Do Some Great Research--On Your Characters!

Your book has a major and minor cast, whether you're writing fiction, memoir, or nonfiction. People move stories, illustrate theories and ideas, and rumble in the background of all great literature. It's up to you, the writer, to get to know them.

This week, interview your main players. Find out some important details about them. You can start with the questions below, which I use whenever I need to get deeper into my story and the motivation of my players.

1. What’s your height, weight, eye color, hair color?
2. What do you like or dislike about your looks?
3. How old are you really?
4. How do you feel about your age?
5. What three things are in your refrigerator?
6. What sort of work do you do?

7. What’s your favorite possession?

Just take good notes. Be a researcher for your own book. You might learn some new things!

How to Start a Law Firm | Marketing

In the last few posts I've discussed starting a law firm blog, how to get your legal blog noticed on Google, and starting a law firm marketing generally.

Once again, if you haven't considered building an internet presence for your law firm, or don't think it is important, think again. An internet presence can do three things for you easily and cheaply that can't be done anywhere else:

(1) establish you as an expert in your niche;

(2) build a relationship of trust with your clients before they meet with you (everyone checks the web now for information); and

(3) provide a marketing vehicle that is quickly overtaking all others out there.

Assuming you've already followed my earlier advice and started a law firm blog and started optimizing your law blog for Google, you may notice that people still aren't finding your site. Or that it is taking a long time and you still can't even find your site on Google. The reason for this is that the way that Google determines which pages it puts at the top has a little bit to do with optimizing your blog, but it has a lot to do with a separate factor called backlinks.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are a term of art meaning all of the links from other sites pointing to your site. I think I touched on this briefly in one of my last posts by emphasizing the need to link to previous blog posts whenever you put up a new post. This provides backlinks to your older posts (which are separate webpages and will show up on Google as their own page) free and easy. The reason Google loves backlinks for determining the ranking of pages on its site is simple: Google is interested in content. They want to make sure the sites that provide the information people are looking for are highest up on its pages.

Google has figured out that one of the best ways to do this is to see how many links a particular web site has pointing to it, and looking at the keywords embedded in the link. The more links a site has pointing to it with relevant keywords, the more authority it must have out there in the real world. This is important for your law firm marketing efforts, because the more people see you, the better.

Let's look at this site, "How to Start a Law Firm," as an example. Google crawls this site every once in a while to see what the content is and what the keywords are to try to find out what it is about. By scanning, it can find out that this site is most likely about how to start a law firm. But then as I've gotten links (both by building them myself, and through others), Google becomes sure of what my site is about, and becomes more confident that I know what I'm talking about (why would people link to me if I wasn't saying anything interesting?).

Certain sites have linked to me that are law sites, and the link to my site says some variation of "how to start a law firm." Google then assumes I have some authority on this and puts me near the top of the rankings. Right now I rank #7 on Google for how to start a law firm. The same would be true with a site providing divorce advice for men, how to stop wage garnishment, or any other information relating to the law.

To take it one step further, after Google crawls this post it will probably start to think I am moving toward law firm marketing. It has seen phrases like law firm marketing, how to market your law firm, building a law firm internet presence, and information on how to get legal clients from the internet. Pretty soon it will start thinking that this is what this site is about and start ranking me high for that search term.

If you can't tell by now, backlinks are the key to getting your legal website or blog traffic. You want Joe Citizen to type into Google Seattle DUI attorney and have your site come up number one (the first spot gets something on the average of 60% of clicks - it pays to be number 1).

Now that you know how important backlinks are to your success as an internet lawyer marketer, the next question should be, how do I get backlinks to my law blog or website? The answer to that question will come next.

How to Start a Law Firm | Google Ranking

I've already discussed in recent posts starting a law firm blog and optimizing your law firm website. When I was learning this stuff, however, examples were always more helpful than theory (kind of like the practice of law itself). So I've decided to put together a little example, so once you've decided to start a law firm you can actually get clients to call you.

Before I begin with my example, I would point out that this site is a great example of how to get ranked pretty highly on Google. If you will notice, how to start a law firm or some slight variation is embedded in almost all of my blog titles. This immediately helps Google recognize what this site is about. The name of my site also deals with that, as does each and every post.

In fact, I'd almost bet you got here by searching Google for "how to start a law firm" or some variation (there is another way that maybe I'll discuss in my next post). This process is called search engine optimization (SEO).

If you were like me, you are probably asking yourself, what is SEO? All it is is making your site look the best it can so Google knows what your site is about and gets other people to it.

On to the example. There is a guy out there, we'll call him John, who wants to be an Albany accident lawyer. So, the first thing he does is set up a website, including, if he can his three targeted keywords: (1) Albany; (2) accident; and (3) attorney. This will insure that the Google bot will immediately have an idea of what his site is about - it's in the name.

The next thing you'd do, and this is something people often miss, is to make sure your heading details what you want. The heading is the thing that pops up at the very top left hand side of your screen whenever you go to a web page. For example, www.google.com has Google there. For your site, to get clients to your legal website, to maximize your law firm website marketing, you'd want to get at least your three keywords in there.

The next thing you'd want to do is, particularly for your legal blog, is put some posts up that are on topic and use your keywords. The Seattle DUI attorney might have posts on why you need an attorney if you are involved in an DUI in Seattle, or things to look for in a Seattle DUI defense lawyer, or even the first five things you must do if you are pulled over by the cops in Seattle. Do not stuff the keywords - make them a part of the article, but consciously be inserting them as you write. And every once in a while bold the words you want (but not too much - once or twice is plenty) and link your keywords (and variations) back to your main page and then to older posts as you build them up.

For example, I've written about how to create a legal blog here in the past, so I have linked back to those posts, both because Google likes that, and because it makes it easier for readers to find my old posts. The times moving forward when I discuss starting a law firm with no money, drafting a law firm business plan, or naming your law firm, I'll link back to those posts too.

Keeping these factors in mind will greatly help you increase your legal web presence and sign up more clients. Google loves this stuff, and if you want to rank high on Google, you have to play their game. Next, more on getting backlinks to your legal blog or website.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or comments, I'd love to hear them.

Disguises and Masks: A Great Way to Understand and Uncover Your Book's Characters

What's behind the veil? If everyone in literature wears a disguise or mask that veils their true self, what are your book's major players hiding behind?

This week's writing exercise asks you to unmask these folks through a series of nitty-gritty questions. Spend about 20-30 minutes on this exercise, if you can. Be prepared to dig and learn!

Pick one of your characters and write an answer to one of these questions, as if you were interviewing them.

1. What broke your heart?

2. What do people who know you think of you?

3. Who would you eliminate from your life?

4. What do you wish never happened to you?

Mixing Things Up--A Recipe to Break the Block

Alison McGhee, writing instructor and author of many wonderful novels including Shadow Baby, once taught a very effective exercise in a writing class I attended. She had three lists on the whiteboard: people, different ages (such as 13 year old, 2 year old), and different objects. She asked us to choose one from each list and write a scene.

