Tips to Stay BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard

There are days that I don't want to write. I never know when they're going to happen or why. But they do happen and I have to force myself to sit down and write instead of acting on my impulse to run away to the hills and play with my friends. Here are some ways I stay BICHOK which might help you as you struggle with writing on the dark days or the sunny days or the "gee I really don't feel like writing" days.

1. Set a timer. Oh, what a love-hate relationship I have with my microwave timer. Still, it works. Like a charm. I set my timer for one hour. I am not allowed to leave the chair during that time unless a tornado siren blares. Even if all I write is one sentence, I have written it. It works. My daily goal is 3-4 hours of writing/revising/staring at the blank screen and bashing my head against the keyboard. It works. Sometimes it feels like forever until the timer beeps. But sometimes I find the timer's beeping a huge intrusion. Either way, I get words written and the story moves forward.

2. 100x100. This is a great way to generate words on a daily basis if you have a lot of other life factors interfering with your writing. Write 100 words for 100 days. That's a lot of words. That's like almost a story! Right? Write! Try it.

3. A very wise soul once told me that just touching the manuscript counts. In other words, don't walk away for days and expect to come back full throttle with new words. Your head has to be in the game or your characters fade. The story fades. And your enthusiasm fades. We all get stuck. The trick is figuring out how to get unstuck. On bad writing days, I tell myself, just look at the work in progress. Read over it. Revise one piece. Play with a new sentence structure. Brainstorm a scene. Anything to get those creative juices flowing. It's what I have always told the College Kid: think with your pencil in your hand. It makes a difference. Really. Try it!

4. Reward yourself. Anyone who knows me has heard about my typing for quarters which I totally took from Kelly Stone's workshop and embellished. She's awesomeness in the motivation of writing business. I love everything she has taught to me about staying in the chair. Here's the biggest thing: a writer paid herself a quarter per page so she'd meet her writing goals. Me? I take it a step more. Well, honestly, I have run the distance with this one. I pay myself a quarter for every hour I spend in the chair, for working out because a healthy writer is a strong writer, for every goal I check off my writing to-do list be it writing a blog, sending a query letter, pumping up my social media presence (more about that later). Those quarters add up!! I made a pretty tin, got a roll of quarters (I have added to the quarters over time), and every time I make a goal I drop a quarter into the tin. When the quarters are gone, I buy them back with $20 and $10 bills which go into a box in my office (be warned would be thieves-I have an Attack Cat and a security system). I pay for my conference fees and contests and other such writerly stuff with my accrued funds. It works for me! Might work for you. (Just don't tell the Physicist that I raided his change basket once because I thought he owed me a few quarters--make of it what you will).

5. Plan for a break. Tell yourself that you can take one day off a week to rejuvenate your mind and soul. Play. Have fun. Talk about real life stuff and not the people in your head. Meet new people. Go to a movie. Read a great book. Call a friend. Just give yourself permission to relax.

These tips work for me. Maybe they might work for you. Do you have any other ways to add to my "Bichok" advice? Leave a comment and share!

You've Got to Play to Work

Last week I posted about finding your dream and going for it with no excuses. My first tip to pursuing one's dreams and goals was to make time to do it. There is no such thing as no time to do anything unless you are working three jobs and raising a family. There just isn't. If you have a half an hour, you've got time to work toward your goal.

Establishing a minimum time requirement per day is crucial toward reaching your goal. Even if all you do is research what it will take to accomplish reaching your goal, then it is still productive use of your time. As a writer, that half an hour might be about researching some facet of my novel. But if you're dreaming about becoming a doctor, it might be about researching what areas of medicine are best suited to your personality. Each step, even a baby step, is still a step forward.

If you've been reading my blog this week, you'll know I haven't been working as much as I've been playing. In fact, I didn't even meet one of my big goals for the week because I preferred playing to sitting down and reading through my two requested partial manuscripts. I always like to do a read-aloud before I do my final tweak and send my babies out into the world.

Bad me! But not really. Why? Because I did  manage to meet my minimum goals every day this week. I also exceeded them more days than not. My minimum goal this week was to write 100 words a day about my new book which I am exploring, follow up on blog comments, write three blogs for the following week and schedule them, and continue working on my social media knowledge via Kristen Lamb's book, WE ARE NOT ALONE and my online courses. Yes, despite my deliberate hooky from serious work, I managed to accomplish quite a lot.

I could have accomplished more if I had hunkered down and forced myself to stop playing and work. But I know something important: my brain needs a break and this season is the one season I feel fully rejuvenated if I take the time to play. Every year in the autumn I slow down a bit to let my brain relax and enjoy the beautiful season. I need to.

