The Writer’s Survival Mode

Kelly James-Enger has a rule for never missing a freelance writing deadline: she never, ever, ever accepts more work than she can handle.

 

So far, that's seldom been an issue for me. I mean, I stay plenty busy, but most of the mix consists of my own, more flexible projects—books, queries, article ideas, reading (mustn’t forget the reading pile). Not so at the moment. Right now, I'm swamped. I’ve had a steady stream of freelance work this year plus a host of unexpected family-related things, and (like a true freelancer who is dependent on work for bread), darned if I'm going to ask for anyone to cover my freelance projects unless I can't complete them.

Except that burnout ain't such a great thing, either.

Read more »

Thursday’s Thing to Love about Being a Writer…

…Traveling amazing places! Learning new stuff! Interviewing cool people!

Early early early tomorrow morning, I leave for Texas to spend a long weekend with a writer friend, exploring the Columbia Bottomlands, meeting with some wildlife biologists, sea kayaking, bird watching…

I wish I could say I was cool enough to have set all this up, but I’m just riding along on her coat tails as she collects material for a freelance writing assignment. But don’t worry, I will be collecting material right alongside her.

Yeah. I love being a writer. Happy writing today!

:-) Cheryl

What do you love about your writing life this week?

The Ethics of Medical Writing: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Used Ghostwritten Articles to Promote Product

As someone who writes on science and medical subjects, this recent report* in PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine disturbs me greatly.

Dr. Adriane J. Fugh-Berman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University Medical Center, analyzed ghostwritten reviews and commentaries published in medical journals and journal supplements that “were used to promote unproven benefits and downplay harms of Prempro—a brand of menopausal hormone therapy (HT)—and to cast competing therapies in a negative light.”

As a writer, it makes sense to me for a pharmaceutical company to hire professional writers to assist in editing, or even creating, articles for publication (the key word being “assist”). However, Fugh-Berman reports that academic physicians were invited to “author” prewritten articles that Wyeth had paid the medical writing and marketing company DesignWrite to produce. In addition, Wyeth paid for numerous reviews, commentaries, and opinion pieces for publication in medical journals—where they are not under the strict FDA regulations seen elsewhere. These types of articles are not usually peer-reviewed, but they can still have an immense influence on physicians’ understanding of disease and its treatment.

According to Fugh-Berman’s analysis Wyeth’s ghostwritten articles were designed to “Mitigate perceived risks of hormone-associated breast cancer”; “Promote unproven, off-label uses, including prevention of dementia, Parkinson's disease, and visual impairment”; “Raise questions about the safety and efficacy of competing therapies (competitive messaging)”; “Defend cardiovascular benefits, despite lack of benefit in RCTs”; and “Position low-dose hormone therapy”. She also states that many physicians have been impacted by these reports, believing that the benefits of hormone replacement therapy outweigh the risks in asymptomatic women, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

I find medical writing to be fulfilling as well as lucrative—it feels good to be writing material that will help someone better understand breast cancer, for example—but the truth is that most medical writing is funded by the pharmaceutical industry, which definitely has selling drugs as its agenda. So where did DesignWrite cross the line in their medical writing business? How can other medical writers avoid doing the same thing?

I think the answer lies in that DesignWrite intentionally designed a marketing strategy that incorporated these ghostwritten articles as means to promote the product—and to promote off-label use of the product. Pre-writing articles for academic physicians to “author” rather than beginning with material from the expert also seems to cross that line from medical writing into medical marketing. One thing is clear: any time a company pays someone to write an “informational” article for them, there’s the possibility that the article will be slanted in that company’s favor. Writers beware.

Cheryl

 

*Fugh-Berman AJ (2010) The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold ''HRT''. PLoS Med 7(9): e1000335. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000335.

Planning for re-entry

A wise woman recently suggested that when I plan a vacation, I also plan for how I’m going to weather those first few stressful days after we arrive back in the real world—you know, those days when the house is trashed, the kids suddenly need a million doctor appointments and shopping runs to prepare for school, and everyone you’ve ever worked with wants to speak with you at the same time. How do you prepare for the stress and chaos?

