Conducting a Self-Performance Evaluation on Your Writing

Moist palms.  Quickening heartbeat. Churning stomach.



Just a few symptoms of the dreaded performance evaluation. Even though it usually turned out much better than expected, it was filled with what ifs. What if the screw-up I made on the database back in August is all my boss can remember? What if my sales numbers were lower than last quarter? Will I get a raise this year? Will they be able to sign me on full-time? So many questions.



At the beginning of a New Year, what if instead of making resolutions we took inventory?



Performance expert, Daniel Pink, is a business author and speaker and has written several bestselling books. His recent release Drive is about the "surprising truth about what motivates us." His insights are geared to the workplace but are very applicable to writers.



I heard a recent motivational talk by Pink and was inspired by how his ideas could help garner growth in our writing lives.



He suggests conducting a pre-mortem or evaluation. Pink assesses himself every six months, just like a performance appraisal but suggests doing so even more often could be valuable.



What better time than a start of a new year to ask ourselves some key questions about our writing lives. Suggested by Pink here are some ways to assess followed by my thoughts how we can apply this information specifically to our writing lives.

• Were my expectations right?

First, what were your expectations in the last year? Did you expect to get a publishing contract? Sign an agent? Make a sustainable income from writing? Enough to pay the grocery bill? Did you expect to win a contest?

Why were your expectations not met? First of all, recognize that many of these items are not dependent on us alone. So make sure your assessment is based on the things you can change.

Finding an editor who loves your writing can be a subjective and dependent on timing, market, etc. However, we can also evaluate what part of your goal did fall into your hands.

What constructive feedback did you get that might help you readjust your expectations? Maybe an agent expressed that you needed to work on building suspense at the end of each chapter of your novel. Perhaps you were offered opportunities you didn’t take the time to pursue.

Time to quit whining and think about what we can do on our end to grow.

To bring you closer to meeting your writing dreams (in as much as it is in your control), do you need to sacrifice money? Giving of your time is a must! Is it the year you forego buying a new espresso machine in favor of taking a class or paying a freelance editor to help you move further along than you can on your own?

Do you need to give up a favorite TV show? Facebook? (I’ve been called to fast in social media several times to bring quiet to my devotional life and creativity). Maybe give up something else on your schedule that is “good” but not your best?

Write up some new expectations for 2016 after you evaluate your old ones. Remember, most goal setting experts believe getting your goals in writing is super important in making them happen. One author suggests stapling your evaluation to the front of your notebook as a reminder.

• Were the pitfalls I expected what happened?

I love this question, because first of all my problem is often finding the pitfalls. Pink believes that the most innovative leaders find problems before they are noticed by others.

What kept you from meeting your goal? Sometimes we grow in an uneven manner in our writing life. It may be easier for me to improve my dialogue to build realism, but harder for me to write tight. And God has a way of being gentle with us and working with us step by step. He knows what causes overwhelm and is so kind to grow us and stretch us in one or two areas at a time.

What can you do to prevent these pitfalls this year? If your downfall was not allowing enough time for editing before sending in a contest entry, how can you set up your calendar now to prepare earlier?

• Was I able to avoid pitfalls altogether?

Where did you improve in avoiding past issues? Perhaps you had several beta readers evaluate your contest entry in the area you most struggled? Where do you need more work in your unique areas of weakness?

• How could I do better next time?

Specificity is key to succeeding at our goals.

If you need to be more consistent in your writing how about: I will write from 8-9 every morning.

What specific plans will I put into play to grow in the areas of weakness in my writing life?

How will I be intentional about my writing dreams this year with God’s help?

It all begins with time at God’s feet, reading his word and sitting in prayer allowing him to set the agenda for 2016.

To purchase Drive by Daniel Pink click here.  

How about you: Do you conduct a performance evaluation? What pitfalls are you trying to avoid in your 2016 writing life?

Invisible Deadlines and Staying the Course

 

“So how’s the writing coming along?” asks every person who knows you’re a writer.

(Better than "So when's your book gonna get published?" by a landslide, let me just say!) 

How many of you know the progress question can strike you different at different times? When we are on a roll with our current WIP the answer will more than likely gush from an endless well of enthusiasm. (Possibly to the dismay of the well-meaning friend who now knows more about your main character’s emotional journey than they had time for.) I don’t know many writers who don’t like talking about their stories. Kinda goes with the territory. We’re storytellers after all. There’s a story to be told even in writing a story. Confused yet?

On the other side of the coin there are dry seasons where talking about your inspiration, or lack thereof, sounds about as appealing as a case of the stomach flu. (Having just visited that toilet bowl let me assure you, not fun.) Maybe you lost some writing time, or perhaps you’re battling a bout of the dreaded malady that shall not be named (writer’s bl***) Eek!

