Tag Archives: writing

Writing Tips: Soaking Up Creative Energy

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What is it and how can I tap into it?

The other day, I posted a blog entry about distractions. In it, I shared an exchange between me and one of my Twitter friends. He’d tweeted that the coffee shop he was trying to write in was distracting. When I asked why he’d try to write there, he said the place had “creative energy.”

On “Creative Energy”

I should start out by saying that I don’t really believe in “energy” as the term is used by New Age folks. I’m a skeptic about most things and the older I get, the more skeptical I get. So if he was referring to some kind of weird, new age “energy” fields — like the vortexes supposedly in Sedona — he completely lost me (and much of my respect).

But I don’t think he meant it that way. (At least I hope not.) I think he meant something I do believe in and understand.

Did you ever go someplace or do something or read something or see something that made you feel almost feverish about writing (or painting or doing something else creative)? It’s as if this place or thing gave you a poke with a creative juice taser. After (or during) the experience, you must create. You’re driven to create.

I really can’t describe it any better than that.

On WritingThis happens to me once in a while. Stephen King’s book, On Writing, made me feel like this. Although I couldn’t put the book down, I also couldn’t wait to get back to my novel in progress the whole time I was reading it. (And no, I’m not a big Stephen King fan.)

I’ve also felt this way other times. It’s a great feeling. It reminds me of why I wanted to be a writer.

It’s frustrating, too, because when it hits, I’m not always prepared to drop everything and get to work. Sometimes, it hits when I’m traveling on vacation or for business and I simply can’t make the workplace I need to get the words out. Or by the time I can, I’m too exhausted by the day’s activities and can only sleep.

I think my Twitter friend was referring to this feeling. I think he feels this way in the coffee shop he tweeted to us about, or in other places like it with “creative energy.”

Soak it Up!

I don’t think that places with creative energy are the best places to write if they’re also filled with distractions. But that certainly doesn’t mean a creative person should avoid them. Instead, why not use them as a place to soak up that energy?

Take my Twitter friend’s coffee shop example. How could you tap into the creative energy you might feel in a place like that?

Sit down with your coffee at a corner table, facing the room. Have your journal open and your pen handy. Take notes about what you see and hear. The woman with blue streaks in her hair is carrying a molecular biology text book. That guy’s accent is weird, like a cross between Australia and New Jersey. Those two women are talking about the guy sitting in the opposite corner, staring into space. There’s a crack in the ceiling that looks as if it might have been dripping last week. The smell of coffee is strong in the air. A song you haven’t heard in years has just come on over the speakers. It reminds you of the road trip you took during college.

Any of these people can be characters in a book or screenplay. The things they talk about can be ideas for articles or nonfiction works. What’s going on around you can trigger ideas that can get your creative juices flowing and help you break the writer’s block that may have sent you to the coffee shop in the first place.

But not if you try to build your workplace among these distractions by keeping your eyes on your laptop or notepad and earphones in your ears — which is what my Twitter friend was apparently trying to do.

Work in your workplace. Soak up the creative energy of other places by actively paying attention to it when you find it.

There’s More than One Work Mode

For a writer, there’s more than one way to work.

Sure, you can go into your distraction-free working place, as I discussed in my earlier post, focus on your writing, and churn out the words. That’s one work mode. The one that actually produces finished (or nearly finished) text.

But you may need to do things that generate the ideas and get you fired up about writing. If going to a coffee shop with “creative energy” does that for you, it’s an important part of your writing routine. I might think of it as the “pre-work” mode. And for folks who write fiction, there’s nothing better than an hour or so of people watching with your journal nearby to get those creative juices flowing.

And people watching isn’t the only pre-work you can do. Take a walk in the park and jot down notes about what you see. What’s the weather like? What does it smell like? What do you hear? Go to the supermarket at a weird off-hour. What’s it like? Hang around outside an office or retail space before it opens or as its closing. What’s going on? Think about the scenes in your work-in-progress and go to places like them to get the real-life scoop of what they’re all about.

Pay attention! You’ll be amazed by what you come away with.

Remember: Characters, dialog, and plot are only three components of fiction. Scene is another. Doing your homework can help you write about realistic scenes.

As for journals…well, I need cover the importance of those in another post.

Writing Tips: Avoiding Distractions

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Write where and when you can write.

The other day, one of my Twitter friends tweeted:

At XYZ, writing. Or trying to. This place is insanely distracting on… um… many levels. This place could be trouble for me.

