Beyond the Elements of Style » Process Matters

What’s In YOUR Schedule?

Jeannette — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:59:20 +0000

My stepdaughter used to be one of the most disorganized people on the planet. I can remember going through binders with her in middle school, trying desperately to make some sense of them, and knowing that they were going to come back the next time with the same chaos. These days, however, she’s in all honors high school classes and is getting pretty much straight As, and you don’t do that without organization.

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!

Finding Time for Writing

Jeannette — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:16:57 +0000

“I’d write a book if I only could find time to do it.” How many times have I heard that phrase! But the reality is that while time is not the only ingredient for getting writing done, it’s still an important one. My colleage, mystery author Stacy Verdick Case, has some thoughts about how writers can … find time to write!

***

Everyone’s life is busier every year. Work, family, friends, church, volunteer obligations—we’ve loaded our lives with so much stuff that writing is often neglected. Finishing three to four hundred pages in this chaos can seem impossible.

Yet the dream of holding your first book in your hands persists. You know you have to do whatever it takes to keep your dream alive.

Great!

This is written just for you, not for those who pay lip service to writing. Since none of those unsavory types are here right now, draw closer, I want to share some tips on finding a few extra minutes here and there for writing.

First, writing time isn’t found: it’s made, and you need to decide where you will make time. I don’t know your life, so I can’t tell you exactly where your writing time goes. You need to be honest with yourself about where you waste time during a day.

A friend lamented that she has very little time to write. Yet, almost every conversation we have includes the following questions: Did you watch such and such show? No. What about this show? No.

Don’t get me wrong I have my favorite shows, but DVRs and VCRs were invented so I don’t have to sit through twenty minutes of commercials. If you watch two one-hour long programs a week, you can recover forty minutes to write.

Are you a perpetual volunteer? I’ve done my share of time on boards and committees, but there comes a time when you have to say no. Volunteering is a monumental time vacuum. Practice saying this with me, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help this time.” Trust me, it gets easier each time you say those words.

Maybe neither of these is you. Like I said, I don’t have a crystal ball into your life. Think long and hard about the activities you participate in, and ask yourself, do I want this more than I want a career as a writer? Then scale back the activities you can’t live without, so you can fit a few more minutes of writing into your day.

At the very least, schedule a half an hour of your day to write. It shouldn’t be too hard I just saved you forty minutes, but if you’re not a TV watcher then, wake up a half an hour early, stay awake a half an hour later, or sit in your car at lunch, whatever it takes to get that half hour. Your family can live without you for thirty minutes. Shocking I know. I was mortified to find out my husband didn’t sit in stasis when I’m not around, waiting for me to come home and plugged him in again. So use that time for writing, the world will keep revolving even if you’re not supervising.

Stop telling yourself, “I can’t write because …” You CAN accomplish anything you want. When you say, I am going to do x-y-z, then x-y-z gets done. Make writing a daily activity like changing your underwear.

The only way to get to THE END is to sit down, begin, stay seated, and keep working. Writing is hard work. Writers who succeed make a commitment to their work. You can too.

Stacy Verdick Case carves her half-hour out every morning, and guards it like a lioness. She is the author of the Catherine O’Brien mystery series. The first book in the series A Grand Murder is available in paperback, ebook, and now audio from Before the Fall Books. Visit Stacy on her blog, for more information on her writing—and general musings.

Check out her book and blog, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

After Inspiration, Resolutions!

Jeannette — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:24:01 +0000

So earlier this week we talked about inspiration. Where it comes from, how you access it, what it does for you.

But inspiration alone isn’t enough. You have to be able to take the next step—the practical one. So move your inspiration into resolutions

Think about New Year, for example. Making New Year’s resolutions has become a long-standing tradition. So has dropping them by February.

Rather than coming up with a fantastic (but daunting) list, choose one or two goals that you’re really committed to. Then, create an Empowering Vision for each. For example, if you want to lose weight (who doesn’t have that one on their list?), instead of focusing on the drudgery of diet and exercise, look at the benefits you’ll get from losing weight:

I will reduce my blood pressure and get off medication.
I will have more energy to pursue the things I want to do, such as writing my book or screenplay, taking tap dancing classes or learning a new musical instrument.
I will be proud of my appearance and feel confident walking into a room.

To reinforce these, cut out pictures and pin them on your bulletin board, or even create a Dream Board. By finding ways to positively motivate yourself, you’re more likely to achieve your goal . . . and enjoy the process.