I loved it. It led to the pivotal theme for my new novel, Qualities of Light, which will be published in 2009 by Spinsters Ink.

Here's an adaptation of Alison's idea. You can try it this week, if you want. It's very effective for getting out of a writing rut.

Set a timer for 20 minutes. Write a scene that takes place in one of these places:

in a bus stop shelter in downtown Minneapolis

at O'Hare's airport security

streetside cafe in Gordes, France

laundromat in Gillette, Wyoming

riverside picnic area

Where there's an argument about one of these objects:

penknife

silver coin

piece of sea glass

diaper

cell phone that doesn't work

Mix them up--one from each list--and see what happens!

A Great Exercise from Listen to Me's Lynn Lauber

In her excellent book on writing craft, Listen to Me, memoirist Lynn Lauber writes: "If you find yourself telling the same story over and over, but in a way you don't find satisfying, try changing person or point of view."

I've used this technique to get a new viewpoint on my characters, especially when I feel the icy chill of writer's block.

Try it right now. Take a story you know well, from your life or your writing, and tell it from someone else's point of view. Tell it anew, seen from your dog's eyes. Or your grandfather's. Or, instead of the fictional character Jason's, try his partner Monique's. Write for 20 minutes or two pages' worth. See what happens when you break out of the known voice or view.

Can you catch a new image of where the writing could go from here?

Slowing Down--and Engaging the Creative Brain?

Sometimes the best writing comes when we're slow, dreamy, not thinking about accomplishing anything. Does this happen to you?

Maybe it's because the right brain engages, that non-linear side of our creative selves. This week, I spent many lovely hours immersed in a book that talks about this right-brain gift to creative folks: My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist who wrote about having a left-brain stroke that changed her entire way of being in the world. Suddenly without any linear perception or abilities, she came to appreciate the "wholeness" of her right-brain self. Of course, we need both sides of ourselves to function, but in today's world, we tend to use one or the other predominantly.

Open a blank document right now, on your computer, or in your writer’s notebook—wherever you’re reading this post. Call it Random Right-Brain Ideas. Begin a list of ten things you think of, smell or hear, see as you look around your room or office.

Sometime later today—or right now, if you can—set a timer for 20 minutes and pick one of these to write about. Do a “freewrite” where you don’t edit, just let yourself go into slowness and see what’s hanging out there.

Later, look at the writing and ask yourself how it connects to anything important in your life, a question you’ve been wondering about. Or your writing project?

Ongoing Spirit of Gratitude--A Thanksgiving Writing Exercise

A book-writing client talked with me this week about having an ongoing spirit of gratitude for her characters. She regularly notes on paper what she appreciates about them. She also works as a newspaper reporter. Her interviews are always full of understanding of the people she profiles and their situations.

She believes this spirit of appreciation sparks unspoken cooperation between writer and subject—whether that subject is memory, imaginative, or factual.

Make use of the annual holiday of Thanksgiving for your writing exercise this week, by writing each day for 2-3 minutes about what you appreciate. This is sometimes called a gratitude journal.

Writers use gratitude journals to unblock their creativity. Gratitude is simple, easily forgotten, more powerful than expected when you practice it. With our creativity, it fosters a kind of deeper understanding and appreciation about our lives, what we specifically offer the world, what’s unique about that offering and why it matters.

Each evening before bed, list three things you felt grateful for that day. You can focus, as the book writer above does, on what you’re grateful for about your book, your characters, the topic you’re exploring. Or just your life.
Keep going with this exercise for seven days. Regular practice is key to it working.

A week from now, see what changes have come. Sometimes you’ll noticing a lightening of spirit. Maybe there will be new opportunities. More awareness of what’s actually working, what you’re doing well.

This sounds like a lightweight activity. It’s not. It’s potent. I’ve keep a gratitude journal for many years. When I forget to write in it each evening, and the days slip by without appreciation, my Inner Critic begins to strongly affect my writing. I’ve learned to appreciate this simple exercise as a way to keep myself on track as a writer and as a human being.

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to Start a Law Firm | Law Firm Blogging Part II

In my last post I showed you how to start a law firm blog. If you followed my advice, you should now have the bare bones of your new law firm blog. This lesson will probably be much shorter, but will contain some very important information.

Today we are going to discuss optimizing your law blog - in regular people speak, we are going to make it easy for Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines to tell what your blog is about so that when people search for your services the search engines will put you at the top (or at least near the top). For example, they know this site is about starting a law firm because I do things to tell it that.

If you weren't aware, most of the sites you see in the top ten positions on Google when you do a search for legal services aren't there by chance or luck. Because a lot of money is made on Google through advertising, sales, and other methods, ranking high on Google has become a bit of a science for some. Luckily, I have studied this "science" a bit and am willing to help you out. It isn't hard. It just takes a little time and some planning. So let's get started.

To begin with, you have already started optimizing your blog for Google just by picking a good title and blog address. When analyzing a site, Google tends to start at the top left hand of the page and work its way down toward the bottom right. Whatever Google sees first (the web address and title of the blog) it assumes is a good indication of what the site itself if about. That is why I suggested you use your practice area or whatever you think potential clients may search on Google as your blogger address and blog title. Don't worry, if your title isn't right, you can change it now. Just go to the Settings tab and change it - same with the description - the more keywords the better (but make sure it makes sense).

Before we go any further, you may be asking yourself, why would I be putting this information on the internet? Wouldn't I want to keep this information to myself and continue to rank high on Google (although I don't yet for my main keyword)?

The answer is twofold. First, How to Start a Law Firm is meant to be here to help you out. The purpose is to help others start and build a law practice, just like I am doing. And second, it is highly unlikely that you are in my area of the country and my area of practice and would be competing directly against me. And third, honestly, I think I can rank higher than you anyway.

Before the first post there is one other thing you can do to optimize the layout of your law firm blog quickly and easily - the "about me" section. Go to the "Layout" tab of your blog and click the edit button on the about me box. Then fill it out including as many of your law firm keywords as you can get in there, including the geographic location of your practice. For example, if I were a criminal defense attorney in Seattle, I'd write,

CMS, a Seattle DUI lawyer who will do whatever it takes to fight your criminal charges and get your life back on track.

This gets all of your keywords on all of your pages automatically - Google will see this and know what your law firm blog is about.

Now comes the fun part - your first post. Unless you really want to dive right in, I'd suggest making this an introductory post to help get your blog on the map. Here is a good example of a law firm introductory blog post. As you can see it introduces what the law firm blog is about, what it will say, and welcomes everyone in. There are also two other key aspects to this post.

First, when you are creating this post you will see a title box, to fill in the title, and "link" box, where you can put in a link. Every time you make a blog post, the link needs to have the home page of your law firm blog. For this "How to Start a Law Firm" blog, I insert http://startingalawfirm.blogspot.com each and every time. What this does is create unique pages for each of your posts. This allows each page to have its own Google "juice" and build up Google "juice" to your home page.

