Writers Unbound

These Are Worth Your Time

• Book Reviews for Real People is one of my favorites. Jim and Maria Duncan write quick, insightful, funny reviews on the books they’ve read. Recent titles include “The Year of Living Biblically” (A.J. Jacobs), “The Evolution of Useful Things” (Henry Petroski), and the most recent is “The Angel on the Roof” (Russell Banks). The posts are kind of sporadic as far as timing goes, but I always go see what’s there when a new post goes up.
• Creative Writing Contests is a blog you should know about if you’re a writer. Updated often, with helpful categories and pertinent information about manywriting contests. It’s definitely worth adding to your reader so you know when a new contest opens up. Also, if you’ve not checked out the site before, scroll through the recent archives for contests you might be interested in.
• Liz Strauss at Successful Blog is my most recent add to my Google Reader. I haven’t had a chance to read through the archives yet, but I will be spending some time there. Her “Successful Series” alone will take me a while. The information here is amazing, timely, and helpful. Go read something. You’ll learn.

And as always,

make it a good day.

13 Contest Ending Soon

1. June 2008 Scribophile Contest. Fiction: mystery, 2000 to 5000 wds, first chapter of mystery novel; First prize: $50 Amazon gift card; Deadline: June 30th.
2. The Shya Scanlon 7-line Contest. 7-line story, any genre; First prize: $1000 and publication; Entry fee: $10; Deadline: August 15th.
3. The Summer 2008 Short Story Warren Adler Contest. Humor: 1000 to 2500 words; First prize: $1000; Entry fee: $15; Deadline: August 15th.
4. The Writer’s Workshop of Asheville, NC, 19th Annual Poetry Contest. Poetry: 3 poems per entry; First prize: $300; Entry fee: $20; Deadline: June 30th.
5. The Writer’s Workshop of Asheville, NC, Hard Times Writing Contest. Memoir: up to 4000 words, overcoming hard times; First prize: $300; Entry fee: $20; Deadline: July 31st.
6. FenCon Short Story Contest. Fiction: science fiction or fantasy, up to 5000 words; First prize: $50; Entry fee: $10; Deadline: July 20th.
7. 2008 First Annual Benu Press Creative Non-Fiction Award. Non-fiction manuscript; First prize: Publication, 7% royalties; Deadline: July 25th.
8. Costa Rica Pages Travel Writing Competition. Non-fiction, 300 to 800 words, favorite vacation moment; First prize: Vacation to Costa Rica; Deadline: July 31st.
9. The TNPR Book Prize Series. Poetry: 45 - 80 pages; First prize: $1000 plus publication; Entry fee: $25; Deadline: August 31st.
10. The American Poet Prize for Poetry. Poetry: 3 poems, up to 10 pages; First Prize: $500 plus publication; Entry Fee: $16.00; Deadline: June 30th.
11. The KeyHole Chapbook Contest. Poetry chapbook, 18 - 36 pages; First prize: $250 and publication; Entry fee: $15; Deadline: July 30th.
12. The Finishing Line Press Prize in Poetry Open Chapbook Competition. Poetry chapbook: up to 26 pages; First prize: $1000 and publication: Entry fee: $15; Deadline: June 30th.
13. The Dream Quest One Poetry and Writing Contest. Poem, up to 30 lines OR Short story, any genre (including creative non-fiction) up to 5 pages; multiple entries accepted; First prize: $500; Entry Fee: $5 for poetry, $10 for short story; Deadline: July 31st.

Make it a good day.

