For What It’s Worth

For my next project, I am considering doctoring an existing manuscript for an extensive edit. I am to look over what already exists and give the publisher a “not to exceed” quote for my services.

Talking about both time and money is difficult for many writers and other artists. There have been several instances in the past few weeks when I was negotiating with people for services rendered and all was going swimmingly until I asked what they charged. In each case, the person in question was fully capable of doing what I needed. But what I wanted was out of the norm in some way or another, which threw a wrench into the computation machine.

Often, if you are just starting out, or if you are bidding for the opportunity to stretch yourself, you don’t know what to charge. If you price yourself too low, you set yourself up for doormat status and broadcast how very desperate you are for the job. Pricing yourself too high, however, can backfire. If people pay top prices, they expect premium service. It can cripple your career if you fail to deliver when working for top dollar.

Some ideas for dealing with the necessary evil of money:

1.) Know your hourly rate. It doesn’t matter if your day job involves asking people “would you like fries with that?” for minimum wage. If you hope to move from talented amateur to working professional status, know ahead of time what you will charge when someone agrees to put you on the clock.

2.) Frequently evaluate your rate. This is easy. If you have more work than you can handle, raise your rates. If the world is not beating a path to your door, you may need to reconsider your rates or run a temporary “special” to drum up business.

3.) Draft an all-purpose invoice form. Be sure to include your name and contact information (clients must know where to send the checks). At the minimum, be sure you also include a place to itemize services rendered, a billing date and the total amount owed. There is no need to get fancy. But there is a need to be businesslike and professional.

4.) When estimating how long a project will take, assume that everything possible will go wrong. If you think it will take you 4 hours to edit a screenplay, plan for 6. Or 8. If you think it will take you an hour to write a 60 second commercial, allow yourself 2.

5.) The client ALWAYS wins. Keep track of the real time you spend on a job. If you over-estimated, bill the client only for the actual time you took. This will illustrate to the client that you are trustworthy (and quick). If – God forbid – you underestimated, don’t make the client pay for your mistakes. If you thought that writing an article would take you 4 hours and it took you 6, bill for 4. (This rule does not hold true if the client changes his mind in the middle of an assignment, however. Just make sure everyone understands that parameter changes mean additional billing.)

6.) Be prompt and professional in your billing. Don’t apologize for sending an invoice. Remember, we writers provide a valuable service -- and not everyone can do what we do.

Book Report

It’s outta here! I shipped the manuscript, the illustrations and the photos that I had for Geoff’s book to the publisher yesterday. Frenetic dancing and confetti flinging ensued. Yay! Now we just play the waiting game until the publisher decides whether to accept it as is, or whether they will require a rewrite.

It’s Not My Job!

The manuscript is printed and ready to mail. I’m just waiting for the photo CD’s to arrive. I called the original photographer earlier this week. She had not responded to any of the e-mails I sent regarding the photos I need high-res files of for the book. So, to make sure she got them and understood what was needed, I called.

In a nutshell, she has no intention of sending me the files I need. She also had no intention of contacting me to say so.

She is terribly upset that we hired a different photographer to finish the book. When I asked if she really thought that the photographs she sent me were enough to correctly illustrate the entire project, she replied that it wasn’t her job to decide such things. She took the photos that she was told to take. (This is not entirely true, as entire sections of those photos are also missing.)

I pointed out that whole chapters in the book deal with things like showing and goal setting, but that her photos only illustrate exercises and position. Again – not her job to decide what needed illustrating.

I didn’t point out that the client who “told her to take photos” was the same one who had hired her in order to get the benefit of her experience. I also didn’t mention that, though it wasn’t MY job, I would have been happy to provide her with a complete list of what was needed to illustrate the book, if she had only told me she didn’t have a clue.

In any case, the manuscript is going out today. While I would prefer to compile everything and be able to send it in one comprehensive package, this one will be missing a certain photographer’s contribution. The publisher is aware of the situation and now, because of “Miss Not My Job,” the editor of the project will have extra work to do.

Be very, very careful about using the “It’s Not My Job” excuse for something not being done. If you are going to use it, be sure that it is tempered by extremely cogent communication to all parties concerned. Also, be aware, that very few people in a big project do only what their “job” entails. A successful project comes about only with the support of team players.

Don’t be in a hurry to narrowly define your “job.” Not only is it self-limiting, but it can also stall a project or close it down altogether. Oddly enough, a myopic job description often accompanies someone who is overly concerned with who gets credit for what. That, too, can stop a project in its tracks.

Doing something that is not your job is not a bad thing. It can teach you new skills (like photo editing, for instance). It can put you in touch with professionals that you might not otherwise interact with. It makes you a more integral and important part of the project team. And – who knows – you might discover that you actually enjoy what you’re doing.

Rider’s Wednesday: Beating the Heat

Here in the Midwest, we’ve had a news-making heat wave in the past week. Temperatures have been in the 90’s and 100’s, with nearly 90% humidity. You can practically see the air you’re drinking. To add insult to injury, the barometric pressure has been wildly fluctuating as a series of storm fronts passed through.

This kind of weather is hard on horses and humans alike. A trainer who rides for Medieval Times is considering purchasing one of a friend’s horses. As they got talking, he told her that even with Schaumberg’s air-conditioned facilities, the heat is oppressive. They switch horses much more frequently than normal. And they’ve had to hire extra personnel just to drape special ice-pack-filled blankets over the horses when they’re done performing!

My own horses break into a sweat just standing outside. To make matters even worse, we’ve had an invasion of these mutant, thumb-sized, B-57 bomber-like horse flies. They latch onto the horse’s butt and bite ferociously. Nothing short of a blanket stops them. The horses run to try to avoid them – and that’s definitely not called for in this weather.