The second thing you will notice is that in the post there is a link to the homepage using some or all of the keywords. This is very important, and you should have at least one link back to your site (to the home page or an older post) each time you post. For my first post I linked to the home page. For this post I linked to the last post I did about starting a law firm blog.

So, your next homework assignment is to make this first post. I probably won't post for about a week, so if you want to post to your blog in the mean time make sure it is keyword rich and has the internal links. And if you are wondering wear I learned all of this, it's off a how to make money blogging site I just love (that's why I just gave the good link juice - read his site and you'll know what I'm talking about). The author offers great information on optimizing blogs (he doesn't care how you use it for the same reasons that I don't care how you use the information I am giving you - he is way out of my league). Go check it out and read it from the beginning. You can really learn a lot.

Next week - Starting a Law Firm | Getting People to Your Blog.

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Getting Ranked in Google

Starting a Law Firm | Internet Marketing 101

Writing Exercise--Pace Yourself via Expansion or Contraction

Pacing—a delicate affair in writing a book—depends on a balance of expanded and contracted moments. Good pacing creates a rhythm between the two. This week’s exercise lets you notice your natural (often unconscious) tendency of either expanding or contracting too much. If you adjust, correct, and balance, your writing will soar.

1. Set a kitchen timer for fifteen minutes. Begin to write about a childhood event that influenced you greatly. Don’t overthink this exercise, just let it rip. No editing along the way!

2. Read the piece out loud. Whenever you get interested, as you read, highlight the paragraph that pulled you in. (It’s essential to read out loud—you’re switching from a writer’s viewpoint to a reader’s.)

3. Contract (condense) the paragraph into one sentence, as short as possible, without losing the essence of the larger paragraph.

4. Now expand this one sentence into five new sentences (a new paragraph).

Which was easier for you, expansion or contraction? Think about whether this short exercise helped you see anything about your natural tendency as a writer.

5. Return to your original freewrite about the childhood experience. Select your favorite section, a paragraph or two.

6. Apply the aspect (expand or contract) that was the most difficult for you in steps 3 and 4. If you had trouble with expansion, expand the section to three or more paragraphs. If you had trouble with contraction, condense the section to half its length.

Read the new writing out loud. Can you notice the difference in flow, in music, in pacing?

Starting a Law Firm | Blogging Part 1

In today's day and age, if you don't have an internet presence you are dead. Not only are more and more people turning to the internet to find their lawyers, but creating an internet presence is so cheap and easy it is idiotic not to get yourself out on the world wide web.

If you are new to the technology game, starting your legal internet empire can be quite intimidating. So, as part of my starting a law firm information, I'm going to help walk you through starting a law firm blog and tell you how to get people to your blog. It is actually a lot easier and more straightforward than you might think. All it takes is about 30 minutes of your time and $10.95 and you can be off and running with your own blog - just like this one!

Now, if you are thinking about building your new law firm internet presence, I would make a couple of suggestions.

First, have a law firm web site set up with all of your contact information and whatever else you think might be appropriate (this is not where your blog(s) will be).

Second, be ready to set up a blog for each of your legal practice areas - pick something you like to do and get really good at it - don't generalize! And third, be ready to write some good material.

Go to www.godaddy.com and Secure Domain Names for Your Law Firm Website and Blogs

This step is easy. Go to the site, use their name search feature until you find some domain names that have your practice area in them (don't use your law firm name), and pay for them. Try not to put dashes in if possible. They aren't necessary for Google to decipher the words in your site (which is all that matters - in the end your goal is to be #1 on Google for your particular practice area in your particular state). Put keywords in the domain name that describe your practice.

For example, my two sites are seattleduidefense.blogspot.com and seattlecriminallawyer.wordpress.com. They both have keywords that people might use to find me (Seattle criminal attorney and Seattle DUI lawyer, among others).

The domain names I think cost $10.95 each. Splurge on these. If you are going into business as a solo or small firm lawyer, you are going to have these blogs for a long time. The least you can do is fork over the money to have a legit looking name. If you decide you need to save every penny, however, you can skip this step and go straight to step two - creating your FREE blogger blog.

Creating a Blogger Blog for Your New Law Firm is Easy and Fun

The first thing to do when you go to blogger is create an account. If you already have a Gmail account, you are halfway there. Just enter your Gmail address and password and you are ready to rock and roll. If not, just follow the simple directions to get started.

Once you're signed in, it is now time to start a law firm blog. Now, a word to the wise here. There are several reasons for you having this blog when starting a law firm.

First, it will help establish you as an attorney in the marketplace. Second, it will begin to establish you as an expert in your chosen field. But third, and the most important factor, it will help potential customers find you on the internet. Always keep this in the back of your head.

Naming Your Law Firm Blog

As I've suggested before, the name needs to reflect the area of the law you will be talking about. No one will be searching for CMS Law Firm, for example, but they will search for Yakima eminent domain attorney. So, in your title, you need to put the practice area of your blog, even if it is just your location and what you do - Chicago Divorce and Child Support Information for example.

Once you've done that the next box will fill in a proposed URL for you. If you have picked up your domain names you don't have to worry about this box - skip it. If you have not, check to see if the name you want is available, again inserting key words and phrases you want people to find you for, and see if it has been used yet.

If you have purchased a domain name for your new law firm blog, in the last box click the advanced blog setup link. Once there insert your title and log in to the site where you bought your domain name. That is where the rest of the information is going to be. Once you find that info., put it into the box, hit continue, pick a template, and you have just created a blog!

Setting Your New Law Firm Blog to Operate Best for You

Once you are set, you will then see three tabs on your law blog - publishing, settings, and layout. Go to Settings first. In the basic tab you will see a bunch of boxes to set up your blog. The title should already be filled in. In box two you can put a description of what your law practice blog will be about. In this box, again, you want to insert as many descriptive keywords as possible to help Google know what your blog is about. If you go to my legal blogs, linked above, you will see what I'm talking about.

After that, going down the boxes, you want to make sure the blog is listed in the directory, that search engines can find your blog, that quick editing is on, and that email post links aren't allowed and this is not adult content (these are all the default settings for Blogger - you shouldn't have to change anything).

Skip the publishing tab and head into the formatting tab. Once there, switch the number of posts to one (this will show only one post on the home page of your blog, allowing each post to eventually become its own web page - important for later search engine domination). Next, pick whichever date format you'd like. I like to have something with the day, month, and year in it because as time goes by people will be able to see how long you've been at it - time equals experience in a lot of people's eyes (although you know that's not necessarily true right?!).

You can continue to pick your preferences (if you don't know what it is leave it alone) until you get to the box labeled "show link fields." On that box, switch the no to yes. This will allow you to create a separate link for each of your blog posts, making each post a separate page and increasing your internet presence. The next box you can leave the same, and if you prefer you can enter some text into the post template. This would be a good place for a signature or something of that sort. Whatever you put in here will be inserted into every post you do.

