Purple Hearts

A good businessperson will look to surround herself with people whose strengths complement her weaknesses – together, they make a stronger whole.

As Myretta Robens mentioned in her blog for us back in September, the friendships that writers strike with one another have professional, social, and restorative properties to them. That very idea was the main reason we Purple Hearts started this blog – to help each other through the ups and downs of learning, practicing, becoming better writers, and getting published.

And with Mary Buckham and Dianna Love Snell as our guests this month, the timing of today’s blog post is a little uncanny. As Dianna mentioned in their post, “If one of us finds something interesting we share it and the other will dig a little deeper for a new nugget of information.” . . . which speaks to the point of my post today.

Interesting enough, a whole other aspect of writing relationship has emerged as a result of this blog – how our strengths help one another out. With so much information available on so many different things, we Purple Hearts have inadvertently settled into different roles that we fill for one another. In that way, we have partnered to fill these important aspects in the business of writing. One of us may be the go-to plot doctor while another is the research maven and yet another friend in our online community is the marketing expert. We help fill gaps in each other’s knowledge and share with each other those interesting somethings that prompt us to dig deeper for the nuggets Dianna mentioned.

When brought together, the whole is much greater than the sum of our parts and I believe that this strong support – social and professional – will factor into our success as writers.

As Mary wrote in their post, “. . . the day you decide that nothing will stop you from being published is the day you’ll never turn back. You’ll make different choices as to how you spend your time, who you will associate with, how you will invest in your career.”

So if you choose to take on partners, pick good ones who will balance out your weaknesses and contribute to your success. No matter what, keep writing!

We thank Mary and Dianna for being here with us this week. As a bonus, they are giving away two generous prizes at the end of the week - a set of 5 BREAK INTO FICTION™ templates from their highly successful Break Into Fiction™ Template Teaching Series to one winner and a critique of a query or cover letter to another. Post a comment to their blog to be eligible. Winners will be chosen at random on Friday.

-Jessica

Jessica did an amazing job of of telling us where to get the information and how to use it. But for me, I need a little more.

I’m very visual - I need a logical way to look at information or it might as well be street graffiti. At first everyone laughed at me, but now they’ve started asking for Bria Agent Search Spreadsheets for themselves (maybe I should start charging!)

I won’t lie. It is time consuming in the front-end. But later, when the querying begins, it will keep you on track and organized as well as stopping your focus from drifting to time wasting (and embarrassing) querying of agents who don’t rep what you write.

So, breaking this down in very easy steps, here we go:

My main passion and focus is YA Fantasy, but I also have ideas for a RomCom and a historical (which may be YA, Women’s Lit, or Romance - depending on who you ask) so my focus groups are: Fantasy, YA, Romance, and ChickLit. You’ll have your own, but we’ll stick with mine for these examples

This is very easy if you’ve never done it before.Open it up and then save it as “Agent Search.”

Across the top create a column for each of the following:Agent Name, Agency, Solicit?, Email, YA, Fantasy, Rom, ChLit, RWA, P&E, Exp, TOTAL, Authors, Notes

Step 3 - Link to: http://www.agentquery.com/search_advanced.aspx

From the list below, choose all your writing genres and search

Step 4 - List creationThis is the longest part. Cut and paste each page into your spreadsheet and then line up the information with columns. Put an “1″ under each genre the agent reps. You may want to consider weighting one genre heavier than others - for example, my future agent MUST rep YA, so that column gets a “2″ instead of a “1.”

So you may have notice that you still have RWA, P&E, Exp, and TOTAL, left.
RWA (Romance Writers of America) is a very reputable group. Whether you write romance or not, you should consider joining. The group is highly focused on Craft and many agents have said they can often tell a person is an RWA member from their clean manuscript.

If the agency/agent is RWA certified, add another “1″

P&E (Preditors and Editors) as another amazing resource. They list everyone in the industry they’re aware of. If they give an agency/agent a “highly recommends” add a “2″ - a “recommends” add a “1″ —— they’ll also let you know if they “highly don’t recommend (”-2″), “don’t recommend” (”-1″), or if they are listed on “Writer Beware” (”-3″)

Exp stands for “Experience.” Jessica is my go-to girl on this. Industry answers roll off her tongue and she does a run by rating for me. Also, I look at blogs, talk to other writers, read articles. One of my top 10 agents was bumped off my list completely because of her attitude toward her clients and potential clients on her blog. You want to know this ahead of time. Use the same rating system as P&E.

