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Let me preface all of this by saying I adore my child, and he is the brightest spot in my life.

That being said.

Here is this morning's schedule, so far:

5:50 AM: Alarm clock rings (iPhone robot ring). Hit snooze. 9 more minutes and I will get up to write.

5:55 AM: The monitor kicks to life. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

6:00 AM: After a bathroom trip, return Little Dude to bed. Pray he will not realize that this actually qualifies as morning. Grateful he dragged my lazy butt away from snooze-button land.

6:05 AM: Rocking on a synopsis edit. This is a miracle since I hate working on synopses. 

6:10 AM: "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

6:11 AM: Keep writing. Pray he will give up and go back to sleep;

6:13 AM: Second bathroom trip with Little Dude.

6:17 AM: Second bathroom trip accomplished. Trying to be patient but can only think of momentum on writing. Then Little Dude snuggles back in bed and says "Sleep is the best thing in the world, except for YOU, Mommy."

Heart. Melt.

Hand him my iPod shuffle/speaker and tell him he can listen to one of his "story tapes" on there until HIS alarm goes off at 7:09. He says he will pick the story himself. 

6:18 AM: Miraculously, able to jump right back into synopsis work. Five paragraphs edited and...

6:25 AM:  "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" 

The battery on the shuffle, which had a 3/4 full bar when I looked at it three minutes ago, has evidentally crapped out. That or somehow he has inadvertently brought about complete and utter iPod failure. Perhaps we need to set him to work on some North Korea nuclear enrichment plants. 

I set him up with his lullabies and he tells his teddy bear that they'd better curl up and get some sleep because it's very early.

Relief.

6:30 AM: Consider capitulation. How long will he rest, really? Decide to blog. And here I am. But now I think I'll try one more time. 

Today I was tired and headache-y, yet I needed to get some writing done. I don’t know about you, but I find writing a grueling challenge on the rare days I feel rotten.

That’s why I found a chapter in The Write Type by Karen E. Peterson very encouraging. The author said that not all the stages of producing a story or book involve heavy-duty creative thinking. If you’re not feeling the best somedays, use that time for a writing job that requires less energy–but still has to be done sometime.

Three of the following stages you’ll be familiar with (prewriting, writing and rewriting.) The other three stages are writing jobs you have to do but rarely give yourself credit for.

Stages of Writing

• Read-writing: Reading what you’ve already written before revising
• Co-writing: Discussing with another writer what you want to write or have written, getting feedback and encouragement
• Rote-writing: typing up lists, references, and hand-written revisions
• Prewriting: Gathering notes, ideas, and resources, plus jotting down ideas or outlines
• Writing: creating the story, article, poem, or book
• Rewriting: editing, revising and proofing

What To Do?

Each stage of writing requires a different kind of energy and concentration. What is most helpful is to match your energy level to the task. It all has to be done at some point, but much of it doesn’t have to be done in order.

And if you’re exhausted, start with the easiest task. That’s what I did today. I had go through some photos I’d taken, find and watch a couple of YouTube videos on a process I couldn’t quite picture, type up a list from scraps of notes, and re-read a revised chapter to see if it held together.

It took a couple of hours, I made progress, I got some needed writing jobs done on the project, and I didn’t make my headache worse. A good day!

Thirty years ago I read an article that said writing was like eating a salami. You’d choke if you tried to swallow the whole thing at once. Slice by slice, though, it was easy.

These 20-minute Challenge tasks are “slices of salami.”

100-Day Challenge

I had several questions from writers doing the 100-Day Challenge about how to break writing tasks into those 20-30 minute slices. At the beginning of the challenge, I made a three-page single-spaced list of such tasks, covering several project areas (a novel revision, a possible nonfiction e-book, and marketing).

The beauty of the list to me is that I don’t have trouble getting started. I pick a task-not necessarily in the order listed-set my time, and get going! Since getting started has always been my biggest hurdle, the list goes a long way toward getting me over that hump.

Examples of Short Tasks

If your main project is fiction, and you only have 20-30 minutes to write, pre-thinking is critical before you sit down at the keyboard. Otherwise you’ll waste your time getting started and focusing. I became skilled at pre-thinking when I was first taking this ICL course because I had a preschooler, a toddler and a newborn. I wrote in 10-minute slices back then.

I made long lists of tasks for stories I wanted to write. The tasks covered such things as outlining steps, “creative steps” like thinking of character and setting names, mechanical steps (e.g. write opening scene), revision steps, and marketing steps.

