Use “fate” as a plot device

‘So,’ George said, settling back in his chair. ‘Having seen all the candidates, what are your thoughts?’ Louise tapped her pen on the table.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘I thought Jules was a fairly good fit. Ingrid had the most impressive CV in terms of past experience. But I think we should go with David.’ George nodded.

‘I’d be tempted to agree,’ he said. ‘Despite not really being suitable for the position or having any of the relevant qualifications, I think David’s the right choice, mostly because it’s his destiny.’

‘Yes,’ said Louise, thoughtfully. ‘He doesn’t seem to know a lot about marketing per se, but getting this job would be the first step in his meteoric rise to power and eventual corruption in a personal plot arc that echoes, among other texts, Citizen Kane and the fall of Lucifer.’

‘I’d have to concur,’ said George. ‘He was bumbling and inarticulate in the interview, his CV is written on what looks like a paper hand-towel and he was unapologetically an hour late for his appointment, but I think he’s the guy for the job.’

‘What are you going to write on the form?’

‘I’ll just put “indefinable sense of narrative momentum.”’

Improve the online visibility of your fiction through the careful use of keywords

Fighting for breath, Britney Bin Laden sprinted away from the collapsing building with all the speed of a get rich quick scheme or celebrity nipple slip. A massive explosion tore seductively through the virgin wall behind her, a wall which was eighteen years old and ready for fun.

Yikes, thought Britney, this is certainly exclusive breaking news which might well affect current stock prices. Just then, a truck carrying cheap pharmaceutical goods veered off the road, narrowly missing her. That could have killed me, thought Britney, her life flashing before her eyes like a free bootleg movie download. There are so many things I regret. I wish I had won top prizes at an online Euro-Casino, or talked to more singles in my area.

‘Britney!’ someone shouted. She squinted through the smoke. It was her friend and lover, Jesus Michael Jackson-Obama-Sextape. ‘Are you okay?’ he said, offering her coupon codes for genuine software downloads.

Nolo.com Advertising. Is it Worth It? A Review.

As you know, I'm constantly on the lookout for ways to market my law firm. If you've never started a law firm before, you probably don't think about it that much, but getting people to pick up the phone and call you when they need you is the most important thing there is. Great attorneys aren't great unless they have someone to help, right?

So, I got a call the other day from a representative at nolo.com. They acted as if I should know who they are and that they are all over the place. Honestly, I didn't really know much about them. But, to me, it didn't make much of a difference. I still took the time to listen to what they had to say to see if they could help me at all. I think most people hang up. I listen. Most of the time I say no. Sometimes I say yes (and then I let you know about it!).

What they offer is a kind of personal profile on their site. And, though I signed up a couple of weeks ago, I remember that an attractive aspect of the site was that there were a limited number of attorneys in the space, and that you had the ability to build out your own profile, which was quite extensive. In addition to that within your profile you get to create 25 links and point them wherever you want. As you know, I love links, so this is what put it over the edge.

The pricing is honestly a little steep. Essentially you are paying for an online yellow pages ad, which gets crawled who knows how much (I'll periodically update this so you know), for about $160/month. If you pay up front and enter into a longer contract, it's cheaper. But I only went for a year. If it works out, I'll keep it up.

Remember, if you have decided to start a law firm, the number one question you are going to have to answer, and answer fast, is how you are going to get clients into the door. If you don't have an answer, then you are going to have a tough go of it.

I talk to people a lot about starting a law firm. I encourage it. I tell them what I've done right and wrong, and I try to help them through the process. But time and time again I ask them what they are doing and it's reading the law. Read the law when you have a client to work for. You have been taught how to learn the law. Now is the time to get clients. Put your energy toward that, and when you get someone that needs help, learn everything you need to help them.

I can guarantee you nolo.com will be contacting me to talk about this review. They always do. I'll let you know if I left anything out of the post.

Hate your characters

(With thanks to James Franco)

Frank Malaise sat slumped in the barber’s chair, reeking of sweat and onions. His folds of pale fat covered him like a quilt made of bacon rind, swaddling his weak frame just as, far beneath his rib cage, they swaddled his anaemic heart. One day that heart would give out and his funeral would be attended by every person whose life he had touched and whose love he had earned in his time on this planet – which is to say, no one.

