Productivity Gimmick

Boyfriend and I are trying a gimmick. I love gimmicks and I invariably think they are going to work. So of course I already know this one is about to totally revolutionize my world! (Man, that is sadly saracasm-less.)

Anyway, I’ve been trying to make my life work. The new job that seems to have a policy against midday naps, the boyfriend who lives inconveniently far away, the books that refuse to write themselves…it’s tough out there.

But this one is so simple! It has to work! And I shall win it!

Here it is: It’s called the Seinfeld Method or Chain Method and it’s the approach Jerry Seinfeld used to stop procrastinating.

1. Assess your life and decide how much time you can spend a day without completely jacking with your social life/free time/work, etc. One hour seems to be the norm.

2. Choose 3 tasks that you would like to make time for. You’ll spend about 20 minutes on each.

3. Print out a monthly calendar and get a marker.

4. Every day you complete all three tasks on your list, you get to mark the day with a big fat X. The goal is to never break the chain. You accrue time off like you would any other job, etc.

5. You have to decide what will be sufficient to earn the X. In other words, it’s not necessarily based on time and supposedly works better if you base it on task and not time and allow things to even out to about an hour on any given day. For instance, if you choose cleaning, maybe picking up 10 stray items will be enough to get you a check.

6. Keep the items broad so you can fit in one needs to go in that day. For example, choose “Chores” over cleaning because maybe you need to pay bills, write thank you notes, whatever and that should count.

So my schedule is going to be:

5 days/week

1 hour per day

Tasks: Chores, workout, reading/writing

 

Wish me luck and for a more detailed description of the method check the link above!

Tips for Nailing Your Middle Grade Audition

Here’s how it works: Typically, a book packager, literary development company, or publisher will have a concept or a series already in place. The editors have all sat around a table, throwing popcorn at each other and braiding one another’s hair and now have this idea that they are super proud of. One problem: They need someone to write it.

Meanwhile, you’ve been pounding your head against the keyboard, drinking copious amounts of coffee and applying for every writing job you’ve ever seen posted on your most frequented and beloved message boards. You’re a YA writer? Who cares! Throw caution to the wind! Apply for that middle grade series! Oh wait? They wrote you back? Damn. You’ve never even read a middle grade book before? And they want a sample in a month?

Of course, not like this was ME when I decided to apply for my first work-for-hire. I’m just saying…in case anyone was interested…

Here’s the deal. A book packager is typically going to want a 4,000-ish word audition based on an outline or a spark. The packager will generally want close third person, which for many writers can feel like a huge leap from the way they write their own work. Here are a few starting tips on how to nail your Middle Grade Audition:

1.  Vary your sentence structure. A lot of people aren’t used to writing from a close, third person point of view. I know I wasn’t. It can feel like you are typing, “Main character does this. Main character does that,” over and and over gain. So remember that you can use many of the same “tricks” from your first person writing. Use questions to show what the protagonist is thinking. Add shorter punchy sentences that sound voicey but could actually work from either point of view. (i.e. “This was not good.”– works for first, works for third).

2.  You can use direct thought. For instance, a sentence in your character’s words can be a fun, easy way to jazz up the page. Slap italics on it and voila!

3. Watch your word choices. Just because you are writing from third doesn’t mean you can go around using all those fancy words from your Webster’s Dictionary desk calendar. Third person still has voice and you want to choose words that are as close to your protagonist’s voice as possible. But good news: That opens up a whole bottle of fun, new words that your protagonist would say…like…loop-the-loop or curly-cue or icky. See? Way better.

4. Have fun with the details. Is a character typing an email? Write it out and use that space to showcase the protagonist’s voice. Is the character listening to a song by a fictional band? Give me some of the lyrics. What’s the band’s name? Is there something silly going on in the background of your scene? Play with a few lines of dialogue for a comedic interlude.

5. Remember your audience. For instance, if it’s middle grade girls, don’t skimp on the description of clothes and fun accessories. 

