My New Writing Gig: Location Independent Parents

I am happy to tell you that I am now officially a guest writer for the blog Location Independent Parents, whose tagline is "Live & Work Anywhere . . . Even With Kids."

My first two posts went live last week:

Meet the Lifestyle Writer: Alison Gresik, Who Turned Parental Leave Into a Nomadic Experiment
3 Feel-Good Reasons to Visit City Parks in Beijing and Beyond

I'm really enjoying writing personal essays and articles for online readers. And I'm glad to have a regular writing time in the morning when I have deadlines to meet!

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear any questions/suggestions for article topics.

How to Finish the Last 10 Per Cent

Now that the distractions of summer are nearly over, I'm thinking about my writing plans for the fall. Mostly they involve finishing things.

I drive my husband nuts when I clean the kitchen, because I'll do 90 per cent of the work (load the dishwasher, scrub the pots, put away the leftovers) and then leave the last 10 per cent (floor isn't swept, counters aren't wiped, dishcloth isn't hung neatly to dry) because I figure 90 per cent is good enough.

I've made an effort, I've done most of the work, and it feels powerful to quit when *I* want to, not when the job is finished.

I'm at 90 per cent with my middle grade novel:

• The final revision is almost done.


• I drafted a query letter.


• I bought Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market.


• I have a request from an agent to see my full manuscript (cool, huh?).


• I have a referral from an author for another agent (double cool).

This fall is when I finally start the submission process. Because what kind of fool would run 90 per cent of the race and then quit when the finish line is finally in sight?

So here's my strategy for finishing the last 10 per cent (borrowing heavily from Charlie Gilkey's 5Cs of Completion):

Get clear on what I need to do

1. Finish rewrites on the novel.
2. Read the manuscript IN ITS ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and OUT LOUD (thank you to writer Anne Mini for that one).
3. Create a spreadsheet of agents to submit to.
4. Polish my query letter.
5. Submit.

Break down each goal into specific steps

To finish rewrites, I have a checklist that details each chapter and what needs work. The only ones remaining are 8, 10, 16, and 21.

I have another revision list to use when I read through the manuscript.

For my agent spreadsheet, I'm going to go through the listings in Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market.

(FYI, this is the point at which I considered quitting writing this blog post.)

Decide to finish

Now that I know what needs to be done, I need to commit to making it happen. I'm announcing it here, which is always quake-inducing, because what if I don't make it?

Before I announce it, then, I'm making sure that what needs to be done is achievable. That list up there will take maybe 30 hours of work? And some courage to pull the trigger? I've got that.

So here's the declaration: by September 30, 2010 I will have submitted my middle grade novel to five agents.

(I nearly didn't include that sentence above because it sounds so dorky. But I think a clear commitment is in order. I'll swallow my pride.)

Focus on doing the work

For me, focus means 1) setting aside time to do the work; 2) putting it in my planner so it's on my radar; and 3) saying no to stuff that would put me off track.

I have my morning writing time to finish revisions this week. Maybe I'll read the manuscript to my husband in the car this weekend. And I can work on my agent spreadsheet in the afternoons.

Party!

A few summers ago I bought a ticket to Wicked as a celebration for finishing a novel revision. I'm going to keep my eyes open for a kick-ass way to mark the completion and submission of my first book in ten years!

Do you have something to finish this fall? Tell me about it!

Image credit

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In September I'll be doing a blog series based on my ebook, "Safeguarding Your Creative Time: A Workbook for Setting Boundaries". If you don't have your free copy yet, click here to sign up and download it.

Danielle LaPorte: How Does She Do It?

I'm fascinated by people's creative rhythms – how they ride the waves of time, energy and attention to get things made.

So when Danielle LaPorte offered to answer anyone's interview questions to help promote her Fire Starter Sessions, I jumped on the chance to find out more about her creative life.

Danielle is an energetic writer and speaker who blogs at White Hot Truth. She's a co-author of Style Statement, a workbook filled with inspiring photos and bios that gives you a unique way to understand yourself better. And she's also the creator of the Fire Starter Sessions, a digital experience for entrepreneurs.

So here's what Danielle had to say:

Your motor seems to rev at a smoking RPM. Have you always been this supercharged or did you discover a higher gear at some point? What's your secret to running that hot without burning out? [Yes, I have belaboured that metaphor quite enough now!]

My mother would confirm that I've always been a bit, um..."intense." But I feel the need to say I'm not, like, manic about getting stuff done. Rather, I'm...lazer-like intentional. And, I DO burnout. Happily. I just plan for it.

