Interview Up

Jan 25

Posted by njlindquist in Writing, the business of writing | No Comments

There's an interview with Patricia Paddey posted at the Write! Canada site this morning. Patricia interviewed Wendy Nelles and me, as directors of Write! Canada, about our long association with the conference and our vision for the future. 

Ironically, Wendy and I both attended the conference for the first time in 1988, and we were both on the planning committee for many years. But we really didn't know each other at all until we started trying to save the conference in 2001. We've worked very closely since then, in almost daily communications.

The interview

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Gathering ideas: 4. Themes

Jan 22

Posted by njlindquist in Ideas, Tips for writers | No Comments

man talkingMost people are passionate about something, or know a lot about something, and want to pass on their knowledge or understanding to others.

This is one of the most common ways people find their ideas. Out of their lives, and values, they think of something they want to say, and then figure out how to say it.

Maybe you've had cancer and recovered, and you want to tell other people how they can survive cancer. Maybe you've been treated rudely one too many times and you decide you need to write something that will tell people how they ought to treat other people. Perhaps you've discovered a way to plant a garden that is more successful than any other way you've seen. You would like to tell someone what you have learned.

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Gathering ideas: 3. Theft

Jan 21

Posted by njlindquist in Ideas, Tips for writers | No Comments

Yes, you are allowed to steal ideas. That's because you can't copyright an idea. And what I do with an idea might be very different from what you would do.

Now, there are some common sense boundaries. If I tell you I'm going to query a specific editor about an article on an upcoming event, and you quickly fire off an email to the same editor about writing an article on event, that is definitely a no no. And anything that has been published or produced is protected by copyright.

four people with ideasBut on less specific things, stealing ideas is allowed. For example, if I read an article on how to raise great kids in a magazine, and I find that I have things to say that weren't said in the article, there's no harm in my writing another  article on how to raise great kids using my perspective and my own examples. No, you can't  combine three of the first author's points with two of yours. What you write has to be different, has to be uniquely yours. Other wise you're guilty of plagiarism.

So you write a totally different article, but with the same overall focus—how to raise great kids.

Now, what do you do with it? Well, unless raising kids is the primary focus of the magazine, I probably wouldn't send my article to the same magazine where you read the original. At least not for a few months. Why? Because they just published an article on that topic. And they likely won't publish a similar article for at least several months, probably a year.

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Gathering ideas: 2. Association

Jan 20

Posted by njlindquist in Ideas, Tips for writers | No Comments

Have you ever had one thing remind you of another? Maybe it's a smell that reminds you of a similar smell from the past. A person who makes you think of another person you know. A line from a poem or story that makes you recall an event that happened to you…. Or it might be seeing something familiar in a brand new way. Maybe it's putting two things together and coming up with something unlike either of the two.

That happens to me frequently. Often, it's an elusive  feeling or insight that disappears as quickly as it came. But sometimes it stays long enough to jog an awareness in my brain, and I make notes before I lose it.

Let me give you an example.

music notesI've been familiar with the song "Oh, Freedom" since i was a child. Always loved it, no doubt as much because of what a good singer can do with it musically as because of the meaning behind it.

But one day, over 30 years ago, someone's remark about "freedom in Christ" started the lyrics from "Oh Freedom" playing in my head. "…And before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free…"

An instant later, it popped into my mind that I needed to write a story about freedom, and that it's not, as most of us think, a physical state, as much as it is a spiritual state. I remembered Paul talking about being free in Christ while being chained in a Roman prison. And my brain began to whirl.

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Gathering ideas: 1. Observation

Jan 19

Posted by njlindquist in Ideas, Tips for writers | No Comments

shoppingHave you ever found yourself in a position where you could overhear things that were supposed to be private? You might have been standing in a check-out line while a mother and her young son had a long, heated argument about buying a certain kind of candy. The mother may have been embarrassed, but so were you.

Or maybe you were alone at a table in a coffee shop, a shopping mall food court, or a restaurant when you discovered that the conversation at a nearby table was impossible to ignore. Maybe it was someone's birthday and they were celebrating. Even opening gifts. Maybe they were discussing where they had been, what they had bought, what they were going to do next, other people they knew….  And you felt guilty for overhearing things that were none of your business.

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Where do ideas come from?

Jan 18

Posted by njlindquist in Ideas, Tips for writers | No Comments

smily face with ideaLast week, I talked about how to organize your ideas. Now I want to talk about where those ideas originate.

You might ask, "Don't ideas just come?"

For some of us, the answer is a loud, "Yes." There are people who are overwhelmed by a constant flood of ideas. I'll talk about that problem later.