6. The publisher’s outline is both a blessing and a curse. You’re never left wondering what to do next, but it can be hard to distance yourself from the outline enough to add your own flavor. It may be helpful to get the bare bones of the story down first and then go back without the outline to embellish. This means you have to…

7. …Leave enough time. Something I’m bad at, but I know I always do a better job when I have a bit of distance. It’s tempting to say you can churn out 4k words in 24 hours, but don’t. Still leave time for your beta readers’ imput because even though you won’t have as much commentary about plot from them, this is an exercise that focuses on the actual word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence craft of writing. Tell your critique partner the feel of the book that you are striving for. Share the pitch with them if you can. That way that reader understands the effect you are trying to create.

8. If you get the opportunity, ask questions. Sometimes this isn’t appropriate. But I have worked for editors with which I was able to chat before I began. I find it helpful to ask what they would compare this work to. X Meets X. This gives a better idea of the voice which they envision. This is their baby, too, after all. Then ask them to describe the book with a few adjectives. Is it campy? Snarky? Melodramatic? Anything to help give you direction. It can be tough when you are working off someone else’s concept.

PDA

Happy Valentine’s Day, People!

And a special thanks to the Boyfriend for all of his support. For listening to more writing news than I’m sure he ever cared to know and for dealing with my “on submission” tunnel vision and trusting that even when I’m in full-on obsession mode, I’ll surely switch to another topic at some point. Thanks for dealing with the Deadline Version of Me so many times this year. I couldn’t have done it without you.

You’re awesome.

Top 12 Things I’ve Learned About Writing This Year

As I mentioned in my last post, this February to February stretch has been a big, prolific writing year for me. Here are 12 things I’ve learned in those 12 months (see, see what I did there? yeah…)

1. I’m going to have to cry at least once in the process of meeting any deadline. Might as well just put on waterproof mascara now.

2. Telling my friends/boyfriend/family that something I wrote sucks too often really diminishes the impact I have when I actually mean that something I wrote totally sucks during those times when I need to curl into a ball and assume the fetal position.  

3. Don’t be afraid of having fun with the details.

4. Sometimes I get more done when I give myself the entire day to write, sometimes I get more done when I only have a couple hours to make the most of, but I’ll never know which is going to work better which day and that’s just how it is.

5. The fear of a time crunch significantly reduces the fear of a blank page.

6. I really can’t work at coffee shops. No matter how much I want to be J.K. Rowling.

7. You can write in third person and still have voice.

8. I’m not very good at explaining to people what I’m working on. For instance, when on deadline, I told Boyfriend exasperatedly (a word? surely not) that my editor told me to “Add more bears throughout” and was upset when met with a blank stare. Why the heck wouldn’t someone add more bears throughout?

9. Everyone needs downtime. Feeling guilty for every minute spent away from work, but not writing doesn’t do anyone an ounce of good.

10. Sometimes you have to turn down projects to open up your schedule for potential new projects. When you don’t…there’s a lot more of #1.

11. I could not write without my writing friends.

12. Holding a finished product in book form truly makes it all worth it.

If absence makes the heart grow fonder…

…Y’all must love me!

So yeah…it’s been about a year since I was first hired to write the Middle Grade Series and, in those 12 months, my writing life has changed drastically. Not that I can complain, but I do miss the daily blogging. Here’s my quick update:

1. I’ve turned in 3 books in the Middle Grade series. They have all been accepted for publication and are 100% out of my hands. Hooray? I’m actually kind of missing them. One came out in January. The next comes out in March and I just saw the cover. So cute!

2. I turned in the Young Adult book I ghostwrote. Finishing it was a real kick in the pants, but in the end, I am happy with the finished product.

3. I was offered the opportunity to write a fourth book in the Middle Grade Series. I decided that I had learned what I needed to learn from that series though, so reluctantly, I stepped away from it. I’m not sure if that was the right move, but it’s good to learn to say “no” occasionally in order to open yourself up for other opportunities. I was subsequently offered to write the first few books in a spinoff of that series; however, again, I had to step back. But, I have learned so much writing those books and from the fabulous editors involved. Seriously, I coudn’t have asked for a better experience and I definitely hope to work with them down the road.

4. It is scary to say “No” when you don’t have a project lined up, but I think/hope this openness to change may be rewarded. My agent was recently approached about two Ah-Mazing opportunities for me. Nothing I can share yet, but if either of them end up working out, I would be over the freaking moon. I know that had I accepted the books that were already in my comfort zone, there is no way I would have been able to pursue these two new projects.

