Arwen Spicer's Blog: Diary of a Readerly Writer (and Writerly Reader) - Posts Tagged "tips"

I have lately discovered the relief of keeping lists to help manage modern life. Now, lots of folks keep lists in lots of ways, but I’ll share some techniques that are working for me. Maybe some of them will work for you too.

Make lists manageable, not daunting.

* Intend to complete every item, every day. If you can’t complete them all, the list is too long. Pare it down.

* Don’t skip ahead. If you complete everything early, you have free time!

* Don’t list fun stuff. If you list it, it becomes work. You can enjoy your work, certainly. But let the recreational stuff remain spontaneous and optional.

* List ongoing activities by reasonable time segments. For example, “writing novel, 30 minutes.”

* Similarly, break complicated tasks into sub-tasks. For example, I need to design an online writing course. For a single day, my task might be “copy old quizzes from previous course management system” or “redesign essay 2.” By doing a little bit day by day, I can complete the larger task in a timely fashion without feeling overwhelmed.

Have a balanced list of items to reflect a balanced life.

* Include 1-2 time-consuming items, and do count the day job.

* Include 1-2 items that take you out of the house, running errands, walking, etc. (Of course, you might set aside one day to go into town and run 5-6 errands, but in general, aim to get out at least a little each day.)

* Include 3-5 quick items: emails you’ve been putting off, information to look up. These things should not take more than 5 minutes each, and it feels so good to cross them off.

* Include 1-2 items that involve physical work: dishes, laundry, taking out the trash, etc.: fit in some active time.

* Include at most 1 onerous task, something you know you really won’t enjoy. For one day, my onerous task was buying cell phone minutes. Doesn’t sound like a big deal? You don’t have my provider: it took an hour and a very unpleasant call to customer service. I was so glad it was the only icky task of the day!

Be flexible!

If I may butcher George Orwell, break any of these rules sooner than follow a list that doesn’t work for you. Life happens: if you need to, switch items around, give yourself sick day: a list is a tool there to help not to dictate.

Run over by the locomotive of new adoptive parenthood, I dropped out of writers critique groups last year and have just recently moved back into seeking critiques for my work. As I settle back into the routine of being told what's wrong with my writing, I've been reflecting on rules of thumb I find helpful in receiving critiques:

1) Give minimal notes/background to critiquers. Obviously, this depends on context. If a critiquer is coming into to chapter 5 of your novel without having read the rest, you need to provide a summary. Likewise, you may be looking for a certain kind of feedback (ex. line edits) and wish to point critiquers in the right direction. In general, however, there is great value to letting a critiquer experience your text cold, as a regular reader would. Seeing how they respond without outside guidance is very revealing.

2) Sit on the critique for a while. Taking criticism is a mini-grieving process. You're proud of this nice piece of writing you've done. You send it out. It comes back torn apart, full of plot holes you hadn't seen and things you didn't manage to communicate. As with any grieving process, coming to grips with this takes time. Give yourself the time. Specifically:

Do not respond to comments for at least 24-48 hours, except to say "thank you," for talking back to a critique oft loseth both the critique and friend. My immediate emotional response to criticism of my writing often takes one of these four forms:

a) You totally missed the point!
b) How could that possibly be unclear?
c) Okay, I see your point, but HOW can I fix it?
d) What? I have to explain that my characters are human beings again?

None of these responses is helpful, of course, and there is great benefit to sitting on them until they go away and a calmer mind can, if needed, ask for clarifications and further assistance.

Read the critique, set it aside, and let your unconscious do the work. As with so much in life, intractable problems solve themselves with time. In virtually every critique I receive, I come up against an initial wall, some problem I have no idea how to address: no place to insert the infodump, no way to correct the screwed timeline. In response to this despair, I've developed a practice of just reading over all comments, reflecting on them as I go, and then putting the critique and the story out of mind for a few days. It's remarkable how often those intractable problems become readily solvable if I sleep on them.

3) Assume you should make the change unless you have a clear reason why you shouldn't. Again—rule of thumb: this isn't true 100% of the time. But in general, if I find myself resisting a proposed revision, I want to be clear on why. Do I really have a justification for keeping the original, or am I just being lazy, frustrated, demoralized, etc.? Sticking to the "why keep it" test greatly increases my confidence in my text.

Critiques are indispensable. They are as much a part of serious writing as writing is. And reading them often sucks. But I find if I go in with an open mind and an understanding of my own processing needs, I reap the benefit every time.