And so, it seemed appropriate to look at some suggestions for helping horses beat the heat.

• Keep the water coming. It sounds simplistic, but it’s true. Lack of water is a leading cause of colic. And in this weather, a horse can drink 15 or more gallons a day.

• Make sure the water is fresh. This is also simple sounding, but it is too often overlooked. In this heat, bacteria and organisms quickly multiply in standing water. Many horses won’t drink as much as they need if the water isn’t fresh. Dump the water bucket out every time you fill it. Scrub the inside well. Whenever possible, alternate buckets and air out the empty one in the sun before refilling it.

• Keep the flies away. Pestering insects can drive a horse right out of his mind – especially when the heat is oppressive or a storm is approaching. It is very easy for a horse to start running, and to keep running far longer than is good for him. Often, the best way to keep flies at bay is a powerful fan. Fly sprays aren’t nearly effective enough. Many of them are also oil-based, which can actually raise heat blisters on your horse – literally frying him in the sun.

• Switch your schedule. In the summer, many people bring their horses in during the day and turn them out at night. Though there may be more mosquitoes at night, there are next to no flies. The temperature cools dramatically, and the horses don’t spend all day running.

• Don't work your horse in the heat of the day. If that's the only time you have, spend time grooming or working on ground manners. Give his heart, lungs and cooling system a break!

• Supply LOTS of shade. Whether your horses are in or out during the day, it is absolutely imperative that they have shelter from the sun and the bugs.

• Cut back on the groceries. On the really, really hot days, it’s often advised to cut rations of energy-forming foods such as grain, oats and sweetfeed. The horses don’t need anything that’s going to heat them up further. And colic is always a concern.

• Hose off. Spraying your horse down and then parking him in the shade for awhile is a great way to bring his body temperature down. You don’t have to blast him with ice cold water, and you there is no need to give him a full-fledged bath. But your horse will appreciate a cool shower as much as you do when you’ve come in from the heat.

Outlining Your Plan of Attack

I’m working on an outline for a new book project. It has gone through several incarnations, and will most likely endure a few more. Understandably, the publisher wants to have an idea of what the book will contain before I start writing the thing.

When beginning a major new project – be it book or screenplay – I almost always outline it. I don’t bother with the classic Roman numerals, but I do find a topical outline useful for organizing a large amount of information.

With few exceptions, this is the process I follow when beginning a non-fiction project. It may be of use to you as well:

1.) Beat the “Blank Page Blues” at the outset. Begin by writing down all the front and back matter that will be required. For instance, non-fiction books usually contain at least some of the following right up front:
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Author’s Biography
• Preface

Including these in the outline can help make the book seem real right at the outset.

2.) Organize all existing information, notes, ideas & brainstorms into topical “piles.”

3.) Work on just one pile of information. Write down the major ideas or prevalent facts that recur in the notes. These become the main talking points within a chapter.

4.) Where appropriate, include sub-heads for things that will support the major ideas.

5.) If a checklist, list, exercise, chart, graph or other illustrative item lends itself to a topic or sub-topic, include it.

6.) Continue outlining one pile of information at a time until all are done. These will become the chapters within the book.

7.) Play with the order of the chapters until the flow of information is logical from beginning to end.

The outline is a fluid document. When you begin the actual writing, the outline becomes a working table of contents. As the project evolves, you may need to change the order of some chapters, add, merge or delete chapters. But moving something that already exists is almost always easier than trying to start from scratch.

Book News

I am waiting for the illustration files and one more CD of photos for Geoff’s book. Both should arrive today. With any luck, I’ll be able to make a trip to Fed Ex and send it on its merry way! Then it’s back to work on the outline for the next project.

Evergreens

Now that my work on Geoff’s book is winding down, it’s time to redirect my energies to all the other projects that have been on hold in order to make our deadline.

At times like these, to get a jump on things, and to give myself the satisfaction of crossing a few things off my list, I like to spend a day focusing on evergreens.

“Evergreen” is a term used to refer to something that is finished. It’s done. It’s ready to show and ready to go. Just because it hasn’t found a publisher yet doesn’t mean that it never will.

Revisiting your finished projects can be beneficial in several ways:

• It can give you a break from actually “writing” without the feeling that you are procrastinating or not doing anything to further your career.

• It gives you the opportunity to do a quick edit on a project you haven’t seen in a while. You can analyze the work with fresh eyes.

• It doesn’t take long to prepare an evergreen for a competition. Fill out the forms and submit something to one or two reputable contests. Winning could provide the needed momentum to sell the project.

• Repackage the work for a new market and send out queries (or, if it’s an article, maybe even send the whole thing out). Sure, it’s “on spec.” So what? It might sell.

• There is huge turnover at agencies and publishing houses. Spend some time re-researching agents, managers or publishers who handle properties similar to yours. It is entirely possible that the names have changed since you last went through the submission process. Send out updated query letters & letters of introduction.

The point is, get it out there. A day working on your evergreens can result in a stack of new queries, contest entries and / or spec submissions. Any one of them could be the break you need. But you’ll never know unless you get your work seen.

When the flurry of querying and submitting things is over, it is often easier to return to the creative side of things. The knowledge that you’ve done your part and are waiting to see what happens can be a great motivator to do even more. Good luck!

Asking the Right Questions

I spent some time on the phone yesterday with a person I am considering collaborating with for another book. I was impressed not only with her capabilities, but also with her understanding of the needs of the project and the questions she asked about her role in everything.

So much of a project’s end is determined at its beginning. By this, I mean – if you know what questions to ask at the outset, you define the parameters of what will be required. Asking the right questions will also help you know exactly what is required of you.