So that’s what I’ve been up to writing-wise. My writing career has been taking me in completely different directions than I imagined for myself originally, but in many ways, it has been perfect for me. I am so thankful for the awesomely talented people I’ve gotten to work with. I’ll share more when I can, but until then I’ll try to get back to some more regular programming.

Oh! And in case you were wondering, here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to otherwise:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m Alive!

Aw, guys, I’m here, I swear.

I so, so appreciate the emails  and comments here questioning what the heck happened to me. In all honesty, four books, starting work as a first year associate, and learning to balance a now long-distance relationship have really taken a toll on the old blog.

But this weekend, I received an email from someone asking for advice about getting into publishing and it reminded me why I enjoyed keeping up the site in the first place. So, right now, I’m in the process of figuring out what role Fumbling with Fiction is going to play in my writing life.

The good news is that I’ve finished all four books I had under contract and I was recently offered a series under my own name. So! Trying to decide what to do and what I can handle. I also passed the bar! (Yay, me! I’m officially, officially a lawyer.)

If anyone has any ideas for me of how to keep things going better over on this end, I’d love the input. I’m certainly not against letting anyone who wants to guest post, guest post or maybe even having someone(s) join up over here on a more regular basis.

I apologize for the longest hiatus I’ve ever taken, but I do feel so lucky to have support from my writing peeps. I’ve got some exciting news/updates/insights and I want to make sure that I continue to chronicle them here.

Whether an old reader, new reader, or passerby, please feel free, as always, to email me. I want to hear all your updates and will be a much faster responder via that medium right now.

xoxo, Chandler

(ETA: ugh, Gossip Girl?)

 

Progress and Productivity

Yesterday was deadline day! And I’m actually pretty happy with what I turned in (rare for me), which means my writing radar is probably way off or something and my editor will write back and be like, Girl, you crazy? But more importantly, I think I found a couple ways to fix two of the problems that had been bugging me, so I was pumped to write said editor and explain my “brilliant plan.” Ah, initiative.

I also signed contracts! Yay! Isn’t it weird how you can be almost done with the whole book and you’re just now signing the contract?

Moving on…

Today, I’m responding to a suggestion in the comments from Phil. He has a great writing blog following his journey called A Time to Phil. You should check it out. Phil writes:

I was curious if you would write a post about your writing schedule, and how you fit it in between your day job (and before that law school and the bar). I’m still struggling to balance writing w/ a full time job and other commitments, but you seem to have uncanny time-management skills! Would love if you could share some tips.

Ok, well, first let me say: That’s really flattering. Buuuuuuuuut, my time management skills are not pretty. I’ll repeat: Not pretty. At all. I wish more than anything I had some set schedule and I stuck to it and I never even thought about turning on the TV because my love of writing is just so strong that it’s all I want to do and I can’t wait to sit down and stare at the computer for five hours and Facebook never tempts me and…yeah no.

Half the time (read: 80%), I’m a hot mess. But, alright, you get the point. I do manage to get things done (obviously). I’ve written four books this year plus editor revisions for my own, so I’ll admit, I do write. My reason for telling you all this is simply to say, I’ve had to embrace my process. I spent so much time beating myself up about the time I wasted or the writing I didn’t get done that it was paralyzing. Would I like it much better if I wrote 1,000 words a day? Absolutely. But I don’t.

So here are two things that have helped me manage my time, be more productive, and fit work into my schedule. Next post, I’ll add a few more:

First, I had to understand why I wasn’t being as productive as I knew I could be. I would have free time available for writing but then I’d squander it away playing on the interwebz. I’m not lazy. None of us are if we’re trying to write freaking books in our spare time! So what was the deal? Last year I wrote a post about some research I did on why Type A people procrastinate. You can find it here. Here’s an excerpt:

See, it’s not that we don’t care enough, that we don’t want to do the work, it’s that we are so afraid of not living up to our own high expectations of ourselves, that we’d rather not start in the first place. We’re sabotaging ourselves.

So, I started taking advice from the research articles done on procrastination and I learned to “aim for a C+” when writing. Reminding myself of why I’m not working helps me overcome the urge to put it off.

