How High Are the Stakes? Building Better Conflict and Dilemma into Your Book

Dilemma is the problem your book solves, whether it is how to plant a bonsai garden or who killed the victim in a murder mystery. Dilemma, also known as the dramatic arc, forms the path of your reader’s journey through your book. Without strong dilemma, there’s no story.

One of my students, Chris, was writing the story of her grandmother’s life, but she wasn’t happy
with the slow pace of her book. When we studied Chris’s storyboard, there were many lovely moments; however, few of them showed conflict. Her grandmother lived an interesting life, which she had written about in family letters, but something was missing—the dilemma that drives a story. It all seemed too perfect, Chris told me.

I suggested she make a collage of her grandmother’s life, from what she knew about her. Her grandmother died when Chris was nine, but she’d been Chris’s primary caretaker until then. Chris went through the letters again and old family photos. Then she put these documents aside and turned to her intuition.

She gathered a stack of magazines and spent an hour tearing out any images that spoke to her of her grandmother’s life. Then she arranged them on a large sheet of paper. This is when the central dilemma began to reveal itself.

For some reason Chris pasted a beautiful garden next to a car accident, then a fallen bird near a sunny kitchen. Why the opposing images? She tried to recall conversations about her grandmother’s past, before her marriage. Were there secrets she didn’t know about?

Chris decided to call up an elderly aunt and interview her. Chris learned that her grandmother had an illegitimate child when she was very young, and that child was given up for adoption. This explained the persistent sadness Chris always felt from her grandmother, and the disjointed collage images suddenly made sense. Chris now knew the central dilemma of her grandmother’s story and how she could write her book around it.

External and Internal Dilemma
Most dilemmas arise from external circumstances thrust upon a person. An external dilemma nearly always lead to an internal dilemma, and if you have both, it strengthens the book even more. Chris’s grandmother was forced to give up her baby—an external dilemma. Her life-long feelings of guilt were her internal dilemma. Together, they created a life of unresolved conflict always festering beneath all the gardening, cooking, and bird-watching.

Where does dilemma in books come from? External dilemma comes from circumstance forced upon someone or a choice that person makes that affects her life. External dilemma comes from outer change, not outer stasis. To write your book’s external dilemma demands that you, the writer, look at what might be missing. What’s happened to your narrator or characters, either beyond their control or because of a choice they made in the past? Chris’s grandmother’s external dilemma was giving up her child. It led to an internal dilemma—the secrets she carried caused her life to always feel off kilter, and this is what Chris discovered as she made her collage.

Internal dilemma can also be the instigating force in a book’s action. For instance, say a character desires something he can’t have without breaking the law or hurting someone else. This is an internal dilemma. He can try to live with this unmet desire but it messes up his life. In literature, the internal power of an unmet desire usually forces action, which creates external dilemma so the plot moves forward.

Each player on the stage of your book must have something they desire. The greater the desire or goal, the more momentum it creates and the more likely it will drive the person to do something risky. This leads to a dilemma, and on it goes in good stories.

Holding your characters or narrator in stasis does not a story make. But writing dilemma can sometimes be downright uncomfortable to write. It requires us to tolerate risk, deal with conflict—even if it’s only on the page.

It requires us to face our own fears.

This Week's Writing Exercise
1. Make a list of potential conflicts that could be brought out in your book. What kinds of trouble could people get themselves into? If you’re writing fiction or memoir, list desires and difficulties for each of your main characters. For nonfiction, make a list of possible problems that readers might encounter and how your book solves or addresses them.

2. Pick one problem and write about it. See if you can create a scene where the person faces this problem.

3. Now spend a few minutes with your writing notebook. Ask yourself how the conflict writing felt—did you notice anything in your own body as you wrote? Tense shoulders? Headache? Put those sensations into your characters.

Indulge in self-referential writing

The first line of the piece attempts to demonstrate the particular stylistic foible being parodied in the form of one short, pithy example. In the case of more plot- or structure-focused critiques, this is not always possible. However, by this, the third sentence, the conceit should have become obvious.

The paragraph break allows me to take a breath after the first joke and perhaps settle into a slightly longer bit which demonstrates the conceit more fully and pushes it a little further than was possible in the first paragraph. Now that the reader is familiar with what’s going on, they will either enjoy this second stab at it more than the first or, having already got the point, they will have completely lost interest.

Reactions to the piece are likely to be mixed, with some comments praising the writing, some contributing their own jokes based on the same formula as the original and, in rare cases, some apparently missing the fact that the work being presented is parody and defending it against other commenters’ derision. Mixed in with these will be comments from people who have noticed typos or errors of usage in the piece – these bits of well-meaning and useful feedback unfortunately tend to come across as being slightly passive-aggressive.

