Printing Progress

This post is by Erin Thorne.

Many people keep journals for various reasons. They use this medium to inscribe personal thoughts, vent difficult-to-handle emotions, and as a record of special life events. However, a journal is also an ideal place in which to track one’s writing progress.

I recently began to do this as an integrated part of my work. A writers’ group to which I belong has a feature that, once a week, lets us share with other members what we’ve accomplished in the past seven days. At first, my writing journal was strictly utilitarian. There was simply no way I could have remembered what I’d done if I didn’t write it down. By degrees, it became a motivational tool.

Some weeks are busier than others. During those that are packed with activities and obligations, I sometimes feel as though I’m not getting any writing done. This, in turn, leads me to feel badly about my lack of effort. To break out of this spiral, I take a peek inside the journal section of my day planner, which is where I enter my daily progress. Often, I’ve found more entries than I expected, and this has given my confidence a boost. On the other hand, I’ve occasionally been stared down by blank pages that I’d meant to fill. This has provided the impetus to do more, and to intentionally make time to write.

Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the results. I have finished projects ahead of schedule, and kept a more positive mindset about the whole writing process. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I feel encouraged. I don’t dread sharing my week’s work with others, because I know I’ve done my best in spite of all the demands upon my time. I’d recommend this technique to others without hesitation; no matter what line of work you’re in, nothing lifts your sprits like seeing how far you’ve come. It inspires confidence, and gives you hope about how far you’ll go.

Don’t lean, clean!

This post is by Erin Thorne. I, like many teenagers, first entered the workforce via the avenue of the fast food industry. It was a hectic environment in which employees hustled to take food orders and speedily deliver bags and trays of greasy goodness to hungry customers. We were especially busy during the breakfast, lunch, and dinner rushes. Once the hubbub had died down, there was an overall tendency to mill around and goof off.

One manager in particular had a personal vendetta against this kind of behavior. In her mind, it reflected poorly upon the establishment, and upon herself as a taskmaster. It simply wouldn’t do for us to lack a productive occupation. She had a mantra which she encouraged us all to repeat: “Don’t lean, clean.”

At first, it irritated us to no end. We couldn’t take so much as a five minute breather; sure enough, this woman would swoop in and attack our indolence with her motto. I didn’t see the wisdom and practical application of this saying until many years later, when I applied it in a broader sense to my writing career.

Of course, I didn’t take the maxim literally; I abhor housework as much as anyone. I seized the spirit of it, the admonition to take advantage of one’s downtime instead of using it to lounge about. This comes in handy when I’m not sure how to move my protagonist from point A to point B in my work, when I’m stuck between plot highlights, or when I only have a small amount of time at my disposal.

I have a day planner with all of my tasks, large and small, penciled into their appropriate boxes. In the event that I have a few (or several) idle minutes, I take a peek at my datebook and check it for upcoming obligations. Often, I’ll find something in there which grabs my attention – a batch of press releases that must be sent to promote a future appearance, or perhaps someone whom I need to contact. On those occasions when writer’s block rears its ugly head, it’s helpful to do other things that are just as essential as the creation of new works.

In this way, I’m able to alleviate the feeling that I’m not achieving anything that day, in spite of the absence of inspiration. Frustration and unproductiveness are banished; impending duties are fulfilled prior to their assigned deadlines, and when I’m finally ready to sit down and write again, I can do so with the knowledge that I’ve used the interlude for my own benefit.

Not so long ago…

This post is by Nancy Jardine

Today, it’s usual in Scotland to have a number of days off work around the Christmas and New Year period. Yet, only a matter of 50 years ago that wasn’t the case. New Year was celebrated big time-but not Christmas.

In Scotland, for 400 years, treating Christmas Day as a holiday (i.e. a day off work) was banned by law. From the time of the Reformation of the Church in Scotland, in 1560, the law banning a holiday was largely adhered to till there was a subtle shift in the 1950s. Of course, making Christmas Day into a holiday didn’t happen immediately, since it took another couple of decades for the law to officially change.

The stringencies of John Knox and the Reformation would be a book in itself, but I’ll just point you in this direction if you want more information on why the ban on Christmas Day holidaying was introduced!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox

New Year’s Day was a very big celebration time for my family, and the fact it was also my mother’s birthday meant an even greater reason to celebrate with extended family and friends. Food preparation was much more special, and more plentiful, for New Year’s Day. That’s when my mother pulled out the all baking trays and made shortbread, and mincemeat pies and a ‘clootie dumpling’. If you’ve never heard of a ‘clootie dumpling’ you might be interested in seeing one made.