TOTAL - create a sum total column for each row and then sort by the TOTAL column.

The last two columns are just as important. You should always be familiar with the authors an agent already reps. It lets you know what they like and where they succeed. Also, it allows you to ‘sell’ yourself better (see Jessica’s blog HERE.)

The Notes column should be for things like industry updates, reminders about appearances (online and in person) you’d like to attend, site updates (agents sometimes stop taking queries for a short time), contests they’re judging, etc.

All this information comes together on one page to let you judge and weigh the agents to see if they’re a potential fit. Make sure you check out Jessica’s blog to get a bigger picture of the whole search.

This is a great step in running your writing career as just that - a CAREER.

As always - if you have questions or comments we’d love to hear them. Start planning your career and then Go Write!-bria

One more day until our February Honorary Heartlette Tina Ferraro gives away a FlanTastic copy of her latest book How To Hook A Hottie.

If you haven’t checked out her guest post, you can see it HERE and enter join the fun to win your own copy.

 Good Luck!

Not long ago I heard a bunch of bands play out at a club and got a valuable lesson in writing (not to mention hotties.)

The first band came on - a bunch guys in their teens. Not bad. The sounded like a garage band and I think the sound guy was doing them a disservice in the still empty bar by having them amped so high the singers words were indistinguishable. But I enjoyed the show.

The second band came on, guys in their late 30’s/early 40’s. It was obvious they were all good at what they did. The made the band before them sound even more unfocused - the were a lot of fun and their set flew by.

The third -First Ave - band came on next. These guys had it going on the moment they started their individual sound checks. I turned to my friend and said, we’re going to like these guys, I know it.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote my vows to my craft, and one of the things I swore was that “I will behave professionally when representing my writing and myself and I will work at it as though I am already being paid.”  These guys did that.

The got on the stage and worked it like they were already rock stars (but not in an obnoxious way.) Individually they sounded great, coming together as a band, the sounded well  - I don’t know the music term for it, but if I was reading a novel, I would say “Their writing was tight.”

The worked the stage at every angle: Good music, professional (ok, rock star, but that’s what they’re striving to be) and hard work.

Hard work? How in the world could you know they were putting in hard work, Bria?

No one, no matter what their craft, gets their sound (words/paragraphs/chapters to us) that tight without a lot of focus, practice and dedication. I just wish I could bottle their charisma too!

I challenge you to check them out HERE and find your own new form of inspiration. What makes you think about your writing in a new way, who really challenges you?

Go Look inside and then Go Write,
-bria

Why YA?

My fourteen year-old niece recently read my work-in-progress and commented to her father (my brother) that “Aunt Tina really understands how teenagers think.” My brother, grinning, responded, “That’s because Aunt Tina still is a teenager.”               

This story greatly amuses me. For on one hand, I’m a responsible adult who manages my writing career, the comings-and-goings of my husband and our three teenagers, and some community service projects. But strip all that away, and I’m a person who is giving herself the happy teen years now that she was too cranky to appreciate the first time around.               

For ever since I made the change from writing adult romance to YA romance, I’m having more fun than an adult should be allowed. There’s nothing better than shutting out my real world of property taxes, laundry, and my impending Empty Nest Syndrome and letting myself sweat the small stuff: my complexion, my grade on a test, or what hero’s text message REALLY means. I love the idea that my whole life is still ahead of me, and is full of endless possibilities.  I could still make my first million before my first wrinkle, “hook a hottie,” and look fantabulous in tight jeans.                

Because when I’m writing for teens, I *am* a teen. Not today’s teenagers, necessarily, not trying to get inside my kids’ heads and live parallel lives. I float back to those thoughts and feelings of my own day, and I write from that perspective–while trying to create storylines, characters and sometimes odd things that would have appealed to me (like uses for an unworn prom dress, a hexagon to define romantic compatibility, and 26 much-needed tips on ways to kiss your next boyfriend). Naturally, I use my kids as sounding boards on slang, present day electronics, and trends, and occasionally a subplot or scenario will arise from something I see or hear from them. But that’s all secondary to my own creativity. The elements of my books start and end with me.                

So that’s my good news for those of you without kids or teens who are interested in writing YA. Don’t feel that put off by a lack of teen contact. You can always find one to read your first draft, chat with other YA authors, or research teen trends through books and the internet. Most important is tapping into your inner teen and remembering what intrigued you, scared you, thrilled you. And to create those characters and storylines. Times have changed, but teenagers really haven’t.                 