Top Ten Things Writers Should Know but Sometimes Forget

1. Capitalize the first letter of every word in a title, except for conjunctions or prepositions fewer than five letters long.
2. The dash - a mark like this - is meant to be used in pairs (like parentheses). If you want a single setting off punctuation mark - not a set of dashes - you should use a colon: thus.
3. Use the serial comma when your items are meant to be separated: sausage, cheese, and milk. Drop the serial comma when you want to create a subtle pairing: toast, bacon and eggs.
4. A paragraph is meant to present one idea. It should include only one main topic sentence, not three. The other sentences in a paragraph should somehow support, illustrate, or expound upon the main topic.
5. Sentence openers like “I think” and “I believe” and “My opinion is” are redundant and weaken the strength of your article. If you’re the one writing it, then it’s obviously what you think or believe or hold as an opinion. That’s understood.
6. Cliches are evil. They are like sporks: always available, always unhelpful. Don’t use them. (I will wait eagerly for someone to point out the cliches I’ve used in my own articles. Yes, yes, I know. I sometimes forget, too.)
7. Metaphors are helpful, as long as they aren’t cliches.
8. Concrete images are even more helpful, especially if you’re talking about an abstract idea. If you can’t picture it, it’s hard to remember it. So put a picture of a jagged-edged, rough block of concrete in your head. It’s gray; it has a piece of plaster stuck to one edge; you just stubbed your toe on it. Now remember that picture, and remember to use concrete images.
9. The proper method of emphasis is using italics or underlining, not using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS. Or, of course, you can use bold, as I do in my headings. I suggest you limit the bold to your paragraph headings, and use italics and underlining to put emphasis within your text. Nobody likes getting yelled at by a row of screaming capital letters.
10. It’s okay to break the rules, as long as you know that’s what you’re doing. And you should have a good reason for it, of course. Know what you’re getting into. (I just started a sentence with a conjunction and ended another with a preposition. Bad writer. I know I did it, though. Do you?)

“The purpose of reading books like these [nonfiction] is to gain information. Here, finding out what happens — as quickly and easily as possible — is your main goal. So unless you’re stuck in prison with nothing else to do, NEVER read a non-fiction book from beginning to end. Instead, when you’re reading for information, you should ALWAYS jump ahead, skip around, and use every available strategy to discover, then to understand, and finally to remember what the writer has to say. This is how you’ll get the most out of a book in the smallest amount of time.” - from Paul N. Edwards. (Read the whole article here.)

Edwards echoes Mortimer J. Adler’s advice from “How to Read a Book” - look it over, then get to the important stuff.

Here’s what seems common to every recommendation about reading, however:

• Get an overview of the book before you dive into it. (Read through index, take time on preface, introduction, summaries.)
• Read quickly first, skimming, highlighting headings, and noting important spots.
• Mark in your text (but don’t overdo it).
• Take notes on what you read.
• Ask questions as you read and read to find the answers (be interactive).
• Don’t bog down on the details. Get the main point and keep moving.
• Review after you finish reading so the information sinks in.

The most important thing to remember about reading is that you’re not obligated to finish any book, whether its fiction for pleasure, nonfiction for research, or some other combination. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to pinpoint the exact information you need and leave the rest alone. Sometimes there’s nothing new. If you’re falling asleep reading a novel (not because it’s late at night) then maybe you should put it down and find a better book. The fact that it is written does not make it important to you. It just makes it written.
Take advantage of your ability to figure out what merits your attention and what doesn’t. Some classics will speak to you; some won’t. Maybe it’s about the timing, the season of your life, or the needed time to focus. If a book isn’t appealing but you know it’s worthwhile, just put it aside for a time. Come back to it later. It will still be written.

The Market is Open

Monday morning. Freelance writers groan, yawn, grab their robes and pad into their kitchens, stand waiting as the coffee brews. Computer flickers on and one hand meanders with the mouse while the other holds the PopTart away from the keyboard.
Five job sites to check, a few good possibilities for the day. Ten minutes later, there are ten tabs open, a half-consumed strawberry frosted square sitting by the notebook and a hand alternating between pencil-scratched notes and mouse clicks.

It’s Monday. The market is open. What will you do this morning? Do you have a plan? Do you have an inkling of what your week holds? Are you squeezing in an hour or so before it’s off to your real job? Are you feeding and dressing kids before you get some silence and time to work?