This statement mystified me and I @replied to him to get clarification:

Trying to understand why you’d go to a distracting place to write. What is XYZ?

His reply:

XYZ is a coffee shop. Lots of creative energy, and I have headphones. First time working here; underestimated the place.

But my statement remains: Why would anyone go to a distracting — or even potentially distracting — place to write?

We’re Not J.K. Rowlings

Anyone who is serious about writing knows about J.K. Rowling. She supposedly wrote the first Harry Potter book longhand, in a coffee shop. Apparently, the coffee shop was owned by her brother-in-law — although I’m not sure whether that makes a difference. But the story has given rise to a certain idea that bestselling books can be written in cafes and coffee shops.

Reality check here: What works for one woman doesn’t necessarily work for everyone else. Did Rowling write all the books in a coffee shop? And what was that coffee shop like? Was it a bustling, high-energy place with lots of traffic, music, and noise? Or a quiet cafe off the main drag where people normally gathered to read, write, and drink coffee amidst the soft sounds of classical music?

In other words, was the place conducive to writing?

Distraction reduces productivity.

The above statement should not be necessary. We should all be aware of the fact that the more distraction we have in our workplace, the less real work we’re likely to get done.

I know this from experience. I’ve been writing for a living since 1990. I don’t write in coffee shops or anywhere else I’m likely to be distracted by what’s going on around me. Heck, these days I have enough trouble finding a distraction-free workplace in my own office.

Distractions give me excuses to procrastinate. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m procrastinating. Let me just answer these few e-mails before i get to work. I’d better catch up on my tweets before I get to work. This link (in an e-mail or a tweet) looks interesting; I’d better follow it now before I forget. I told so-and-so I’d call this week; better do it now to get it over with. The latest episode of House is on Hulu; may as well tune in while I finish these e-mails. It never ends.

I can’t even imagine trying to work in a coffee shop, which likely has WiFi — why visit one that doesn’t these days? — so I have most of the distractions of my home office with me on my laptop, along with the distractions that are part of a coffee shop.

Again, this is me. But I’m willing to bet that, like me, most of us can get a lot more work done without distractions. There’s really no reason to add more to the mix by purposely trying to work in what’s likely to be a distracting place.

Concentrate and Create

I write best and fastest when I can focus on the task at hand. That means eliminating all distractions and putting just my work and related notes in front of me. That means making conscious effort to avoid the things that I know will distract me.

For me, that means doing the following:

  • Clearing off my desk of all non-work material. That means putting away (or at least piling elsewhere) what might be in an “In Box.” Sometimes it even means wiping down the desk surface so it’s free of dust or coffee rings. The only thing on my desk should be my outline or notes.
  • Quitting non-essential software. That includes my e-mail client, my Web browser (usually; sometimes I do need it), and my Twitter client.
  • Loading up all the software I need to get the job done. Opening all applications and documents I need to work with before I start eliminates the need to hunt through the applications and documents folder on my hard disk, where other distractions await me. Depending on what I’m writing, I usually need Microsoft Word or InDesign and Photoshop. (I do layout for some of my books, so I actually write those books in InDesign. I use Photoshop for all image editing needs.) If I’m blogging, I use ecto for offline composition and usually have my browser running to get reference material (like the links to software here). I have tried distraction-free writing tools like Scrivener and StoryMill and I don’t like them. I’ve been using Word since 1989 and have written numerous books about it. I know Word 2004 better than any other program I use; why would I want to waste time learning a new word processing program when Word works just fine for me? (Want to read more of my opinion on special writing software? Read “Software isn’t Always the Answer.”)
  • Turning down (or off) the music. I can often focus with certain types of music on, but when I’m struggling with a topic or having difficulty focusing, the music needs to be turned off. In any case, its volume must be turned down and I absolutely cannot listen to podcasts.
  • Setting the climate control properly. This really only applies in the winter (when my office on the north side of the house seems to get cold) or the summer (when the whole damn house can get hot). There’s nothing I hate more than getting into “the zone” and suddenly realizing that I’m shivering in my chair.
  • Closing my door. Not always necessary, but when Alex the Bird decides to spend 15 minutes imitating the failing battery in a smoke detector, a good door slam can turn him off. If my husband is home, it can also filter out the sound of the movie or football game he’s listening to with surround sound upstairs.
  • Turning off the phone. This is only when I get really desperate to get work done. In general, I don’t get many calls, but a call from a friend or family member can keep me from my work for an hour or more.