And if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself completely engrossed in your stories, laughing out loud at the keyboard, and looking at the world with a revitalized, fresher view. Nothing wrong with that. So excuse me if this sounds like a cliché, but when people ask me, “Why YA?” I am tempted to say, “Why not?”  Because writing YA fills me in a way no other genre does.                

And I am, like, toh-tally okay with that, okay?                                             

Tina is (very generously) giving away a copy of her new book How To Hook A Hottie to one of our commenters at the end of the week- Just let us know what you’ve done to hook a hottie to get in on the giveaway action!

Finding a Critique Partner is hard enough, but making it work (just like any relationship) IS work. The Pre-CP labor is where your partnership will be made or destroyed — you just won’t know which immediately.

I’m lucky. I haven’t been drifting along too by myselfly (yes, I know it isn’t a word, but that’s what it feels like.) Besides my fellow Heartlettes here at the blog, I’m also blessed by several women who support, guide and direct me over at the RD board. I have wonderful people who are willing to read my stuff and give me honest feedback - painfully honest feed back - just like I’m looking for.  They catch things and ask questions and point out flaws and praise and give the love.

But until I met Ann, I didn’t have anyone to do that deep-intense daily walking thing with. For the last month we’ve done a chapter each per week. We email, edit, scan, send back and discuss on Thursday night.

It’s working out really well so far and I think I know why: Planning.

Planning came in two parts. The first part I’ll call The Covenant and the second could be considered The Job Description.

Before we got started we took some time to read sites about being in a Critique Group. Together we discussed what we were looking for, what we needed, how we best worked, what would be most hurtful, rules for discussing issues, how we’d consider bringing new people into our sessions, and emergency exit strategies.

Beyond these things, we discussed expectations. What did we expect to get out of and put into the relationship? What edits, thoughts, suggestions did we want? To be honest, we’re greedy girls, we wanted everything. And to make sure it all gets covered, we have an extensive list of summary questions to answer each week to ensure that all topics get broached sufficiently.

I’d like to share with you some of the sites we used to draw up both the Covenant and JD:

Ok, here are some sites I found around critiquing —- we can pick and choose what we like:http://www.pammc.com/crit.htmhttp://www.sfwa.org/writing/http://www.crayne.com/howcrit.html

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/writing/index.pl?noframes;read=295

http://marilynnbyerly.com/marilynnbyerly/page9l.html

This isn’t the complete list, but it shows a well rounded search from in-depth to chatty “did you think about this” ideas.

I strongly believe your writing life should be run like a career and so, every CP relationship should start out this way, just like a job.

Just like every other aspect of your writing, do the work. Short cuts chop off the borders of your vision where some of the most beautiful details grasp the edges.

If you’re interested in what we came up with specifically or would like to tell us what’s worked (or hasn’t) with your CPing relationships, let us know!

Then, Go Write,

-bria

The first thing I’d like to clear up is the organization. Being organized does not equal being neat.

I have seen many managers who keep a clean desk and are yet the least organized people in the company. Conversely, sometimes the person with the most chaotic office is the most organized.

Here’s the question: Can you find it or do things get lost or slip through the cracks.

The new year comes and people generally want to do one of three things: Lose weight, Get out of debt, or Get Organized.

OK, STOP! Do not rush out to ikea or Staples to purchase every organizing gadget that catches your eye – Filing systems, organizers, sorters, planners. . . .so many fun things. And yet, just because it sells well and looks nice does not mean it’s your friend.

So, how do you get organized?

The first step is to figure out how you work. Let’s take keeping a planner as our example. I have to versions of work habits to rely on depending on what the company I’m consulting with is like.

The first version is your standard Franklin Covey organizing conventions– this is the one most people are familiar with – prioritize your to do list, put it in order, schedule them.

The second version is something called Do It Now. Sounds like it could never work, right? But I’ve worked in environments where I was doing less project work and more coaching/consulting – things turned at the drop of a hat, people waited until issues became emergencies, the company may be international and you know if you don’t talk to that person in Asia now, you aren’t sure when you’ll get another chance.

So, which works best in your environment?

Now, lets talk about spatial organizing? If you hate filing – filing isn’t going to work for you. Some people stack and need little shelves, others file and need an extra cabinet – one of my friends stole a brilliant idea from his auto shop. He clipped all the pertinent info, contacts, timelines, etc for each project with a large binder clip. Then he put stickpins in the wall and hung each project on a stickpin. The next one in line was the next priority. Nothing was lost, nothing fell through the cracks and he kept with my one simple rule:

The Hit By A Bus rule.

