Tag Archives: Writing Tips

Writing Tips: Avoiding Distractions

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Write where and when you can write.

The other day, one of my Twitter friends tweeted:

At XYZ, writing. Or trying to. This place is insanely distracting on… um… many levels. This place could be trouble for me.

This statement mystified me and I @replied to him to get clarification:

Trying to understand why you’d go to a distracting place to write. What is XYZ?

His reply:

XYZ is a coffee shop. Lots of creative energy, and I have headphones. First time working here; underestimated the place.

But my statement remains: Why would anyone go to a distracting — or even potentially distracting — place to write?

We’re Not J.K. Rowlings

Anyone who is serious about writing knows about J.K. Rowling. She supposedly wrote the first Harry Potter book longhand, in a coffee shop. Apparently, the coffee shop was owned by her brother-in-law — although I’m not sure whether that makes a difference. But the story has given rise to a certain idea that bestselling books can be written in cafes and coffee shops.

Reality check here: What works for one woman doesn’t necessarily work for everyone else. Did Rowling write all the books in a coffee shop? And what was that coffee shop like? Was it a bustling, high-energy place with lots of traffic, music, and noise? Or a quiet cafe off the main drag where people normally gathered to read, write, and drink coffee amidst the soft sounds of classical music?

In other words, was the place conducive to writing?

Distraction reduces productivity.

The above statement should not be necessary. We should all be aware of the fact that the more distraction we have in our workplace, the less real work we’re likely to get done.

I know this from experience. I’ve been writing for a living since 1990. I don’t write in coffee shops or anywhere else I’m likely to be distracted by what’s going on around me. Heck, these days I have enough trouble finding a distraction-free workplace in my own office.

Distractions give me excuses to procrastinate. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m procrastinating. Let me just answer these few e-mails before i get to work. I’d better catch up on my tweets before I get to work. This link (in an e-mail or a tweet) looks interesting; I’d better follow it now before I forget. I told so-and-so I’d call this week; better do it now to get it over with. The latest episode of House is on Hulu; may as well tune in while I finish these e-mails. It never ends.

I can’t even imagine trying to work in a coffee shop, which likely has WiFi — why visit one that doesn’t these days? — so I have most of the distractions of my home office with me on my laptop, along with the distractions that are part of a coffee shop.

Again, this is me. But I’m willing to bet that, like me, most of us can get a lot more work done without distractions. There’s really no reason to add more to the mix by purposely trying to work in what’s likely to be a distracting place.

Concentrate and Create

I write best and fastest when I can focus on the task at hand. That means eliminating all distractions and putting just my work and related notes in front of me. That means making conscious effort to avoid the things that I know will distract me.

For me, that means doing the following:

  • Clearing off my desk of all non-work material. That means putting away (or at least piling elsewhere) what might be in an “In Box.” Sometimes it even means wiping down the desk surface so it’s free of dust or coffee rings. The only thing on my desk should be my outline or notes.
  • Quitting non-essential software. That includes my e-mail client, my Web browser (usually; sometimes I do need it), and my Twitter client.
  • Loading up all the software I need to get the job done. Opening all applications and documents I need to work with before I start eliminates the need to hunt through the applications and documents folder on my hard disk, where other distractions await me. Depending on what I’m writing, I usually need Microsoft Word or InDesign and Photoshop. (I do layout for some of my books, so I actually write those books in InDesign. I use Photoshop for all image editing needs.) If I’m blogging, I use ecto for offline composition and usually have my browser running to get reference material (like the links to software here). I have tried distraction-free writing tools like Scrivener and StoryMill and I don’t like them. I’ve been using Word since 1989 and have written numerous books about it. I know Word 2004 better than any other program I use; why would I want to waste time learning a new word processing program when Word works just fine for me? (Want to read more of my opinion on special writing software? Read “Software isn’t Always the Answer.”)
  • Turning down (or off) the music. I can often focus with certain types of music on, but when I’m struggling with a topic or having difficulty focusing, the music needs to be turned off. In any case, its volume must be turned down and I absolutely cannot listen to podcasts.
  • Setting the climate control properly. This really only applies in the winter (when my office on the north side of the house seems to get cold) or the summer (when the whole damn house can get hot). There’s nothing I hate more than getting into “the zone” and suddenly realizing that I’m shivering in my chair.
  • Closing my door. Not always necessary, but when Alex the Bird decides to spend 15 minutes imitating the failing battery in a smoke detector, a good door slam can turn him off. If my husband is home, it can also filter out the sound of the movie or football game he’s listening to with surround sound upstairs.
  • Turning off the phone. This is only when I get really desperate to get work done. In general, I don’t get many calls, but a call from a friend or family member can keep me from my work for an hour or more.