I didn’t manage to make this re-entry plan before setting out on my trip, but it’s been on my mind ever since. Little by little, a plan is taking shape. I thought I’d share my ideas with you—and let you know how things turn out when I get back next week.

Strategy 1: Stepwise Re-entry

Instead of returning to everything at once, I’m going to reenter my “normal” world one area at a time. For instance:

Day 1: Deal with unpacking, laundry, and other details of moving back into a house…WITHOUT giving in to the urge to check and answer emails, sort mail, prioritize projects, and so on.

Day 2: First pass through email, mail, and other “In boxes”. Reveal my return to work colleagues :). Update my list of current projects and decide what’s top of the list.

Strategy 2: Pick Top Projects/Priorities

I have a tendency to try to tackle every important and urgent item simultaneously—a tendency that seriously backfires when I’ve been on a break, because suddenly EVERYTHING is important and urgent. My goal here is to trust that the world will not end if I mail out a query a week later than planned.

Strategy 3: Have a House Meeting

My husband and I try to have weekly house meetings, kinda like the staff meeting in a business. It gives us a chance to take care of administrivia, share schedules for the upcoming week, and catch conflicts before they become a problem. It’s also a time for discussing everything from what movies we want to see to how to tackle the latest parenting dilemma to what kind of car best suits the family’s needs.

A regular house meeting gets the two of us working in the same direction, toward the same goals.

These meetings are most important when life gets crazy-busy, which is also when we’re most likely to skip them—but this time, I’m making sure a meeting gets on our schedule!

Strategy 4: Plan Breaks and Rewards

My overall goal here is to avoid post-vacation burnout (or catatonia). Reducing the amount of work I tackle each day (above) will help; it will also help to plan a few no-work zones into the days. Here’s what I’m going to try: no work after 9:00 pm, at which point I may indulge in a book, piece of chocolate, or glass of wine. Or maybe all three.

Strategy 5: Anticipate Setbacks

This isn’t a strategy specific to vacation re-entry, but it’s one I need to remember. If I anticipate setbacks, it’s easier to deal with them and move on. Things won’t go perfectly. Transitions are always tricky, in writing and in life. But we’ll get through.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

:) Cheryl

Writing off summer travel?

If I understand my tax laws correctly*, I can write off some of my vacation travel expenses if I incorporate some writing research into my travel plans. For instance, if I drive to Gettysburg, PA, and spend part of my time researching material for a book on the Civil War, I can deduct the cost of travel to and from Gettysburg.

This seems like such a financially savvy move that I’d really like to make it work.

Last year I decided to research learning to ride a horse so I could incorporate the details into a book. My sister and niece generously loaned me their horses and instructor, and by the end of two weeks I’d collected pages of notes on the down-and-dirty of learning to ride.

I even learned to round pen, which is very cool because it uses what people know about horse behavior to train the horse.

I saved all my receipts—and when tax time rolled around, I didn’t deduct any of it. Why not? Because although I did all the research, I never actually used it in a book, book proposal, or article. I’d still like to incorporate learning to ride into a novel someday, but probably not for a while, since I have one novel in the rewrite stage and another waiting in the wings, both conspicuously horse-free.

Now summer is rolling around again, with its various trips and travel expenses, and I’m brainstorming article ideas and character research I use to couple business with pleasure. Anyone else do this? Any suggestions?

I’ll let you know how it turns out!

:) Cheryl

*Please note that I am not an accountant, have never been an accountant, never played one on TV, never even dated one. To my knowledge, I’m not even related to any—the point being, if you want *actual* tax advice, look elsewhere :)

Picture Sources

Pictures. They’re fun.  They make a piece of writing more appealing, make a blog post look more professional. But…most images you find on the Internet are the result of someone else’s creativity. Just as you and I don’t want to be plagiarized, neither do the artists and photographers who share their images on the web.