I find, however, that many new writers really only have one idea. Often, it's related to something that happened to them. And, quite often, they think they have to write a book about it.

Since all of writing is dependent on ideas, I want to explore this world of ideas in the next few weeks, starting with how to find ideas to write about. But first, there are a few things you need to know about ideas.

 

Four things you should know about ideas:

1. An idea is simply a starting point. Fifty people if given the same idea would likely write fifty different things.

2. It's what you do with an idea that matters: not what you might do.

3. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Good writers learn to separate the good ones from the great ones.

4. Ideas must be refined. Yes, a good idea well executed is a wonderful thing, but ideas have to studied and evaluated and  shaped and crafted to make them work for you.

 

Writing exercise:

Using 3" x 5" cards or small 2" or 4" pieces of paper, write down every idea you have at this time.

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Tips for Writers: filing gone wild

Jan 15

Posted by njlindquist in Organization, Tips for writers | No Comments

I probably have close to 1000 file folder. All colours. They're in various places, including a 4-level horizontal filing cabinet, a smaller narrow filing cabinet, drawers in two desks, several Omni carts, several other movable carts with file folder spaces on the top and plastic drawers underneath, and a few file boxes. 

The files are in many categories. Files with stories and articles that have been published. Files with stories and articles that might never be published. Resource files on a variety of topics. Files on various areas necessary for writers. A file for each book of the Bible. Files for contracts and marketing pages and characters in new books I'm working on…. 

But that's not all I have. I also have clear plastic bins. And binders filled with drafts of books and workshops I teach. Get Organized, Get PublishedSome of us are complicated…complex… 

But never fear. There's a book for us that I have found very helpful. It's called Get Organized, Get Published, and it's by Don Aslett, who has written a number of books about cleaning, and Carol Cartaino.

I've read it several times. When it first came out, it let me know I wasn't crazy to want to write 5 or 6 or 20 books at the same time. Later reads taught me other things about how best to organize so that I could work on all those books at one time. I reread it again last fall and it eased the panic I was feeling that I'd never be able to fulfill all my writing goals. One step at a time. One file at a time….

A file folder holds beginning info, but when you start adding pages cut from magazines or newspapers, books, audio tapes, journals, and other materials, it's time to get a small plastic bin and label it with the title of the book, so you have a proper place to put things.

When you're ready to stop gathering information – and that might be a few months after you begin or 20 years later – you can go through the materials and then create file folders to start organizing the book. Maybe a folder per chapter, or maybe a folder each for characters, plot, theme, etc. And then a folder for query letters and proposals, and one for marketing ideas, and so forth.

The point is, whether you're just going to do a little writing – maybe 3 or 4 stories per year – or a lot of writing – say 30 or 40 articles a month or three or four books per year, a little organization will help you get there.

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Tips for writers: creating files

Jan 14

Posted by njlindquist in Organization, Tips for writers | No Comments

The moment you have several ideas down on pieces of paper, you need some files. Not a lot of them. You might start with only five or six. You can easily buy a small metal holder with half a dozen or so coloured folders in it. 

blue file folderMark the blue folder Nonfiction Ideas, the red one Fiction Ideas, the Purple one Drama Ideas, the yellow one Poetry, the pink one Resources, and the grey one Business….

Now, you may have decided you only want to write in a specific genre. Say fiction. No non-fiction for you. And definitely no poetry or drama. That's your choice, but if you are just beginning to write, I'd suggest you at least have a few extra file folders just in case. You never really know where an idea will take you. Better to be prepared.

Of course, as you get going, and one or more of your folders begins to get full, you'll need more folders. Or you may already have lots of ideas.

What you do next is tear each idea page from your notebook and file it in the right spot.

What happens next?

Let's say the idea you take from your fiction folder begins to blossom into a short story. Now you need a file folder for that story. If your catchall Fiction folder for ideas is red, you might want to get more red folders and give one of them the title of your new short story. As you go on, creating first drafts of stories, article, poems, or plays, you can designate a folder for each one. 

You'll also soon find yourself in need of more general business files. One for writers groups you belong to (maybe one for each group if they send out a lot of information). One or more for writers conferences you attend. Another one for information about potential publishers, one or more for information you gather on topics such as writing believable characters, how to create rhymes that aren't cheesy, goals, and so forth.

The other thing you may want to do if (or when) you have oodles of ideas, is to sort them into a few topics. Maybe you're a parent and have lots of ideas for other parents. Or maybe you're a nurse, a pastor, a lawyer… and you have a lot of ideas that might be of interest to others in your profession. Or maybe you're passionate about justice, good food, safe water, etc. You can not only gather your ideas for things you could write about, but also print off relevant articles, cut out stories from newspapers, and file all the items you want to keep until you know what you want to do with them.

