Things I've Done in 15 Minutes or Less

Some of the things that I've done in 15 minutes or less over the last couple of days:

• Buried Barry Pepper, a gentle teddy-bear hamster who was a favorite of my daughter, in a Lipton Tea box. I even broke a new shovel trying to dig under a root, but I was racing to beat the rain and managed to get the job done.
• Drove to drop off the minivan to replace a cup holder that won't slide back in.
• Created temporary file folders for and filed about 100 papers in my filing cabinet
• Ate a ham and Baby-Swiss sandwich on wheat bread, pistachio nuts, carrot sticks and drank a Coke.
• Made calls to schedule haircuts for me and the boys, check on class enrollment for my November 18th 15-Minute Writer class, and harass my buddy Matt about picking up my wood stove to take it to get the door welded.
• Play one campaign game of Blitz: The League on my PS2, as the Columbus Crushers, destroying the Arizona Outlaws 37 to 20.

Oh, and signed up for NaNoWriMo, where I'm not going to write my novel but a combination of 50,000 words of this proposal and the book itself.

Knocked out chapter summaries for 15 and 16 today.

Tick... Tick... Tick...

I'm getting rolling again on this project, but desperately don't want to bore anyone to tears by stating what my daily work entails (although I will sometimes do that) instead I'll focus on the writing life, advice for those trying to squeeze in their words in hectic, busy lives. So a little bit about writing, a bit about time management, and a pinch of motivation.

Tomorrow: What can you do in 15 minutes? This week, I'm going to keep a time log of sorts where I'm going to note what tasks I take 15 minutes to do. I want to capture a variety of tasks that will help me track what I do on a daily basis, as well as prove to myself and my readers that 15 minutes is actually a LOT of time. So check out the blog this week for details...

Getting Back on Track

I knew that getting through September and October would be tough. Teaching 4 classes, Cub Scout meetings and the annual Cub Scout camp out, working on a video project, and last, but not least, remodeling our master bathroom.

Six months ago, I thought that putting in a new shower stall, floor, and vanity would take a couple of weekends and a couple of vacation days to do the hard stuff (like plumbing and electrical) and would cost around $700 to $1000 at most. I started this project about 4 months ago, and now that we have sunk at least $1500 into the bathroom, and I've spent two days replacing the sub flooring, leveling out the cracks and gaps between the boards, and then sticking the self-adhesive vinyl tiles on a Masonite base. My dad suggested that I use glue on the tiles as well so that it will stay in place better. But the glue and the Masonite didn't work well together and the tile bubbled and oozed glue for over a week. So I had to buy several sheets of cement board, and do it again over the next two weekends... Fitting it into place, screwing it in place with a screw every six inches, then re-gluing and re-tiling the whole thing.

After the flooring is almost finished, we begin install the new toilet (it works great) and pull in the shower stall base to lay it down on the floor to see where it will fit. As it turned out, nowhere. The damn thing is too big and ends up too close to the toilet. Next we begin calculations to install the vanity and the new medicine cabinet. Guess what? They don't fit either, so pretty much everything that I bought over the last several months at Lowes has to go BACK to Lowes, and of course, there are no receipts to be found for the items... anywhere. Kristen and I tear apart the house, and all we can find are the small, $12.76 receipt for planter hooks, or the $6.43 receipt for screws and a small piece of wood. And we save ALL of our Lowes receipts.

So as this has proved. I am not even qualified to shop for my own home improvement supplies, let alone execute a do-it-yourself project. I need to stick to writing and spend my time more efficiently.

Getting Started is HARD

I hate this about myself. Why is it that on weekends (or when I take a day off like today) when I sit down to write it takes me 15 minutes to a half-hour to go myself going? I check my email, answer any quick ones that I can respond to, check the progress of my fantasy football teams (both of them), read any news stories that catch my eye on my Google homepage, and give in to any fleeting curious impulse like looking up houses in my old neighborhoods online (if I'm lucky one day maybe one of my old houses will be up for sale!!), pricing wireless keyboards and mice on eBay, checking the status on the library books that I'm on the waiting list for, or checking one (or both blogs for comments).

Then when I at last get down to work, I wonder what took so damn long to get started. What is so different on these "free" days. Today I'm writing because I'm procrastinating doing some prep work on my bathroom floor. Today, Matt and a friend of his came over and reinforced a weak spot (AKA "hole") in the floor, and cut and fit another sheet of plywood for the floor. Now I need to smooth out the cracks, holes and uneven parts of the floor before we can move onto the next part.

I did manage to get chapter summaries done for chapters 1 and 27 today (so far). I'd like to finish at least 4 more today... well maybe after the flooring compound fun...

I have a confession.

I haven't been working much on the book proposal this week. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy writing. With a flash fiction writing class starting this week, preparing for an interview of the last person who lived in the Reese-Peters House, before it was the Decorative Arts Center, caught up on several email messages that I wanted to follow-up on from the Columbus Writers Conference from last month, and the usual other job, chauffeur, dad, and handyman duties necessary to keep functioning around here.