If you’re *not* an artist or photographer, though, where the heck do you find photos to spice up the appearance of your blog? Here are a few places to look.

1. On the Flickr Creative Commons, a number of photographers offer their work for free—as long as you give them credit.
2. iStockPhoto offers a wide variety of stock images for sale. If you’re looking for a specific and hard-to-find photo, this is a good place to look. You can purchase an extra-small image for 1 credit, or about $1.50.
3. iStockPhoto* also offers a free image of the week, such as the one above, and free vector images of the month. What, you ask, is a vector image? It’s a graphic image made up of shapes and lines—which doesn’t sound nearly as cool as it looks. Here’s the November free vector: 
   
   
   These guys are a little tricky to use—you have to have vector editing software such as Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or CorelDRAW if you want to change the image at all. I went the low-tech route: downloaded the file (it’s a .zip file), unzipped it, and opened the “.jpg” thumbnail image instead of the actual vector using Picasa photo software. I’m sure there’s a better way, but this worked and took zero extra time!
4. stock.xchng is another stock photo site—on which most of the images (or all?) are free. (with certain restrictions. See the fine print here.) I haven’t used this site but might have to start doing so. Despite their somewhat alarming fine print, they’re affiliated with another well-known stock image company, Getty Images, which gives them the stamp of legitimacy.

* There are numerous stock photo websites; iStockPhoto is the one I’m most familiar with.

Anyone else have this problem?

This is my first real day back to work since before Christmas. Not that I didn’t work over break—I had a few deadlines and projects that couldn’t just go on hold—but with a house full of kids and relatives, food to cook, people to see, presents to buy, presents to wrap, Avatar to see…well, there wasn’t a lot of time leftover for writing.

And if you know me at all, that’s saying something! I tend to write in the midst of everything.

So…I’m starting off the New Year with an impossibly long to-do list. And I’m having trouble engaging with it. In fact, I’ve discovered that it is MUCH more fun to look up new organizing software and make new lists than it is to actually *do* any of the things on my various lists.

Anyone else have this problem? Anyone else with an iPhone who has this problem? Because there are WAY too many cool-looking apps that promise to organize your time, money, projects, to-do lists, sock drawer, and more, and you could theoretically spend hours reading through them all.

Just sayin’.

:-) Cheryl

PS: No, the picture doesn’t really have anything to do with the post. But I really, really like it. Doesn’t she look happy? Plus there are sunflowers. Everything’s better with sunflowers. Happy New Year!

A problem of schedules

The problem with schedules…is that theoretically, I have this lovely writing schedule, with time set aside for fiction, nonfiction, lunch, exercise, and admin stuff (you know, like typing up the fiction from the day before’s writing.) It looks very practical and useful.

But if I start my day by writing fiction, I tend to get on a roll, and then I don’t want to let go of it, so I write through my scheduled times for lunch, exercise, and nonfiction writing. By then I’m so exhausted that I need a break—which eats up my time for admin.

If I start something else first, though, I don’t ever GET to the fictino writing.

Ah, well. If something’s really really important, I can always start it first. I do usually get to the FIRST thing on my list. And meanwhile, I would rather have too many wonderful things in my life than too few!

The List Post

I keep coming across tres cool list posts from other bloggers (maybe because I've been catching up on my blog reading this week? Nah, that couldn't be it....) so I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

1. Literary Rambles: Blog Topics for Writers (as featured on Alice Pope's CWIM blog). This is a great reference for those days when you just can't think what to write....


2. Agent Nathan Bransford's "10 Commandments for the Happy Writer". My personal favorite? #10: Keep writing. Or, in Nathan's words: "Didn't find an agent? Keep writing. Book didn't sell? Keep writing. Book sold? Keep writing. OMG an asteroid is going to crash into Earth and enshroud the planet in ten feet of ash? Keep writing. People will need something to read in the resulting permanent winter."


