Boundaries for Writers: review of a new e-book by Kristi Holl

My husband and adult son are on vacation; I am not. Now it’s true that they are spending the precious days of their vacation painting the front porch, and I thank them for that. It’s a wonderful albeit belated Mother’s Day gift. But the other day, as we all took advantage of the glorious spring weather to be outside—them scraping and painting, me sitting outside with my iPad Mini and notebook—they couldn’t resist teasing me. “Pick up a paintbrush,” they said. “Why aren’t you working?”

And even though I knew they were just teasing, I admit that my blood started to boil, just a teensy bit. Because I was working. Perhaps they are to be forgiven. As the late E.L. Konigsburg said at an SCBWI conference many years ago, “Sometimes writing looks a lot like doing nothing.” But after more than two decades of seeing me pound away at the keyboard in the corner of my living room, you’d think my family would recognize me working when they see it. Yes, I was outside, and yes, I had what may have looked like a toy to them. But the fact is that I was studying a book and making notes to write this review; and I was also researching and brainstorming and drafting not just one but two freelance articles.

Fortunately, the title I was studying at the time was Kristi Holl’s new e-book, Boundaries for Writers. So even though there was a little voice inside me whispering, “Well, maybe you are slacking off. Maybe you should pick up a brush and start helping them with some real work,” I resisted. I remembered what she said about boundaries, about guarding my writer’s heart, and I just smiled and said, “I am working.” And I went back to my notebook with a smile.

Kristi knows her stuff. She is the author of 42 books, both for kids and for adult writers. Though we’ve never met, I came to know her about a dozen years ago when, as a rookie instructor at the Institute of Children’s Literature, she asked me to do a web chat with students about the craft of writing. Since then, I frequently refer my ICL students to Kristi’s books and articles about what she calls “writer’s first aid.” She has some great tips for time management that can really help those of us fighting to squeeze writing time into lives already crowded with a host of obligations, commitments, and responsibilities.

Her latest book is in one sense a sequel to her first aid books, but in a way that plunges deeper into the problem of finding time to write. Sure, you can look at this as an issue of time management. But in this book, Kristi goes far beyond that. Her brilliant insight into the problem of why writers can't write is that it is an issue of faulty boundaries: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. This was a revelation to me, a moment of clarity.

In her opening chapter, Kristi talks about how walls—far being divisive or isolating—are the key to “guarding your writer’s heart.” I found myself hearing this line from Robert Frost’s poem as I read: “Good fences make good neighbors.” For writers, they certainly can.

In order to be more creative and productive, Kristi advises that writers repair their broken walls—or boundaries—whether those have to do with protecting your writing space or shielding yourself from the sting of rejection. She gives specific advice about how to deal with people and situations that are sabotaging your writing time. I still can't get over the story of one writer whose wife deliberately gained fifty pounds to punish him for "neglecting" her so he could write.

Resistance from family and friends is usually more subtle than that, to the point where sometimes we don’t recognize it for what it is. Kristi prepares writers for that, and also for the sneakiest of adversaries: ourselves. On page 24 she writes, “Sometimes we are our own worst enemies when it comes to damaged boundaries.” We allow ourselves to get distracted when we’re supposed to be working, or fritter away our writing time with a nonstop barrage of worries. I especially liked Kristi’s solution for dealing with what I call the Panic Bird. Make a fifteen-minute date with yourself during which you are allowed to worry. Then whenever your thoughts drift from your characters to whether any editor on the planet will ever buy the manuscript on which you are working, remind yourself sternly, “Nope, Mr. Panic Bird, you aren’t on my calendar until 5. I’m writing until then.”

She is also sensitive to the fear of many of us have that we are being selfish or neglectful of our families when we set boundaries so that we can write, and she deals with that, too. For Christian writers, she even has an entire chapter devoted to biblical references that support setting such boundaries.

Like so many others, I always seem to be struggling to carve out and safeguard my writing time, but I never before thought of this as being the result of boundary issues. Kristi’s book provided me with fresh insight and resolve that I think will help me, along with many others writers, to spend more fruitful time at our desks.

Note: this book is only available in PDF format as a direct purchase from the author's website. Click through on the book title above to get there.

Mother's Day gift—from a stranger in Istanbul

Istanbul...Constantinople...Byzantium: this ancient city has gone by many names, and its turbulent history has fired the imaginations of many writers [including the Irish poet William Butler Yeats]. Today, on Mother's Day, I received a wonderful gift from that city, in the form of an email from a Turkish writer about my my book, Spontaneous Combustion.

Here is an excerpt:

"Your book arrived yesterday and today I sit in a coffeeshop in Istanbul, my yellow marker in hand reading, nodding, and laughing, taking notes while furiously marking passages in your book. I am lost for a while in the book, look up and discover I am still in Istanbul."

I love that that my words were able to inspire and transport her. This particular person is herself a writing teacher, and runs something she calls a "writer's house." I'm not sure what that is, but it intrigues me; I think I want one!

