by Jenna | Apr 20, 2016 | Writing Articles
There's this idea floating around that the way to find time to write is to cram writing time into every square inch of your life. Just write while you're waiting for your dentist appointment! Just write while you're standing in line at the grocery store!
I don't think that's sound advice.
The thing is, we already lead crazy, busy lives. Most of us have plates filled to overflowing as it stands, and cramming writing into every tiny pocket of time feels like it will be the thing that finally breaks the dam.
Writing like a maniac looks like a recipe for burnout and stress to me, rather than a graceful fulfilling of one's true calling. I don't know where we got this idea that productivity and just doing more are the same thing. Many proponents of the just find 15-minutes method of writing seem to have bought into this idea.
Having said that, I do advocate writing in 15-minute (or smaller) blocks of time in the following circumstances:
- When that's all the time you actually, truly have to write. Look, I'm a writer, a mom, and a business owner, I get it. There really is only so much time to go around. It's okay with me if you say, I have to write, this is what I have, so I'm going to make the most of it. But, and this is important: Ideally, you'll do it in a scheduled, planned part of your day, not as something you race to cram in during a stolen moment somewhere. I wrote a script in 15-minute increments of time, and I've got two writers in my writing community who recently finished projects in 15-minute chunks: one mom who wrote her first novel and the other a coach who wrote her parenting book. It's a perfectly valid way to write!
- When you're building a writing habit. When you're first setting out to build a writing habit, it pays to start small. Most of us with big dreams to write have commensurately-sized fears that stop us in our tracks and have us come up with all kinds of excuses not to write. Writing in small increments of time helps us sneak past the fear, kick the excuses to the curb, and get our butts in our writing chairs. There's nothing that says you have STICK WITH 15-minute increments of writing time in the long term, it's perfectly fine to build up to more once you've increased your tolerance for writing (in other words, once the blue meanies stop screaming quite so loudly in your head). Having said that, again, see #1. If that's what you've got, work it, baby.
- When you're re-building a writing habit. If you've fallen off the writing wagon, for whatever reason (travel, illness, loss, etc.), you can reboot yourself with a 15-minute writing sprint. If I ever find myself off track with my writing, I usually say something to myself like, "I can at least write for just 15 minutes." And then I set my timer, and I'm off. Note that I usually don't write past the 15-minute mark on a reboot day but just use that to get myself into motion again. I'll often write longer the next day and build back up from there. (The reason not to go past the goal is that you end on a high note and in a positive place for the next day.)
- When you actually feel like writing while you're waiting for something. Rather than feeling like you "should" be writing at every moment, notice when you want to be writing. Lately, as a tired mom of a now 23-month-old toddler, sitting and staring at nothing while waiting in the doctor's office is a luxury I'm reluctant to give up for just about anything. But pre-baby #2, I happily wrote while hanging out waiting for appointments because I wanted to. In other words, do it if you want to, not because you "should."
Your writing is your biggest dream. Treat that dream with reverence.
Rather than squeezing writing into the interstices of your life, take a look at its importance to you and give it a proper place in your day. This might mean taking a good hard look at the way you're prioritizing your time and what you're choosing to do with it instead of writing, and it might mean getting creative about how you're scheduling yourself, but I'd much rather see you having moments to breathe AND moments to write.
by Jenna | Mar 3, 2016 | Writing Articles
I mentioned in a recent post that I've written "in the past" about choosing your "three big rocks" for the year. Turns out "the past" was 2007 (!), so I thought it was worth sharing again.
I believe this idea has tremendous validity in our overly busy world.
Turns out, when we focus our efforts on the important things we want to accomplish and create with our lives, we are more productive and we are happier.
The Three Big Rocks concept has been spread by Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
I've heard it told a number of different ways. Here's an abridged version:
A time management expert places a large wide-mouthed jar on the table, and then puts several large rocks carefully into the jar. When the jar is packed to the top, he asks, "Is this jar full?"