Once I get focused, I can churn out finished prose — or even laid-out book pages — at an alarming rate. (I once wrote a 350-page book in 10 days.) My work needs very little editing before it’s published. My editors, for the most part, like me very much because I’m reliable and dependable and make their jobs easier than many other authors.

But that’s because when I’m working, I’m working.

Get Serious!

I believe that a serious approach to writing is what sets professional writers apart from amateur or wannabe writers.

As a professional writer, I must write and I must finish what I write by a predetermined deadline. I don’t have time for bullshit like distractions that might slow me down. I build my best writing environment — like a bird builds a nest — and I climb into it to write. I don’t emerge unless I have to go to the bathroom (which is in the room next to my office) or my stomach is so empty I can’t think over the sound of its growling. (Sometimes, when I really get in the zone, I can go a whole day without eating or drinking.) On tight deadlines, I start at 6 AM and often work until 6 PM. I sometimes work 7-day workweeks. It’s what I do because it’s what I must do.

If I don’t produce publishable prose when I’m contracted to do so, I won’t get paid, I won’t get future work, and I will likely have to join the 9 to 5 grind I’ve managed to avoid for nearly 20 years.

My Two Cents

I didn’t write this post to criticize my Twitter friend or anyone else who tries to write in coffee shops or cafes. I just wrote it to share my own take on the topic of working in a place full of distractions. I say avoid it when you can — if you’re serious about getting work done.

As for “creative energy” — well, that’s a topic for another post.

Writing Tips: Master the Basics

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If there’s only one thing you do before starting a career as a writer, this is it.

Today, I’m doing a presentation for Wickenburg High School’s Journalism class. I suspect that they’re a bunch of seniors who are interested in journalism or some other branch of writing. Although I’m not a journalist, I feel qualified to speak to them about careers in writing. And since being asked to do this presentation, I’ve been giving the topics I want to discuss a lot of thought.

The Basics

The best piece of advice I can offer anyone considering a career in writing is to master the basics. I mean that quite literally: master the basics of writing. This includes the following:

  • Spelling. Yes, I know that there are spelling checkers in word processors — and even blog offline composition tools like the one I’m using to write this. And no, I’m not saying that you need to know how to spell every word you might ever write absolutely perfectly. But I am saying that you need basic spelling skills. This will help ensure that you don’t misspell a word that spells another word (and, thus, won’t be caught by a spelling checker) or use the wrong word (then instead of than, your instead of you’re, etc.).
  • Want more tips about grammar?
    Read “Grammar is Important“

    Grammar. Again, perfect grammar isn’t an absolute requirement, but a writer’s grammar should certainly be much better than average. Don’t use the grammar checker in a word processor — if you need to rely on that, you may as well give up on any idea of being a writer. The best way to learn grammar is to read and study good writing. I’m not talking about Dickens here. And I’m certainly not talking about blogs. I’m talking about The New York Times, NewsWeek, and other quality publications that are written and edited by professionals. Don’t get the idea that grammar rules are meant to be broken so they don’t matter. You need to learn the rules before you can break them.

  • Punctuation. This goes with grammar. Punctuation is pretty easy. If you can’t master it, you’re not going to impress many editors.
  • Style. Here’s where things start drifting away from what you can learn in basic English classes. Every writer should be able to develop his or her own style or voice. This is something that comes with practice — I don’t think it can be taught. Style includes vocabulary and word usage, as well as the rhythm of your sentences and paragraphs. I believe that the only way a writer can develop his or her own style is by writing and then rewriting. A lot. Every day. Once you’ve got your own style, you should be able to go the next step, which is to emulate (okay, copy) someone else’s style. In fact, a good writer should be able to write in whatever style he or she is called upon to write in.

Here’s the deal. If you try to start a career as a writer and you haven’t mastered the basics, there isn’t much of a chance of you getting a job as a writer. No editor is going to want to deal with submitted work that is fraught with basic writing errors. It’ll take too long to edit.

And if you expect to be a freelance writer, your chances of getting published are slim if you can’t submit an error-free manuscript.

It doesn’t matter what kind of writing you want to do — newspaper journalist, technical writer, advertising copywriter, short story author, novelist. If you can’t write, you’re not going to get work as a writer. It’s as simple as that.

A Story with a Point

And to finish this piece off, I’ll tell you — and that high school class — a true story. Back in 1978, when I started college, English 101 and 102 were freshman year requirements. These two courses took what we supposedly learned in high school to the next level.

I wasn’t very interested in taking English — I wanted to take a creative writing class instead. Fortunately, my college offered a way out. I could write an essay about a topic of interest to me and submit that for evaluation. if the essay was good enough, I wouldn’t have to take either freshman English class.

I wrote the essay. It was about how high school fails to prepare young people for life. I was 17 at the time — please don’t do the math — and already thinking about these things. The essay was a hit. I was exempted from freshman English.