Many of our ships haven’t come in and we are still on the journey to publication. So how do we stay motivated when life inevitably steals our free time? I mean, it’s great if you can treat writing like a job instead of a hobby, but until you’re earning a paycheck you’re not technically accountable to anyone but yourself (and perhaps those imaginary friends anxiously pestering you for their HEA.) We may set our own deadlines but, let's face it, we made those up. We fall behind, no biggie. We're not in breach of contract. No panicked all-nighters to catch up. We re-adjust and try again. It’s good to have a goal, keeps you focused but when the road is long, you’re getting weary of rejections and hearing all the good news of your writing friends leaving you in the dust. How, then, when times get hard, do you find the strength to stay the course?

I’m here. Pounding the pavement with you. The heroine in my own story, hear me roar! ;) And I’ve got some sustenance for your journey.

-Write because you love it! Not because you want to get rich and quit your day job. It doesn’t mean the road will be easy, but it sure seems easier when you’re enjoying the journey.

-Stop comparing yourself to other writers. It’s a trap! Your story, your voice, your journey, they are all unique. Strive for greatness but let your story unfold naturally. You'll be surprised by how much you learn and grow in those unexpected detours.

-Stay positive. It’s easy to get discouraged in this business. Critiques, rejections, and criticisms aren’t usually all that palatable. Treat it as a learning experience, and don’t let positive feedback get trampled under the negatives. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Respect theirs but keep your chin up and keep believing in yours.

-Get an accountability partner. And check in. Ever make excuses to yourself? You were busy. The kids were sick. The house wasn’t going to clean itself. It’s easier to stay on track when someone else will know if you’re slacking off. Get yourself a goal and let someone know you're chipping away at it.

-Build a team. Support other writers. Be a critique partner. Endorse your friends’ books. Encourage and be encouraged. Sometimes it hard to see others succeed when you’re still floundering, but when your time comes, and especially until then, you’ll want those people by your side. Iron sharpens iron.

-Don’t give up! I’ve heard it said that successful authors are just writers who refused to give up. Don’t let anyone steal your passion and your dream. Keep writing until you reach goals and then write some more.

 

Happy Friday! Have a blessed weekend!

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Amy Leigh Simpson is a writer, singer, runner, foodie, coffee-lovin’-chocoholic. When she’s not dreaming up saucy love stories sprinkled with suspense and mystery, she’s chasing around her two adorable tow-headed toddler miscreants (Ahem)—boys, playing dress up with her miracle princess baby, and being the very blessed wife to the coolest, most hunky hero on the planet (sorry, ladies—taken). Though Amy doesn’t use her Sports Medicine degree for anything but patching up daily boo boo’s, she enjoys weaving medical aspects into her writing. Represented by the oh-so-wise and dashing Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary Inc.

 

The Writing Business: Making Goals

Every good business has goals.

If you're viewing your writing as a business (i.e. you want to sell your writing some day to make some type of monetary income from it vs just giving it away...) then you need them!!!

And the new year is a GREAT time to make them.

Goals can come in all shapes and sizes, and highly depend on where you are at in the process.

Are you still a newbie, working on that first manuscript? So maybe a daily/weekly/monthly word count goal would be a appropriate, or a date to finish your first manuscript by.

Are you past that, looking to find an agent/next step? Then maybe make a list of some good concrete steps you can take toward that. Query X numbers of agents. Attend X number of conferences. Read X number of craft books (we can ALL do that one!)

Or maybe you're already published, so your goals will include actual sales numbers or # of books to write or steps to growing your "tribe" or network or platform, whatever you want to call it.

But what makes a good business goal?

Here are my tips --

1.) Be specific. "Write more" is a good goal if writing is your hobby. But it's not a good business goal. "Write 1,000 words a day, 4 times a week" is an example of a good, specific business goal. The numbers are going to vary for each of us.

2.) Be attainable. "Write 5,000 words 6 days a week" is not really an attainable goal. Most of us have 5,000 word days, but not 6 days a week throughout the year. Setting unrealistic goals sets you up for failure.

3.) Be aggressive. Yes, you want attainable goals. But puny goals  will equal puny results. A good rule of thumb is to figure out what you are doing NOW, and plan an increase. Are you writing about 300 words a day now? Shoot for 500. Are you writing 500? Shoot for 750 or 1000. Are you writing 2 days a week, maybe go for 3. Setting your expectations TOO low is self-defeating.

4.) Be flexible. Regardless of how you set your goals, be flexible. Things may happen to change them. There is nothing to say you can't revise your goals to reflect changes in life or reflect God's leading. Because goals are great and wonderful, but nothing can replace the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Find yourself spending too much time on writing and God urges you to focus on family? Revise those goals accordingly. Don't be so focused on your goals that you tune out the voice of God. This goes for ALL goals in your life!

So, how about it? Have you made writing goals for 2015? Feel free to share!!

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Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romanceand A Side of Faith. She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.

Don’t Forget the Old Goals in the New 2015

Happy New Year!

