Category: Writing Life

Writing Full Time: Day 1

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

"Today I will write because I want to be Maggie Stiefvater." Why yes, that is a TARDIS USB hub in the background.I can’t believe I’m actually here.

I’ve been dreaming about writing full-time since I was in high school (which might be longer ago than I care to admit!). I did the responsible thing in college and got a “useful” degree—Computer Science, a field I do actually love—which led me to a programming job at a big tech company in Seattle. I met amazing people there and found a passion for Agile software development that made every day meaningful (though sometimes frustrating). I always said that one day I’d retire and write, but it always seemed like “someday” was still far away (especially since the millions of dollars in stock options I aspired to earn in 2000 never materialized 😉 ). Twelve years flew by before I knew it!

But finally, my circumstances, means and motivation aligned. I let go of my lucrative tech job (and, much harder, my beloved colleagues) and leapt into the exhilarating, uncertain world of being an author.

I know there will be hard days, where my motivation flags and the bank account balance makes me wish I’d kept programming. I know that I will sometimes love what I write and other times believe that I’m a total hack who should never show her work to anyone. I know there will be highs of hope and lows of despair as I query and then go on submission and then, I hope, publish. When life feels bleak, I will look at the mug that my dear friend got me, which reminds me of my goal (if you don’t know who Maggie is, you should definitely follow her on Twitter), and then I will drink the strong black tea that will no doubt be in that mug and buckle down again to work.

Even if I change my mind later, I know I’ll never be sorry I gave this ride a try. Right now, here’s no roller coaster I’d rather be on.

Proven Strategies for Actually Achieving Your Goals

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

It’s been my “goal” to be a published author for a long time. I say “goal” in quotes because really it’s been more like a dream, not something I can control. I could make a goal to actually finish the book, but I haven’t been successful at that, either. (Not a draft that I like, anyway.) So I set an achievable goal of writing 8 hours a week. I haven’t quite been hitting it, but I have been putting stars on the calendar, and that has actually been a great tool for showing me how close I’m getting to really putting in the time I need.

Now I’m reading a book called The ONE Thing. I picked it up after watching a highly motivating session (no longer free) about it by its coauthor, Jay Papasan. In chapter 14 of the book, the authors mention research that asked one group of students to visualize an outcome (e.g., getting an A on an exam), while “the others were asked to visualize the process needed to achieve a desired outcome (like all of the study sessions needed to earn that ‘A’ on the exam)” (their emphasis, p. 152 according to my eBook). Students in the second group were far more successful; in fact, the paper’s abstract states, “Envisioning successful completion of a goal or resolution of a stressor–recommendations derived from the self-help literature–did not” produce meaningful progress.

So basically, all this time I’ve been spending dreaming about my life as an author hasn’t helped me at all. I mean, I could have told you that, but now I know why and I have a tool to help me.

But wait, there’s more! Gail Matthews did further research that illuminates additional ways to tilt the odds in your favor. The most effective things you can do are (in order, cumulatively):

  1. Write down your goal
  2. “Formulate action commitments” and write them down (e.g., “at this time in this place I will <your goal> for this long”)
  3. Send your goals and action commitments to a supportive friend
  4. Send your friend weekly progress reports

The study has a total of only 149 participants who completed it, but the positive effect of doing all four things was noteworthy! The ONE Thing recommends starting with your “someday” goal and doubling it (dream big), then working backward to your five-year goal, this year, this month, this week, and today (although if you plan weekly you probably can figure out your daily goal). I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to start that process!

Free Writing

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

Posting a grammar quip right before July 4, with fireworks exploding outside, just didn’t seem right. Instead this is a post about writing and freedom.

I’m very grateful that I have the freedom to write, and write what I want. I don’t have to worry about criminal charges for insulting my president. I don’t live in daily fear for my safety. I’m even fortunate enough to have the financial freedom to get a few hours to myself each week to pursue my writing dreams.

Therefore, I want to use my freedom responsibly. I write fiction, so I owe it to my future readers to write the best book I can, to tell the story only I can tell. I have the freedom to say anything I want on social media, so I should say things that are responsible and informed to the best of my ability.

Though I often disagree with the way American leaders have used the American military, I still believe that those who served and their families sacrificed for the truly noble ideal of protecting our country. I owe it to all those who died for this country to live as fully as I can — to write because it’s my dream, to barbecue with friends because I can (and it’s what those vets would be doing if they could), and to help my fellow human beings because they need it.

Because freedom isn’t free.