On the comments tab I'd do the following: show comments; anyone can comment; full page comment form placement; new posts have comments; hide backlinks; new posts have backlinks; leave the time stamp the same; no comment message; always have comment moderation; yes to word verification; and leave the other two the same. Comments aren't that important - you want new customers stumbling upon your blog and seeing how much you know about the subject, not avid readers - but if someone does leave you a comment, make sure to acknowledge it, it may lead to a backlink in the future (more on that later).

For archiving, leave everything exactly the way it is. This will make everyone of your new law blog posts its own web page, key to building a strong legal web presence. And as for the rest on settings, leave everything else the way it is too.

This is it for now. Next I'll discuss the layout section, as it is its own beast. Remember, if you are starting a law firm or solo law practice, a strong web presence is a must. It will get you new legal clients, build you up as a legal expert in your field, and give you something to do while you are waiting for the phone to ring! (just joking about that last one, a little). So, get started on these steps and tomorrow I'll fill you in on setting up the layout of your law practice blog to maximize the likelihood of Google liking it.

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Blogging Part 2

How to Start a Law Firm | SEO

John Truby: Why Writing with Images Is More Powerful Than Writing with Words

Hollywood script doctor John Truby says that successful movies are written with images first, words second.

We are such a visually oriented culture. But we are trained in school to communicate with words first. Images are considered random, illogical, somewhat dangerous. In my experience, writer’s block occurs when we become too word-based. Freeing ourselves requires tuning into our natural, childlike ability to perceive images.

This week, explore the two languages we use as writers: the language of words and the language of images. Both are necessary to a good book.

For ten minutes, pay attention to images around you. What can you perceive when you remind yourself of details perceived via the five senses?

Building a Bridge between Your Writing and Your Life

How closely do your writing and life intersect? How can they support, even feed, each other?

This week's exercise can be transformational. You begin by listing your personal minimum requirements for staying healthy and balanced in your life. Look at these arenas:

physical (health, sleep, exercise, food)
emotional (relationships with family and friends, self-care, private time) intellectual (learning and growing, staying current)
spiritual (faith in self, belief systems)

Ask yourself, What is required in my life to feel in control, balanced, and healthy?

Make a second list or chart of what you need to have in your life, to get your book written. Be very specific:
privacy?
time?
feedback?
supplies?
resources?
working equipment?
good scheduling?

Rate the two lists as far as reality. What do you have in place? What is missing?

How to Start a Law Firm | Specialty Practice or General Practice?

So, you've decided to start a law firm. Great. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or newly out of law school a very important decision that needs to be made before you start out on your own is if you want to have a specialty law practice or niche law firm, or if you want to be a general practice law firm, handling a little of everything.

If you have some experience in a particular area this may be a fairly easy decision. Depending on the work available (and never, ever let the fact that you are a small firm keep you from exploring a particular practice area) and your feelings toward the practice area you may just want to keep on doing what you are doing.

For example, I am leaving a government job doing eminent domain law, real estate transactions and advising, and some general day to day advising. I love the work that I do, so I am going to pursue these three areas as my primary practice area. I may do something else from time to time for friends or something, but I will not be taking a call in case if it does not fit within my practice area.

Update - 10/7/09: I have decided to do something else, since the market, and people losing their property to the government, didn't need me (or I couldn't find them). So, now you are reading a blog from a Seattle DUI defense lawyer.

There are benefits and drawbacks to each decision. As you've just heard, I will be turning potential clients away at my new law firm if they do not need the criminal defense and DUI defense services I am offering. This is definitely a drawback.

On the other hand, however, it can also be a benefit with the potential to make some easy money. As you get out into the world, you will meet other attorney's that practice in other areas. So long as you trust them to do a good job, and your local ethical rules allow it, it is beneficial to both of you to form attorney referral relationship.

A benefit of specializing is that it is much easier to become known in the community as an expert. Experts almost always make more money in the long run. As you work in a particular area your name will become more well known, and assuming you do a good job, people will start to come to you for specific work. Being recognized as someone who knows what they are doing commands more money, plain and simple. For example, in a couple of years I should be able to build myself up as one of the better DUI defense attorneys in Seattle, maximizing my appealability to people with those specific problems.

Whatever you decide to do, the great thing is, when starting a law firm, if the path you've chosen isn't working, you can just change it. If you start out as a general practitioner and end up finding an area of the law that you love, just start focusing on that. If you start your law firm as a specialist and decide you don't like it, just start taking other clients.

I think in the end your new law firm will thrive and get more clients by specializing in something. But it can come naturally. You'd be surprised at the opportunities that will walk in your door. You just have to have the foresight to take advantage of them!

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Office Space

Starting a Law Firm | Goals and Objectives

Your Weekly Writing Exercise--Pick One Memory

A writer from Minneapolis emailed me: "I just came across an idea for your writing exercises. You may have heard of it already, but it's a new one to me and has me quite intriqued as to how I'll write about it. It was in the [Minneapolis] Star Tribune under theatre performances."

Here's the exercise, from Workhouse Theatre Company: "You are passing through to eternity, and you must select one memory you can take with you--of everything you've ever done, felt or thought. You have one hour. Choose."

Cool idea. Use it for your writing this week. What memory--of everything--would you take with you? Write about it. Click here to learn more about Workhouse.

Starting a Law Firm | Networking to Get Clients

If there is one constant in any law firm, whether just starting out or established for decades, it is the need for new business. In almost any circumstance, current clients, although possibly returning for services at a later date, will only need your services for a short amount of time (or for a limited need). Once a project or conflict is resolved, then the client moves on and you are left needing a new client.

Getting clients to your new law firm in most cases is not that hard. There is, however, a right way and a wrong way to do (or at least a way that is much more efficient and successful than many others). In almost all cases it involves that ambiguous term called "networking." I say ambiguous because there are many different philosophies related to networking.

Because I want my law firm to be successful, and I want my clients to be representative of me, I have been trying to learn all I can about how to find and then sign up the perfect clients for my new law firm. One of my resources is a book by Stephanie Palmer called "Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over any Audience."

Good in a Room takes a novel approach to networking, based on the author's experiences in the film industry listening to movie screenplay pitches. By hearing over 3,000 pitches, Palmer began to notice some things that worked and did not work, and then took those insights and created this book about networking in general. Although there are chapters on running the perfect meeting (where you are pitching your services) there are also chapters on things like good places to network (not a chamber of commerce meeting), good places and the correct way to pitch your services to someone (not an elevator) and much much more.

A lot of what Palmer has to say translates to starting a law firm and I plan to integrate most of her practices and suggestions.

I'd highly recommend this book to all attorneys responsible for bringing in business, whether well established or just starting out. Building true relationships is the key, not handing out as many business cards as you can. Take a look at this book if you are starting a small law firm. It will not disappoint.