It’s filling all the corners of the internet. Greetings from friends and people you bump into at the grocery store. It’s clogging our social media and reminding us that this is truly a new year.

I can’t believe how fast 2014 has gone. Those who said that the older you get the faster time flies, weren’t lying as I always thought they might have been. But 2015 is here. This much has proven true. Have you entered the Carol or Genesis awards yet? If you haven’t, you really should. Let this year be the year you don’t procrastinate on your entry submission and keep the coordinators (aka: myself and Pam) from hyperventilating over the details. 

Have you laid out your goals? Picked your One Word? Set the New Year’s resolution?

Can I encourage you to do one thing with your new year?

Pursue your dreams.

Finish your goals.

Complete what you started.

We think: New Year, how awesome! Let’s start something new.

But what if instead of starting something new that—let’s be honest here—we most likely won’t finish in 2015 before May rolls around, we finished what we have already started.

Are you putting off the edits? What is holding you back? Insecurity? Fear?

Are you waiting to finish that book until the “right time”? I’ll be brutally honest: that time is never going to show up unless you carve it from the granite that is your schedule.

Are you holding off entering the contest because you’re afraid that your book isn’t good enough to make it to the finals? I’ll ask you this: what if it is? You don’t learn unless you put your best foot forward. And sometimes that best yes is simply hitting “enter”.

New Years aren’t just an opportunity for the freshness of new projects; it’s also the perfect opportunity to take a fresh start on something you’ve been dragging your feet about.

Never has motivation run so clear and straight as it does in the New Year.

What about motivation for this thing you’ve come to dread you say? Thirty minutes a day on a project you loathe or simply tolerate will get you far if you concentrate only on that project for the sole thirty minutes. And you’re done. Move on to something you love or want to work with.

Provide yourself with rewards. A cookie, a chapter of the book you are dying to finish, an extra five minutes in a warm, soothing bath, an escape to your favorite coffee shop to people watch.

None of these things require money, but are things we often deprive ourselves of enjoying. Use this as fuel.

Old projects don’t have to take a back seat in priority to the projects you really want to work on, or vice versa. All you need is the determination to make this project happen.

See, New Years are fresh, beautiful opportunities. Yes, dream of the new idea, the next project, but don’t let the joy of starting something new, let you forget the thing you loved and couldn’t wait to start last year.

This could be the year that dream comes closer to coming true.

***This beautiful post brought to you by Casey Herringshaw saving Amy Leigh Simpson's hyde!

The Pitfalls of a Self-Imposed Deadline

on FreeDigitalPhotos by Stuart Miles

My family and I drove from Iowa to North Carolina back to Iowa again in a week...so I decided to post an oldie, but one that still applies to me at this very moment! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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From the time we enter a classroom at the early age of five, we begin to set our feet toward goals...goals to learn the alphabet and sightwords, goals to climb across the monkeybars and jump off swings.

As we grow, we make goals for good grades and fitness tests, goals to get the lead in the play or make the team. Some of us made the goal to be an author way way way before we could even read a full-length novel...Goals, goals, goals.

While many of us were given goals by our teachers, our parents, our advisors, as we trek along in the great wide world on our own—without a publishing contract, perhaps without an agent-- we are sole initiators of our goals. During this process, we all have certainly stumbled upon a type of goal that can motivate us or trip us up, or both:

The self-imposed deadline.

Even the mention of it makes me shudder.

Not that it's bad.

No. It's what gives us the edge most of the time. It's the symptom of an inner drive to make ourselves competitive and productive. A self-imposed deadline is usually a stepping stone to reaching that next level on our journey.

It's the polished entry for a contest... x number of days before to be sure you have it just right.

It's the tweaked proposal ready for your agent's eyes when you are ready to reveal your next idea.

It's that date to finish that final sentence of a manuscript you just know will get you a contract.

It's the date YOU'VE committed to in your heart, without the suggestion from anyone else, without the expectation of anyone else. It's YOUR timeline for YOUR journey, crafted on YOUR very own.

on FreeDigitalPhotos by photo stock

So why does it make me shudder? Why? When self-motivation is often key to keep going forward on this rigorous writing journey?

Because, I have landed heart first in the pitfalls of self-imposed deadlines, and know that they are a very tricky and sensitive type of goal-setting. 

• First, there is a chance that a deadline like this might rush you by key points in the writing process. 
• Second, you risk the chance of unreasonable expectations on those who play on the receiving end of your met goal.

Pitfall #1:  Missed Opportunities- When I had a project in college, I would brainstorm quickly and focus in on the first idea that came to mind. I took it and ran. I would get so deep in the project with that focus on my original idea, that I didn't take the time to entertain other options. If I did come up with something else, I was usually too far into the project and too close to the actual deadline to change anything. I'd look around at my classmates projects and remember that even thought they were slow to start, their final products were strong ideas with well-thought out execution...sometimes mine lacked those things.