Military graves with flags

Keeping up appearances

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

I’ve been working on my novel on and off for more years than I care to admit. Since I first had the idea, I’ve gone to college, gotten married, and had two children. This past year, I’ve gotten really serious about making the book good enough to sell, but there were some plot holes that caused me to go back to what felt like square one on multiple occasions. I feel like I’m no closer to getting published than I was a year ago.

So what do I say when people ask, “How’s your book going?”

They’re just trying to be nice and make conversation, but they have no idea the fountain of emotions that such a question brings forth. “I wrote a thousand words yesterday, but I today changed the plot and will have to toss all of those. I have notebooks filled with ideas, dozens of versions of my outline, and whole folders with the obsolete history of these characters, but I still don’t have a draft I’m happy with.” If I said that, people would be like, “Uhhh… sorry for asking.”

My day job is code monkey. Over the years, I’ve developed a strong resistance to being asked about my work, “When will it be done?” The honest answer: I don’t know. (Many would insert colorful language to punctuate that answer.) Time estimates in software development are essentially useless except under some pretty specific circumstances that don’t apply to most teams. The same is true of writing. You might have deadlines, but that doesn’t make the estimates accurate.

At least in software, you can usually say how much of the feature is finished (although there are whole debates just about what the definition of “finished” is). With writing, you never know when a plot twist — a good one that makes the story better! — will end up invalidating some non-negligible percentage of existing book. At some point you just decide it’s good enough and start trying to sell it. If it doesn’t sell, you keep improving it. (And if you do find an agent and then a publisher, you’re looking at a of minimum two more rounds of serious editing.)

This past January, I wrote a post on making resolutions. I came to the conclusion that the only thing I could control about the process was how many hours I put in. I think that’s the same response I have for the book question. “I’m still working on it!” Not with a sigh and a defeated look, but like an athlete who’s still in training. “I’m still putting in the hours!”

At least I don’t have to wait for the next Olympics to look for an agent.

How to Lower Your Expectations Without Giving Up: A Reframing Exercise

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

Buttercup and Westley in the Fire SwampSince having my second baby, I’ve constantly struggled with my frustration at not getting enough done. I’m have more resources than many moms, but I also have overly demanding expectations of myself. When I ran out of resources to throw at the “no time” problem, there was only one thing left to change.

You might have noticed that I’m a tad “all or nothing,” which means that when I have little margin in my life (like now), I am always close to falling into the pit of self-pity. “My life is over, I’ll never have free time again, what was I thinking having kids, when will this get better??” But I didn’t want to allow myself to lower my expectations, because it felt like giving up and admitting that my life was going to be miserable forever.

Of course, it wasn’t true that my whole life was miserable. I was experiencing a moment of misery, as everyone does, but I was letting it derail me. This insight from my counselor helped me believe that my act of acknowledging that every life will occasionally be difficult (in some seasons perhaps more frequently than others) is not “giving up.” It’s just setting an expectation that is more realistic—without being nihilistic.

The trick for me is to notice when I’m about to fall over the cliff of despair so that I can interrupt my pity-party with a reminder: this too shall pass. I need to agree with myself that this minute/hour/day sucks—the emotional validation is critical—but then remind myself to just get through it. Not only does that keep me away from the cliff, but it actually helps me get closer to the next good moment because I’m turning my attention toward the future good. I won’t say I’m actually good at doing that yet, but at least I have now decided, in the light of day, what to do when I next notice that I’ve ended up in the fire swamp.

Tread-desk: Day 3

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

I have now used a treadmill desk (tread-desk) for three days, and I like it a lot more than I expected! If you’ve ever considered using one, I recommend trying it out. Here’s what I like and dislike, as well as some additional considerations.Yep, I always look this put-together while working. And my desk is always this clean.

Awesome:

  • The biggest benefit was actually something completely unexpected: walking keeps me awake! My writing time is usually during my sons’ naptime in the afternoon or after they go to bed, at both of which times I’m usually just as tired as they are. Tea (black tea is my caffeine of choice) only goes so far. But it’s a lot harder to fall asleep while you’re walking.
  • It’s not that hard to adapt. I had been standing on my treadmill for a long time before I worked up to turning it on (I know, I know), but I’d say it took me maybe 30 minutes to get used to typing while I stand up and maybe another 30 minutes to find the right speed to walk at.
  • Walking is pretty much the best thing you can do for your body and your brain, so to be able to do it while writing is amazing.
  • My posture is better – or rather, it would be if I could get my monitor high enough; but walking, I notice that I’m slumping and am more motivated to fix it.

