Happy New Year

Greetings everybody. Hope you all had a fun night. We're in the new year. Can you believe it's already 2012? I feel like it went by all two quickly. Maybe it did for the rest of you as well. Anyways, I've got some hefty goals for the next 366 days. Yeah, that's right, it's a leap year. So we have one more day to cram in all of our resolutions. Or one more day to make it a little trickier to meet some of thode other ones. Anyways, here's the best wishes for all of you to make it.

Happy Holidays

The end of 2011 is soon here, but that only means 2012 is right around the corner. Soon many people will be making a bunch of New Year's resolutions, so I want to throw mine out there with the bunch. Far too often, this blog has been neglected by me. It's time to fix that. Here it is then, my New Year's resolution: a minimum of two posts each week. That had ought to give us just over one hundred posts in the next year. I'll try as hard as I might to keep that up.

Also, it's Christmas today, so here's to a happy holidays for all of you out there. I hope you are having a great time with friends and family. With these darker winter days, being with loved ones keep the light on the inside going, so get out and socialize.

What are you still doing here? Call up some old friends and let them know you're still around. Go visit your family while you're at it.

So go, get out of here, but be sure to check back here in the new year.

[WoD] Reward Yourself

Well, it looks like there are only about an hour or so left of November for those of us here in the United States, and that means that many of us will be finishing off with NaNoWriMo. For those of you who have finished, or are still rushing towards the finish lines, make sure to reward yourselves for the job you have just completed. It wasn't an easy one. You just wrote up and over 50,000 words in a month. Congratulations! Now go and do something crazy to celebrate. All of you deserve it! Have fun.

As for me, I didn't quite hit my goal, but I had many things pop up. However, I will try it out again next year, and maybe even try it out in the summer for Camp NaNoWriMo. I want to do it, though I just need the time and the energy to be just right. This month was not that for me this year. Heck, I'm still adjusting to being home. At least I was able to get by with publishing a blog post each day. That's something else I've been trying to do for a while as well. But now that November is over, I think I may go back to taking it easy and only posting a couple times a week instead of everyday. This is exhausting, and I'm barely writing anything compared to what must be streaming out of the fingertips from those of you who were able to complete it. Alright, well, I'm out for the night. See all of you in the near future!

[WoD] Turn Up the Music

We're almost done. And all we need to do now is just push a little bit further. Today's tip isn't going to be a big one at all, but it may help to encourage you to write a little harder here at the end. What is this tiny tip? Turn up the music. That's right. What's your favorite kind of music? Well, what ever it is, just raise the volume today and tomorrow. It's time to celebrate. We've gone nearly a month fighting all of these distractions, so you deserve this one. Go ahead and enjoy yourself. We're almost done.

[WoD] Stop Stressing

What's one of the leading factors of stress out there? I'm going to go ahead and say it's stress. You know the type of stress I'm talking about, like when you have a big project that's not quite finished off and the deadline is right around the corner. Well, that's just normal stress. But it does build up and up and up. That's what we need to be careful with.

With just a couple more days left of November and NaNoWriMo, I want you guys to just take it easy. If you don't get all your 50,000 words in, that's no big deal. You won't be a failure. Think of it this way if you don't finish your novel: you will be that much more closer to having had written a novel than if you wouldn't have participated in the first place.

Go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Good job. Now keep writing. We haven't hit the deadline yet, so there's a good chance you can still finish it on time. Just relax and take a few breaths before you get back to work.

[WoD] Clear Your Mind

There are now only a few days left of writing if you're still in for the month. And if you are beginning to stress out, I have some advice for you. Clear 15 to 20 minutes from your busy schedule and try meditating, or at least try to clear your mind. This older article from NewScientist says that meditation can help the mind perform better.

And not only that, but this article, released from MIT earlier this year, says that meditating can help people tune out distractions and focus on the task at hand. Here's a little snippet from the article:

There are several different types of brain waves that help regulate the flow of information between brain cells, similar to the way that radio stations broadcast at specific frequencies. Alpha waves, the focus of this study, flow through cells in the brain’s cortex, where sensory information is processed. The alpha waves help suppress irrelevant or distracting sensory information.

They tested this on a group of people over an eight week period. And those who stuck with meditation showed more evidence of having alpha waves.

Now, I don't want to tell you how you should start doing this or anything, but if you feel like getting into meditating, you could check out this "How to Get Started with Meditation" guide from Discovery Health.

However, if you want a little bit more for reading, Lifehacker also offers this guide on meditation for the rest of us.

Just give meditation a try. I hope you enjoy it and feel more refreshed coming out of meditating than going in!

[WoD] Exercise for Your Story

Thanksgiving was just a couple of days ago now, so that means that there will definitely be a few of you who are still feasting on leftovers. But, are you exercising any of those extra calories away? It doesn't have to be anything too extensive. It could even be a little walk or jog each day. But exercising doesn't only help in burning away unwanted calories. It also helps in releasing endorphins. Endorphins act a lot like morphine, but they are released within the body, naturally. They make us feel great. And this could be exactly what you need to finish off your story. So, go off and get working away some of the turkey weight. And may it leave you feeling good and greatly satisfied with yourself.

[WoD] Use Leftovers Wisely

Today's the day after Thanksgiving. Also known as Black Friday. I hope you got all of your shopping out of the way if you participated in today. However, that's not what I want to talk about today. Yesterday there was food galore for many of us at our Thanksgiving gatherings, and chances are that you and your loved ones didn't eat everything. That means there are plenty of leftovers. Use them to your advantage. What leftovers mean is less cooking for a couple of days. Just put your food into the microwave and your good to go. And this way, you'll be able to focus a little bit more time on the writing and less on the cooking.

[WoD] Happy Thanksgiving

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I am just returning from a good, long day with much of my family. Also, I hope that all of you had time enough to spend with your loved ones as well. This is a great day for doing that.

And, instead of leaving you with a tip or something for fighting against distractions, today I want to leave you with something to reflect on. Since today is Thanksgiving, or the day for giving thanks, I want you to ponder on the things that you are most thankful for. Now go on and think about that.