This story has a point. Before I got to college, I had already developed above average writing skills. This served me well throughout high school and college — I aced almost every report and essay test question, mostly because I already knew how to organize and present my thoughts in writing far better than most other students.

These are the kinds of skills every writer needs to develop before beginning a writing career. If you want to be a writer, master the basics now.

Writing Tips

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Some wisdom from the trenches.

My meeting the other day with a wannabe writer made me realize that there are a lot of people out there who want to write but simply don’t have a clue about many of the basics. So I thought I’d start a new series of articles here. The idea is to share some of my insight with the folks who understand that they don’t know everything and that they can learn from other writers.

I realize that this sounds sarcastic, but I think it’s pretty close to the mark. So many wannabe writers simply don’t understand the basics of writing — or writing for a living. They have this glamorized idea of what it’s like to be a writer. They think it’s easy. And while it may be easy for them to write, it isn’t easy for most folks to make a living as a writer.

And that’s what it all comes down to. As a commenter here said, writers write. But if you can’t get paid for your writing, you’ll probably have to work a “real” job to earn a living. And that might not have enough time to write. So the goal of anyone who wants to be a writer should be to get paid for writing. Then they’ll have plenty of time to write.

My goal in this series is to not only provide tips to help you be a better writer, but to help wannabe writers or new writers understand how they can make a living as a writer and what that living might be like.

I’ve already written a number of posts that you might find helpful if you’re interested in learning more about being a writer. I’ve listed the ones that I think are best here:

I learned two things in the hour it took me to compile this list:

  • The list is a lot longer than I expected it to be. I wrote a lot about writing since I began blogging nearly 5 years ago. This list doesn’t include all the posts in the Writing category, either.
  • Before writing Saturday’s post, I hadn’t written anything worthwhile about writing since February 2008.

I urge you to read any of the posts listed above that you think you might find interesting. Comment on them, too. Your comments will help me develop ideas for new posts about related topics.

In the meantime, I’ll use the “Writing Tips” title for a bunch of short new posts that cover some of the basics. I promise not to be too chatty.

Pro Writing Fundamentals: Editors

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Who are these people and what do they do?

Posts in the Pro Writing Fundamentals Series:
• Editors
• Contract Negotiation

Since writing my multi-part series about copy editors, I’ve been thinking about taking a step backwards, for the benefit of new writers, to discuss the various types of editors a writer may work with on a book project. Copy editors are just one type, but there can be quite a few others.

So here’s that discussion, along with a summary of how they all work together in the book production process.

Acquisitions Editor

The first kind of editor you’re likely to work with is an acquisitions editor. This is an editor whose job is to acquire new books.

When you write a book proposal and send it to a publisher, this should be the person you contact. After all, this is the person who knows what the publisher is looking for. It’s also the person who is able to make you an offer and get the contract process going.

Keep in mind that not all publishers have acquisitions editors. These days, as many publisher trim the fat, they’re combining multiple jobs to make them one person’s responsibility. Also remember that although “acquisitions editor” is a standard title, not all publishers use standard titles. When I talk about an acquisitions editor, I mean the person acting in that capacity, no matter what her title is.

(I use feminine pronouns to refer to editors throughout this article. That’s not because I’m a feminist. It’s because the vast majority of my editors over the past 15 years have been women.)

Here’s how it works. You approach an acquisitions editor with a book proposal. If she likes it, she starts talking dates and money. If things continue to move smoothly, she’ll make an offer. You’ll make a counter offer. You’ll meet somewhere in the middle, likely closer to her number than yours.

Then she’ll get the legal department involved. They’ll draw up a standard contract with your money terms and dates. You’ll go over the contract and either ask for certain points to be changed or sign it. Throughout this whole time, you’ll be working with an acquisitions editor.

Of course, if you have an agent, your agent will do this stuff. Heck, he should. After all, he’ll be taking 10% to 15% off the top on your advance and royalty checks. This is how he earns his keep.

(And no, I don’t have, and never have had, an agent.)

Project Editor

Next, you’ll work with a project editor. Her job is to keep you on track, review your work as it comes in, and guide you in terms of content and style. She’s also responsible for making sure you meet your deadlines. Later in the process, she’ll coordinate all phases of the book’s pre-production work, including your interaction with other editors.

Your project editor may also act as the impartial judge if disagreements between you and your other editors arise. So it’s very important to treat your project editor with all the respect she deserves and to not be a pain in the ass. Remember, you’re not the only one she’s dealing with. She may have half a dozen or more other books and authors and production teams to deal with at the same time.

These days, I work primarily with two publishers. At both publishers, my project editor is also the acquisition editor. So I work with her for the entire project. I like it that way. I feel that the publisher has someone with a vested interest in the project from start to finish.

