Tag Archives: Writing

New Job and Writing

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Next week I will begin the tricky balancing act of starting a new job with that of being a writer.

Essentially, it is starting a new full time role in addition to becoming self-employed and starting a business. Many people would not think of being an author as also being an entrepreneur, but in a lot of respects it definitely is.

There is the act of content creation and development, marketing, accounts and finance, as well as any legal elements that might be included. Depending on how much available time there is after a full day at work, this might eat into virtually all of what would traditionally be considered ‘free’ time.

clock

Of course, actual number of available hours is only a part of it. Time is only valuable if you have the mental energy to use it effectively. That is why some times you can get more done in a single hour than you can get done in an entire day. It becomes about leveraging that mental energy to make the best use of your time to get things done effectively. It may also be having the courage to admit that you are doing a job poorly and it is worth stopping now before you make a bad thing even worse.

This is what I will try to remind myself of over the next few weeks, when I feel as though my writing is not progressing as fast as I would like. I always commit myself 100% to an employer, something I believe to be vital if you want to be credible and trustworthy as a human being. Obvious caveats apply if your employer is treating you unfairly, of course. But my free time is the the time where the hardest fought battles will take place, because honestly, watching TV is just easier than locking myself away and editing.

I guess the hardest fought battles are the ones most worth winning.

Letters From The Past, Thanks To FutureMe.org

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About 9 months ago, I was on a nice beach holiday, reading Quitter and Start by Jon Acuff. It was there that I first read about the FutureMe.org website. I made a note of it to investigate when I got back. Essentially, it allows you to type an email to your future self, sending it to arrive on a date of your choice. This can have all kinds of purposes. For me, I wanted to keep my future self going in the direction I want to be heading.

You see, the previous six months had been a roller coaster of life spinning out of control. The highs had been high but the lows had also been super low. Life does that to you sometimes. You have to learn to roll with the punches. But because of that, a creeping sense of dissatisfaction had begun to pervade my life. I knew I was heading towards a point where I might be able to make some changes. I wasn’t sure yet what they were going to be, but as I sat there, toes in the sand, honestly assessing my life and scribbling everything in my notepad to make me accountable, I was determined to do something.

Sadly, I’d done (to a lesser extent) the same thing on previous holidays. One of the things I had confessed to in my notepad was not having the courage to do some things, nor the motivation to do others. Therefore, when I penned my email to my future self, I wanted to be kind, but also realistic.

It arrived this morning:

Dear FutureMe,

So you’ve just come back from two sunny weeks in Spain, where you did a lot of talking and thinking and list making for the future. You often do that on holiday. But this time, you wanted it to be different. This time you really wanted to mean it.

I strongly suspect that when you get this, you won’t have made the wild progress that you want. Your dreams won’t have all magically come true via a lottery win. But over the next few months after writing this, you will have been making some of the biggest decisions ever. The ones that will shape your life. The ones that will start you on the road to being something and someone you want to be. Remember that.

Remember it, because I suspect when you’re reading this, then the reality you are living in won’t be massively different from the one I am writing this in. That doesn’t mean it’s time to quit. Just look yourself in the eye and ask if you’re really doing everything you can to make the life you want happen. If you can, then great. If you can’t, then pick yourself up and get going again. Keep taking the steps. Keep hustling. Keep going.

If, by some chance you are everything that you were thinking about during this last holiday, then congratulations. Keep being the best you can be. Don’t get lazy, arrogant or sloppy. Be the person you need to be for the people who love you most. Keep living your life so you can look yourself in the eye.

I hope, regardless of anything else, you’ve done those things you needed to do to get some self-belief.

Keep going kiddo.

That is it, completely unedited or censored.

Have I made some changes? Yes, I’ve got to spend six months in New Zealand really working on what matters most to me. Am I a published author yet? No, but I’m trying and I continue to try. I’m exploring self-publishing too, so that I can continue to grow and learn about the industry as it rapidly changes alongside me.

The reality is also that I’m heading back to the UK soon, at least for the immediate future. So perhaps if I had chosen to not have the mail arrive now, but instead a month from now, the geographical context might have made me feel differently. I don’t know. But that’s not really the point. It arrived now, and gave me a little bit of faith for the next steps.Today I will write another one. I’d recommend that you do too.