Don’t Write!

Two suggestions for the way you spend your writing time today:
1) Market
2) Manage

Egads, Batman, I didn’t even say write! I know, I know. Let me quote a few people who know lots more than I do about this sort of thing.

You Could Take My Word For It, Or…

Seth Godin, for example, whose interview in the 2008 Writer’s Market got me thinking about this writers-need-to-market-more topic. Of course, writers marketing themselves isn’t a new idea. We talk about it, blog about it, write about it. There’s the whole universe of blogs about blogging. Marketing is necessary. Often, though, we still don’t give it enough attention or don’t give it the right kind of attention.

A Decent Marketing Plan

The interviewer of the Writer’s Market article, Anthony Tedesco, asks this question of Godin: “What marketing plan would you recommend for an author who has time but not money to spend?”
Answer: “Build a blog and a squidoo lens. Contribute to bulletin boards and forum. Give help, don’t ask. Build a permission database of people who want to hear from you. Then write.”
Then Tedesco asks another question: “What’s the best book marketing plan when the budget is somewhere around “sky’s the limit”?
Answer: “Same.”

Don’t Be Cheap

One word: networking. But not sleazy, slicked-back-hair, “Have I got a deal for you” networking. Ew. Don’t be the QVC of the writing world. Have a little class. I think the key is this four-word sentence of Godin’s: “GIVE HELP, DON’T ASK.”

In this post, Godin elaborates: “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success. So, if you’re going to write a book in six years, please start now and focus on hard work, breaking new ground and being a standup guy.”

Marketing is only as good, valuable, and effective as the product it seeks to promote. If you cheat on marketing by posting a few comments here and there, polishing up the surface of your site, and then shamelessly self-promoting, you will end up with, possibly, an initial rush of interest followed by silence.

So. The lesson, in brief? Dedicate significant time from your week (start today) to helpful marketing. Read, and leave insightful comments. Answer questions. Offer help. Guest post for no charge. Follow up with people. Get cards made, and give them out but only when appropriate. Make the other person’s interests more important than your own.

Manage Yourself

I didn’t forget Suggestion #2.

Take at least an hour on Monday to create a plan for your week. Set goals, make a list, block out time, brainstorm ideas, construct outlines, gather resources.

That’s it. The rest is up to you!

By the way, if you still don’t like wasting all this time on Monday, then go ahead and write on Mondays. Just do your marketing and managing on Sunday night.

Make it a good day!

Many of these are unpaid possibilities, which I know is not as nice as getting cash for your work. However, unpaid publication is still publication and can be well worth the time for the publicity and credibility you receive. Be smart about this and it can be a boost to your paid work.

A few tips before we get to the real list:

• Don’t bother submitting for unpaid jobs that are not in your area of expertise. The point of these publications is to build your credibility, and that only works if it is concentrated on an area that you want to write in long-term. Use unpaid articles to build yourself and your reputation as an expert. Pick topics that are related to your specialty.
• The only exception to the rule above is if you have already established yourself as an expert in one area and are wanting to branch out to another. In that case, you start applying and submitting to those unpaying publications that specialize in your new area. Once you build up enough of those publications, you will have sufficient material on your CV to start submitting to the paying publications in that new area of yours.
• Do use articles you’ve already written. Check the guidelines, first, of course; even some unpaying publications will only take previously unpublished material. Many, however, realize that writers are trying to make it and are content with one-time-rights to a piece. So comb through your blog, your website, your previously published articles, your Associated Content account, your lit class notes from college… Find something appropriate for the publication and tweak it so it fits perfectly, then send it on in. This is really the trick to making these unpaying jobs worthwhile, especially if they’re of smaller circulation (which is often the case). You can spend half an hour or so on finding, tweaking, and submitting a piece, and you get a decent return of publicity and credibility.
• Do follow the guidelines just as seriously as you would for a paying publication. Your reputation matters everywhere you are published. Treat the editors and publishers with respect, read through the FAQs before you email a question, and follow the guidelines with great care. There is always a possibility that they will be so impressed with your conduct and your writing that they might seek you out for later, paying jobs. Never be careless when it comes to your writing and how you get it published.