As a writer, I often catch myself zoning into a self-imposed deadline, trucking along on a story, and feeling the pressure of the deadline pushing me past any idea that might hold me back from my goal a few days, weeks, or even months. When we force ourselves to stick to a self-imposed deadline, we can forget the fluidity of such a goal, and miss the maturing process of newborn ideas and complex building blocks that might slow us down, but give us a more refined (and desirable) product in the end.

Pitfall #2:  Expectations of the Un-expecting- If I finished a project before the deadline, I could hardly expect my professors to set aside time to grade it and critique it ahead of the rest of the class. It just doesn't work that way. Just because I might have reached my goal, doesn't mean that everyone affected by it are waiting on the edge of their seats to pat me on the back.

This is something that can drive me absolutely batty in the writing world. You mean, I spent all this time working on this manuscript or proposal, and have urged my crit partner to abide by my deadline (and she is so great at getting it back to me), and I sent it to my agent (I so appreciate her responsiveness as she is very quick in sending it on when it's ready)...but the receivers aren't anxious to meet me at my next self-imposed goal of a contract by such and such date? WHAT??? 

Crickets...a rejection here and there...and more crickets.

But I wanna, but I said, but I set a...hmph.

on FreeDigitalPhotos by Clare Bloomfield

The risk of weighting these self-imposed deadlines so heavily, is that we expect others to step in line with them and play the game OUR way. And more often than not, we will be sorely disappointed. We are placing undue expectations on people and situations we cannot control.

Self-imposed deadlines drive us, but they can also drive us CRAZY if we let them become the steadfast rule. Remember, a self-imposed deadline should be fluid and adjusted according to your creative process and life circumstance. And always remember, that a self-imposed deadline is only imposed by you, so don't expect everyone else to mark their calendars too!

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written five Historical Romance novels, has a Historical underway, and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets, selling Jamberry Nail Wraps, and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check out her author page at www.facebook.com/dicken.angie and her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com 

The reasons you write

Have you ever struggled with the daily commitment to writing?

Image by m_bartosch, freedigitalphotos.net

Perhaps you started out strong, but the middle has become a hard slog, and you feel like you’ve lost your way. Perhaps you’ve received negative feedback from people whose opinions you value, and you wonder if the whole thing is a waste of time. Maybe your characters have fallen down a plot hole and you can’t see any way for them to climb out. Perhaps your life circumstances have changed (new job? New baby? Elderly parent to care for? Fill in the blank) and your writing routine has been thrown so badly out of kilter that you’re scrambling to make any time to write at all.

I could put my hand up for all of these things. I’ll be honest: the book I’m working on right now has become a struggle. A mental, emotional, physical, spiritual struggle.

 

Recently I’ve been reading “Platform” by Michael Hyatt. Great book. Hyatt suggests writing down seven reasons for why you write, and reviewing these daily.

I did this. I actually came up with eight. Today I’d like to be completely transparent, and share them with you. These are very personal, very intimate reasons, and while it makes me feel quite vulnerable to share them, I hope my honesty might help someone else who may be struggling just as I am.

Eight reasons why I need to finish my novel.

1. To finish what I started. “I want to suggest that you finish what you started to do… Let your enthusiastic idea at the start be equalled by your realistic action now.” (2 Cor 8:10-11, TLB) Finishing when it’s tough takes character. I CHOOSE to be a woman of character, no matter how I feel.

2. To experience pride in my accomplishment. The results of not writing? I feel defeated, useless, inadequate. The results of writing? I feel energised, completed, purposeful. This state of mind flows out to every other area of my life.

3. God wants me to finish this book. A pastor once stopped me after a service and spoke this word over me: “You’ve sometimes thought that writing is your dream and your desire. But God wants you to know, it’s His desire.” I love him so much, and writing for God is my expression of love to him. It’s my daily sacrifice of praise.

4. Writing is my purpose in life. If I want to live a life that’s purpose-driven and meaningful, I need to walk within my purpose. To walk outside my purpose is to live a half-life, an incomplete life that doesn’t fulfil my potential.

5. I want to impact others. My biggest prayer has always been that I might produce fruit for God’s kingdom. God has given me a voice, and writing is my platform. Through the power of the written word, my sphere of influence will expand to reach countless more people than I could ever reach alone. My greatest privilege and joy in life would be to impact many others for God. 

6. I am a better mother when I follow my dreams. Following my dreams feeds my spirit. Do I want to feel begrudging and resentful that I don’t have time for myself, or do I want to make that time, and then mother with generosity and joy, out of an overflowingly abundant heart?

7. I believe in this book. I love my story. I love my characters. Those who’ve read it so far have found it gripping and compelling. I believe this story has the potential to be a success.

8. I choose to live my dream. Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do, ever since I was a little girl. The dream will not happen on its own. I alone have the power to make it happen through my daily choices.

