Time Management Tuesday: Does Identity Help?

Today we are starting an arc within our time management topic. For the next month, we're going to discuss author Ellen Sussman's article, A Writer's Daily Habit: Four Steps to Higher Productivity, which appeared in the November/December issue of Poets and Writers. Thanks to those people who recommended it to me and to Jeannine Atkins, who sent it to me.

Sussman's article is subtitled Four Steps to Higher Productivity , but before she even gets started on the steps she makes it plain that she's one of those just-sit-down-and-do-it people. "...if you're a writer, figure out how to do your job." Sounds a little harsh, eh? She does, however, offer an interesting suggestion on how to do that--develop an identity as a writer. Commit to the idea (the fact?) that you are a writer, and that it is your job. "If you embrace that statement," she says, "then you can begin to develop the practice of writing."

What I think she's getting at in her introduction is that if you have a strong identity as a writer, it's easier to maintain that boundary between your professional and personal lives that we've discussed before so that you can develop the practice of writing. And I believe she's on to something with this whole identity thing.

Soon after I published my first book, I heard Jane Yolen speak at a book event. During the question period, I asked her how she had managed to juggle her work and childrearing when her children were young. She said that 1. Her husband was a professor, and because of his academic schedule, he'd been able to take on more childrearing responsibilities than many spouses can, and 2. She had started publishing before she started having children. She already had a career. This sounds to me now as if her pre-existing identity as a writer helped her to maintain a boundary so that she could work.

My first book was published when my children were in elementary school. I could not get past the fact that I was a mother. In fact, I'd been writing for years in the off and on chaotic way that I do everything and had little success until that book, which drew very heavily on my experiences as a mother, was accepted for publication. At the time, I believed it was accepted because I was a mother and that that was the only reason my publisher was interested in me. A family member, who was a professional woman and mother, encouraged me to stop volunteering at school and church because I needed to concentrate on my career now that I finally had my foot in the door. I insisted that if I gave up the suburban mom's world to live like a stereotypical writer, no one would want my work. Talk about having no boundaries between your professional and personal lives.

Last year another family member and I were responsible for dealing with an older relative's health crisis. The other family member took off six days from work in a five- or six-week period and was receiving or making medical calls off and on throughout most of her workdays during the same time. Her personal life was definitely bleeding into her professional life. However, she had fairly traditional work hours with regular income her family depended upon, and she'd been doing that kind of work for decades. Her professional identity was strong, and the boundary between work life and personal life held in the end. I, on the other hand, had no books under contract and had no books in print. My family wasn't depending on my income, because I had none. My identity as a writer was very weak at that point, and the boundary between my professional and personal lives crumbled. Except for a few hours in November, I didn't work for four and a half months. In fact, I just started working again yesterday. I ended up making or taking four quick family calls during work time yesterday, and I had to ignore an in-coming call this morning. It's going to be a struggle to maintain a boundary so I can work.

So, people, how do we feel about the whole identity thing? Can it help with time management? Is believing we're writers, no matter at what stage of our careers we find ourselves, enough to maintain the boundary we need between professional and personal time? Has it worked for you in the past? Do you think it would work for you in the future?

I Want A Secret Power

Actually, I have a secret power. I just can't tell you about it, because if people knew I had it, I'd be toast.

Time Management Tuesday: The December Time Suck

Conventional Wisdom tells us that the month of December is stressful for many people because of the additional work the end of the year holidays entail. I thought I'd cover that issue now, while the time burden of the most recent holiday season is still fresh in our minds.

Over the course of writing eight books, I was frequently under contract during the holidays. One year I even had an early January deadline, meaning I was under a lot of work pressure while shopping for stocking stuffers. Boo-hoo. Lots of people have to work during December.

However, there is a difference between writers and people employed in traditional eight-hour-a-day jobs. And that is that the people in eight-hour-a-day-jobs are in a workplace for eight hours a day. It's much easier for them to control the boundary between home/holidays and work. I'm not saying it's fun for them. I'm saying that they're not tempted to try to bake while performing an appendectomy, designing a parking lot, or laying carpet because their kitchen is miles away from their work site. People who work out of their homes have an unfortunate tendency to think, What the hell. How long can making one batch of chocolate covered nut clusters take?