[WoD] Divide Up Your Work

There's only about a week of November left, which means that there is only about a week left of writing your novels for NaNoWriMo. Just realizing that now, I notice that the advice I want to give today may seem a little late, but it can still be helpful during this last stress-filled week. Today's advice is to divide up your work. You have to write at least 1,667 words each day to reach the goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Here's what I think though. What if you were to divide up your work into small manageable bits. That would mean writing four four to five hundred word sections each day instead of doing the whole daily allotment in one shot. That large number may seem intimidating to some of you out there, but if you split them up into smaller, more manageable pieces, then it starts to look like a walk in the park. So give it a try  if you feel that writing so much in one setting is too intimidating.

 Also, before I let you all go, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I want to wish all of you who come here a Happy Turkey Day, and to also travel safely and responsibly. That is all. Enjoy the holiday!

[WoD] Resist the Urge to Snap

Thanksgiving is almost here, and everything is just starting to get more and more hectic. Contacting relatives and friends to make plans to do this and that. Planning out where and how to travel. If you're hosting, my hat goes off to you. The level of stress that you are balancing must be nearly unbearable. And put the last portion of a novel into that mix and you must be near the breaking point.

All of us are near that point. And that's what I want to talk about today: the breaking point. This is the area you do not want to cross. Anything beyond the breaking point is where you might accidentally start snapping at people. I know. I've been there and slightly beyond. It's a bit of a rush while you are there in the moment, but it scares those who love you and know you the best, and if you snap now, especially around Thanksgiving, they may begin to reconsider inviting you back for Christmas.

Also, at many of these group gatherings with family and friends, there will oftentimes be one of those people who wants to egg you on. Don't let this person push you over the limit. Lifehacker offers this great advice on handling those pesky people. Check it out. It might save your social life.

[WoD] Do Some Extra Work Before Thanksgiving

Can you believe it? Thanksgiving is just a few short days away. In under seventy hours, those of us in the United States will be sitting around our tables with family and/or friends, enjoying our succulent Thanksgiving turkeys. However, the more time we spend with our loved ones means there will be less time to spend on writing for NaNoWriMo.

What do I say you should do here? Start doing a little extra work now so you can offset some of the work for later. Spend some time with your family and friends. When was the last time you actually hung out with them? If it's been an especially long time, it may be best to start putting in a lot more words now. Why's that? Because you need to get out and see those people. You can still do a little writing if you want to, but really, go enjoy the company of those closest to you.

[WoD] Adjust Your Attitude

It's starting to hit me harder and harder that Thanksgiving is on its way. And It's also around this time that many people start to feel down and out about themselves and the things they do. So this one is aimed towards those of you who are starting to feel a little blue as we head into the holiday season. Why not try to adjust your attitude? If you're getting grumpy or a little sad, why not find a way to cheer yourself up a little bit?

This is an area that is by no means in my expertise, but I do know that changing your attitude can hlep you become more productive. So, instead of me telling you how you could work on it, I'll let these guys take over:

• Three Stupid Ways to Try to Cheer Yourself Up And Three Ways Which Work
• Ten Things You Can Do to Cheer Yourself Up
• 101 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up

[WoD] Go to Sleep

Are you getting enough sleep these hectic days? You'll be writing so much and trying to live your normal life each and everyday, and that doesn't leave enough time to do much sleeping. So, I'll ask the question again. Are you sure you're getting enough sleep? It doesn't have to be too much, but it should be a little bit more than three to five hours. You had ought to be getting around six to eight hours of sleep each night. I know we have less than two weeks of maddening writing left, but try to get your sleep in, too. You'll be in a much healthier state of mind, and may even have less stress, albeit be able to handle it in a much better way.

So, tonight, if you don't get your 1,667 words in, try to make yourself go to bed at a good times anyways. If you're just a few hundred words off, leave them for tomorrow. You can get them then. But you have to get them. So tonight or tomorrow night, depending on when you read this, make sure you go to bed.

[WoD] Get a Change of Scenery

We have less than two weeks now before NaNoWriMo is over. I certainly hope that none of you have been writing the entire time in the same spot. If you have, then it may be time for you to get a change of scenery.

That's right. Try to do your work somewhere else. If you've been doing it at home, try doing it at a café or or a coffee shop in your neighborhood. Or, if the weather is still behaving in your locale, try writing outside, that is, if you have a laptop with a decent battery. And even if you don't have a laptop, you can still try handwriting.

This may not work for some of you, but it does not hurt to give it a try. If your local coffee shop offers outlets for its users, then you're in for the show. Just go there and spend an hour or two working on your novel. You will never know how it affects you until you give it a try. Remember to keep an open mind. Perhaps you'll be even more productive there than at home, writing from your bedroom. And the best part is most of those coffee joints out there make great coffee.

[WoD] Fidgeting to Finish

We're almost two thirds of the way through this crazy adventure, it's it just about now that some of us are starting to get nervous, especially when we're finding when we're a little behind. That's okay. Don't sweat it. Or, maybe I should take that back. You could sweat it a little bit, that is if you do it by fidgeting.

Fidgeting, says PhysOrg, helps children with ADD focus. And if this little thing can help those affected with ADD, it could also help you. Who knows. It may actually be beneficial to the creative process for some people out there. So if you find that you are in a tough spot, just take a break and let yourself fidget a little. Many of us do it without thinking when we're thinking. You know those moments when your mind drifts off into space. Often times, when you drift back, you may realize that your legs were jumping or you were playing with something in your hands. It's only natural.

So, here's the question I want to leave you with today: do you let yourself fidget enough? Do you need something to help you fidget, like a pen? Or is there something else you keep nearby to play with?

If you do find yourself in that kind of situation, just give it a quick little try and see if it works for you.

[WoD] Write Something Else If You Need a Push To Go On

There's only two more weeks left of NaNoWriMo, and by now you may find that you are running out of material to write. Don't worry about it. Just keep writing. However, you don't have to keep writing about the same thing. Why not try to write about something else?

That's right. Write a little bit outside of your NaNoWriMo limit if you find that writer's block has you in the corner. Take your character on another adventure. Or jump into the shoes of one of your minor characters and see if you can see the world through their eyes. This option keeps you within the realm of your story.

You could also write about something else entirely. Try writing a little nonfiction. Or just some stream of conscience writing. That's what this article over at Stepcase Lifehack recommends. It works for me as well. Just writing a bunch to get to what I really want to write.

