Issue 2: August 2011
Organize
Yourself
There is a lot of online advice about writing. Most of the
advice recommends staying at the writer’s desk and continuing to write
regardless of the content, your mood or the distractions in your life. It’s
excellent advice, but one that’s very difficult to achieve in the light of the
current financial challenges facing us, the family emergencies that inevitably
arise, or the work responsibilities that we beginning writers face. After all,
many of us are still working a j-o-b instead of making a living by writing
fiction. I struggle with staying on task, too. I get too many ideas to complete
any of them within the constraints of my time and energy. I work a full-time
job, have family members who are frequently either in the emergency room or the
hospital and need my help, two dogs that I try to get to doggie play group,
plus the weekly responsibilities of keeping up a house. It’s a challenge, but
it’s not impossible. Sometimes the house doesn’t get cleaned, but I have to
prioritize my responsibilities. Prioritizing tasks is what organizing yourself
is all about. When you have several demands on your life it can be overwhelming
to decide which tasks must be finished immediately and which ones can be
postponed to a later date. I’ve been told I’m an organizing freak, so I hope
that some of my advice will be helpful to you.
Create
a Visual Focus
One of my greatest challenges is starting too many projects
at once and then going in a thousand different unproductive directions. One of
the first things I did to channel my ideas was to put a write-and-wipe board up
in my office. I tapped a large stop sign from clip art at the top of the board
and wrote, “FOCUS! 3 goals – 5 tasks until 1 is FINISHED!” Remember that your
goal is where you want to end up and each task should be a mini-step to get you
there. My Goal #1 is to submit short stories monthly to either magazines or writing
contests. I listed my tasks as writing new stories or editing older one weekly.
I probably should have been more specific, but for this works. Since I put this
sign up in August 2010, I’ve submitted 11 stories, whereas I hadn’t submitted
any in the past few years. Granted this is a small step toward getting
published, but it is a step forward. Goal #2 is to finish my novel. I should
also be writing weekly on this since writing weekly is one of my tasks.
Admittedly, I don’t always work on the novel, but remember that the purpose of
this sign isn’t to beat yourself up over what you don’t do, it’s to help you
move closer to your goals. Goal #3 was to get recertified for teaching. The tasks
were to take the courses I needed and submit the state-required paperwork.
Since I have completed this goal, I really should erase it and write my new
goal, which I’m working on now: write a monthly science fiction blog and a
newsletter for writers. Remember that these goals and tasks are fluid and meant
to be updated or changed as you go along.
Connect with Other Writers
My second suggestion is to either join a local writers’
group and/or sign-up for some online writers’ newsletters. There are hundreds
available. Some of them better than others, but you should check out a few to
determine which ones are best for you. I personally like FundsforWriters.com,
written by Hope Clark. She gives suggestions for writers and a good listing of
writing competitions, freelance markets, grants, publishers and agents. Most of
the stories I’ve submitted were submitted to contests and magazines on her
listing. Another blog that’s very informative is Writer Beware. These blogs,
written by Victoria Strauss, keep you posted on the legal and contractual
challenges which authors face. If you’re concerned that you might be duped by
unscrupulous publishers or agents, this is a must-read blog. As writers we
rarely understand the intricacies of contractual agreements or the terms we
should be leery of, and this blog give you that information. Writer’s Digest puts out a blog called
Feed Biz which keeps you updated on what they consider some of the better
writing blogs, classes and interviews with professionals in the field. They do
send out a lot of blogs, but they’re short and it’s fairly easy to filter
through the ones you want to read thoroughly.
Track
Your Submissions
Since I’ve been writing and submitting work regularly, I’ve
found it’s important to keep track of what stories you’ve submitted to the
various contests and magazines. I’ve tried a couple of different methods and
found one that works for me. First of all, I keep a simple running list of the
dates of each submission, the titles submitted and the results. This can be a
hand-written list or one in a spreadsheet. I like the spreadsheet best because
I can short the information by title and find out who I’ve submitted a story to
already. The last thing you want to do is submit the same story to the same contest
that has already passed on it. I also hand write a list of which contests I’ve
submitted a story to right on the file folder or notebook tap where I file the
story. This is convenient in case you don’t have your spreadsheet handy.
Watch
Your Time
Once you start working toward your publishing goals it’s
easy to feel overwhelmed with information and things to do. Lord knows, I did!
I decided to use an organizational method that I use at work. I keep a monthly
calendar on my bulletin board simply to mark off the days and keep myself aware
of the passing time. I write a couple of things that are important for me to
finish on the calendar large enough to see from my desk. For example, on the 15th
of the month I want to publish my science fiction blog, Sci-Fi: Write or Wrong. So I’ve written “sci-fi blog” on the Friday
before the 15th and highlighted the square it’s in. I want to publish
my newsletter, The Prodigal’s Daughter,
by the 1st of each month, so I’ve highlighted the square on Friday
before the end of the month and written “writing newsletter” in it. I chose
Fridays because, aside from Saturday morning, that’s the when I have the most
time to write. When there’s a contest I want to enter, I put a highlight around
that date, too.
The monthly calendar is just a generic solution to tracking
the time, though. So I keep a weekly calendar on my desk and mark off how I’ve
used my time in different colors for different tasks. Household and family time
are highlighted in yellow, reading newsletters and doing research are
highlighted in orange and actual writing time is highlighted in green (for the
potential money to be earned). I also make notes about when stories for contest
should be completed, hence when I should spend more time writing than reading
my e-mail. This doesn’t need to be an expensive calendar from an office supply
store. In fact it’s better if it isn’t. I like printing out a Microsoft Outlook
calendar in weekly format with the times on the sides. I print five weeks at a
time in order to stay ahead of submission dates. This method has served me
well. It might help you, too.