When I wrote Clinton’s book, I asked the right questions when it came to the writing aspect of things. I knew what was expected, and was quite happy to deliver it. Due to inexperience, however, I did NOT ask any questions about the photo end of things. I figured that wasn’t my area of expertise, and assumed that the photographer would handle all photo concerns.

This was not entirely true. Charles took great photos. I wrote my copy. But during the negotiation phase, neither of us had asked who would be responsible for editing the photos.

That is how, when the manuscript was written, and it came time to pore over 4,000 pictures and find 200 to illustrate the text, I suddenly found myself as acting photo editor. Doing that job took nearly as much time as writing the book!

I vowed that I would learn from the experience (no education is ever wasted) and that Next Time, I would make sure the photographer did the editing and provided me with only photos that had been culled to illustrate the words.

That was supposed to be the plan with Geoff’s book. And – problems with our original photo shoot aside – to a large part that is what happened. Though I have spent far more time than I originally planned to on the pictures for this project, by the end, the ones that I had to work with were nicely tailored to fit the text.

And now, because of what I have learned from this experience, I like to think that I will ask even more pertinent questions when it comes to the next project.

The woman I spoke with yesterday asked the right questions. She was interested in the project and allowed that interest to show. She wanted me to clearly define what would be expected from her. She asked about deadlines and the final format. She discussed compensation for her contribution intelligently and honestly. Because of her questions, I came to believe that she knew what she was doing and may be right for the book.

The more you know about the business of writing, the more pertinent questions you will have when presented with a project. Don’t be afraid that asking them will somehow alienate people and mess up the deal. Asking for answers will do more than just give you information about whether or not you want to get involved. It will also speak volumes about your professionalism and experience to those who are considering you for the job.

Book News

I am printing out the final copy of Geoff’s book today. He has approved all illustrations and all but 5 or 6 photos. I will also make a CD of the high-res photos I have here. Then it’s just a matter of waiting for the mail to deliver the rest, to compile everything in one glorious package and send it to Trafalgar Square. I’m hoping to get it in the mail by Tuesday – nearly a week before our deadline!

The Bestseller Biz

Yesterday was a long one – I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning working on Geoff’s book. The very good news is that all that remains to be done is placing the final internal page references within the text, receiving the correct high-res photos from our many photographers, putting them on CD for the publisher and making scans of the photo thumbnails and the illustrations. Then it’s a mere matter of copying the book, doing a quick final proof and sending it in.

All of that sounds great because I have 4 projects on the horizon that are all warning me they will be demanding some attention VERY SOON.

I took time out from the book yesterday, however, to participate in a tele-seminar hosted by Steve Harrison (of Bradley Communications). Steve interviewed Randy Gilbert and Peggy McColl who specialize in teaching authors how to get their books on online bestseller lists.

Both Randy and Peggy started out as self-published authors. Both watched their books languish in 100,000th place on the various lists. Both started looking at how to make their books move and get recognized.

And they were successful. Randy’s first book “Success Bound” hit #5 on Amazon.com within 24 hours of his targeted campaign. Peggy’s first book was sold via her website rather than Amazon, but she cleared $35,600 within 48 hours of her marketing it.

Now they coach authors on how to market their books online. They’ve developed a formula that is guaranteed to work, or they will refund the money you spent on them to help coach you and develop your campaign. In all the time they’ve offered the 100% money-back guarantee, they have had to make good on it 4 times. And each time they can pinpoint where the writer in question failed to follow their marketing strategy to the letter.

Randy came very highly recommend by an online writing contact who used his system to get her book to #4 on Amazon.com (#1 within its genre). After listening to them, I was quite impressed. I believe I’ll spend some time this next year researching what they have to say, and then apply it to Geoff’s project when it comes out. A friend has just released an album that features one of my songs. I may also explore the feasibility of doing the same sort of promotion with it.

Let’s say that 5,000 people are going to buy your project in the next year. If you can come up with a way for them all to buy it from a particular place within a particular 24 hour time frame, chances are that kind of volume buying will move your title up in the ranks and it will show up on the charts – as opposed to the exact same number of sales over a 12 month time frame, which will show up on no one’s radar.

It’s a compelling argument.

Here’s the thing about bestsellers – even if your book arrives in the Amazon (or Barnes & Noble.com, or what have you…) top ten for only 5 minutes, it’s been there. Suddenly, you can claim “bestseller” status, which gives your project instant weight and credibility. In today’s market, it makes sense.

To find out more about what Randy and Peggy have to say, check out their website: www.yourownbestseller.com.

And now, with visions of bestsellerdom dancing in my head, it’s back to the photo mines!

Rider’s Wednesday: Geriatric Groceries

Robert and I took Cassandra to the county youth fair yesterday. We wandered past stalls of cattle, swine, sheep and goats. We meandered through the rabbit and poultry barns. Then we went to the horse arenas. We went up and down all 5 of the horse barns, looking at the 4-H-er’s horses and ponies.

Most were in ok condition. Some were a bit portly and reminded me of my boys at home. Others were in varying degrees of fitness and conditioning. And then there were the National Show Horses. These three animals were some of the sorriest specimens I’ve ever seen outside of a kill pen. All belonged to the same family. All were mere skeletons stretched with skin.

The people who owned them excused the horses’ condition. “This one is 25 years old,” they told anyone who suggested that an extra bale or two of hay a day might be in order.

I’m sorry. That is an excuse – not a reason.

A friend of mine owns and operates a boarding stable in our hometown. One of her long-term boarders is an off-track Thoroughbred. He is 43 years old and still looks like a million bucks. Sure, he’s a bit arthritic. Sure, he needs feed specially formulated for older horses. But he’s hale and healthy, with enough meat on his bones to hide them and pad them.