Or try to find something else. You could be that guy and do your own thing. And that's perfectly okay. Just make sure that you keep writing and stay productive. That's all that matters right now.

[WoD] Write in Bursts

Today's tip is going to be more of a reminder. We're halfway through the month today. That means halfway through NaNoWriMo. So I'm just going to assume that you already have a writing routine down and that you plug away at your words each and every day.

However, for those of you who feel like you may not be doing enough, or even want to do more, there's one thing you can do. Try writing in bursts. Set a timer for a short amount of minutes, like five, ten, fifteen, or twenty, and try to write as much as you can during that period of time. You'd be amazed at the things you think up on the spot. It may seem a little difficult at first, but I promise, over time, you will come to love it.

There's a web/desktop application out there developed by Dr. Wicked called Write or Die. If you are seriously thinking about giving writing in bursts an attempt, I suggest testing it out on this application. You can set word limits, time limits, or both. I usually try to do both. But just give it a try.

If you find that competing is your cup of tea, try going to the NaNoWriMo forums, follow @NaNoWriMoSprint on Twitter, and/or try having a Word War with someone else. This is where you set the timer and just write as much as possible in the amount of time set and who ever writes more is the winner. It's pretty fun. Just try not to procrastinate too much in the process.

[WoD] Jump Around!

We're in the middle of November now, and that means some of us have started hitting that rough patch and now we're losing steam fast. That's why I've been putting up as many of the energy helping posts as I can. I know I'm losing steam, so there's bound to be others out there with me.

Anyways, here's a little bit of advice for today. Jump around. I know I've said you should change your body position earlier this month, but now I want you to get up and shake your body. It'll loosen you up a little bit and get you a pinch of added crazy to get some of that writing that needs to get done... done.

If you find yourself slowing down for some odd reason that you can't fathom, try standing up and hopping up and down a couple of times. It'll get some of the blood flowing through your body and get a little bit more going up to your brain. That way the brain can get the tasty food you're eating for it.

Just get up and give it a try.

[WoD] Brighten Up Your Day

Are you starting to feel a little blue or is all the writing you are now doing for NaNoWriMo getting putting you under the weather? I have some advice for you then. Try to dress yourself and your environment up in bright colors. Yes, that's right. Brighten up your day with bright colors wherever you go. I was feeling a little blue yesterday because I was wearing darker colors, but today with these bright orange shirts I'm wearing, I am feeling quite lively.

So give that a try. Change your computer's wallpaper to a bright color that flashes out to your eyes. It might spark something deep inside your psyche that you didn't even know was there and could give you that extra inspiration you were previously looking for.

[WoD] Clean Up Your Clutter

We are now past a third of the way into the month of November, and if you've been writing for NaNoWriMo, chances are you've been too busy to clean away at some of the clutter around your work station or even your house for that matter. And that isn't good towards your productivity. It can slow you down and make you less efficient. That's why you should take one little break this weekend to clear out some some of the clutter around your work station.

Just do it in small little bursts, cleaning for ten minutes or so at a time and you'll be sure to get it all done in the long haul.

[WoD] Cold Water

Do you feel like you need a quick boost of energy? Walk over to the closest water faucet and pour yourself a glass.

Is it necessary for you to stay up later at night or wake up faster early in the morning? Try taking a cold water shower. However, I wouldn't make it too cold. It could put you into a shock. As long as it's cold enough to wake you up. This is what I used to do when I had to pull an all-nighter in college.

Even splashing some cold water in your face could aid you.

Water is a natural energizer. Not lot coffee that will give you a giant boost of energy, then an even larger crash. And also, unlike caffeine, with water, you're hydrating yourself. This is especially important as the weather gets dryer.

But definitely drink several glasses of the stuff everyday. You'll stay healthy and get a little more energy than you are maybe used to.

[WoD] Take a Break

We're ten days into NaNoWriMo now, and that means that we just passed the one third mark. How does it feel to be a third done with your novel? Pretty good? Or are you becoming your novel's slave? Make sure you don't let that happen. It only leads to stress and more stress and then eventually panic. And there's a way to prevent that though. Take breaks occasionally and let your brain cool off. It may be receiving a larger workload than it is accustomed to.

And if you are stressing out, there was a great article over at Lifehacker today that you should check out. The article mentions some of the best methods to prevent and deal with stress, which could be considered a distant cousin of distraction, at least in my book.

Even if you aren't stressing out, you should take breaks. Not for that long. Just ten to fifteen minutes. Or play a quick round of a video game that you like or something. As long as it's not that long, you should be ok. Once in a while you may find that distracting your brain just for a little while can be beneficial in the long run.

[WoD] Brain Food

Last week I talked about eating healthy. Today I want to follow along that line. Continue to keep eating, but start eating food for your brain, too. You're going to be using it a lot more now, and you will be needing more use of the gray matter was the days go on.

The blog Stepcase Lifehack offers some ideas on eating for productivity. They mention some foods for eating certain foods for eating at breakfast and lunch to fuel you for the rest of the day. Check it out for more information.

Some other things too eat for your brain are nuts and oily fish. Certain nuts and most fish contain omega-3 acids, which are great for the nervous system.

Here's a list of 10 brain foods over at BBC's Good Food. Try including some of these foods into your diet, just in case you aren't doing so already. We need to start nourishing our brains. Our stories may depend on it.

[WoD] Find a Group

Today is Election Day here in the United States. And I promise, this is going to get tied into NaNoWriMo some how. Election Day is the first Tuesday in November, every year. That's the day voters go in and vote for their cities, counties, states, and national governments. Not each of them every year, but there will always be something to vote for.

People tend to vote along a certain line. A person who is more liberal will tend to vote Democrat and a person who is more conservative will tend to vote Republican. Nothing new to that. It's just the way it usually works out. They get the person they want in office by working in groups, inside and outside of the voter booth. Inside, they'll simply vote for their candidate, but outside, they can do numerous things, the largest of which would be campaigning. Each of them has to vote, but to ensure that their goals get fulfilled, they come together and work as a team.

