Time to Write

Sunday's Not So Fun Fact

A Holiday Public Service Announcement for Sedentary Writers (is that an oxymoron?):

A new study reported in the medical journal Diabetes reports that in addition to the fact that we don't burn many calories when we're sitting down, there may be another mechanism at work that further slows down our metabolism if we don't get up and move around a bit for hours at a time.

The solution: at least once an hour, get up from the keyboard and move around-- if only a brisk walk around the house or office. If you happen to live or work somewhere that has a staircase, that's a great exercise option.

I'd Like Your Input (there's a reward!)

Thanks in advance for helping me with something--and there's a reward, too! I'm starting to plan for next year regarding the direction for this blog, new materials to develop, workshops to offer, and so on, and I'd really appreciate it if you would answer one question for me:

What is the biggest problem or challenge you face that relates to writing?

You can answer as a comment here, or email me your response to: [email protected]. Make it as short or long as you like. As a token of my thanks, I will you a free report (in PDF format, so be sure to include your email address) on 12 methods to get & keep your creative juices flowing. Thanks for your help!

The Blogging Payoff ($ and otherwise)

The Bookseller reports: Publisher Michael Joseph has paid a six-figure sum for Single Mother On the Verge, the first book from 29-year-old blogger and Manchester-based single mother Maria Roberts. Roberts recently won the Blog of the Year award at the Manchester Literary Festival for her singlemotherontheverge.blogspot.com. The book, which expands on the blog, will be published in 2009.

Once in a while, blogging pays off in money terms. But even without that, it has its payoffs. Hugh McLeod creates the ProBlogger blog. Here’s what he says about why he blogs: “I like the control. I write something, I post it, it gets read, hopefully good things happen as a result, somewhere on this small blue planet of ours. Unlike a book or a movie or a TV commercial, there’s no waiting around for somebody else to greenlight it. The only light is the greenlight….” I’d add as another benefit the feedback I get from time to time from people who have found some of my posts useful.

Dare You Ask These Questions?

Michael Angier (www.successnet.org) has a list of 101 best end of year questions and 101 best new year questions. They include:

• If I had this year to do over, what would I have done more of?/ Less of?
• What would make my life more enjoyable?/meaningful?/comfortable?/challenging?
• how much am I willing to invest in my personal and professional growth this (coming) year? Where and how will I make this investment in myself?
• In what ways can I have more passion in my life?
• To whom do I need to express my thanks and appreciation?

If you want a copy of his questions, go here: SuccessNet.org/files/B-101Quest.htm

It could be interesting to come up with (and answer) some similar questions specifically about your writing. Here are a few to get you started:

* What single thing did I do this year that most advanced my writing?
* Who or what inspired me the most?
* What is my writing goal for next year?
* What is the single thing that is most likely to help me achieve that goal?
* What can I do TODAY to move even one tiny step to move me toward that goal?

For Writer's Block or Just to Stimulate Your Brain

Here's another idea for getting over writer's block or if you just need somethingt to stimulate your thinking:

Turn on the TV. Turn off the sound. Turn to a station playing a dramatic (or comedy) programme that you don't know. Try these three exercises:

1. Watch for three minutes, then turn it off and decide what the story could have been about. Try to come up with a beginning, middle and end into which the scene(s) you saw would fit.

2. Watch for one minute. Then try to relate whatever seemed to be happening on the screen to the story you are working on.

3. Make up dialogue for the characters as they speak. Try to keep it consistent with what they are doing. (This can also be a fun party game, with each guest taking on one of the roles.) See how long you can keep a coherent(ish) story going.

See, watching TV can be useful!

What's Happening to the 3-Act Structure?

What's happening to the 3 act structure? Quoted in Variety, Oscar winner Marc Norman (“Shakespeare in Love”) says, “"I think there's a mistrust, especially among younger audiences, of traditional Hollywood narrative. I've never bought the explanation that people are growing up with shorter and shorter attention spans, and that's their notion of life. I have to think that it's deeper than that. It's a question of how can I get at a truth in movies that hasn't been done before?"

Of course independent films have long had all kinds of structure, the news is that this is reaching the more mainstream movies. Maybe it’s partly a result of how younger viewers use the media. Brian de Palma told Variety, “I watch my daughters, who sit on their beds with their computers on their stomachs, and they look at little pieces of this and little pieces of that, and that's how they get their information.”

It's good news for writers who tend to prefer less traditional story structure--and I'd guess that applies to books as much as it does to films.