It infuriates me that people would excuse a severely malnourished horse by saying the problem is due to age. If something specific, like a malfunctioning thyroid or Cushing’s disease were causing the poor condition, work with the vet and – at the very least – keep the animal at home, away from the stresses of a show environment while treating it. Pretending that all is well and that the poor thing can still be ridden and worked normally is beyond my comprehension.

So much information about the needs of the older equine is now available. Special “senior” feeds exist to fulfill their nutrition needs. Equine dentists can do extensive oral work to keep teeth in optimum working order. Various supplements exist for everything from arthritic joints to brittle feet. Sure, it all takes a bit of research. But the time spent can pay off in a vastly increased life span, and a significantly longer period of usefulness.

When it comes to a horse that is underweight or underfed, age – like ignorance – is no excuse.

Making Your Bio Work for You

Once you have drafted your bio, you will discover that opportunities to use it are plentiful.

• Websites, weblogs, book jackets and brochures are useful places to include such information.
• A short space at the end of magazine articles is often devoted to the author’s biographical information.
• If you ever teach or speak publicly, a short bio allows someone to easily introduce you to your audience.
• You can also include it in a short paragraph in letters introducing yourself or your work to a potential publisher, editor, agent or manager.

When you use your bio, tailor it for the situation. Use the whole thing on a resume of writing credentials. Shorten it to a single paragraph for inclusion in introductory letters. For speaking introductions, shorten it still further. And for “about the author” blurbs, condense it to one or two sentences.

On the book front:

Geoff has approved his bio for the book cover. We spent almost 4 hours on the phone yesterday. The text edit is completely finished. It was an almost painless experience.

The photo edit continues, but there is hope. Unfortunately, the photos that Geoff loves, that illustrate the horse or the rider doing the things that Geoff is about are either out of focus or have parts (legs, ears, heads…) missing. The more technically correct photos aren’t as good at illustrating what Geoff does. Very frustrating.

I’ve sent him a list of the photos we agreed on. He’s going to look over them and see if he can live with them – without the distractions of the photos showing things that he’d rather see.

Today, I need to call Michele, who dropped everything to get the second round of photos done. She should have some of our “missing” shots. I’m very, VERY hopeful that this will all go smoothly.

Building A Bio

Yesterday I wrote up short bios on Geoff and me to appear on the inside book cover. Bios are a necessary evil in the writing world. You will often be asked for one. It behooves you to have one ready and waiting for when the need arises, rather than scrambling to come up with something.

Years ago, when I was just beginning to get some magazines to accept my articles, a small niche publication sent me an author’s information sheet for them to keep in their files. At the bottom of the sheet, they supplied a few lines for me to write in my bio blurb as I wanted it to appear at the end of my article.

Until then, I hadn’t thought much about my bio. It took me a couple of days to come up with the verbiage I wanted to put on those lines.

Bios are more important than you might think. They give the reader a quick overview of your qualifications to write whatever it is you’re writing. They offer a bit of your writing history. And they provide an opportunity to connect with your readers on a more personal level.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a string of best-sellers to list on your bio. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you are just getting started in writing and have few (if any) credits to your name. The biography is a fluid piece. As you start accumulating credits, you can just add them and allow some of the less impressive things to drop off.

Writing your bio doesn’t have to be a chore. Some simple suggestions:

• Write in the third person. Use your full name in the first sentence. Afterwards, refer to yourself either by your first name only, your last name only, or the pronoun “she” or “he.”

• Say you are a writer in the very first sentence. If you specialize in fiction, non-fiction, poetry or screenwriting, say so. If you have a niche area that you are especially known for, say so. (“Jane Smith is a free-lance writer specializing in worsted yarn and the humor of Albert Einstein.”)

• Brag. Tell people what you’ve done. This is no time to be shy. If your writing has ever won any sort of recognition or contest, use the term “award-winning.” If you have written a best-seller, say so. If you have published 10, 20 or 100 articles, mention it. If your mother thinks you’re brilliant… keep it to yourself.

• If your credits are all over the map – if you’ve done a little of everything, that’s ok. Something like “Smith has written greeting cards, warning labels and street signs. She has also provided copy for breakfast cereal boxes,” would be appropriate to highlight your range.

• If you don’t have many (any?) writing credits to include in your bio, don’t panic. Identify areas that you specialize in, or that you know more about than the average person. Write those down and don’t worry about perceived shortcomings in the byline department. (“Smith has climbed Mt. Everest twice, walked on the moon and appeared as a Playboy Playmate. She is a double black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys knitting potholders in her spare time.”)

• If you wish, include a short sentence about where you live. Don’t be so specific that the loonies out there can find you and stalk you. But a reference to your family members, your pets and your hometown can help make you more accessible to your reader.

• If writing about yourself in the third person, or “bragging” about your abilities is difficult, write some sample bios for famous people, or people you know well. Once you get a feel for the exercise, then apply it to yourself.

If you don’t have a bio, I urge you to spend some time creating one. Make it as lengthy and as packed with information as you wish. Then leave it for a few days, come back to it and edit it. When you’re done, ask yourself if you would read something written by that person. Work at your bio until the answer to that question is “Yes!”

Tune in tomorrow for suggestions for making your bio work for you.

Book Update

Geoff is back in the U.S. He says he has gone over the book 100 times and the photos 1000 times. We are to talk today and nail down exactly what words we’ll change. We’ll also decide on what photos to use. The rest of my week will be dedicated to getting everything together and letting the photographers know exactly what to re-name the photos we’ll be using. With any luck, the whole thing will be done by Friday. And there will be much rejoicing in the land!