The longer the piece, the more likely it is that I will have outstayed my welcome and worn out the joke by the end, which will tend to fizzle out.

Allow your attention to wander

Joe stumbled as he ran, nearly falling but managing to recover without breaking his stride. He could hear the rhythmic thudding of boots on tarmac behind him, getting louder all the time. They were gaining on him. He swerved into a doorway and crouched down.

Had he been in less of a hurry, Joe might have noticed that this particular doorway was the back door of a struggling Malaysian restaurant, connecting the kitchens to the alleyway he had been running down. The owner of the restaurant, a large, sweaty man with twenty years’ experience in the catering trade, had given a speech to his staff only yesterday about the importance of keeping the back door closed for reasons not only of security but of hygiene – they were due a visit from the inspector this month and just one more infraction could lose him his license.

Of course, this fell on deaf ears for the most part – with the exception of Lee, the head chef, the staff felt no sense of commitment to the restaurant they worked at, seeing it as just another job, just another way to pass their time or pay their rent or, in the case of one of the waiters, deal drugs under his employer’s nose. Lee was another story, though. He was fiercely loyal to the Flaming Dragon – a character trait which would ultimately cost him his marriage and, in an ironic twist of fate, his job.

Joe died, by the way. The alley was a dead end and the guys chasing him caught up with him.

Loving Kate's Look

I think I have a crush on Kate Winslet. I saw photos like these in a magazine last week chronicling the story of her and her new boyfriend. I really, really like her new look.


She looks so youthful and stylish. I adore the clothes she is wearing too: very simple, relaxed and chic, and in the colours I love (non-colours really – black, denim, grey, navy). The magazine I read reported she had lost 4.5kg / 10 pounds. She looks slender and young, but not emaciated. In addition, her makeup is very natural, fresh and polished, and her hair is unfussy. She looks younger than she used to I think.


I admit, after seeing some photos like these for the first time last week I wore a black suit jacket over my jeans and grey knit top to go out in the weekend.


Is it weird to admit I looked up her details? I am happy to say she is a similar height to me and we are both Libra (never mind that she's five years younger). That must mean it's OK for me to copy her look.

Reinvent clichés

(With thanks to Felix Bloomfield)

‘At the conclusion of the day,’ I said, ‘you have to follow your cardiovascular muscle.’

‘It’s simple for you to declare that,’ she said. ‘I wish you could walk a kilometre in my footwear. Then the boot would be on the left foot if it started on the right or vice-versa.’

I smiled. ‘You’re as stubborn as the offspring of a horse and a donkey,’ I said. ‘Alright, have your way as the way we’re doing things.’ At this stage, I thought, it was best to just live and also let her live in her chosen manner. Arguing with her was tantamount to specifically requesting trouble and I didn’t have the digestive system necessary for it. After all, hell itself doesn’t have the same level of anger as a woman who’s been badly treated. Women, I thought to myself – can’t live with them, can’t contrive a situation where they aren’t a necessary part of your existence.

Acceptance and Rejection--Balance in the Creative Life

One spring, I was wallowing in the discontent of rejection letters. I’d sent my first novel to agent after agent, publisher after publisher. No one wanted it. This new novel crossed genres—it was written from the point of view of a young woman but it was meant for adult readers.

I believed in the book and wanted to see it in the hands of potential readers. But my disappointment was so great that
all I felt was discouragement—no energy to keep trying.

A friend talked me into attending a presentation at Wisdom House, a spiritual and teaching center near where I lived in Connecticut. The director of the University of Connecticut’s writers project had gathered six artists—an actress, a sculptor, a painter, a poet, a composer/musician who worked with Broadway shows, and a writer—to discuss acceptance and rejection.

Perfect, I thought. Misery loves company.

But the panel wasn’t about misery at all. Although most of the artists talked about the hardships of receiving rejections for their work, many went on to discuss the meaning of rejection in the life of an artist. And they went even deeper—into self-acceptance and self-rejection. How that comes first, and how belief in your work is paramount to success.

Two comments stayed with me. One point was made by a composer: It isn’t the writing that scares him. It is thinking about it. “When I’m actually doing it,” he told us, “I’m completely happy.” The act of making art gives pleasure. The thinking and writing afterward was what was hard.

As creative artists, we want our work to be viewed and appreciated, but this by itself won’t keep us going. We need to do it for the love of it.

What if you wrote something and it got accepted right away? asked a panelist. Would you be as happy as if you struggled to earn it? The others said no, not in their experience. Most agreed—and these were quite well-known, well-respected professional artists.