I am constantly trying to conserve time in December, not so I'll have more to use wrapping presents or decorating, but so I'll have more for work. Attempts to date:

1. Several years ago the Gauthier extended family cut back from buying numerous gifts for one another to just one. Quite honestly, this was due to the fact that our wanton materialism had become revolting--at least to me, and I managed to impose my will on everyone else. (I recognize that. I'm a Christmas witch.) The savings in shopping and wrapping time was a side benefit.

2. I spent the better part of a day returning gifts one year. That is when I learned about gift receipts. They haven't been the great time saver I'd hoped, because I often lose them. (Keep reading.)

3. I am no longer interested in mass quantities of gifts under my tree for myself or anyone else. In addition to being revolting (see above), wanton materialism is also time consuming. So I bundle things if I can. If you have the bad luck to receive two shirts from me, they will probably come in the same box. One box seems less materialistic than two, and it uses fewer resources. And wrapping the thing takes less time for me.

4. Last year I read in some kind of magazine advertising insert about something called an "Inspirational Holiday Sparkbook." (You can create sparkbooks for anything, presumably.) The idea was that throughout the year as you thought of ideas for entertaining and decorating, you would collect them, and when the holidays come, you would be primed to go.

I have kept all kinds of journals, and a sparkbook seemed like one more kind of journal to me. So I was attracted to it. My poor social skills are legendary in these parts, so I didn't care so much about the entertaining portion of this plan. But I immediately wondered if there was some way that a holiday planner could help me be more organized and, therefore, end up with more time during the Advent season.

So I went out and bought one of those three subject portfolios with dividers that include pockets so I could plan and organize for Christmas futures. The section on food ended up with almost nothing in it, and I think that whatever the section on decorating had ended up being ignored. It was the section on gift ideas for others that I pinned my hopes on. That was where I thought I could really save some time. I made a list of things not to buy, and a chart where I could keep track of gift ideas for family members.

Having had a year to work the kinks out of this system, I can tell you that it has potential. There were a couple of family members whose gifts I was able to take care of right away because I'd thought of something for them months ago and written it down so I wouldn't forget. One of the better things I did with it this year was to make an additional chart of gifts I bought for immediate family members. I have tended to lose those in the past. (Hunting for them or making others--time consuming.) However, I've learned you really have to be careful to remember to look at the sparkbook before you start Christmas shopping. Also, next year I'll use one of those pockets to store the gift receipts I keep losing before I can wrap them with a gift.

With the sparkbook--and some healthier family members--I may be able to do a little working next December.

Writers--How do you manage to work during the December holidays? Or do you?

A Little Barbarian

Yesterday was publication day for a clever little graphic novel for younger readers called Fangbone! Third-grade Barbarian by Michael Rex. Actually, it was publication day for the second book in the series, too, The Egg of Misery. I received an advanced galley of the first book last month.

In Fangbone's barbarian world, he isn't taken seriously as a warrior because he's a child. He's enthusiastic but treated as a servant. He's ambitious, though, and plans to one day have his own army. When his leader is ordered by the clan master to send someone to another land to hide the big toe of Drool (what that's about is slowly revealed--no info dump at the beginning of the story), the older barbarians feel they are all too adept at fighting to leave the battle. So Fangbone volunteers to become the protector of the toe.

The other land where he's sent to hide? Ours, where he ends up in a third-grade classroom where this little barbarian fits in amazingly well.

Fangbone is the kind of time/world travel story I enjoy. I much prefer seeing someone from the past or another reality arriving in the here and now than someone from our time/world going somewhere else. The outsider/outcast perceiving and commenting on our real society is far more intersting to me than a character perceiving and commenting on a society that no longer exists or even never existed.