Plugging Story Holes

I watched “The Machinist” the other night. Now, in my book, any movie with Christian Bale is a good one. But after the initial shock of seeing the guy who played Batman and Bateman tipping the scales at a skeletal 120 pounds, I found myself getting really – really – frustrated with the holes in the story.

For instance: if the waitress and her son are figments of his imagination, just like Ivan, then what did he do, where did he go, and who was he with on Mother’s day? Because he had to see the carousel through the camera lens in order to trigger the flashback (though the significance of that is debatable as well). And he had to see the Mother’s Day card in order to understand the hangman game clue.

And – if he hasn’t slept in almost a year, why do we never see him try to sleep? Instead, we see him trying stay awake – drinking coffee, fastidiously cleaning, sitting up with a book…

And – why didn’t the cutoff switch or the emergency stop work on the machine? It’s a story about guilt, yet he really wasn’t guilty for Miller’s accident in the factory.

And – I’m sorry, but why did he have to be a machinist? I mean, this is the TITLE, for crying out loud. That means it’s important. Yet his job really didn’t have any bearing on the movie, except that it’s dangerous. It could as easily have been named “The Neurosurgeon,” “The Fireman,” or “The Toxic Waste Disposer” if the whole point was to conjure up professions where one person is responsible for others’ lives.

When you write something, you must be aware of any potential holes in your story. Story holes can be a gap in logic, a “coincidence,” or an unanswered question. If left unplugged, a story hole will allow all your credibility to escape. It can taint your entire work and limit your audience’s ability to believe in the story.

Story holes are different than bad writing. In “The Fantastic Four,” one of the many story holes is the unexplained way that Mr. Fantastic regains his stretchy abilities after a botched attempt to fix his mutated DNA. It looks for all the world as if his solution is to just lie down for a bit. Bad writing, on the other hand, is nearly every line of dialogue poor Jessica Alba’s Invisible Girl has to say.

Fiction isn’t the only place you’ll find story holes. Non-fiction is also rife with non sequiturs and inexplicable leaps in logic.

As you read over your work, don’t kid yourself that your brilliant writing will cover up a weakness in the story line. Some suggestions for plugging the hole:

• While you never want your writing to be predictable, it must always be plausible. A reliance on chance or coincidence to move the story along, or to take your characters where you need them to be is evidence of a huge story hole.

• Don’t make your characters slaves to your story. Make them drive their story forward. Give them clear, consistent character traits so you can use their own proclivities to propel the plot.

• If you emphasize something, focus your audience’s attention on it, and then never make it pay off, that’s not clever – that’s a story hole. Red herrings in a story line are fine, as long as the audience knows it was misdirected by the end.

• Avoid the temptation of explaining why a character does something. That only trumpets your plot machinations to the audience. If a character breaks from his normal routine, let the events he is caught up in speak for themselves to make his actions believable.

Do everything in your power to keep the audience from questioning the validity of the world you create. No matter how outrageous your plot is, or how screwed up your characters are, if your story is solidly constructed, rather than teetering over a hole, the audience will more readily buy the reality you are selling.

A Routine Break

Tuesday evening, I had just made a phone call to a friend of mine when another friend showed up in the middle of a family crisis. So I cut the phone call short, saying I’d call back.

Suffice to say, I didn’t. The crisis was never really resolved and we stayed up late talking. At one point we interrupted our discussion to talk to my brother-in-law who made one of his rare phone calls and who was full of fascinating news. At another point, I had to put the discussion on hold to comfort my two-year old during the thunderstorm that hit. (Finally, to prove there was nothing to fear, we sat on the front porch and watched the lightning through the downpour.)

I got to bed around 1:30 and woke up on Wednesday a whole hour behind my normal schedule. As I was making my groggy way downstairs in search of coffee, the phone rang. It was my friend from the unreturned phone call.

All I’d told her the night before was “Ooops, crisis. Gotta go. I’ll call you later.” She was fine with that. When I didn’t call, she figured (correctly) that it had been too late to call her the night before. But when she got online yesterday morning and noticed that I hadn’t posted on the blog yet, she got worried. She wondered if something serious had happened and called to check.

Her phone call kept me thinking all through the day. On the most basic level, it was gratifying to learn that I am enough of someone’s routine that an unexplained break in schedule causes concern for my family’s well-being.

I found myself analyzing my own, surprisingly consistent, routine. Then I figured that since I was already hopelessly off my normal daily schedule, and since there is nothing more I can do on Geoff’s book for now, I might as well take an unplanned day off and stay out of the writer’s chair, and out of the office, all day.

So, I took down all the curtains in the house, washed them and washed the windows behind them. I took my little girl to our local library’s story hour where she spent an hour listening to stories, watching a puppet show, singing songs and coloring a frog prince. I dropped my husband off at his doctor’s appointment, then went home and my daughter and I both took naps. I made a huge supper (mashed potatoes, gravy… the whole nine yards). We went for a 6 mile family bike ride afterwards. I read an extra book to my little girl before putting her to bed. When my family went to sleep I went out and bought groceries (it’s astounding how quickly I can do that if I’m by myself). Came back, put groceries away and then spent some time with the horses before putting them out for the night.

I didn’t do single spot of writing yesterday, except to answer e-mails. I didn’t even let myself think about Geoff’s book, the next book, or any of my personal writing projects. It was a glorious, unscheduled, unexpected, thoroughly wonderful break in routine.

When I teach writing workshops, I often talk about maintaining a regular work schedule. Since so much of what we do is only for ourselves (there are no deadlines for spec work!), it is all too easy to write only when we feel like it, or when we think the words will come easily, or when we “have the time.” That approach only leads to unfinished manuscripts and unrealized goals.