The power of a reason

I’ve begun a practice of reading over my eight reasons at the start of every writing session. It centers me on the purpose behind the task. Gives me a bigger perspective. Inspires me to continue when it’s tough.

What are the reasons YOU write?

28-Day Challenge check-in:

For those participating, how is your new habit coming along? Don’t forget – double entries for the Amazon gift card in two weeks’ time if you’ve stuck with your habit every day!

Karen Schravemade lives Downunder and likes to confuse her American friends by using weird Australian figures of speech. When she's not chasing after two small boys or cuddling her baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.

The 28-Day Challenge

“They were under royal orders, which determined their daily activity.” Nehemiah 11:23

You are under royal orders.

God has a destiny and purpose for your life. He has a plan that only YOU can fulfil on this earth. Many of you already know your purpose. (If you don’t, here’s a classic book that will help bring you some clarity.)

But does your purpose determine how you live your daily life?

Here’s some news for you.

God wants you to achieve your purpose.

If it’s writing – God wants you to write.

If it’s mothering – God wants you to mother.

If it’s leading others – God wants you to lead.

If it’s helping, encouraging, serving, teaching, whatever the case may be – God wants you to get the necessary training and skills and live it out to the best of your abilities.

For a lot of us, there’s a chasm between our life purpose and our current reality. Why? Because it’s easy to think of our dreams as something far-off and grandiose. Something we’ll get around to “one day.” When we seem unable to reach our full potential, it’s easy to blame the usual culprits – our current circumstances, our limitations, our finances, the abilities we were born with, or of course, our lack of time.

Image by digitalart, freedigitalphotos.net

Ah, time. We’ve all been gifted with the same amount of it. And how we use it is, of course, the key. The power to achieve our dreams doesn’t lie in the next self-help book or the next motivational speaker to pray over you at church. It lies in our daily habits.

It’s that simple. Your habits determine your destiny.

I love that verse I shared at the start from the book of Nehemiah, because it tells me that the little stuff matters to God. The daily routine, the things we do over and over again, day in and day out – that’s the seemingly unimportant stuff that shapes our destiny. And because we’re under royal orders from the King of Kings, our daily activity had better reflect our respect for what he wants to accomplish in our lives.

Oh, boy, am I ever preaching to myself here.

And here is exactly where a lot of us start to feel a bit defeated. The problem most of us have when we look at our lives is the dozen different things screaming simultaneously for improvement. So typically, in a burst of enthusiasm, we decide to make a drastic 24-hour turnaround in which we will overhaul absolutely everything in our life. We decide we’ll go from couch-potato junk-food-eater to organic vegan athlete overnight, pray for an hour a day, home-school our children Montessori-style while also teaching them Suzuki violin and studying on the side, de-clutter the house from top to bottom, volunteer at a homeless shelter, and while we’re at it, we’ll also write ten thousand words every day on our novel while doing one-handed push-ups.

Um… yeah.

Lean in a little closer and I’ll tell you a secret. This is important. It’s a secret that has the potential to change your life.

Are you ready?

Image by Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee
freedigitalphotos.net

Here it is.

If you want to change your life, focus on changing ONE THING.

Did you get that?

One thing. No cheating. Not three things, or even just two.

Start with one.

Do that one thing every day for a month. Chart your progress. (Try using a chart like THIS one.) If you miss a day, begin again. This allows you to truly master that habit and make it a part of your life.

Then, once you’ve successfully incorporated one new habit into your life for a whole month, the following month you can focus on changing one more thing.

Are you getting this? Sure, it takes time to do it this way. But look at the end result. Do you want your habits to actually stick? Or do you want to continue down the path you’ve always gone - trying to change everything, and actually changing nothing?

So… are you up for a challenge?

Here’s how this is going to work.

1. Choose a habit

Choose one habit you’d like to incorporate into your life. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant it may seem to someone else. This is YOUR life, and small, consistent action is better than no action. Here are some examples:

- To write 500 words a day.

- To make your bed every morning as soon as you get up.

- To spend 15 minutes of quality time with each child, every day.

- To get up half an hour earlier to have a daily Quiet Time.

- To exercise for 20 minutes a day, even if it’s just jogging around your clothesline.

- To deal with an email as soon as you open it.

- To wash the dishes each night before you go to bed.

- To spend 15 minutes a day de-cluttering or organizing an area of your house.

- To drink 8 glasses of water a day.

- To make a menu plan and cook dinner every week-night instead of ordering takeaway.

You might look at that list and want to do all of those things, and more. But don’t be tempted to fall into that old approach.

Choose one. Just one. Chances are, your one habit might look completely different from the things on this list. That’s okay. Choose one thing that is meaningful to you, that will ultimately help you toward your purpose. One small thing you know you can accomplish.