Everyone watching says, "Yes."
He says, "Really?" He adds pebbles into the jar and the group watches as they work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he asks again, "Is this jar full?"
By this time, the group is skeptical. "Maybe not," they say.
"Good!" he answers. He adds sand to the jar and it fills in the spaces left between the rocks and the pebbles.
Once more, he asks, "Is this jar full?"
"No!" they shout.
Once again, he says, "Good!"
Then he takes a pitcher of water and pours it in until the jar is full to the brim.
He then looks at the group and asks, "What do you think is the point of this Illustration?"
One eager beaver raises her hand and says, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit more things in."
"No," the speaker replies, "that’s not my point. The Truth is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you will never get them in at all."
We have to pick out what our "Big Rocks", organize our priorities around those, and only then look at what else we want to add into the remaining interstitial spaces of our lives.
No more of this "I have to take care of [8 million small things] before I can put my attention on my writing." Trust me, it doesn't work. Where you put your attention is what you get more of.
I've learned to put my focus on only three big rocks for any given day, and for the year as a whole as well.
Writing, of course, is always one of my big rocks. I manage to get MOST of the little things done as well. And the rest of them? Well, they aren't usually that important.
For this year, my three big rocks are my kids, my writing, and my business.
For today, my three big rocks are working on this blog post, working on my script, and writing two testimonials for my beloved coaches.
What are yours?
Powerful questions to ask yourself:
- What are the three most important things I want to accomplish today?
- What are the three big things I want to create or accomplish this year?
- What truly matters to me in terms of how I spend my time?
- How well are my choices matching up with what matters most to me?
You might also like this article I wrote for ScriptMag on the subject of being too busy to write.
Happy writing!
by Jenna | Feb 24, 2016 | Writing Articles
Does staring at a blank page paralyze you?
Here's how you can work around it.
It's a common vision of a writer's life. Sitting and staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration to come. But in my opinion, it's a terrible strategy for a certain breed of writers.
From my experience working with so many other writers, the ominous blank page can be incredibly paralyzing. It usually triggers paroxysms of perfectionism, because we feel that we must come up with the perfect line, the perfect way to begin, or the perfect topic. And if you've been hanging around here for any length of time, you'll know the vicious cycle of perfectionism, paralysis, and procrastination is one of a writer's greatest enemies.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I'd be paralyzed by a blank page myself, but I never allow myself to be confronted by one.
If you're someone who feels frozen in the face of all that white space, here are some strategies to help you get into the flow of writing, whether you're blogging, writing short pieces, articles, or stories, or working on full-length long-form masterpieces.
- Begin with an idea. Sounds super simple, right? It's not always so easy to do (we can talk about generating concepts another day), but once you're in the habit of writing, you'll find that coming up with ideas is less cumbersome that it might be now. When I'm starting a project, I'm walking around thinking about it for hours or days before I sit down to write. Because I blog on a weekly-ish basis, I have a constant stream of ideas coming into my head, so I pretty much always have an idea of what I'll be writing about when the time comes. If I don't have an idea for a blog post, I'll often ask the writers around me for ideas. There's always something up, somewhere!
Alternatively, if I'm starting a script, I'll be honing and crafting the concept in my head and on paper before I sit down as well.
- Immediately empty your brain onto the page. Once you've got your idea and it's time to sit down to write (you do have a time to write, yes?), do a "brain dump" onto the page. If I'm working on a blog post, this means kind of spewing out the ideas I've got on the subject onto the page, randomly or in order, it doesn't matter, as well as coming up with a working title (often temporary) that becomes the "container" for the piece. Usually I'm imagining myself talking to all of you, so that helps too -- it feels like I'm writing down the conversation we're having in my head.
If you're blogging and struggling at this point, you might even want to write down and answer a question, like, "Where do my readers struggle with this?" Or, "What would be most inspiring for my readers on this subject?" to get you going.