I don’t care if my mangers’ offices look like a tornado hit them – if they’re messy and that’s how they get the most done, fine (as long as clients don’t see it.) BUT, if there’s an emergency, the immediate work or contacts must be easily found. I need to know where things stand, what needs to be done, and who to contact.

OK, but what about all this stuff I’ve bought over the years – I don’t want it to go to waste.

A couple years ago I through a party – sorry, I didn’t know you then or I would have invited you. It was a swap party, with a twist.

Everyone had to do a look at their organizing tools, put aside everything that wasn’t working for them, and make a list of what would work for them.

They all joined me for pizza and tool swapping. You had to leave what wasn’t working and you could only take stuff that was on your list – The party was a hit. The success of the new tools was a hit. Everything left over got donated – WHY? Because trying to work with the wrong organizing tools is as useless as trying to fix a car with a plane tool kit – it slows you down and creates more work than it solves.

So, what issues are you struggling with organizing?

Get them out there, out of the way and then Go Write,

-bria

Last week we discussed priorities and how they effect your time and how you manage it. If you haven’t done the 10 min exercise yet, do it HERE.

This week I’d like to talk about Svelting Your Time. Just like you’re body, you want to put good things in to your time - that’s how you enjoy life the most and accomplish what you want. BUT, just like you’re body, we often put things in our time without thought and it leads to the equivalent of a jigglin’ tummy.

OK, take out your priority sheet.

Often the Important List and the Time List don’t line up is because of things beyond our control. For example, no matter how far down the list your job may be, often because of the mandatory hours, it’s number one on the Time List.

Looking at your Time List, circle any priority that is not lining up where you want it to be AND that is movable.

Great! Now let’s look at some ways to get things where we want them.

The first thing I suggest is to print or write up a nice, clean copy of your Time List and put it somewhere you’ll see it early in the day EVERY day.

Mine is typically on a colored index card with an inspirational quote at the bottom. I stick it in the place where my RPM’s are on my dashboard. I can see it when I’m sitting at a light or stopped to talk on the phone. When I get in the car, the flash of color is a reminder to live life by MY priorities, not someone else’s.

Let me ask you a questions: What isn’t on your list?

Is clean house on your list? Well, for most people the answer is no, and yet we spend hours a week cleaning our homes. I am in NO WAY suggesting you live in a pit, but just learning to consolidate your home chores is a great way to gain time:

• Do you sit and talk on the phone, or are you getting mindless things like dusting done
• Does everyone in the house have chores or (at the opposite end of the spectrum) are you the person running behind people picking up after them
• Do you clean as you go
• Do you put something down and have to put it away later or do things go directly to their homes
• How many times do you move unopened mail
• Have you put yourself on the Federal “Do Not Call” list: 1-888-382-1222
• Do you carpool, or are you always the person who drives
• Have you learned how to say know
• If TV isn’t on your list, how many hours do you watch it

Ah, Television. We use the phrase “Time Killer” for a reason. Once that time is gone, it’s never coming back. Let me challenge you to turn the TV off for 3 months - I took this challenge 5 years ago and it changed my life.

Now, I hear you all screaming - What? Give up TV cold turkey? What about Lost? I give myself 1 hour a week unless there’s something special on (special being something I can only see then and never again OR is informative and useful to my writing, life, or career.)

A trick I learned is to unplug my TV. Every time I want to sit and veg, I have to crawl behind the corner consol to plug it back in (that’s where all the dust is living I found out) - Most times it just isn’t worth it.

OK, so you gained a couple mins here and there. But, human nature has us filling it in with more useless time fillers. Don’t let your evil twin steal the time you worked so hard to gain.

Next week I’m going to talk about getting organized to have Time be your companion not your competitor.

Gain a few mins, carry your notebook, and Go Write,
-bria

It’s a new year and I must admit I’ve never loved New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, this year, I’m taking vows. Not holy ones, but one’s to my writing. I challenge everyone to make some vows to their own passions.

I, Bria Quinlan, do solemnly swear to treat my writing as a career and not just a mistress-hobby. I will behave professionally when representing my writing and myself and I will work at it as though I am already being paid.

I will do something every day to further my writing craft, whether it be writing, editing, polishing, learning, thinking or researching.

I understand that, just like any other career, vacations are necessary, and - just like any other career - should be planned for and scheduled ahead of time.