3. Writer's Digest "There are No Rules" blogger Jane Friedman's "WD's Editors Intensive Cheat Sheet", an AWESOME list of online resources for the writer-in-training, including websites for agent research, community writing/publishing sites, blogging, self-publishing, and social networking.


4. 57 Useful Google Tools You've Never Heard of", a list of resources for specialized search tools, mapping utilities (if you haven't checked out Google Earth, you definitely need to do so!), social networking, document sharing, calendar sharing, and much more.


5. "The First Five Minutes: How Editors Evaluate Your Manuscript", also by Jane Friedman. This post not only lists 14 common first-page problems, it also includes links to several other valuable online resources.

:) Cheryl

A room of her own

I haven't had an official "writing room" for more than a year now. It's been okay--I'm a very portable writer, with my WIP, laptop, and a few key reference books usually stashed in my messenger bag--but I confess I miss having my own space. The desk I use now doubles as a craft/school project/homework area, so I can't leave things spread out quite as much as I used to do.

On the flip side, this works because my kids are both in school (tres weird--I used to write while homeschooling two high-energy boys) and I don't need a private writing spot as often as when there were always other people in the house.

But...this past weekend, we attacked the basement to make a space for a little exercise area: weights , a weight bench, a mat, and a foam roller. I'm so psyched!

Officially, this basement is only a crawl space. The beams supporting the floor above are only about six feet high, and ductwork is suspended below that. You have to duck to get through the miniature door, balance your way down a steep set of skinny stairs, and duck to keep from hitting your head on the ductwork. The floor is dirt covered by an ancient piece of carpet.

But past the ductwork is a spot about five foot square where I can set up my weight stuff, and beside that there's just room for a little table and my writing files--previously relegated to an inaccessible corner even deeper in the dungeon. I scrubbed down the shelves and brought my writing materials out where they're actually usable.

I feel kind of like a kid creating a private clubhouse. It's not beautiful, not brightly lit or particularly warm, but it's mine. Hee-hee. So if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm hiding in my basement....

:) Cheryl

Book Thoughts: Writer Mama (How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids)

I've been reading a fun book this week: Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, by Christina Katz. It's a good enough resource that I'm going to purchase my own copy ASAP.

At first glance, Writer Mama is geared more toward writers who are just starting their freelance careers--but it contains plenty of inspiration and information no matter where you are in your writing career. With ideas for everything from gathering ideas, audience identification, contract negotiation, finding time to write, and dealing with home life, it's the kind of read you can pick up whenever you need a little motivation boost or a handful of ideas to tackle the latest obstacle in your writing life.

Plus, Katz relays all this information with humor and sympathy for the ups and downs faced by writing mothers.

I don't have little kids underfoot anymore, but each stage of parenting brings its own unique challenges. Christina Katz's book is a dense package of tools to help me integrate my parent and writer selves, so I'm better at both. I'm glad I picked this one up!

:) Cheryl

The Writer-Mom's Schedule

8.30 Walk kiddo to school

8.45 Exercise dogs to prevent later distractions

9.00 Get coffee

9.05 Check and answer email

9.30 Read blogs and comment. Write blog posts.

10.30 Gasp at time. Close all web browsers and email client.

10.35 Open WIP

10.40 Get more coffee

10.42 Make snack

10.45 Get lots more coffee

10.50 Reread last chapter WIP

11.00 Type and delete next chapter opening. Repeat.

11.29 Check email

11.31 Make new pot coffee

11.40 Brainstorm WIP scene details. Longhand.

12.10 Furiously write WIP

1.00 Come up for air and sustenance

1.20 Type new passage. Realize its brilliance.

1.45 Reread and realize that scene is mediocre at best.

2.00 Write furiously and with renewed inspiration

2.45 Gasp at time. Write more furiously.

3.00 Alarm goes off to remind me to get kiddo. Continue furious writing.

3.10 Race to school!!!

...and so, the return to the real world begins. For a few hours, at least.