I hope your find these suggestions useful for accomplishing
your goals, too. In future newsletters we’ll talk about the actual work of
writing and what technics seem to work. Until then, I hope you enjoy the
Reading and Writing Challenges for this month and that you’ll share some of
your writing with this newsletter. It will only be published once in this
newsletter and I will not abuse your rights as an author.
Reading
Challenge
2009 Nebula Award Winner, The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Writing Challenge #2
One of the best ways to keep at the writing desk is to join
a writer’s group. There are writer’s groups online, but I’ve found that face to
face discussion is the most helpful. So if there is a writers’ group in your
area, I encourage you to join it. In the right writers’ group, you will grow
more than in any writing class offered. In lieu of a writers’ group – or in
conjunction with one - I will propose writing challenges in each issue. I
encourage you to participate and send them to me at rhodesfitzwilliam@gmail.com. I
will publish the best three pieces, along with my own, in the upcoming month’s
newsletter.
So let’s get started.
Writing Challenge #1: Since this is our first issue, let’s
base the first challenge on our opening theme: the prodigal’s son. Rewrite the
parable of the prodigal’s son giving it a new time period, setting, or point of
view. It might be a modern story or one set in the future. The point of view
may be from any of the existing characters or one you have added. The challenge
is to make this story come to life within 500 words. Get creative…it’s your
world.
If you haven’t read this parable or you need to reread it,
it’s available at BibleGateway.com (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15%3A11-32&version=NIV)
I will publish my version in next month’s newsletter and
talk about the challenges and where I would like to improve my own Writing. I
will also share the three best versions I receive by the last week of July,
along with any appropriate comments about this challenge and how you approached
it.
I look forward to reading and sharing ideas with you so we
can challenge one another to stay on task with our writing!
Until next month, live well, love fully and write with all
your heart!
Rhodes Fitzwilliam
Response to Writing
Challenge #1:
Our first challenge is based on the theme: the prodigal’s
son. Rewrite the parable of the prodigal’s son giving it a new time period,
setting, or point of view. It might be a modern story or one set in the future.
The point of view may be from any of the existing characters or one you have
added. The challenge is to make this story come to life within 500 words. Get
creative…it’s your world.
My Brother Keeper
I am my brother’s keeper. He’s in that clay pot with the
Wondering Jew. I think he’s doing well; he’s certainly helped the plant. When
he came home, Dad threw a party him like he was a returning war hero rather
than a drugged out loser who squandered his inheritance on partying and whores.
Look at him now. He’s still doing better than me.
Look at this place I’m forced to live in. Walls made of broken
bricks stacked with mud. When the wind comes through this valley it rips right
through the walls like they weren’t there. My bed is dry prairie grass covered
with whatever clothe I can find that hasn’t rotted. My food is prairie rats and
snakes. I trapped a rabbit once, but it was bitter and tough, not even as good
as snake. Meanwhile my father lives down
there in the shelter sleeping on a matter with clean sheets, eating carrots
grown in hydroponics and lamb from the genetics farm. Life’s just not fair.
Dad would say I should be thankful that the radiation level
has dropped. He doesn’t know; he hasn’t lived above ground since the accident.
I have bouts of illness that lasts for days followed by periods of weakness
when I can’t even hunt my own food. I’ve got you’re thankfulness right here. It
wasn’t right for them to exile me. They didn’t have proof that I killed him.
After all, there wasn’t a body. Ha-a-a. Ha-a-a. Haa-couch-choke-gag. Damn,
there’s blood again. The irradiated water taste okay. Here, brother, have a
drink. You’ll probably live longer than I will. Now there’s an irony.
Dad would call that God’s justice.
It gets dark out here early. I’ve never seen such darkness
even during a power outage. we always had the emergency lights down there. But
here, here there’s nothing. When we were little, Dad used to tell us stories
about the moon and stars lighting the night sky. He was lying to us, huh,
brother. I don’t see any stars. Do you? Haa-ha-couch-choke-gag. Shit.
Children’s bedtime stories, like the existence of God.
Here comes that wind again. Yeah, that’s your merciful god
for you. These clothes won’t hold out a sneeze or the cold. Look at that. The
sky’s changing. The gray is parting. What’s that? What the…the sky has sparkles
on it. Are those stars? And what’s that? It’s so bright and round. Ah! That
must be the moon. Cough-hack-gag. I think I’ll just lay down here and admire
it. You know, brother, if Dad wasn’t lying about the moon and stars, maybe he
wasn’t lying about God either. Maybe I did do wrong by you and Dad. I’m sorry I
killed you. Is there forgiveness for that? I’m glad I can see the sky Dad used
to talk about, all filled with sparkling diamonds and a silver moon. You know,
I don’t feel so cold either. My chest has stopped hurting, maybe I can sleep
now.
The End
The Challenge of the Challenge
Perhaps
the most difficult aspect of writing this piece was keeping to the limit of 500
words. It's difficult to limit yourself once an idea starts flowing, however
most magazines have word count limits which must be maintained. I composed this
one in MicroSoft Word, which keeps a count of your words at the bottom of the
screen. As soon as I saw I was going over the limit, I back-tracked, edited out
irrelevant copy and added only what was most important. I'll be using this
editing technique (only on a different piece) in upcoming editions of The
Prodigal's Daughter. In the mean time, I hope you will accept Writing Challenge
#2 and mimic the excellent work of Paolo Bacigalupi.
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