2. Make a plan

You may need to plan your day into a routine to find the time to incorporate your new habit. My One Word for this year was ABIDE. With three preschool age children, I knew that spending time with God each day was not just going to happen. So I drew up a routine. (See left). Every day we have different scheduled activities, so each day is slightly different. But by following my routine, I have been able to stick with a quiet time every day. Once I had that down, I worked on my next priority – spending quality “Focus” time with my kids each day, one on one. This, too, had to find a place in the routine, or it would not happen.

Now that these two areas have become a habit, it’s time for me to carve out

time for my writing again. It’s taken me a while to find my feet with this after baby number three, but I know that it’s time. That will be my focus for this challenge. So, I drew myself up a star chart. I know, I know. I’m a nerd. I’m also a teacher. It’s a teacher thing. Why should our kids get all the shiny gold stars? 

3. Share the challenge!

None of us are born disciplined. It’s a state that goes against our natural inclinations. So why not share this with a friend, and get them to jump on board too? Let’s get some momentum going and cheer each other on.

When you comment on this post, your name will be entered into a draw for a $10 Amazon gift card. Tweet or Facebook this post, and you’ll get an additional two entries per share. Check back in two weeks’ time, and we’ll take stock together and see how we’re all going – and you’ll have another chance to throw some more entries into the hat. In four weeks time, we’re going to celebrate together as we look at what new habits we’ve incorporated into our lives. If you’ve stuck with your plan that whole time, I’ll double your entries. Then I’ll draw a winner.

Don’t you just love a bit of extra incentive? But you know what? If you take this challenge, you’re already a winner. It’s your life, and you only get one of them to use. Let’s choose to glorify God through our daily habits.

So, let’s get started. In the comments, why don’t you share the one new habit you’d like to incorporate into your life?

Instead of doing nothing about everything, do something about one thing.

You can do that. I know you can.

Who’s with me?

Karen Schravemade lives Downunder and likes to confuse her American friends by using weird Australian figures of speech. When she's not chasing after two small boys or cuddling her baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.

Suspension of Disbelief

Image by sattva, freedigitalphotos.net

The first novel I ever wrote was a fantasy. As a new, very green writer, I soaked up all the information I could learn about the genre and the craft in general. One particular “Aha!” moment came when I stumbled across the term Suspension of disbelief.

It sounded cool and literary. I wanted to be cool and literary. Such a phrase, I thought, might come in handy to casually drop into the conversation at my first book-signing or live television interview.  

Did I mention I was 23 years old and unflappably optimistic about my future success?

Suspension of disbelief, I learned, was a crucial element in any work of fantasy. Why should the reader care that your protagonist is stuck in a parallel universe, when everyone knows such things don’t even exist?

The skilful fantasy writer invites the reader to suspend their disbelief for the duration of the story. Not to believe that things such as portals and alternate realities actually exist; but to consciously put aside their natural skepticism in order to engage in the story and enjoy it.

There are deliberate strategies a writer can use to aid this process. (Don’t ask me what they are. I can only remember one of them. I’ve had three babies in a short space of time, okay? Brain cells have been irretrievably lost.)

Luckily, that’s not the point of this post. If you’re a fantasy writer, I apologize, and I promise I’ll refund all the money you paid to read this.

The thing is, lately it’s occurred to me that this principle holds another, completely different layer of meaning for writers.

Whatever genre you write, be it fantasy or romance or realism, as a writer you engage in the act of suspending disbelief on a daily basis.

Image by jannoon028, freedigitalphotos.net

Think about it.

We all know the statistics. We know the grim facts about repeated rejection, and how competitive this market is, and how hard it is for an unknown author to break in at all, let alone stay published.

It’s easy to let those things get to us. Especially as time drags by, and it seems we’re no closer to reaching our dreams than ever before.

At those times, the voice of disbelief is strong. Who are you to think you can do this writing thing? Are you kidding yourself? You’re sacrificing so much of your time and effort – and for what? A pipe dream. That’s all it is. It’s never going to happen. You obviously just don’t have what it takes.

The simple fact is, writing a book takes a heck of a lot of effort, over a sustained period of time. It involves sacrifice. Early mornings when the harsh buzz of the alarm intrudes on your cosy slumber. Late evenings when all you feel like doing is curling up in front of the TV and not having to think. For some, it means sacrificing potential income. For others, it means being misunderstood by those closest to you, the ones whose support you most crave, who just don’t seem to “get” what you’re trying to do.

It means writing when you don’t feel like it; subjecting yourself to critiques that hurt like nails scraped over sunburnt skin. It means entering contests and enduring negative feedback. Submitting with hope and receiving the gut-punch of rejection. Rewriting your book yet again, even though each cut feels like you’re severing one of your own limbs.

It means smiling and answering politely when someone asks you for the hundredth time why your book hasn’t been published yet.

What keeps us going, through all of that? What keeps us pressing on toward our goal?

Suspension of disbelief.