And we could try to take that spirit into NaNoWriMo. Find a group somewhere that can push you into writing more than you think you can. It could be a write-in somewhere in your town, or even in an online community, like the forums over at NaNoWriMo. Just something to keep you motivated and writing. They won't be able to do any of the writing for you, but they can yell at you and encourage you to put fingers to keys in other ways as well. If you find yourself falling back and in need of some positive and negative encouragement, that's what you need to do. Seeing how hard others are working could rub off on you. It works on me. Now get back to writing!

[WoD] Talk Out Loud

It's monday already and I want to talk to you about something that might make you seem a little crazy. You should try to talk to yourself. And I don't mean just a little mumbling, but I mean have a full on speech with yourself. You know how some literature out there just begs to be read out loud. Go grab a copy of Frankenstein and try it if you don't believe me. A lot of older stories are written in that manner. What if yours is the same way? What if it wants you to read it out loud? Just try it. Think out loud while you write the next portion of your story and see what happens. It starts to develop its own little flow. Maybe it follows your spoken voice a little bit more than your writing voice. It's just a little something to try.

Another thing about speaking out loud is that it could help your brain in other ways. There have been studies that say speaking out loud is great for your memory. It helps you remember stuff. So, if you need to memorize something sometime, give it a try then as well. I'd recommend doing it alone, of course, but if you want others to start thinking you are indeed crazy, you could try speaking to yourself in big crowds on the street. That's always fun, too.

That's the advice for the day. Let your spoken voice help you think. Think out loud, even if you do it just for a day or two. I'm telling you, it will help immensely. Go ahead and try it if you don't believe me.

[WoD] Start Scheduling

Sunday has come again, and what does that mean? It's the start of a new week. And it's time to put that routine you've been getting into to work. Let's use it to start figuring out our schedules. You already know when you are most productive. Now you just have to use that knowledge to good purpose and write during those times you are most productive, yet also make sure that you have time to write during those periods. Or just make sure you have time to write in general.

It works best if you take a few moments in the morning to schedule out the rest of your day. Unless you are an extremely spontaneous person, you should know what you are doing for the day. It's a good practice even if you aren't doing the whole writing thing. Get a planner or just write it down in a to-do list kind of way. And if you're not a morning person, you could even work on doing this type of stuff the night before.

Schedule in the important tasks first. You know, like work, chores, and the other things you need to do throughout the day. Once you have the big blocks out of the way, you can work on the fun stuff and put in the other things you should be doing and want to do. Try to write around the big things. Or in between them if you can. Try writing in little chunks in the day if you have to. Or wait until a special time to get it all out of the way at once.

But the important thing to do is to schedule in some time for writing. You need to get it done, and so do I. So let's find some time and get to work. Until tomorrow, I'm out.

[WoD] Stop Researching and Write Already

Saturday has come and it is now nearly gone. By today, we should have around 8,333 words done and and down. I certainly hope you guys are doing better than me. I'm only at 3,100 right now. I need to start kicking my butt and getting some work done. Which leads me to today's advice.

Stop researching and start writing already! Don't worry about the facts. We're writing fiction. Get the story out of the way for now. NaNoWriMo limits the time you have to get all your words in. You can come back and fact check later. There's plenty of time for that after the month.

Right now, what you need to do, is start putting in some sort of keyword in the areas you want to do some research for when you search for it later later. And put the keyword(s) up at top as a reminder so you know what to look for when researching and editing.

But it's not time for editing now. Now, we need to guess and make assumptions. There's nothing wrong about making assumptions now. Yes, I've heard people say people say, "You know what they say about assuming: it makes an ass out of you and me." But that's when you make assumptions about people. It's perfectly fine to make them when writing fiction.

So, for now, stop researching. Or only do it when you have spare time, or when you'r done for the day. Scratch the middle part: only when you are done for the day. Researching is a way of procrastination sometimes, at least it is for me. Let's just get our work done and out of the way for the day and then we can do our research and editing. But until then, let's keep forging ahead!

[WoD] Make It a Routine

If you're still with me, we're four days into NaNoWriMo now. Are you writing everyday? Are you writing around the same amount each day? Do you write at certain times each day? Do you write a certain amount when you write at those time? If so, you have found your routine, and you should consider yourself lucky. For those of us who haven't found it yet, we still have time.

Some people work better with them while others can get more done without them, but I find having a routine makes me more productive. There's just something about them. I get used to doing a specific task at a specific time, and my body just wants to keep doing it then. It's a lot like sleeping. After a going to sleep and waking up at the same time for a while, sooner or later you can do it without alarm clock. It's just something the body wants us to do.

But our routines are something that we need to test and grow. Are you a morning person? Do most of your writing in the morning then. Night owl? Then attempt to do it in the evening before bed. Also, try doing it at different times throughout the day. You might think that you're a night owl, but that you can get a lot more done in the morning than you thought. Or maybe you think that you're  morning person, but your brain is most active at night before bed. You'll never know if you don't give it a try.

Yes, I know. It's very a cookie cutter thing to do. Maybe it kills the creative process by not allowing enough spontaneity in a person's life. But it is helpful by bringing substance, by sitting them down at certain times and cranking out so many words in a set amount of time.

A routine is a habit. They need around a month or so to grow in intensity into something you do everyday without thinking, but only one day to bring it crashing to a halt. So try to keep writing each and every day you can. It doesn't have to be the full 1,667 words. If you even get in 500 words, that's more than nothing. And it keeps you in the habit of doing it. Try to make it routine if you can, but try not to break the chain.

[WoD] Change Body Position

Day three! Hope your hitting your words. Are you in the 5000-6000 range yet? Have some of you gotten more than 7000? Congrats if you have. Keep up the good work! I'm at 2,670. Falling a little behind, but it happens. The weekend is right around the corner. Anyways, this is a War on Distraction post, so let's focus on that. My advice for today is to change your body position. Don't sit in same position too long. Get up once in a while, and do some stretching.

We're all going to be sitting at typing a lot in the days to come, and sitting for too long can be bad for our bodies. So just get up once in a while and stretch if you can. Rather then telling you how to stretch, it might just be easier for you and me if I link you over to an article at Lifehacker about stretching in the office.

If your body doesn't tell you when it wants to get up, or you are used to sitting for long periods of time, maybe set a timer to remind yourself to get up stand up every half hour or hour. Or, in the case of NaNoWriMo, try to stand up for every 300-400 words you write (unless, of course, you are on a roll, and in that case, just keep on going until the muse fades away).