I think burnout gets a bad wrap and that we need to re-frame it. I don't think Picasso worried about burnout. I think he went full freaking tilt on Guernica and when he was done, he probably unplugged for a while, caught up on his women, and napping, and wine. Being fried is part of the creative process and we should celebrate and honour that as part of a natural cycle. At least, that's what works for my artistic grooving. Start/finish/rest. Work hard/play hard. Relish every phase, free of self-judgment, full of pure intention.

What does the rhythm of your creative life look like? How do you spend your days/weeks/months when you're making things?

Yes, speaking of phases...I work well with immersion and obsession. In time-management speak, I'm a fan of "batching". I book all of my meetings in one day if possible. I'll write for 12 hours at a time. I'll dedicate one day to loose ends and catch up. I'll spend two days just mapping out and dreaming. This gives me the feeling of both focus and spacious. Yum.

And I really like "projects". A book. A gig. Create it, launch it, see where it wants to go, like a Dove with a life of her own. And then I can feel free to devote myself to the next thing. And devotion = energy for impeccability.

I also like making plans on big sheets of paper with copious sticky notes and then putting it in a drawer and seeing if reality reflects the sticky notes six months later. Reality is usually better than my plans.

Is there anything you're still afraid of? What do you tell yourself to marshal your courage?

It would really, really suck if I didn't reach my full potential this time around.
But I tell myself that everything, everything, everything is progress.

My gratitude to Danielle for taking the time to respond. Thanks to people like her, my eyes are being opened to a way of working that syncs up with the creative impulse, and isn't afraid of obsession and even *gasp* burn-out.

If you want more of Danielle (and why wouldn't you?) I suggest a sample chapter from the Fire Starter Sessions on True Strengths + the Metrics of Ease for only $20. She's also on Twitter @daniellelaporte.

From Utah to the Czech Republic

I'm still globe-trotting! After an intense week in Salt Lake City at the children's writing conference, I was home just long enough to do laundry and pack again for ten days in Prague. I know, Prague! How lucky am I?

Shawn is here to play in the World Ultimate Club Championships (go GLUM!) and the kids are staying with Very Wonderful Relatives Who Have My Eternal Gratitude. Me, I am having a good old-fashioned child-free vacation: gawking at old buildings in hot sunshine, drinking Colas and eating goulash, and sleeping. Ridiculous amounts of sleeping. So luxurious.

I am also working on my novel. I got lots of great feedback on my first 18 pages during the Salt Lake workshop, and now I am revising. One of my goals at the conference was to find out whether the book is ready to start submitting to agents, and the answer came back "Yes, after you fix X, Y, and Z." So I am fixing things.

My plan is to work on the book at least 4 hours a day while I'm here. That still leaves lots of time for being serenaded by accordion players during dinner.

Making the Pilgrimage

I am so stoked to be in Utah for the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference. Devoting five days to my professional development as a children's writer is such a luxury. Big thanks to my husband, brother, and parents who are all chipping in to look after the kids this week while the daycare is closed!

My hotel roommate doesn't arrive until late tonight, so I had a free day to myself. I worked on my novel (still not quite finished this round of revisions), read submissions from my fellow workshop participants (there are 14 of us in Sara Zarr's class), and later headed to downtown Salt Lake City to see the temple. No, not the Mormon one, the Moshe Safdie one:

Yes, that's the main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library. The panorama from the rooftop terrace is amazing:

I want to move in there. I just need a little nook on the fourth floor with a view of the mountains and the fiction section.

Anyhoo, I've been reading up on the conference organizers' suggestions for Things to Do to Prepare and Get Ready. I printed business cards. I read books by faculty. I prepped my manuscript for the First Page contest.

Bring it on!

(photos from Wikimedia)

Ginger Altoids are the New Scented Candles

When I was writing my first short story collection, I bought an enormous red candle. The thing had three wicks and was thick as a tree trunk.

I burned that sucker for eight months straight. The odour of cranberry and hot wax filled the room such that my husband would hold his nose when he walked in. When I got stuck on a scene, I would play with the candle: shaving down the sides and feeding tiny morsels of wax into the melted pools at the centre.

The smell of that candle said WRITING. The moment the scent wafted towards me, my brain seemed to shift to a creative wavelength. A Pavlovian response.

For one reason and another, I have stopped lighting candles as a writing ritual:

• They don't travel well. You can't light candles in coffee shops or libraries.


• I have little kids in the house who should not be playing with matches.


