The Relaxed Writer

Capture and Collect: Idea Management for Writers

If you're creating regular time each week to "resource" your writing life, you're probably enjoying a healthy stream of new ideas. The creative wellspring is highly responsive, especially when we engage in  non-goal-oriented activities like exercise, socializing, favorite hobbies or meditation.

Idea Capture & Collection

How do you manage the juicy, the viable, the marketable and the outright outlandish new ideas you generate each week? 

• Do you keep a master list, or keep separate lists of ideas categorized by form or genre ("articles," "creative non-fiction," "poetry," "fiction")? 

• Do you store your ideas in notebooks or binders, or in files on your computer?

• Do you review your creative "starts" regularly, or just dip into your notes only when you need a new project or idea?

• Do you collect ideas on-the-go?  Do you have a system for integrating them into your master lists?

Idea collection is personal, and I'll offer you no universal answers or prescriptions today.  Instead, I'm writing to encourage you to give some conscious thought to how you capture and retrieve your great ideas. 

Here are a few concepts that inspire my own idea capture and collection.

Experiment with Juxtaposition.

Libraries and bookstores are so creatively stimulating because wildly disparate topics and genres co-exist in close quarters.  Have you ever found that a series of unrelated book titles sparks new associations and creative ideas for you?  This is the power of juxtaposition. 

As you review your idea management systems, consider how the power of juxtaposition might work for you.  Play around with what information you keep and where you keep it.  Binders or folders with seemingly disparate creates an interesting, fruitful dissonance or area of inquiry.  

Date Everything.

I always date hard-copy notes and I've recently gotten in the habit of dating electronic notes, too.  I suggest you try this, too.  I've never regretted being able to trace the timeline of a project.

File Your Reading Notes, Too.

We all know that great writers read!  One of the most useful practices I learned in graduate school was how to create a reading journal.

Are you keeping notes about pieces you like, books you've read?  If not, now's a great time to start.  I'll give you some more specific ideas in an upcoming post here on The Relaxed Writer.

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Your Thoughts?

Tell us about your own ways of capturing and collecting ideas.  What works for you?  Take a moment now to leave us a comment below.

5 Simple Tips to Beautify Your Life

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.”      -Frank Lloyd Wright

I don't know about you but when someone speaks to me from the vantage point of a life mostly-lived, well...I tend to listen up.

To me, Wright's experience of an increasingly beautiful life is uncommon and inspiring.  He seems to be saying that "beauty" is available to us always, but it's up to us to wake to it, to cultivate it in our lives. 

photo credit: pablo.sanchez (Flickr)

Take a moment to think about your own life and habits.  Ask yourself:

• Have you been deliberately feeding your senses exquisite images and sounds, textures, colors and tastes? 
• Are you regularly decluttering your self-limiting attitudes and habits?  
• Do you give yourself regular time to reflect, process and savor your life's challenges and experiences?
• Do you experience your life a bit more richly, a bit lovelier than you did ten years, three years, thirty days ago? 

The late Thomas Leonard, pioneer of the coaching profession, believed that an optimized home and workspace enhance our ability to realize goals more than we might realize. 

To fine-tune your physical environment, this week I encourage you to consciously invest in beauty.  Take a few small steps to deliberately create a more elegant, inspiring or downright gorgeous place to live and work.

To get you started, here are 5 simple tips to beautify your life.

1. Grab some fresh flowers from the market, or tend and groom the houseplants you already have.
   
2. Cull the notes from your bulletin board, and use some of the newly freed-up space to post a quote, image or tchotchke that delights you. 
3. Reorganize your music collection, and create a playlist of newly rediscovered tunes or artists to play before or during your next writing session.
4. Warm up the lighting in your living or writing space.
5. Treat yourself to an elegant new writing tool.  Buy yourself a new pen or, if you prefer to write on-screen, experiment with a distraction-free writing environment to see how you like it.

You also may also experiment with making a daily "loved moments" list before bed.  To keep this exercise quick and simple, compress each impression into 1-3 sentences (or just an evocative phrase).  If you note even one loved moment a day, in a month you'll have a collection of notes to remind you of the beauty suffused in your everyday life. 

* * *

I'll end today's post with a personal note--a postcard of sorts.