And here is the Real List.

1. Women’s Interest:LifeToolsForWomen.com. Ezine; 50-word bio; No pay; 500-1200 words; email submission. Topics: “informational articles on family, relationships, work, money, health, nutrition, time management, goal setting and faith. These articles must be uplifting, positive and relevant.”
2. Women’s Interest: Balance Magazine. Print magazine; 15-word bio; No pay; 650-1250 words; email submission as MSWord attachment and indicate section (Health, Wealth, or Happiness); deadline Sep. 1 for winter issue. Topics: “original work providing tips, tools, strategies or a call to action reflecting balanced living and personal growth for women.”
3. Issues/Ethics/Culture: Raving Dove. Online literary journal; Bio w/ weblinks; $10 honorarium; up to 1000 words (nonfiction), 2000 words (fiction); email submission; 2-4 month response time; previously unpublished work only. Topics: “original poetry, nonfiction essays, fiction, photography, and art with (universal) anti-war, anti-violence, peace-related, and human rights themes.”Now Open: The Annual Evolve Beyond Violence Nonfiction Essay Award. Guidelines here. $1000 first prize; entry fee $15, requiring membership (also $15); deadline Sep. 1.
4. Christian Women’s Interest; Christian Books for Women’s Christian Writers Showcase. Online Christian Women’s site, article may be included in the site’s newsletter; published on-site for reader comments; no pay; use submission form. Topics: “the practical, hands on ideas, suggestions, and concepts. So please try to incorporate some of that great stuff!”
5. Fiction/Literary Perpetual Magazine. Online literary journal; publication on-site; no pay; email submissions. Topics: “Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Western/Historical Fiction, Literary, Detective, Romance,” or creative non-fiction in those categories.
6. Women’s Interest - Work at Home Moms; WAHMZone.com. Online WAHM site; article database/learning center; newsletter; publication on-site; bio/byline; no pay; email submissions; possible weekly contributor positions (also unpaid). Topics: Items of interest to WAHM in three categories: Business Zone, Family Zone, or Recipe Zone.
7. Gardening/Horticulture; GreenPrints.com. Print magazine; open-ended, up to 2000 words is a loose suggestion; snail-mail submission but personal response guaranteed; payment, yes, up to $200 but often less. Read the guidelines, as there are some very particular pointers you should be aware of before submitting. Topics: “best, personal (important word, that) garden writing I can get. Expressive, thoughtful, humorous, angry, contrite, flippant, searching, witty, observant, sad, inviting— whatever! We focus on the human, not how-to side of gardening. On the people as well as the plants.”
8. Small Business;MyBusiness Magazine. Print magazine and online companion site with daily updates; length varies depending upon section, see guidelines; queries preferred (I suggest checking the editorial calendar first; pay not mentioned. Topics: “a guide to survival and success in this new small-business economy. We seek to highlight and celebrate the people and ideas making this movement a reality. That’s why the experiences of real small-business owners are essential to every story.”
9. Personal Finance;Budget Savvy Magazine. Online magazine/website; $25 per article; no length guidelines given; no writer’s guidelines onsite, but the editor (Melissa Tosetti) accepts queries (she responded to my request for guidelines that I sent through the contact form). Topics: “Ways to add style and simplicity to your home, Affordable travel and entertainment ideas, Putting together a great look with imagination and style, Cooking and kitchen management basics, Career and personal finance advice and information.”
10. Adventure/History/Travel; Lost Treasure Magazine. Rather specialized, but if this is a hobby then you’re in luck. Monthly publication. 500 to 1500 words, depending; Source documentation required; photos help get you published; not clear on pay; very particular requirements, read the guidelines if you’re interested. Topics: “lost treasure, folklore, personal adventure stories; legends; and how-to articles for treasure hunters and metal detector­ users; personal adventure stories when accompanied by a sidebar consisting of a how-to lesson or tips (hunting, research, technique, etc., related to the story); who’s who features (by query only) and miscellaneous how-to tips.”