• I've gotten tired of fake floral/fruity scents.


• Sometimes I forget to snuff my candle when I leave the room. We have a cat. Enough said.

Last week I read this section from Oriah Mountain Dreamer's book What We Ache For: Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul:

When I crawl out of bed in the morning, I get a cup of hot water and lemon and go to my altar. I light a candle and burn some dried herbs in an abalone shell, moving the smoke over and around my body. One of the things we know about rituals is that they carve a pathway into a particular state of mind and body. If they are meaningful to those who do them, ritual actions can create a sacred container, a space that is set apart from the everyday chores and logistical concerns that sometimes threaten to consume us.

We are sexual — physical, sensual — beings whose state of mind and heart is often triggered by what our senses perceive. One of the strongest triggers for the human mind that will conjure remembered times and states of consciousness is scent. Ceremonial smudge is a mixture of dried herbs — cedar, sage, sweetgrass, and lavender — used by many traditional tribal peoples to both cleanse themselves and their ceremonial space and to signal to unseen forces that they are about to send out a voice, to open themselves to being conscious of what is within and around them. I have used this way of beginning ceremonial time for almost twenty years, so the scent of the smoke that rises and curls around me as I burn the herbs is a powerful indicator to my conscious and unconscious mind that I am crossing a threshold, leaving smaller concerns aside for the moment to focus on what matters. It is also a signal to those living with me that I am temporarily unavailable, that I am engaged in writing or prayer or other inner work. You could use any fragrance that has meaning to you with a scented candle or aromatic oil as a way of reinforcing your movement into a time of creative practice. I know one author who sharpens five or six pencils just before he begins to write each day, confessing that it is the scent of freshly shaved wood and lead that signals to him that the writing is about to begin.

And I thought, well, shoot, Oriah, you have a point about scent being a "powerful indicator" to my consciousness and all, but I am NOT going to be doing an herbal smudge in the food court of the office building where I write in the mornings. Nor am I sharpening pencils that I won't use. I've already written off candles and I am not a perfume kind of girl.

If you read the headline of my post, then you already know where this is going. As I was stamping my foot and giving reasons why I could not manage this kind of scent ritual for writing, Ginger Altoids popped into my head.

Certain of my Dutch readers will be familiar with the conditioned response evoked by the rustling as dozens of worshipers pop King Peppermints into their mouths just before the Sunday sermon begins.

I'm not keen on peppermints but Ginger Altoids, now . . . I'd never tried them but I love ginger and Altoids are cool, n'est pas? The other night I walked to Sugar Mountain and brought myself home a package. Sturdy metal case, fancy parchment wrapping, and that Curiously Strong® flavour. Perfection.

So now I have a bona fide, travel-friendly, Oriah-approved writing ritual. Only three calories a pop. I think I'll have one right now.

So tell me, do you use a smell or taste to get you in the writing mood?

Resistance to finishing: what's that about?

During a session with another coach-in-training this week, I confessed that I've been avoiding my novel. Sure, I had a cold, work was busy, yadda yadda. But I knew I was staying away on purpose for some reason.

My fellow coach asked one of those basic but powerful questions that I hadn't taken the time to ask myself: WHY?

I didn't know the answer right away so I had to talk through it.

Why was I resistant to finishing my novel?

Was I afraid of facing rejection once I start submitting the manuscript? No, that didn't feel right. I think the novel is in pretty good shape — my best writing yet — and I'll be happy to get feedback on it at the Salt Lake conference.

Was I afraid that I won't really be done? Perhaps. I probably read too many literary agent blogs that tell me I must revise a manuscript forty-seven-bazillion times before it's ready to see the light of day. I have an untested belief that finishing this book will take an incredible amount of work. Years of work.

Was I afraid of the work of revision? I guess so. I told my coach-friend that reopening Act 3 felt like cracking apart something that had already set, like major surgery. I needed longer than an hour in the morning to immerse myself in the procedure.

When can you take time like that? my coach-friend asked.

Um, tomorrow, I said. My mother is coming to look after the kids on my day off.

Great! she said. Where will you work?

Um, at the National Library. It's lovely and quiet, only a few blocks from where I live. I used to write there all the time but I haven't been in over a year.

Perfect, she said. So I called my mom and firmed up plans and set an intention to work on my novel the next day.

And that was luxurious. I got things cracked open and remembered what it was like to write new material instead of just copy edit. I got some new ideas. I realized it wouldn't be that much work to finish.

Not much work.

Finished soon.

Aha!