‘Hey,’ he called across the barbershop. ‘I haven’t got all day here.’ This was true. His plans for the afternoon included poor-quality microwave meals and wallowing in his own ignorance. In response to this petulant demand for service, Sid the barber stalked across the room and stood behind Frank. He paused for a second, his scissor blades hovering near Frank’s neck.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, directionless hatred bubbling in the pit of his soul. Sid was a deeply unpleasant man, subject to misanthropic murderous rages that he liked to think of as his “purging” instincts. His wife, herself a morbidly obese and profoundly stupid human being, took perverse pleasure in adopting a chirpy, sing-song voice as she warned Sid that one of these days he would “flip his lid.” The truth was that one day he would, that blood would be spilled and that the world would be better for it. God, I hate people.

Being on the Radio--WNPR Helps Me Fall in Love with My Story Again

This week I had my small moment in the sun. A thrill for any writer, I was invited for an interview on WNPR about my new novel, Qualities of Light. I'd sent a copy of the book to WNPR in October, when the book was released, hoping but not expecting. The email came in February--We're interested in interviewing you. Yes! I said.

The host is a real expert at getting the story behind the story, no matter who she's talking with. Faith Middleton's show is in its twenty-ninth year, and it has won two Peabody Awards (broadcasting's equivalent of the Pulitzer).

I've spoken on over 100 radio and TV programs in past years, for my other books, and it should've been a breeze. But the novel felt much more personal, more risky to talk about. I prepared lots of notes, and even with all my experience, I was nervous as I drove to the studio in the rain that morning. I'd heard wonderful things about Faith's warm and engaging style, but it didn't matter. What if she asked me something weird? Or, worse, criticized my book in front of all those invisible listeners?

She asked me to sit across from her, in a cozy armchair. I asked for a table for my notes, and she said I wouldn't need any. Oh, boy, more jitters. But her smile and obvious enjoyment of the process of our interview softened everything. So did her first question:

Tell us about the image or moment when you began this book. Where were you, what were you doing?



I'm a writer who lives in images. I usually start a book with a moment, or an image, and when Faith asked that question, I was immediately back on the lakeside dock, that summer nine years ago in the Adirondacks, watching the waterskiier's white wake across the wide expanse of water. I remember how that image struck me at the time, how it propelled the thought She walks on water.

I began to dream the dream that begins each book. To look at this dream again, during the interview, brought back all the joy I felt on that lakeside dock. Since I'm a painter, the visual was the doorway for me, into the dream. Other writers experience this dream doorway as sounds or smells, a feeling, a thought, a different kind of moment.

The other question Faith asked that really surprised me, delighted me, and made me think anew about the writing process was this: What did I expect readers to get from my story, and how that was different from what they said they got.

What an insightful question. Yes, there was a difference!

My intent, simply put, is for people to accept the idea that love is love. When love comes, no matter how it comes, it is important and real. You can't predict it, or control it, and it's a gift most times. I wanted us, as a culture, to get over the idea of predictable packages and recognize love in all its miraculous forms.

But readers take books in different directions than authors intend. My readers have been mostly transfixed with the family story--the equally miraculous change that happens in families after trauma, when certain "qualities of light" within a person transform and heal other family members. One elderly friend bought eleven copies of my novel to give to her friends, saying that the story was healing because of what happened in the family. It would give families hope.

This Week's Writing Exercise

This week's exercise has two parts. It lets you explore your starting and your ending for your beautiful project.

First, spend some time revisiting the initial image of your writing project. What did you start with? Was it visual, a sound or smell, a feeling, a thought or idea? Spend 10-20 minutes writing about it. See what comes to renew your love for your book or project.

Secondly, freewrite for 20 minutes about your intent for the book. What do you want readers to get from it? What might they get, despite you?

If you want to listen to my interview on WNPR, the online link is below. Let me know what you think:

http://www.cpbn.org/program/faith-middleton-show/episode/fms-qualities-light

Refuse to leave the present tense

I sit at my desk and remember how, years ago, I wonder what my life will be like when I am fifty, which I am now. I’m imagining that I’m living in a big house, I remember as I sit in my one-bedroom apartment. Now I pour myself a drink and cast my mind back to a time when I’m full of hope and passion which is never to be extinguished, as it is now.

