Things are gonna be changing around here…

Three blogs are too many blogs.  Plus there is the constant pressure of coming up with content for all three of them that is specific to the niche that I’ve established for each of them.  Grist for the Muse: Writing ideas and inspiration; The 15-Minute Writer – Finding time to write and time management techniques and tips for writers. And this blog: Flash Writing – Devoted to providing content that is for writing anything less than 1000 words long. These are all very narrow focuses, and I’m finding that I have a lot to say that exists in between these niches.

The best writing blogs give you a glimpse into the writer’s mind and life and lets you get to know him/her. The have good days and bad days. They have opinions. They rant. They rave. The express their doubts and fears, as well as their successes. But none of my blogs have that kind of energy right now.  At times I dread looking at them because I know they are defective and diseased, but yet feel I need to nurture them even though they are clearly rabid and need to be put down. So I’m putting them down.

Good writing blogs are about two things: The writing life and making money with it. So the new focus of Flash Writing moving forward: Write Fast. Make Money.  I’m not promising that I won’t change focus or change my mind on the other blogs.  I will keep them online for a while and redirect them here to this site, as well as take the best content on them and republish it here

Flash fiction is interesting to me, but I’m not sure that I can become a definitive destination site for writing all things that flash. There are other sites out there that do a much better job of this.  FlashFiction.Net for example does a great job providing resources, interviews, stories and other articles surrounding flash fiction… But as I’ve always said, the principles of Flash Writing can be used for any writing project, so I’m going to build upon this concept and focus on growing one site well instead of three sites poorly.

I have content that fits none of these niches that will be of interest to writers everywhere, so I want Flash Writing to be that destination from now on.  So go there for your time saving, productivity tips and all of the other content you've been seeing on The Fifteen Minute Writer over the past several years.  The Fifteen Minute writing concept is one that is core to my writing practice and a book will emerge from this concept soon, so watch for it.

To head over to Flash Writing click HERE.

New Year's Resolutions? Meh...

This is the first year in a long time that I haven’t made any resolutions.  My typical resolutions are the following:

• Write xxx # of words per day.
• Start an exercise program.
• Make xxxx $ in freelance income this year.
• Post 7 blog posts each week.
• Finish and publish the next book by October 1st.
• Etc...

You get the idea.  I set lofty goals and then feel like absolute shit when I fail to reach them for whatever reason.

Now granted, it helps to have SOMETHING written down and something to work towards.  And considering that I’m STILL unemployed and have just a little freelance work trickling in, maybe I SHOULD make a few resolutions, but I’m trying something a bit different this year.

I’m going to create new habits and only focus on one habit at a time.  This month, I’m getting addicted to writing.  You heard me right.  Get myself addicted to a GOOD thing.  I’m going to force myself to set a timer at least once a day and just write for 15 minutes.  Even if I have no idea where I’m taking it, I’m going to do it.  I signed up for an online flash fiction that requires that I critique at least 4 stories a month and (suggests) that I write at least one.  I have 3 blogs of which I'm trying to grow and build traffic for.  I have Tweets to my (currently) 215 followers to create and find.  I have an outline of a book project to work on. I have freelance work to find and produce.  There is plenty of substance for this addiction.

Courtesy of Matt via Flickr

So whether it is a freelance assignment, a blog post or creative work on one of my many incomplete projects, I’m going to force myself out of the box occasionally, ignore whatever crises seem to be on hand, and take that time to write something outside of the box.  I'm going to stop being obsessed with one problem at a time.  Stop retreating into distractions such as Words with Friends tournaments with my buddies, seeking the top Bejeweled Blitz score of all of my Facebook friends, or obsessive TV series watching.  December featured a run of the last 3 seasons of Dr. Who on Netflix...

In addition, December had the death of a close friend, a washing machine that could not be repaired and needed to be replaced, a gas furnace that, was too expensive to repair, also needed to be replaced, and, of course, the holidays.  So the 30-Day Writing Challenge was a miserable, epic FAIL.

This is always the darkest part of the year for me. After the holidays are over, here in Ohio winter usually bites down hard… with gray skies and a deep, painful cold that makes you just want to roll yourself up in quilts and hibernate until the sun comes back.

But I’m going to fight this. I have to.

So what do you do to chase away the mid-winter blues?  How do you keep productive during stressful, busy times?  And what are your New Year's Resolutions (if you have any)?  Comment below.

Great Writing Means Nothing If You Don't "Ship" It

I finished up Seth Godin’s Linchpin on a week ago on Friday and a couple of the concepts within the book have been with me all week. One of which is the importance of deadlines.

I have a huge problem with deadlines.  I always have. I’m not good at setting them or keeping them.  But Seth has an interesting perspective on them.  Bottom line: You can have great ideas and great products but they mean nothing if they don’t “ship.”  You have to have a deadline or a drop dead ship date in order to force yourself to get the item out the door. It is tempting to hang onto an project wanting to tweak it a bit more, make one more revision or find that perfect window when the stars align perfectly and the time is right for you to release your book.

