Category: Daily Life

Home Office

First of all, I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Things are intense out there, but we need to work together to stop the spread of the virus as best we can. That means we all gotta be smart and work together. One of the biggest ways we can do that is by working at home as much as we can.

This is a good time to talk about the best practices for working at home. Since August, I’ve been (more or less) working from my kitchen table and I have a few suggestions for people who are struggling with the transition from a structured office to a productive Work At Home.

First, make a schedule and try to keep to it. I have an alarm for 5:30 and usually roll out of bed at 6:00. After I shower, I’ll make some breakfast, usually eggs and spend some time on Facebook and other social media to see what I missed. After that, I’ll settle into my current project (whether that’s editing or writing). Around noon, I’ll go for a walk outside (not too far and alone). I usually close up around 5 or 5:30, but I’ll keep going if I’m on a good roll. At worst, I’ll close up everything at 7:00 and go do some reading in bed before I fall asleep.

Which leads to my next point: Have more than one space to work in, if you can. If you have access to more than one space, you should establish one as your workspace and one as your recreational/sleep space. I have a separate bedroom than my living space, so it’s easy to close my door at night and leave my writing work at my kitchen table. I have the bad habit of working while eating other meals, but who isn’t a little bit guilty of that? I’m able to limit the overlap between Working Brain and Sleeping Brain by physical space.

Thirdly, drink a lot. No, I don’t mean that kind of drinking. Water and tea are my suggestions. It’s important to stay hydrated through out the day. I’ve been going through six or seven mugs of tea a day at this point. When working at home, it’s strangely easy to ignore our basic needs like water.

And finally, don’t forget to stop working! Yes, productivity at home is good, but don’t let that drive burn you out completely. When we’re working, it’s easier to keep track of our daily work schedule and clock out right at 5:00. When you’re already home, what’s five more minutes? Then ten minutes. And next thing you know, it’s dark outside already (which is shocking now that we’re entering the long, summer days).

Above all else, if you’re working from home? Stay healthy both physically and mentally. So, stay safe, stay well and don’t forget to relax once in a while.

Reinventing the wheel…

At a certain point in every editing experience, it feels like you’re just staring at static words. You’ve so carefully reviewed the material so many times that it all starts to blend together into a mess of letters. As someone who edits a lot of their own work, it’s inevitable that things get missed. But recently, I found a technique that works really well for me and I’d like to share it with you!

It works like this. I have my most recent version of my piece that I’m working on open to the right of my screen and a blank document to my left (for those of you with two monitor rigs, good for you). From there, I rewrite the entire pieces. Word for word.

What do I like about this technique? For a start, I feel like I have to be very careful and it makes me focus. I catch words that I glance over in previous edited versions (either that are the wrong word or just completely missed due to ‘static editing’). I have a chance to reconsider grammar that I missed initially. When I’m rewriting the words, I hear them as I’m reading them, so I can reconsider my word choice.

Rewriting also gives me a chance to look beyond just basic word choice. I can examine entire sections and change them. I can expand sections or cut passages to improve the pacing. Without having to think about ‘What Comes Next?’ I get to focus purely on how things sound and can change them accordingly. I can focus more on pacing, descriptions, and incorporating details into dialogue.

Is it time consuming and tiring? Absolutely, but I think it’s important to find a method that works and embrace it. What are some of your favorite editing tricks and tips?

Coming together…

Hello from the land of Sickness! I’ve got a bad case of Jazz Voice (when your voice drops an octave and gets all raspy), so it’s been a quiet weekend over here. That being said, this will be a short update.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about writing community. Since I spend a lot of my time working on projects alone, I think it’s important to have a community that I can check in with. While organized workshops are valuable and important, it’s also important just to have other writers to talk to.

Like milling around the water cooler at an office, having a writing community is like have regular coworkers that you can check in with and talk to. I have a group of friends that are also writers that I talk to frequently when I’m stuck or struggling with a scene. We motivate each other, write with each other and talk about the things in our projects that frustrate us. Sometimes, we’ll just sit in the same space and write at the same time. It’s like the quietest party you’ve ever been to.

We also celebrate our successes! Whether it’s 500 words written or a book that’s getting published, it’s very important to have a group of people you can be excited with! Friends and family will get excited about big milestone, but the little ones are also important to keep in mind.