‘What am I doing?’ I mutter to myself, taking a sip of my drink. In my memory, I’m seven years old, sitting in the highest branches of a tree which is being planted a hundred years before I am born. Now, though, the tree is long dead. I’m chopping it down at the age of twenty and thinking about when it is supporting my weight at the age of seven. I look at my watch.

‘Late,’ I mutter to myself. It is eight; the retrospective is just starting, half an hour ago.

Give your characters distinctive idioms

‘Dae ye nae ken?’ spluttered Hamish, spilling whisky on his sporran. ‘I cannae be tha’ mush clerrer.' Bronco frowned at him.

‘Well, gee whizz,’ he said. ‘I’m havin’ the darndest time tryin’ a foller yer. Could’ya speak a liddle slower, pardner?’

‘Ah, tae hell with ye,’ muttered Hamish.

‘I believe what our Caledonian friend is attempting to convey,’ lisped Archibald over the rim of his teacup, ‘is that he is somewhat dissatisfied with the manner in which he is being addressed by your good self. Is that right, old chap?’

‘Aye,’ the red-haired drunkard grumbled. ‘An i’s no jus’ Yankie-boy, neither. Ye’s all a shoor o’ racists.’ Before he could elaborate, however, the conversation was interrupted by the late arrival of Ahmed.

Building Your Platform--Key to Selling Your Manuscript in Today's Publishing Industry

Do you want to see your name (or your book's title) in lights someday? You may need to get a platform.

What the heck is a platform? Writers in my classes ask this question regularly. Some are submitting their manuscripts and hear this back from agents they contact. Platform used to mean something to stand on, a stage. Now it means the place from which your book's message goes out into the world.

Platforms are built over time and eventually let you be visible to a wider readership. They let people see you and hear you above the crowd.

Not all writers--including me--feel comfortable with the idea of a platform at first. Can't we just write? Can't we just create something wonderful with words? Do we have to stand out? Platforms smack of being called a leader, an expert, someone who knows whereof she speaks.

In my decades as a published author, I've sold lots of books without platforms. Books were based on my expertise (nonfiction) or my experience (memoir), and that was good enough. Three years ago, I sold my novel without any platform at all. The publisher fell in love with the story.

But things have changed. I'm editing my next book, Your Book Starts Here, to be published later this year. It has propelled me into the world of platforms.

Think of a Platform as a Solid Place for Your Book to Stand
A very wonderful agent gave me some great advice.
When I began Your Book Starts Here, I sent her the proposal. She liked it, but she advised me that my platform was not strong enough. "Take some time," she said, "and get yourself known out there. Make what you offer different from what everyone else offers." She sketched out several steps for me during our phone conversation: start a blog, get your website more current and update it regularly, build a following by offering something really unique, get more visible on the Internet by writing guest articles for other sites. In other words, create a buzz.

I had to go back to the drawing board, or writing desk, to start this process. I knew that what I offered in my book-writing classes was unique. Not too many teachers focus on the ways to structure a nonfiction book, memoir, or novel. I began a list of writers who'd been in my classes over the years and had published their books. I also looked at my list of teaching colleagues who knew my work. I asked them to write down why my particular service, as teacher and writing coach, benefited them. I got flooded with responses.

When I looked over their comments, I was able to get a sense of what platform I could build. A platform begins with knowing what you offer. First step accomplished.

Next, I wanted to begin offering some of Your Book Starts Here's ideas for free--a test to see if people outside my classes would like what I offer, in terms of book-structuring methods and inspiration to keep going on the book journey. Two years ago, I began this blog. My idea was to give a weekly exercise that writers of all skill levels could try. Maybe they would tell others, if the exercises worked well for them or if they liked what I offered.

This blog (the one you're reading) has been pretty successful. Over 25,000 visitors and many weekly subscribers--not a runaway bestseller compared to some, but good enough to keep me encouraged. Second step accomplished.

I'm still working on other ideas--such as teaching my book-writing classes at more locations (this year I'll be offering workshops at the New Hampshire Writers' Project at University of New Hampshire, the Sharon Arts Center, and the Madeline Island School for the Arts, as a start). I've got a whiz kid web site person revamping my web site. I'm researching lots of other writing sites and would love your recommendations--what sites or e-newsletters on writing do you love and visit often?

What Does This Have to Do with Your Book Journey?

