Writer's Life: School is Out! (Rachel)

 

School is out! If it isn’t for your kids, it will be soon.

This is the time of year that my social media feeds fill with parents bemoaning or celebrating the ending of the school year and the beginning of summer. As a homeschooling mother of three, this transition of seasons signals something different for me.

During the school year, I spend about 90% of my time educating my kids, keeping the household running, and keeping up with all the things that need to be done. Writing takes a backseat to keeping everyone on schedule, breaking up fights, enforcing rules, explaining and teaching concepts, and managing our schedules.

The change in season means a shift in focus. The kids no longer demand my attention most of the day, and schooling is set aside for writing. Even when my children were small, summer meant my mind was freer to focus on writing ideas, brainstorming, and utilizing every spare moment of writing time to the max—anything other than lesson planning and calendar juggling.

Now that my kids are older, maximizing my word count is easier. I claim the schoolroom, spread out my workspace, shoo the kids from the room, put on my headphones, and disappear into my imaginary worlds for hours at a time. I make huge publishing plans, write, edit, and plot. The world is full of possibilities and productivity in the summer months.

Sound boring? Where is my time in the sun? What about vacation time?

I look forward to summer because writing is my favorite activity. I love diving in and living in my book projects. It is never dull.

As for time in the sun, well, I have never been attracted to the sun. I still enjoy admiring sunny days, but since a recent health change, the sun causes pain and health complications. I am learning to avoid it as much as possible without turning into a hermit or a vampire without the whole undead blood-drinking thing. Thankfully, my supportive husband has taken over the swim party duties so the kids don’t miss out.

I will still take vacation time. I have family coming later in the summer, and I will take days off frequently enough thanks to health issues, appointments, and just life. Also, I will have to take time to plan next year’s school year, but after homeschooling nine years, that should only take me a week or so come fall.

So, what does a summer writing day look like for me? It begins with getting up, breakfast, a shower (if I am lucky), and settling everyone in for the day. Sometimes my to-do list delays things more. Life happens. Then, I do a quick scan of my email and social media. When I finally get a chance to get going on my writing, the session usually starts an hour before lunch or in the early afternoon. On a good day, I can manage two or more hours of writing and produce a few thousand words. Other days, it is more like a thousand words or less due to research sessions or interruptions from the kids. Despite appearances, they are definitely not perfect.

Now that you have been given a glimpse of my summer plans,

what do you expect your summer to look like?

Plan the Work, Work the Plan - Part 1

Source: Pixabay.com

When Work Wisdom Shows up in Bible Study Part 1

 Working in the corporate world for my entire career, I've been exposed to no shortage of workplace wisdom. I've seen them all. Those bold photos of eagles, parachute teams, and lonely trees on rocks with small print mottos below the photograph. You've all seen those 1990s office decor staples.

One motto I've heard for years is "Plan the work and work the plan." I've always associated it with health and safety plans and applied it to other work plans but always strictly related to my day job.

That was until my Bible study on Proverbs when "you need to plan your work and work your plan," slid out of the leader's mouth. That made me think about how to apply this to my everyday life and my writing life. This study is teaching me that Stephen Covey had nothing on King Solomon when it comes to workplace wisdom.

In reality, I have been doing this for a long time. I just never thought about using that phrase in any context outside of my day job. The Bible study inspired me for two Writer's Life posts. There are two parts. One where I excel. One where I do not.

Plan the Work

This post is about the one I've got nailed - Planning the Work. I love a good planner. I've been using one since college although they've evolved over the years. It started out with a Mortar Board Planner, which I learned is specific to my Alma Mater. 

A copy of this bad boy was my first planner
Source: http://purduemortarboard.com/archive/

A Mortar Board is basically a standard spiral bound weekly planner, which would be my go-to for many years after my Franklin Planner phase inspired by that Covey seminar. Yes, I have Outlook and have cycled through electronic devices from a Handspring Visor to my current smartphone. But I still need a paper planner.

What can I say? I'm a writer. I'm a to-do list girl and at times juggle a number of meetings and switched to a daily spiral planner, then a Moleskine one before I tried bullet journaling (too much work). Last year, I tried a larger format binder themed for writers and creatives. Ugh! I loved the concept but didn't like the size. Also, it was geared to a full-time writing/creative professional. I needed something small that worked for a writer with a day job, two busy teens, and church activities.