More info here:

Mistborn: The Final Empire Review

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So, I am a bit late to the game with Brandon Sanderson. I admit that much. I’ve known of him for years, largely because of the Writing Excuses podcast (which is supremely awesome – you should check it out). But when it came to reading his books, I’d never picked one up, despite my sister’s constant proddings to do so.

Confession time: I’ve always loved the concept of epic fantasy, but The Lord Of The Rings put me off. Not The Hobbit – I read and loved that as a kid. But I’ve lost count of the times I’ve started and failed to finish LoTR. As far as I was concerned, the best thing about it was that my Dad had bought an amazingly bound set that looked perfect on the bookcase. Don’t judge me.

It is therefore a pleasure to be able to say I enjoyed being eased back into the genre by Sanderson. I mean, who wouldn’t be tempted by this cover?

 

final-empire

The one thing I knew about Sanderson was his strength when it came to creating magic systems (use that google thing to find all of Sanderson’s Laws – much of it can also be applied to other areas). In this book it is Allomancy, which is one of the most engaging magic systems I have ever come across. It is handled with elegance and balance, not once causing the reader’s suspension of disbelief to waver. Even the action scenes are handled with a deft touch, rather than I have magic, I can beat you, BAM! VICTORY!!!!! which means the main characters never become so competent that they also become boring in the process.

For me, having a female main character rather than just dudes in cloaks walking with elves made it more relatable too. Not that I can’t enjoy books with elves in, in fact I read one very recently (When Elves Attack), but I think there is still an element of masculinity to the genre that is only just beginning to loosen its hold. Which is a good thing, I think.

I’m not going to spoiler it, but the storytelling and pace, along with the characterisation, makes it worth the time investment to get through the hundreds of pages. Sanderson is not exactly known for his brevity, but I was happy to see that it wasn’t just words for the sake of it. To complete something as grand in scope as the vision he has for his worlds, well, it’s going to take a bit longer than your average novel.

If you haven’t already read it, you can buy Mistborn: The Final Empire here.

Fortune Cookie

Let there be stories

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Yesterday was devoted to getting back to the mortgage-paying kind of paid work, as I’m coming up to the end of my little writing sabbatical. Today will be back to the writing. I don’t need to tell you which one of these activities I prefer.

Of course, even writing has elements I don’t like and these are the ones I try to focus on when I get free time that isn’t first thing in the morning. 6am is my writing time. Not my ‘creating’ time (I’m an outliner) and certainly not my editing time. I actively make my stories worse if I try and edit them before coffee.

Generally I have 3 books on the go at the same time. One in the planning phase – this can be as little as an idea knocking around in my head or completed outline and character development.

The second will be in the writing phase. This is the most enjoyable phase for me. Just sitting back, making the story appear from the outline.

The third will be in the editing phase. Definitely the least favourite. Not to mention the one that gets progressively worse. There’s the first read through that can have some pleasant surprises (hey, that’s not actually awful after all!), to the line edits where your brain has read the damn thing so many times and is looking at it in such detail that you get your its confused with your it’s and you want to tell passive voice that it can go and be shoved.

The writing dream is definitely a hard slog. People don’t see the years of hard crafting and sacrifices that go into whipping something into a state where there is a glimmer of hope that a publisher might snap it up. But aren’t all dreams that way?

You can’t guarantee publishing success, but if you can put your hand on your heart and say you tried your best, then that is something to be proud of.

Moleskine vs Field Notes – Pocket Notebook Review

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It seems that pocket notebooks are definitely back in fashion at the moment. The world, thanks to the internet and kickstarter, has become awash with them. As a writer, I’ve carried a notebook around with me for most of my life, so I decided that this is one area I definitely have an opinion on.

Despite the countless brands, the current two front runners are Moleskine and Field Notes. I’ve only recently succumbed to buying Field Notes as they are quite tricky to get hold of outside America without making a bit of an effort. However, I’d heard so much about them that I thought I would have to give them a try.

Both notebooks discussed below have gone through a complete lifecycle in my handbag (purse to any US readers, obviously). Despite all those hardy, manly, everyday carry instagram shots, I don’t think anything competes with the assortment of crap I carry around with me on a daily basis that these notepads have had to survive next to.