This week's exercise challenges you to stretch in a non-writing way. Is there anything in my experience above that might encourage you to take a small step toward building your own platform this week? Here are some ideas:

1. Start a blog. Really. Consider it. It's free. It'll give you practice at talking about your book-to-be. You can post weekly, ask a few friends to visit, and see what happens. Two great sites to check out are http://www.blogger.com/ and http://www.wordpress.com/.

2. Ask your friends to write down some reasons you're unique, your book idea is unique, and you are a great all-around person, worthy of standing on a platform. Seriously. This is a great exercise to find out what is unique about what you offer.

3. Read a book by Christina Katz called Get Known Before the Book Deal. She talks about platform. You can read an excerpt at http://www.writersdigest.com//article/get-known-excerpt.

4. Visit some author websites. What do they include? What might you include, if you had one of your own?

Focus on one sense to the exclusion of the others

Before he even opened his eyes, Daniel could smell the metallic, oily scent of the machine guns pointing at him.

‘The prisoner is awake!’ shouted the nearest of the men. His breath smelled like onions and raw meat. Daniel blinked.

‘Where...’ he said, but before he could finish his question, a leather boot which stank of petrol hit the side of his head. He fell to the ground, which smelled of mud and, again, petrol.

‘Silence!’ screamed the guard, the tangy, faintly sweet odour of his sweat wafting into Daniel’s nostrils. Daniel was sure that, had any dogs been nearby, they could have smelled his fear. The whole situation reeked of danger. Then, on the wind, came the salty scent of the ocean and, with it, a faint whiff of hope.

‘Smell you later!’ shouted Daniel, making a run for the jet-ski.

Registration Now Open for My Summer Book-Writing Retreat--On an Island in Lake Superior!

I've been included this summer in an illustrious line-up of writing teachers, and we're all going to be offering specialized writing retreats on Madeline Island, a beautiful resort island in Lake Superior. What an amazing place to write! Join me July 26-30 for Creative Process: How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book--Taking the Next Step to Publication.

If you like what I've been offering each week in these blog posts, you'll love working one-to-one with me, and a supportive community of fellow book-writers, in this beautiful environment. Each day includes a four hour class, plenty of time to write, and sharing time for feedback. We'll dive into the three-act structure I'm so keen on, taking our novels, memoirs, and nonfiction books-in-progress through exercises like storyboarding, chapter pacing, character and setting development, and much more. A great gift to give your book--and yourself. Cost for the retreat is $410. Class size is limited. For more information, check out www.madelineschool.com. Or call them at 715-747-2054.

Imagine...

Spending your summer writing in a milkhouse, on a farm, in the middle of an island, on Lake Superior.

Come to the island, where prairie grasses, pine forests, and emerald green waters wait for your words.

Cram as much information and detail into the title as you can, even if this means sacrificing the readability of said title and somewhat stealing the thunder of the main body of the work itself, which is left only really being able to reiterate what has already been said in the title, which was itself clumsy and repetitious

See above.

Withhold key information to create tension

As her ears filled with white noise, Naomi stared at the ocean 30,000 feet beneath her and wished she had packed a parachute. Around her, clouds tumbled past in a blur of wind and white ozone. Far, far below, she could see the shimmering surface of the water – if she were to hit it at terminal velocity, she knew it would break every bone in her body. Of course, she would have passed out long before then, her vision narrowing to a bright dot, then shutting off completely as the blood rushed to her brain.

The roar of white noise grew louder. She had been in danger plenty of times over the last few months and near-death experiences had become a way of life, but nothing terrified her more than the prospect of plunging to her certain death in the unknowable emptiness of the mid-Pacific, thousands of miles from home.

Phew, she thought, removing her faulty headphones. It’s a good job I’m on a plane.

Starting a Law Firm | Planning for Disaster

It's the kind of thing we never like to think about when starting a law firm, much less plan for. Disaster. It could be a disaster caused caused by health, by natural disaster, or by any other number of problems. But when it strikes, it is important to be prepared.

And the preparation can be intense. There are a lot of things to think about. What if you get hurt? Do you have a plan in place to make sure your clients are adequately represented? Do you have a way to keep the firm up and running in your absence? Starting a law firm is about more than making money and helping people. It is about building a sustainable business, a legacy, something that can carry on when you are gone. And you have to plan for your absence early.