The real reason I didn't want to finish my novel

I didn't know what I was going to write next. I didn't want to finish because then I wouldn't have a project. But finishing wasn't that exciting. I was kind of bored. So I avoided it.

Wow, this reason felt so much more true than the other ones. And as soon as I figured this out, I started thinking about what I might write next. Short story I've had plotted for years? Back-burner novel that needs to be turned into a novella again? And a young adult novel idea jumped out at me and started flooding my brain with characters and plot points.

So now I have a shiny new project to start once I finish this novel. Poof, bye-bye resistance.

Such is the magic of asking and answering the powerful questions.

Gearing Up For Salt Lake City

So here's my ulterior motive for setting up the Dawn Chorus — I'm attending the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference in Salt Lake City in June, and I need to finish revising my children's novel and prepare my submission materials by then. And wow, the conference is only six weeks away!

I'm in Sara Zarr's workshop at the conference — she's a terrific YA author (Story of a Girl, Sweethearts, and Once Was Lost). There are a dozen of us in the workshop, and we'll be reading and critiquing each other's first chapters, so I need to pull my pages together and send them off.

And that's why I need my consistent morning writing hour. I've revised about 2/3 of my middle grade manuscript, and now I need to dive back in and finish properly. The end needs attention (that end that I wrote fast back on December 31). And I need to research agents and query letters because industry people will be there. Like Mary Kole of the excellent Kidlit.com blog.

The commitment to check in on Twitter has gotten me up every morning this week. I'm relieved that my routine is still there for me when I set the intention to follow through.

Saturday mornings I get extra writing time because there's no need to hustle off to work or daycare. So tomorrow I'll brush off my manuscript and get cracking.

Announcing the Dawn Chorus

I'm working on a longer post about becoming an early riser, but here's a sneak peek at my new initiative. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you . . . the Dawn Chorus.

What is the Dawn Chorus?

The Dawn Chorus is a flock of writers and other artists who get up early to do creative work.

We believe in creating every day, and we believe that the morning is our best and most reliable time to do so.

We have day jobs. We look after kids and aging parents. We have packed schedules. We are tired at night. So we commit to getting up before anyone or anything else needs us. We take quiet, imaginative time for ourselves that sustains us through the day.

The Dawn Chorus is orchestrated by writer and creativity coach Alison Gresik.

Why the Dawn Chorus?

Getting up early can be easy. Or challenging. Or devilishly hard.

Whatever it is for you, the Dawn Chorus gives you support and accountability. Ideas and encouragement. Community energy when the going gets tough, and celebration when you succeed.

How can I join the Dawn Chorus?

On Twitter, use the hashtag #dawnchorus for your first tweet of the day. You can also tweet after your creative session and tell us how it went.

What if I'm not an early riser yet?

I recommend Dave Navarro’s Becoming an Early Riser program if you're not in the habit of getting up early. The program includes a PDF workbook to diagnose your particular sleep/wake challenges, and targeted audio files for each small step.

I also offer a Dawn Chorus coaching package to give you personalized help in becoming an early riser. Check out my coaching offerings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Twitter?

Twitter gives you a quick and accessible way to check in with the Dawn Chorus. It also offers public accountability for your intentions to get up early. If you're not already using Twitter, give it a try!

Do I have to get up at a certain time?

Nope. Whatever constitutes “early” for you is fine by us. The main thing is that you are getting up earlier than necessary so you can create.

Do I have to get up early every day?

Heaven knows I don’t. I aim for every day but life and late nights happen. Decide what your target is and don’t quit if you don’t hit it perfectly. Any extra creative time is better than none.

I'm @AlisonGresik on Twitter: make sure you say hello so I can add you to the Dawn Chorus list!

Taking a Creativity Vacation

I am minutes away from hitting the road -- driving from Ottawa to Grand Rapids, Michigan for my seventh year at the Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing (my first visit was in 1996, just before marriage and grad school!).

I'm waiting for Shawn's iPod Touch to finish syncing my road trip music (including complete Joseph Arthur playlist). If you want to catch my updates from the conference, follow my Twitter feed at @AlisonGresik. The conference hashtag appears to be #ffw10 (although some people are using #ffw -- we need to coordinate!)

I know I'll pick up lots of great stories and advice to share with you. Check out a few of my favourite conference moments from the past:

• JCO and Me
• Synchronicity (with Lilian Nattel)
• Han Nolan: The Long Journey

If you're at the conference, please get in touch -- leave a comment here or on Twitter. I'd love to meet up!