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You Can’t Write, We Have Company


4e9b4afcDamn it! That seems to be my favorite phrase this time of the year when it comes to my writing. Just because it’s the holidays shouldn’t mean that I have to give up my writing time right? Still, for some reason it is a requirement that I stop all creative activity and hobnob with people who will ask me incredibly stupid questions about my writing. (i.e. “So do you think you’ll ever get a real job?” or “Where do you get your ideas, is there a place you get them from?”) Is there a way to balance things out so that I can write and be a good host?

The holidays are especially tough for writers because everything is so fluid. People are coming and going, the spouse is hollering come help me and the kids are all out of school. Just to find a minute to write goes quickly from really hard to damn near impossible. There is only one way to overcome this and get through the holidays without resenting your entire clan….you have to set up some agreements and everyone has to stick to them.

Agreement 1 – Your writing is important, holiday or not: You have to make this agreement with both yourself and your family. Everyone knows that your writing pays some of the bills but because you work from home it is easier to shove you aside so that Aunt Millie can be picked up at the airport. Agree with your family that things have to be scheduled around your writing, not the other way around.

Agreement 2 – Your office is off limits: I don’t know about you but for some reason everyone feels that it is okay to sit down at my desk and do random stuff. My brother-in-law sits there to make phone calls, one of the kids needs tape so they search my desk, my mother-in-law needs a quiet place so she sits at my desk and is suddenly snooping through my stuff…make all of this stop. Declare your office or workspace off limits…it’s okay…it’s yours.

Agreement 3 – It’s okay if you need to write: I know the holidays are a busy time. And I know there are extra people in the house, but here’s the thing….you still gotta pay the bills. I would say that it is reasonable that you don’t work ON Thanksgiving or Christmas Day but the rest of the time you should be able to work a bit. Last year I tried to work ahead but stuff came up and I ended up behind. Work some, it’s okay, it’s your job.

These are just three agreements that you can make with your family to ensure that you get something done AND you don’t lose your mind. Writing helps me relax and without it I might punch someone in the face, and although that makes a great holiday story years from now…I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. Set down your agreements and then stick to them and demand that everyone else do so as well. It may take a few holidays but if you are consistent, after a while folks will get it and they will just flow into it on holidays after. You set the tone and the pace and get some writing done.

© The Writer’s Advice, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 
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Posted by on November 27, 2022 in Healthy Writers, Writing

 

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Merry Christmas


198298_429335640453489_6737297_nMerry Christmas and happy holidays to you all. I hope that this Christmas was all you wanted it to be…. Thank you all for your support throughout 2012. I promise to continue to try and keep you amused in 2013!

 
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Posted by on December 26, 2022 in Uncategorized

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…A Partridge in a Pear Tree OR…a New Toaster


318426_380990151995376_1482159467_nIt’s sneaking up on us folks…that last little bit of panic-oh-my-Lord-it’s-Christmas –time-already spasms. Are you feeling sick to your stomach because you still haven’t found something for that spouse who won’t give you a Christmas list and says, “no honey you don’t have to get me anything” but you know you have to either find that special gift or move to Canada? (For those of you who are reading that last line and thinking to yourselves, hey, that’s what my wife said…run fellas…run to the nearest jewelry store! It’s a trap! Buy her a gift, buy her a gift!) If you’ve been putting it all off….stop it…it’s time to suck it up and go to the mall.

In the spirit of last-minute-gift-ideas this week’s Christmas gift idea column will consist of stuff you can get at the mall or at a local retailer. Let’s face it, if you were gonna order stuff online…the moment has passed. So here we go….

So there you go…last minute gifts that you can run down to the local places and get for the writer in your life. Now I invite the rest of you to comment on this column and add your own ideas. Come on show us what you’ve go and let us copy….

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on December 18, 2022 in Writing

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…a Glow in the Dark T-shirt that says, “Writer, Do Not Disturb”…


14710_577468735602846_68608348_nWriter’s Note – This is Monday’s column…

Okay, first off why would I be writing in the dark in the first place? Novelty gifts are cool but sometimes, if someone doesn’t understand you, (and most people do not understand writers) you get some goofy crap. One year I got a set of playing cards with dead authors on them, another I got a “desk caddie”, a nifty little box that was supposed to hold all my crap but wasn’t large enough to hole several pens. (The person who got it for me did so because it said, “writer” on the side.

So this week’s gift suggestions article is all about goofy crap that writers may actually like….

So that’s this week’s crop of gifts. Remind your loved ones that time is a-wastin and if they are gonna order some of this stuff, they need to get to it!

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on December 11, 2022 in Writing

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…A Vacuum


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This is the next in our series of Christmas ideas for writers and it addresses an issue that every parent has at Christmas time…the dreaded gifts you can use around the house syndrome. When I was a kid I would often buy my mom or dad something they could “use” around the house. When my siblings and I got to be teenagers my mom made a rule, no more buying her stuff for the kitchen…that, she said, was for working and she didn’t want gifts to help her work. Made sense then and now that I am an adult, it makes sense now.

So there are this week’s gift ideas. I hope that you are sharing these columns with your loved ones. It is so hard to buy for the writer’s in their life…at least with these you stand the chance of not getting the same gift two years in a row. Case in point…(true story) I bought my spouse a hand mixer that they had been wanting several years ago and then, the following year…I bought the same thing again. Now, no one will let me live that down.

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 
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Posted by on December 5, 2022 in Writing

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…Boredom…Writers Just Wanna Have Fun


This is the next in our series of Christmas ideas for writers. One of the things that all writers need on a regular basis is fun. We live solitary lives and sometimes it gets really hard to hold to your sanity or sense of self-worth… So here are a few gift ideas that take our neediness into consideration and allow us to have a little fun along the way.