Another thing that you need to think about is building up enough of a cushion in case you fall victim to some unforeseen economic crisis. You have to keep paying your bills, your loans, and your employees whether or not you have money coming in. Right now, I have about 3 months of operating costs available should the worst happen. When I started my law firm the plan was to have it at 6 months. It's important to have a way to keep going in times of crisis (and not panic and throw good money after bad).

Last, but not least, is a natural, or unnatural, natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina showed us the devastation that can befall us at any time, and we have to have a plan to keep the shop up and running, which includes your files and important documents. Here in Seattle we are susceptible to earthquakes. A devastating earthquake could shut down everything here for a great deal of time.

When I opened my law firm I already had a plan in place in many ways. I didn't want to be tied to my office anyway, so I thought early about how to provide access to myself, and my eventual staff, to everything we needed no matter where we were in the world. I did this with DropBox, a "cloud" program that allows you to safely store your documents away from your office. And the best part? It's really cheap.

So, as you begin setting up to open a law firm, think about what you are going to do if things don't go right, if there is a disaster. That way if something does come up, you can handle it quickly and with a plan.

Learning to Edit Your Own Writing

Painters carefully choose what to include, what to edit out. I learned this when I studied still life. You may see ten things but you focus on three because it makes the painting stronger.

Same is true in writing. It's called editing. Do you know how to edit your own writing?

Can you easily see what needs to stay, what needs to go? Can you tell when your tendencies, the places you go "unconscious" in your own work, take over, making the writing less strong and the writer more stubborn? In the final revision, do you have the detachment to let go of what's not working, even if you love it more than your first-born child?

Editing is a craft. Trained editors are truly craftspeople in their work. When a writer is able to self-edit, that becomes an art and a craft. Art, because what emerges is often transformative to both writer and reader. Craft, because it requires practice, discipline, and appreciation for how it improves your work.

My training as an editor came in the trenches of a small press in the midwest where I worked for eighteen years, and as I freelanced for other publishers throughout the U.S. as a book doctor. I learned the craft of editing different genres--what adult literary fiction demands, compared to a children's book, compared to a mystery or self-help or memoir. At the small press, a team of four very experienced editors suffered through my early years, as I learned ways to enhance, not erase, the original voice of the writer and bring out what the manuscript could be.

As I learned to edit other people's manuscripts, I noticed my own writing improving. I began to publish more: essays, a short story here and there, my first books. I didn't really connect my editing training with my writing success until a publisher asked me if I worked as an editor, by any chance. "I can always tell someone with editing background," she said. "The writing they send me is so clean."

Wow, I thought. Learning to edit means learning to write?

Self-Editing Toolkit

I began to put together a toolkit of techniques I used in editing, which might apply to my writing. This included my tendencies to expand or contract as a writer, where I went unconscious (usually during a highly emotional moment in the writing) and skipped over important details, where I was overwriting, where my love of sparseness got in the way of conveying a setting, where I explained too much of what was really obvious, where the pacing slowed too much or sped up and lost a reader.

This toolkit was really valuable. In my workshops, I began teaching special sections on editing. I wanted to give writers a new understanding of their own "unconscious areas" and a new appreciation for editing tools as the solution.

One of the favorite writing exercises, one that draws big "ah-ha's" from the class, is called Expansion/Contraction. It reveals, in very short time, where we get too expansive with our words, covering huge territory, and the reader loses track of the point. And where we are so careful with each sentence, crafting it so sparsely, that the story drops big pieces. It's different for each writer. This week's writing exercise shares part 1 of Expansion/Contraction.

Next Sunday, March 28, I'll be teaching Self-Editing for Writers, the one-day workshop I developed from what I learned. I teach this workshop twice a year. It's going to be at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and it costs $78. There's still room. If you are serious about learning editing techniques, you may enjoy this workshop. More information below.

This Week's Writing Exercise

1. Choose a paragraph of your writing. Read it aloud to yourself and find the one sentence that really is the essence of the paragraph for you--be it action, character, information, or setting. Now rework that one sentence until you have condensed the paragraph effectively. The writing won't be better; don't try to get that. It's just going to help you see where your paragraph's main punch might be.

2. Now do the opposite. Take that one sentence and expand it to two paragraphs.

3. Which was easier for you? Practice again, with another paragraph, whichever was harder. This tells you a bit about your tendencies as a writer--are you more comfortable expanding or contracting?