There was a great series of interviews this week in Newsweek about the lessons that successful women have learned, and Martina Navratilova response really struck a chord with me about how a writer must approach the craft:

"Athletes just do not quit until they get it right, whether it is shooting free throws or practicing serves or practicing one particular shot. It is getting up when you don't feel like getting up for your training session, it is going to bed early even though you want to go out with your friends, it is only drinking half a beer when you really want to drink two. Everything it takes to get to your goal—that's the mentality of an athlete or a successful human being. Period.

I think we know when we are letting ourselves off the hook. If you look in the mirror and you really look yourself in the eye, the image you see forces you to be honest with yourself. As a result, you'll make the right choices."

To read the full interview (and the rest of the interviews), click here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14870681/site/newsweek/?page=2

I often see parallels between athletics and writing. Both depend on hours and hours of practice and preparation before you see a hint of success. They both depend on making sacrifices to position themselves for a chance at success. Anyone who wants to write... who really wants to write... makes the hard choices to turn off the TV and miss the latest episode of The Office, lets the dishes sit in the sink (unwashed), passes up lunch with a group of co-workers, and gets the writing done. Not only on that one day, but tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and so on.

Tomorrow, back to work on the proposal...

Music Lesson Interlude

Task: The dreaded outline

Time stolen from: Writing during music lesson

Sorry I haven't been posting everyday, although I have been whittling away at the outline for the last several days and wanted to avoid boring everyone to death with the details of what I'm working on... since not a lot has changed. The outline is slowly getting organized into chapters, and I think that I'll be ready to start working on chapter summaries tomorrow.

Writing during waiting times always works good for me. Today I brought my laptop with me to my daughter's music lesson (she is taking piano and violin), and got a good 30 minutes of outline work done. I don't mind these types waits. Waiting for doctor's appointments, for oil changes and auto repairs, getting your driver's license renewed, etc. Always bring a notebook or reading to do when you think that you might be waiting for someone else.

The NFL Returns!!

Task: Working on the Outline

Time Stolen From: TV watching (NFL Browns game)

There are a lot of ways to save time watching TV and one of the best ways I've found to save time watching one of my favorite things: the NFL, specifically Browns games on TV, is to use our TiVo (or any DVR) and record the game. I can cut the amount of time spent watching the game from about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to under 2 hours. Football games have TONS for commercials, not to mention lots of dead time and boring, busted plays. The only drawback is that you need to make sure you don't hear ANYTHING about the game, or have anyone reveal any interesting info about it. That is the only gap in the plan. Many times I allow the game to tape for about an hour or two, then I start watching the game until I catch up, then I go back to working on something else until more of the game is taped and watch the rest later.

Friday night surprise

Task: Beginning the outline of the book

Time stolen from: Friday night

Pleasant surprise. Discovered that at some time in the past I started not one outline of the book, but two of them. I clearly have already been struggling with how to organize this book for some time now, and I'm still not sure if this will work, but it's a start. I'll keep playing with the structure until I get something that I like.

Catching up at lunch time

Task(s): Writing proposal intro; drafting comparative titles

Time stolen from: Time gained from working from home instead of commuting

I work from home on Tuesdays and Wednesdays which saves about 70 to 75 minutes a day in commute time, even when I subtract the time it takes to drop off my daughter at school in the morning. At the end of my workday I set the blue timer and try to work on one or two 15-minute writing assignments and this seems to work well. This is the first post-Labor Day week of school and it seems like all sorts of activities start up now: Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Board Meetings, planning meetings, writing classes, etc. If I don't put in that time right after my work shift, many nights it won't get done.

I am amazed at how drafting this proposal clarifies my thinking about the book and helps me slide the sections into a logical order. I'm almost ready to rewrite my example chapters and start constructing the proposed table-of-contents.

Upcoming Tasks:

• Research figures for potential target audiences (not even sure where to begin here)
• Finish reading Write Faster, Write Better
• Begin revision of Chapter 1 as a sample chapter
• Ask Nita about circulation numbers for WriteNOW newsletter
• Ask Debi about hits or unique views on Flash Writing column on flashquake

Intensive Labor on Labor Day

Task: Drafting the Overview section of the proposal

Time stolen from: Holiday weekend

I celebrated Labor Day by laboring intensively on removing 20+ year old tile from our master bathroom floor. Using a WonderBar and a hammer it is slowly splintering and coming up... very slowly. It is a tedious, sweaty, unpleasant job... one of those rare jobs that I'd put off doing to write. But it is difficult having one fully functional bathroom, so getting this done is a priority.

I just "flash wrote" my Overview section draft today. It is usually the last section that I write on any proposal, but I wanted to clarify my vision on what I am trying to do for this book. I liked what came out, a few unexpected things (a couple of new skills to develop for the 15-MW). The proposal is coming along nicely, although I did want to spend a lot more than 15 minutes each day of this weekend on it. Sometimes the bare minimum is all you can deliver.