Technical Editor

If you write technical books, like I do, you might have a technical editor. Your technical editor’s job is to make sure your text is technically correct.

A good technical editor will repeat every instruction you wrote in the manuscript to make sure it works as you said it should. She’ll check all your screenshots to make sure they reflect what she’s also seen on her screen.

Some technical editors go a step further by suggesting topics they think are important that you may have omitted. For example, if you’re discussing the use of a software program’s dialog box and there’s a check box in there that you haven’t mentioned but she thinks is important, she’ll query you in the manuscript, asking if you want to mention it.

As the author, you get to review all of the technical editor’s comments. You should make changes as needed to correct errors. You can also make changes per the editors suggestions — or blow them off. But if you blow off a suggestion, you should have a relatively good reason for doing so.

If your technical editor makes a lot of suggestions that you don’t think are worth dealing with, you might want to mention it gently to her or to your project editor. Make sure you have a good excuse. Page count always works: “If I covered every option in ever dialog box, the book would need an extra 50 pages.” (Some publishers are very sensitive to page count and want to avoid adding extra pages at all costs.)

Copy Editor

The copy editor is the person who goes through the manuscript, checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. She’ll also look for sentences that don’t make sense or aren’t as clear as they could be. I discuss copy editing in a lot of detail in my Copy editing article, so I don’t want to repeat it here. Read that. You might want to read the other parts of that series, which include my thoughts on copy editors in general.

When the copy editor is finished reviewing your manuscript and making changes, you’ll get a chance to review it. Keep your temper. Your job is to make sure she didn’t change the meaning of anything. (Believe me, it does happen.) If there’s a change you can’t live with, make a note in the manuscript to indicate why it’s objectionable. Your project editor will make the final call.

Production Editor

The production editor is the person responsible for turning the files you submitted into files that can be sent to a printer. Sometimes, the production editor does the layout herself. Sometimes she’s in charge of a production pool, of sorts, where your book is laid out by a team of layout people using a template.

Hope for the first kind of production editor. This person will ensure consistency in the appearance of pages. (I’ve had instances where I could tell which chapters of a book were laid out by each of its three production people, just by the way small images were placed on pages. Not good.)

The production editor should not — I repeat, not — make any editorial changes. By the time the manuscript gets to the production editor, the content is engraved in stone (so to speak). A production editor that changes content — for whatever reason — is not doing her job. (I once had one who changed the content to make it easier for him to lay out. You’d better believe I wigged out when I saw the proofs.)

When the production editor finishes her work, she’ll print out proofs for review. These are sometimes referred to as “galleys” or “galley proofs.” For my books, they’re usually printed by chapter and I get a bunch of chapters at a time. For other kinds of books that aren’t so time sensitive, they’re probably printed out as entire books so they can be reviewed as a whole.

The proofs will go out to a bunch of people, including you, the project editor, a proofreader, and an indexer.

Proofreader

A proofreader isn’t exactly an editor, but she does have an editing responsibility. She goes through the proofs and reads every single word and looks at every single image and caption. Her job is to identify typos and other errors that slipped by the editing process.

A good proofreader will find problems. There are always problems in the proofs. I usually find them when I revise the book for the next edition. (Do you think I actually read my books once they’re printed and bound as books?)

My role as a proofreader is usually to make sure that the figures and illustrations are in the right place and are called out properly in the text. (I hate seeing “as shown next:” at the end of a paragraph when a small screenshot is placed beside the paragraph instead of after it.) I’ve also occasionally caught incorrect screenshot placement.

The problems found are marked up and sent back to the production editor, who fixes them. She then turns the book into files and either uploads them to the printer’s FTP site or sends them to the printer on a CD-R disc.

Indexer

The indexer is also not really an editor. But she is, in a way, because she also reads the proofs and occasionally finds problems. In fact, I fired a proofreader I’d hired for a book when the indexer found more problems than the proofreader did!

The indexer usually uses indexing software to create the book’s index. She submits it to the project editor, who has it edited by the copy editor. It then goes to the production editor to be laid out with the rest of the book.

You probably won’t see the index until the book is printed and bound. That’s ironic, since many book contracts require the author to pay the cost of indexing the book.

How Long?

How long this takes varies from publisher to publisher. It also varies depending on the kind of book. Computer how-to books are extremely time-sensitive, so the process seldom takes more than a month from the time you submit the last chapter’s original manuscript to the time the production editor sends it to the printer. For other topics and books and publishers, the process can take months or even years — which is something I simply can’t imagine.

That’s It in a Nutshell

That’s the editorial process for publishing a book — at least as I’ve experienced it. Has it been different for you? If so, share your experiences in the Comments for this post.

And if all this is new to you, don’t be afraid to use the Comments to ask questions.