Exercising the Write Muscles

I'm watching snow fall in Denver as I write this.
My family and I have been on a vacation of sorts for more than a week. I've been enjoying my childhood haunts and playing with my kids. I've had a chance to finish reading a novel and start another one. A client re-configured assignments, so I've had only e-mails to draw me near to the computer. No deadlines to interfere with my focus on fun.
While the play and fun has helped to revive some of my creativity, staying in a place that is not conducive for writing for more than a week has dulled my writing abilities.
I have always had an understanding about how important it is to write regularly, but because I write regularly, I rarely have had a chance to test that understanding.
Now I have.
My writing muscles feel sluggish. My brain feels slushy.
I'm enjoying my vacation, but writing this post is making me realize how I may have to start exercising my writing muscles before returning home.
Otherwise, I may need a to take a writing vacation once I'm back from my family vacation.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach. When she is not on vacation, Elizabeth contributes to AOL's ParentDish, she blogs at The Write Elizabeth, delving into creativity in everyday places.

All the best laid plans...for next year's writing

I am a serial NaNoWriMo wannabe. Each year, I plunk onto the site as a willing and able writer. Blink and I find myself at the end of November. I've lost my train of...well, maybe I've just missed the train.
I spend time preparing for the monthly excursion and decide what I'm going to write. I find that the ideas are easy to come by, especially since, for me, it is an exercise in getting the words down. A cowboy story that morphs into a romantic children's book about frogs? No problem. To me, the beauty of NaNoWriMo is its function of writing that is important. Just like setting aside time for daily writing is important.
So, how many of you do just that? Every day, without fail?
Unfortunately, I find that I might make every other day...sometimes every third day. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm often writing, but I'm writing the stuff that comes in between the fiction. Sometimes I'm writing and I take a sideways glance at a book on the shelf and I'm re-reading a passage to help me through a writing dilemma. I count that towards my writing muscle, but not toward my fiction muscle. And none of it shows on the NaNoWriMo counter.
I like setting a goal and following through with thousands of like-minded strangers. But this November, with all the best intentions, my NaNoWriMo experience quickly derailed when a family member died. The funeral took place the first of November and it took a few more days to get back into regular life afterwards. Writing assignments piled up and, once again, I've spent a days getting ready for NaNoWriMo...2010.
I plan to be on the train with a first-class ticket and no derailments. In fact, I'm going to start practicing today and keep it up as long as I can and training so I can remove the wannabe title from above.
In the meantime, I'll stand here from the sidelines: Go NaNoWriMo writers! Make it to the finish line and I'll see you at the starting line next year.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach. Besides contributing to AOL's ParentDish, she blogs at The Write Elizabeth, delving into creativity in everyday places. She is also kicking off the New Year's Resolution season early, to shake out all the ones that don't fit for next year.

Are you a procrastinator?

Some days I procrastinate more than others. You know those days. Five million assignments due and you decide it is the perfect day to clean the lint from your computer keyboard.
While, for me, one of the best ways to get through procrastination is to take small steps each day toward completing a project, I sometimes don't quite do as I suggest.
On those days with the to-do list bursting forth to a second page, take a deep breath and plunge in. What works for me is to take the one assignment I'm really dragging my feet on and pair it with one I'm excited to be writing or researching.
Then I promise myself that I cannot work on the "exciting" assignment until I've finished the one I've been dragging my feet on.
Re-ordering my assignments gives me a different priority list while allowing me to see the progress. Often I find that tackling a more difficult assignment also gets my writing muscles warmed up making the other assignments go that much faster.
What has worked for you when tackling a bout of procrastination?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach. Besides contributing to AOL's ParentDish, she blogs at The Write Elizabeth, delving into creativity in everyday places and is planning a series of workshops. She is planning to wrestle with her to-do list ... tomorrow.

Pockets of daily writing time

Recently I spoke with someone who seemed amazed that I can write as much as I do and be the mother of three. Some of the amazement, I think, comes from people who don't feel comfortable writing wondering how those of us who do feel comfortable can spend our time writing. Certainly I can look at people in other careers and wonder how they do what they do for hours at a time.

There are weeks I don't feel nearly as productive as others, including this past week which was consumed by pitches, queries, marketing activities...and caring for my family. But today, when I had time between picking up the kids and scheduled interviews, I realized how different my writing schedule may seem from other writers. Some carve out large chunks of time and my writing professors always seemed to recommend big blocks of time to write.

But for me, I find that often I am firing forth during pockets of time when my kids are occupied with naps or homework. When I do have stretches of time, I tend to flit about on different projects within those chunks of time. Oddly, this works for me. Even when working on an article, I'm able to pull away and return without losing too much of the thread. (Or so I like to think!)

What is your writing work habit? Is it developed from a necessity or is it the way you have always done things?

Establish Effective Writing Goals

Lately, it seems we've been talking a lot about goals and accountability.

One of the biggest struggles freelance writers and aspiring novelists face is establishing a daily writing schedule.

In the the workforce, an employer assigns a time that the workday begins and ends, as well as the time and length of lunch and breaks. Work-at-home writers have the luxury and curse of defining their own schedules. It's often difficult to carve out the time to write when juggling traditional employment, domestic responsibilities, and caring for children.

The best way for a writer to meet her daily word count is to set effective writing goals. It's not enough to say: "My goal is to be published by the end of the year." Goals need to be measurable, meaningful, and attainable.

Attainable. It's always great to dream big. The NYT Bestseller List. Oprah's Book Club Selection. Appearances on the Tonight Show and Good Morning, America. There is nothing wrong with dreaming. Post those images on your Vision Board.

The distance between where we are and where we want to be often seems insurmountable. Establishing effective goals can help close that perceived gap. Baby steps. Bird by bird. There are a number of ways to describe the same concept of taking manageable and doable steps toward reaching our goals.

If your dream is to become a self-supporting, full-time freelance writer and leave your day job, make an action plan to get you to your destination. Outline each individual step. Take a business course for freelance writers, so you know how to properly set up your new business. Examine your knowledge base and decide what markets you want to pursue. Join something like Premium Green--a resource for information and market listings and an organization of supportive women freelance writers on a private listserv.

Perhaps you're a freelance writer and you've always wanted to write a novel. Take the steps: take a novel writing class, come up with your premise, outline your story, do any necessary research, join a local or online critique group. Give yourself a challenge to get moving: join other aspiring novelists and participate in National Novel Writing Month. Each individual step you take brings you closer to attaining your dream.

To set attainable goals, you must be realistic about what you are able to achieve. If you set goals like winning next year's Oscar for Best Original Screenplay before you've taken your first screenwriting class, you are setting yourself up for failure. Make the goals do-able.

Measurable. It's always good to want to become a better writer and be successful in your writing career, but those aren't measurable goals. You can only gauge your progress toward your goals by using concrete and measurable results.

Define your goals in terms of time and number. "I will write X number of pages this week." "I will submit five queries by Wednesday." Don't get bogged down by over-scheduling yourself. You won't feel any sense of accomplishment if you pile too much on your goals plate. Take those cliche baby steps one-at-a-time. You have to crawl before you can run, grasshopper. It's best to have success at a few incremental goals than failure with a lot of big ones.

Meaningful. The most important point I can make is to remind you to run your own race. Set goals that are meaningful to you. It's not about keeping up with other writers. There will always be someone who has received more accolades, achieved greater financial success, or acquired more publishing credits. In the end, reaching your writing career goals should be personally satisfying to YOU.