But what is really making me smile is the image of someone in Istanbul, a world away, sipping Turkish coffee and and laughing and scribbling notes while reading something I wrote. Truly, books can bridge all kinds of distances, both physical and cultural. 

Good news!

It was a struggle yesterday to get to my desk. I was able to postpone that visit to the vet because Yukon's growth seems to be spontaneously shrinking. But I still had to take care of him, shoo my family down the driveway, finish all my chores and errands, and complete what I've started to call my morning rounds (this means checking and updating all my social media sites).

After all that, it was difficult to switch gears and go from mommy mode to writer mode. And at first I wasn't sure I was going to succeed. But I forced myself not to flee from my desk, not even when the 20,000 words of the book that I've already written seemed as foreign and incomprehensible to me as if someone else had penned them—in Klingon!

This is where the freewriting advice I've heard from so many others saved me. When you get stuck, don't stop—even if it means writing "I'm a worthless hack without a single original idea" over and over. OK, so you shouldn't write that! What I do is insert what I call placeholders into the manuscript. If I'm not sure what a character should say or do at any moment in a scene, I'll write something like, "Arlo has some reaction here." And then I'll move forward to write a real passage about the next thing that I do see clearly. This sounds stupid, but it always works for me. When I come back to that scene the next day, during revision, I will discover that now I do know what the character is doing. Then I'm able to take out that placeholder and weave in a snippet of dialogue, internal monologue, or action.

In the end, I was able to write a solid opening scene for my chapter after all. So now I can lead my characters down the cracked, weed-choked sidewalk and into the haunted house at last. What fun!

I had more good news this morning: I sold an article to the SCBWI Bulletin! Thank you, my dear friend Vijaya, for suggesting that I submit there in the first place.

The bad news though is that it's one of the pieces on my Free wisdom page, which means I have to temporarily take down. So I apologize, but the article about using a Kindle or iPad as a way to get fresh eyes when proofreading a manuscript will have to disappear from the site—just for a while.

However, the good thing about the SCBWI Bulletin is that unlike some other publications, you retain all rights to anything you publish there. So after a decent interval, I will be able to publish the proofreading article again.

Reluctant convert to e-readers

Normally it's hot and sunny in the part of the world where I live, but for the past few days it's done little but blow chilly gusts of rain. So Saturday I allowed myself a treat in which I haven't indulged for far too long: I actually spent the entire day reading—bliss! I finished a YA fantasy by Cornelia Funke entitled Reckless. It's the first in a trilogy; the second installment, Fearless, was just released. And I also read a book for lay readers by philosopher Stephen Cave called Immortality.

Both were library books; I am so grateful for the wonderful inter-library loan system in my state. I can sit at my computer, order books, and then walk the four blocks down to the local library to pick them up when they arrive. And did I mention this is free?

Three versions of The Hobbit: Hardcover (l), iPad Mini, and Kindle Paperwhite

But slowly over the past eighteen months I have shifted more of my reading to the digital realm. My neck surgery last Halloween accelerated that process. When I was recovering from the operation on my cervical spine last fall, I wasn't allowed to bend my neck forward for even five minutes to read a paper book. So I started buying e-books, loading them on my iPad Mini, and propping that up at eye level so I could keep reading. And to my surprise, I actually liked the experience.

Why did that shock me? Because all my previous experiments with e-readers had failed miserably. Despite being a consummate geek, I didn't like the digital reading experience. I missed the heft and smell of a real book in my hands, especially a beautifully-designed and bound hardcover one. I felt disconnected from digital books, as if they weren't real. 

I had tried three different Kindle models—the Kindle 3 with keyboard, the so-called Kindle Lite, and the Kindle Touch—and returned them all within 30 days. The screens were hard to read in the dim light of my 1880s-era Victorian house, and it was awkward and difficult to do simple things like turn pages. I also tried the full-sized iPad, but it was too big and heavy to hold for my marathon reading sessions.

But then I got my iPad Mini, with a leather cover that makes it look and handle like a book, and my resistance to digital books faded. I love the backlit screen, which allows me to read anywhere, anytime—even outside in the shade. All other reports to the contrary, the LCD screen doesn't tire my eyes at all, and the contrast and clarity far outstrip anything that e-ink readers like Kindle or Nook have on offer. I also like that the Mini displays books in color: far more like the "real thing."

So over the past seven months since I got my Franken-neck, I'm now doing about half my reading digitally. I was so inspired I even wrote my first Kindle book: Spontaneous Combustion. And last week I welcomed the Kindle Paperwhite into my home. I was prepared to send it right back, given my previous experience, but this one is a keeper. Though I still prefer the iPad Mini, the Paperwhite's backlit screen finally has enough light and contrast to be readable by my LASIK-ed eyes: and it's a joy to read in the bright sunshine. Since I do a lot of my reading outside in the backyard—when it isn't raining, that is—this is essential. Amazon got the software right this time, too; I find the Paperwhite much more intuitive to use than its older siblings, though still nowhere near as easy as iBooks on the iPad Mini.