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Getting Clients

Starting a Law Firm | Challenges of Signing up Clients

Starting a Law Firm | Marketing in a New Way

Starting a Law Firm | Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

In a previous post I laid out my starting a law firm to do list, including 13 or so items I needed to get done so my firm can hit the ground running when the doors open. So far I haven't gotten any of the things done, though I have started at least 3 of the to do list items. As I look back through the list again I can see I have set myself up for failure for two reasons - so I need to modify the to do list and modify my philosophy for completing the to do list.

First and foremost, my law firm to do list is not specific enough, and it is causing me to not get anything done because I'm trying to figure out what I need to do first. I'm sure this happens to you, probably when you are trying to write a complicated brief or structure a complicated argument. You know what you want the result to be, but getting there requires several pieces to be completed first.

For example, item number one is putting together my law firm website. I have several things I need to get done, but I haven't sequenced them and broken them down into their parts so I have a distinct plan to follow and so I can get some sense of accomplishment from crossing things off my to do list. Preliminarily setting up the site so it has content is probably made up of more than one step. So step one should really be figuring out what I have to do to get my site up and running and then do those things.

So, number one on my how to start a law firm to-do list is to refine my to do list into manageable, reachable action items. Once that happens then I can actually focus on getting tasks done, as opposed to thinking about what needs to get done to get tasks done (if you aren't confused by that last sentence, good for you!).

The second thing going on with starting a law firm is I am getting really bogged down in the details, wanting everything to be perfect. For example, I spent a couple of hours on the internet last night trying to price a laptop for my practice. In reality, I don't need some state of the art computer to be successful. I need something that has enough memory to hold a lot of pictures and pdf files, and I need microsoft word and power point. That is really about it. So, when looking for a computer, how hard can that be?

I'm falling victim to law firm paralysis by analysis, a common problem among entrepreneurs, I think. I need to remember that one of the great things about opening a law firm is that you have the flexibility and the authority to change things whenever you feel like they need to be changed. That will not mean that my decisions, particularly when significant money or time allocations are involved, will be made willy nilly, but there comes a time when you just have to pull the trigger and move on to something else.

Starting a law firm really has been and I think will continue to be a very humbling and rewarding experience. And moving forward I have to goals: (1) better define what needs to be done and break those things down into smaller pieces; and (2) make concise, quick decisions and move on to the next item.

Hopefully in meeting these new goals I'll be able to knock out several items on my to do list and get this law firm up and running!

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Too Many Law Students?

Starting a Law Firm | Getting Paid

Does Your Writing Show or Tell? Learn from Robert Olen Butler

Anton Chekhov wrote, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

Showing is a demonstration of emotion through specific details. Telling can bring in an almost intellectual assessment of what happened. Showing, the opposite, requires very little intellectual language. It relies instead on sensory detail (smells, sights, sounds).   While telling backs away from the moment, summarizing feelings from a distance, showing places the reader squarely in it. 

The key to showing is to demonstrate. This means not interpreting the things you are placing in front of us.

Robert Olen Butler, author of many wonderful stories and novels and instructor at this writing at Florida State University’s MFA program, talks about this in his book From Where You Dream (Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2005). To deliver emotion in its purest form, don’t dilute it with interpretation. Butler observed that emotion can be delivered to a reader (shown, versus told) generally in five ways. Here is my translation of his terms:

• what I am feeling inside my body (goosebumps on my arm, itchy foot, tight throat)

• what I am observing in your gestures and movements (tearing a small paper napkin into bits, jiggling foot)

• specific memory

• fear, anticipation, desire (projections into future)

• sense selectivity (during moments of extreme emotion, all but one sense goes away)

During the developing stage of book writing, whenever I need to change a scene to more “showing,” I will go through Butler’s list and ask myself how I can bring in one of these.

This week, translate a passage that "tells" into one that "shows," using one of the above techniques.  What happened?

Starting a Law Firm | The Best Law Firm Website

If you are starting a law firm and haven't thought about what your website will look like, how you will get people to your website, or what purposes your website will serve, you have not yet gotten out of the starting blocks. And you will notice that I didn't mention considering having a website. If you are going to have a law firm in this day and age, you need to have a website. And if you are going to have a law firm website, you might as well make sure people can find it. Below I'll give you a little information answering the questions answered above, just in case you haven't considered them yet.

1. Website Design

A successful law firm website does not need to be flashy. Streaming video and bells and whistles, while nice, won't necessarily get you new client (unless your potential clients will look for this - something you need to know before you begin to design your website). What your law firm website does need is three things:

(1) it needs to quickly and easily identify the firms practice areas, the firms value proposition, and why the firm is good for the client;

(2) it needs to display your address and contact information on every page; and

(3) it needs to look clean, like you spent some time on its design and work flawlessly.

Quickly and easily identifying the firms practice areas is easy. Simply sit down and write out what it is you do, why you are good at it, and how you can help those that find your website. You can say more about each practice area, the individual attorneys, and whatever else you want on separate tabbed pages. I would also recommend placing an RSS feed on the front page of your site to display your latest blog postings from your practice area blogs (another must have).

For example, my firm will have on the opening page something about ending the billable hour and providing clients with efficient, effective results with fixed fee legal help. It will invite people to contact us for more information, and my two practice area blogs, one on Seattle Washington eminent domain and condemnation, including:

receiving just compensation for Washington land takings,

and one on Seattle small business law, including:

choosing a business structure;

starting a Seattle business;

dissolving a Seattle business;

hiring employees in Washington;

Seattle employment law;

and how to find a good Seattle small business lawyer.

The key here is to be short, sweet concise, and honest. This will be your first contact with potential customers most of the time, and it is important to begin to build that trust with them.

2. Display your Law Firm Contact Info on Every Page

A primary goal is to make it easy for customers to contact you once they've decided you are the one. Why make them search around for that information? Prominently displaying that information at the bottom of every page (along with your legal disclaimer) is the best place to put it, as that is often where people will look first.

Separate from your contact information but equally as important is putting your logo on every page. Seeing that you have a specific law firm logo (and hopefully one that has been at least semi-professionally designed) helps to build that sense of trust, if for no other reason than people will naturally think that a firm with a well put together law firm website and a well designed logo must have their stuff together.

3. Make the Law Firm Website Look Great and Make it Work Flawlessly

A messy law firm website is like a messy desk - even though you think it makes you look busy, it really just makes you look unorganized and errant. Take the time to really think about what your firm website looks like. Get on the internet and look at other websites (please DO NOT just look at legal websites - doing more of the same is not a recipe for success in this business). Take notes on what you like and don't like and incorporate those things into your site.