Self-Editing for Book Writers

A fast-paced, hands-on workshop to explore how to edit your own work, refining it from draft to final revision. We'll cover the art of pacing, line and structural editing, substantive editing (filling holes), and much more. You'll leave with a new perspective on your work and a toolbox full of essential techniques for getting a manuscript ready for publication or submission to agents and publishers. Bring 2 double-spaced pages of your manuscript or story/essay draft to use in the exercises. For all genres and skill levels.

At the Loft Literary Center, 1011 Washington Ave South, Minneapolis, MN, http://www.loft.org/.

To register, please call the Loft at 612-379-8999.
Day: Sunday
Date: March 28
Time: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Mary is also offering this workshop:

How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book

Spend two intensive days getting to know your book—what it is about, how to structure it, how to plan to finish it! You’ll learn a step-by-step plan, including flexible timelines, chapter grids, storyboarding, and other techniques. You’ll look at ways to flow chapters, find holes in your material that need filling, organize research and concepts, construct plots, and bring your book into manifestation. You’ll also learn what editors and agents look for and gain essential tips on editing and evaluating your book in all its stages. Designed for nonfiction authors who have a book concept or a work in progress, and for novelists who need a fresh look at their material. Bring an SASE to Saturday’s class and up to fifteen double-spaced pages of work, and the instructor will mail you feedback.

At the Loft Literary Center, 1011 Washington Ave South, Minneapolis, MN http://www.loft.org/

To register, please call the Loft at 612-379-8999.

Fee: $146 for both days
Day: Friday & Saturday
Date: March 26 & 27
Time: 10:00am–4:30pm (both days)

Use very specific reference points in your similes

Sarah gasped. The man standing before them was the closest thing to a giant she had ever seen. He was as tall as the birch tree at the bottom of the garden at 64 Kenton Street, Ruislip, West London and as wide as the bonnet of a 1989 Ford Festiva.

‘Explain yourself!’ thundered the giant, his voice as loud as the maximum volume setting on a Sony Trinitron KV-32S42 when tuned to white noise. ‘What are you children doing in my kingdom?’

‘Please, Sir,’ said Sarah, as nervous as Dave Anglesey of New Park Road, Melbourne waiting for his biopsy results at 8:30 on a Wednesday morning, ‘we didn’t mean to trespass, really we didn’t. It’s just that your castle is as strange and fascinating as the first and, to a lesser extent, second seasons of the cult early nineties television drama Twin Peaks, although, it has to be said, it lacks the consistently compelling quality and fractured narrative of that well-loved landmark in television history.’

Sacrifice motivation for the sake of plotting

‘So,’ said Doug. ‘We’ve found the evidence we needed. Should we get out of here and contact the authorities?’ Maggie shook her head.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Let’s have another look around. Maybe there’s something we’ve missed.’

‘Really?’ said Doug, frowning. ‘We’ve got the photos and the hard drive, we’ve miraculously evaded capture and we even solved the mystery of who your long-lost brother is. What else is there to do?’

‘Well,’ Maggie said, ‘I’m quite interested in the architectural features of this secret lair. Do you think those columns are Doric? We should go and look.’ Doug exhaled heavily.

‘Seriously? We have no reason to be here any more. Hanging around is just going to get us caught, leading to an admittedly nail-biting but basically unnecessary series of escape attempts.’ Maggie nodded, craning her neck to look at the ceiling.

‘Uh-huh. I hear what you’re saying. It won’t take long.’ She smiled. ‘Ooh, also, we should split up so we can cover more ground.’

Book-Writing Map Workshop--March 26/27 at the Loft Literary Center. Register now while there's still room.

Find out why writers have called it "the best writing workshop I've ever attended!" Fee: $146 for 2 information-packed days. Transform your book, finish it, get it published. To register, call the Loft at 612-379-8999. Loft Literary Center is in Minneapolis. www.loft.org.

Allow the rhyme scheme to dictate the content

This poem is for you, Rebecca –

I’m drawn to you like a pilgrim to Mecca,

Like a lighthouse lamp that’s all aflicker,

Like a record collector to the archives of Decca.

Your skin is pale and paper white

And I think you’re a lovely sight,

Much better than a building site;

A riot could your smile incite.

Your eyes are like two shining stars,

Or headlights on the front of cars,

Or spaceships exploding whilst orbiting Mars –

I hope you’re never infected with SARS.