Another trick to try is writing in different positions. If you have a laptop, you can change positions. Try at a desk, in your lap, or even try laying down on your belly and try it. maybe not write as fast, but maybe you think better. You'll never know unless you try. But as long as you don't keep yourself in the same position too long. That's all that matters now.

Good luck with the writing. Keep going, and if you're behind like me, we need to start getting caught up while we can.

[WoD] Eat Healthy

We're already on the second day in. Let's hope you guys are all doing better than me. I don't feel like I'm doing so will with hitting my word count, at least not for starting off. I only got one thousand words in for my novel yesterday, and I just didn't like how I started it. But I plan on changing that up a bit today and am already well on my way to fixing it. It's going to be a long month, and there will be lots of time to catch up.

Enough of that. Let's get back to the War on Distraction. There are soldiers in wars, and in this war you are one of them. But in order to fight properly, we need to be fit. Are you living healthy? It's November. It's getting colder. Heck, there's even snow already here in Iowa. As the month progresses, you're going to start to get stressed out. It happens. This is a busy month. But if we focus on our health just a tiny, minuscule bit each day, we'll be living healthier and be in better shape for fighting the good fight. That's why today, I want to remind you to eat healthy.

[WoD] Keep Track of Your Progress

Welcome to November! It's NaNoWriMo time. Hope your hitting your word counts and still fighting the war against distraction with me. Continuing in that line, the first piece of advice for this month is to keep track of your progress. Doing so will allow you see how you've done in the previous days and it could give you the momentum to keep going.

[WoD] Got Everything?

From my time zone, NaNoWriMo begins in a short eight hours. So today, I, and if you're with me, we, should be making sure that we have everything and that everything is in place. Just some physical and mental preparation for the next "30 days of literary abandonment." Over the next few hours, we all need ask ourselves questions and quickly get those answers.

[WoD] Outsource Some of Your Chores

We're just about a day away from entering NaNoWriMo season, and we will all face the same basic problem: there's just not enough time to get everything done. So today I want to take a page from the playbook of the business world. Let's look at taking some of the burden off ourselves. Try outsourcing. Businesses use it to save time and money everyday, and if you use it wisely, you can too.

[WoD] Give Your Little Monsters a Distraction or Two

Here's my final piece of advice for those of you with young kids out there, just in case family quiet hour doesn't work out or you're unable to find someone to babysit for you: give your kids a distraction. Something that can keep them busy and safe for an hour or two.

[WoD] Get Rid of the Kids for a Night

Here's another one for those of you with kids. Maybe the family quiet time isn't working out so much. Those little runts just want to keep playing, but that's the nature of kids. So why not send them away for a night. You could always hire a babysitter for a few hours a week and get your work done then.

Perhaps getting a babysitter might cost too much. So there's another thing you could do. Do you have any other friends with kids who are doing NaNoWriMo? Maybe you could have them watch your kids on one or two nights a week to get a bunch accomplished. But it would only be fair to watch their kids so as to return the favor and help them reach their goals as well.

Kids or not, to all of you out there, happy preparations! We're almost there!

[WoD] Be the Early Bird

As the fall progresses, days are just going to get busier and busier. And that means there's going to be a lot less time to accomplish much of anything. But there's one simple thing to cure this. Why not try to get a little bit more out of the way in the morning? It's the best time! I'm not talking about getting it all done, but sitting down and working can certainly help. And the best thing about it is that once you get going in the morning, it builds up such momentum that you will want to keep going throughout the day.

I've been trying to do this myself. Writing in my daily quota over at 750 Words in the morning is really awesome. And I plan on carrying the habit into November for NaNoWriMo. Even getting just those 750 words out of the way is nearly halfway there. Think about it this way: If you write just those 750 words in the morning, you won't even notice the work you have to do in the evening. Well, maybe you'll notice it, but it's a lot less work than you would have to do otherwise.

[WoD] Give Yourself Rewards

Yesterday, I wrote about punishments, and I promised to talk about rewards today for my War on Distraction and journey towards NaNoWriMo. So let's jump right in. Rewards are probably even more important than any of the punishments you set up. Remember this. You'll want to have more rewards than punishments.


So let's talk about some different levels of rewarding yourself. First, you should try to reward yourself for writing so many words in a single setting. A simple reward for a simple goal. I plan on stocking up on some Halloween candy and giving myself a little bit every time I write 900-1200 (or even more) words in one setting. That's close to half of a day's writing.


Moving up a level, you will next want to reward yourself for reaching your daily goal. Allow yourself a distraction or two. Watch an episode or two of a TV show you enjoy. You're done writing for the day, so you should really enjoy the rest of it.


Do something bigger when you reach the weekend quota. Go out to a movie or visit the bookstore and buy a book. You deserve it.


The reward for reaching 50,000 or more will have to be huge. It's time to take a break. Find something big for this. Throw yourself a little party. Go crazy. You just finished a huge task. Congratulations!


Create a list of your punishments and rewards. If you want you can print them out and hang them somewhere you'll see everyday. Use it as your driving force.


Let me reiterate this from yesterday: you need to be creative here. This is your carrot. And you are the donkey. Just try not to be as stubborn as one. You can do this. You just need to push yourself.

[WoD] Punish Yourself

A week from today is November 1st. That's the beginning of NaNoWriMo. It's just a week away! We need to start conditioning ourselves if we think we're going to be in any shape for writing that much each day for a whole month. So let's talk about some punishments today. (Rewards come tomorrow).

[Poetry] Silent Voices

I've been wanting to jump in over at Carry On Tuesday for a while now, and the prompt for today finally got me which was the line "...sitting alone listening to the silence..." from 'A letter to P'ie Ti ' by the 8th century High Tang poet Wang We.It's just a little bit of poetry.

To Defenestrate a Codex, Pt. 4

Here's the fourth part in a series. This one was inspired by today's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. The words in bold were the challenge words.