I tell writers how important it is to plan their writing time, and to plan their marketing time as well. I suggest several useful ways of organizing time and holding yourself accountable for what you want to accomplish.

But I also talk about downtime. Overwork is anathema to creativity. So is routine. I tell writers to take a deliberate break from their work every so often. During their break, I advise them NOT to think about their project… NOT to use the downtime as a way to work through a story weakness… and NOT to obsess about a problem with the project. More often than not, a short but significant break from work will result in an improved attitude and greater productivity.

Yesterday, it was wonderful to take my own advice.

Rider’s Wednesday: No Foot, No Horse

Yesterday I went with a friend of mine to look at a team of Percherons she was thinking of buying. The horses were in good shape, grocery-wise, laid-back, easy to catch and easy to handle. One of them had slight calcification in the splint bone of one foreleg, but not enough to render her lame or make her unable to work.

Everything about them looked good until we examined their feet. Cracks and chips were everywhere. One mare had the whole side of one foot split out. Neither of them had any heel to speak of, and hardly any toe. Their feet were in such bad shape that my friend didn’t even hitch them up to see how they drove.

The owners said that the farrier was coming in a few weeks (!) to trim them. My friend said to call her and she’d come back to look at them when their feet were done. Privately, however, we don’t see how a single farrier visit is going to fix the problem.

The horse must be built from the ground up. It is pointless to spend time worrying about a shiny coat or a flowing tail if the foundation that the horse stands on is cracked and broken. Even if the feet are in good condition, too much or too little heel or toe, or being trimmed at the wrong angles also creates an unstable foundation. For some reason, many owners do not understand this.

As my friend and I left after looking at the team, she remarked, “There are a lot of horses out there with good feet. Why would I spend a lot of money to buy a problem like that?” It appears that the old adage “no foot, no horse” still holds true in a very real way.

Dumb Things I Gotta Do

When I was a kid, a hot seller was pads of paper with “Dumb Things I Gotta Do” stamped across the top. Some marketing genius no doubt made far more money than I will see in my lifetime off of those five words.

Though I don’t have the (now vintage) memo pads, I admit to being an incurable list maker. Lists keep me on track. They allow me to see at a glance how much I’ve accomplished and how much still remains to be done. Plus, I confess, I really like the sense of completion when I get to cross something off my list. I’ve even been known to put something I just finished on my list, just to be able to cross it off and get things rolling.

My writing career (such as it is) would be non-existent without my lists. In slow periods – which I now reminisce over fondly and fear I shall never see again – I would always make a list of things to accomplish in a day or a week. Those lists usually included things like “finish a complete chapter,” “do project outline,” or “write for three hours.” Writers are nothing without deadlines – even if the deadlines are self-imposed.

Today I made what I hope is a comprehensive list of everything that has to be finished before Geoff’s book project is done. It fills two pages, but I am looking forward to crossing things off it. It’s as comprehensive as I could make it – even including things like “make final manuscript copies” and “send to publisher.”

Can’t wait to cross those last two off.

When I teach writing workshops – especially when talking about meeting deadlines, completing projects and staying motivated – I spend a lot of time making a case for keeping lists of things you gotta do. It doesn’t matter if no one but you cares whether you cross an item off or not. Simply writing down the steps necessary for you to reach your goals is a great way to make those goals seem more attainable.

Book Update
Geoff has approved most of the manuscript (he hasn't finished reading the whole thing). We are now in the process of final approval of graphics and photos. Our graphics illustrator is wonderful -- fast and accurate. She's a dream to work with. We hope to have most things solidified by the end of the week.

I'm in talks with the guy I'm to write the next book for. Some concerns are surfacing there -- mainly dealing with a significant difference in opinion / philosophy with regards to various riding disciplines. It remains to be seen whether we can work through them and reach a consensus.

And now -- back to work on that list of mine.

Organized Chaos

The new and improved photos have been edited. I sent them off to Geoff at 12:30 this morning for his approval re: placement and selection. Compared to working with the original photos, this was a dream. The big difference: organization.

The photos I originally received were in no particular order, in 4 random files, with the pictures more or less randomly numbered. Furthermore, there were no contact sheets or hard copies of any of the pictures. There wasn’t even a list of the numbers.

In order to even begin working on the pictures, I had to first download all 191 of them onto a PC. My wonderful husband spent quite some time manually removing the unnecessary letters that formed part of every file name so that he could then collate the photos into numerical order. With the absence of any other ordering system, that was the best way to see what I had to work with and keep track of what had been used so far.

Needless to say, wading through the pictures to see what we had and what we didn’t have took ages.

Geoff and I spent some time trying to work with the original pictures yesterday. He wants to make a few illustration substitutions. We finally gave up trying to do it on the phone because it just takes too darn long to find a particular photo. He called our original photographer and asked her for contact sheets. She said she didn’t know what he was talking about!

What a different approach our pinch-hitting photographer has taken. The photos I received were organized into folders – a separate folder for each chapter. Sub-folders further separated the photos into the options for each illustration needed.

I also received clearly labeled contact sheets with thumbnails of the contents of each sub-folder. In addition, two additional folders contained “extra” shots the photographer thought might be useful.

I was able to go through the entire book and place all the photographs in a weekend, and still have some time to spend with my family and go to a movie. Wow!

Any time you are working on something complicated that contains many pieces, consider how much faster and more efficient you are when you have an organized system to work with. When the complicated, many-pieced thing has to receive input from someone else, the need for organization grows exponentially.

If you can pass along a project that is easily understood and easily worked with, people will sing your praises. If you don’t, expect voodoo dolls with your name on them to circulate among those who have to try and sort out the mess!