If I'm working on a script, I have a kind of formula that I complete, and it starts with capturing any ideas I have for the logline and story concept, so I begin with getting those onto the page along with anything else I "know" about the story as well.
- Turn to structure. From there, start organizing your project. With blog posts, since I've written down the ideas, I start organizing them into a natural order or flow that occurs to me. It doesn't have to be perfect, I think of it as a work in progress, just like my working title.
If I'm working on a script, this is where the heavier-lifting comes in. I have a set of parameters I "fill in" (that's the formula I'm talking about in step two). I detail my main characters' goals, motivations, and conflicts. I break out major plot points. I outline scenes.
- Fill in from there. Once you've got your structure, just start filling it in. If I'm writing a blog post, this means fleshing out and refining what I've started with. When I'm working on a script, I import my scene outline into my screenwriting software, and then fill that in.
This way, I'm always "filling in" and responding to what I've already set up for myself, rather than starting from a "blank" anything, so I never feel lost or paralyzed. Well, maybe not NEVER. :) But much more rarely.
So if staring at a blank page for you is difficult, use these ideas to get something (ANYTHING!) onto the page to get yourself jump-started, and go from there.
by Jenna | Feb 18, 2016 | Writing Articles
It has been nothing if not interesting to observe myself and all the machinations I’ve gone through as I’ve brought myself closer to claiming my dream of becoming a writer.
Here’s my update:
Challenges
Well, for starters, as soon as I made the public commitment to write 4 times per week, I found myself in the quandary of putting on a live event and heading out of town, both of which required an extra level of preparation and definitely disrupted my normal routine.
Then, when we came back from L.A., I promptly came down with the “cold of the decade” and found myself completely uninterested and unwilling to write (or work, for that matter) while taking care of myself and my son, who was also sick. I promised myself that this week, I’d get back on track. And I did. Well, sort of.
Really, though, I see the cold as a giant temper tantrum. Julia Cameron describes a kriya (Sanskrit) in The Artist’s Way as “spiritual emergencies or surrender,” something designed to get our attention and say, hey, “Get it?”
I feel like this is a similar situation — On some level, I’m resisting doing the Big Writing because it terrifies me, so I choose to get sick and busy as a way to avoid doing it. Pretty creative, right?
It’s also fascinating to watch my inner critic pester me with, “it’s not creative enough, it’s not good enough,” etc.
Which reminds me, my 3rd submission, “The Gospel According to Lucky,” for the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge did not get me through to the next round, but I got some great feedback and decided I like the story enough to want to rewrite it.
So I sent it off to some writing friends for feedback, and holy smokes, did my inner critic ever go into overdrive. He (yes, my inner critic is a he) was going all crazy about why they hadn’t gotten back to me yet, that they hated it, that they were writing each other about how bad it was and couldn’t figure out what to say to me, etc. etc.
Luckily I didn’t buy it and busted my I.C. by telling my husband about what he was saying so we could both laugh at him.
One more little temper tantrum: I’m writing this on Saturday instead of Friday like I’d planned. Jeez.
Progress & Celebrations
The good news is that I DID work on my big screenplay (the title is in flux so I can’t tell you what it is yet) and I was able to outline the story even more. It’s a fascinating project. It seems like every time I sort out one bit of the story, I find 10 more unanswered questions to address. I swear this thing will just write itself once I get all these questions answered.
I’m also thrilled that I made it to the 3rd round of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge. That was my goal and I met it. Woo-hoo! I also received some extremely helpful feedback from my writing buddy so I’m planning to rewrite that script soon. (No, he didn’t hate it, he said, “I dig the script.”)
Another thing I’m super happy about is watching my creative process around writing unfold. Who knew it would be this way? I certainly have my ups and downs, but I’m finding that I like to toss around ideas and play with them until I feel solid about the “big ideas” and then I start writing. I like that. :)
Plus, joy of all joys, my husband and I are writing a short story, called “Angel of Misfortune” for the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. It’s due today. Can I tell you that ever since I met this man I’ve dreamed of us writing together? It’s so fabulous! And I think the story is pretty good. Oh joy. :)
by Jenna | Feb 11, 2016 | Writing Articles
I've been thinking a lot about happiness, enjoyment, appreciation, and gratitude lately.