My two-year-old daughter, Annabelle, has always been a lark (like her mom).

Early in the mornings, my husband has been wrapping our little daughter up head-to-toe in a fluffy down comforter and picking her up to go outside. He opens the front door slowly, and as the damp autumn morning rushes at her face, Annabelle clasps his neck expectantly.  They settle on the topmost step just outside the door, Annabelle cuddled on her dad's lap.

Sometimes I hear Annabelle and her dad through the door as they sit in the starlight, talking about the neighborhood yet-to-wake, listening to the birds and chipmunks, looking at the sky.  Often when I hear the rhythms of their sleepy chatter I stand still.  Enchanted.

(A simple "loved moment" of mine.)  

* * *

Care to share a recent "loved moment" of your own? 

What will you do to beautify your inner or outer environment this week?

Please Write. Now.

This morning Liz Stires stopped by my cafe table today to say hello.  She's a singer-songwriter who's lately begun to really "sing out" into the world.

As we talked about her gig last night, she described how great it was to share her music with an audience that "really listened."  Like me (have I ever mentioned that I'm also a singer-songwriter & emerging jazz singer?), she sometimes worries that her own songs are "too mellow" or "not quite right " for an evening's entertainment.

Yet at the end of last night's gig, an out-of-town couple approached Liz to introduce themselves.  They effused. They gave her their email addresses, even though Indiana is miles away from the Bay Area.   Liz's soulful music was just what they'd wanted to hear, and they wanted to keep in touch.

What's the point?  Why am I sharing this music story with you wonderful writers today?

1.  Write what you write.
At least at the beginning of your project, please don't populate your mind with the faces of expectant audience members or critical agents.  It's important to give yourself space and time to realize your voice on the page--to play around, experiment and realize your own particular aesthetic intentions.

If you choose to do so, you'll have ample time later on to modify your work to suit the market.  You may even find, as Liz did last night, that there's actually a niche for your voice, just as it is.  You won't know, though, if you don't first give yourself an opportunity to show up as "you" on the page.

2.  Write right now.
Hearing about Liz's experience bolstered my own courage and sense of permission about my music.  ("Hey, if she can find an audience for her style, perhaps I can do so for my own.")

We're all interdependent. 

As a writer, you have an opportunity not only to add your own voice to cultural discourse, but also to empower others to do the same.  (Writing that sentence reminds me of my favorite chapter title ever:  "Why Women who do too much housework should ignore it for their writing," from If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland, c. 1938).  By writing regularly, whether you realize it or not, you're modeling the creative life for your children, your spouse, your friends, colleagues.  You're saying "Yes" to the idea that not all value can--or should--be measured in financial terms. 

In the process, when you write consistently, you're also adding to your manuscript and--if you're working with intention and focus--learning and practicing your craft. 

Do your work.  Write.  By doing so, whether you realize it or not, you inspire others around you to do the same. 

Dr. Seuss on Simplicity

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
-Dr. Seuss

We writers can sometimes make the straightforward awfully complex. 

• We obsess about what to write, when the answer is often to simply "begin."

• We bemoan blocks when all we really may need is sleep, a juicy writing prompt or a new colleague with a sharp editorial eye.

After fighting with a complicated new email newsletter template for many more hours than I care to admit, I thought it'd be nice to hear a bit about simplicity from you, dear reader.

How do you cut through complexity?  How do you access your own simple answers?

Ezine Preview (Sept09): 2 Simple Habits to Energize Your Day

Sometimes the smallest "tweak" in our daily schedule can make the biggest difference in how we experience time and deal with stress. 

Ready to set yourself up for a relaxed, productive day? 

Later this week I'll be sending out The Relaxed Writer ezine, featuring this month's subscriber-only article, "2 Simple Habits to Energize Your Day."    Don't miss it.

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Rest and the Relaxed Writer

"Take rest;  a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."

    - Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD)

 

Listen up, writer friends!  

Just as you can't expect an engine to continue to motor uphill without downshifting, you can't expect your writing efforts to consistently yield "bounty" on the page without accommodating reversals or shifts in your energy and output.

In other words...you gotta' take time to relax.

Take a day trip.  Abandon the chores and play with your kid for the morning. Garden, ride your bike or picnic all day with friends. Take an afternoon to see an art exhibit, a flea market, a movie. Or enjoy your morning coffee in a busy cafe.