Second, I began to appreciate every inch of progress made. There was a time where I was upset with myself when I didn’t get, say, 2,000 words done for the day. But that meant that I only wanted to get the big chunks of writing done. Now, I’ve changed my motto to: “Every sentence I get done is one that I don’t have to do later.” Y’all, this has changed my life. There are so many times when I’m not feeling it and I’ll just write a few sentences or whatever and then let myself poke around the internet or go clean and then maybe more words will pop into my head and I’ll get those down. These ADD UP. And while this one hundred percent does not replace longer writing sessions, it does make “real” writing sessions that much less daunting. I love having less to do so that when it’s crunch time for my deadlines and I know I have to embrace my crazy writing process, I remind myself that I’ve knocked hours off the time I’ll have to spend working. I, personally, get more motivated when I feel like I’m doing well. My new “motto” creates the positive energy that I need to build momentum, plus it get me to take advantage of the smaller bits of free time I have.

Next post, I’ll continue talking about time management and upping productivity while balancing a schedule. I’ve really been appreciating the new comments and discussions going on. As always, hit me up there or by email or Twitter. And, finally, what about y’all–why do you procrastinate and what keeps you from being productive? Spill.

What Ghostwriting Has Done For Me: Made me feel more legit

So it turns out writing a novel takes a lot of freaking time. Like, a lot. And last time I checked there are still only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Furthermore, it is scientifically impossible to find success as a novelist without writing a novel. (Seriously, it’s science, people.)

This leads to a horrible conundrum with which I’m sure a lot of you can relate. Namely, this time has to come from somewhere, which means, that it’s going to cut into time with your friends and family. Which means you’re going to have a couple options: (1) You can make up a serious, yet sporadic disease that will allow you to quarantine yourself in your room while you secretly write a book; (2) you may spontaneously adopt a new religion that requires you to become a hermit; (3) you can admit that what you’re actually doing is writing and risk suffering a million “Next Great American Novel” jokes potentially for all time.

But seriously, it can be hard for your friends and family to know how to take the fact that you suddenly want to spend beaucoup time writing. Sure, you know that you’re doing all the research, checking all the message boards, stalking every agent/editor on Twitter, but for all they know you’re writing haiku on a napkin and thinking it’s art, yanno? So, it can be awkward and embarrassing to try to legitimize this time you’re spending. I can’t tell you how many times I hear from my writer friends that their spouse/kids/friends/parents are somewhat incredulous about the necessity of taking time off to write.

For me, ghostwriting has helped me legitimize that. First and foremost, it’s allowed me to point to contracts and deadlines and say, “No, I HAVE to get this done. It’s no longer an, “I want to get this done” or “This is important to me.” It’s an “I will break this contract if I don’t get my work finished.” Plus, I make money doing it. Money people understand, even when they don’t necessarily understand the desire to get something published. Maybe it’s silly and, I’m certainly not saying that my friends and family weren’t supportive before, but it has personally helped me be more okay with taking time to improve my and work on my craft.

Also, I think it’s good because it’s been a way to show my non-writer peeps that this is something I’m actually serious about. I’m not writing haikus on napkins. I have some talent for it–or at least enough of a stubborn streak to figure it out–and I’ve experience a degree of success at it.

They know I can complete a novel. And my parents or whoever can point to a series on the shelf and say, Hey, THAT is what Chandler writes for. I think, all around, it makes people a bit more comfortable with the number of hours I spend on this whole thing. And it makes getting my own work published seem not so far off.

So, if you’re looking into ghostwriting and you’re thinking about how your name won’t appear on the spine, I’ve got to say, this benefit has been significant–at least for me! But hey, if you’re looking for other ways to legitimize your time, here are some ideas:

1. Share an industry blog with your people–I suggest Miss Snark because it’s fun and interesting and gives a great behind-the-scenes look of how books are made and how difficult it is to get an agent/book deal

2. Explain what you’re doing with your time, how you’re connecting with other writers, and the process of critiquing

3. Give some stats — How many writers query, get full requests, get agents, whatever…know your stuff

4. Submit short stories & enter contests

5. Join SCBWI or other writer organizations and offer to write articles for them

6. Have a blog/website

Alright, y’all, I’m enjoying the comments and the new subscribers! Next week I’ll take a couple of your questions and answer them and I’ll continue on my list of what ghostwriting has done for me! And what about you guys? How do you justify the time you take to improve your writing? Have you ever felt embarrassed? Am I being too self-conscious?? What do you think?