Drawbacks:

  • Treadmills take up more space than a desk. Mine extends about 2 feet farther behind me than a chair would.
  • You have to figure out how to get all your stuff elevated. I didn’t want to buy a standing desk right away, since they’re expensive and I didn’t know if I would like it, so I bought a keyboard stand and put my monitor on boxes. If you’re usually on a laptop anyway, it’s relatively easy to find laptop stands. It still feels like a kludge (because the monitor and keyboard vibrate ever so slightly as I type and walk), so as soon as I can afford it, I’m going to buy a better standing desk (since I now know I like it).
  • Walking in place is slightly disorienting in a way that walking forward is not. I develop “sea legs” while I’m walking, but then I feel like a landlubber for a minute or two after I get off.
  • It’s noisier. My treadmill itself is actually pretty quiet just running, but my walking on it causes lots of extra creaking. I didn’t notice until I realized I had to turn up my music to hear it over the sound of my walking. I like to write in silence sometimes, but then, I also fell asleep in my chair sometimes, so this is, overall, an improvement.

Other considerations:

USE THE SAFETY CLIP. You don’t want to be the one about whom someone else writes a cautionary tale. I drape mine over my keyboard when I get off so that I don’t forget to put it back on.

The treadmill. With a tread-desk, you want a treadmill designed to go at a leisurely pace for hours on end. Most fitness treadmills can go faster, adjust incline, etc., but don’t have a motor designed to run for hours at a time. LifeSpan is the gold standard for tread-desks and that’s reflected in the price, but if you get serious about it, invest in the real deal. (I bought mine used for half the price, and I have no affiliation with the company, financial or otherwise.) Of course, if you just want to try out this crazy idea, then by all means start with a fitness treadmill. Go find someone selling off last year’s New Year’s resolution at a garage sale, zip-tie a lapdesk to it, and away you go.

Shoes. I hate wearing shoes in the house, just as a general rule. House-shoes are a nod to necessity in the winter, but otherwise it’s bare feet all the time. I’ve used bare feet and sock feet on the treadmill, but it just works better in trainers.

Speed. My treadmill defaults to 0.4 mph (and, annoyingly, reverts back to that every time I pause). That was so slow I almost tipped over. Just like a bicycle needs to be going a certain minimum speed to keep its balance, so do my legs. That was unexpected. I landed on 0.9 mph as being fast enough to walk comfortably (the “museum shuffle” is actually painful to my knees) slow enough not to break a sweat and keep my hands steady on the keyboard. You have to walk for 3-4 minutes at a speed before you get a feel for it.

Ergonomics. Make sure your elbows are bent at a 90º angle when your hands touch the keyboard, and your wrists should bend down very slightly. (Although we all do it, our wrists should not rest on the table/keyboard tray, but should be held up as if they were playing a piano.) The top of your monitor should be just above eye-level so that you don’t have to bend your head down to look at any part of the screen. You might not notice sitting down, but when I do that while walking, my neck does get a little sore. Note that this means when calculating desk/keyboard height, you have to add in the standing height of the treadmill.

Coffee cups. I’m not a sure-handed drinker under any circumstances. I’m so paranoid about spilling that I’ve switched to travel mugs and reusable water bottles for my beverage intake. And you’re walking, so you should drink more water. 🙂

Soundtrack today: Sarah Brightman’s Symphony.

Making S.M.A.R.T. resolutions

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

It’s almost 2016! How did this happen?!

I was thinking over possible New Year’s resolutions and, as usual, bemoaning that I haven’t achieved any of my writing goals yet. My dear husband asked, “Well, when will you be done? How can you break this up into small steps and turn them into a list you can check off?” (We are both engineers, so half of me loved this question.) The writer half of me was like, “That’s just not how it works!”

However, we did figure out that you can set lots of goals for Butt In Chair time. Coincidentally, creative output always and only follows BIC time, so ensuring the latter is pretty much the only way to (eventually) ensure the former. Hence, I am making BIC goals. But they should also be SMART goals. So, for your edification, and to provide some public accountability, here is my goal:

  • Specific: I will spend 8 hours a week doing actual plot work on my story (brainstorming, outlining, drafting, or editing).
  • Measurable: I will put a gold star on my calendar page for every hour thus spent, so that I can count them at the end of the week.
  • Attainable: As previously discussed, outcome measurements in creative work are demoralizing. But there is nothing that can prevent me from sitting down. (Or walking; I have a tread-desk.)
  • Realistic: I work three days a week, so between my two days off (during which I also do a fair amount of self-care, errand-running, and housework) and a few hours of naptime or in the evenings, 8 hours is realistic at this point in my life. Of course I wish it was more, but this is the minimum. And if I get past 8 hours? Gold star! 😉
  • Timely: Every week. Forever. (Yes, you’re supposed to kind-of time-box the goals, but again, the thing about outcome measurement being demoralizing.) The weekly nature fits in well with human psychology and will allow me to create carrots and/or sticks to ensure that I do this.