Do you have a writing group that you talk with? How do you support each others goals, big or small?

New Year, New Words

Last year, I started with a simple goal: 365 words a day, every day, for the entire year. The goal was to build up stamina and be consistent in forming writing habits. My goal was to go an entire year Raptor-Free (meaning that I don’t miss any days) and I actually managed to pull it off!

New Years Resolutions are always kind of hit and miss. I’m used to having a strong star followed by a slow decline. However, this resolution went very well! Below are some more elaborate statistics and facts.

Average Words Per Day: 1,092 Words
Best Day: August 20- 5,837 words
Worst Day: January 22- 376 words
Total for the year: 398,443 words

I feel like I learned two main things from the project. Firstly, I learned that consistency is a skill. Having accountability, in the company of other writing groups or personal family, was actually crucial in building my writing stamina.

The second thing is that there’s a difference between “Finding the Time” and “Making the Time” when it comes to writing. Even when I working full-time, I would wake up early to get my writing time in before going to the office. I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t want to write after working a full day. Waking up early to write was sometimes the best part of my day.

This year, I’m planning on doing more editing and submitting (gulp!) and I’m attempting to do all three things (Writing, Editing and Submitting) in a slightly more even distribution than just writing nothing but new material. I’m calling it the W.E.S.T. (Writing, Editing, Submitting Tally). I have a lot of raw ‘Novel Fodder’ to work with and I’m looking forward to tackling the new year with new opportunities to put my writing out there! If there are any other writers who want to join me in this (or attempt their own 365 for 365), feel free to let me know!

Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me for 365 of 365! Stick around for more fiction, more thoughts and a lot more excitement in the coming year!

What’re you workin’ on?

Anyone who’s a creative (visual artist, writer, musician) dreads and fears this question. How do you consolidate weeks, months or years worth of work into a few sentences? It’s daunting, especially when you’re trying to justify all the time and effort spent making your art.

For me, answering this question results in a few vaguely connected sentences about what I’m currently working on. Usually, it ends with ‘…or something like that, I’m still working on it.’ This year in particular, with my goal to write four hundred words a day, I have three or four projects cooking at any given time. Either short stories or novel length projects, drafting has been my main goal this year. The answer to this question changes so often, it could be one thing during one week and something completely different not long after. So, I usually try to mention whatever project I’m working on: Dinosaur Westerns, Endless Summers, Werewolves, Fauns in the Modern World, or whatever else might draw someone’s interest.

As much as I’m enjoying my writing streak (which I plan to go more in depth about in January), I’m also looking forward to being able to sit with what I’ve written and really make sense of it all. I think a lot of artists feel this way at some point: so many rough ideas, sketches or tunes that you need to just get out on paper. In a way, it’s freeing to do it, but there’s so much going on that it’s hard to make sense of it all at once.

These are few of my favorite fiends…

It’s October! That means horror movies, discount candy and so many monsters! Now, I am one of the biggest scaredy cats out there when it comes to horror movies, but I love a good monster! But, before you get lost in the corn maze , let’s weigh the pros and cons (coming from the perspective of trying to survive one) from some of the classic monsters that have appeared in movies over the years:

  • Swamp Monsters:
    Pros: Has a specific place it can survive and stays there, can’t wait for you to leave safety cause it dries up too quick.
    Cons: Can’t be rationed with, has a clear upper hand if you try to boat out into his lair (also very smelly).
    Tragically underused, swamp monsters are one of those ‘classic monsters’ that only really got a few times in the spotlight over the years. Our water monsters tend to trend towards alligators and sharks. Apart from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, I feel like the only time it’s been used was in the short lived Swamp Thing series from DC Comics. I think that Swamp Beast has a lot of untapped potential, especially given people’s fear of the water and drowning.
  • Mummies:
    Pros: Historically slow and only come after you if you wake them up (which…same, honestly).
    Cons: Doesn’t need to eat, sleep or stop until the job is done.
    Mummies are another one of those film monsters that don’t get as much light as they deserve. Apart from the Brandon Fraser series and the classic Boris Karloff movie, I can’t think of any ‘Big Mummy’ media. The culture of mummies is rich with tradition and history that has so many different stories to tell.
  • Vampires:
    Pros: Classic, sophisticated, and attractive (if you’re gonna die, you might as well enjoy it).
    Cons: Older, smarter and probably cleverer than you.
    OK. I know what you’re thinking. “Vampires are old news, everyone’s done vampires, they’re boring and inconsistent!” And you’re right! Vampires have been done to death…or rather un-death. However! There’s something to love about a classic monster that’s done well. Vampires have become the subject of not only horror movies (like any of the Dracula movies) or comedies (see What We Do in the Shadows), which means that have a potential to be just as versatile as we make them.
  • Werewolves:
    Pros: Loud, tactless, and not very bright. Easy to trick and well established solution: Silver Bullets!
    Cons: Sucks if you have pet allergies.
    Anyone who knows me, knows I love some werewolves! It probably comes from my love of dogs and wolves, but–as far as monsters go–the werewolf is a powerful opponent for both the humans fighting the werewolf and the human who is the werewolf. The classic conflicts of Man vs. Nature and Man vs. Self packed into one leads to some really interesting characters, especially when the story is told from the perspective of the werewolf.

Workin’ for a Living

“Don’t quit your day job.”

Every artist, comedian, musician or other creative has heard this at some point. It’s well-meaning advice in some cases, but sometimes given in a less friendly tone. This coming week, however, I am not taking that advice.

Yes, I’m leaving my current place of employment. Without going into too much detail, it was a good run, but there’s a time when things come to a natural stopping point and I felt that I was there. And while I’m not the first desk jockey with dreams of leaving their office with dramatic flair, I haven’t been the first writer to also shuffle papers during the day.

So, both as inspiration and a little brain storming for myself, here are some famous writers who started out pushing the 9-5. I stumbled on this interesting article, but here are some of my favorites!

Arthur Conan Doyle started his career as a surgeon. This actually makes a lot of sense considering Holmes’s famous sidekick was a surgeon as well. According to some lore, Holmes was actually based off of another surgeon that Doyle met who could analyze people and learn things like their hobbies, professions and living conditions.

Jack London was a self-proclaimed Oyster-Pirate, stealing oysters from oyster farms and selling them himself. Eventually, his piracy turned to honest sailing work that probably inspired his many adventure stories at sea.

Charles Dickens was a factory worker for a period of time. And by “period of time” I mean when he was 12-Years-Old and working in a factory. I can’t help but feel like this inspired the dynamic to the group of orphans in Oliver Twist. By the way, the name of one of his coworkers? Bob Fagin.

Jack Kerouac had a number of odd jobs, including dishwasher, night guard, fire lookout, deck hand and rail brake operator.

Stephen King– Famously, Steven King was a high school janitor while writing Carrie, what would become one of his classics.

Obviously, some of these aren’t very practical for me (though, Oyster Pirate sounds like a great career choice). But in a very real way, it’s comforting to know that there’s no one singular path in life. Whether that means you drop out of an Ivy League school and become a teacher like Robert Frost or start your career as a Theatre Critic writing in his spare time like Bram Stroker, if you have drive–and a lot of luck–you’re only a few steps away from the job of your dreams. For now I’ll just have to keep sending out resumes and keep writing in the early hours before the rest of the world wakes.

The Work Space

Some of you may have heard that I moved recently, but it occurs to me that I never told you about my new writing space. I have a bedroom with an actual door (which is a big upgrade) and I moved my kitchen table into the bedroom to try and make it a proper desk. The thing I love best about my new space is the window that lets me look out and see the big tree that’s starting to show it’s leaves now.

The biggest difference from my old workspace is that I have a little egg-timer at my desk now. I used to time myself on my phone, but it was a little awkward and my anxiety brain kept checking it and interrupting my writing. The new set up lets me check frequently and provides a regular drone for me to write to. I do my best scene blocking to music, but I’m finding I need quiet as I write.

When I’m not at my desk, I bring my laptop to work and tend to write on my lunch breaks. We have a few conference rooms and it’s rare that they’re all in use, so I can close myself off for an hour and get some writing done over a sandwich. When they are all used? I just eat and work at my desk.

It’s very important to me that I have a special place to get my writing done. The secret for me is that there’s a little splash of green. Whether that’s a real tree outside or a plastic ficus inside? I’ve had to be flexible.