As someone who tends to be prone to seeing "what's wrong with this picture", it isn't particularly easy for me to remember to see the positives in my life and enjoy them. I habitually look for the next thing to fix and improve upon. Then throw in some sleep deprivation and a fussy toddler, and the trip down the rabbit hole into the darkness and negativity can be a short one. ;)
However, I've been making some subtle shifts in this department that are adding up to be rather huge.
I've never been a fan of gratitude lists or journals. I mean, they SOUND like a great idea, and I BELIEVE in the idea of being grateful, but when I'm stuck in feeling overwhelmed, negative, or down about my life, it feels impossible to get into that space of gratitude and appreciation.
But what's oh-so-cool right now is that I'm noticing that by making these simple shifts in the way I'm approaching my life and what I'm doing, gratitude and appreciation have become by-products of my experience. I love that!
This all started when I decided to participate in Dr. Jessica Michaelson's online journaling program about minimizing online distractions. Just freeing myself from my small but pernicious online addictions has created a huge sense of relief and space in my life.
Then I went on and joined her Finding What You Didn't Lose program, which I'm also loving.
Here's what we're doing, on a very simple level, that I'm finding so very helpful.
- Setting an intention for how we want to approach the day ahead in a way that's connected to what's most important to us (like being present or being adventuresome).
- Getting clear on the three main things we're aiming to do in a given day (I've written in the past about "three big rocks" for the year -- this is about picking them for the day!).
- Noticing where we can build in connection, use our natural talents, and find sensory pleasure in our days.
This is all based in research about happiness,* which shows that we need to experience connection, meaning, pleasure, flow, and accomplishment in order to feel happy in our lives.
How to translate this into enjoying your writing
One of the biggest challenges in long-form writing (a novel, book, screenplay, for instance) is that it can feel endless, like we'll never reach the finish line of "done". Living immersed in that context can be disheartening at times and downright discouraging at others.
To keep ourselves feeling fresh -- and happy -- we need to stay connected to several things, like:
- WHY we're doing it. When we're clear about how important writing is to us and believe it is our calling, we stay connected to its meaning in our lives. Some days writing is hard, some days it's fun and easy. But in the big picture, we care deeply about it, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. We can even go a little more deeply into the Big Why behind our writing. Perhaps we have a message or vision to share, or we're hoping to shape, change, and influence people's lives. When we give thought to our Why, it's easier to keep on writing.
- Small, short term goals. If a long-form writing project, with all its requisite rewrites, is a long-term deal, we need to make sure we create a short term feeling of accomplishment for ourselves right now in addition to our big picture aims. This is easy to do when you set attainable, daily goals. When you start the day with a plan, like "today I'm going to write (one new scene, 350 words, for 15 minutes, etc.)" then you KNOW when you have done it, or not. And when you keep the goal attainable, so you KNOW you can do it, it's easier to push through any resistance and make it happen. Then you'll get the satisfied feeling of accomplishment that's so important for your sense of happiness. As a bonus for this, doing the writing early in the day will only make the rest of what you get done that day a bonus. :)
- Other writers and other people. Hang out with other writers who 1) get what it's really like to write day in and day out, and 2) have generally positive and supportive attitudes about writing. Be mindful about hanging out in groups of writers who will only tell you how hard it is to break in. Instead, look for people who are finding ways to write and ways into the business that work for them, their lifestyles, and their temperaments. ALSO spend time with non-writers too: Your loved ones, family, and friends. Life is rich, and our writing is richer when we are connected to it.
