Kristen Havens Writing and Editorial Services

Rewriting Your Home Office

Kristen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:16:26 +0000

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about new landscapes and how humans adapt to them. This got me thinking about the increasingly common phenomenon of the home office. A recently charted territory in most American homes, every day the boundaries of the home office are getting more difficult to define. Thanks to a variety of digital devices, we are untethered to a traditional desk-and-chair setup; we can do work almost anywhere, at any time.

This should be great news for our productivity… right?

Except for one eensy little time-suck, the one that made all this mobility possible in the first place — the internet.

Every single creative, self-employed worker I know has expressed problems getting work done — “real work”, not communications — when anywhere within range of a WiFi signal. Some have had their spouses change the passwords on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Others unplug their routers from the wall when it’s time to work. Some are even leaving their computers at home, returning to the single-minded comfort of a pad and paper to get their writing done at the corner coffee shop. (Okay, maybe that’s just me.)

The point is, in this wired world, it’s getting harder not only to define the home office space, but also its purpose. What do we actually do when we sit down to do our work? Are we really working, or are we simply assuming the posture?

Inhabiting a new territory, whether physical or virtual, is just like writing a story. Little narratives, conscious or unconscious, define our world and tell us how to act in certain situations. Increasingly, the story my mind tells me when I cross the threshold into my office sounds like this:

desk
computer
FACEBOOK!
work
TWITTER!
FACEBOOK!

In a slow economy where there isn’t a lot to do, “work” should be in all caps, and Facebook and Twitter should be replaced by personal projects I may not have time for when I’m on a contract job — all those little things we say we’ll get to someday when we have more time. I, for one, would like my home office story to read more like this:

desk
computer
write
read
research
novel
poems
submissions
out

… followed by “life”, whatever that may be.

My #1 goal right now is to rewrite my home office time so that when I do sit down at my desk, I’m moving my projects forward instead of idly socializing. (Something I’d prefer to do during “life” time, face to face over a meal or activity, or at least on the phone.)

To help me rewrite my office time, I’m enlisting some digital support: LeechBlock. LeechBlock is a free Firefox extension that allows users to set a timer or quota for daily internet activities. You can decide to limit your idle web surfing to certain times of day (e.g., after 5:00 p.m.); or, if you’re like me and have only a few entrenched vices, you can limit your time on those specific sites to a total daily minute or hour count.

Facebook is my #1 enemy and my main target. Using LeechBlock, I have a new daily cutoff, starting today: 20 minutes. After I hit my total, LeechBlock denies me access to the site until tomorrow. Eventually I’ll wean myself down to 10 minutes, then maybe 5.

Are there ways around this? Sure. You can turn LeechBlock off. You can uninstall the program. But right now, the story my office tells me is “It’s so easy to be bad”. My hope is that a moderate inconvenience — a digital rockfall or river crossing — will be enough get me to change course, so the story becomes “Facebook’s a hassle — I’d rather be writing.”

If this works, I’ll blog about my progress. Let me know if it works for you (or if you have other ideas).

NaNoWriMo 2009

Kristen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:40:45 +0000

Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is a nonstop, 30-day writing frenzy — one I’ve decided to join this year, for the first time since 2003. Posting here may remain light as I sort through the process of writing 50,000 words in just under a month.

The experience of NaNoWriMo brings up a few topics for the future, however:

Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die software just released a desktop version. Now you can run their software separately from your browser — which should be much more stable, and perhaps more importantly, is independent of a WiFi connection. I intend to use this at least once in the next 30 days. It might just be the best $10 a writer could ever spend.
Writing habits: longhand vs. typing. What works better? And what’s more efficient? (I think it depends on the situation.)
Pushing past writers block. This is what NaNoWriMo is all about. But if you don’t want to end up with 50,000 words of random, barely connected material, you need something more than a deadline and a daily quota. More on this after I finish the process.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for me, I’ll be writing. A lot.

Happy November!

Useful Writing Tools – 5 Digital Favorites

Kristen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:41:02 +0000

Choosing digital writing tools can be just as idiosyncratic as selecting a favorite pen or brand of notebook. Keeping that in mind, here are 5 of my favorite tools for productivity and creativity:

1. Write or Die software, by Dr. Wicked’s Writing Lab

The concept is simple. Set a timer and a word count, then enter your text in a box. If you don’t reach your writing quota by deadline, suffer the consequences — a loud, unpleasant alarm prodding at you, or worse — your writing being erased whenever your fingers stop moving. Your choice.

I love the simplicity. Great for when I need a little extra prod or the pressure of a deadline.

The downside: there’s no way to auto-save while you’re writing. There’s always the chance your browser will freeze up or quit while you’re writing. This is less likely if you have a newer computer and a stable browser, and no other windows open at the time.