I found the Legend Planner. It's kind of perfect. I love the size of the weekly planners I've been using and became especially fond of the hardbound Moleskine planners and Leuchterm dot journals. The goal setting and holistic life approach of the large format creative journal was something I knew I needed once I had it. The Legend planner combines both.

I had to make one tiny tweak. There are 8 life areas where you fill in goals and rate your performance each month: Health and Fitness, Career & Business, Finance, Personal Development, Family & Friends, Romance & Relationships, Fun, Recreation, & Hobbies, and Spiritual. Because my husband and I do Finance together, I turned that one into Writing. You could also adapt Romance & Relationships (to me that really overlaps Family & Friends) or maybe use the Hobbies one. If you're a writing professional, of course Career & Business is there for you already.

Source: Amazon

Of course you have to actually plan the work and work the plan. I guess this will be a 3-part series.

Do you have a favorite planner? If so, tell us about it!

Writer's Life: Planners Not Quite to Plan (Kimberly)

Hey everyone! Last year I wrote my first post on the two planners I was intending to use. This year... Let's talk about what happens when even a specialized planner doesn't quite work for your organization style.

Last year started off with grand plans to use two specialized for the working author planners to get my organized chaos approach to something a little more structured. I had the super detailed, everything under the business sun planner from Audrey Hughey and the more streamlined planner by my friend and now fellow blog contributor, Rachel Rossano. I tried to use both of them instead of my fill in a day planner only approach. I learned something very important - the everything under the sun super detailed in minute breakdowns including things I would never think about being in a planner approach in Hughey's author planner is great and efficient...IF you compartmentalize your schedules and to do lists to that extent without feeling stressed.

I also learned that I do not fit the above description. Being TOO structured in my to do lists doesn't work well for me due to both personality and the unpredictability of having a chronic illness. Chronic illnesses don't tend to respect the planner. So I wound up setting that planner aside and not getting another one for this year because it didn't gel with my process.

I did better with Rossano's streamlined planner especially since the weeks were undated so I could work around flare days without feeling like I was wasting chunks of a dated calendar (one of the other reasons dated planners don't fit well with my needs). That's a good thing to know as I move forward and work on streamlining my method for tracking my schedule and to do lists. The benefit of experimenting with planners is you find out what does and doesn't mesh with your style and personality.

So when super organized planners don't quite work as planned, that is okay. Like the variance in plotters, pantsers, and everyone in between, your planner approach doesn't have to match that of other authors. If you're like me and super planners are overwhelming or too structured for the more fluid approach you need, then I recommend getting an undated streamlined planner. Going the undated route allows you to work around non-writing days (or weeks) without feeling like you've wasted a schedule or overly pressured to do SOMETHING writing related when your day isn't allowing for writing moments. A streamlined writing planner will not have all the bells and whistles associated with the business side (like accounting or weekly reviews) but includes space for basics such as blog post scheduling and newsletter dates or swaps. It's a simplified balance between the writing and the business side of an author's schedule, which is something I personally prefer. Especially when my schedules tend to be very fluid unless I put a book up on preorder.

If your planners aren't working quite to plan, be flexible! Pivot to adjust and accommodate a more forgiving schedule. For me, that means undated planners and plenty of buffer included for scheduling deadlines. How about you?

Until next time!

Kimberly

Writer's Life - Making Time (Gretchen)

 Writer's Life - Making Time

I've been in something of a writer's slump these past few months. Very discouraged. I'm replotting and revising my current manuscript, and honestly, it's daunting. After winning the ACFW Genesis Award two years ago and receiving encouraging feedback on various fronts, I realized I have a lot further to go before my story is ready to submit to publishers and agents.

I can't blame my writing situation on 2020 and the drama of the world. This could have happened in any year. Now for the solution. As I often do with my writing life, I draw from my career as an environmental consultant. Much like a lawyer, my work day is broken into billable hours, and I use a timekeeping app to help me allot my time correctly.

Putting into perspective that I consider writing to be something of a ministry and part-time career, I knew I had to treat it as such. With that in mind, I decided that the best way to give my writing it's proper place in my day, I needed to bill my writing time like I would any project.

I'm sure there are several apps out there, but I have been using Toggl for a while and am pleased with it. Recent updates have made it even more user-friendly, namely it now groups my worked hours by project, something I used to have to do manually or by switching to report mode.

What tricks do you use to fit in more writing time?

Do you have a favorite app to increase your productivity?