The list of short fiction ”slices” would include things like:

• Think of three titles
• Revise titles to be more suspenseful
• Decide on main character’s name
• Decide on ending
• Write physical character description of mother
• Look up street names and weather in XXX town

Nonfiction “slices” might include:

• Fact check xxxxx
• Organize sources into alphabetical bibliography list
• Revise (or tighten) opening

Examples for marketing might be:

• Find three agent blogs to read
• Find three publishers’ blogs to read
• Read one blog post and leave a comment
• Set up a Twitter account
• Get domain name at GoDaddy.com

I was going to list some of my own 20-minute tasks for you, but I realized they wouldn’t mean anything to anyone but me. (e.g. check out Blogger Link Up, check epiphanies re: p. 194 MAC, make “sense” lists for each scene in last chapter) But I think the examples above give you a better idea of breaking things down into small slices.

Estimating Time Needed

Realize that it’s difficult to estimate times correctly. Sometimes I gave myself twenty minutes to do a certain task, and it only actually took me five minutes. Other times, the task took me three 20-minute periods to finish.

For example, one of my 20-minute tasks was to set up my author page on Amazon.com. (I have needed to do this for more than fifteen years!) My friend did hers in 20 minutes, but even though we were adding the same amount of info, I took three 20-minute times to finish mine. It took me the first twenty minutes just to read and understand the directions, another twenty to write the bio, and another twenty to add the book jackets and video trailer. (Actually there was another twenty minutes spent later because some of the dust jackets wouldn’t load, which I gave up on.)

I hope these examples have helped you and given you ideas for breaking down your own

Do you ever wonder if you’re a REAL writer? If you have doubts, it might be because you have a bad case of the “shoulds.”

Symptoms of the “shoulds” include:

• You should write first thing in the morning.
• You should write daily.
• You should keep a journal.
• You should write down your dreams every morning.
• You should have a room of your own and be organized!
• You should write for publication.

What if some of the “shoulds” just go against your grain? Are you not a real writer then? What if you write best after 10 p.m. instead of first thing in the morning? What if you start journals repeatedly and never last more than three days? What if you can’t remember your dreams? What if an organized office makes you freeze and you secretly prefer writing in chaos?

Are you a REAL writer then? YES!

What Am I Exactly?

If you struggle with your identity as a writer–if you don’t seem to fit the mold no matter how you’ve tried–you would love the book I found over the weekend. It’s called The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer’s Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan by Karen E. Peterson, who wrote the best book on writer’s block I ever read.

This book takes you through exercises to find the real writer who lives inside you. You’ll explore the ten components that make up a writer’s “type.” They include such things as tolerance for solitude, best time of day to write, amount of time, need for variety, level of energy, and level of commitment. Finding your own personal combination of traits helps you build a writer’s life where you can be your most productive and creative.

Free to Be Me

To be honest, the exercises with switching hands (right brain/left brain) didn’t help me as much as the discussions about each trait. I could usually identify my inner preferences quite easily through the discussion. It gave me freedom to be myself as a writer. It also helped me pinpoint a few areas where I believed some “shoulds” that didn’t work for me, where I was trying to force this square peg writer into a round hole and could stop!

We’re all different–no surprise!–but we published writers are sometimes too quick to pass along our own personal experience in the form of “shoulds.” You should write first thing in the morning should actually be stated, It works well for ME to write first thing in the morning, so you might try that.

What About You?

Have you come up against traits of “real writers” that just don’t seem to fit you? Do you like to flit from one unfinished project to another instead of sticking to one story until it’s finished and submitted? Do you need noise around you and get the heebie jeebies when it’s too quiet?

If you have time, leave a comment concerning one or two areas where you have struggled in the pas

Life takes over sometimes, unless you live on a remote island somewhere. Even happy events–new babies, company, holidays–can sidetrack you temporarily.

Today I realized that I couldn’t even remember some of the “must do” daily tasks of the 100-Day Challenge. Reviewing the weekly challenge letters turned out to be a great way to pump me up again!

Fall Back and Re-Group!