- The rest of life. Writing doesn't happen in a vacuum. As writers, we tend to be hunched over desks and computers more than average. We need to get out and enjoy the world and take care of our bodies too. Turns out that sensory pleasure happens mostly in the real world, so give yourself some gifts in this regard. I've been savoring the simple things, like walks in the beautiful weather, delicious tea, snuggling with my littlest one while he goes to sleep and with my eldest one while I read to him at night, taking Pilates classes, and blowing bubbles for the kids in the sunshine.
- Our writing itself. Writing, by nature, can produce the wonderful state of flow that's part of the recipe for happiness. When we're writing, we're in the flow of using our innate talents. So if you're having trouble getting past the natural resistance that comes up around doing the writing, get support to get into the flow. A working writer is a happy writer.
Here are some power questions to help you put what I've written about today into practice:
- What's important to you about your writing?
- What short term writing goal can you set and achieve today?
- How can you connect with other writers today?
- What can you do to experience pleasure in the real world today in your life?
- What support do you need, if any, to get into the flow of your writing today?
Use these questions to make simple shifts and enjoy your writing (more!), and your life. You deserve it.
by Jenna | Jan 27, 2016 | Writing Articles
We're closing in on the end of the first month of the year. I can't quite believe it!
Most of us started off the year with solid intentions to write. How's that going for you?
If you're writing less than you'd like to be, this is the perfect time to make a course correction.
In fact, in some ways, it's the BEST time to make a course correction, because we're early enough in the year that small adjustments will go far.
So dig out your end of 2016 writing goals and take stock. (And if you haven't created your 2016 writing goals yet, here's a great tool to help you -- and no, it's definitely NOT too late!)
Do the Math
If you haven't done this yet, reverse engineer your goals so you can see where you're wanting to be by the end of the month (and at any point along your projected timeline).
Example 1: Finish an 80,000 word novel by December 31.
For example, if you're aiming to complete an 80,000 word novel by the end of the year, you can figure out your approximate daily word counts. The math for this tells us that you'll want to be writing about 320 words per day, 5 days per week, all year, excluding holidays (there are 251 working days in 2016).
This means that by January 31, you'll want to have completed approximately 6,080 words (19 working days in January). This assumes that you're either writing by the seat of your pants (a "pantser") or that you've already plotted the novel. It also assumes that you work on weekdays and take holidays and weekends off.
Example 2: Plot AND finish an 80,000 word novel by December 31.
Another example: If your goal is to complete an 80,000 word novel by the end of the year, but you haven't plotted it yet, you can set a timeline for the plotting and the writing. You might allow two weeks or two months to plot; it's up to you, your writing process, and your available time.
But once you know your timeline, you can break down the plotting into increments, such as chapters or plot points that you want to hit by a certain date. Then you can assess your progress.
Let's say you're aiming for two months for plotting, and we're nearing the end of January right now. So you should be halfway through the plotting at this point, or ideally around the midpoint of your novel. Then, starting in March, you'll have 212 working days left to write those 80,000 words, or about 377 words per day.
Tools and Adjustments
I love spreadsheets for this kind of calculating and planning. (In fact, I'm working on making a special one for you right now -- stay tuned for that!)
Of course you can adjust these calculations for your project and schedule, such as if you prefer to write on weekends, for instance.
Or as in my case, if you're writing screenplays, you might want to set a daily target page count rather than a word count.
Also, be aware that these calculations don't include revision or editing time, which may not always lend themselves to a linear progression since deeper cuts and reworking tends to work better from a to do list method.
Assess Your Progress
Once you've reverse-engineered your goals, check in: Are you on track to meet your goals by the end of the year? Do you need to bump up your daily word counts or adjust your time table?
One of the smartest things I see writers do is get crystal clear on the math of their projects so they know exactly what to aim for and can pace themselves well. It's all too easy to live in fantasy land, unclear on what you're trying to accomplish, floundering in hope and optimism rather than grounded, practical reality.
So check in on where you're supposed to be, and make an assessment of what — if any — adjustments you need to make, and you'll be good to go.