The Four-Hour Work Week? (No, but a good book)

If you're going through your gift list and trying to think of what to buy for your creative friends, one good choice would be "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss. His premise is that you can turn your 40 hours a week into 4, without giving up productivity or profit.

The title is hyperbolic--certainly Mr Ferriss has not been following his own advice lately as I've found him all over the media (for far more than four hours a week) promoting this book. But the basic ideas in it are useful. One of the main ones is not to become the tool of your tools--especially e-mail. He suggests the radical (for some) strategy of checking your email only a few times a day, at set times. If you inform people of this schedule, you can train them not to expect an instant reply. (You can tell them they can phone you if it's really that important). Ferriss also pushes the idea of outsourcing by using virtual assistants.

It's a fun read and a good addition to the gift list. And if I may be so bold, so is "Your Writing Coach" (by me, published by Nicholas Brealey) for any of your friends or colleagues who are writers or would like to be writers.

Will Smith's Secrets of Success

Entertainment Weekly recently ran a feature on the 50 smartest people in Hollywood. Actor Will Smith was among them and revealed his strategies for success—it seems to me that these could apply equally well to any careers. Here's that list with a few of my own comments and suggestions along the way:

SET A GOAL ''When I started in movies, I said, 'I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.' The biggest movie stars make the biggest movies, so [my producing partner James Lassiter and I] looked at the top 10 movies of all time. At that point, they were all special-effects movies. So Independence Day — no-brainer. Men in Black — no-brainer. I, Robot — no-brainer.''

What do you want to achieve? Think about the people who have already done that--what do they do? How? When?

PICK A ROLE MODEL ''Tom Hanks is the prototype of where I want to be. I admire how he is able to morph with the times and the audience. He is very savvy that way.''

In your field, can you think of a role model (dead or alive)? Can you study what they have done to achieve the things you admire?

WORK YOUR ASS OFF ''My father had a ridiculous work ethic. He started his own business. To him, kids were convenient employees. So from a really early age, I was working — and I was in charge.''

A simple question: are you working your ass off? If not, do you really want the goal enough? If not, maybe it's smarter just to recognize that it's not your first priority and make peace with that. If you do want it enough, how can you work harder and/or smarter?

MANAGE YOUR FEAR ''After [1999' s disappointment] Wild Wild West, I got scared and started choosing incorrectly. For me, I did Bad Boys II and Men in Black II out of fear. That was a bad time for me psychologically because I wasn't thinking the right way about filmmaking.''

Are you acting out of fear in any aspect of your life? Can you take a step back from the decisions you're about to make, to be certain that your feelings are leading you in the right direction? If you can't see the situation clearly, who can? Can you ask them?

STRETCH YOURSELF — ASAP ''The smartest move I ever made was Six Degrees of Separation. I was [thinking of] leaving The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and needed to set a tone. Separation was so far at the other end of the spectrum of anything I had done. It became easier for me to convince Jerry Bruckheimer that I could do Bad Boys. It blew open a world of possibilities for me.''

What would constitute a stretch for you? Is it time to consider it for the coming year?

You can access the list of fifty here: ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20163012_45,00.html

Sunday Fun: Christmas, Palm Springs Style

I'm in Palm Springs at the moment, and thought I'd share with you a glimpse of Christmas, Palm Springs style:

He's Making Money Writing--On the Street

William Chrome is a poet who practices his art on the street—and gets paid for it. According to an AP story in the L. A. Times, he takes his manual typewriter and sits outside a Manhattan supermarket and writes poems to order. You give him a topic, he bashes out a poem instantly (in about ten minutes), and you give him a donation.

Chrome says he earns between $15 and $20 an hour, working half-days. His output per session is seven to fifteen poems, and he favors what he calls “spontaneous prose.”

It just goes to show that if you believe enough in your writing, there’s always a way to find an audience and get paid!

How a Listing Led to a Movie Deal

I’m usually skeptical about listing ideas or projects with sites like Publisher’s Marketplace, which allows you to list manuscripts for which the film or TV rights are available (whether or not there is a book deal in place).

However, it definitely paid off for author Libby Sternberg. Her book, “Fire Me,” had been turned down by a number of publishers when she posted a summary of it on the Publisher’s Marketplace site (www.publishersmarketplace.com)

TV development executive Amy Byer saw the log line, it made her laugh, and she contacted Sternberg, who gave her the OK to pitch the project.