Starting a Law Firm | Creating Backlinks

I'm glad someone asked me a question today, since I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about. The question, if you look at the last post (I think) is about how to create a link to another's site and how to include the keyword that you want to create. It's really easy, and with practice you get really good at it. It's also something you're going to want to know how to do if you are starting a law firm. So, here we go.

So, you've done it, you've asked around and found a friend who wants to exchange links with you. But how do you do it? It's easy with a little thing I like to call html. And, hopefully this is easy to understand for you attorneys out there. Don't try to understand why this works, just know that this is the way to do it. Kind of like legal fictions. If you waste a bunch of time thinking about how it works, you're going to miss the point - it works.

If you use something like blogger or wordpress to make your site or your blog, creating a link is easy. You can simply highlight the words that you want to link to, such as "Seattle DUI attorney" and then click on the link icon above (it looks a little bit like a paperclip). It will ask you to put the address in, and voila, you have created a link to your buddy's site with their keyword.

If you work in html (the language of webpages) then it's only slightly more difficult. Then you will actually have to write some html. But, like I said, it's easy. Here we go. All you have to do is choose the keyword that you want to be a link and put this language around it: <a href="http://yourbuddyssite">keyword</a>. It's that simple. When you publish your post, your link will look like this - Seattle DUI attorney.

One of the cool things you can do when you are making links, since we are talking about html, is create nofollow links. Nofollow links allow you to link to something without giving the google juice. This is done by simply adding a little code to the html. All you do is this: <a href="http://linkingsite/" rel="nofollow">keyword</a>. That extra language will make google pass over the link like it doesn't exist, but if people click on it it will take people to the link.

Okay, that's probably enough for now. If you have questions, let me know. And check out my site on law firm website SEO. I'm putting up a new post about on-site optimization that I think is really important.

Discouragement as a Springboard into Higher Creativity

It was a discouraging week for one of my writing classes. We delved into a new level of information about books, and many writers crashed.

I was deluged with emails after a few days--"Help!" "I'm lost/stuck/floundering." "Not sure I really want to write a book after all." Big discouragement.

Discouragement means losing heart, losing perspective, and it happens to all us writers, no matter how often we've been published. It's a terrible moment when your work looks like dog meat, when you can't imagine how you're going to move forward, when you read other (wonderful) writers and sigh with the impossibility of being that good.

I got a couple of chapters back from a good editor in early January. I had thought these newly revised chapters were almost there. But my editor friend had much to suggest--and this was our third call-and-response session (I call out, she responds with edits). She's so good, she sees so well what needs work, that although I felt the discouragement keenly for at least the length of a long car ride home after our meeting, I knew better than to give up.

So I set about finding what was truth for me in her suggestions, and what she might be seeing that were my own blind spots and therefore invisible to me?

Make a List

The first thing I do with feedback that discourages or overwhelms me is make a list. List-makers for generations, my family instilled in me the beauty of list-making as a way of getting perspective. When faced with an onerous task, my mother made lists. Revising for the twentieth time is certainly onerous, so when I got home I took a sheet of paper and listed my editor's main suggestions.

It helped. A lot. As I listed them--the global changes, the smaller changes--I felt myself move into a different viewpoint. I saw how 90 percent of her suggestions actually made the chapter flow much more smoothly for a reader.

My stomach felt better too.

Perspective--Learning about Your Personal Learning Curve

Next, I put the chapter away for a week. I wanted to spend a little time away from the editing and get perspective (that word again) on my personal learning curve. Where was I in the process of this manuscript? I'd worked on it for four years, it had been through group and individual feedback, and I thought I was really there. But she was telling me that from a reader's point of view, things were still jumbly.

After a week I looked at it. My God, she's right, I thought. The temptation to get newly discouraged rose fast. Why hadn't I seen those things myself!

I reminded myself that blind spots are blind to us until we get perspective. Then we see what we didn't see before. Seeing new levels is a sign of growth, and growth is a good thing. She'd pointed out what was not visible to me before, and now it was visible. Lucky to have someone to help me see blind spots in my writing. Lucky too that she'd given me practical steps to fix them.

I went back to my list and began making the changes that made sense to me. Some of them were so big they caused tremors throughout the chapter--lots had to be rearranged. But I reminded myself that this was all good, this was all growth, and I wanted the chapter to be the very best it could be.