Starting From Scratch

The new and improved photos for Geoff’s book are in transit. I should get them sometime today. While I waited for them yesterday, I figured there was no time like the present to start sorting through the information I have for my new book project.

Trafalgar Square wants to see an outline before we go through the tedium of negotiating and signing the final contract for the project. There’s nothing like realizing I won’t get paid until something is finished to light a fire under my creative butt.

So I hauled out all the notes that the previous writer had compiled on the project before she bailed. They fell into two distinct categories:
1.) Entire articles downloaded and printed off the internet and
2.) Snippets of transcribed notes.

The lengthy articles, written by persons other than the one I’ll be writing the book for, are of questionable veracity and value. The snippets, on the other hand, are more annoying than anything else, and largely useless.

Now, I am sure that the system, such as it is, works for her. I can’t imagine anyone making heads or tails of some of my notes. But I just cannot find a way to work with her tiny cut up strips of paper—some less than half an inch wide with a single sentence written on them!

I had hoped to be able to just step in and pick up where the other writer had left off. After a frustrated afternoon, however, I realized the folly in that. I eventually did what another writer friend had advised all along: chucked everything and started from scratch.

It’s amazing how quickly things can go when you aren’t trying to make someone else’s vision your own. I simply sorted things by topic, putting like with like, and in very little time, I had the current information compartmentalized into my own system. The outline (really a suggested expanded table of contents) was done and sent out for approval by the end of the day.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is to know how you work. Know what you can do efficiently—and then do it. Rather than trying to reconstruct your system to accommodate someone else’s approach, sometimes the easiest way to tackle a project is to dispense with any pre-conceived notions and just start from scratch.

Finding Another’s Voice

I’ve had several occasions lately to write something so that it sounded like someone else. In each instance, my objective was to be totally invisible as the behind-the-scenes ghostwriter – something that is easier said than done.

Certain key elements are crucial when writing in another’s voice, be it as a ghostwriter for a real person, or when creating distinctive fictional characters. For instance:

• Whether sentences are long or short speaks volumes about a person’s education and ability to convey a complex idea.

• Most people have a defining word or phrase that they use more frequently or in a slightly different context than others. Identifying that element of a person’s speech can help you “get a handle” on that person’s unique voice.

• Sentence construction is terribly important. One of the most common faults of beginning screenwriters and novelists is that their characters all sound the same. In all seriousness, if your characters have distinctive voices, you should be able to know who is speaking, even without identifying that person by name. Some people speak in short, succinct sentences. Some employ odd construction – especially when itemizing lists of things, when arguing a point, when talking about themselves, or when lying.

• Each person’s use of “um,” “er,” “you know,” “like,” and other fillers is as distinctive as a fingerprint. Regional colloquialisms are another essential component of a distinctive voice.

• Everyone has different topics that can jump start an intelligent conversation. Just because a person may be terse or non-committal 99% of the time doesn’t mean that he won’t wax eloquent when on the subject of model trains, stamp collecting, quantum physics, the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers, or international politics. A person’s voice for the “hot buttons” may differ dramatically from the same person’s voice when discussing the mundane. Being unaware of this concept means that every character of yours will sound equally passionate about every thing.

• Personality is a driving force behind a person’s voice. Timid, mousy people speak differently than extroverts. Egotists sound different than martyrs. If you can identify the defining character traits of a person, you have gone a long way toward finding that person’s voice.

On the book front, yesterday was a banner day of consultation. I spent about 4 hours on the phone, talking with Geoff, our editor, our illustrator and the photo shoot coordinator.

When I talked with our editor, I informed her of the Case of the Non-Existent Photos. I also told her that we had taken steps to remedy the problem, and that we had called in professional reinforcements. She was thrilled that we hadn’t dumped the problem in her lap and that we had been proactive in solving it.

I should have the new and improved photos tomorrow and hope to have them sorted and placed by this time next week. These new people are a dream to work with. Geoff and I couldn’t be more pleased. When the chips are down, it’s a relief to have competent, driven people in your corner (to mix a metaphor or two).

Also, thanks to the hard work of our illustrator who toiled through the holiday along with the rest of us, the graphics are finished. I sent them to Geoff yesterday for him to sign off on them.

So, amazingly, things are looking up. We may even make the deadline. I am continuing to think positively about such things.

Rider’s Wednesday: Forward First!

I've spent some time in the past few days researching what Joe Fargis, the legendary double gold Olympian and three time medalist, has to say on various topics.

I find one of his training tenets especially fascinating.

Fargis got his start riding what he calls “the forward riding system.” I assume that means “go, go, go!” He commented that he begins training a horse to go forward. He spends a great deal of time in the early stages of training solidifying that. He doesn’t begin to teach collection until the horse is 6 or 7!

Fargis says that riding a horse forward is an indispensable part of the training process. It is the first step to making a complete horse.

“Keep the horse straight, ride him forward, stay off his back, get him to the point that he’s nicely stabilized – and then he can go on to collected work,” he says.

He believes that in the early stages of training it is important to let the horse “be on his own for awhile and find his own balance and rhythm.”

I like that. So much of modern training is all about cranking the horse into an artificial, arbitrary frame. More often than not, this results in all sorts of problems – cross cantering, wrong leads, three-beat trotting, dragging the feet, leaving the hindquarters behind and being heavy on the forehand.

If we would just let the horse learn to carry himself and allow him to move forward, he would learn to balance himself correctly while carrying the added weight of the rider. Collecting him after he had learned self-carriage would be a much easier undertaking, with much truer results.

I can’t help thinking that the same concept is applicable to humans, too.

