This is the 130th Juggling Writer post.

This was the first post.

One year ago…

Today…

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I started The Juggling Writer to force myself to always have writing on my mind. Between blogging about writing and working on writing, I hoped to bring back a feeling I lost when I began putting more effort into my day job at the time than I did into writing and life.

When I started writing seriously when I was 20, it’s all I thought about. This last year, thanks in part to this blog, I found that feeling again. Instead of leaving things on the ground for later, I picked things up and got back to being busy.

This last year has been my best year of writing in 21 years. Not only did I break the 100 posts goal I gave myself for the blog, I finished my third novel, went to a writer’s conference, and laid the foundation for some other writing-related things.

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So what do I have planned for the next year?

Obviously, more articles about writing–but I also plan to start podcasting fiction (for a sneak peek, go here), and at least a monthly Juggling Writer podcast.

Somewhere in there, I’m sure, I’ll start my next novel.

If there’s anything you’d like to see covered on The Juggling Writer, please let me know.

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When I started The Juggling Writer, I hoped it would help me.

And it did.

But I really hoped it would help others, even if only a few people read the blog.

To everybody who reads and replies: thank you–I hope I’ve helped you in some way this past year.

If you like this blog, I hope you’ll tell others about it, but just knowing that people are out there reading what I’m sharing makes a year of this more than worth it!

I’ve wanted to podcast my first novel for a couple years.

My first novel, called Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, is a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed station wagon. I have a reader lined up, and I finally purchased a recording setup (a Samson C03U USB condenser microphone and mount).

I’m not sure when I’ll start, but when I do, I’d like to release a chapter a week. It would be nice to start on the first day of fall, as a way to keep summer going (the story takes place during the summer of 1984).

While testing the microphone, my wife said, “You should do a Juggling Writer podcast, too!”

With my posting slump, lately, I’m not sure I’m ready to charge into a podcast with a schedule, but I’ve warmed up to the idea. The Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors podcast would come first, but I like the thought of doing a writing podcast.

I started The Juggling Writer, in large part, to force myself to constantly think about writing.

Doing a Juggling Writer podcast would be just another excuse to always have writing on my mind.

I recently watched Richard Nash’s talk about the future of books and publishing. (I found it here, on Booklife.)

There are some great points made in the presentation, but there were two that really stuck out:

1. The reminder that the long form narrative is a feature, not a bug.
2. Most writers — whether they know it or not — want a connection.

Feature, Not a Bug

Some writers and publishers are thinking short and gimmicky these days.

They see a report saying books sales are a little down and they think people don’t have time to read, so they must go with shorter content, or make enhanced e-books that can compete with video games and the Web. (At the same time, many people miss the line in that linked report stating that adult long form fiction saw an almost 7% increase in sales in 2009.)

Nash talks about the strength of the long form narrative, how the medium is a feature, not a bug.

I’ve seen a lot of buzz about this video for an enhanced e-book version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the past couple weeks. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know I’m in favor of e-books. But this enhanced e-book demo leaves me flat. There’s nothing I see in the demo that enhances the reading experience. It looks very distracting and gimmicky.

More than that, it seems to treat the long form narrative as a bug — not a feature, like something in need of repair.

There’s strength in the time it takes to read a book.

Nash talks about this and the importance of connections for writers and readers.

The Connection

Nash has seen many writers who thought being published would make them happy. He’s seen writers who seemed let down when they finally got a book on the shelves and was left with a feeling of is that all there is?

More than being published, Nash speculates, most writers really want a connection.

Nash talks about the investment of time, and what readers and writers get from the time it takes to read a book. (By treating the long form narrative as a feature, not a bug.)

Nash talks about how when you buy a book the author is “…inside a person’s head for 15 hours and you own that proxy object, that cultural proxy object that connects two people to one another in a deeper, deeper way than any other medium.”

Books connect people.

Deeply.

When I’ve heard people talk about TV shows at jobs, the talk is rarely deep. But when I’ve heard people talk about novels, there’s a much deeper connection. They don’t just talk about what happened like TV talkers — they talk about how what happened affects the world around us. They often talk about symbolism and social issues, not just who kissed whom in a grab for TV ratings.

