CornerScribe

Archive for August, 2007

I think most writers, at some time, struggle to find the time to write. Whether you’re a freelancer, novelist, or blogger, that’s probably true of your situation as well. Here are some tips that I use to salvage some writing time from my schedule.

1. Ask for help. I wrote a post about this last week. It’s probably the single most important thing you can do to for yourself. Get in the habit of it.
2. No perfectionism allowed. Whether it’s housework, yard work or your writing itself, you don’t have the time or luxury to be a perfectionist. Run the vacuum in five minutes, not thirty. You don’t need to pull out every piece of furniture. Likewise, don’t spend hours editing the same passage. Are you really trying to make it better or avoid working on something else?
3. Hire it done. If asking for help isn’t enough, then consider paying someone to do some of your work. Can you get someone to mow, clean house or run errands?
4. Do it online. From banking to shopping, doing business online can save you lots of time. Set up payments online with your bank and you’ll never have to write and mail checks again. Get your statements online so you don’t have to deal with a lot of paper mail.
5. Establish an errand day. Set aside a day to run all your errands. Instead of spending time each day going to the store, post office, etc., do it once or twice a week.
6. Be flexible. Take some of your novel along for editing while waiting for your kids at practice. Do the same when you head to the doctor’s office or anywhere you’ll have some waiting time. Take a laptop or paper notebook along for some writing or brainstorming time.
7. Take along the camera. For bloggers, this is especially important. Take photos for the blog or inspiration.
8. Don’t fall behind. Do a load of laundry every day, not ten loads on the weekend. Make sure the sink isn’t overflowing with dishes. Even if you spend only 15-30 minutes a night straightening up, it will keep things from getting out of hand. When things get really bad, you’ll be more focused on the mess than your writing, and it will take twice as long to clean up! The same goes for paying bills, running errands, etc. If you fall too fall behind, you’ll be too stressed to have productive writing time.
9. Keep meals easy. Use your crockpot, make sandwiches, soup and salads. When you cook, make double and use the extras to keep from cooking another meal. Along these lines, use paper plates and cups (paper, not styrofoam). Use aluminum foil for cooking for easier cleanup. If washing dishes consists of throwing them away, that’s a little more time you have at the keyboard.
10. Make writing as important as other things you make time to do. Often writing ends up being one of the last things we get to in the day. Raise the priority of your writing and let some other things slide for a change.

Stationary vs. Stationery

I’m not sure how useful this tip is, considering how few people write letters on paper any more!

Stationary means to be still, not moving.

Stationery refers to writing paper.

• I need to buy new stationery.
• The car ought to have remained stationary!
• In order to write on stationery, it must be stationary. (I couldn’t resist.)

Here is the promised market listing for non-fiction. Again, I try to find markets that actually pay something (even if it’s not much). Let me know if you have any success submitting to any of these sites.

North Carolina Literary Review Online accepts non-fiction relating to North Carolina culture, history and literature, as well as fiction.

Cobblestone and Cricket put out several publications for children, which accept non-fiction.

I Love Cats accepts articles (submit complete article or query). I bet you can guess the magazine’s topic.

Open Spaces is a quarterly that focuses on issues of the U.S. Northwest.

German Life focuses on German history, German-speaking Europe, and how the U.S. has been influenced by its German roots.

You only have 4 days left to recommend a new Wordpress theme and win a $25 certificate to Amazon. For full details, read the original post.

I’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions so far, but keep ‘em coming!

I’ve been super-busy the last few days, so here are some updates.

We have fleas. Well, by “we” I mean the pets, not my husband and me (yet). This year appears to be particularly bad for them, and the usual flea treatments aren’t working very well. Tonight, my husband bathed two dogs, one rabbit and two cats. No, he didn’t need a trip to the emergency room afterward, but the cats did draw some blood. Everyone seems happier now.

I’m still reworking the novel. Things are going slowly, but they are going, thank goodness.

I finally got my invite to ravelry, and I’ve been browsing patterns. I also ordered a box of yarn from knitpicks. I promise to do better about taking photos in the future. I’ve got some socks, scarves and a lace stole on the needles right now.

Expect some more blog updates coming soon. I have several posts in the works that will be coming up shortly, including the promised one on markets.

ProBlogger is doing a series of posts about building better blogs. As a part of that, he’s also linking to others’ articles on the topic. You can read his introductory post here, which tells you how to submit your own posts.

Welcome to all of you coming here through the ProBlogger links! I hope you’ll take a second and subscribe to my RSS feed while you’re here.

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you’ve probably had moments when you wondered what in the world to write about next. Even the most creative, prolific writer will have days when the idea well runs dry, but it needn’t stay dry.