[WoD] Find Your Rhythm and Start Pacing Yourself

NaNoWriMo begins in a week now and it's not too late to start preparing for it. Starting today, let's start getting into the flow of writing. And we're going to do that by pacing ourselves. First, you'll need to find your rhythm in which you write. How to do this? The most basic way would be to set a timer for fifteen minutes and just start writing. Write anything that comes to your mind, and just keep going until those fifteen minutes are up. What do you have when you get finished? Are you a typing writing whiz? Or do you feel that you still need to work on your pacing? It's ok either way. Just keep going. When in those fifteen minutes do you feel like you got the most writing done? If it was more towards the front of those fifteen minutes, maybe it would be easier for you to write a few more shorter bits throughout the day. Did it feel you could have kept going once the bell rang? If this was the case, you should try to write for a longer the next time. 


Another thing to try is writing at different times each day. Do you write faster in the morning that at night, or are you better in the middle of the day? It's not a bad idea to find when you're most productive. For me, it seems to be at night, though that might be I tend to procrastinate my duties off until the last minute. (I need to start waking up earlier, perhaps, just to see how I am in the mornings. Somehow, not so long ago, I used to be a morning person. What happened to that dude?)
A great bit of software for trying this out is Write or Die. You can either use it for free online or download a version for your desktop. In both versions, you can set your word goal. The main difference between the versions is that the online version provides you with a list of options for your time limit whereas you set your own in the desktop version. I prefer the desktop version just because I like setting my own time, especially for the times I just want to write for a quick five minutes (which is not an option with the online version). What I love about Write or Die, and you can do this in both versions, is that there is a bar for the words you've typed and the amount of time you have left: just set a word goal and a time limit and race away! (Doing it this way, I make a lot of mistakes, but I've learned to kill my inner-editor through this process.)
What we're doing now is just getting ourselves into the habit of writing, so when the time comes, we won't burn out quite as fast. It's a lot like exercising. You need to work up to where you want to be. You just can't start doing it and expect to left 250 pounds. No, you work on it over a period of weeks or months. Well, we've only got a week left until the marathon month. Just write more and more everyday. It's never too late to start training.

[WoD] Zen Moment

I've recently started to read Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings. A lot of the ideas discussed in the book deal with fighting and warriors. Musashi was in medieval Japan's samurai class after all. But after some pondering, I came to realize that many of the topics he discusses can be applied to fighting distraction as well. Take this excerpt for example:

The Way of battles is the same for man to man fights and for ten thousand a side battles. You must appreciate that spirit can become big or small. What is big is easy to perceive: what is small is difficult to perceive. In short, it is difficult for large numbers of men to change position, so their movements can be easily predicted. An individual can easily change his mind, so his movements are difficult to predict.

[Poetry] My Backyard Has Changed

A few days ago, I saw this prompt over at Sunday Scribblings and decided that I should finally jump in. At first, I was thinking about doing a short piece of fiction, but the muse changed. I started thinking about my personal life and the multiple backyards I had through my childhood. What came up on the screen just seemed to pour out. Not true poetry with rhyming couplets or anything. Just a little heartfelt piece. Well, anyways, enough of me blabbering. Here it is for your enjoyment.

[WoD] An Outline: Your Story's Roadmap?

The other day, I discussed building form and structure for a project, for giving your ideas more fluff and making them more concrete so they're easier to work with. With this being Saturday, I don't feel like writing too much. But I do plan on leaving you with quite a bit of reading material. 

Today's focus will be on plotting out your story from point A to point B and further down the road. How it happens is all up to you. There are multiple methods, so try not to feel stuck with doing any one option. If you're planning on "competing" in NaNoWriMo this year, you'll need to get from the beginning to the end somehow or another.

[WoD] Your Phone: The Tool and the Distraction

Cell phones are everywhere today. Here in the US, there may even be more people who have them than not. They've been around for decades now, and they keep advancing. One of the things cell phones have evolved into are smart phones. These are phones with operating systems. They're tiny, pocket-sized computers. And they set us in a different ball park today. If you've got a smart phone, I've got some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that your phone is a great tool. It can be used for a great many things. You can even multitask on your phone!

[WoD] Build Yourself Some Form and Structure

For this post in the series on my War on Distraction, I want to talk about giving your project, whatever it may be, some form and structure. Why do I want to do that? Because what I've learned from my own experience. Do you ever feel like your ideas are just floating around in an obliquitous pool of goo somewhere in the depths of your mind? I feel like that all the time. If you haven't noticed from my writing, my thoughts are all over the place. But what they need most is some form of focus. It may not make them real, but it will aid in giving them some form to better look at them.


But how do we go about giving our thoughts form? I'm not talking about physical form, but doing something so that it's easier to see and think through an idea thoroughly. Something so simple as writing down your thoughts should suffice. Write down new thoughts every day. Try to find at least ten new ideas each day starting now. Write them down in a journal. If you already have it down, don't pen it to paper again. Just new ideas. But be sure to look back at old ideas. Old ideas spark new ideas. They seem to be very organic in that matter.

To Defenestrate a Codex, Pt. 3

Here's part three of a story inspired by the prompts over at Creative Copy Challenge. This part is inspired by Challenge 186. The words in bold are the challenge words.

To Defenestrate a Codex, Pt. 2

I'm kind of late in getting this posted. But here's a continuation of a story with inspiration from Monday's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge.

[WoD] Plan Ahead

Today I want to discuss something that I ought to work on myself.And that's planning. There's a lot of stuff going on that is out of our hands. However, there's quite a bit of stuff that we can manage ourselves, and with a bit of planning, we can try to wrestle with it and get it all under control.

I firstly want to point out that this should be taken as ambiguous advice. Take it and make it mean whatever you want it to mean. If you would rather not plan out that much, go ahead and be adventurous. If you want to be an organizational robot, go ahead and try that too. I'm hoping to find a spot somewhere in the middle where I can have some wiggle room for myself.

Let's look at the stuff that's out of our hands. Work is probably one of the biggest things to plan around. But you do know when you work, and you know when you don't. You can't just stop and say "I'm not going into work today." Well, you can if you work for yourself or have a very friendly boss, but not all of us are that lucky.

[WoD] Your Time Is Money

*Almost didn't have time to get this one up. Poor time management on my part. Anyways, here's the post.