The writer, Seth Godin, is big on Tribes. He sees importance in being the person who connects people to other people, even if that connection doesn’t directly benefit you as the leader of a group. It’s about sharing and connecting people; it’s about being altruistic and hopeful.

Writers have the ability to connect people like this in big ways.

Even if you never hear from the fans reading your writing, if you have a following that’s stuck around or grown, it’s a safe bet that it’s at least in large part because you connect people.

Readers invest more hours with one story or idea than any other medium out there. To stick with it, whether they contact the author or not, the author’s made a connection with the reader. And when a reader has invested so much time in something and they find somebody else who invested that much time, they connect and talk, sharing the experience and the ideas that came with the experience.

The act of writing is the act of creating tribes.

If you’re looking forward to having time away from your day job this weekend to write, think about how readers will connect with you and how you will connect readers when you sit down to write.

Writing can be a very powerful thing.

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If you have some time to kill, here’s Richard Nash’s presentation:

Spring is a great time to write articles. It’s no longer cold and wet, and it’s not so hot that you’d rather die than write.

Really, though, every season is a great time to write articles.

One of the problems with seasonal articles is planning ahead a few months and knowing what to pitch. If you have a tough time thinking ahead several months, I have a suggestion: think ahead one year from now.

I hear you saying, “If I have a hard time thinking ahead 3-4 months, how am I going to plan ahead 12 months in advance?”

Easy: look around you right now!

There are probably festivals going on that you wouldn’t have thought about 3-4 months ago. You’re probably getting out and enjoying the weather — maybe you’re running in a race, hopping in a canoe, or doing something else worthy of writing about. Making a list of ways to make spring cleaning easier won’t only help you next year — it may help readers.

Every season is a great reminder of all the things going on around us that can easily be turned into articles.

Here are 5 things you can do now so you’re ready to pitch seasonal articles next year.

Make a List

As you do things this spring, make a list of the things worthy of writing about.

Festivals, trips, seasonal tips — all the things we do when a new season rolls around can usually be turned into an article.

By making a list of things you do and discover each season, you have a list of ideas you can pitch in 8-9 months.

Take Photos Now

If you pitch an article about spring next winter, when the article is accepted, all the spring scenery will be buried beneath snow or dead leaves. Depending on timing, you may not be able to take photos in time for the article next spring, or you may end up rushing around at the last minute.

If you know you’re going to pitch an article about Texas wildflowers next year, why not take the photos this year?

Even if you take photos this year, you may have to return someplace the following year for a few last-minute shots, but it’s much better taking photos when you’re already familiar with that place.

Listen

If you need additional ideas for your list, listen to the people around you.

Listen to the things they’re doing — would it make a good article?

When they talk about something as simple as spring cleaning, ask them what one or two things they did made it easier…or what they wouldn’t do again.

It’s amazing how many article ideas a person encounters each day if only they listen and think about writing.

Rough it Out

When you do something this spring that you plan to pitch as an article for next year, rough it out if you have time.

Figure out how you will structure the article and what main points you’ll make.

If it’s a travel piece, it’s always best to write down your initial feelings right away, while things are still fresh in your mind.

With a roughed-out article, it will be easier to work the tone of the piece into your pitch when the time comes.

Research

The good thing about working on an article now is you have a whole year to research things to make it better.

If you’re rushing to complete an article, it’s easy to miss things: photos you meant to take, people you meant to interview, or points you meant to make.

By roughing out next year’s articles this year, you have more than enough time to research all the things necessary to make your article shine.

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There’s another benefit to roughing out next year’s articles in advance: Now when you think, “I don’t have anything to do,” that’s not true.

When you’re thinking ahead a year, you always have plenty to keep you busy!

On a walk last night, I thought about how I didn’t start writing seriously until I was 20.

I always enjoyed writing, but it wasn’t something I thought I’d do when I was younger. (I thought I’d be an artist, a wildlife biologist, or a juggler.)