Easy or unearned success can destroy your future successes, even prevent you from producing any work at all.

The other important point the panel made: Always try to retain an amateur spirit with your work. Write for the freshness and the vivacity that it gives you.

One panelist told us that the word amateur comes from the French word, amour. Amateur means “out of love.” If you can keep putting love into the process, you’ll be fed from it. So love becomes the most logical reason to keep going despite rejection. As Robert Henri, artist and author of The Art Spirit, said, “Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be, stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.”

Getting Past Discouragement
The word discouragement comes from the root word coeur, or heart. It’s the process of losing heart, losing perspective. It happens to all writers, over and over again, no matter how often we've been published.

It's a terrible moment when your work gets rejected. It’s hard to imagine how you're going to move forward, especially when you read other (wonderful) writers and sigh with the impossibility of being that good.

I reminded myself that writers never really get completely clear of blind spots. We all will always have them, and they are unseen until we get perspective, often through the process of rejection or acceptance. Seeing anew is a sign of growth.

I went back to my desk and began making the manuscript changes that made sense to me. Some of them were so big they caused tremors throughout the chapters but I reminded myself this rearrangement was growth, and I wanted my book to be the very best it could be.

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—to learn new skills from the rejection. Yes, there's discouragement, losing heart, but there's also the joy of developing skills--if you keep on keepin' on.

Eventually my novel did get accepted by a publisher, and the story of that particular book's acceptance and rejection concluded. But there's always the next one, and the next. The lessons we learn about how much we're willing to love our creative work, no matter what others think about it, never end.

This Week's Writing Exercise
The inspiration for this week's exercise comes from writing teacher Rosanne Bane, who offers classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Self-care lets us survive the swings of acceptance and rejection.

1. Brainstorm a list of things you love to do for fun and/or things that nurture you. They may include:

getting a massage
meal out with a friend
trip to an art museum
curling up for an hour with a great book
taking a hot bath
nap on the couch
movie or concert
phone date with a close friend who lives far away
sports event
manicure or pedicure
long walk in the woods with the dogs
gardening
playing basketball
Saturday fishing trip with buddies

2. In your calendar or datebook, choose an hour a week and assign yourself one of these self-care activities. Make it a serious date—block out the time.

3. Do this for one month. At the end of each week, write for ten minutes about the effects of this self-care date. What obstacles did you encounter? What benefits did you notice?

This week's blog post is excerpted from Mary's forthcoming book, Your Book Starts Here, to be released in December 2010.  

Hiring an Assistant | Norton Internet Security 2011 | Mastermind - Networking

I talked a little bit yesterday about a mastermind session, about a law firm printer, and about nolo.com. Today, I'm going to talk about hiring an assistant, norton internet security 2011, and some things I learned from my mastermind session regarding law firm marketing.

Starting a Law Firm | Hiring an Assistant

If you read the last post, then you know it was time for me to get some help. I didn't realize that more than today when my law clerk came in and helped me out. I gave her a bunch of stuff I'd usually be doing and for a fraction of what I can make an hour she did it all and did it well. So I'm moving forward hiring an assistant. And I'm going tell you exactly what I did (and what I'm doing) to get there.

First things first, I posted an ad on craigslist. Here's the ad:

When running a small business it is critical to have a wide range of skills, and a willingness to perform both menial and advanced tasks. When a small business is poised for growth, hiring someone with a similar skill set is critical. This role is a combination of executive admin, marketing expert, technical assistant, and more. If you're interested in helping to grow a small criminal defense law firm dedicated to protecting its clients, this may be a good fit for you. The optimal candidate will have a passion for these subjects, but will be willing to "pay their dues" in order to help grow a business. In other words, the pay may not be great to start with, but you'll have the opportunity to focus your efforts on growing the business, and will be rewarded with pay that is commensurate to your efforts.

To be considered, a candidate must offer the following:
- Fast learner
- Conscientious
- Honest
- Hard-working
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- Strong attention to detail
- Focus on exceptional customer service
- Ability to prioritize tasks
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite of applications

Even better, the ideal candidate will offer the following:
- Bachelor's Degree
- Strong grammar and spelling skills
- Strong customer service skills
- Ability to work independently
- Strong organizational skills
- Comfortable and familiar with technology

In short, someone willing to act as an executive admin but interested in marketing and working to grow a business to mutual benefit would be the ideal candidate.