:) Cheryl

Writing is a Business

Writing is a business: bold statement of obvious fact? Not for me. I tend to forget that little detail, even though it should be informing daily choices of how I spend my time. After all, I started writing because...well...that's who I am. I make up stories and play with words. I write.

But nowadays, being a writer has become a bit more complicated. If I want to, say, get paid for doing what I love (and I do) I need to do more than play with words. I need to take on projects that pay short-term to fund my longer-term work. I need to send out invoices. I need to pay attention to whether those invoices are getting paid. Weird, huh?

Needless to say, this is not my favorite part of being a writer.

Occasionally, I check out self-help books about the business side of writing. (The Organized Writer, Creative Impulses, Julie Morganstern's Organizing from the Inside Out and Time Management from the Inside Out are a few favorites). These books all offer helpful tips and advice, whether you're just starting in the field or need a fresh dose of organizational inspiration.

Unfortunately, none of these books substitute for actually doing the work. Even writing about filing hasn't made a dent in my to-be-filed folder. Sigh.

Guess I have to go do the work....

:) Cheryl

February writing blahs

Is February a particularly difficult month in which to write? I keep hearing friends say that they're in a writing rut, that their prose is blue, that they're uninspired. I confess I've had a bit of a creativity lull the past few weeks, too, but that had a lot to do with the non-writing portions of my life.

For instance, I discovered the cause of yesterday's writer's block: I was getting sick. By noon, I was completely useless. Before that, one of my boys was sick in that really-pathetic-communing-with-the-bathroom-floor kind of way, which might also have contributed to my lack of flow.

I hate those times when the words don't flow.

However, I've noticed something. When I write for clients, I'm not allowed to take a break just because the words don't flow...and so, somehow, I write. I need to apply this lesson to my own writing. Sometimes, when I'm in a rut/uninspired/feeling blue, putting pen to page is enough to get me moving again. I need to post this quote in my writing space:

"I only write when I’m inspired, so I see to it that I’m inspired every morning at nine o’clock." — Peter de Vries.

For the days that doesn't work...well, maybe more drastic measures are required. You know, things like chocolate, creativity walks, and reading a dozen or so really fun books :). I'm willing to do whatever it takes!

~Cheryl

Authonomy.com

I've been completely caught up in a new-to-me writing website for the past few days: http://www.authonomy.com/, by Harper Collins. From their "About" page:

Get Read. Get Noticed. Get Published.

authonomyTM is a brand new community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around - we’re glad you stopped by.

If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your work on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy community.

And if you’re a reader, blogger, publisher or agent, authonomy is for you too. The book world is kept alive by those who search out, digest and spread the word about the best new books – authonomy invites you to join our community, champion the best new writing and build a personal profile that really reflects your tastes, opinions and talent-spotting skills.

The publishing world is changing. One thing’s for sure: whether you’re a reader, writer, agent or publisher, this is an exciting time for books. In our corner of HarperCollins we’ve been given a chance to do something a little different.

We’d really love your help.

It's a very cool concept--but is it a good idea to post your work online to such a wide audience? Will that hinder your chances of publication? I asked Editorial Anonymous, who says "Go for it." See more of her thoughts here...and then come join me! Check out the site, see what you think, and search for "Cherylwriter" to see what I'm up to :).

Cheryl

2009 Contests and Scholarships: Cheryl's completely non-comprehensive list of opportunities

1. January 1-31 (postmark date): Highlights 2009 Fiction Contest
   Submit: Contemporary world culture stories up to 800 words (older readers) or 500 words (younger readers). See web site for details.
   Prize: Three prizes of $1,000 or tuition for the Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop at Chautauqua.