As I walked along, I thought about the earliest memories I have of writing, and that led to me thinking about my earliest memory showing some of the character traits that define the way I approach writing.

I came up with this:

The Little Bastard

When I was five or so, my mom and grandfather took me to a forest preserve to let me run around and go fishing.

There was a small, stone wall dam on one of the ponds. I decided that would be a good spot to fish.

I saw bluegills in the water; I was eager to start catching them. I used bread for bait. I could see the fish, but couldn’t catch them. Each time I lowered the hook, it was swarmed by bluegills stealing the bread.

I squeezed the bread harder before putting it on the hook so it would be harder for the fish to steal and started catching little fish. I saw a bigger bluegill and decided I wouldn’t stop until I caught it.

The bigger bluegill probably got bigger because it was smarter than the other fish. It was down a little deeper. By the time the hook reached the fish, the smaller bluegills had pecked at the bread, making it easy for the bigger bluegill to take it off the hook without being caught.

After many rounds of this, I calmly said, “That little bastard,” and went right back to trying.

My mom overheard me call the fish a little bastard and said, “Chris, what did you just say?”

“That little bastard.”

My mom went on to explain that while there were worse words than bastard, it wasn’t a word a kid should use. So I thought about what a little bastard the fish was, until finally catching it.

Then, I let it go.

Why it’s a Defining Moment (And How it Applies to Writing Years Later)

I didn’t just walk up to the shoreline and start fishing — I scoped out the pond, determining the best place to be was on the tiny dam at the far side.

In writing, don’t always go with what’s closest (i.e. easiest). It’s important to assess each step in where we want to go and work at getting ourselves into the best spot we can to succeed.

I could see the fish, but couldn’t catch them.

There are many close calls along the way when you take writing seriously, and it’s frustrating when they break the line and get away. The important thing to remember: there are still a lot of fish down there; sometimes, the one that got away comes back to your hook.

I squeezed the bait onto the hook a bit tighter and started catching fish.

Sometimes it’s important to pack the bait on a little tighter, changing our approach, and seeing what happens. It’s great to think big — that the first novel you write will sell — but the reality is most writers catch some smaller assignments along the way, preparing them for the big catch.

I was persistent and finally caught the little bastard…then, promptly released the fish.

Just because you finally catch the big fish, it doesn’t mean your job is done. Maybe you’ll land a writing deal worthy of mounting on the wall, but at some point — in some way — you have to release it and move on to the next catch.

J.D. Salinger and Harper Lee may have landed records that sustained them for life, but most of us will only catch a few biggies that are worth displaying. Most of what we catch will only sustain us for a couple meals — We starve if we don’t keep fishing.

What about You?

What moment or moments from your past define you as a writer (or other profession)?

Feel free to discuss them in the comments.

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Have a great weekend, everybody — I Hope you all get plenty of time to write!

While most writers will die with a head full of unfinished ideas, there are times — especially when writing articles or other quicker content — when a writer can find himself at a loss for something to write about.

If you find yourself searching for something to write about, I hope some of these five tips should help:

Get Out

Getting out in the world and living is one of the best things a writer can do. When you get out, you become surrounded by potential ideas.

That screaming kid in the restaurant may become the seed for an op ed piece about parents who take their kids places they shouldn’t, or an article for a parenting magazine about ways to handle outbreaks.

If you get out and look at the potential of everything around you  for articles, story ideas, or other writing fodder, you’ll not only never be without ideas — you’ll have a lot of fun gathering material.

Read

Many writers find ideas while reading. This isn’t to say they copy an existing idea and claim it as their own — obviously, that’s not right. But reading a humorous commentary about a family road trip gone awry might trigger a pitch about the top 5 or 10 family road trips.

Reading an article about somebody hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail might lead to interviewing somebody who’s paddled the length of the Mississippi or biking across the country. (Or the writer engaging in the activity herself and writing about the experience.)

If you’re at a loss for ideas, crack open a book or magazine and get reading!

