and current clients (or readers) for help.

The reality is that only those people who really loved or really hated something will speak up about it spontaneously. Most of the rest of us need to be prodded.

So for 2012, try something new. Ask your audience to help you. If you did a good job for them, then they undoubtedly will; if your novel was a great read, then they undoubtedly will. Make the effort to reach out and stay in touch: you’ll not only have a lot more marketing success, but you’ll also be … beyond the elements of style!

I’ve been reading William Vollman lately (among others—seems I always have two or three books going at once!) and unexpectedly came across his set of rules for writing. I’m appreciating them and thought I’d share them here.

Ready?

1. We should never write without feeling.
2. Unless we are much more interesting than we imagine we are, we should strive to feel not only about Self, but also about Other. Not the vacuum so often between Self and Other. Not the unworthiness of Other. Not the Other as a negation or eclipse of Self. Not even about the Other exclusive of Self, because that is but a trickster-egoist’s way of worshiping Self secretly. We must treat Self and Other as equal partners. (Of course I am suggesting nothing new. I do not mean to suggest anything new. Health is more important than novelty.)
3. We should portray important human problems.
4. We should seek for solutions to those problems. Whether or not we find them, the seeking will deepen the portrait.
5. We should know our subject, treating it with the respect with which Self must treat Other. We should know it in all senses, until our eyes are bleary from seeing it, our ears ring from listening to it, our muscles ache from embracing it, our gonads are raw from making love to it. (If this sounds pompous, it is perhaps because I wear thick spectacles.)
6. We should believe that truth exists.
7. We should aim to benefit others in addition to ourselves.

My friend and colleague Rick Bylina always says that there’s only one real rule: writers write. And he’s correct, of course; but I wonder if we all don’t have our own set of “rules” that guide our writing—what we write about, how we do it, how it defines us—and that are important to us.

What do you think of Volmann’s list? Do you have a list of your own? If so, share it here, please: I want to learn from you. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

1. Write.
2. Write every day, preferably at the same time each day.
3. Write when you don’t feel like writing, write when you’d prefer to have a root canal: that day especially, write.
4. Write when you feel that the words are going to just come pouring out of you.
5. Write when there isn’t a word left to come out of you.
6. Write when you have something important to say.
7. Write when you have nothing of any consequence to say.
8. Write when you get your 473rd rejection.
9. Write when the weather is grand and everyone else is outside enjoying it.
10. Write when the weather is terrible and you want to just curl up with someone else’s writing.
11. Don’t ever stop writing.

And there it is. Follow these ten simple (yeah, I know, they’re not so simple) steps, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!