If you do not know how to create a website, don't fret. Part of being a lawyer, and starting your own law firm, is creatively solving problems. In this day and age not only is there plenty of software that makes website design easy, but nearly everyone under the age of 23 has designed or knows how to design a website. Put a flier up outside the local college and let a computer science major put it together for a few hundred bucks and the authority to let him take credit for designing your sight. Having a great website will get you clients. Don't skimp here.
And finally, make sure your law firm website works. Once you have it up and working, go online and test every link and every page on the sight. Make sure not only that all the links work (and convey the image you want) but that they work at an appropriate speed.

If you go to many law firm websites they have a bunch of bells and whistles but load so slowly by the time everything pops up you are ready to find someone else. Imaging you are a potential customer looking for an attorney. Are you impressed? Don't stop working until you are.

Now that you have figured out what your site is going to look like (this is on my starting a law firm to do list this week, and once my site is actually up and running I will direct it to you so you can let me know what you think) you need to start taking steps so people can find it when they search on the internet. Optimizing a law firm website is not hard, but it isn't necessarily natural. My next post will help you with this.

Related Posts:

Staring a Law Firm Blog | Part 1

Starting a Law Firm Blog | Part 2

Starting a Law Firm | Internet Marketing

Starting a Law Firm | The Google Sandbox

Opening a Law Firm | New To Do List

In the past few weeks a lot has happened, slowing my posting here. First, I am officially an eminent domain trial lawyer! I finished up my case in Kansas and ended up with a great result. Second, I am preparing for my move to Seattle, Washington, which will take place in exactly three weeks! And although my Seattle criminal law practice won't be able to open until May, there is a lot I can do now to get ready.

So, without further delay, here is what is next on my list of things to do for starting a law firm. And by the way, I know I have shifted away from the specific to the more general lately, so the plan is to give you the to do list today, and as I cross things off the list explain what I did and how I did it so when you go out to do it you can save time and money. Sound good? Let's get started.

To Do List for Starting a Law Firm

1. Create and Get up and Running my law firm website.

This includes securing a domain name, purchasing website creation software, preliminarily setting up the site so it has some content, and putting together a draft of the pages I want and content I want on the site. If you didn't know, if you don't have a law firm website you're a dinosaur. Everything begins and ends here.

2. Office Set-Up and Pricing.

This includes: finding the exact laptop I want for the law practice; determining the exact price for the laptop; figuring out how to set up the laptop so I can use it as a dual screen with my desktop; finding and pricing the laptop dock I want; finding and pricing the exact printer and scanner I want; and figuring out how to get all of this financed.

3. Finalize the Law Firm Business Plan.

This speaks for itself. I have already sent the business plan out to a couple of people for review (Alison are you going to get back to me?!! :) ), but I'd like to more specifically outline my marketing plan so I can have a list of action items and a true legal marketing plan to hit the ground running.

4. Continue Increasing the Search Engine Optimization for My Blogs.

Search engine optimization is the practice of taking specific steps to increase the likelihood of your law firm website ranking high in the search engines for specific keywords. For example, when people search Seattle DUI attorney, I'd like both my blog and my firm website to be on the first page of Google. Getting that result is not necessarily hard, but it does take a little elbow grease - including posting on the sites as often as possible. Don't worry, I'll explain in much more detail later.

5. Post to My Legal Blogs Every Other Day.

This is for three reasons. First, see #4. Search engine optimization requires good content. Second, this is the easiest and one of the most effective ways to establish yourself as an expert in your field (DUI defense and criminal defense, for example). And third, posting requires you to delve deeper into your subject matter, both for content and analysis, actually increasing your expertise.

6. Draft Outline of Firm Brochure.

This one speaks for itself, but I will say that one of the primary differences my firm will have from many traditional law firms is no fear of aggressive, targeted marketing. Law is a profession, but if people don't know about you you will never be able to help them.

7. Create Law Firm Logo.

This one also speaks for itself. But I will say having a sharp law firm logo can't help but make your law firm at least appear to be more successful.

8. Draft Client Intake Sheet for Eminent Domain and Small Business Clients.

In addition to the usual background information this is a good way to get other useful information that you can use to build a successful practice and increase the likelihood of a successful relationship with the customer.

9. Create the Small Business Monthly Fee Schedule with Levels of Service.

Part of my law firm business philosophy is eliminating the billable hour. I will have more posts on this to come, but when really analyzed hourly billing diminishes the practice of law to a commodity, promotes inefficient processes and strategies, limits your earning potential as a lawyer, and doesn't always promote client goals, particularly when giving advice to clients (although my answer to the question may take only 5 minutes, it is based on years of experience - would you rather be paid for the 5 minutes or the experience behind it?).

So I plan on creating a fee structure eliminating the billable hour and instead focusing on customer service and satisfaction through an agreed to flat fee based on the value provided to the client.

10. Create a Firm Process for Resolving Client Matters and Handling Client Matters

Part of the craziness of an attorney's life is sometimes the unstructuredness of it. I want to implement firm policies and procedures to eliminate the feeling of helplessness with my schedule and create a consistent customer experience no matter who the customer may be dealing with at the firm.

11. Finalize a Specific Marketing Plan.

Again with the marketing. Opening a successful law firm requires locating and finding clients when you start with none. With this action item I intend to establish my marketing plan on a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily basis. I already know it will include email updates, newsletters, direct mail, postcards, targeted print advertising, publishing articles, and public speaking. Now I just need to specifically define how and when I'll do each of those.

12. Create a "Prospect Kit."

Again, this all goes back to demonstrating to customers and potential customers of your new law firm not only that you are experienced and can handle their problems but that you care about them. This prospect kit will probably include a practice area guide, testimonials, a biography, a sheet on value pricing versus hourly billing, a published article relating to the prospect's business, and a personalized cover letter. You must remember the practice of law is highly competitive. If you want clients you have to go get them.

As you can see, the list if fairly exhaustive. I have a lot to do in the coming weeks and months (and this isn't even close to all of it). Starting a law firm is not easy! Many of these items will probably take the longest because many involve content creation - no easy task. Although it will be tough and monotonous at times, this is the reason I am doing this - to control my own destiny!

I plan on updating here frequently on my progress, including step by step details of exactly what I've been doing. Feel free to comment and provide suggestions, and I hope this helps you answer the question of how to start a law firm.

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Google Ranking

Opening a Law Firm | Learning Business

Your Creative Vocal Chords--How to Warm Them Up

William Wordsworth said, "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."  We're not all poets.  But all of us have these breathings of the heart, which some call voice.

Voice is your passion, your style, the things you must write, the way you must write them.  But voice can easily be squelched.  It can go through silent passages, coming out in a mere whisper.  The biggest problem in silent passages is that you don’t know they’re happening at first. They start innocently—a tiny bit of boredom with your characters, a chapter that feels rough with no inspiring fixes. These pile up and an overactive Inner Critic can make them seem worse. Slowly the silence inside the writer grows, until words trickle to a stop.