Twist a Trend

In recent weeks, I’ve read articles about the iPad written by people playing Devil’s Advocate. I read an article about the benefits of fatty foods we’re told to avoid and their health benefits. I even read a humorous piece by a scientist about the skewed physics in the movie Hot Tub Time Machine. (Definitely a better piece than another review saying, “It’s full of toilet humor, but has it’s moments.”)

If most articles about something lean one way and you don’t agree, pitch an article countering the trend. (Just make sure your piece isn’t a rant.) Consider something you hold dear and look at it a different way. Write about it.

Don’t take a different side just for the sake of taking a different side, but don’t be afraid to be different. We all gain something when people challenge convention — even challenging their own convictions — and produce articles about it.

Take a Class/Learn Something New

I loved juggling from a young age, but it wasn’t until I started attending juggling clubs and conventions that I became obsessed.

I always wrote, but it wasn’t until I started hanging out with writers and artists taking their work seriously and submitting it that I became obsessed.

A healthy dose of obsession drags you into a scene much deeper than an outsider looking in.

If somebody told me to write an article about gardening (while I’ve enjoyed the little gardening I’ve done), it would be a fluff piece at best. But if somebody obsessed with gardening writes an article about it, chances are, it will be more useful to readers than if I wrote the article.

Classes, workshops, or learning on your own fires people up, creating new fans of something with, perhaps, a different point of view that hasn’t been offered before in articles.

Ask for Help

Writing used to be very easy for me.

One day it got hard.

Only recently have I realized the reason it seemed easy was I used to write independent comic books, so I collaborated with others all the time.

Now that I’m a solitary writer, writing takes more of an effort.

I fixed this by asking for help. (Not always an easy thing for me.)

Every month or so, my wife and I go out for coffee or a beer — notebooks in hand — and we help each other come up with ideas for things. Sometimes I have a vague idea for an article, but it seems too typical. Chatting with people helps me put a twist on things I may have never thought of (even though it often seems so obvious!). If I’m stuck in a section of a story, I chat about it with my writing group friends and things break wide open and I can’t wait to write!

If you’re writing articles or stories, you’ll work with editors who will help make your good writing great; why not get a head start and work with the people around you interested in your writing? If you feel weird asking people for help, think of it as a brainstorming session, not charity or you losing your ability to come up with ideas.

The writing world is filled with people working together to create great things.

Yesterday, The New York Times ran a story about book covers and e-books.

I know we’ve all heard that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but covers do matter.

I’ve judged more than a few books by their covers in my time (found my favorite book that way), and in almost every case the art director and cover artist tapped into the heart of the book better than the jacket copy.

Images are powerful things.

The New York Times article discusses something we lose with e-books: if everybody is reading e-books on the subway or in other public places, we don’t see the covers. Publishers lose out on free advertising, and conversations about books slide a little.

There’s no doubt that moving toward e-books comes with some huge changes to how publishers will do things. One of the biggest changes I’ve thought about, even before a good friend sent me the link to this article, is how e-books will affect cover artists.

I started out writing independent comic books. More than working in a scripting format I liked, I loved working with artists. I met one of the nicest people and best artists I know through those early days of independent comic books.

I rarely read genre fiction, but I will eventually read the book below based solely on the cover.

Covers matter to me.

The couple times I’ve bought an e-book that didn’t have the cover image from the book, I’ve felt a little ripped off. Even on my iPhone screen, I want to see cover art. The weak graphics for the Kindle are one of the reasons I never bought one. Call me shallow, but I like seeing color covers. (Fortunately, the iPad and what follows will support large, full-cover colors.)

While good artists will always find work, it is unfortunate that the work of Chip Kidd, John Picacio, and other artists and designers won’t leap out like they do when people hold physical books in their hands.

Recently, on a friend’s Facebook page, the subject of e-book pricing came up.

Right now, it seems many people think e-books are priced too high. When people hear about publishers going from the $9.99 Amazon standard for an e-book up to $14.95, they say, “That’s ridiculous!”

One can definitely make that argument; after all, the cost of editing and many other larger costs publishers bear is covered in the creation of the printed book. Theoretically, the only additional cost for creating an e-book is coding it for publication and proofing the flow in e-readers.