Though of course no digital device is going to make reading as straightforward as it is on a paper book. What could be easier than simply turning the pages?

Besides, to me, a physical book is a treasure, something to cherish. That's why I own four different hardcover versions of The Hobbit, for example; I do that with many books. I'm never going to feel that way about a digital book file on an e-reader. So I'll continue to download books to my Mini and Paperwhite to read, but when I find a title that I love, I'm still going to buy a hardcover version, the more elegantly-bound the better.

Time to get another bookshelf!

Writers and boundaries: blogger Kristi Holl's new series

It’s been an exciting but chaotic first week after the launch of my book, Spontaneous Combustion. Getting the word out is a challenge, even with all the social media opportunities available. Or maybe I should say especially because of all the social media “targets” one is supposed to hit. There is definitely a blog post in my future on this topic!

But as always, I am overwhelmed and deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from my fellow wizards. The people who write for kids are the most generous folks in the world: no divas or competitive egos here. Many writers immediately bought the book, and are now spreading the word via their blogs and websites. I even got an offer for a free blurb in an e-newsletter for writers, and Kristi Holl asked permission to quote me in her upcoming book.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Kristi has published a couple of books  to which I have long referred my ICL students. She also maintains a wonderful blog called “Writers First Aid.” She has recently begun a series there that you should definitely check out. It's about the relationship between a writer's boundaries and her productivity/creativity.

In chapter 6 of my book, I touch upon that, though I call it writer’s malaise. What Kristi does in her series, and also in her new book due out in about a month, is take a new look at the reasons why writers can't or don’t write. It’s a fresh insight into that quandary, one that is making me step back and think about my own boundaries. I think you might find it immensely helpful as well.

Aargh! Lessons learned: stupid mistakes I've already made with my first indie book

Sometimes I think I'm not obsessive enough. The past two weeks I've downloaded so many different proofs of my new book, both print and digital;  made so many changes both large and small; and had to resubmit the manuscript so many times for review that I had begun to think that I had some neurotic block against actually publishing this book.

And then within only a few hours of finally submitting it, and announcing it to the world on this blog, my website, and a brand new Facebook Author page, I belatedly did something I should have done weeks ago.

What was that? I did a title search of my book on Amazon.

Guess how many books with the title of Spontaneous Combustion there are? At least six. Six!

And to make it even worse, one of those books, which was just published last month by another indie author, obviously used the same CreateSpace cover template that I did. Yes, we both had tweaked the template, so the background photos are different, the color scheme is different, and I had chosen a slightly different font. But the covers still look like fraternal twins.

Aiyee! Why in the world didn't I take this small step a month ago? Can you say s-t-u-p-i-d?

Now titles can't be copyrighted, so that's not the problem. And thank goodness for subtitles, because they differentiate the two books as well. Finally, our books are in two very different genres. Mine is non-fiction about the craft of writing; the other book with the too-similar cover is an anthology of short stories.

So all is not lost. But I feel incredibly dumb. This must be a classic rookie mistake. I should have done a title search well before I published my book. I doubt I would have changed the title; it fits my book perfectly, and I can't imagine calling it anything else. But I might have chosen a different cover. Or better yet, invested in a cover designed by a professional.

Let this be the first chapter of my next book, tentatively entitled, Don't Do What I Did: Confessions of an Indie Idiot.

My new book, Spontaneous Combustion, is here!

I finally managed to pry the manuscript out of my fearful perfectionist hands, and hit the "publish" button. My first indie project, "Spontaneous Combustion,” is now officially a book! I’d set my birthday as a deadline, to force myself to finally let go of after revising and proofing it umpteen times. And I just made the deadline: whew!

It’s more of a why-to book on writing than a how-to; a kind of tent revival for writers in the creative doldrums. I hope the book follows its own advice: to see the worth and meaning in what we do as writers without taking ourselves too seriously in the process. So I mock myself, and make some unusual suggestions in the book that I’m fairly sure you won’t find in any other book on writing. [See chapters 7 and 8 for these.]

It should be available for download tonight [April 21st] as a Kindle book, with the print version arriving on Amazon by the end of the week.

I’ve already had my first request for a Nook version. Because I’m participating in what Amazon calls the Kindle Select program, I can’t sell the e-book anywhere else: not even on my own website. Sorry Nook and iPad users (of which I am one myself). But the exclusivity only lasts 90 days, so I’ll have the option then to move back to the regular Kindle program, which would permit me to sell anywhere, including Barnes and Noble and the iTunes bookstore.

So if you are interested in a Nook or iPad version, please let me know in the comments.

In the meantime, you can always read the Kindle version using one of Amazon’s free Kindle reading apps, or even online in your web browser using Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader. Because I chose not to put DRM protection on the e-book version, you can even use a piece of freeware called Calibre to convert the Kindle book to a format that you can then load onto your Nook or iPad. That's what I do. So non-Kindle users aren't left out in the cold, I promise.