How This Process Makes Us Better Writers

After I corrected my chapter, I printed it out, got some Coconut Bliss, and let the chapter rest for an hour while I stared out the window and went into heaven with my bowl of ice cream. Then I read it aloud. Wow, was it better! So much better, I was amazed.

I felt grateful now, not discouraged. And curious--would this learning translate into changed skill? Would my attempt at the next chapter come out better because of what I'd just learned?

This is the goal--you gain skill from good editing, from good feedback. Yes, there's discouragement, losing heart, but there's also skill--if you keep on keepin' on.

End of story: The next chapter was indeed much better. When I went back to work on its revision, I saw much of the same problems as my editor friend had caught. Blind, but now I see. And I did see, a lot more, which means my skills as a writer had increased via this path of discouragement.

This Week's Writing Exercise

If you can get some feedback on your writing this week, do. Then try one of the techniques above. Make a list. Set the writing aside. Have some ice cream.

See if your learning curve isn't a springboard into higher creativity, in disguise.

Write as therapy

Julie marched into the office and slammed her bag down on the desk.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘There are going to be some changes around here now I’m in charge.’ Everyone looked up, surprised by the new authoritative tone in Julie’s voice and suddenly reassessing their view of her as a pushover who never stands up for herself.

‘What do you mean, changes?’ stammered Gordon, who now regretted ever having belittled Julie in front of that temp she liked despite her definitely telling him that she was going to ask him out.

‘For a start,’ said Julie, her voice pulsing with purposeful mastery and newfound confidence, ‘there’ll be no more talking about TV shows from the night before that I haven’t watched, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said José, the quiet and brooding but devastatingly handsome accounts manager. ‘It is really annoying when we do that and it makes you feel left out, which isn’t fair. Also, I love you and you’re not getting too old to have children and your mother doesn’t know what she’s talking about because if anything, your career is going from strength to strength.’

‘Thank you, José,’ said Julie, modestly.

Mix genres

Billy “Fast-Hands” Legume was not a man who enjoyed being made a fool of, but as he stood in the dusty town square, his hand hovering uncertainly over his holstered pistol, he couldn’t help but feel that someone somewhere was laughing at him. Under the town clock, on the far side of the square, the werewolf stretched in readiness, its haunches sinking low to the ground. Billy licked his parched lips. Now he had a chance to look at it, the creature struck him as strangely vulnerable, its soft brown eyes holding a spark of the compassion he imagined could one day blossom into something like love. Suddenly, the werewolf rose into the air, surrounded by the faint blue glow of quantum repulsor fields.

‘What the?’ Billy mumbled.

‘A minor setback, nothing more,’ said his manservant Bearsonly, brushing a speck of dust from his jacket. ‘We shall deal with the beast.’

Before they could do anything, however, the ground before them was torn asunder and a thunderous noise, like to the report of one thousand thousand cannons, announced the long-foretold rising of Kgathrhyxl, Lord of the Maelstrom.

Never let a good sentence end

In an act of aggression of the sort which was all too common in that particular day and age (albeit marginally on what could be termed the decline, although it was by no means clear that said decline would continue, given the social trends becoming increasingly common even at the very moment that Pete stood in the dim light of the moon, his chest heaving in a fight to regain the breath which had been so thoroughly knocked out of him by the exertions of the previous few minutes, waiting to see what reaction his presence elicited from the man who, until that evening, he would never have thought of as his nemesis, this being a role which he had not previously considered candidates for, although in retrospect there had been many possible contenders for the dubious honour of that title) Pete reached out, the length of his sinewy arm surprising even him as it snaked away from his body like a mid-level branch protruding from a deciduous tree, possibly an elm or oak, but a branch which also resembled, in the dim half-light of the evening in which Pete (and, presumably, the notional tree) stood, a large snake, and pushed – not merely with force sufficient to draw attention to the fact of his pushing (although this had been his original intention, before an unexpected rush of adrenaline had prompted him to metaphorically “shift gears” and pursue this alternative, more forceful, course of action) but with enough power to impress upon his opponent the very real possibility of physical combat and, he hoped, the likelihood of his (Pete’s) primacy in such a potential conflict – the centre (both geometrically and, he imagined, psychologically, given the location’s proximity to the vital cardiac organ hidden beneath bone, flesh, skin and, as he discovered, a fine sheen of cold perspiration) of Leo’s chest.