What many people don’t seem to understand, though, is the cost of printing and shipping a book is still just a small percentage of the overall budget of a book.

As e-books become more accepted (if they become the norm), all the effort that goes into print books (with the exception of printing, shipping and returns), will still be necessary. At that point, pricing e-books at $14.99 will be necessary for publishers to not just make money, but to make sure that the e-books they release are quality books. (Granted, we can argue what quality means when it comes to certain authors, but I’m talking about a book that is free of typos and other issues.)

I know many people are on Amazon’s side when it comes to pricing; people naturally seek out the best prices–it’s why Wal Mart is in business. But while somebody might buy a T-shirt and shorts at Wal Mart, I don’t know anybody who’d go there for a bespoke suit or an evening gown.

T-shirts and shorts are something that can be made by unskilled [and often, abused] workers for next to nothing. A bespoke suit or evening gown takes more skill to make, so it costs considerably more than clothing that will eventually be donated to a charity, or turned into rags.

Writers and artists striving for more than mediocre; agents recognizing that talent; editors and art directors shaping that talent; and publicists spreading the word involves skill and money. While there are many books published that I think are cruddy, even the cruddy books are professionally created, free of writing errors and physical errors that I’ve seen in every self-produced e-book I’ve checked out. (“‘Which is why I have yet to make it through a self-produced e-book,’ he retorted snidely while smirking fiendishly and chuckling to himself regarding his sinister sense of humor.” Yes, I’ve seen writing that bad — even worse — in self-produced e-books).

Creating 55,000 – 100,000+ words free of errors takes skill, time, and money.

The cost of printing and shipping factored into releasing books accounts for a smaller percentage of the budget than many people realize.

While I know people love cheaper, if they also want quality, they’re going to still have to pay…even for digital titles.

I’m working on my third novel.

I’ve written it several times.

This rewrite is the last rewrite.

I’m not a big fan of rewriting, but it comes with what I’ve chosen to do. While I’m not as excited about rewriting as I am about initial writing, with each pass, the novel has become better.

Here are 5 tips for toughing it out through a rewrite (or four):

Break it Down

The novel I’m working on takes place over a year. It begins in the fall and ends the following fall, so it’s comprised of 5 seasons.

Having the novel broken up like this has made rewriting the book several times a bit easier.

If you’re working on something that’s not told in defined sections, consider breaking things down at least into a first, second, and third act.

Having smaller chunks to work with makes a daunting task seem a bit more manageable.

Color Coding

I’d heard about writers who had several things going on in a novel and had a tough time keeping storylines evenly spread out.

It was something I never had to deal with until this novel.

Already having the novel broken up into 5 main sections, I still had a tough time knowing if the things going on in those sections was lop-sided, or spread out the way they need to be.

I have a hard time getting my head around things I can’t see.

My solution? Piles and colored Post-It flags.

Once you have your novel broken into easier-to-manage sections, break each chapter or scene into a pile. Then assign each character’s storyline, theme, or other driving element of the story a color.

Put a colored flag corresponding to a character, storyline, or element on the first page of each pile, and then  spread the piles out in order in a large room.

Being able to stand back in your living room and look at entire sections laid out based on colors, you can see if a character’s storyline is too heavy in one place, but sparse elsewhere.

Being able to shuffle scenes around and thread them together so no element dominates a section can really help with rewrites.

Remove a Storyline (Or Two)

I always heard that as a writer, you sometimes have to kill your favorite character or scene.

I first experienced this with a screenplay. A friend who writes and directs independent features suggested I move a scene in a screenplay to make it stronger. To do that meant deleting my favorite scene in the screenplay.

The move and deletion made the screenplay much stronger.

With the novel I’m working on, now, I deleted a handful of characters and their storylines.

If you can sum up your novel in one or two sentences (and you must, if you intend on selling your novel), ask yourself if everything not supporting the main storylines needs to stay.

You may end up cutting some of your favorite characters and scenes, but you’ll have a much better novel when you’re done.

Do Something Big!

This is something I usually do while writing, but it’s also helped while rewriting.