Once I get focused, I can churn out finished prose — or even laid-out book pages — at an alarming rate. (I once wrote a 350-page book in 10 days.) My work needs very little editing before it’s published. My editors, for the most part, like me very much because I’m reliable and dependable and make their jobs easier than many other authors.

But that’s because when I’m working, I’m working.

Get Serious!

I believe that a serious approach to writing is what sets professional writers apart from amateur or wannabe writers.

As a professional writer, I must write and I must finish what I write by a predetermined deadline. I don’t have time for bullshit like distractions that might slow me down. I build my best writing environment — like a bird builds a nest — and I climb into it to write. I don’t emerge unless I have to go to the bathroom (which is in the room next to my office) or my stomach is so empty I can’t think over the sound of its growling. (Sometimes, when I really get in the zone, I can go a whole day without eating or drinking.) On tight deadlines, I start at 6 AM and often work until 6 PM. I sometimes work 7-day workweeks. It’s what I do because it’s what I must do.

If I don’t produce publishable prose when I’m contracted to do so, I won’t get paid, I won’t get future work, and I will likely have to join the 9 to 5 grind I’ve managed to avoid for nearly 20 years.

My Two Cents

I didn’t write this post to criticize my Twitter friend or anyone else who tries to write in coffee shops or cafes. I just wrote it to share my own take on the topic of working in a place full of distractions. I say avoid it when you can — if you’re serious about getting work done.

As for “creative energy” — well, that’s a topic for another post.

HeliNews

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A magazine for helicopter pilots and operators.

One of the things that has always bothered me about being a helicopter pilot — rather than an airplane pilot — is the dearth of good reading material about flying helicopters. The standard flying magazines here in the U.S. — Flying, Plane & Pilot, AOPA Pilot, Flight Training, etc. — rarely have an article written specifically about helicopters, for helicopter pilots, or by a helicopter pilot.

Sure, sometimes they throw us a bone, but it’s always with a catch. For example, in 2003 Flying magazine did a review of the Robinson R44 Raven II, but it had to share its pages with a review of a Porsche Cayenne. (You can read the article here.) It’s more common for them to put one of their airplane pilot/writers in a helicopter for a flight to write a “gee whiz, that’s cool” piece about helicopters, often fraught with technical errors. I remember one piece I read in a magazine where the author claimed that you must never let go of the collective, but you could let go of the cyclic. That author has obviously never flown a Robinson or Long Ranger — both of which I’ve flown extensively. I assume they’re representative of most helicopters: they have a pilot-friendly collective but a cyclic that’ll have the aircraft doing aerobatics if you let go of it.

What’s Out There

In the U.S., there are several helicopter-specific magazines. Rotor & Wing is the granddaddy, a monthly magazine with industry-specific content. Like most print publications, its page count has dwindled considerably in recent years. Content seems geared toward the heavy hitters of the industry, with articles about helicopter sales, new developments in helicopter technology and avionics, and reports from the North Seas and military operations. While I realize that it’s an important source of information for the industry’s heavy hitters, it can be pretty dry reading sometimes — especially for a small desert-based piston pilot like me.

Rotor, the magazine of the Helicopter Association International (HAI) is a quarterly publication. HAI is the helicopter industry’s big association. I was a member for about 2-1/2 years but soon realized that they really didn’t give a damn about operators with fewer than five helicopters. Everything they do is for the “big guys.” Their magazine isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if you’re interested in anything other than HAI’s internal operations and the big operators they service. And their Web site is ugly, difficult to navigate, has many non-functioning links and “features,” and contains little content of value to non-members. (One of these days, I’ll have to write more about my experiences with HAI.)

Vertical MagazineVertical magazine is a slick publication from Canada. Of all the aviation magazines that arrive on my mailbox regularly, it’s the one I prefer. It’s got more content geared toward helicopter operators and pilots. It regularly covers issues such as flight training and does profiles of specific helicopter operators and operations. The photography is outstanding. And while I feel that they still gear content toward the big operators, there’s enough in each issue to satisfy the reading needs of little owner/operators like me.

HeliNews

HeliNewsApparently, however, the best helicopter-specific magazine comes from down under. Australia-based HeliNews is a magazine any helicopter owner or pilot can really sink his or her teeth into. It combines photography that’s almost as good as what you’d find in Vertical with articles written by helicopter pilots for helicopter pilots.