2. February 1: Writing Away Retreats Scholarship Contest
   Submit: Short story or portion of novel UP TO 5K words to using this as your topic: "Dishing up fear" to creativelivesworkshop@hotmail.com with "Writing Away Retreats Contest" as the subject line. See contest web site for details.
   Fee: $10.00
   Prize: Full ride to Writing Away Retreats (worth $1350.00)




3. February 17 (receipt date): The Sandy Writing Contest 2009 for writers unpublished in novel-length fiction.
   Submit: The first 20 pages and up to a 2 page synopsis, for a total page count of 22 pages. See contest rules for categories and additional information.
   Fee: $20 for Crested Butte (or Gunnison) Friends of Library members, fee for all others is $30.
   Prize: Acquiring editors and agents will serve as final judges. They will determine the order of the top three entries in each category. Winners will be announced at the 2009 Crested Butte Writers Conference. The first place entries in each category will receive $50 and a certificate; second place will receive $25 and a certificate; and third place will receive a certificate.




4. April 1 (postmark date): Pan Handle Professional Writers 2009 Youth Writing Contest Submit: Short story or poetry (length varies with age group; see contest link for details).
   Fee: none
   Prize: ??? (info not found)




5. April 15th: fAiRy gOdSisTeRs, iNk 2nd Annual SCBWI Summer Conference Scholarship
   Submit: A 250-word, double-spaced essay describing what you hope to accomplish by attending this year's summer conference. Send your essay to: fairygodsistersink@yahoo.com.
   Fee: none
   Prize: $1500 scholarship for a SCBWI member to attend the August 2009 conference in Los Angeles.




6. April 1-June 1 (???2009 dates tbd): Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Writing Contest (2008 info here) for writers of commercial fiction.
   Submit: 20 manuscript pages and an eight-page synopsis.
   Fee: (2008) $25, with additional fee for written critique
   Prize: (2008) SIX highest-scoring submissions in each of four categories will make the finals and then be judged by an agent or editor who works in that genre. They will pick one winner in each category. The winner receives $100 and a framed certificate. The remaining finalists will receive $25 and a framed certificate.




7. June 30th(?): RMC-SCBWI Manuscript Critique - entry deadline (specific date tbd)
   Submit: Details tbd
   Fee: tbd
   Prize: Top manuscripts will receive critiques and one-on-one appointments with an editor or agent attending the RMC-SCBWI 2009 Fall Conference.




8. March 1-August 15: Pockets Fiction Contest
   Submit: 1,000 to 1,600 word story (1,400 words preferred). Manuscripts are disqualified if they are shorter or longer by even a few words. Note accurate word count on the cover sheet. Stories must be previously unpublished.
   Fee: none
   Prize: The winner, notified by November 1, will receive a $1,000 award. Because the purpose of the contest is to discover new writers, previous winners are not eligible.
   




9. September 25: Decatur Public Library Annual Writing Contest
   Submit: See contest rules here
   Fee: $3/entry, 5 entry max
   Prizes: Small cash prizes for top 3 manuscripts in each category, plus comments (sometimes--not guaranteed) from published author who judges your submission
   




10. September 1-November 1 (??? 2009 dates tbd): Pikes Peak Writers Fiction Contest (2009 info)
    Fee (from 2008): $30 PPWC members, $40 non-members, with additional charge for optional critiques
    Prize: First place winner in each category will be refunded his/her conference registration fee if attending the 2010 PPWC or will be awarded a cash prize of $100 if not attending. Second place will be awarded $50, and third place will be awarded $30. In addition, winners attending the conference will be given top priority with respect to their editor/agent pitch appointment selections.

SCBWI 2009 Summer Conference -- scholarship!

From the wonderful Shrinking Violet Promotions blog:

fAiRy gOdSisTeRs, iNk announces its 2nd Annual SCBWI Summer Conference Scholarship!

FGI is offering a $1500 scholarship for a SCBWI member to attend the August 2009 conference in Los Angeles. The 2008 scholarship to Linda Lodding of the Netherlands.

To apply for the 2009 scholarship, submit a 250-word, double-spaced essay describing what you hope to accomplish by attending this year's summer conference. Send your essay to: fairygodsistersink@yahoo.com.