11

11. Women’s Interest - Writing; WomenWriters.net. Ezine; byline; no pay; accepts book reviews, poetry, fiction, and scholarly nonfiction; email submission as attachment (preferred format indicated on guidelines). Topics: Women writers, women’s issues, reviews of books written by women, feminism.
12. Women’s Interest - Christian Mommies; ChristianMommies.com. Ezine and website; no length guidelines mentioned; no pay mentioned; online publication, listing in Author Index; email submissions. Topics: Children, Parenting, Home and Family, Health and Spirit. Browse the site for more ideas.
13. Spirituality; Spirituality and Health Magazine. Bimonthly Print Magazine; length ranges depending upon section; manuscript for shorter items, query for features; email submissions. Topics: “the people, practices, and ideas of the spiritual renaissance in contemporary society and their impact on personal and community well being. It provides readers with practices to aid them in their own spiritual formation and strives for journalistic objectivity in the presentation of stories about specific religions and denominations.”

Go get ‘em. Make it a good day.

Work Opportunities

DEMAND STUDIOS
I write for Demand Studios, and overall it’s a good gig. They have several websites but you start out writing for eHow.com. You can write for eHow.com simply by being a registered member there, and you have the potential to earn money off page views. However, if you apply at Demand Studios, you get paid cash for every how-to article you produce. If you pick how-to articles
within your knowledge base, they can be simple and quick to write. You can include graphics or not. You can include resources at the bottom, which I’ve used to send people back to related articles at my website.You want to be careful not to overdo the self-marketing there, but if you have high-quality, related content, it’s a good opportunity.

The drawbacks? It takes a week or two to process an article from “Under Review” to “Published,” which keeps your queu full (you have a limit of 10 articles in progress at a time) so you can’t claim other articles to write until yours are far enough along in the processing line. There are lots of categories, but not always lots of articles to choose from. When there is a fresh infusion of available titles, they go pretty fast, and I can’t find a pattern or schedule for when those new articles are going to appear. So I just check out the available articles every other morning or so.

It isn’t a perfect system, and it’s a little pesky sometimes, but overall it’s an easy way to get articles on a major site with your name on them and get a quick cash infusion. Go apply!

More Work Opportunities

• Part-Time English-Language Editors - freelance, telecommute, part-time; you edit essays. $16 per 250 words. (Source: Atlanta Craigslist)
• I don’t like to post non-paying jobs, unless the byline is worthwhile, but this one sounds fun: a Music Writer for an online magazine, no pay, but “with great perks like free albums/music, free shows, and the chance to interview popular musicians,” or so they say. Freelance, telecommute, part-time; no pay. (Source: Los Angeles Craigslist)

Workshops - free online courses.

These courses are from the Open University, a UK based organization offering “high quality university education to all.”
Writing offerings include Approaching Prose Fiction, Approaching Poetry, Approaching Plays, Writing What You Know, What Is Poetry?, Start Writing Fiction, and Forms and Uses of Language.
Why take online courses? Oooh, I don’t know, maybe to keep yourself sharp, to learn new things, to have an imposed deadline, to push yourself to new challenges, to LEARN (duh), to stretch yourself, to become an expert in new areas, to generate writing ideas, to set yourself on a schedule, to produce material, to understand your craft, to grow.

Go get a job. Make it a good day.