Consider these your only "rules":

1.  Do not fret over what you choose to do: the activity itself doesn't matter. 

2.  No guilt allowed.  Your projects, your responsibilities and your writing projects will wait.  If guilt or anxiety creep in, remind yourself that the time you're spending is limited.  Remind yourself that time away is an investment in yourself and your writing.

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Ovid's first-millennial insight is confirmed by science today. We know that when a field rests, natural processes replenish the soil with nutrients.  When humans sleep, our bodies circulate growth hormones to repair and renew our cells.

Our writing also benefits when we take time to relax. Time away enriches our perceptions.  We "see" and "hear" more clearly. We conceive new project ideas, generate new images, and put together new story arcs, metaphors and associations. 

Best of all, we have a little fun in the process.

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photo credit:  Nicolas_T (Flickr.com)

Life Coaching Tip for Writers: Do Your Thing

Today I want to introduce you to three folks I've come across lately who seem to be living bravely, from the inside-out.  They're taking risks, owning what they love and "doing their 'thing.'"

Ready to meet a genre-crossing freelancer, a cross-dressing cyclist and a food blogger who's making a meal of misfortune? 

To help you do more of your own 'thing,' I've included a few coaching questions after each mini-profile.  Have fun with this.

Meet "The Productive Muse"

"You may write for a living, but are you really writing?" asks Jenny Cromie, an experienced freelancer, in a recent post on her blog, The Productive Muse.

In "Are You Really Writing Your Own Stories?", Jenny confesses that it has taken her six months to make time and space to get started writing what she really wants:  essays and a memoir.

"It's one thing to write an article about some business topic with quotes from other people," she says.  "But it's quite another to write a story or essay inspired by your own experiences--something that is completely original, and not reported. The kind of writing I'm talking about involves full disclosure, imagination, and an investment of time that may ultimately yield nothing and go nowhere.  There's fear attached to that."

I was inspired by Jenny's spark as she described her decision to finally try writing essays and memoir.

  "...[N]ow I'm writing my own story line," she says.  "Where it will go, I have no idea.  But hopefully, I'll like where it ends up."

Can you relate?

• Are giving voice to your own stories?   If not, is fear getting in your way? 
• If you can relate to Jenny, I dare ya:  this week, try investing just a small slice of writing energy and time into writing more of what you'd love to work on (regardless of its potential yield or commercial viability).

Introducing "Leggs"

"Leggs" is my husband's and my nickname for the guy who inspired this piece, a cross-dressing cyclist who commutes by bike here in Marin County, California.

"Leggs" has long legs. Lean legs. Very, very tan legs. And Leggs has a preference for wearing blowsy micro-minis that really show off his physique. 

When he cycles by, the guy turns heads.

Last week I drove past Leggs as he pedaled up a huge hill.  He was leaning into the incline, his face animated by a big grin.  He seemed to be genuinely enjoying the tough ascent. (I should tell you that I once cycled up that same huge hill.  The expression on my face was, I'm certain, the purest of agonies.)

Why the heck was Leggs smiling?  Because he's in good shape? Sure.  (And how many times must he have had to summit that hill before it became easy for him?)  More than the good workout, though, I believe Leggs was smiling because he's living his life unabashedly doing his own thing. 

Leggs accepts himself.  He wears what makes him happy.  And he tackles very big hills.

• Are you limiting what you write because you're concerned with how your work will be received? 

• What "big hills" have you been avoiding in your writing?  (In your life?)  Are you ready to push yourself?  Would personalized coaching to help you meet the challenge?

Get to Know "Poor Girl Eats Well"

I recently reconnected with an old friend through Facebook.  Turns out she's Poor Girl Eats Well, and she blogs about "how to eat ridiculously well on a minuscule budget."  (This week I'm going to try her "Easiest Blackberries & Cream Popsicles EVER" recipe with berries from the big blackberry bush on our driveway.  Yum.)

I don't think "Poor Girl," a/k/a Kimberly Morales, set out to be "a food writer," but she's gotten attention from CNN.com and regional papers in Sacramento, and her blog readership is loyal and growing.