(My apologies if the adverts go on for ages before the video starts – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTPi_fvXbEc)

So, what was typical in Scotland, in the 1950s, regarding Christmas? Like most families around us, we put up our Christmas tree and decorated the house about a week before Christmas. At school we learned Christmas Carols in class. My parents weren’t religious and didn’t attend Church, but they didn’t prevent me from going to church services with my aunt. I also became a Brownie Guide at the age of 7, so it was usual for me to attend a Carol Service at the local Church of Scotland, generally on the Sunday before Christmas. I attended the watch-night nativity on Christmas Eve when I was a teenager, starting at 11pm, but  as a 7 year old I much preferred to be tucked in bed back then, waiting for Santa to call.

A traditional Christmas card with Victorian images of Christmas might show a row of stockings hanging from a mantelpiece above a lovely roaring fire.

I have to confess this next bit sounds very materialistic- though it wasn’t really. In my house, again not unusual, my mother didn’t hang up stockings above the fire. On Christmas Eve she would make sure two white cotton pillowcases were washed and ironed. When my sister and I went to bed the pillowcases were hung at the end of our beds for Santa to magically fill.
(www.123rf.com free image)

Christmas morning dawned and the contents of the pillowcases were investigated, the goodies strewn across the bedroom floor once the paper wrappings were removed. I’d maybe find a doll along with girlie accoutrements to dress her up in, and matching hair adornments. There would be jigsaws and boxed games. A chocolate selection box was usually there along with a tangerine and apple… and the best presents of all. My mother would hover at the doorway, a cup of tea in hand, listening to my squeals of delight which were very predictable – since the pile of books were my quarry. Annuals and hardback books would be scanned and after choosing one I’d jump back into bed and would have the first pages well devoured before my mother would drag me away to eat breakfast.

Where was my father during this time? He would be at work, of course, since it was a normal working day for him.

During the late 1950s the practice of working an optional half day on Christmas Day was creeping in, since the working men wanted to spend more time with their families. My father wasn’t as keen as some others to take that optional half-day off, though, since he wasn’t paid for those hours and money was always tight. It was the early 1960s before he voluntarily worked an unpaid half-day on Christmas. Since eating a large festive meal around lunchtime wasn’t possible we had our Christmas fare in the evening. We tended to have chicken, not turkey, with a few trimmings and instead of a Christmas pudding we’d usually have a special trifle. My mother was an excellent baker; her cakes were fantastic but they were produced for New Year’s Day – not Christmas. So, no fancy Christmas cake was made but that didn’t matter since my sister and I had far too much chocolate from our pillowcases to eat anyway!

Was my father a big fan of Christmas Day? Not really, although he never spoiled that special time for his kids. Since I got my love of books from him – his nose always in a book in preference to watching TV – he would have been delighted to hear those squeals as I ripped off the wrapping paper. Sadly, he wasn’t around the house on Christmas morning till 1971 when Christmas Day became a statutory Bank Holiday in Scotland. From that time onwards people tended to take a full day Christmas Day holiday since employers were paying for it. By 1974, Boxing Day was also an official Bank Holiday, though most people chose to work, since that day remained unpaid for a bit longer.

Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) was a short 6 days away and the really BIG Celebrations would begin! That was really what most working men were waiting for anyway.

More on The Reformation and Bank Holidays in Scotland:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Reformation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_and_Bank_holidays_in_Scotland

This post bears no relation to any of my novels  but details are available from my Amazon author page http://amzn.to/RJZzZz ; also available from most other e-book sources.

You’ll mainly find me at a roaring fire over the next couple of weeks, but you just might see me checking in occasionally at the following: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com   http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com    http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56    Twitter @nansjar

Enjoy your festive season, everyone.

Slainthe! (I raise a nice big dram to you)

I did not procrastinate writing this….very much.

This post by Jennifer Flaten

Assigned a large project prior to the long Thanksgiving weekend, did I a) start on it right away, b) work on it in bits and pieces or c) cram 16 hrs of work into 8 hours yesterday?

So, now you know I am a procrastinator and I am a writer…coincidence? Talking with my other writing friends it seems that writers seem disproportionately inclined towards procrastination. Yes, I know there are some super disciplined writers that sit down and write a set amount of words every day, personally I think they are mutants (I kid, I kid).

The rest of us, well we say we are “researching” when, in truth, we are playing Bejeweled. Or, we really are researching and found so many interesting things to read online we forgot to actually write (guilty as charged).

Is it our curiosity and creativity, which make us good writers that leads to us wandering away from our projects? Is it fear of that blank page? Maybe we need that adrenaline rush that comes with cramming a huge amount of work into a short time to really kick-start our creativity.

I read somewhere online (I could go look for the link, but that would be procrastinating writing this so you’ll have to look it up yourself) that people overestimate how much they can get done in the short term…say a day or a week, but they underestimate how much they can get done in the long term (like a year).

I know I am guilty of overestimating how much I can get done in a day, mainly, because I never factor in for my “researching”. I am working on improving that so I can accomplish more.

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