Tips to Keep Yourself Writing This Summer

• You must have a basic plan for your week, which translates into a basic plan for each day. Use a calendar/ planner, something online or in your pocket or on your desk. Get something you’re comfortable with that will work with your lifestyle. If you are very mobile, a tablet PC, Blackberry, or small planner you can put in your purse or pocket might be most helpful. I prefer the larger weekly planner with 8×11 pages, so I have plenty of room to write in my appointments, errands, household tasks, and article deadlines, submissions, and project work.
• Have a master list of your ongoing projects. Use the master list to break each project down into the tasks needed to accomplish it, so you know where to start and how to schedule.
• Write in appointments for yourself on your planner. Mark specific times for accomplishing the different parts of each project. Treat these times seriously, as if you were meeting with a client.
• Don’t forget about time needed for research, both off line and online. If you write nonfiction, research is essential, and you will often need primary sources which can mean a trip to the library. If you blog, you need time to find relevant links, graphics, and related articles. If you write fiction, you need time to research your time period, setting, language.
• Schedule in progress reports, for yourself and/or for your clients, for longer projects. Do this by using your master list with its breakdown of the project into smaller tasks. From those tasks, set up milestones with specific deadlines. “By June 30, I will finish research and write a complete outline, introduction, and two pages of text.”
• Take some time off to clear your brain. Focus while you work, then take a break. Every 60 to 90 minutes, get up from your chair, walk outside for five minutes, drink some water, stretch, call a friend, do some jumping jacks, lie on the couch and close your eyes (set a timer if you do that), listen to music, eat an apple. Pick something relaxing and different from what you’ve been doing, i.e., no writing, reading, or computer. Your eyes and your brain need a rest from words.
• Take in lots of information, related and unrelated to any projects you are working on. Set up a Reader for your newsfeeds and blogs, and give yourself 20 to 30 minutes every day to scroll through, read, and comment. Don’t let it get out of hand, and weed out the information sources that don’t provide anything interesting. Read books: poetry, fiction, nonfiction. Even five or ten pages a day helps your brain stretch and grow. Talk to people who aren’t like you and listen to what they say. Ask questions about other people’s professions, hobbies, political views, home life, philosophies.
• Schedule time to just jot down notes, follow up on ideas, develop ideas, brainstorm - don’t pressure yourself to produce “writing” during this time. Planning and researching and outlining makes writing a whole lot easier. This applies to work you are doing for clients as well as work you are doing for yourself. The blank page is your worst enemy. Come to it armed with a stack of notes, pages of research, brainstorming bubbles, quotations, pictures that inspire you. You may not use any of it in your writing, but its presence in your mind and in the room will make you sharper.

Trade Journals

A few resources and possibilities.

• A great article about writing for trade journals here at Writer Gazette. (Note that the links at the bottom of the article are outdated.)
• Another great article with lots of tips here at Writer’s Apprentice. If you’ve never considered writing for trade journals, or you’re wondering what a trade journal is, read at least one of those articles.

A couple of trade magazines worth checking into -

• HomeCare Magazine, for at home medical supplies, home care equipment. Check the About page and Contact page. There is nothing specific about submissions on the HomeCare Magazine website, but I’ve found that often the trade magazines don’t put up Writer’s Guidelines or Submission info on their websites. Their websites are usually directed toward the readers of the magazines, the industry professionals. They are not sites the average consumer (or freelance writer) would stumble over in search of something fun to read or something profitable to write about. So you’ll have to take some initiative, read through some articles, gather ideas and information, and make a query. Could well be worth your time.
• MeetingsNet home page houses several different trade magazines related to the conference, hospitality, and business meeting industry. It will be best to browse and find the correct contact information for the specific magazine you want to query.
• Lots of opportunity possible here at Expert Business Source. Topics include e-business, sales and marketing, insurance, work life, and human resources. The group has a strong online presence with blogs, newsletters, and archives. The About page directs those interested to contact the editorial team.
• Home Accents Today provides an editorial calendar (a .pdf file).

