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!

But I’m here to tell you that you can find subject matter all around you, even in the dead and dark of winter when your enthusiasm is at its lowest ebb.

So sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and see if anything here inspires you! In no particular order, you can …

• Find out what anthologies are looking for essay submissions. You don’t have to write the essay, just think about the suggested topics: they can inspire you!
• Set up Google alerts for a whole bunch of subjects. Even if they’re just of peripheral interest to you, they can lead you to content that may end being inspirational.
• Did you keep a journal in school? If so, re-read it now: those emotions were intense, and they’re timeless, too—there has to be a teen publication that would be interested in your take on them!
• Read the newspaper, whether you do it in print or online. Clip and save articles that pique your interest. They may inspire you now … or down the road. (And if you write fiction as well, lots of great stories have been, as the saying goes, “ripped from the headlines.”)
• Check out current nonfiction bestsellers, and search online for nonfiction that’s going to be published in the next year. Can you tie anything that you know about or can research into that book’s release?
• Ask your Aunt Edna what’s on her mind these days. The baby-boomer generation, even in a recession, spends money on magazines, ezines, and the like: whatever is of interest to her is sure to be of interest to others, and she can even help you craft your pitch.
• Think local! Is there a business that’s about to open in town? A celebrity appearing locally? An upcoming talk at the library? All of these can provide you with material.
• Inthe same way, check out what other alumni from your college are up to, and consider writing about them for your alumni publication.
• Do something different. Go for a walk. Take a class. Try a new hobby. Not only will you feel better and more energized, you’ll meet different people who may inspire you, network with you, or becoming sounding-boards for you. And the activity itself might provide a niche article somewhere!
• The adage is, “write what you know.” Okay … but what about stuff you’d like to know about? Have you always wanted to go hang-gliding? Surfing? Find experts now in the off-season and interview them, learn about their sport or hobby …. your submission will be timely for the summer season!
• History isn’t just my passion, it’s an evergreen topic, as long as you don’t just regurgitate the same old information. Writing for the tourist trade is fun and light-hearted and slipping bits of history into your writing can add context and depth.

So there you have it: some ideas to get you thinking about other ideas. Have any you’d care to share? Do it here, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

That kind of availability is wonderful … and problematic. In a sense, there’s just too much information out there. One can spend hours drifting from link to link (and don’t tell me that you haven’t!) before getting a grip on oneself and finding just the information required.

From time to time I research something in a limited field of interest for one of my stories, and it occurred to me that there may be some of you out there who would like to bookmark these treasures as well. So sometimes I’ll create a post like this one, sharing my research findings. Who knows, it may be exactly what you’re looking for!

And recently I needed some information on train routes in the United States…

• An image of a US railroad map is available here. The image quality isn’t very good, unfortunately; one cannot expand it enough to be able to read the legend (or what one assumes is the list of names of railroad lines on the right side). It’s clearly intended to be a teaser for a large commercial wall map.
• The National Atlas of the United States offers a map of American railroads that allows the viewer to zoom on particular areas and move around the country (as you’re probably accustomed to with Google maps). However, the graphic image quality of this map is poor, and doesn’t provide any information about particular railroad lines or any other geographical details.
• This attractive color-coded map displays the lines of the seven currently designated Class I railroads in North America.
• Check out Amtrak’s current rail system across the United States.
• Here’s one that caught at my heart: abandoned railways, some of which have been repurposed, some of which are just a little sad.

Tell me there’s not a story in all that, somewhere! So take a few minutes to explore, to plot, and to write it. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Oh, and Bond’s Handbook for Poisoners. Let’s not forget that one.

Okay, so it’s silly. I have a few other silly things scattered around the house: on a shelf over my front door is a make-believe raven and my very own “pallid bust of Pallas.” Upstairs in a very short corridor a wall is covered with gilt-framed glass, creating my own miniature Hall of Mirrors. Silliness. And I really did use the Bond book, once, when looking into how my character Tyler might have poisoned her abusive husband Jack. But after that … well, I just like people’s reactions when they see it nestled next to Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in my kitchen. I smile mysteriously as I serve up soups and stews.

The reality, though, is that most authors are not also medical doctors, and many authors—not just mystery writers, either—sometimes need to kill a character. It’s one of our missions: to show people at their best and their worst, at their beginnings and at their ends. And sometimes a character just needs to die … creatively.

That’s where the Bond book—and others like it, Writer’s Digest Books in particular does a nice one—come in. But perhaps you don’t want to shock your guests and lower the number of people willing to accept dinner invitations to your home; and perhaps you don’t see the point in investing in a book just to knock off Uncle George on page 82.

In that case, turn to Doctor Grasshopper, who writes the blog How To Kill Your Imaginary Friends: A Writer’s Guide to Diseases and Injuries, and How to Use Them Effectively in Fiction. Now, our doctor is a little too interested in himself to create uniformly useful posts, so you’ll need to wade through a lot of his thoughts on writing, observations about his life, and so on. But the posts are short and you can mine them for great things.

In no particular order, here are some other resources:

• How To Poison Your Fictional Characters- Excellent resource, well-written, very useful.
• How To Get Away With Murder – a little simplistic, but it will get you thinking.
• Murder or Suicide? – this is from the detective’s point of view, but still useful in your planning.
• How to Commit The Perfect Murder – really great, far too short.

And finally, for a bit of much-needed humor, try How to Murder Someone and Get Away With It — fun as long as you can ignore the misspellings!

So there it is. Lots of creative ways to kill off your pesky fictional character. The reality is that the most successful murders are the ones we never hear about, because they’re not seen as murder. So be creative. Find a new way, and let me know! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

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• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
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STORIES! Kickstarter projects are efforts by real people to do something they love, something fun, or at least something of note. These stories unfold through blog posts, pics, and videos as people bring their ideas to life. Take a peek around the site and see what we’re talking about. Stories abound.

You need to be absolutely clear about what your needs are and where the money will go, but if you have a business plan for your project (um, you do have a business plan for your project, right?) and feel that it’s possible to get it completed within the time allotted by Kickstarter, this may be the way to go. It’s certainly an interesting concept.

And if you’re actually looking for a project to fund, looking through the available opportunities is a lot of fun. It just goes to show how many creative people there are working out there.

Consider different and unusual ways of getting your project to see the light of day. And then you’ll be .. beyond the elements of style!