NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS?

I wish I had a dime for every time I have written down resolutions for the New Year; I’m sure I could get new toner for my printer with my booty.
Seriously, how many people do you know that actually follow up on them? I’m sure I don’t! But when you think about it, it makes sense to have goals written down, and as an author it’s even better. If you keep an agenda or a desk calendar, go to the last day of the month and write something like… FINISH CHAPTER AND DO RE-WRITES. It’s not a lot and it may be easier for you to start with something small enough that it won’t turn you off for the remaining of the year.

I have a book about Agatha Christie trivia and one of the stories tells about her compulsion to set goals for herself, and after she died her grandson found one of her agendas in which she had written under the month of May: “Kill someone before page 30”. It’s funny in many ways, but also tells about her methodical mind and how carefully she planned her stories. This also brings us to the detail that Dame Agatha always “killed” someone at the beginning of her stories and the rest of the book revolved about solving that murder. This is also just a bit of trivia for those of us who write whodunits.

Earlier this morning I was writing down family birthdays in my 2010 agenda and thought about goals, so I went to the 30th. of each month and wrote something that I have wanted to accomplish this year. Let’s see how that works…

Is setting goals compulsive or maniacal? Not at all. It’s common sense and it may teach us some very good life rules.
The problem for many is to follow up on those goals. Sigh.

Here’s to you, dear author, with OMNI Book Publishing’s best wishes for a Happy and Prolific year 2010. Cheers!

LEAVE THE DISHES IN THE SINK

Taking time to sit quietly and write is very difficult, unless you live alone, and you are strong enough to ignore the telephone and that loud “bing” that computers do when a new email comes in.
I have been working with an author – married and mother of three – who emails me every month and tells me that “she’s getting there” and would have the manuscript sent to me sooner if she had just two extra hours per day to write. What shall I do?, she asks, just leave the dishes in the sink? I could say many things, but it would all be horse feathers on my part. Who am I, who don’t know my own name before my first cup of coffee, to advise anyone about at what time to write? We are all different and we must do whatever works better for us – not what we read about Mary Higgins Clark, who used to start writing at 5 AM before her children and husband were up – or about Isaac Asimov who apparently had three word processors, each with a story in different stages of completion, and moved from one machine to the next and wrote from a page to ten pages whenever his Muse hit him.
Some people get the writing fever and write, write, write for an entire week or until their fingernails fall off; others are lucky enough to be able to follow schedules and write from 1 – 3 PM when it’s time to start getting cookies and milk out for their kids; others are able to sit down whenever they have a new idea for the book and finish chapters without a billion interruptions. The latter are the ones I envy.
Dean Koonz, an author that I don’t read because I don’t follow his genre but nevertheless recognize his greatness, said in a talk show once that a long time ago he made a rule for himself: he’d write three pages daily no matter what. Those three pages, he explained, will soon become five and then seven because his mind would be already geared towards his theme. I have tried that and it works for me too. It may be more difficult the first few days because all you have in mind is those three pages that you are supposed to be working on, but soon you find out that time indeed flies when you are having fun, and those three pages start multiplying. When you reach the six-pages-per-day goal don’t talk yourself into taking a day off because you are ahead of yourself – just keep typing.
How many times have you heard that “writing is a lonely profession”? It could be, I agree, but we don’t write 24/7, and those hours not used for your writing can be filled with friends, spouses, kids, pets, and you won’t have to leave the dishes in the sink until tomorrow’s breakfast. Just find the time and write. If it’s in you, if you have the nagging feeling that you can do better than the newest blockbuster promoted highly in People’s Magazine and the New York Times, then find the time and leave the dishes in the sink.
Alternatively, you can always get paper plates.

By the way, we at OMNI Book Publishing will be waiting for your phone call regarding the publishing of your book. Our phone is 517-541-2942, or send us an email at omnibookpublishing@att.net