Wait … I’m using terms we haven’t learned yet! I’m an intensely visual learner, so I keep charts all around me. There are two you may find helpful:

Empowering vision: We create more of our environments than we think. If you’re in a rotten mood, chances are that bad things will indeed happen to you. You expect them, you’re looking for them, your outlook will influence those around you to respond to you in kind, etc. The opposite is also true. Visualizing yourself having attained what you want will influce the outcome: you’re expecting positive things,you generate positive energy, people around you will respond to the way you’re presenting yourself, etc. So creating an “empowering vision” of getting the task done will help. What are the components of your goal? What will show you that you’ve succeeded? Tack it on your bulletin board, tuck it in your notebook, make it the wallpaper on your monitor. See how well it works!
Dream Board: Here is where you place all the things that you hope you’ll attain through the resolutions you’re making. A trip to Italy? Put it up there. More time with family? Include a snapshot of them all. The publication of your new novel? Get a mockup of a cover and put it up. All this will keep you energized and involved in your inspiration, your resolutions, and what it will take to get from here to there!
Try it! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Death by PowerPoint

Jeannette — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:36:06 +0000

At some point, part of being a writer is becoming a public speaker. You need to learn how to handle yourself in interviews. You need to be able to sell your book or your services, often in front of a number of people.

Miscrosoft Powerpoint

And somehow, public speaking almost always segues at some point into … PowerPoint.

We’ve all sat through Death by Powerpoint presentations. Powerpoint seems to harness the worst of both the old overhead projectors and carousel slideshows and puts them together with bold graphics that make businesspeople think they’re hip and cool and energetic. Once you’ve designed this fantastic presentation (or “deck,” as businessspeak would have it), all you really have to do is stand there are read off the fabulous bullet points that you’ve put on the slide. What could be easier?

For the presenter, perhaps. For the audience, a session on the rack or being dipped in hot oil might be an easier alternative.

A better alternative?

The reality is that PowerPoint is a tool. You can use it well, or you can use it poorly. But if you’re using it to teach something, to promote yourself or your work, you’d better get it right! A good speaker can overcome even less-than-optimal slides; a poor speaker probably won’t wow audiences with even the most brilliant slides.

So what’s in a good presentation?

It includes:

bullet points. Yeah. Not only are they useful for the audience to view quickly, they can remind you at a glance what you’ve covered and what you haven’t. But …
it shouldn’t be too text-heavy. People shouldn’t be sitting and reading the slides, they should be listening to you. Keep them light on text.
video can be a nice way to break up a presentation, but only if it’s relevant. No fluff!
a good presentation is a well-timed presentation. Practice it a lot beforehand. Know when you’re changing your slides and practice doing it.
Try to speak extemporaneously. If necessary, you can rely on some (few) handwritten notes or the notes section of your slideshow, but seriously, if you don’t know what you’re talking about next, perhaps you shouldn’t be making the presentation.

Rememember that you are the presentation. The audience is there to see and learn and hear and benefit from you, not your slides. If the slides were all they needed, we could all skip our presentations, email slides, and save lots of time and money.

You can also learn great presentation skills through a local Toastmasters’ club or by watching others speak and practicing with a few friends or colleagues. Just try to always make it as interesting as, hopefully, the subject is to you. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

All That You Can Be

Jeannette — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:48:39 +0000

So today’s post isn’t about words or language. Not really. But it’s about inspiration, and those of us who are madly in love with words and language know what an important component inspiration can be in that mix.

Last Sunday I went with a friend to hear James Keelaghan and High McMillan in an informal concert. They’re folksingers/musicians—Hugh McMillan is ridiculously wonderful on the mandolin—and have been working for a lot of years at what they do. And they’re good—I mean, that tingle-in-the-back-of-your-neck good. Amazingly good. It was a terrific concert, and everyone in the hall was smiling as they left (after we put our chairs away first, of course: this was, after all, a community center!).

I smiled and hummed and sang for most of my drive back down from Woods Hole to the outer Cape where I live. And thought a lot about the inspiration afforded by excellence.

Let’s be clear here. Yes, I’ve been playing guitar myself since I was sixteen. I have a beautiful Martin 12-string that my former partner gave me one birthday and I play it often. Did Keelaghan and McMillan inspire me to start playing and singing more? No, of course not: I play and sing to relax and amuse myself. What their expertise and talent did, instead, was to inspire me to go home and work at what I do best: writing.

Have you ever noticed that? How people who are very good at what they do can challenge and inspire you to be very good at what you do?

By the time I arrived home Sunday night I was pumped. My short story about Dorothy Bradford, which had been floundering all over Provincetown Harbor (well, figuratively, anyway) was suddenly a challenge rather than a brick wall. I sat down and wrote and wrote, amazed when I looked up and saw that it was two-thirty in the morning (and for those who don’t know me, I’m a very early-to-bed, early-to-rise sort of girl, so seeing that hour was pretty extraordinary). The story wasn’t finished, but I’d written some very good stuff.

And all because I’d been privileged to hear two wonderful musicians being … wonderful.

Who or what inspires you to be all that you can be? Figure that out, and spend some time with them. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!