2. Scrivener, from Literature and Latte (for Macs only)

Scrivener is a text editing program that’s designed to help writers organize large, unwieldy projects, like books. The interface is simple – a series of individual text documents are organized in panes so that you can see Chapters or project headings as you write. This is indispensable when writing multi-page documents that require significant sequencing.

I use Scrivener all the time for organizing web content projects, because it helps me “see” the web site, even if it hasn’t yet been designed. I also love that Scrivener docs are stripped of virtually all auto-formatting distractions (goodbye, MS Word!). This keeps the editing process 100% separate from the writing, enabling me to be purely creative in the space instead of getting bogged down by spelling, fonts, margins, and inappropriate or unwelcome grammar guidance.

3. Google Docs

Google Docs are simple text editing equivalents of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that one can open, edit and share from within a Google account.

I was resistant at first to using Google’s stripped-down documents programs, but I became a convert in the middle of a large contract writing job. With deadlines every 2 days and dozens of revisions, after a while it became easier to open and review work in my web browser.

This is Google Docs’ real strength: fast access to working documents that change frequently. There’s no opening a new Finder window or waiting for Word or Excel to load. If you’re a user of Gmail, creating a new document and capturing a thought takes about 5 seconds.

I use Google Docs for everyday project management: keeping track of ongoing tasks via to do lists and content inventories. Keeping project information close to my email program instead of hidden in the depths of a forgotten folder is a nice convenience. It’s also nice knowing this fleeting, ever-changeable data isn’t sucking up valuable hard drive space.

4. Twitter

Yes, Twitter can be useful for something other than micro-blogging and promoting products. Three practical, everyday uses of Twitter for writers:

Reminding oneself of things to do/investigate/write about/read later
Collecting observations
Fine-tuning the art of brevity

With only 140 characters of allotted space, Twitter is a fantastic tool for improving one’s ability to share information in a clear and concise manner: a skill set that’s increasingly important in this digital age.

5. Blogs

Blogging doesn’t need to be public; you can use your blog like I do, as a digital notebook. I use mine as a scratch pad for writing ideas and reactions to my reading. I find a blog is easier to skim and search than my own handwriting in a paper notebook. Capturing creative impulses digitally, then reviewing them once a week or so, allows me to get an overview of my thought process, so that I can identify persistent themes or ideas that might make for good future projects.

Here’s how to do it:

Create a plain, simple blog in whatever blogging program feels most intuitive to you (I like Typepad). Don’t worry about design.
Opt not to include your blog in search engine results.
Put a password on it, making it visible only to you.
Set up post-by-email, so you can compose new posts in your email program and fire them off quickly.
Later, when you have the time, log into your blog account and organize your posts by tag or category if you wish.

Regarding #5: I find simpler is better. Lately, the bulk of my posts fall into four categories: Ideas, Observations, Reading, and Brain Dumps. I think of the blog as a notebook where I store insights and inspiration, rather than actual writing; but you can use it in whatever manner works best for you.

So there they are: 5 tools I use regularly to organize my writing practice and keep my projects moving forward. What tools do you use, and how do you use them?

Writing Problem #1: One Project, One Deadline, Too Many Possible Directions

Kristen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:44:36 +0000

A friend of mine came to me recently with a challenge. She was asked to write a book proposal based on a brief article she’d written, but she wasn’t sure which way to go with her story. What direction would make the best book? There were so many ways she could go, but she wasn’t sure which concept would be the most compelling.

Here’s what I suggested.

Writing Refresh Exercise #1: Try Everything

1. Grab a stack of blank 8 ½” x 11” paper. Put it in front of you on an empty table or desk.

2. Set a timer for 10 minutes.

3. On your first sheet of paper, write out your first idea for where the story could go. Use big handwriting. Don’t get bogged down. Think high school. Think “thesis statement”. Think movie pitch brevity. 3 or 4 sentences, max.

4. Flip the sheet over, face down.

5. On the next sheet, write your next idea.

6. And so on.

7. Keep going, as fast as you can, until the timer goes off.

8. Gather up your completed sheets of paper and slip them into a file folder or drawer.

9. Go do something else for at least 2-3 hours. Take a walk or a nap. Call a friend. Watch a movie. If you can, sleep on it.

10. Check your notes, and see which story seems the most compelling to you. That’s your winner.

What do you do with the non-winning ideas?

1. Remember that there are no bad ideas; there are simply ideas that come to you at the wrong time.

2. With that in mind, send them to Writing Castaway Island — a box, a file folder or a place on your hard drive where your castoffs can frolic until you have time to spend with them. More on this in a future post.

As for my friend — she said the exercise was helpful. She has since come up with a book concept that excites her and makes her eager to write. Send all your good writing vibes her way!