In Poor Girl's latest post, Kimberly writes:

"I'd hesitated about posting these [blackberry popsicles] because they just look a little strange.  Then I thought: Darnit, there's just not enough periwinkle or lilac-colored food in this world, and that's just a shame."

Kimberly's on a path to success because she writes what she knows.  And she writes in a way that's all hers: she's authentic. Enthusiastic. 

• Are you in touch with your opinions?  Your quirks?  Your passions?  
  
• Are you fully expressing yourself in your writing?  Your life?

Vonnegut on "Doing Your Thing"

I hope this post has inspired you to do a little more of "your own thing" when you write.  I'll leave you with words on the topic from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: 

“Don’t trim your sails to every wind, just go ahead and write and see what happens. Don’t look at the market. Don’t look at the bestseller list to see what’s selling. That wouldn’t help anyway. You have to write what you write, or get out of the business.”   

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Life Coaching Tip for Writers: Do What You Love, "Just Because"

Lately I've witnessed some very talented writers making the same mistake. They get stuck, stale and unmotivated because they begin to refuse to make time for what they really love.

• Freelance writers weigh down their budding essayist with the constant work of reporting article after article.

• Non-fiction writers deny themselves time to connect with their guitar, garden, [other thing they love] until they finally finish their book proposal.

• Novelists force themselves to focus solely on their manuscript, when they'd secretly like to try writing a humor piece.

The coaching solution for this dilemma is simple: stop forcing yourself to "produce."  Take a little time (each day or each week) to let more of what you "really want" into your writing life. 

In coaching we call this mindset shifting from "either/or" to "both/and." You can use this shift any time you notice yourself feeling stuck as a result of your black-or-white thinking.  

Pursue your project diligently and let yourself do something you really enjoy, just for the heck of it.  Work on your novel and write a little humor piece on the side.  Keep reporting and mark out a little time in your freelance schedule to develop projects "just for me."  Write, write, write...and pick up your guitar, walk the dog or go dig in the dirt when you need a break.

It may seem paradoxical, but you can instantly boost your creativity and motivation by simply investing a little time in doing what you enjoy, without pressure and without an expectation that what you produce be "great."

p.s. - Don't expect greatness, but don't rule it out, either.  Once one of my clienst, Dan Schifrin, was so pleased with his on-the-side humor piece that he thought he'd send the essay out.  It wasn't long before his piece appeared in McSweeney's.

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photo credit:  Martin Kingsley

Life Coaching Tip for Writers: Pay Yourself First

If you've ever read an article on how to save money, you've probably come across this common investment advice: "pay yourself first."

Work, household, family, writing...every day you have an array of "accounts" on which to spend your life energy.  What choices have you been making?  

Are you paying yourself first?

In my life coaching practice, I've found that as writers learn to prioritize their personal well-being, they begin to enjoy more focus and energy when they write.  (Our actions off-the-page affect our efforts  when we write.)

As clients begin to "pay themselves first," their lives become a bit more balanced. They begin to feel more empowered, more optimistic.  On track.  These positive effects creates a sense of momentum and possibility, creating ideal conditions for making further changes.

"Paying yourself first" doesn't have to be time-consuming or complicated, even.  Simply,

1. Choose a self-caring act, and do it every day.
2. Do it mindfully, with explicit intention.  ("Today I am investing in my own well-being.") 

Can 5-10 minutes of intentional self-care really make a difference, you might ask?  Try it for yourself and see. 

Here are a few very simple ideas to get you started.  

• Jot down a quick list of "5 Things I'm Grateful For" 
• Perform a 5-minute round of calisthenics
• Fill a page with notes, quotes or sketches related to your big-picture goals or dreams
• Sit quietly for 5 breaths before logging onto the computer or beginning to read the morning paper
• Straighten the house before bed

photo credit:  electrofantastic

Life Coaching Tip for Writers: Love the Rebel

Dear Reader,

It's Friday afternoon as I write this: a warm, sunny, just-before-the-holiday kind of Friday afternoon.  My husband and toddler left for the beach this morning, while I stayed back to catch up on work and writing.

I certainly noticed the sun as it began to warm the house through the skylights overhead.  By the afternoon, (after a robust session of digital fidgeting, I must confess) my inner rebel began to insist:  "C'mon and just quit the 'game' for the day. Grab the keys and head out to the coast...now!"