Here, in a nutshell, are some of the tips, tricks, methods and pointers of the 100-Day Challenge that I’ve found to be most helpful. So instead of giving up the Challenge because I totally missed many of the days, I’m recommitting for the final 50 Days to do the following:

• Set your goal and break that major goal down into small tasks. Do one small task daily. The only trap you can fall into is to make your daily tasks too complex. Please write this down: “A task is something which takes no longer than 10, 20 or 30 minutes.” When you chunk every task down into slivers of time, it stops you procrastinating. If you only have 20 minutes to do a task, you’ll do it. (Use a timer, either a kitchen one or a freeware timer for your computer-Google “Timer Utility” for some free choices.)
• Talk to yourself on paper (or on screen) about your writing. Instead of thinking about writing or thinking about your goals, get that thinking down on paper or screen. Take baby steps, putting one word down after the other. Keep a notebook or file open where you frequently talk to yourself and make notes about anything concerning your writing life. You will stop being intimidated by the art of writing–it will just be something you do. (For more about this see “Write It All Down.”)
• Document everything. Write down your goals and plans. Write down each day what you did toward meeting those goals. Every little bit.  Brainstorm about your strengths and weaknesses–and things you can do to overcome obstacles. Angela said, “If you get into the habit of journaling, and talking to yourself about your writing, you’ll be amazed at the breakthroughs in your writing that you’ll achieve.” Based on the days I used her idea, I have to agree!
• Make a comprehensive Master Task List. (This took several days, but I now have a three-page single spaced list of small 20-30 minute tasks. The tasks are organized into six areas that encompass the writing and marketing things I hope to accomplish.) Now when I have a 20-30 minute “window of opportunity,” I don’t have to try to think of something I can finish in that amount of time. I just grab my list, choose one, set the timer and go.
• Keep your goal, or goals, in focus. You may find it helpful to rewrite your primary goal each day. Rewrite it on a sticky note (real paper or on your computer screen) several times a day. This helps you to refocus and remember what’s important to you–and why it’s important.
• Do confidence building activities. Re-read frequently the confidence-building thoughts you’ve worked on. See
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As I embark on the third full day of NaNoWriMo, I’ve decided to give readers a peek at how to proceed. For those without experience, don’t you know?

Everyone who’s ever done this insane challenge has tips for survival. I’m no different. However, I’m crazier than most and have a few other irons in the fire at the same time. This is how my day might go, if I were the fanatically organized person that I used to be.

7 am – Up, dressed, coffee in hand, ready to tackle the day ahead.

7:30 – Dispense with e-mail for the morning, regular check-in sites, and other business.

8:30 – Begin writing on NaNo project for the day

Noon – Break for lunch and more coffee, tea, soda, water, etc.—check e-mail again for important items and flag

1 pm – Begin writing on Poetry Chapbook Challenge project. After getting at least two poems finished, move on to the PiBoIdMo Challenge. Only one PB idea needed, no embellishments. Easy. Then put together an article for submission later in the week on Baikal Lake and its influence on climatic conditions in various local locations. Schedule research for another article.

5 pm – Break for the day and get ready for dinner. Check e-mails, sites, etc.

6 pm – Take the rest of the night off, relax. Go have a bit of fun.

Lawzy, that sounds so good. Who could fail to finish the challenge with a wonderfully compact work schedule like that?

Now comes reality. Any given day of the week/month – (Caveat—don’t sleep in until ten in the morning. You’ve just lost the day.) Instead, crawl out of bed by at least 8 am, make large coffee, do mail, bills, e-mails, blogs, necessary sites to maintain social contact, answer phone, finish and submit that article that’s got a deadline tomorrow, begin next article/story for submission with a deadline for four days from now, do at least three pages of work on the novel that already sits patiently on the hard drive. The clock strikes 3 pm.

Check e-mails again for confirmation of acceptances by editors. Add that info to your submission scheduling spreadsheet. Now you have almost three hours to work on NaNo. You hit the ground running and get four pages in when company drops by, or the maintenance man comes to fix whatever. Stash NaNo so it doesn’t get erased.

Check e-mails and admin on blogs. Run over to FB to see if anyone has rung your chimes over there with interesting stuff that can’t wait.

Look at the clock with its info of 5:30 pm. Almost time to quit anyway, so might as well grab a shower before dinner.

Who’s cooking tonight anyway? Me? But I don’t have anything planned for a meal! Are there any leftovers looking for a repeat performance? No?

Can we eat out? Scratch that. This is November—property taxes, insurance, regular bills, and subscriptions due. How about fend for yourself night? That could work, couldn’t it? Just this once?

Found enough to eat, filled stomach, looked longingly at TV schedule, drag self back to computer. Pack butt in chair. Do a minimum of 1500 words today if it takes all night.

Crawl into bed somewhere around 2am. Nothi

There is one aspect of a writer’s life that will always be with us: change.

Just about the time you get a workable writing schedule (write during baby’s naptime, write on lunch hour at work), something changes. The toddler refuses to nap; the quiet lunchroom gets taken over by the wellness aerobics class. Your writing schedule has to go back to the drawing board.

Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel

I’m heading into a season of some big changes myself now, and it will definitely impact my writing schedule. But I know that thousands of writers have gone before me, and hundreds have shared their time management ideas in books and magazines and on websites.

Here are some good links for you to check out! Even if you’re managing your time just fine now, I’d suggest bookmarking these sites for later. At some point, life will change. You’ll move into a new season–and need additional strategies then.

• More than twenty articles on time management
• Ten strategies for better time management
• A personal time management guide–many links to more articles
• Dozens of time management articles and strategies
• Personal time management articles
• Twenty articles of time management tips

Maybe you prefer reading books, like I do. A list of my favorite books on time management is posted here.

We all want to succeed with our writing, right? I can say a resounding YES! to that, but sometimes you’d never know it by my actions.

Case in point: the 100-Day Challenge that many of us started last week. I’m doing this with my writing friend, Sherryl Clark, and we check in daily with what we’ve accomplished. That’s an excellent system.

What Went Wrong?

However, within three days I was overwhelmed and wanted to quit. We Skyped about it, and the conversation went something like this:

• Me: I was too busy already! I can’t find another hour in my days to do this challenge!
• Sherryl: Hour? What hour? It’s supposed to be 20 minutes.
• (Pause to think and frown) Me: Where did you get the idea of 20 minutes?
• Sherryl: From Angela Booth’s instructions in the first email. You’re supposed to take your projects or goals and chunk them down into 20-minute segments. You set a timer, work for 20 minutes, and then quit. You pick up the next day where you left off. Just 20 minutes per day!

Instead of chunking it DOWN, I had piled it on and plumped it UP. My list became discouraging then. This behavior is known as setting yourself up to fail.

Small Bites

So I backed up and did what Angela Booth recommended, and I chunked down my list of (mostly) marketing tasks into things that could be accomplished in 20-30 minutes. Now it’s fun to look at that list and choose ONE thing to do each day. I start the timer, keep an eye on the countdown, and whiz through each small task.

I intend to use the 20-minute chunk principle for all my writing jobs for a few weeks, just to see how I like it. It’s amazing how much you can get done in 20 concentrated minutes, whether it’s writing or blogging or marketing or updating your website.

Don’t set yourself up for failure. Instead, do whatever it takes to set yourself up for success!

Writers write. It doesn’t get more basic than that. I imagine that’s why it’s first on Denney’s list of “The Seven Essential Habits of a Working Writer.”

If your dream is to be a full-time writer someday, you’ll need to develop the habit of writing every day. Habits are powerful, and once writing becomes as habitual as brushing your teeth, your productivity will go through the roof. And more writing translates into better writing. It takes practice like any other skill, and cliche or not, practice makes perfect.

Grab the Time

If you’re still working at your day job (whether outside the home or at home with children), you’ll find it more difficult to carve out a daily writing time. “If that’s your situation,” says Denney in Quit Your Day Job!, “I have an idea that you can use right now, guaranteed to transform your life. It’s called ‘The Grab 15 Principle.’”

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a story or book to write, but you don’t have big chunks of free time. Instead you make a commitment to “grab fifteen minutes” every day to work on it. Everyone can carve fifteen minutes out of every day to make some progress.

“You simply make a commitment to yourself that your head won’t hit the pillow for the night until you’ve spent at least fifteen minutes on your project.” The author wrote entire books in those little blocks of time. (I believe him too. I wrote my first five published novels in 10-15 minute chunks of time when my four kids were babies and preschoolers.)

Those bits of time add up. Just fifteen minutes a day is 91.25 hours in a year–more than two full 40-hour work weeks.

It’s All in Your Head

The second reason the “Grab 15″ principle works is that it keeps your head in the game every day. You don’t just need time to write. You need head space that is free, even if it’s only one corner of your brain reserved for thinking about your writing. If you don’t do it every day, other things quickly intrude and finally crowd out that head space reserved for your writing. Then you have to start over every few weeks or months when you get back to your project.

With the “Grab 15″ idea, you never lose momentum or have to waste time trying to remember where you left off and who the heck this character is. Writing daily makes each 15-minute session its most productive and effective.

Like most of us, once you get rolling, the fifteen minutes often turns into much more if you’re not interrupted. It will build a great daily habit for you so that when you do have more time–eventually going full-time–your daily writing habit will already be cemented into your routine.

Don’t Throw Up Your Hands Yet

What if your schedule is just jam packed, but you really and truly want to write? If you truly don’t know how you could fit writing into your schedule, I’d recommend two of Kelly Stone’s books that I’ve quoted from before. They are Time to Write: More than 100 Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing into Your Busy Life and