Writers on the move!

Currently, I’m at 30,000 feet. Sadly, I have not inherited a zeppelin, turned it into my floating base overlooking the city below. That comes later.

I am currently on a plane to California where I’ll be spending the weekend away from work and with my wonderful girlfriend. But it does pose something worth noting. On the one hand, I am very glad to be away from the usual humdrum of work and the city shuffle. However, I also want to keep up with my usual writing goals. To date, I’ve been able to make at least 400 words a day (and sometimes even a1000). So I intend to make my minimums, at least.

How do writers continue to work on the go? What challenges do we face? Time? Space? Resources? For some people, it’s a question of what to do when you aren’t surrounded by your pens, reference books or away from Wifi.

  1. Editing- This one depends on your style of editing, but I like the idea of being stuck in the air without Wifi or any other distractions. I like to crack open my laptop and whatever my current project is and making some tweaks that I’ve been meaning to do. You might need a dictionary app (I have one on my phone that I can use) if that’s your style. Most of my travel editing time is spent with word choice and content, so it’s a good way to pass the time.
  2. Brush Up Your Query Letter- No one likes doing this, but frankly, it’s an important thing to do. If you got ten minutes in the morning, you can prepare your next Query Letter for your current project.
  3. Flash Writing- When I’m in a new place, I like taking notes in a notebook throughout the day and then use those notes to recall as much as I can later on. The ability to build scenes is the bread and butter of a writer. I like to describe places that I visit in as many details as possible, make stories for random people that I see and journal things I’ve done and seen throughout a day. It takes a few minutes at the end of the day (or beginning of the next day), but it keeps your writer brain active the entire time you’re out and enjoying new things.
  4. Rest Your Creative Brain- If you work a day job as your side hustle (like myself), having some time to rest your creative brain is just as important as resting your day job brain. Focus on the details around you, but really take time to experience thing.
  5. Make A Post For Your Blog- Patting my own back on this one, but writing out a post for your website to post for later is a quick and easy way to get some ‘real work’ done. It’s not the most fun way to spend part of your vacation, but it’s definitely a useful way to spend flights, train rides or road trips (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…those are the big ones, right?).

At any rate, I’m off and away! Some well earned Rest and Relaxation.

How do you keep your writing brain a little active during times when you’re on vacation? Let me know your strategies for writing on the go!

Creative Slump

It has been a week, let me tell you. I was sick on Monday and couldn’t get as much done as I’d like, followed by the usual stress at the office job. On top of all of that, I’ve been hitting a creative slump more than usual.

I’ve still been able to keep my 365 words a day (61/365 as of today). Don’t know how much of those words I’ll end up keeping, but I’m proud that I’ve been able to use those muscles every day (yes, even on sick days). There are some days, however, where I worry that I’m writing isn’t very good or creative. So, I’m trying to pull myself out of a creative slump.

Rather than trying to force new ideas, I try to let my brain work through the problems on their own. I’ll take some time to identify what needs work and then leave it to stew. I try to get as far from my work as possible, rather than forcing it. The office job sometimes helps with this division, letting my creative brain work while my rational brain is distracted. But sometimes, even a desk job doesn’t let my brain work through the problem properly.

When that happens, I’ll do one of two things.

First thing is I’ll go out and do something. It might be a walk in the woods, a trip to the zoo, or just a walk to get groceries. I need to get out of my head and let the ideas work themselves out. It’s important to let the brain go through the motions without forcing things onto paper. I usually take my camera, so I’m focused on the area around me rather than my brain still focusing on the problems in my creative slump. Sometimes the act of looking at things more carefully gives me a better creative jumping point for when I get back to the keyboard.

Alternatively (or additionally), I’ll bake. My coworkers call it ‘Rage Baking’. During a particularly bad snowstorm, I brought cookies for everyone at the office who braved the weather (snickerdoodles, by the way). When they asked about why I bake, I said it helps relieve stress. I find baking (and cooking) to be systematic and methodical. You have to follow the instructions of the recipe: measure things out, mix them correctly, and cook them at the right temperature. It’s simple and allows my creative brain to do its own thing.

What are some of the ways that you get creativity flowing again?

Subscribe to the mailing list

* indicates required

Recent Activity