Deadline Month of Doom Continues

Next post, I’ll get back to what Ghostwriting Has Done For Me by talking about how taking on work-for-hire has legitimized my efforts to friends and family. But today, I’m doing a quick check-in because I’m smack in the middle of my Deadline Month of Doom (DMOD).

DMOD =

1 second draft of middle grade series

1 30k first draft of middle grade series

1 whole project due for YA series

…and all due the day I start work.

So far it’s going okay, I think. I completed the second draft of the middle grade series and turned it in. Of course, then I felt like I should have a four day vacation from writing, so I went back to feeling behind. I did recharge my batteries, though. I read a few books, did fun things with my friends, all that good stuff. On Sunday, I went to Book People and bought a book by an author I’m working for right now, so I’m looking forward to digging into that. Then, the best part was I saw the middle grade series I write for shelved there! This was very exciting because it’s actually a UK series and until recently had only been sold in the US through Scholastic Book Fairs. But of course I had to do my little sweep of the MG shelves and lo and behold, there it was!

I’ve started reading the Amazon and Goodreads reviews of the series and have found it’s really motivating. I love these reviews by little girls talking about how much they love the series. It helps my mood a thousand percent when I start to feel that writing these books is a bit of a grind. Kids and their parents love these characters and their stories and that alone is enough to get me back in my chair working!

That said, I am back to my YA series for now. I have a mini-check-in deadline on September 12. About 45 pages to get through. In between I’m trying to knock out 1k of the MG daily. As much as I’m sure I’ll be ready to have DMOD done and over with, I hope I’ll look back at it and be proud of all I accomplished in such a short span of time. After all, at the end of all this madness I’ll have 4 books to hold in my hands and that, I figure, will be pretty darn cool.

Source: google.com via Mary on Pinterest

What Ghostwriting Has Done For Me: Writing More, Faster

So yesterday I posted a list of the Top 10 things that ghostwriting/work-for-hire has done for me and I pinky-swore to spend the next few posts expanding on those points. Why? I get more questions and hits regarding work-for-hire than about anything else. I realize this part of the industry is really opaque. It’s sort of meant to be, isn’t it? Other writers want to know how they can be a ghostwriter and, if they can get the work, should they do it. In fact, I think even agents sometimes want to know if it’s a good idea for their clients to do write-for-hire. So today, I’ll talk about how I’ve learned to write more, faster.

Stephen King recommends writers aim for 1,000 words a day, six days a week.

Yeah, okay, when I read On Writing many moons ago, I’m not gonna lie, this made me want to gauge out my eyeballs. A thousand words took me for-ev-her. I wrote 150 and thought I’d accomplished some gargantuan feat. I think a lot of writers go through this. Wanting to be a writer is a whole lot more appealing than the actual writing. You know, I gotta get online, chat with my new writer buddies, hear about some awesome books, read those awesome books, then of course I have to tweet some, and oh yeah, the message boards. I can’t neglect the message boards!!!! Damn, well maybe I’ll actually WRITE something tomorrow. 

A lot of that mentality isn’t just laziness or ADD. Staring at a blank page and not knowing what the hell to write there is intimidating. No, it’s downright terrifying. So, I like to think of my internet/TV watching/book reading as more a means of self-preservation. Well, guess what? Work-for-hire will beat that fear right out of you.

Deadlines are tight, people. You’re generally writing and revising a book in about 6 weeks. And often with more than one project at once. There is no room for the fear! Or maybe there’s a different fear. The one that you’ll get to the day of the deadline and there will be nothing written on the page. I’d rather turn in something that sucks than turn in a blank Word document.

I went from writing a book in a year, to writing 4 between January and August. That doesn’t even include rewriting my own book! So let’s say I wrote  60,000 words in 2010. This year I’ll have written about 220,000 by September. That’s a huge increase in productivity. And I tend to subscribe to the majority school of thought’s mantra: Practice, practice, practice.

So what has ghostwriting done for me? It’s taught me to get stuff done. I meet deadlines. I write when I’m supposed to. I don’t waste all my precious writing time. I’ve written more which has given me more space to learn. And, best of all, it’s made me appreciate the time I get to work on my own projects.

Happy Writing, People!

Source: madamecupcake.tumblr.com via Jacqueline on Pinterest