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 
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Posted by on November 28, 2022 in Writing

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…the Same Books on Writing You Bought me Last Year


This week’s column on gift ideas for writers is all about the books. I don’t know about you but I have spent a lot of past Christmas’s returning books that I received the Christmas before. I understand the reason for this…folks who aren’t writers don’t understand what writers need so they default to the same old standards…Writer’s Digest, Writer’s Market and a dictionary…(Thanks I have four)

So I am going to offer some suggestions from this year’s crop of books on how to do what we do and hopefully you can share this list with those in charge of gifting you this year. I’m using Amazon as a place to obtain these but you can buy them at the source of your choice…

 

 

 

So these are just a few of the great books out there for the craft. I will own all of these before it’s over. I am constantly building my library both physical and digital. As far as I am concerned a writer should never stop learning.

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 
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Posted by on November 22, 2022 in Writing

 

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Reset Sunday – Don’t Work so Hard that you Miss it


Have you ever had one of those weeks when Monday rolls around and you find yourself looking in the mirror asking, “what the heck happened to my weekend”…well that was me this week. I am just now catching up with myself.

Now I could blame it on the holiday season, the fact that my spouse needed to put up the Christmas tree this weekend, (I know, I know…it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet…I tried that argument and lost) or that I have to get the house ready for relatives. (I have an extensive “honey do” list) But the truth is, I failed myself. When it came down to what I would give up in order to complete the extra tasks I opted for watching the Walking Dead instead of writing or taking Reset Sunday to reset. Shame on me…. (For not writing or resetting, I love the Walking Dead…)

As the holiday season gets into full swing we have to be conscious of the fact that craziness abounds. We, as writers, need to be mindful of our writing time and our reset time now more than ever. So make sure that in-between relatives and those glasses of Brandy you take a few moments for you too. You don’t want to get to January and find yourself looking in the mirror and asking, “what the heck happened to December?”

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 
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Posted by on November 20, 2022 in Healthy Writers, Writing

 

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Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want another Stapler


Writer’s Note: This is Wednesday’s Column.

One of the most frustrating things for many writers is gift giving time. Not because they have no idea what to buy other folks, in fact, I think we are a bit more creative in that realm, but because no one seems to know what to buy us. (Disclaimer – this column may sound a bit self-serving and it is…are you listening dear?)

Here’s what I don’t get….there are all kinds of gifts for writers out there. My problem isn’t that my family has no clue what to get me…I provide them with an extensive list including links…it is that they don’t think I really want the stuff on the list. Seriously, more than one Christmas holiday has seen me trying to convince my mother and spouse that I REALLY DO want the new copy of the Writer’s Market…or, really I want that pen…

My needs as a writer are small (except for that Mac laptop I’d like to have) and a lot of the time the things on my list are more cool than practical. But here’s the rub… the things on my lists are things only a writer would be interested in so when I provide the list to my family they look at it, tilt their heads slightly sideways and say, “why would you want that? Here let me get you something I think you’ll like”…and I end up with a new cup warmer that keeps my coffee warm while on my desk. (I don’t even drink coffee that much)

So here is what I have decided to do over the next month and a half. Starting with this column, once a week I will be providing all of you fellow writers with a list of really cool writer’s gift ideas. You can then take the list, decide what you like on it, copy the links (if there are any) into a demand e-mail and wala…your family has a, you-can’t-go-wrong-if-you-follow-the-list, list for your Christmas gifts. I’d like to guarantee that this will work however last year (after providing the list) I received a new pair of house shoes, a lap blanket and coffee mug that read “Be Careful or I’ll Kill You in a Book”. (I do love the mug)

So here are your first gift ideas. Look for the header “Christmas is Coming and I DO NOT Want…(to be filled in later)” for further gift ideas and let’s help writers get what writers want!

So there are your first five gift ideas. Watch for next week’s column for five more….we’ll get you those writer’s gifts, just wait and see…

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2022 in Writing

 

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Reset Sunday – Prepare for the Holidays OR How to Ensure a Quiet One Next Year


I know, it’s not even November yet but if the television, the department stores and the neighbors across the street can push the holiday season ahead of schedule then I have a duty to point out a few obvious holiday preparations that all writers must undertake.

There are some accepted ideas about the holidays that seem to say one thing but to us writers mean something entirely different. I’m going to take this week’s Reset Sunday column to examine some of those “accepted ideas”, define what they really mean and suggest a solution….here we go….

  • Holidays are for family – What this really means is that we are about to be invaded, and because the invaders are “family members” we have to accept it. My writer’s suggestion…start a large writing project this Monday, that way you will be knee deep in it right about the time everyone arrives….repeat after me…”but honey, I’m on deadline”….
  • Holidays are all about the food – What this really means is that you have to feed everyone who comes through the door. My writer’s suggestion…now’s the time to try out being a vegetarian. (for just a month or so) Nothing sends people screaming from your home faster than offering them tofu.
  • Holidays are all about the kids – What this really means is that you have to deal with your siblings screaming little monsters. My writer’s suggestion…the first night they are there tell them an incredibly scary story about how Santa is really a serial killer who just can’t decide which kid to kill off so he leaves toys for the ones he’s looked over to remind himself who to come back for. Guarantee the next morning they will be begging their parents to take them home.

These are just a few of the “accepted ideas” for the holidays and the solutions that will ensure that next Christmas everyone heads for your sister’s house in Topeka. The holidays are great as long as the television works and there is no one standing between the fridge, your beer and the leftovers WHILE the football game is on, so get those scary stories ready…..

 

© The Writer’s Advice, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 

 

 
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Posted by on October 28, 2022 in Reset Sundays

 

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