Educator Steve Peha from Teaching That Makes Sense http://www.ttms.org/ says voice is a combination of choices a writer makes. In other subjects, we all learn the same rules and theories.  Think:  math equations, history facts.  Creative writing is supposed to showcase the individual and how individual they can be and still communicate well.

“Everyone’s writing needs to be different from everyone else’s,” writes Peha. “The set of all the different choices a writer makes, and the collective effect they have on the reader, is what is often called ‘voice’ in a piece of writing.” Choices include your style of language, the words you use, the length of your sentences and paragraphs, tone.  Just like in conversation.


And conversation--with yourself--is the key.  Having a regular writing practice is the single most important way to gain and belief in yourself, and keep the writing voice warmed up.

This week, try writing every day for 5 minutes.  Just 5 minutes.  Observe the excuses and grumblings that might float (or thud) in during the first few days.  Then observe what happens once your voice gets warmed up. 

Check in here to let our book-writing community know how your 5 minutes/day went. 

Starting a Law Firm | Does the Economy Matter?

The short answer is no, you should not worry about the economy when starting a law firm. The practice of law seems to be a funny thing in that even in hard times legal advice is needed. That is not to say, however, that when the economy is tanking, as it is right now, that you can just announce you are open for business and begin counting money. Here are the a top five things to you can do to help your law firm survive an economic downturn from How to Start a Law Firm.

1. Make Sure the Law Firm Business Plan is Well Thought Out and Very Thorough.

Know how they say time is money? That saying holds even more truth in down economic times, where a missed opportunity may mean no opportunity for your firm. How can you be sure to maximize every opportunity you are presented? Make sure your law firm business plan is complete. You will have defined your goals and will be able to immediately recognize an opportunity or a potential client, that could determine the success or failure of your young firm.

2. Market Market Market Your New Law Firm.

Although you may think because there are less people out there requiring your services so you should focus on the clients you have, the truth is this is the most important time to market to potential legal clients and keep the business coming in. When you have poured over the case you have for the 10th time you are going to need something else to do. Finding potential clients when the pool is shallow is critical to your law firm's success.

3. Don't Forget About Past and Present Law Firm Clients Though.

Law firm marketing doesn't just mean finding new clients. It also means looking at your past clients. If they have utilized your law firm's services before, there is a chance they may need some help again. Give them a call, let them know your new law firm is still doing well in these hard economic times and ask how they are doing. You'd be surprised how many times a former client has work they just have not had time to ask you to complete.

For example, I'm a Seattle DUI defense attorney. In my practice I'd expect there will be times when former clients need to come back to me for help. I'm going to make sure they remember what a good job I did for them.

4. Limit Unnecessary Law Firm Expenses.

This one is pretty self explanatory. Do not splurge on things you do not need. The belt needs to tighten in hard economic times. Maybe this means an alternative office arrangement when you start a law firm. Hopefully you have set up the budget in your law firm business plan so nothing unnecessary is splurged on. Whatever it is, try to hold back unless it is immediately necessary.

5. Continue to Provide Excellent Service.

One of the great things about economic downturns is when an upturn begins. Don't shoot yourself in the foot during the downturn by providing less than stellar service. When staring a new law firm or continuing the success of an established law firm, your law firm reputation is everything.

Just because you may end up losing money on a specific case (assuming it was your error and not a lack of payment by the client) doesn't mean you should diminish your level of service. At some point the economy will turn and people will have money to do things like sue people and they will remember the help that you gave them when times were tough. If you do a good job of stating your value proposition to the client and agreeing to a fee that accounts for your services, you shouldn't be faced with this problem too often.

In the end, there is no better time to start a law firm than now. There will always be things standing in your way. If you wait until everything is perfect, you will never open your law firm doors. So just get out there and do it!

Related Posts:

Starting a Law Firm | Getting Clients

Starting a Law Firm | Favorite Blogs

Pace Yourself: An Exercise to Create Rhythm in Your Writing

Like changing seasons that move elegantly into each other, a good book has an almost invisible rhythm called pacing.

Excellent pacing creates music a reader can resonate with. Pacing makes writing memorable.

An Important Tool for Your Writing
Pacing is one of the most complex and exciting tools in book writing. It’s the speed of the story, the balance of anecdotes and concepts, the ebb and flow of the writing. Pacing determines your paragraph and sentence lengths, where you put in a line of dialogue, where you muse, where you wax lyrical over a setting.

Two-Page Squint
To study how different writers deliver pacing to a reader—find a favorite book.  Open it, hold two pages up, squint at them, and see the balance of white space to text. Notice how conversation sections have more white space, description has less. So dialogue usually equals faster pace, and description (summary) equals slower pace.

Studying the Pacing in Your Own Writing
Now study the pacing in your own work.  For this week's exercise, find two favorite pages of your writing.  Read it aloud. 

Freewrite for 10 minutes on these questions:
What rhythm do you perceive?
Is the pacing fast or slow?
Where does it vary?

It's Often What You Don't Say That Counts--A Weekly Writing Exercise about Negative Space

Painters know the concept of “negative space.” I learned it in art school. Negative space is everything that is not the main object in a still life or portrait.
(If you can't imagine this, picture a painter getting ready to capture three yellow apples on a fuscia plate, with blue cloth as background. To the painter, the apples are the main objects. Plate and blue cloth are negative space.)

Negative space is kind of like what's not said in your book.  Sometimes this speaks louder than your words.  The silences, the spaces between things.  The hum of what's unspoken brings more tension.  Especially true for memoir and fiction. 

You have to have the main object and the negative space in constant conversation in a painting; although some experimental artists disagree, I’ve found one doesn’t work as well without the other. The apples in my painting above, without plate or cloth on the table, float in space, unanchored and possibly unbelievable. And without the plate's intense background, the apples' luminous golden color would not be as sharply defined and contrasted. Negative space serves to define and illuminate the main focus.

So it is in book writing.

Consider a chapter of your book-in-progress this week.  List everything that's not being said.  Is it creating absences of tension or omission? 

Then ask yourself about the negative space in your life:  How does your book writing co-exist within your life? Is there a conversation going on?  What kind?  One of harmony and back and forth acceptance?  Or one of conflict, avoidance, irritation?

Spend 10 minutes writing about negative space, both in your book and in the relationship between your life and your writing.

Brainstorm Your Way to a Book! Simple List-Making Technique Works for Fiction or Nonfiction

A book could be just a list away.  This week's exercise encourages you to start a simple list in your writing notebook:  possible topics you could write about. 

Ask yourself, What could become a scene or section or small moment in my book?

Your challenge:  add three items to your list each day this week.  Watch your book build.

Go wild:  Allow yourself to include things that don’t seem to fit, like a color, image, snapshot memory, dream, desire, smell, favorite meal. Use your own special shorthand and descriptors to jot these ideas down. Choose image-rich words, if you can, so your imagination will be triggered when you read them. The most successful brainstorming lists immediately put the writer into a scene full of senses.