Treat Your Book Like a Startup (PNWA session round-up)

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

Friday morning at the conference was comprised mainly of the agent and editor sessions in the main ballrooms. Even though their names and bios were published in the session booklet, it was still insightful to hear them talk about what they were looking for and answer questions. Unlike my first conference in 2010, we were able to get through all of them and still have time for questions. 🙂

The first true sessions, then, were at lunchtime, but even these were “sponsored” sessions—meant to be informative, but given by one of the conference’s sponsors. Now, I have no problem with conference sponsorships, but I was wary of the value of such sessions. However, I’m pleased to say that I actually enjoyed this one, which was sponsored by BookCountry.

The BookCountry rep began by asking the audience to name products that began as startups, and we got the familiar ones like Twitter and Uber. She defined a startup as a business that can test the waters of its market with a small investment and change based on feedback. (For example, Twitter was originally a podcasting platform.) These strategies allow startups to morph into better fitting a marketplace they might not have originally targeted or thought was open to them, and allows them to slowly build up a positive buzz instead of blowing all their marketing money on a campaign that doesn’t create a splash. (Or worse, that creates a splash but dies out due to an inferior product.)

How do you know if your product is good? Get feedback. Doing so reduces risk, because you understand how your product will be received. Now, what if your product is a book? How do you find objective beta readers who can give you great, specific feedback on your work?

  1. Local writing groups
  2. A developmental editor ($)
  3. Paid writing classes, online or in person ($)
  4. Writing conferences or retreats (probably $)
  5. Writing contests (possibly $)
  6. Online workshops, such as BookCountry

BookCountry sounds similar to CritiqueCircle, both of which are free platforms that allow you to earn “credits” by critiquing others’ work and use the credits to post your own work for review. With any free service, it’s important to know where the money’s coming from so that you can judge whether it’s likely to pollute the quality of the service. In BookCountry’s case, it’s run by Penguin, which appears to be hoping to crowdsource some of its slushpile filtering. While of course Penguin has a profit motive, there’s a lot to be gained and nothing that would obligate you to Penguin (AFAIK), so it seems like a safe place. Either way, the rep’s suggestions were good and her points well-taken.

Making Connections (PNWA 2015 session round-up)

Posted on by Abigail Welborn

Robert Dugoni, a best-selling author who got his start at PNWA, continues to support the PNWA and its writers. On Thursday afternoon he gave the pre-dinner session. In it, he talked about his personal journey from a family of “compulsive overachievers” through law to being an author. People told him that it took a lot of courage for him to leave his law practice to pursue writing, but, he said, it was really fear of never achieving his dreams that drove him to do it. 🙂

So when he set out to become an author, Robert talked with a friend whose father had left traditional work to become a world-famous photographer. The father gave him two pieces of advice:

  1. Follow your dreams and the money will come. (Follow the money and you’ll lose your dreams.)
  2. Immerse yourself in the community of artists. (Surround yourself with many and many will be available to you.)

In other words, don’t think you’re “not a writer” just because you’re not published. A writer is one who writes, and every published author was first a writer.

The first connection every writer needs is to better understand himself. You need to understand the best story you’ll write (what you’ll write honestly and with passion). He challenged us to find a quote that defines our writing dream and post it somewhere to motivate us.

The second connection you need is the people around you. Not just your fellow authors (future J.K. Rowlings among them), but everyone you meet. Become an observer of people so that your books feel more real and interesting.

Remember that all you control is the writing. Have patience, perseverance, persistence, perspective, and passion while you try to get published, but never give up the writing. (Praying doesn’t hurt, either, if you want another P-word. 😉 )

Finally, he said his idea was so cheesy that his kids told him not to do it, but he wanted to do it anyway. He made us all stand up. (Much shuffling of papers and closing of laptops ensued.) Then he recited a writer’s version of Aragorn’s famous speech [I found it for you below], ending with “Today we write!”