Earlier this week I read an article over at OnePageOnly's bog titled Fighting distractions the unconventional way. I was really taken away by one of the ideas:

1)      Bill yourself

You might know a nasty little thing called an opportunity cost. The idea is simple: by choosing to invest your time in something, you lose whatever you could earn by using your time on productive work. Now, I want you to go ahead and count how much money you lose from all your little distractions.

From now on, whenever you start to browse the web or check your Facebook, track the time you’ve used. At the end of the day, multiply it by the amount you’re getting per hour. And here you go. If you’re anything like me, the sites with technology news, Facebook and forums take up a big chunk of your billable hours. Now think about it – would you really pay $20-$30 to see a photo of someone’s dog in a funny hat, and to read about your friend’s hangover? Of course not. Was this forum quarrel really worth the total of $40 you invested over the course of several days? Didn’t think so.

From now on, always keep in the back of your mind that time is money. Every Facebook joyride and each Reddit binge session come with a bill attached.

I might have to try this idea for myself. Like I said yesterday, I'm going to try to limit my time social networking to only an hour a day. So any extra time spent on those sites, I'm going to have to write down and I'll tally up my opportunity costs. Right now it isn't looking like it's going to be too pretty as I've been spending a lot of time on those sites lately. The amount of money that pops up might surprise me.

[WoD] Big Distractor #2: Sinful Social Network Sites

Yes, you read the title correctly. Social network sites are full of sin. They steal a great deal of time away from me (and maybe you as well). When I get into them, I just get carried away, and I could easily spend hours jumping from one to another to another and back again. They’re great for procrastinating. However, they are not quite so helpful when you need to get any actual work done. Since I’m taking on distractions this month, this has to be on my list. And it’s on spot number two. Right next to television. 

[ShortFiction] The Sniper and the Librarian

I saw this prompt over at BeKindRewrite and thought it was too awesome to pass up. It's just a short little piece, so I hope you enjoy!

[WoD] Big Distractor #1: Television

Television might be a great place for inspiration and ideas in writing. It's even a great place to listen in for dialogue. However too much of a good thing can be a good thing. That's why it's my Big Distractor #1.

How many hours of TV do you watch in a week? Add in hours watching movies and also television and movies you watch online.

• 5-10?
• 11-17?
• 18-26?
• Beyond?

[WoD] Needs vs. Wants

Today's topic is about needs versus wants. What does this have to do with distractions you may ask. That's simple. Needs are the necessities in life, the things necessary to survive. Wants are just that. Stuff you desire. Sure, they would be nice to have, however you don't need them.


Put like that, it sounds awfully simplistic. I know. That's the way I like it. And we need to keep it like that because distractions themselves are very simple: either they win our attention or lose our attention. A great way to to explore this is to examine our own deepest desires and how they affect our attention.

One More Announcement Today

I've been thinking about doing it for the last couple of years and haven't really forced myself to do it. Yeah, I never even began. But this year I'm going to put everything out on the line. There's 17 days between  the first of November and now. I need to start exercising my willpower's muscles and using everything I'm learning from my little war on distraction.

This is going to be a tough little experiment, although, if I live through it, I will know that I can survive almost any big project. I'm ready for it. Bring on the pain!

War On Distraction: Introduction

Earlier today I declared war on distractions. Well, maybe I didn't declare war, but I do want to learn to deal with distractions in a better way. And that's what I want to do here: learning in the open. 

So here's an announcement. Starting tomorrow, I'll be dropping off a post everyday on a new way I find to deal with distractions. As of now, I don't know how long it will go for. Perhaps around a month? I have a little list I wrote, but if I can keep it going longer than that, I will try. 

Distractions

 You may have noticed that I've been missing from cyberspace for a few weeks. My excuse, the distractions were just too much. In my inspired post to yesterday's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge, I actually started out with an apology for missing so long:

*Missed coming here for a while. I think it’s actually harder to write at home than when I was abroad. Need to get away from here I guess.

To Defenestrate a Codex

Looks like I've been gone for a while. I guess you could say I took an unintentional break from writing in that time. I need to start finding a schedule and routine for doing this stuff again. It's important to me, and as such, I had ought to make time to do it everyday just to make it a habit.

Anyways, here's a little something inspired by today's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. Hope you enjoy!

Feelings of Mayberry

Here's a little something from Monday's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. Words in bold are the challenge words in the prompt. If you feel like feeding your muse a little, just hop on in! It's every Monday and Thursday.

The Regretted Job

This is my piece of prose based on today's challenge words over at Creative Copy Challenge. The words in bold were posted today. Be sure to check out the site and challenge yourself. Join the community and the fun!

Soccer Riots

It's been a while since I've done this one, but here's a post for yesterday's Thursday Tales picture prompt. This week's story is centered around a soccer match. Hope you guys enjoy!

Meeting a New Old Goal

I had this up on Twitter yesterday, but I suppose I might as well announce this here: I'm using 750words.com to try to keep a goal for myself. That goal is to write at least one thousand words a day. With writing seven hundred and fifty words, another two hundred should be nothing.

Under the Sinister Sunlight

(I'm still trying to get back into the habit of writing everyday. Being home again is nice, but it comes with a lot more distractions than I was hoping. Anyways, here's my response to today's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. The challenge words are found in bold. Give CCC a visit. It's a fun little place to hang out for a few minutes on Mondays and Thursdays.)

Under the sinister sunlight in the American southwest, a man scoured the desert ruins in hoping of finding something, anything, which would give proof of them being there. He had heard the natives believed in an intelligence not of this world. If they hadn't come from here, where, then, were they from? What message were they trying to leave behind? Why did they choose to come here, to this purgatory on Earth? One didn't have to go far to find a true paradise. Maybe they were searching for some balance. Perhaps they wanted to show the natives they could live here as well. All that was left here now were the remains of the natives and the influence of these ghost-people who were not people. If only he could find something covered by time which would trace back to them. But that is the greatest tragedy of all. Time was his enemy. She covered and decayed what previous generations have left for us. It was as if time held a grudge against him for living only in the present, for she lived in the past and future as well. But as an archeologist, he had learned to see through time how these people had themselves lived in their own present. It had become somewhat of an art for him. It taught him many things. What this and that finding were used for. What that drawing signified. Even why they used certain pottery more than others. However, his greatest lesson through time is this: If anything should survive generation to generation, it will be enduring love. Technology and religion get lost in time, but love of family and friends is timeless.