I recently received two sample issues of the magazine. The May 2008 issue has articles covering the following topics:

  • Profile of a corporate CEO who does mustering (cattle herding) with an R44
  • A day in the life of a New Zealand contract pilot in Scotland
  • Australian Navy – U.S. Coast Guard pilot exchange program.
  • Australian Federal Police helicopter operations
  • Helicopters in the movies (just part one in this issue; I don’t have part two!)
  • Military helicopter air show team
  • Practicing autorotations to grass
  • How ADS-B works
  • Switching from Robinson R22 to turbine helicopters and back

All this in addition to the usual collection of columns, editorials, and news about the helicopter industry.

My question: Why can’t a North American publication give us more content like this? Rotor & Wing? Vertical? Are you listening?

Me? Writing for HeliNews?

You might be wondering why I have two copies of this magazine. After all, I don’t think it’s widely available — or perhaps available at all — in the United States.

Well, I’ve been asked to submit an article for the magazine and, if I don’t drop the ball by procrastinating and I submit something worthy of publication, I’ll be a HeliNews author. At least once.

There’s nothing more pleasing to me than to have some of my work published in a high quality magazine.

So if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to work.

A Tale of two Copyright Infringements

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Together, we can stop it.

CopyrightThe other day, while trying in vain to catch up with missed tweets by the people I follow on Twitter, I noticed that two of my Twitter friends were dealing with copyright-related issues. Since then, both issues were resolved. I believe that part of the reason for the speedy resolution of these problems was involvement by the Twitter community.

Content Theft

The first case came to light when one of my Twitter friends, @anntorrence, complained that she had not gotten a response from the blogger who used one of her articles on his site. The link to the article in question told the rest of the story. Ann had written a great tips piece about preparing for a cold-weather photowalk. The article was originally published on Ann’s blog, Pixel Remix: the Ann-alog. Later, it was picked up with her permission on Photowalking Utah. The same article was picked up without her permission by a new photowalking Web site that was obviously anxious to build content and Google juice.

Ann’s article is copyrighted — as is most content on the Web. Her obvious distress over the piece being used without her permission bothered me. After all, I earn my living as a writer and have seen my own content stolen again and again. In my case, it often affects my livelihood by distributing content that I normally receive royalties for. But that doesn’t mean that content theft is any less wrong when it’s from a blog or other free source.

I went to the Web site guilty of the theft and posted a comment there. I also wrote to the owner of the site. I was horrified not only to see the theft, but because that site was one of the few that I actually paid to advertise my helicopter business on. I was not interested in supporting a site that was stealing content. If they stole from Ann, who else had they stolen from? How much of the content was original or reused with permission? (Needless to say, I pulled my ad immediately.)

The owner of the site made the fatal error of replying to me in Twitter. He defended his actions by saying that he “gives credit when due.” He was obviously clueless about copyright law — as most people incapable of creating their own content appear to be. He seemed to think that if it was on the Web, it was free for use anywhere, as long as he put a byline for the original author. He appeared to think he was being generous by including a link back to the article — not the original, but the site he stole it from.

An @reply argument ensued, with me trying to educate him and him responding arrogantly. He tried to continue the argument in e-mail. After I left my computer (and Twitterrific), he was apparently blasted by other Twitter users who got in on the discussion with their own @replies.

Ann has since gotten satisfaction for the situation — her article has been removed. Unfortunately, the owner of the site still doesn’t get it. He has written a post apologizing for not giving proper links back to original articles. He evidently does not understand that he needs permission to reuse copyrighted work.

I wonder what Scott Kelby will say when he sees his work used on the offender’s site. Personally, I hope he sues the site owner’s sorry ass.

I would urge people to boycott the site, but that might send new visitors there just to check it out. Instead, I’ll just urge people not to frequent sites that steal content. If you think a blog’s post contains content used without permission, don’t be afraid to comment about it.

Removing Copyright Notices

The second case was far more blatant. Some idiot had written a blog post about how to remove copyright notices from photos and other images found on the Web. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he used someone else’s copyrighted image for his example. That someone else was @PattyHankins, one of my Twitter friends.

Patty mentioned the problem in Twitter and I went to investigate. The post in question was a typical hacker/pirate post with instructions for removing copyright notices that were part of a photo. Patty’s photo appeared numerous times in the step-by-step instructions. After the first time, the author of the post made a comment like, “I don’t know who Patty Hankins is, but nice picture.” Extremely obnoxious.

I posted a comment to the post. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but it clearly pointed out that the author of the post and site was violating Patty’s copyright. Evidently, many other Twitter users did the same thing. So when Patty sent his ISP a DMCA notice, she got a quick response. The photo was removed within four hours.