We do get commentary here. Bullies? A third-grade barbarian doesn't have to worry about them much, and not because he's violent. It's that barbarian attitude that takes care of threats. Bill, a boy with ADD, takes Fangbone under his wing, explaining toilets to him (You didn't think they'd have those in a barbarian world, did you?) and giving him his first taste of hot wings. Fangbone is flummoxed when Bill's mother asks for the magic word. He knows many, but "please" isn't among them. And when Fangbone is called upon in class to ask a question about why the sun rises, his response is a sort of creation story from his culture. It's the truth, as he sees it, and the episode raises questions about respecting the beliefs--any beliefs--of others.

One of the things that makes this book work for me is that there is a real story here. Sometimes with books for younger children you get a lot of jokes strung together. Fangbone has a mission. A mission has its own narrative drive.

Another aspect of the book I liked is that the graphics truly carry their weight by helping to tell the story. I don't care to see a lot of boxes with traditional narrative at the top, leaving the images to just illustrate text. With Fangbone we can pick up setting, action, and even character through the graphics. What a face that little Fangbone has.

Plot Project: A week or so ago, I read a review in which the reviewer talked about a premise giving direction to a plot. I think that could have happened here. Once the author came up with the idea for a barbarian in a classroom, the next logical step to plotting would have been to think of a way to get him there. Once he came up with the way to get him there, he had his character's mission. And with the mission would come a plot.

Not A Lot That Was New

I was a big fan of The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. I found the sequel, The Fox Inheritance, to be a lot more traditional dystopian future story.

My recollection of Jenna Fox is that it was a more complex and subtle story, without clear bad guys. The Fox Inheritance has a very archvillain type of character, and he is a scientist. Scientists are often the heavies in dystopian novels. The main characters are being pursued through a Big- Brother-can-see-you kind of world. I didn't feel I was seeing a lot there that I hadn't seen before.

There were some aspects of the book that I wish had been developed more or even had become the focus of an entirely different story. Two secondary characters have been alive for hundreds of years. One has outlived her husband by a long, long time. The other has buried six of them. So what would that be like, outliving everyone you know, over and over again? I wish Pearson had written that book. Though, of course, that probably wouldn't have been YA.

Plot Project: Sometimes when I'm speculating about plots, I have to wonder about the initial idea for the story. I'm speculating here that Pearson wanted to write about two characters who are sort of just referred to in The Adoration of Jenna Fox. This may have been a story that began with characters. Then the author had to come up with a situation for them, and then a plot. I would have found that a difficult thing to do.

Time Management Tuesday: We Have To Manage All Our Time

Articles about time management for writers often include suggestions that we set writing goals for each day and stay on task until we meet them, check and respond to e-mail only once a day, and limit our access to social media. (That last suggestion contradicts the marketing articles that advise us to be all over the Internet.) In reality, though, we need to manage the rest of our lives in order to have any time to manage for writing.

Financial compensation for writing and other creative fields comes infrequently. Royalty statements come only twice a year, for instance, and if writers are able to sell articles and short stories, we're still talking one-time payments, nothing like a regular paycheck. Children's fiction writers will often never make more on a book than their original advance. So many writers are going to have to hold day jobs to meet living and healthcare expenses. Their writing time competes with what you might call their life management time.

Many writers who are able to work "full-time" are parts of families with young children. It makes financial and practical sense that the nonwriter parents with the best income potential will focus large chunks of their time on working in more traditional jobs while the writer parents who make less and work out of the home take on the bulk of the childcare responsibility. It also makes financial and practical sense that adult children who are writers and can be flexible with their work time and aren't providing the bulk of the family's income, anyway, take on some of the responsibility for visiting ailing elders and/or managing their finances or, in many cases, doing even more.

For people who work under those conditions, the boundary between professional and personal time is very thin and very wobbly. It is all too easy for personal time to bleed into work time. In my experience, it goes the other way occasionally (there were times in the past when my family ate a lot of hot dogs and store bought cookies while I was finishing drafts to meet deadlines), but not so much. Plumbers, electricians, chimney sweeps, septic tank cleaners, and family members calling and wanting to talk for forty minutes all peck away at the work schedule. Then there are medical appointments, sick days (for ourselves and others), and snowstorms (or other kinds, depending on where you live) that pop up with alarming regularity. Maintaining basic cleanliness in a home takes up time.