The application deadline is April 15th, 2009. The winner will be notified May 15th, 2009.

fAiRy gOdSiStErS, iNk. is a small, benevolent squadron of Santa Barbara children's book authors who believe in the magic of passing forward lucky breaks, bounty, and beneficence, as so many have done for us. We are: Thalia Chaltas, Mary Hershey, Valerie Hobbs, Robin LaFevers and Lee Wardlaw.

If you would like to share some fairy dust of your own to help send a writer to the 2009 Summer Conference, FGI welcomes your donations!For more information about the grant and/or making a donation, please visit the FGI website (which will be up and running any day now! We promise!) at http://www.fairygodsistersink.com/.

Comment Challenge, Revisited

My earlier posts (here and here) about the Comment Challenge sparked a lot more discussion--and heat--than I anticipated. My apologies to the illustrious Mother Reader, who set the Comment Challenge ball rolling, so to speak. I think the challenge is a wonderful idea and a great way to encourage writers to connect with each other.

But I still think we each need to ask ourselves if participation is beneficial or a waste of time. Not that I think the answer is cut in stone: it will be different for each person. For me, it meant taking a hard look at how much time I was spending on the challenge--and why--and whether I was accomplishing that purpose. At the outset, I found myself spending a TON of time going through posts, trying to find something on which to comment, and yes, wondering if it was the best use of my time.

It wasn't. BUT--asking myself that question let me change my strategy. Has the Comment Challenge been a waste of time for me? No, but it could have been, if I'd participated without changing course midstream. Comments for comments sake aren't so useful (altho, as a goal-oriented person, I'm quite capable of collecting my 3/day for the sole sake of meeting that goal); but comments for the purpose of continuing a conversation or making a connection or saying thank you for someone's effort--those are useful.

Mother Reader addresses this question in her Nov. 19th post, where she answers the question "Is the Comment Challenge an insidious waste of time?" as follows:

Yes, as are blogging, blog-reading, and commenting in general — except where those things focus your writing, present fresh ideas, spur new thoughts, make helpful connections, form lasting friendships, and promote your work, blogging or otherwise.

Really, the best answer for each person is contained in two questions:

• How can I maintain balance?
• Why do I blog?

Lovely answer--because she pinpoints the fact that each of US needs to ask those questions of ourselves. The answers won't be the same for everyone. Some of us should be participating full steam; others, perhaps, will find they need less time on blogs and more time on other priorities.

Me? My life is totally out of balance, in all the best ways. But I guess that's another post!

:) Cheryl

PS--Yes, the photo is totally random :). What can I say? I think the emu is cute!

The 4-Hour Workweek, Revisited

Since I mentioned Timothy Ferriss's book earlier this week, I thought I should offer my thoughts on the book as a whole (now that I've finished it!) It's an interesting book. Worth reading? Maybe.

This goal of this book seems to be to move workers (both employees and self-employed) to a place where they're spending minimal time working while maintaining a reasonable income stream. Ferriss's strategies for doing this are straightforward--and he includes some useful time-saving ideas as he presents them:

1. Work efficiently. This includes a "media fast": he advocates not listening to the news reading the daily paper, or following news online; minimizing e-mail interactions; and he'd no doubt cross blogging, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc., off his list as "time-wasters", too.
   
   For me, it's about maintaining mindfulness. I benefit from reading blogs and staying in touch with people (friends, family, and business contacts) on Facebook; I can also get sucked into spending too much time on these activities.
   
2. Apply the 80/20 principle to your work life. That is, he advocates focusing on the 20% of the customers who provide 80% of the income while eliminating that difficult 20% who cause 80% of the problems.
   
   Well, since I usually have somewhere between 1 and 6 clients, I'm not sure this applies...although I suppose it could be applied to which projects I pursue. Still, I'm not quite ready to give up that freelancer mentality of saying "yes" to all work (at least, all the work I can realistically accomplish).
   
3. Remove yourself, as much as possible, from the daily operations of your business (or equivalent) and life by outsourcing many tasks to overseas (and therefore inexpensive) virtual assistants.
   
   Um, sounds good in theory, but I don't have a lot of administrative stuff to do. What would I hire a virtual assistant to do, write my blog for me? Not ready for that. Nope.
   