Finished Resolution

(I'm back. Here's my response to today's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. It's a little lame, but the words were tough. Again, the challenge words are found in bold. Give it a visit. It's a fun little place to visit on Mondays and Thursdays.)

With the resolution finished, the arbitration could finally dissolve. Regulations on masterbationwould limit the amounted of members admitted into the program, but the matriculation could now carry on. Previous saturation of entries into the program had worried administrators, and theexacerbation of complaints of those not admitted led to the stimulation for need of a resolution on those with a fixation on masterbation. And the negative personification of the arbitration gave much elation to many of those denied admission.

Traveling

I'm going to be traveling around a little bit in the next few weeks, so I don't really know how often I'm going to be able to post here and eave random stories around the internet. But only time will tell and we'll just have to sit through it then. I'll try to keep you guys up to date of where I am and what I'm doing. I'm thinking about just hanging out in Scandinavia plus Germany (although many consider it to be part of Scandinavia). But anyways, let's get to some questions you're all probably dying to know.

How's everything going?
It's hectic over here. I'm still awake at 1:00AM central European time. Packing up all the belongings I brought and bought here over the course of ten months. Lots of memories. Lots to throw away. Lots I want to keep and probably shouldn't.
That plus working everyday from 6:30 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. It's not hard work, but it's just time consuming. I have been wanting to do my own little thing, but with having limited internet and limited time, everything's become a lot more of a challenge.
I'll try to keep writing, but I'll be posting a lot more infrequently. I hope to get some stuff edited and posted for #thursdaytales over at the io9 forums. Maybe a short story or two that I can try to get published in a couple of magazines. I'll try to keep up with Roger and his box over at CCC, but I feel like I'm starting to lose some steam on that project. I'll try to find the juices once again though. They're somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, as are the ideas for many other stories. I just have to release the flood gates and let them out.

Do you know where you're going?
I'm not set on any set itinerary, but I can say that I know where want to be in this next month. Tomorrow I leave for Stockholm via the train. Stay there a few days. Then fly to Oslo and visit a friend in southeastern Norway for a few days. After that, work my way towards Berlin where I have been invited to visit another friend. I hope to see a lot and find a lot of inspiration on my travels.

When are you going home?
I'll be home (in the States) mid-August.

What are you doing when you get back to the States?
Good question! As of now, I don't have any concrete plans once I get back. Need to start working on those. Need to find an apartment. Need to find a job. Need to find myself again.

Roger's Box, Episode 9

(Finally got myself caught up with the prompts over at Creative Copy Challenge. Here's a little bit for this last Thursday's prompt. Things are getting messy and confusing, but I hope to clear up some of that mess in the following episodes. Hope you guys enjoy!)

Roger's Box, Episode 8

(Catching up on with the prompts over at Creative Copy Challenge. Here's a little bit for last Monday's prompt. Katie learns a little bit more, and things start to get a little messy. Hope you guys enjoy!)

Roger's Box, Episode 7

(Still trying to catch up on with the prompts over at Creative Copy Challenge. Here's a little bit for last Thursday's prompt. Katie gets her drink, and Roger tells more about the box. Hope you guys enjoy!)

Short Stories!

I've been looking around the web for some stories from the last week or two and happened upon a few of them that I thought were really good. They are written different styles. And each of them are telling a different story. They don't take a lot of time to read, so take a break, enjoy the weekend, and enjoy a couple of short humorous stories.

New Idea for Creating Characters Out of Thin Air

Something strange has occurred recently to me. Let's call it Writer's Block (although it's probably more akin to procrastination from an overdose of stress). And, as we all know, Writer's Block comes as monsters in all shapes and sizes, not just the cube with eyeballs I usually vision it to be. The little monster dangling around my neck of late roadblocked the way I conjure up characters. Some would say that's horrible. I, however, would disagree. It has forced me to find an alternative to my classic way. And this may actually be a turning point for me as a fiction writer.

Roger's Box, Episode 6

(So, I'm trying to catch up on with the prompts over at Creative Copy Challenge. Here's a little bit for Monday's prompt. Things are just getting stranger and stranger with Roger's box. Hope you guys enjoy!)

Roger's Box, Episode 5

Really late with this one, my apologies. But here's my response to last Thursday's prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. Hope you all enjoy!

My Good Excuse

I have a good excuse this time. I've been at a camp in Stockholm since Wednesday. It snuck up on me and I forgot to leave you guys a little memo here. My apologies. Stick around this week. The boring old routines are about to return, so there will be a lot more writings to come.

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Roger's Box, Episode 4

(Episode four of Roger's Box. I'm either a day late or a few hours late in writing this. I guess it all depends on where you are in the world. But I wrote this up for yesterday's writing prompt over at Creative Copy Challenge. Hope you guys are getting more and more curious about what's in the box, or what the box even is. Right now, we're still finding out about what the mechanical box is and how Roger even got his hands on it. So far we know it comes from NefariCorps. And Roger and Katie are there right now. Let's go join them and find out more about the story.)

Alas, My Lazy Day Hath Come!

Matt here, and letting you all know I have ideas for a couple of webfic serials churning themselves about in my mind. I haven't thought of either idea for a couple of days, but they're still there, somewhere locked behind a door in the labyrinth of my consciousness. Usually I forget things like that. So perhaps this is a sign that I should continue on with these ideas, hopefully opening one up tomorrow, and planning it out, at least for a couple of weeks.

And, as I have written in the title of this post, today is a self-stated lazy day. I set aside today to read a bunch of short fiction, both old and new, to inspire myself towards something and want to get back into the rhythm of writing. For the last month it has been far too easy to listen to my friends beckoning of attention rather than listen to the creative being which resides here inside of myself. It's time now for more writing and better time management on my part.

But from here on out I make the promise of trying to write a little bit more and post it here for all to reas. And I'll try to keep doing it conistently as well (i.e. Mondays and Thursdays with CCC, bringing back Fiction Fridays, #thursdaytales/#saturdayshortstories over at io9, and Thursday Tales inspired by pictures). So, if any of you notice me slipping back into this lazy stage, I ask of you to help me by sending me a little message of encouragement (or even a rant to kick my butt back into shape).

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