Byer got Landscape Entertainment to option the book for a movie. Naturally, now that there is some heat around the project, the manuscript is being sent out again and probably stands a much better chance of finding a publisher.

I already subscribe to Publisher's Marketplace for information about what books are being bought by whom, and this story has led me to listing my novel, VEGAS BIBLE PORN, on their site. I'll let you know what (if anything) happens!

ps: to get all the services of Publisher's Marketplace costs $20 a month, but you can also get their free daily e-mail report by request at their site. For my free monthly e-bulletin on creativity & productivity, just send a request to [email protected].

A Lucrative Outlet for Your Creativity?

There’s an interesting new outlet for your creativity that you can check out now, even thought it doesn’t go fully live until the first of the year. It’s called BootB—for branding out of the box. They list briefs: international companies looking for ideas about branding, packaging, design, promotion and other services. They also tell you how much the companies are willing to pay. You can then offer your ideas (which the companies will see without knowing from whom they came). The company picks the winner and awards the fee (minus a ten percent commission for BootB).

There are already a few major briefs listed on the site, and you can find out more there about BootB, via videos make by the founder, Pier Ludovico.

Naturally there is also no payment if you don’t win and a risk that ideas could be stolen, but so far the companies listing their needs are reputable brands. If you’re curious, have a look: www.bootb.com.

Audio Interview with Jurgen: Getting Started & Keeping Going

The podcast "The Writing Show" this week features an hour-long audio interview with...me. It was a far-ranging talk about what people fear when they start to write, how to get going, how to keep up your motivation, and lots more. You can find it here:  http://writingshow.com/podcasts/2007/12022007.html. Have a listen (you can download it for later) and if you like what you hear, why not grab a copy of my new book, YOUR WRITING COACH, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available online from  Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and all the usual suspects as well as many bookshops. It also makes a great present for that writer in your life.

What's Wrong With this Writing Situation?

Is it just me, or is it cheap in here?…The New York Times reported recently that Halsey Minor (founder of the tech news site Cnet.com) is also a fan of magazines. The article says, “Amid the YouTube-fueled craze for user-generated content, he wondered why readers, instead of writers and editors whom he would have to pay, could not do most of the heavy lifting. He also pondered how he might get rid of, or at least reduce, the large ad sales staff.”

Do people wonder this only about writers, or somewhere is somebody wondering, “Hmm, I wonder how I might get my spleen removed without having to pay any doctors?”

Anyway, back to the story: he and some partners founded 8020 Publishing. The Times says “Mr Minor wants to build the company into an empire of Web-generated print magazines.” People submit their photos to JPGmag.com and online readers vote on their favorites. Then a staff of ten designs the layout and six times a year an edition of about 50,000 slick magazines are printed. The annual subscription is $25, individual copies are $6 via newsstands. The online version is free, as is a PDF file that can be printed. These freebies don’t seem to dent the newsstand sales (they have only a 30% return rate). Both the online and print versions also carry ads. Minor told the Times they can afford to limit advertising because they do “not need it to make a profit from them" since they make money on each subscription and newsstand sale.

The experiment has been successful enough that they have now launched a travel magazine, Everywhere, based on a similar model.

Hmm, there are profits based on the appeal of the content…for which nobody gets paid. Obviously you can’t stop people from giving their content away and letting others make all the profit from it—but I don’t advise it.

Do You Have a Writing Manifesto? (Maybe You Should)

An article in the Los Angeles Times talks about the writing practices of Zach Helm, who wrote “Stranger Than Fiction,’ and whose first directorial effort, “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium,” is now on release.

He says he keeps a handwritten personal manifesto on his desk “to go back to and look at when I’m in a moral quandary or I’m stuck artistically.” He also noted that it is based on his ten years in the business (including some years of struggle), but doesn’t reveal too much of the content of the four pages lest it appear that he’s trying to set up rules for anybody else.

However, the article does reveal a few of the guidelines he follows: he will negotiate strong terms and a high level of involvement in any spec script he sells; he will write entire spec screenplays rather than pitching ideas; he will refuse to rewrite another screenwriter’s work; and if he is asked to direct an existing script by someone else and the producer wants changes, he will insist that the original writer be hired to make them.

If you want to read more about Helm and more details of the manfesto, see the longer Vanity Fair article here.

My point is not that his manifesto is right or wrong, but that having such a manifesto yourself could be very useful. I don’t have one (at least not on paper), but I think I’ll sit down and write one—how about you?