Give your best and make it a good day.

Memoir Prompt

Remember going into the library in the summertime? A 30-degree temperature drop. The rustlings and whispers and soft noises. The librarians, and how you interpreted their faces: the stern one, the sweet one, the flustered one. The section upstairs with the pygmy-sized table and a stack of board books. The smell of crayons, though you never saw anyone coloring. Beyond the toddlers and mommies waiting their story hour was your section. You knew the rows of metal shelves like your own bedroom. You knew the shortest line to your favorites. You spotted a new title in two seconds. You could curl up there and lose the afternoon.

Magazines Seeking Submissions

• From a CraigsList ad, a new (unnamed) inspirational magazine seeks submissions. Instructions say to email complete manuscript; you might send an email asking for further information before you provide a complete article to an unnamed source. Topic: large range, “wisdom and inspiration through practical solutions.” Pay: $30 to $150. Deadline: June 27th.
• The ad is from February, but the blog is quite active and there is no deadline on submission for The Entertainment Critic magazine. Topic: review, excerpt of your book, or celebrity/entertainment article. Pay: none mentioned. Deadline: none mentioned.
• A youngish, online magazine, The Writer’s Eye, is accepting poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions. Topic: open-ended on poetry and fiction; nonfiction articles should be personal, involving the creative process. Deadline: August 1 for the Sep/Oct issue. Pay: $20 for poetry; .02 to .05/word for fiction and nonfiction.

Happy Monday. Make it a good day!

Over My Head

I typed in a big topic for my post today: Professionalism in Work and in Life. Then I erased it. It’s 6 in the morning, my kids are asleep in bed, my husband is reading the paper/snoozing, and I’m sitting on the couch in pajamas and a fluffy white robe with my laptop propped up on a pillow, clicking away.

What do I know about professionalism? I know a lot about comfort. I know a good bit about the benefits of getting up early in the morning, and I know how those benefits don’t sound that crucial when the alarm starts a-buzzing. I know that if you are going to work at home and have two children under the age of two, you’d better learn about having daily routines and sticking to a schedule. And I know that when you finally get some time to sit down and write, pull up the word processor or your pen and paper, and take a breath, the hardest thing to do is just start writing.

Yammering Ghosts

Everything in you and around you suggests a need, an urgent yelp for attention. I know that when you listen to those yammering ghosts, they multiply. They’ll have you running upstairs for a folder, downstairs for a load of laundry, outside to the check the mail, inside to pay the bill…

While you’re paying the bill you will realize that you didn’t call Steffie (who gets offended if you don’t talk every day or so) and your Mom really wants that great “chicken a la distracted writer” recipe, so you call Steffie while jotting the recipe down, and in the middle of the conversation Steffie says something about her life being like Paris Hilton on welfare just as you’re writing “Dice the bell pepper” and you think, “Whoa, what a great story, a famous starlet suddenly defunct and bankrupt, struggling to interpret the language of recipe cards and credit card statements…”. You can’t wait to get free and sit down and write. If only you didn’t have so much to do.

What’s an Ant Got To Do With It?

A myrmecologist (which my Wordpress editor tells me is a misspelling) is an ant specialist. Walter Tschinkel is one of these professional ant-studiers. Tschinkel is finding out, says writer Jack McClintock, that ant-nest architecture tells us a lot about “the mysterious principle known to science as self-organization—simple units of nature forming larger patterns through interactions with one another.”

Each of thousands of earth-nesting ant species has a specific nest design, McClintock explains, and each builds from a particular set of rules, then quotes our myrmecologist: “What is that set of rules? How do they come by them? How do they execute them?� Tschinkel wonders. “How does a group of individuals with no leader, no plan, create such complex structures in the dark?�

That’s the best description of life, work, and this strange daily balance that I’ve ever heard: creating complex structures in the dark. We each build from a particular set of rules: professionalism is in the fact that we build.