Do you want to write a novel?  Set a deadline for completion. Feel crazy?  Tell people about that deadline. Tell a LOT of people about it. And then… remind them about it. OFTEN. 

So what have you been avoiding shipping? A novel to an agent? Submitting a short story or article to a magazine? Just getting a regular writing practice started?  Showing your work to a local writing group? Set a date. Make it a reasonable one, but make the date. Write it down somewhere where you can see it every day. Tell people about it.  And no matter what happens… you “ship” that product on that day. No matter what.  If you don’t think it is good enough, don’t worry about it.  You can always make a few revisions later. Even big publishers have made corrections before printing another edition of a book. Remember no one and nothing is perfect. Perfection is a tool of control for your Inner Critic.

I’ve had several projects in my queue for years.  I have them in various states of completion, but I never seem to push through that wall to get the product to the shipment date.

Case in point:  My Fantasy Sci-Fi JumpStart Jar.  I have the supplies.  The label has been designed, finalized and printed.  The content for the jar was 90% completed when I lost my source files stored on my flash drive.  And guess what?  I never backed up the files.  This totally deflated any enthusiasm I had for the project. Essentially, I had to start over from scratch.  This happened almost 2 years ago, and I’ve worked my way back up having it about 60% complete right now. Very slowly.  I work on it for a couple of days here and there, but have not made a continuous effort to get it done. Sometimes these efforts are months apart.  With that amount of time passing you lose focus. You forget where you left off.  You forget how far along you are in the project, and it takes a lot more energy to get focused and push it forward. 

So here is my bold statement:  The Fantasy Sci-Fi JumpStart Jar will ship on June 30^th.  Order it now. It will be completed and good to go on that very day. No matter what.

Most Brilliant Product Ever Invented? Or the End of Civilization?

Either this is the most brilliant consumer product ever imagined and manufactured, or a sign that the end of civilization as we know it is near.  April Fool's joke?  I'm not so sure... it looks like PopCap games, the makers of addictive games like Bejeweled and Bookworm, have diversified into interactive microwave ovens. These allow you to play games on it while you wait for your Quaker Instant Oatmeal to cook. 

Are we so pathetic that we need to be entertained while nuking our Ham 'n Cheese Hot Pockets?  Hmmm, come to think of it... yes... It would be sort of cool to have one...

15-Minute Writer Manifesto

I did this for my other blog, Grist for the Muse, so it makes perfect sense to do the same with 15MW. I have struggled keeping a blog on this topic. 

This was supposed to be inspiration and support for what was going to become my next book: The 15-Minute Writer: How to Live Your Creative Writing Dreams in Just 15 Minutes a Day. The proposal got fried on a flash drive that I didn’t back up. I have most of it in hard copy, but the topic really didn’t fire me up. I just didn’t connect with it. It felt like I had declared it to be my next book project simply because it was a cool premise with a cool elevator pitch that a couple of agents thought would be engaging. That was back in 2007. I do still like the concept though. The 15-Minute Writer will be a book someday, maybe even a series of books, but not for a while. 

Writers finding time to write is a universal problem that few people address on an ongoing basis. I hope the 15-Minute Writer will fill this void with good advice, cool products, and excellent resources.

The 15-Minute Writer covers tips, tools and topics for your writing time-management needs to help you live your creative writing dream in Just 15-Minutes a Day. I will do this by adhering to the following guidelines:

1. Not to rely so much on my experiences and knowledge for the blog. You can get that anywhere on the web. I’ll still put together original articles and content, just not rely on it as much as a basis for the blog.
2. Focus on content that either helps you write faster, or saves you time and money which frees up some time for writing.
3. Post cool things of interest about writing, time management and organization that I stumble across on other blogs and web-pages.
4. Inject my “humble” opinions on these items of interest, when applicable.
5. Not be so afraid to inject my “humble” opinions on those items of interest, the writing life, or life in general.
6. Post more often. At least once a week, although I’d prefer to make a habit of posting 2 or 3 times a week, to keep you coming back to see what’s going on.
7. Answer and thank those who take the time to leave comments on my posts.
8. Share my journey – Because I struggle with these issues just like you do. I have a day job, 4 kids, a menagerie of pets, a house and a yard and all of the responsibilities that come along with them. So it is hard for me to juggle all of these flaming chainsaws and still get the writing done.
9. Stop being such a technical idiot. Learn to format these entries so they can be easily read. Maybe how to put a nifty picture or two in ‘em from time-to-time. I’d like to overhaul the design of this while I’m at it… but not right away.
10. Stop being such a perfectionist. Perfectionism wastes time.
11. Be entertaining. There are so many interesting and engaging writers out there. I want to be like them. And help you get writing done.
12. Continue the Shameless Self Promotion. A guy’s gotta eat, right?
13. Be available to answer your questions.
14. That these guidelines of this manifesto are fluid and subject to change as determined by my mood, audience response, and interests change.