Tomorrow: more on filing

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Tips for writers: idea catchers

Jan 13

Posted by njlindquist in Organization, Tips for writers | 1 Comment

idea flying byThe absolute most important item for any writer to have organized is his or her ideas.

Everything else can get messy or be allowed to sink into oblivion if necessary, but ideas are the straw writers must have in order to spin their gold.

So how do you keep those ideas safe?

First, I never go anywhere without a small notebook. After years of trying out various styles, my preference is a small, spiral bound notebook that has plain (unlined) pages. It's about 4" x 6" at the most, and will fit into my purse quite easily. A man might want an even smaller notebook, and a thin one that will fit easily into a pocket.

A small sketch pad is basically the thing. I prefer the coils down the side because then you can slip a pen inside them and always have the pen and notebook together. I have had some with coils on the top, including a black one with green pages that had a cut-out of a light-bulb on the front cover. Perfect concept! :)  

I mentioned during a workshop once that I had been having trouble finding such notebooks, and one of the participants later sent me two beautiful little notebooks – spot-on what I wanted – with wrap-around covers. I've never seen them since, but usually I can find what I'm looking in the "art" area of Staples or Walmart. Occasionally a dollar store will have something appropriate.

I do use the longer, lined "Reporters" notepads as well, but only when I'm doing interviews or otherwise taking notes.For my idea-catcher, I like having unlined pages so that I can scribble large or small as desired, draw a picture of some sort, create a small chart, etc.notebooks

True confessions: Yes, I have occasionally  opened my notebook while engaged in another activity. Okay, if you must know, I was driving on the 401 in Toronto – think freeway with a lot of traffic – when  Bob McCown, prime time talk show host for the FAN 590, gave me the idea for what became the plot of Glitter of Diamonds. I still remember scrambling with one hand to open my purse, pull the notebook out, and scribble the sentence Bob had just said on a page so I got his words down accurately.

But usually it's easier to pull out the notebook and jot down a few things. Words heard in passing in a check-out line; a situation or a person observed while in a restaurant or shopping mall; a sentence that stands out in a sermon or conversation; a thought that seems to come out of nowhere and deserves to be remembered…. Sometimes I write a few words out of anger at an unjust situation I have observed. Sometimes I see a story in the newspaper or on the internet that catches my attention. 

When I'm home, I don't reach for my notebook. Instead, I have several small stacks of 2" by 2" papers by each phone and on my desk and night table. In a pinch, I'll grab a small post-it note. Just the ordinary yellow variety.

The trick is to capture the idea on a single piece of paper. Never let a good idea – or even the vague beginning of an idea – escape. Write it down on something!

Yes, you might want to carry a small recording device with you. Makes driving safer if that's when you get a lot of ideas. However, you likely still want to get them down on paper at some point.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about what to do with your ideas once you have captured them on paper.

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Tips for writers: creating order out of chaos

Jan 12

Posted by njlindquist in Organization, Tips for writers | No Comments

What if your work space is currently in chaos?

Take some quality time to just sit and think about what works best for you. 

I remember when our kids were small. We wanted them to set the table and empty the dishwasher when it was clean. But they weren't tall enough to reach the cupboard where the dishes were kept. So I went into the kitchen and got down and looked at it from the perspective of my sons. After seeing the cupboards and the dishwasher through their eyes, I moved our dishes to a bottom cupboard.  We were the only family I knew who had pots and pans in an upper cupboard and plates and glasses in a lower one. But for a number of years, that's what worked best for us, so that's what we did. 

Look at the space you have, and each element in it. Study it. Does having a table in that corner take up a lot of space and not hold much? Could you fit a filing cabinet into the same space? Do you really like that plain wall and the one picture on it, or would a bulletin board be more effective? Have you simply added files to your computer as you worked on different things, or have you ever taken the time to think about what folders you actually need, and what categories they'd fit under? Do you have extra file folders and labels you could use to make new files? Do you have a lot of items you no longer need?

Then organize your room, your files, and your computer according to what will work for you.

I personally like to start from the big picture to the smaller one. First, moving furniture if needed. Then working my way down to the contents of each drawer or file.

As is usual in organizing things, you should have three bins or boxes with you: garbage, things to keep, and things to give away. If you are still creating a workspace, or if your possessions seem to drfit, you may need a fourth box for things that belong in another localtion of your home.

Take a day if you can, or take an hour a week for as long as necessary, but keep at it until your work space is exactly the way you feel will work best for you. Even if you work at the kitchen table, you can have a plan and a portable office you carry with you. Yes, I've been there, done that. :)

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