If you’re listening to the voice of disbelief that tells you it can’t be done and who are you to even try – well, honestly, why bother? Who would carry on?

We keep going because we make a deliberate choice to put aside that voice of negativity. To suspend our own disbelief, no matter how valid it may seem to us at the time.

Knowing everything we know about the industry, the state of the market, the reality of how long this might take – we don’t deny those things; rather, we give them a polite nod and hang them on the coat rack in the hall, where they can just jolly well wait, while we get busy doing what we’re meant to do.

Which is?

To keep on writing.

There’s a decade of waiting between me and that green new writer I once was – the one who daydreamed about which famous actor should be cast in the lead role when Hollywood snatched up the movie rights to my book. Back then, I learned how to suspend disbelief for the reader. These days, I’m more concerned with suspending disbelief in myself.

Time has a way of putting a tarnish on the most patient hope. But the simple truth is that the voice of disbelief never comes from God. God does not discourage, pull down, crush, dishearten or condemn.

God speaks in a voice of possibility.

He speaks faith. Hope. Perseverence. Conviction. Life.

Which voice would you rather listen to?

Do you find yourself consciously needing to suspend disbelief at times, in order to press on as a writer? What tips have helped you do this?

Karen Schravemade lives Downunder and likes to confuse her American friends by using weird Australian figures of speech. When she's not chasing after two small boys or cuddling her baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.

Top Ten New Year Resolutions for Writers

Photo by Stuart Miles
freedigitalphotos.net

Happy New Year!

I'm sure if you are like me, you have been thinking about the new year and how you will better yourself in 2013. What can you do to be a better wife? Mom? Writer? So for all you writers out there, here is a list of resolutions that you might want to grab hold of for the new year.

10 Exercise more! What???? I know, but hear me out. Writers tend to sit on their backsides...a lot...and that backside begins to grow. Plus, exercises gets blood flowing to your brain, which could produce some AWESOME ideas for your novel. Give it a try!

9 Watch movies/TV! I know you think this might be a waste of your precious time, but watching movies in the genre you are writing is an excellent way to learn how to craft your novel. Analyze the movie as you watch. Does the dialogue move the story? What about the setting? How could you incorporate the sights you are seeing on the screen into words? Movies can teach us about pacing and blocking. Pick a movie this week and watch with a critical eye.

8 Read more! Writers are readers, but oftentimes we put aside reading for pleasure because we value our time so much. But reading can open our eyes to the beauty of prose. Find an author you love to read and read their book, noting what it is you love about their writing. Is the dialogue fabulous? Is the writing lyrical? Is the plot riveting? Take notes while you enjoy the love of reading.

7 Time management. Ugh, you say? I agree, but for most of us, this can be a problem. It is hard to balance work, housework, kids, cooking, cleaning, carpools, extra curricular activities, church, play, and writing. You have to be organized and make sure you schedule time to write. If you don't make it a priority, it won't happen.

6 Quite playing on the internet. Okay, so this one is for me. I love to play games online. I don't know why! Give me an Angry Bird and I will shoot that bird until I've hit all the green pigs! Give me some Bejeweled gems and I will match them until the cows come home. And don't get me started with Pinterest! Aak...the time stealer of creative persons everywhere!!!! Seriously, I could sit for hours, browsing for things to make. Hours, I tell you! So set a time limit on your internet "play". Don't call it research!! Call it for what it is...a time stealer!

5 Organize! I don't know about you, but sometimes I need to organize my writing. Sometimes I just get to writing and there is no rhyme or reason to the words on the page. And people, novels need some structure! Sure, you can write by the seat of your pants, but you definitely need to make sure you have a spine of a story to flesh out. Try some tools like The Book Buddy by My Book Therapy. It is great, even for seat of the pants writers.

4 Be more confident. Now this is a bit scary, but every writer needs to be confident in their writing. You need to believe in your story. You need to believe you have what it takes. God has given you a gift for a reason, and you must rest in that knowledge and have the courage to take new steps. Polish that novel and send it to agents! Press that send button as often as you can. Be brave! You can do it!

3 Read books on writing. Yes, I said read...some more. But this time read books on the craft of writing. Learn from the masters on how to shape a story. Soak in the knowledge that the experts share.

2 Write! Just write. Every day. Make this your habit, even if it is only one page a day. Your writing only gets better when you exercise your writing mind, so keep writing. All the time. Whenever. Wherever. Just do it.

1 Pray. Yes, this should be your number one resolution. Not just for your writing, but for your life. Developing your relationship with God and giving your writing up to Him is such a beautiful thing. When you bathe your writing in praying, you are releasing your abilities to Him. This takes the pressure off of you! Your writing will take on a life of its own as you release yourself to write for Him. So pray. Everyday. And see what God will do.

What are your New Year's Resolutions? Either for your writing or for your life in general?

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.

