I am so thrilled to post this. I have to say, being a part of LitSisters has changed my life in the most amazing way. And we are starting 2010 off with a bang! Not only did our boutique publishing house, LitSisters Publishing, launch today, but we also were featured on the home page of [...]
Earlier this month I sent off the manuscript for the 2nd edition of my travel guide (due out December 2010). It was a lovely feeling to have it off my plate, for the time being anyhow. Having been through this process before, I knew what was coming…the editing process. And it began today with an email from my editor.
Now, with a non-fiction book, there is great importance placed on how the book is organized. With a travel book this may be even more important. How you’re organizing entries by type, geography, etc. needs to be consistent throughout the book. But, one of the biggest things I struggle with when writing my book is “seeing” how it will look in the end. I’m a very visual person, so I need to see things before they can make sense to me. The 2nd edition of this book has a brand new format (and less words, try downsizing from 90K to 50K, but that’s another blog topic!) and so not only did I need to “see” a new layout for my book, I didn’t have another format to look at. Needless to say, it was a tough process. So, now, in addition to editing content, I’m also helping to re-organize material in a more reader-friendly way.
Ahhh…the joys of writing! But, it will look so good when it’s done and then, after all of the hard work, someone can write on Amazon that it reads like a very boring high school essay. Well, pooh.
When I wrote the first edition of my travel guide several people asked me how I went about it. I confessed during one talk I gave at Tempe Public Library: “The first thing I did was buy a book.” Seriously. I’m one of those people who goes out and buys a book about “how to do it”. After I signed the contract for my book, I bought a book about how to write a book, hoping it would give me some pointers. It could have been a one page flyer: Step 1) sit down in front of computer; Step 2) begin writing; Step 3) Stay in the chair and keep writing.
The truth is some days, it’s hard to even do step 1: sit down. If you’re like me you do the round about approach to the chair. You might circle it. Come into the room, touch the chair and then leave again; or you might hover, standing in the doorway looking at it; or perhaps you avoid it altogether and shut the door as you walk by (or close your eyes). Whatever your choice, you’re avoiding the sitting part.
Sometimes you get to the sitting. You actually make it into the chair instead of around the chair, but you don’t write. Instead, you check your email, work on an unrelated project, surf the Internet, get on Facebook, tweet about thinking about writing or maybe about the fact that you made it into your chair. Which may actually be something worth celebrating.
Some days the problem is with step 3: staying put. Step 3 sneaks up on me, right when I’m getting into the zone. It’s like an overload of excitement that forces me up and out of my chair. I know if I sit long enough it will pass and the zone will take over. But, some days, the urge to get up and run is strong. And I find the smallest excuse to leave: checking the mail, answering the phone, bringing in the dog, washing dishes. It’s hard making the commitment to sit in the chair; having the courage to get started; and finding the determination to keep at it no matter how difficult it might be.
Because in the end, the act of writing comes down to how much quality time you spend in your writing chair. The chair can change. It might be a comfortable, ergonomically correct chair in your home office, a rickety wooden chair at the local library, or a saggy beach chair in the sand. What you do while you’re in the chair is the key.
And no amount of reading, tweeting or washing dishes is going to write your book. The only way to do it is to sit your butt in your chair and write it. But, consider starting small. Maybe the first day you just make a commitment to sit in the chair starting at 6am or maybe 10pm, whatever time you wish. And you do that for the first week. Then the next week, you write for five minutes. Just five. Anyone can write for five minutes. Do that for a week. And every week you add five minutes. Just think. In a couple of months’ time, you’ll be up to an hour or more!
Hunh, that actually this sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll try it!
This is the first of four installments in the Time Management 1.0 Series: Prioritizing what’s Important in Your Life
Time Management 1.1: What Makes You Happy?
Dear Writer: If you want to get organized and manage your time effectively, the first step is knowing what’s most important to you. Chances are you may feel so overwhelmed with everything in your life that you don’t even know where to begin. I know. I’ve been there. The next four blogs are designed to help you discover what’s essential to your happiness and success, and how to make it first and foremost in your life (like writing!) Before the rest of the unimportant, and often very insistent, things overrun your day.
The first step is to make a list. Stop! Don’t run away! Yes, I know. If you’re struggling with managing your time and organizing your life, then there’s a good possibility you hate lists. But, trust me. This is a good list.
Drum roll please. Write down a list of things that make you happy. Really happy; joyfully, blissfully happy.
There’s no right or wrong answer. Put your censor/editor in a padlocked box for this exercise. The only criteria is it makes you happy – don’t worry if it makes anyone else happy (or sad). Use a pen, pencil, crayon, typewriter or computer. Write it on a napkin, in your journal or on your eight-year-old’s report card. I don’t care, just get it down on something you can find again later.
Take note, you may not know what makes you happy. Not right away.
I didn’t. I really had to think about it…for awhile. I was stunned: How could I not know what made me happy? I thought for days about my list and slowly I began thinking of things and writing them down. Once I started, I made a very long list. I still have it saved to my computer. It has things on it like, listening to the sound of thunder, working on a story, and playing with my kids. It may sound goofy to make such a list. However, if you want to manage your time, it helps to know what you’d like to be doing with it.
You don’t need to do any of the things on your list (unless you want too!), just write them down. It might take a while, but they’ll come to you. Add to your list throughout the week, and next Monday, I’ll share the next step.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at christine@litsisters.com. Check back regularly for more LitSisters™ writing tips and resources.
Next Week: Time Management 1.2: Determining the Important Stuff
Finally, I’ve made it to the LitSister’s page so that I can add my two cents. I thought I would reply to Audrey’s blog on time management. Fitting, since I haven’t found enough time until today!
There are more than a few people I know who tell me that I’m organized. I politely say, “thank you” and then go home and wonder what in heck do they mean. How can I be organized when I always feel like I’m ten steps behind and running to catch up?
After much deliberation, I’ve discovered that my problem is not that I don’t know how to manage my time. I do…I know that I have about sixteen to seventeen hours a day, more if I need them. I can fit a million things on my list and I love to check them off, and many days I do. Other days, I want to hide under my covers and sleep because Busy Me gave Other Me too much to do, and “I just don’t wanna!” Aye, she’s a slave-driving bitch.
So…the real problem at hand is not managing my time. It’s managing the workaholic part of me that doesn’t know how to be still; the one that shouts, “Now, faster, better!” at the top of her lungs with a whip in her hand. She has her place in my life. She knows how to stay up all night writing furiously to meet an 8am deadline. But, she also doesn’t know how to relax or to play.
My challenge is to find balance in my life; time to write and run and laugh and be so that writing stays fun and life doesn’t become a chore. So, that my children know who I am. Not because my name is on a book cover, but because I spent time with them.