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover

Except in this instance. The hardcover pocket size Moleskine stands up well to most environments. It’s still got a lot of trend factor, as well as standing up to approval in the boardroom meetings. Because I use a hardcover one, it makes it easier to grab and write if there isn’t a surface available. Oddly, out in the field, using Field Notes is actually more difficult in this sense. Field Notes as a brand has a definite cover cool factor right now, especially some of the limited addition colours ones. But by its very nature, it is more casual; while it might provoke a bit of interest in meetings, it’s not going to be taken as seriously in a corporate environment. Especially after a bit of use. Which leads me to…

Field Notes Moleskine Cover

 

Durability and Longevity

Field Notes have considerably fewer pages than Moleskine books, meaning that this one was only on rotation for about a month. The Moleskine, on the other hand, was in my bag for around six. One looks hardly touched, the other looks well loved. I don’t have to tell you which way round that is. Again, that beat up look has a bit of cool factor to it, but as I keep all my notebooks and constantly refer back to the content in them, it does make me question if they will stand the test of time like the original concept they were based upon.

Paper

In the bid for market share, the quality of paper actually often seemed to take second place to design factor. A lot of brands have started to realise that as more and more people turn away from an entire dependence on smartphones and yearn for the analogue capture of yesteryear – often with a fountain pen to go alongside it – paper matters. On the whole I don’t use fountain pens, largely because I have a mythological perfect one I am still searching for, but I do use a variety of ballpoints and rollerballs. Despite a lot of people complaining about Moleskine paper quality, I would say that the two of them match up pretty well. If anything, the Field Notes have a little bit of show through (but not bleed through) on the back. I’ve yet to try out the Shelterwood edition, which has considerably thicker paper, but in the interests of fair comparison, I’m reporting here only on the standard book. Both brands have options of lined, plained and grid, so pick whatever works for you and knock yourself out.

Field Notes Moleskine Pages

Features

I love the Moleskine back flap for storing bits of paper and the bookmark is definitely a great feature. These are both missing from the Field Notes, but with considerably fewer pages, the bookmark becomes less of a necessity. I’d recommend using a modified to suit your needs Bullet Journal system with both. I recently went back and actually did this to all my notebooks that had a couple of blank pages at the beginning or the end and it makes a huge difference to usability. Field Notes has a built in ruler along the back sleeve and some  fun uses. Both have a user information page at the front, although both brands clearly approach it in different ways.

To Sum Up

Which side of the fence you come down on will always depend on how you use your notebook. For me, the pocket notebook isn’t for work – but when I am working I will use it to capture things so I don’t want it to look too out of place. I love the look of Field Notes especially when I am travelling; there is definitely something of the open road about them. The first real test will be on a road trip around the US and Canada next month, where I’m much more likely to be shoving them in my pocket for practical reasons, rather than just creative ones. After this first run through though, I am still slightly on the side of Moleskine for the way I can actually use them in any environment. If I had an idea last month, I don’t need to go and find the other book because I’ve already run out of pages and moved on.

Finally, I’ve used a cheap supermarket brand (£3/$4.50 US) and found that once you take the ‘street cred’ element away (the ‘look at me, I’m a writer/hipster/adventurer’ element) it works just as well on all fronts as the others, at a fraction of the cost:

Notebook

I Hate Titles

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As I’ll be moving on from New Zealand shortly, I have a few weeks where I can be completely devoted to writing.  This has led me to the realisation of how much I hate coming up with book titles.

Sometimes, I know from the beginning, which is great. When I don’t, I come up with a placeholder, because every file needs a name, right? Then I get to the point where I need a title and nothing seems to work. Nothing seems to fit. Worse, the more I think about it, the more ridiculous my brain gets until I just feel frustrated. In the end, everything sounds like a bad porn movie.

This past week, I have had to come up with two new titles for books in very different genres. The first is one I am submitting to agents to try to take down the traditional publishing route. I know that if I am lucky enough for it to go somewhere, then the title will no doubt get changed anyway. But I still need something a little catchy to begin with if I want to grab attention.

The second is for the first book in a series I am intending to self-publish under a pseudonym. That means there will be no team of professional title-makers to come up with one for me. Annoyingly, the second and third books have had their titles from the start, but this has been stuck with it’s placeholder for nearly a decade. That’s made it hard to shake in my own mind. I finally had the breakthrough last night, which means I can finally think about getting the cover art done. Yay.