Applying the Moral Premise to your story

In my last blog post, I shared with you the one ingredient common to every commercially successful story.

If you’re not up to speed with the rest of us, take a minute and go read the post here. I promise we’ll wait. J

Back again? Great. So now you know that for your story to experience commercial success – for it to resonate with a broad audience – it must be built upon the foundation of a Moral Premise. You also have an understanding of what the Moral Premise is, how it differs from the concept of a theme, and how the Moment of Grace becomes a pivot point between the protagonist’s pursuit of vice and his pursuit of virtue.

This week, we’ll be looking at how to apply the principle of the Moral Premise to our stories. Dr Stan Williams, the brilliant author of The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success, breaks down the process into 8 straightforward steps.

1. Determine the controlling virtue.

What do you want your story to really be about? And how do you go about narrowing down all the possibilities to one key idea? Do you just close your eyes, poke your finger at a list of virtues and see where it lands, then run with it?

No. Because if you choose a value which means little to you, your story will flounder in the shallows. Your audience will sense your lack of passion.  Dr Williams explains this so eloquently I’ll quote him directly:

“A controlling virtue… is a value that you, the writer, must hold in the highest esteem. It is something you are passionate about getting more of; something that gets you out of bed in the morning to write about. It has to be a value that connects with your view of humanity on every level. It is something that is eternally true, and hopefully of importance to most, if not every member of society… your audience.”

2. Determine the controlling vice

The controlling vice must be directly oppositional to the controlling virtue. For example – greed vs. generosity, or love vs. hatred.

Williams then shakes things up by advising writers to allocate vices to the protagonist, and virtues to the villain.

Yep, that’s right. Kinda the opposite of what you might expect, huh? But he has a point. In order to avoid cardboard cut-out characters, our villains need to have a sympathetic side, while our heroes need flaws to overcome so we can relate to them and see them grow throughout the story.

3. Determine the Moral Premise.

Let’s brush up on the structure again.

(Vice) leads to (defeat); but

(virtue) leads to (success).

Here, Dr Williams lets us in on another pointer. He suggests thinking of the defeat and success elements as the physical/ external goals of the protagonist, while the vice and virtue components sum up the characters’ psychological or internal goals.

Are you beginning to see the power of this tool? Nail this step, and you’ll have a structure that embodies the internal and external story arcs, conflict, and resolution of your novel.

4. Determine the (story’s) genre

Williams rightly points out that the writer’s choice of genre creates certain inherent expectations, which will predetermine much of your story’s structure.

You’re writing romance? It’s a given that the guy and gal will end up together. If you fail to deliver on this for your readers, you’ll lose their trust. If you’re writing women’s fiction, on the other hand, you have a bit more wiggle room. Women’s fiction authors like to do unexpected things such as killing off the male lead halfway through the book. (Insert evil laugh here.)

Whatever your genre, knowing its accepted parameters will help you define the structure of your book.

5. Determine the protagonist’s physical goal

You already know what your story is really about. (See Step 1.) Now you need to relate this to the physical goal of the story so that the external action becomes a metaphor for the internal truth of the tale.

Often, the physical goal (the hook) is what you begin with – the original spark of an idea for a book – and the internal truth follows as you learn more about your characters. Whichever order you develop these in, it’s essential that the two are related in order to convey the Moral Premise in a powerful and consistent way.

6. Determine the protagonist’s physical obstacles

That is, the things that prevent him or her from achieving the physical goal. Often, this will be an antagonist whose goals oppose those of the MC.

7. Determine the major dramatic beats

This step involves creating character arcs for each character in your story, each of which must embody the same Moral Premise in differing ways. The essential rule here? KEEP IT ABOUT ONE THING.

Williams iterates, “If the physical goals of the various characters do not refer implicitly to the Moral Premise, then you are writing two different (stories). Stop. Fix it. A successful (story) is about only one thing, like a well-constructed sentence or paragraph. Each sentence in a paragraph supports the topic sentence. If it doesn’t, get rid of it, use it in a different paragraph, or a different (story).”

8. Sequence the dramatic beats

Here’s where you take the information you’ve worked out about your characters – their goals, virtues and vices – and structure them into a plot: a sequence of events that will propel your protagonist to the climax.

Williams delves into great detail at this step, with extremely helpful structural advice. Such detail is beyond the scope of this article. Want to know more? You’ll need to buy his book! I highly recommend it.

Did you find this breakdown helpful? My lightbulb moment was when Dr Williams says that if our characters’ goals don’t refer implicitly to the Moral Premise, we’re writing two different stories. Uh – GUILTY! To be totally honest, I’ve probably been writing four different stories! I’m so happy to finally be able to pinpoint the main structural flaw of my novel! Anyone else have a lightbulb moment…? J

Image by chaiwat, courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after two small boys or gazing at her brand-new baby girl, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website, on Twitter or getting creative over at her mummy blog.