Over the years, I've become a big fan of magazine articles on managing clutter, organizing homes, and doing more with less time. Yeah, reading that stuff burned through some of my hours that might have been used to write. But I have this intense belief that I am doing something wrong. Somehow, there is a way that I can do more with the time I have. There is some method I can learn and apply to all the things I have to do so that the personal work will stay on its side of the boundary, leaving more time for the professional work that I will then knock off rapidly and efficiently.

Or maybe I've got this all wrong. A family member who learned I was going to do a time management for writers project at my blog thought I'd have nothing to write about. If he were a writer, he said, he'd just set aside 9 to 11 each morning to work. That would be all there was to it.* Is he right? Is that all you have to do to make all the personal intrusions go away?

*At this point, I had to stop working on this post for 40 minutes while I dealt with the floor guy who was here to look at the damage the plumbing guy I dealt with for 3 hours one day last week did to our carpet. After calling my husband about this, I now need to e-mail the floor guy. I also have 2 elder care calls to make today and an appointment for myself.

Odds And Ends At Oz And Ends

My next stop on my very, very slow tour of NESCBWI member blogs is Oz and Ends, J.L. Bell's highly intelligent ruminations on children's literature, comic books, graphic novels, and a number of other things, including, of course, The Wizard of Oz. I had been following this blog for years, and just skimming the last few posts makes me very sorry I haven't been able to get to it these last four months.

On New Year's Eve, John did a post on the Wimsey sequels written by Jill Paton Walsh. I read the first of them years ago and never pursued the rest. Even though I hate Harriet Vane and the way she sucked the energy out of the Peter Wimsey stories, after reading what John had to say about them, I may have to read the rest of the sequels. I may have mentioned here in the past my fantasy of a contemporary Wimsey sequel in which one of Bantor's granddaughters is one of Wimsey's grandsons' or even great-grandsons' superior at Scotland Yard. I would so love to see that.

Then a couple of days earlier John wrote about a Salon article I just saw today. Now I have to go back and read the article more carefully as well as the commentary at Oz and Ends.

Oh, my gosh! Still earlier, he wrote about a Bartimaeus graphic novel.

Truly, I have been missing so much.

A Little Website Tweaking And A New Place To Go

We did a little work on the website this past weekend. You can now find all my published essays together on one page.

While my computer guy was working on one of the other pages, he did a little research and found this neat site called NewPages.com. It has information on independent bookstores, literary magazines, publishers, and more.

How I Did With Those 2011 Reading Plans

On Saturday, January 1, 2011, I announced my reading plans for the year. None of this resolution stuff for me. I plan. Let's see how I did.

I planned to get started reading the Discworld books, and I did. I read the first eleven. I'm happy with that.

I planned to read some books from my To Be Read pile. I did that, too. I read the third volume of The Cartoon History of the Universe, just as I said I was going to. I decided I wasn't getting much out of those books and gave my copies of the first three volumes away. I also tried to read a martial arts memoir that had been sitting in my basket and got rid of that. I read Hotel Pastis, which I didn't care for, though I enjoyed the bits of French, and The Book of Guys, which I found to be elegantly written short stories about middle aged guys in which nothing much happens. There may have been some other books, too, that I've forgotten. My To Be Read pile isn't necessarily memorable.

I didn't manage to read any books about Louisa May Alcott.

Of the books I became interested in because of The Library of the Early Mind, I only read A Hole in My Life. But that's a quarter of the books I wanted to read, so...hurray me!

And, finally, I received The Curse of the Wolf Girl for Christmas and will be taking it with me on retreat week next week. So while I didn't read it in 2011, I'm going to be reading it very soon thereafter.

I am quite satisfied.

It's New Year's Day, And That Means...

...the Cybils finalists have been announced.