Titles. I hate ’em (apart from when I love them).

So, in the spirit of the writing focus and the coffee I have ploughed through to keep going:

IMG_5474

 

Writing…

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Whilst I was over in the States, I finally managed to pick up my intro pen back into the world of fountain pens. The idea being to see how much the act of physical writing changes my creative process. Hopefully my modified bullet journal approach will help me keep track of these bits and pieces.

My general practice is to get up every morning at 6am and keep typing until I hit at least 1000 words. Some days it is still a struggle, but I have essentially turned it into a habit. In some ways, the hands and some part of my brain do the work, while the remainder of brain and body just wait for the third cup of coffee before coming alive. I have no idea how it works, don’t ask.

The act of writing is automatically slowed by the return to pen and paper. A fountain pen, so the theory goes, will slow down the process even further, if I want it to be legible and not a series of scratches across the paper.

Today I found myself a nice little coffee shop and hand-wrote a 26 page short story. So I’m happy.

I couldn’t imagine writing a full length novel this way, because typing it all up would seem agonising. I don’t see the payoff for me at that volume. For short stories though, I could see this becoming my new process.

Definitely a good way to finish off the week.

Going Un-Paperless – 5 Steps For When You Find You Can’t Go Paperless

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We live in the future, where all our files and folders live on our smartphones and laptops, right? Even our books are digital. So why is it that so many people fear going paperless, and what can you do when you find yourself in an environment that is either unwilling or unable to change?

Like most aspiring authors, I tend to enjoy food and shelter, so supplement my income with a day job. My previous role was inherently paperless. The only time I really made paper lists was when I was in a situation of overload and the act of writing it down gave me focus. This was easy to implement because I worked in a small but geographically varied team that communicated largely by email.

I didn’t realise how lucky I was, until I started my new short term role and my desk started slowly drowning in paper. I wouldn’t call myself an environmental activist by any means, but some days I positively weep for lost trees. Now, it would be wonderful to ‘be the change I wanted to see in the world’, but that requires buy in from all parties. This company is one of the largest employers in the Southern Hemisphere. That is a lot of people to convince. My particular division also arose out of an emergency situation, where the comfort and reliability of paper in an ever changing team/building/environment was paramount. For a lot of people, disaster management is best done on paper.

I’ve been using GTD for many years and my system has been through several modifications. For a long time I used an excel spreadsheet, then moved to Outlook Tasks to accommodate the system my boss was using (I was so happy to be working with someone who actually had a system that I was prepared to give a little). My separate personal system was in Toodledo. Notebooks were a joy because they were primarily for creating or capturing ideas, not tracking the mundane (although even that has become a bit more productive / geeky due to Ryder Carroll’s bullet journal system).

For going paperless in a Mac environment, check out MacSparky.

paperwork

So, 5 Simple Steps:

1. Change what you can. Where there is no process, or the existing process has room for improvements, make them. Most people are actually willing to hear what you have to say when presenting a change to their system in a thoughtful, respectful manner. As part of that change, convert anything you can to a paperless approach.

2. Manage paper efficiently. If you have no choice but to deal with paper, then at least use it wisely. Don’t make unnecessary copies. Don’t just shove everything in one inbox and lose hours of your day looking for files. Essentially, have a system. If you do everything by email, then follow up flags and categories make tracking ‘waiting for’ items a piece of cake. Make sure that still applies if you’re stuck with paper.

3. Upload capture documents frequently. If you have an option to upload the paper documents that are floating around in ubiquitous amounts, then do so. More importantly, do it as often as possible. People are much less likely to make additional copies of a hard copy file for their own use if they can just view it on the screen in front of them. Most people are inherently lazy; use that to save the environment and your sanity.

4. Reduce the number of electronic systems. Another fatal error that is actually the case in most companies is the use of twenty four gajillion electronic systems. When one is not quite perfect, they find another one. Most of the time, it is not the tool, but the user is at fault. But that is far too difficult to address when you can just splurge a couple of hundred thousand pounds on a new shiny! Then half the users upgrade while half show reluctance. Great. Now the documents are in one of two places and the easy search is gone. Lather, rinse, repeat over the years and no-one trusts a damn thing. People go back to trusting the paper they can see and feel. Cull the tools and use common sense.