Usually I've been working super hard and this year was no exception. I was working on my full manuscript's revision until September 29. On September 30, I immediately went to the Georgia Writers of America Moonlight and Magnolia's Conference and immersed myself in all things professional via pitching my manuscript, learning about writing from Michael Hauge, Allison Brennan and Kelly Stone, and celebrating my writing friends' victories at the MAGGIE Awards Ceremony.

There wasn't much time to breathe between that trip and our fall break with the family. I knew it would be pointless to undertake a large project so I stuck to my mini goals and gave myself some space.

This is my second tip: Understand your rhythm as you undertake pursuing your goal.

If you don't understand how you work and when it is best for you to work, then you will burn out. Everyone has a different rhythm. I tend to operate well on long jags of intense work with time out for good behavior breaks. I need my social time, my sun time and my time to relax if I am going to get the big tasks done. I've also learned that as a writer, I must touch or do something with my current work in progress everyday or I'll lose my connection with my story. Now that doesn't mean I write through major holidays like Christmas or New Years Eve, but I do write a bit every day through almost all the days of the year.

The trick is I know when to notch back my efforts and I don't beat myself up for not attaining major goals. I can make up for the loss during high work days. Giving myself permission to chill helps me to work harder when I am on full schedule. This can be true of students as well. I used to look at my schedules and I could see where my days were filled and not so filled. I made sure I cut back a bit, let myself play and regroup, during those slower days.

It's important to know when you're strongest creatively. Is it mornings? Nights? Afternoons? I tend to be super awake and creative in the mornings, lull in the afternoons, and then pick up a bit again in the 4PM-6PM time slot. Afternoon lulls are when I usually play more during my "off time" but if I am in full work zone, I usually use afternoons to catch up on the business and boring parts of my job as a writer.

Years ago I read a great book by Dr. Robert Arnot called THE BIOLOGY OF SUCCESS. I still have it in my bookshelf and refer to it regularly. Understand how you operate and you will optimize your chances of succeeding in your chosen profession.

Do you know your rhythm? Do you know your strengths? How do you relax? Do you have flex time built into your schedule?

If you are working toward a goal, writing or non-writing, share it with me. Share your challenges and your solutions with me. I'd love to hear about them.

Mission Confirmed: Write My Own Story My Way

This weekend I attended the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference hosted by the Georgia Romance Writers of America. My writing friend and I managed to survive our trip of four plus hours with little incident (uh, well there was that weird pick up line by an unwashed person in McDonalds and a strange toothless person who quite liked my buddy and a wild animal chaser running across the freeway, but I am happy to report no lives were lost during the incident.... but I digress--come on a road trip with us one day and have fun).

But here's the deal: all these adventures are worth the end result for me. First, I bond with a fabulous writing friend as we discuss our writing, life, and the universe. Then I get to hang out with amazing authors, writers and workshop leaders. And I get to celebrate the MAGGIES.

So first up, I attended the workshops. Allison Brennan doesn't plot and I LOVE her for that!! But what I really love is this wisdom: write YOUR story YOUR WAY. Michael Hauge's workshop was about plot and structure and the hero's journey and I learned so much my head ached by the end of the day. But here's what I really learned beyond my ah ha moment about the ying and yang of the conflict of false ego running from true essence as revealed by relationship with another who sees one for who she/he is inside: I learned to BELIEVE I DESERVE TO WIN.

My epiphany. My story. My end result. Someone else might have another one. But this was mine. I own it.

Finally, goal setting with Kelly Stone. Hmmm. I always set goals, so what could I learn? But I learned I had limited my goal setting. I set them by the year and break them down. Now? Oh, wow. I set them by 20 years, by 10 years, by 5 years. I want to see what it will taste like. It will be good. It will change. It will be fluid. But it will be good. Why? Because it is MY STORY TOLD MY WAY IN MY TIME AND I AM STOKED.

Okay, so I am on a conference high. And on a little *ah, I got a first place in the Emerald City Opener Contest and a second place in the same contest* high. Yeah, and I might have had a bit of chocolate. Oh, some champagne. Oh. Yeah. Some dancing occurred, too. All good.

But at the end of the day, here is what is really wonderful. I have a fortune cookie fortune in my jewelry box that I have kept for quite a while. It says: YOUR ABILITY TO FIND THE SILLY IN THE SERIOUS WILL TAKE YOU FAR.

This is my VOICE! Seriously. I mean it. A cookie fortune has pegged my voice in a nutshell. Or perhaps  in a cookie shell? Whatever. This is me. This is my voice. This is my story.

I have the ability to find the silly in the serious, and it will take me far.

Oh, and if you want the lucky numbers? I can be bribed with dark chocolate and champagne.