Examples from my current novel's list:

red stain in the carpet
nighttime trees in the orchard behind Molly's (main character's) house
Molly saying no to Lisa--finally

Do Book Writers Need the Right Brain More Than Other Writers?

How do you use your right brain as a book writer?  The right brain brings a writer ideas for theme, emotion, and deeper levels of meaning in a book. The challenge is to activate it.

This week's writing exercise:  Take five minutes to watch this amazing video.  Let your right brain follow the shapes and movement, then write for 10 minutes.  Do new levels emerge?  Does your writing change (and your blood pressure lower)? Click here to try this exercise.

Writing Exercise of the Week--Ethan Canin's Storyboarding

A blog reader from Minnesota sent in this great link to an interview with author Ethan Canin (America, America)--where he talks about his writing process. He storyboards (one of the main techniques I teach in my writing classes). She writes, "He uses color-coded index cards on a big piece of foam core. Neat!"

Click here to view and listen.

Weekly Writing Exercise--Your Minimum Daily Requirements for Getting Your Book Written!

It's back-to-school time. I can smell those sharpened pencils. Are you set up for getting back to your book?

This week, think about what you would need to have in place, in your life, to get your book started, to keep going, to finish it. Be very specific.

Examples from writers in my book-writing weekly classes:

privacy (where my daughter can't use my computer)
dedicated time to write each week/each day
kind and helpful feedback (not from my mother or spouse!)
supplies--pens that work, legal pads, computer paper
resources for research and inspiration
a laptop that works
writing schedule I can live with
respect from my family--permission to be alone
better goals

Pick one area you could improve on this week. What's one small step you could take? Even a small movement forward helps free us up on this amazing book-writing journey.

Share other mimimum requirements you've discovered.

Are Most Writers Introverts? Nancy Okerlund's Excellent E-Newsletter on the Subject

Nancy Okerlund, of The Introvert Enegizer newsletter, studies how the introvert brain works--and how writers who are introverts often feel better after they spend time writing.

"Compliments of the way we use the parasympathetic nervous system," Okerlund says, "introvert bodies are designed to let our busy brains focus and concentrate deeply for long periods, which makes them feel alert and happy. . . .In the practical everyday world of communicating, writing is a good tool for introverts. Writing a note - or even a letter! - or sending an email allows our characteristic thoughtfulness to come out in a way that may feel easier than speaking. "

To read this article, click here.

Writing Exercise of the Week--Music to My Ears

To access theme in your book, you may need to talk with the nonlinear side of your brain, sometimes called the right brain. So do something nonlinear: For this writing exercise, listen to a favorite piece of music without doing anything else.

Write for twenty minutes about what you heard and felt as you were listening. Then write anything that comes that answers this question: How does my book's theme connect with what I just wrote?

Be non-logical, nonlinear as you explore this on paper. Be prepared for VERY COOL surprises...

What happened? Post it here.

Writing Exercise of the Week--with thanks to Carol Bly

List your most important life values (refer to Carol Bly's wonderful book, The Passionate, Accurate Story, for more information on this exercise). What means the most to you? Are these values represented in your writing? Are they demonstrated in your book?

For me, writer's block can come from not aligning my book writing with what I hold dear in my life. Writing about something superficial, for instance, when I am in deep pain feels very incongruous. When I realign, I write better.

What do you think of this idea?

PS Carol recently passed away but her writing (and teaching) lives on. She was a profound influence on my writing life.

Red Smith's "Opening a Vein" versus Stephen King's "Do It for Joy"

When Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein,” he was talking about the vulnerability a writer must bring to the page.

What does that mean? Vulnerability for writers is how much they reveal, show, let the reader see about themselves. Some writing teachers call it “showing up at the page.” Many of us struggle with this vulnerability—how much should be shown, how much should be hidden, and how much “letting it all hang out” will cause the rest of our lives to fall apart.

Last year, when I began writing another nonfiction book--this one about how to write a book, since I'd written and published twelve and was asked so often if I had one on my writing methods--I was also working on two others. They were at various stages of drafting and almost-completion. My novel was being shopped to publishers, who were giving me feedback and suggestions for changes. The novel's sequel was in second draft, with all the sections written and pasted together; it did not yet resemble a book but it held promise. The third, the nonfiction monolith, was in the proposal stage and I was beginning to draft chapters.

One fine day, the novel got accepted by a small publisher with a good editing team. I was thrilled, called my friends, cried with my family, and went out to celebrate. When I got back to my office the next morning, the other two manuscripts looked at me reproachfully, as if to say, “We still need work. Don’t forget you’re a working writer.”

I write and teach full-time, so I have the luxury of many days alone in my writing studio with just my words to keep me company. Finishing the last rewrites of this soon-to-be-published novel was like being in a dream state. Some days, I found it hard to “wake up” and greet the normal world. So I wanted a few minutes with normal activities, like watering the garden and cleaning the bathroom—believe it or not!

The successful writer’s life is all about this balance between creative time and our normal life.

A big myth: writers (and other creative artists) must be financially distressed alcoholics who can’t keep a relationship going. In fact, many writers in the past have been, but today’s book writer has other options. It’s a matter of finding that edge where you can walk in some comfort, produce good work and get your book written, and still be a responsible member of your community.

As Stephen King says in On Writing: "If you do it for joy, you can do it forever."

When You're Stuck--Here's a Unique Way to Get Yourself Moving!

A writing friend sent me this great video. Watch it for a break from your book today! It's sure to get you moving.

Click here, get on your dancing shoes, and turn up the volume.

Then let me know:
What unique things do you do...
to get yourself moving when you're stuck on your book?

Writing Exercise of the Week--Waiting for Inspiration?

This exercise only takes 10 minutes. Try it right now.

First, list 5 reasons you don't take time for your writing. Anything that comes to mind--other people's demands on your schedule? not enough privacy? feeling stuck? eating too much ice cream?

Remember: write whatever you think of--no matter how small or silly.

Pick one of these reasons. Write 3 antidotes to it.

Let these 3 antidotes simmer in your writing brain today. Imagine them like lone trees on the horizon--signifying an oasis ahead. How might you bring one of them into your life?

What brings you inspiration in your writing life? Post a comment below.

Weekly Writing Exercise for Inspiration! Favorite Quotes on Writing from Maya Angelou, Brenda Ueland, Albert Camus...

Spend a few minutes writing about your response to one of these inspirational quotes. How does it pertain to your book writing this week? Do you believe it's true for you? (The photo at the left is from Maya Angelou's wonderful website. Click here to visit and see more of her inspirational writing.

There is no greater agony that bearing an untold story inside you. --Maya Angelou

A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art, or love, or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened. --Albert Camus

Everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say. --Brenda Ueland

When literature works on you, it does so in silence, in your dreams, in your wordless moments. Good words enter you and become moods, become the quiet fabric of your being. --Ben Okri

There is no hard and fast rule about structure; you can invent your own. --Abigail Thomas