What a perfect opportunity to talk to you about today's life coaching tip for writers:  "Love the Rebel."

Can you relate to my restlessness?  If so, read on to learn how to use the energy of distraction and procrastination to create a more balanced, more productive writer's life.  (Yes, really!)

Look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences in the Comments section.  Thanks for reading The Relaxed Writer!

yours,
Marla

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Life Coaching Tip for Writers:  Love the Rebel 

Introducing:  The Rebel

If you're not already familiar with your "inner rebel," allow me to make an introduction.  First, let's talk about its close relative:  the shadow.

Carl Jung said that when we fail to acknowledge our "weaknesses, shortcomings and instincts" consciously,  we subvert these perceived flaws into a part of our subconscious mind called the "shadow." 

We've all got a shadow, and this fact is nothing to be ashamed about.  When we ignore or repress our weaknesses, shortcomings or instincts though, we give our shadow power and we begin to take actions against our best interest.  (Have you ever pigged out after a successful run of dieting?  Then you know exactly what I mean!)

While Jung believed that ignoring our own unwanted personality qualities can hinder us, he also believed that the shadow is the "seat of creativity."  How paradoxical.  And powerful.

Your "inner rebel" works in much the same way as your shadow.  When we ignore its rebellious desires (to ditch responsibility, to play, to daydream or fiddle or simply zone out), our rebel's energy strengthens and we find ourselves fighting a serious case of "not gonna' do it" energy.

Like our shadow though, if handled correctly our inner rebel's power feeds our creativity, leading us to play and relax, to nest and wander.

How to harness the energy of the inner rebel?

One of the easiest "fixes" I offer a client who's reporting a rebellious week is this:  listen to the rebel.  Then love on it, if you can.

Listen to the Rebel

What's the use of having a difficult week if you can't learn from the experience?

Let's assume that when our lives are balanced, things often hum along and we get stuff done.

When we're out of balance--ignoring our need for downtime or setting outsized goals for ourselves--we energize the rebel, and nothing gets done.

The easy solution to "right relation" with this powerful energy is this: 

• expect it  
• listen

Expect the inner rebel.

It's a given: you're going to have an off day or week now and then.  Don't be surprised (or worse, judge yourself harshly) when you fail to work or write well.  (Note:  Letting go of self-judgment can be tricky to do on your own, at least at first.)  As I said in a recent guest post at Write to Done, "the quality of one writing session doesn’t define a life’s work of writing."  Same goes for the quality of your work week, or the writing you did or did not produce between coaching calls.  Setbacks will happen, but they don't have to define you.

When you expect the inner rebel, you resist its temptation to derail you in self-judgment or criticism. 

Listen.

Here comes the best part.  If you listen with the right attitude, your inner rebel tells you plainly what you're wanting more of in life. 

Wasting time on Facebook?  Perhaps next week you need to allow more time to get together with friends.  Stuck on the sofa, watching too much T.V.?  Perhaps some unbridled intellectual downtime is in order.  Too busy washing dishes and vacuuming to write?  You may need to honor your need to nest with a little more time at home.

If you're not already familiar with this book, I highly recommend Neil Fiore's The Now Habit.  In it, Fiore proposes a radical idea:  after calendaring your appointments and fixed commitments, schedule your downtime and recreation time in, and then work your writing sessions in around them. 

Fiore's "unschedule" urges us to honor the rebel first. The benefits?  "Scheduling guilt-free play gives you a sense of freedom about your life that enables you to more easily settle into a short period of quality work."

"Play first, work later"?  This is a concept worth investigating, don't you think?

Try This

Next time you're feeling rebellious, try to notice your counterproductive energy without reacting to it. 

Instead, take a deep breath and listen.  Observe the forms your rebellion takes. Can you use what you learn to make a few concessions to your resistance this week?  Schedule a little "guilt-free play?"  My clients often report that it doesn't take much time at all to shift themselves from deprivation to freedom mode when they finally honor ("love") their inner rebel.

By working with your resistance when it arises, you'll rob your pesky inner rebel of its negative powers and redirect its energy, creating a more balanced, more creatively productive life in the process.

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How does your inner rebel show up for you?  What are your favorite ways to work with resistance  when it arises?