1. Check your blog stats. What search words and terms are people using to find your blog? Some of these may be right on target, but others may have very little to do with your blog. One of my top phrases is “keepitcoming.” I have no idea why. Choose one of these terms and make it the subject of a blog post.
2. Still looking at your stats, see where most of your visitors are coming from. Write a thank you post to those readers. Or, write a post along the same topic as one of these posts.
3. Visit your archives. Choose one of your older posts and create a new post based on it. You can edit the old post, update it, change your opinion, whatever. Remember to provide a link to the old post in your new one.
4. Read your blog subscriptions. Set a specific amount of time to choose another blogger’s post to avoid spending all of your writing time reading. Then, instead of simply commenting on the blogger’s post, write your own post and link to the post that inspired you. Don’t forget to use a trackback to notify the other blogger.
5. What books are you reading? Would any of them interest your readers? Write a short review or recommendation. Don’t forget to include your Amazon affliliate link if you have one.
6. Write a list post. Lists are usually popular with readers.
7. Write a link post. Link to other blogs you’re reading, to web sites you use, etc. Just be sure that it’s useful to your readers. Even better, add a short note to each link to give your readers your take on the site.
8. Review another site. Write a short review of another site or blog. Remember to be constructive and use trackbacks so the blogger knows you’ve done a review.
9. Ask for your readers’ help. Ask a question, post a poll, ask for comments or subscribers. Explain what you want and why it will be helpful.
10. Visit forums. Choose a current forum topic and write a post on it. If the forum rules and etiquette allow, publish a link to your post. This is best done on forums where you’re already a participant; otherwise, it can come off as “spammy.”

What tips do you have for finding blogging topics? List them here in the comments.

You still have a little more than a week to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate. All you have to do is recommend a new WordPress theme for my blog. Here are the complete rules.

Leave a comment here, in the original post, or email me at cs AT cornerscribe DOT com.

I’ve already gotten some great theme recommendations, but I haven’t settled on one yet. Thanks to all those who are participating!

It can be difficult to manage your responsibilities — home, work, family — and still have time to write and manage your writing business.

After all, if you’re going to make money writing, then you have to treat it much like a business.

How do you find time to do everything else you need to do AND manage a business?

You get help, of course.

Ask for help with non-writing tasks.

Whether it’s paying bills, housework, errands, or whatever, ask for help. Remember though, there’s a right and wrong way to do this. One will likely get you the help you need, the other is just as likely to start an argument as anything else.

Ask for help. Don’t nag, guilt, demand, whine, etc. Asking for help means saying things like…

1. Would you take out the trash?

2. Will you take care of dinner tonight? I have a deadline.

3. Can you pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow?

There are a few things you can do to get better results.

Ask for something specific. Don’t ask for help with housework or something else equally generic. If you’re the one who usually handles it, you’ll need to ask for specific help if you’re delegating.

Don’t nag or play the guilt card. Saying things like, You never help me with the kids isn’t going to make anyone eager to lend a hand. Likewise, whining about having to do everything or complaining won’t help either.

Say thank you. Yes, I know it’s not just your job to take care of these things. However, don’t you appreciate a thank you, even when what you did is really your job? Everyone does. A thank you can help ensure that you get the help you need the next time around too.

You’ve no doubt heard that building relationships is critical to building your blog readership. One often-neglected way to do that is to use trackbacks to others’ blogs and enable them on your own.

What is a trackback?

A trackback allows a link from your blog to be registered as a comment on another’s blog, and vice versa. For example, if one of your readers writes about one of your posts, she can also use a trackback to your post. In that case, your blog will show a comment with an excerpt from her post and a link to it. Of course, you have to have trackbacks enabled.

Why should you use trackbacks in addition to links?

Linking to others’ blogs is good for your readers and a nice thing to do for other bloggers. You already know that your readers appreciate the alternate perspectives, and I don’t know any bloggers who’ll turn down incoming links. However, trackbacks can add functionality to your blog that links can’t provide.

• It’s difficult for bloggers to know who’s linking to them. Trackbacks let a blogger know right away that you’ve linked to her blog, and what post you specifically linked to.

• Trackbacks allow the blogger to follow your comments and continue the conversation if desired.

• Trackbacks put a comment on the blog, and most bloggers appreciate commenters.

• Trackbacks allow the readers of the blog you’ve linked to to easily come to your site and read your take on the subject.

How to enable trackbacks on your blog?

If you’re using WordPress, then it’s simple. Log in to your administrator panel. Under Options > Discussion, you should see a check box labeled Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.) Make sure the box is checked.

How do you do a trackback to another’s blog?

In your Write Post window, you should have a block labeled trackbacks. To send a trackback to another blog, insert the post URL in that block. Don’t insert the blog’s home page URL; the address has to be one for a specific post so it will put it in the appropriate comments.

If you like, you can put in multiple URLs separated by spaces. This is especially handy if you’re linking to multiple sites (as in a list post). Each blog you list in the trackbacks will receive a comment with an excerpt of your post and a link back.

Final Tips

Whenever you put a link in to another site, immediately paste the URL into your trackback block beneath the post window. If you forget to include trackbacks, you can always go back and edit it the post to add them. For a few extra seconds of work, you can add value not only to your blog but to others’ as well.