4. Using the above strategies, make your work life mobile and automated, which frees you to take "mini-retirements" along the way.

As I said earlier, I started reading this book with a great deal of skepticism. It advocates a lifestyle that sounds too good--and too easy--to be true. And in the end, that hasn't changed. The book's entire premise (freeing the reader to enjoy a rich lifestyle by creating a self-operational, wildly successful business) rests on the assumption that just about anyone can come up with a product to market online, producing a generous income stream to support a lavish lifestyle. That's the premise: the book doesn't say much about how to come up with this great product, but spends most of its pages explaining how to separate yourself from your new business's day-to-day operations so that you can live large.

Having seen the multitude of people hiring others to write websites, eBooks, etc., in the Elance arena, I don't think creating a salable product is anywhere near as easy as Ferriss makes it out to be.

BUT...the book has a lot of other worthwhile points to make. Ferriss's ideas about valuing your own time are terrific. He's encouraged me to take a closer look at how I spend my time and whether that "expense" is worthwhile. He also provides great info on how to outsource some of the day-to-day work of running a business. I'm not to the point where it's worth my dollar to hire a virtual assistant, but it's good info to file in the back of my mind!

Perhaps my favorite point in the whole book is made near the beginning: people don't really want to be millionaires. They want to live like millionaires, to have the time and resources to design their ideal lifestyles. I enjoyed mapping out my dreams...and discovering that I'm living the biggest one right now. I live in a lovely place, with a great family--and I get to write. Every "dreamline" I could create contains those things...and it's kind of nice to remember that.

Guess I'm already rich and successful!

:) Cheryl

Reasons to do school talks...

...even if you aren't published in the book genre.

1. For the experience: most professional authors bring in a significant portion of their income from speaking engagements, so it never hurts to start figuring out what works and what doesn't work.


2. To encourage kids to read or write or both.


3. For the opportunity to ask kids questions.


4. For the opportunity to talk to teachers.


5. To spark ideas for new articles or books.


6. Because it's fun!

Cynthia Leitich-Smith's blog contains a great post on doing school visits (which I read just after speaking to three separate classrooms full of 5th graders yesterday!): The ABC's of School Visits.

If you're an introvert, speaking in front of a classroom of kids may seem daunting, but it's entirely do-able--with some practice and preparation. Here are a few of Cheryl's tips for keeping the kids engaged (because engaged kids are happy kids!)

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare! I prepared my talk as a Powerpoint presentation (and wow, is it easier to speak to a group when you have slides to show), then practiced until I could go through it with minimal help from notes. If you're stumbling through your words, the kids will lose interest.


2. Lots of eye contact and interaction with the kids. I like to ask lots of questions when I'm speaking, questions such as:
   
   - What things have you wondered about that might make good article or paper topics? (answers included: Why does my cat think she's a dog? Why does your nose get all stuffed up when you have a cold? And, why do some people get sick when they try to read in the car and others don't?)
   
   - If you were writing about this topic (I spoke on the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite), how would you narrow the topic?
   
   - Which of these cool facts would you want to include in the story?
   
3. Mix plenty of pictures and fun stories into your talk.


4. Practice your talk in front of a mirror with a focus on movement. Movement, facial expression, variations in voice tone and volume--these are all tricks that presenters can use to help keep kids engaged. Practice being big! Wave your arms! Stand on tip toes! Make eye contact! Get excited! And they'll get excited along with you.


5. Finally, have a stash of small pieces of candy available (with the teacher's permission) to toss to kids who answer questions. Participation will skyrocket :).

I spoke about writing nonfiction to the 5th graders of my local elementary school yesterday morning. We went through the process I used when writing "Walking Like a Dinosaur", which appeared in the September 2008 issue of Highlights for Children. The kids especially appreciated all the cool info about dinosaurs; the teachers especially appreciated my emphasis on rewriting. It was exhausting, but great!

:) Cheryl