Typical tasks for this job will include:
- Answering the phones - scheduling client meetings
- Managing the office calendar
- Preparing and filing court and other required documents
- Assisting in firm marketing efforts
- Handle incoming and outgoing mail
- Responding to client inquiries
- Managing schedules for travel and deadlines
- Being the "go-to" person for all manner of work related to managing and growing the business

The reality is that the right candidate will be a very unique individual, who will stand out from the crowd. Quite likely, the best candidate will be someone who is worth a big paycheck, but who is willing to work for a small paycheck in recognition of strong upside potential. In other words, the right candidate will have confidence that they're able to assist in creating growth for a business to the extent that they'll be rewarded financially in the process. That also means that someone who is looking for an easy ride shouldn't bother applying.

In the interest of helping you succeed, a small hint is offered: The best candidate will submit their resume with a note explaining something about them. If you are going to simply submit saying "attached is my resume" and nothing else, you probably shouldn't bother applying.

Interviews will begin next week.

This is a part-time job, 8-noon, Monday through Friday, with the opportunity for full time work when it presents itself.

In about a day and a half I got around 150 responses. And a large majority of them were qualified. I had several things in mind that I was looking for for my particular situation, used those to cut the list down to 5 or 6, and then scheduled them each for individual half hour interviews (at least I gave them half hour time slots). After that I will probably have a follow up interview with the two or three best candidates and choose the best one. I'll let you know how it goes.

I must admit, however, that I'm a little bit nervous. I've never really interviewed anyone for a job (though I've interviewed many witnesses and clients) and I want to make sure I pick the right person. So if you have any good advice, let me know.

Norton Internet Security 2011

I think one of the things lawyers are most concerned about when they open their practice and think about using technology to leverage their time and money is security. Maybe it's just my generation, maybe it's just me, but I was never really too concerned about it. For one thing, I think people who are stealing things that might be stolen from my firm (client files, etc.) aren't really snooping around for people like me. They've got bigger fish to fry. And for another, the security that's set up automatically by the web browsers and your operating system is not too bad.

But I finally caved (or wised up, depending on who you ask) and bought some security for the computer. I think a little bit of it had to do with having the additional staff come in. I know that I wouldn't be dumb enough to open suspect emails or go to suspect websites, but I don't know that about them (yet). So I bought Norton Internet Security 2011. I didn't really buy it because of anything in particular. It just looked like it would provide the protection I needed, which is help against things that come at me over the internet. So I've got it, and it seems to be working. If it doesn't I'll be sure to let you know.

MasterMind and Law Firm Marketing

If you haven't realized it yet, a key ingredient of a successful law firm is having clients. And the way you get clients is through law firm marketing. This includes internet advertising, website conversions, referrals, and everything else you can think of. In some way, shape, and form it's all advertising.

When I wrote down my three biggest problems with my firm, one of the problems was getting more consistent phone calls. So we talked about that for a long time. One of the things we discovered was that my website wasn't converting as well as it should have (this is the DUI site we're talking about primarily). We started talking about what the site looked like and how it could be made better. And this is what I learned, when you are doing law firm internet marketing, particularly on your website, it is important to know who your ideal client is and let them know how you can help them.

What this meant for me was not only having a DUI only site, but breaking it up further into 1st DUI, 2nd DUI, and 3rd DUI information (because the strategies for each are so different). And then within those deviations make sure that I am appealing to my target audience and answering their questions. Another thing RJon encouraged me to do was put up videos discussing each of the categories.

My plan, then, is to incorporate this into my next round of website updates (coming soon). I'm going to create some videos and put them on the site. I'm going to tell people how I can help them. I am going to market my law firm in a way that increases calls. And I'm going to let you know how it turns out.

Remember, if you have any questions or comments about starting a law firm, let me know!

Woonerise spords

(With thanks to my father)

It was a stark and dormy night in the paravan cark. With a yuffled mawn, Bob sat on the edge of the bed and letched his stregs.

‘Roody blain,’ he muttered, listening to it ratter on the poof. He knew he would get woaking set, but he had to go – his bladder was bull to fursting and his temical choilet was broken. The tublic poilets were his only option. He took a breep death, dung open the swoor and rarted stunning. After just a stew feps, he was already boaked to the sone. Cidding round a skorner, he dopped stead. The bloor was docked by a truge huck. From the track of the buck, a parge lipe snaked into the bloilet tock, shurgling and guddering.

‘For sod’s gake,’ he shouted. ‘What are dou yoing at this nime of tight?’ A man in overalls lurned to took at him.

‘Porry, sal,’ he said. ‘Just lumping out the poos.’

Starting a Law Firm | MasterMind | Printers | Nolo.com

As you can see from the title of this post, there has been a lot going on around here lately. And, there is actually more to come (I just don't have all day to write on this blog, so I'm going to break it up). There's a lot of good information in here, and I hope you enjoy it.