To further my writing as a career and a passion, I will continue to learn by reading authors I respect, craft books and attending classes and conferences.

While I respect the input of others and understand that most people give their input in an attempt to be helpful, not destructive, I will learn when to bend and when to remain faithful to my own words.

This year I vow I will transfer my knowledge of management and time and space organizational skills into a workshop for artists so that others can learn the skills so readily available in the business world.

And finally, my beloved writing, I promise you I will send you off with a faithfully penned query letter to at least ten agents by our anniversary, April 19th, so that you may grow to your greatest potential.

These things I swear.
2008 - a year of promise. What are yours?
-bria

In my non-writing life I do a lot of Management Training (as well as personal and professional growth development and classes) so with the new year upon us, I thought I’d bring a little of that knowledge to this corner of the world.

This is an exercise usually done on the spot - It should take you no more than 12 minutes. To get the most out of it, don’t think too much, just go with what feels right. If you don’t have time to do this now, come back or print it out, but don’t read ahead.

What you need: Pen and Paper - turn the paper horizontal and make 3 columns of 10 rows.

STEP ONE:  In the first column write down the ten most important things in your life right now. Don’t worry about the order, but do try to make them clear. For example:

“Friends” is not a very clear category. What’s a friend versus an acquaintance? Do you mean a close group or a couple of people? Maybe the most important are only your closest two friends even though you love all your friends.

Some other categories I’ve seen: husband, children, faith, learning, exercise, health, writing, work . . . you get the picture -

Your list can have as few as you want, but now more than 10. Play with the list till your comfortable - - - erase / cross-out and rewrite until you’re comfortable with your list.

Once you’ve COMPLETED Step One, move on to Step Two.

STEP TWO:  Now take the list you came up with and put them in order of importance - the top one being most important.

Once you’ve COMPELTED Step Two, move on to Step Three.

STEP THREE: Using the same list, put it in order from what takes up the MOST TIME WEEKLY to the LEAST TIME.

You’ll notice right away that while work may not be near the top of your “Important” list, it may top your “Time” list. This is normal, work is general a set number of hours and that’s part of life, but let’s look at the rest of your list.

What type of trend do you see? If you’re prioritizing your personal life well, the Important list and the Time list will look pretty similar. If they don’t it’s time to ask yourself some tough questions.

What if one of the top things on your Important list is at the bottom of your Time list? This might be where it belongs, but are you sure?

Let’s think about writing as our example - I did this exercise with some writers, not long ago, most of which were moms AND worked outside the home. Right there most of their time belongs to other things. Some of them managed to still have Writing as one of their top 4 on the Time list - I know you won’t be surprised to hear that this group constituted most of the published authors.

As a group, we shared tips and brainstormed other ways to move Writing (and other Important categories) higher on the Time list:

• Writing at games/rehearsals/practices
• Speaking into a digital recorder on your way to pick-up kids
• Keep a notebook in your bag - think your story through while shopping. Write down your notes while standing in line
• Give up Television - Or cut back. When everyone else is involved in your favorite sitcom, that’s 30 minutes of time to write
• Keep a notebook by your bed. One author said the five minutes before she gets up in the morning is often the most productive - her body has quit needing the alarm to wake her now that she’s excited about her morning routine
• Have an accountability partner - how many days in a row can you have an email/phone conversation where you say “I wrote nothing” before you start finding 5 minute chinks of time

One of the first things people ask me when I sit down to teach or discuss time management with them is how I fit in so much more than them. The answer is: “I don’t.” That’s the honest truth. But I have started fitting in more of the right things.

The thing most people don’t understand about Time Management is this, it’s often Priority Management.

To a successful manager, this becomes second nature at work, but she’ll often leave the skill at the office door. If you aren’t clear what your priorities are, then you aren’t sure what to spend time on, then you aren’t sure how to balance that time.

I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m sure everyone reading this is saying, “Yeah, but you don’t know what my day is like.”

You’re right. I don’t. But the honest truth is every person can say that. Life is too short to grudge your way through. If you want to enjoy this one chance we have, know what you want out of life and put it on your list.

I do this exercise myself every 6 months - after the first 2 years, I was pleased to see that prioritizing my life had become more of a habit than a chore. I’m doing more of what I love and less of what I tolerate.

Oh, and book one is done.

In two weeks the Heartlettes will be blogging about Time Management. We’d love to hear your own personal tips.

And then, get organized and Go Write!
-bria