5. Spread the word. When people see that you are being more productive with a clean desk, then they will want some of what you’re having. Only, they won’t ever want to confess to it. We all know people like this; the ones who drown in chaos and claim it is because they are far too busy. Most of the time, they are simply inefficient and confuse busy with job security. Sometimes, it’s best just to give a little. Again, in a polite and respectful manner, point out small gains they can make at first. Even when looking at a productive person’s desk, a fresh pair of eyes can usually spot a few quick wins. Give generously to those who will accept help and enjoy watching them becoming less stressed over time. You’ll feel better and the trees will thank you for it.

Can you go backwards and still stay sane? I’d like to think so.

Canada Totem

Road trips: San Francisco, Vancouver, Alaska

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So, I have been on the road now for the best part of a month. The purpose of this was twofold: for writing research and for pleasure.

It has been, without a doubt, a very interesting and busy few weeks. Having flown from New Zealand back in time, we covered San Francisco, Vancouver and surrounds, as well as Alaska. One thing has certainly be cemented this year, and that is the fact I am clearly more of an outdoor person than a city person. Which is not something I think I ever really realised before. Whilst I’ve never felt compelled to move towards the big lights, I could never really say I was much for tramping in the woods either. Perhaps it is something that is becoming more defined as I get older, or perhaps people are becoming less appealing? Who knows.

Canada Totem

 

I’ve certainly got a notebook full of ideas and places, characters that are calling out to me to be written. Turns out the Fieldnotes books are the perfect size for that length of stay. So the trip itself was definitely a success.

The next month will definitely be a busy one as I try to do something with it all…

Plus, I finally purchased a fountain pen in my bid to get back to handwriting some of my work. I’m loving it so far and can really notice the difference, compared to banging out the words on a computer. Review to come shortly.

 

Field Notes: Cold Horizon and the infamous Shelterwood

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Shelterwood tipped me over the edge and into ordering Field Notes for delivery halfway across the world. I have an addictive personality and notepads is the lesser of many, many evils for me.

I didn’t go for the colours subscription though – that feels like too big a commitment just yet. Instead I figured, as the postage would remain the same and they had some left, I would also throw in a couple of Cold Horizons. Don’t they make a pretty pair?

 shelterwood cold horizon

 

Cold Horizon Review:

I love the colour gradient of these across three books. The covers themselves are very nice to look at, although as people who have had them for a while already have noted, they crack and fade very quickly. Which is actually a positive if you want to look like you use them a lot. This is mine after less than a week:

Cold Horizon Field Notes

From a personal preferences point of view, the graph paper in this is nice to use, especially for making lists. I also find the fainter lines unobtrusive when jotting down any creative ideas. My pocket notebook is my capture system when I’m out and about (for those of you using GTD), so it needs to be able to accommodate all manner of scribbles. The pages are also off-white, with different hints of blue across the three books, which is a nice touch and the kind of attention to detail that people have come to love from Field Notes.

Shelterwood Review:

One of the reasons not to get a colours subscription is if you prefer a particular paper layout. I have found myself with a fondness for graph paper, with plain as a second choice. Lined paper is becoming my least favourite and with the limited edition Field Notes, you get whichever one they decide. Shelterwood comes only with lined paper, and even the amazingly luxurious feel due to its thickness can’t make up for the fact it diminishes (for me) its usability. Having read other reviews, many people who also have this preference feel the same way.

Shelterwood Field Notes

 

Let’s talk about those covers though. They are without a doubt the most hyped Field Notes ever and I can see why. The design process that has gone into them has made them a thing of beauty to touch and look at. It will be interesting when the next season’s come out and people start doing comparison photographs to see how well the covers have actually stood up to usage. As you can see from the above photograph, there is a definite issue with the covers curling. Most Field Notes editions don’t stay completely flat, but the actual turn up on these is very noticeable. I suspect – and I’m not sure if anyone else can confirm this – that atmospheric humidity can play a significant factor.

The accompanying video is also an amazing piece of marketing. It hooked me in straight away. Sucker.

As for whether or not I will be lured into field notes forever, or if it is just a crush I’m going through, I intend to put together a full review of them vs the moleskine that I have been using for years as a pocket book to see  how they compare.

Maybe it will turn from lust into a more longterm romance. Only time will tell. Will it just be another step towards Field Notes world dominance?