Too often we start something new and then immediately (and arbitrarily) limit ourselves or try to finesse our skills before we have really mastered the basics. But if we think, “Forward first!” we will allow ourselves to make the mistakes that are a normal part of every learning curve. Then, once we know that we can do the job – once we know how to get from one place to another – we can worry about polishing our performance.

Forward first!

Stepping Up to the Plate

What a weekend! Geoff called a friend of his – a book designer who would like to do some work for Trafalgar Square – and told her of our predicament. She literally dropped everything and went where he was in New York to organize and oversee an impromptu photo shoot.

What a difference competent, driven people can make to a project. She and I have been in regular communication, discussing the look of the book, the suitability of the existing photographs and the process of taking the missing pictures. She has a good eye and a good brain. What’s even more important, she doesn’t seem to know the meaning of the phrase “that’s not my job.”

The project literally turned around yesterday. According to Geoff, they “got more pictures done in seven minutes than had previously been taken in seven days.”

We’re still not out of the woods yet, but it appears as if the trees are thinning.

The point, of course, is that when working under deadline, there is no such thing as “not my job.” Too many external forces can derail a project or cause it to lose impetus. It only takes one person to drop the ball and send the whole undertaking spiraling out of control.

Now I know why so many movies get stuck in “development hell,” or have the plug pulled on them halfway through production.

When you are involved in a Major Something, you do it – and everyone else working on it – a serious disservice if you sequester yourself and only do the bare minimum of what was required. The original photographer has never contacted me to see if the photographs she sent me are adequate or to ask if there was anything else she could contribute. She removed herself entirely from the process when she sent me the proof disk.

She probably feels that her job is done. She showed up, took pictures and sent them to me. She may be unaware that many are unusable (missing body parts, distracting background, photos running “downhill”). She may also be unaware that many required shots are simply not there.

In contrast, the book designer that Geoff brought in to help coordinate the photo re-shoot is going above and beyond the call of duty. She is committed to doing whatever necessary to make this work. The difference in the tone of the project is remarkable.

So bear in mind: if you go into a project intending to do as little as possible, if you deliver only adequate work and do not communicate clearly with the others working on it, you may get a paycheck. You may even get a credit on the finished piece. But don’t be surprised if the assignments suddenly dry up.

If you want to continue working, you must be prepared to step up to the plate and swing for the fence. Otherwise, you will soon find yourself benched and out of the game.

Title Tattle

I recently got an e-mail from a playwright / screenwriter friend of mine. There is some interest in one of her screenplays, and it is on the brink of being sent to several studio readers for the 4th of July break.

The problem is that her original title for the script is damnably similar to a recent movie release. That alone would be enough for a reader to decide “too derivative” and chuck it without reading it. (It’s a cold, cruel industry.)

So my friend sent out an urgent e-mail to me and several other screenwriters she knows, asking for title suggestions. I haven’t read the screenplay, so she gave me some of the pertinent story points.

(On a related note, she is very, very good at distilling the essence of a story into interesting points. She can pitch her projects better than anybody else I know. She’s great at giving you a succinct, grabbing hook, and then doling out just enough of the story for you to get really interested. Wish I could do it as well as she.)

Anyway – based on the information she gave me, I came up with some title suggestions for her to try. Her agent chose her own working title, and that’s fine. But the exercise got me thinking…

Titles are a big deal. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t understand marketing, soundbites, or the modern consumer. In the film industry, a great title is considered one of the four key ingredients of a “high-concept” project.

To illustrate – one of my greatest dreams is to be asked to write the screenplay for an adaptation of one of C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series. (I know a movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is already in the works, but a person can dream…)

Two of the books that I would especially love to adapt are The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy.

Now, I love both books, but – frankly – “The Magician’s Nephew” is a way cooler, way better, way grabbier title than the horse one. “The Magician’s Nephew” sounds like it might hold some interest for teens, adults and kids. Unfortunately, “The Horse and His Boy” sounds like the worst kind of Disney drivel.

We are going to run into titling concerns on Geoff’s book sooner or later. I’m already thinking of possibilities. So, since titles are on my mind, I thought I’d share some suggestions / considerations / approaches that may be of use:

• Think “keywords.” Especially if you are titling a non-fiction book, the name should include words that will turn up on a search. For instance, our original title for Clinton’s book was The Downunder Difference. But the publisher (rightly) pointed out that the title didn’t immediately mention horses or riding. If a person were searching for a book on the subject, our original title would not have shown up as a possible match. Clinton Anderson’s Downunder Horsemanship, on the other hand, pretty much sums up the whole book in 4 words.

• Try plays on words. Anytime you can reference something that is already in popular culture, you have a bit of built-in title recognition. Therefore, it doesn’t take as much effort for someone to remember it. Case in point: Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11 title was taken from Ray Bradbury’s classic sci-fi cautionary tale Farenheit 411. (When the film was a hit, it was an obvious choice to name a rebuttal film Faren-hype 9/11.)

• Short and sweet is always appropriate. Some examples: The Aviator, The Incredibles, Batman Begins, Star Wars.

• When all else fails, Verb / Noun is one of the strongest, most succinct constructions available. If the verb is a present participle (ending in “ing”) and the noun is a proper noun – that’s even better: Finding Nemo, Finding Neverland, Saving Private Ryan, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Waking Ned Devine.

These are just a few approaches to titling, but they might help get you thinking in new directions. As we start to wrestle with nailing down a title for Geoff’s book, I’m sure I’ll have much more to say on the topic. Tune in later for further thoughts on the subject.

Today will be spent trying to get solid quotes from Charles and from another photographer Geoff knows. Once we have an agreement, we can get the pictures we need and get the book done. One lives in great hopes.

In the meantime, a holiday weekend awaits. Have fun. Write responsibly and – if necessary – use a designated driver. Happy 4th!