Patty referred me to “Using the DMCA Takedown Notice to Battle Copyright Infringement” on NatureScapes.net for what she says is the most effective sample DMCA letter she’s ever used.

Again, I believe that one of the reasons Patty had a relatively easy time of getting the photo off the infringer’s Web site was the outpouring of comments by outraged Twitter users.

For More Information…

If this post interests you, you might be interested in the following links.

And please do use the Comments link or form to add your thoughts about this matter. If you are one of the offending bloggers, however, don’t waste your time. My blog is not your soapbox.

Related Links:

A Different Kind of eBook

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My first full-length, destined for electronic publication ebook.

In the spring, I was approached by one of my regular publishers to do a new title for them. This was a surprise. After all, as the computer user base is getting ever more sophisticated, sales of print computer how-to books for the beginner to intermediate market I write for are getting ever smaller. I honestly don’t expect to sell titles on new computer topics anymore.

But this book was different in two respects:

  • It would be published as an ebook only.
  • It would be handled as a work for hire.

An Ebook only in Publication

I should start by saying that everything about the book would be handled just like any other book I wrote for that publisher. I’d have to use a special Word template that I don’t particularly care for but have plenty of practice using. The book would go through the usual collection of editors and production staff: tech editor, copy editor, production editor, proofreader. I’d review the manuscript after each editor was finished with it and mark up my comments and corrections. I still had to get the book done more than a month before it was due to be released.

It was just like writing any other book.

The only difference is, at the end of the process, a case of books didn’t arrive on my doorstep. In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday — nearly two months after the book’s release — that I finally tracked down and downloaded my own copy.

QuickBooks 2009 for Mac CoverThe book, which is titled QuickBooks Accounting 2009: The Official Guide for Mac Users, looks good. It’s in standard page size and orientation (which is something I don’t agree with for ebooks, as I discuss in “Thinking Outside the Book“), with a very pleasant layout and design.

The book is an easy onscreen read on my 24” iMac monitor, but I suspect it might be a little tougher on a smaller monitor if the reader can’t see a full page at a time. It looks to me like they thought readers might want to print it out. (I hope they don’t. It would be a terrible waste of paper.) There are plenty of color screenshots (they got that right) although for some reason they didn’t use color graphic elements, as they do in my other books, which are printed. (Still can’t figure that one out.)

The book uses Adobe Reader’s Bookmarks feature to link to headings from a sidebar and the index’s page number references link back to individual pages. There aren’t any in-text cross-reference links, but part of the reason for that is that I couldn’t use page references as I wrote, so I never referred to specific pages in the text. (FrameMaker was an excellent publishing tool for this sort of thing.)

Security Settings for PDFDistribution of the book is apparently limited to folks who buy QuickBooks 2009 for Mac and somehow get a special code with a Web address. They go to the URL, enter their name, e-mail address, and the code, and the book is downloaded. It opens right up in Acrobat, without the need to enter any special codes, but the word SECURED appears in parentheses in the title bar. A peek at the Security settings for the document shows that certain actions are not allowed, but they aren’t the kind of actions that would prevent anyone from getting the most of the book. In fact, they’re the same settings I would have used if I’d released the book as a PDF.

So I’d venture to say that anyone who downloaded the book would be satisfied with the way it was published. Sure, it’s not in print, but at the same time, it’s also not costing them a penny to obtain.

Thoughts on Piracy

Of course, limited distribution of this ebook will not remain limited. In fact, I’m sure it’s already out there on pirate sites, like all other ebooks eventually are.

It may seem odd to readers to learn that I really don’t care how this book is distributed or who “steals” it. But that’s got to do with the way I was paid for it. I wrote it as a work for hire. That means I got paid a flat fee and handed over all rights to the work. There are no royalties to worry about, so sales is not an issue. I negotiated a price I could live with up front, got my money, and did my job. Even though the book has my name on the cover, it’s not really something I have any kind of ownership of.

I’m pretty sure my publisher had the same deal for the book, but their number was bigger. So they may not care about this book hitting the pirate sites, either.

Lessons Learned

The goal of the publishing project was to create a user guide for QuickBooks 2009 for Mac. To keep costs down and prevent readers from having to buy a printed book, the powers that be decided to go with an ebook. This may reduce revenues all around, but it also saves a lot of money and the bother that goes with print publishing.

I think that’s what ebooks should do: put quality information into the hands of the folks that need it without wasting resources while sufficiently compensating authors for their knowledge and efforts.

I look forward to the next edition of this book.