While writing my second novel, I got stuck with a character’s storyline. I needed something that would make the storyline more important and tie into other storylines. So I challenged myself and had the main character see a secondary character dragging a body into a freezer. I did something big, and it forced me to come up with reasons why.

During a rewrite of the current novel, I did something else big that forced me to deal with the fallout of the decision.

Don’t do something big just for the sake of being shocking, but if you feel a section of a rewrite is lacking, figure out something that would make sense for the story — but bigger than what you’ve already written — and drop it in.

Writing is just a series of problems a writer has to solve; sometimes the best writing comes from having to solve a problem you weren’t prepared for.

Stick with It

Writing is an act requiring great fortitude. It’s hard enough writing a novel once, let alone rewriting it several more times!

More than any tip or trick, to get through either your first or fifth draft, it takes sticking with it.

Sometimes you have to write when you don’t want to write. Sometimes you have put off things you’d rather be doing than writing. Sometimes it really is a fight.

But if you stick with it long enough, it gets easier, the pages pile up, and you walk away with something well worth all the hard work!

When most people do something for a long time, it’s inevitable that there will be lags in production.

Writing is no different — especially for people juggling work, writing, and a life.

If you find yourself frustrated after a lull in writing, don’t dwell on it — follow these five tips to get back to piling up the pages:

Accept It

There have been times I’ve looked back over a period of time of little to no production and felt that I didn’t deserve to even call myself a writer.

When I’ve dwelled on the past, the only thing that happened is things got worse.

So you may have lost out on a month, or even a year of writing. Yeah, it stings — yeah, you think, “I should have done this instead of that…”

The trick is to accept the past [you can't change it] and drop the frustrated feelings of what could have been.

It’s more important to accept it and move forward than to stay frustrated or angry and keep going nowhere.

Look at Past Accomplishments

If you’ve done something once, you can usually do it again. (And often improve on earlier successes).

If you’ve sold articles in the past, you can sell articles again. If you completed a novel, you know you have it in you to complete another one. If you overcame nerves to pitch something in person, you’ve been there before and know what to expect the next time.

An added benefit of doing something you’ve done before is with each new time you do something, you not only do it with the knowledge that it can be done (because you’ve done it before), but that you are doing it with more experience each time.

Now’s your chance to correct those little things that irked you in earlier attempts; now’s your chance to remind yourself that you can not only repeat earlier successes, but improve on them!

Read!

When you’re getting back to writing after a break, read the writers who made you want to write in the beginning.

Don’t copy their style, but remember what it was in their words that made you want to follow in their footsteps. Maybe you’ll realize they aren’t as great as you once believed — if that’s the case, it probably means you’ve become a better writer and see the things that can be stronger, even in your heroes.

Also read your earlier writing. You’ll probably see things that can be stronger, but don’t dwell on that. As you read your earlier work, recognize what leaps out as strong –that’s probably what you do best as a writer.

Read and let the ideas come…and the writing will follow.

Is Writing What You Really Want to Do?

Maybe you’re not writing because it’s something you once thought would be the best thing ever, only to realize it isn’t.

Maybe you love the thought of writing, but loathe the effort it takes to complete something. (Many well-known writers feel the same way!)

There’s nothing wrong with realizing something isn’t what you hoped it would be — at least you tried something, instead of just thinking about doing it.

If you find yourself with recurring gaps in productivity, ask yourself: “Is writing what I really want to do?”

Life’s too short to dedicate years to something you’d rather not do.

There’s no shame in stopping something you don’t fully enjoy; in fact, it’s best to quit something your heart’s not into and find what you really enjoy doing.

Write!

It’s often easier said than done, but nothing’s going to happen unless you put your butt in a chair and write!

(If you need help, here are 10 ways to write everyday, and the short version.)

Writers write. They write whether they are in the mood or not. Waiting for inspiration gets you nowhere.

Don’t worry if the words you throw down are good or bad — things can always be fixed later. Allow yourself to falter, but produce no matter what.

The only way the pages pile up is if you dedicate time to writing regularly.

There’s no shame in breaks in productivity — it happens — but nothing’s going to ever happen unless you take that first step again and just write!