Printer Review - HP OfficeJet Pro 8000 and HP LaserJet P1102w

I may have written a printer review on here before, but I am required to do so now. My printer quit on me on Monday, and as luck would have it, it was at a time when I really needed it. The printer I used to have was an HP OfficeJet Pro 8000. I think I've probably had it for about 16 months. It had been acting up nearly the whole time, failing to recognize paper in the chute, not knowing which tray to print out of (I bought an extra tray) and generally being a pain in my ass. But I'm not paper heavy, so I dealt with it.

Finally on Monday it just quit working. It told me it had a paper jam, but it didn't. It told me to do all of this stuff to fix it and it didn't work. Then I got online and found out that many other people had been having exactly the same problems I was. So, this is a negative review of the HP OfficeJet Pro 8000. Stay away from it if you can.

In search of a new printer, I knew I wanted two things - ease of use and reliability. Believe it or not, one of the major pains I had with my old printer was having to take the paper out whenever I needed an envelope and inserting an envelope. I wanted to avoid that time suck with my new printer. So I did.

I've only had the HP LaserJet P1102 for about 3 days, and so far it's working like a dream. It's got a wireless set up, and so far I've had zero problems. And it has a letter feed built into it, so every time I need a letter I just slide one in and print away. I'll update the review later, if necessary. But it looks like this one's a keeper (and it only cost me $100).

MasterMind Session in Seattle

If you read my last post (and I know you did!) then you know that a colleague and friend of mine, RJon Robins, was in town doing a CLE on starting a law firm and law firm management. I'd actually never me him before, though I'd spoken with him many times via email and telephone, so we decided to meet up, and while he was here, we decided to do this mastermind thing. I must say I had a great experience.

We did the mastermind session over dinner with two buddies of mine, RJon, and his wife. A mastermind session is in essence a meeting of like-minded business owners who get together to discuss, without reservation, their businesses and how to make them better. When you're in it it kind of feels like you're facing a firing squad. A lot of your empty assumptions are questioned and put to the test. But when you emerge from the session you have not only a fresh outlook on your business but some real world ideas and solutions to help your business flourish and grow.

Want more details? Okay.

The three of us (RJon didn't face the firing squad, only my two buddies and I) started out by writing down the top three problems we have with our business right now. My top three were: (1) too much time doing administrative tasks; (2) no working system to effectively manage cases/time; and (3) increasing the regularity of potential client calls. I told the group this, and then we dove in.

But the key here is that we didn't start with solutions. We started by diagnosing the problem. Why am I spending so much time doing administrative tasks? Because I don't have anyone else helping me? Why don't I get help (obvious)? Because I'm afraid of expending the money on help and then not making the money to pay for that person. Why am I afraid of that? (and this is where the real breakthroughs come in - changing your business and way of doing things won't happen unless you get to the root of the problem and work on that) Because I have an idea in my mind that money is something to be held onto tightly, not parted with easily, and I want to make sure I'm getting value for what I'm paying. Ding - light bulb moment, because this isn't the most beneficial way to think about money and your law firm.

After identifying the underlying potential problems, we talked about what our relationship with money should be like. And, to be honest, it's something I know, but not something I can easily put into practice. And this is something we can all be cognizant of (which is why I'm writing about it here). We should think of money like a drug dealer does. Yeah, I said it.

How do drug dealers think of money? First of all, I'm not talking about the guy selling dime bags on the corner. I'm talking about your higher ups. Think Johnny Depp in the movie Blow. He got into the drug business as a low level drug runner. But, instead of taking his money and stashing it away (or blowing it on drugs) he used it as leverage to make more money. Then he used that money in the same way. For him, money wasn't something to be hoarded, it was something to be put to work.

And that's what I need to do. Put my money to work, to free up my time, so I can make more money. Think about it like this. I can have someone help me out administratively for $15/hour. If someone is doing this work, I can do work that brings in at least $100/hour. That means by spending $15 an hour I can make $85 an hour. Those are numbers I like to see.

I bet you're wondering what I'm doing about this aren't you? Don't worry, I'll talk about it tomorrow.

Nolo.com Update

By the way, if you've made it this far in the article, thanks. I appreciate the reading. Up next, as you can tell from the headline, is an update on my experience with nolo.com. I'm writing this because I received an email from them probably a month ago inquiring as to the status of my subscription to them. They wanted to know if I'd noticed any more leads coming from them.

Sadly, I have not.

Here's the thing about using services like this, though. It's impossible to really know exactly where your leads are coming from. If you ask people, they rarely remember ("the internet" is a common response) because it's not that important to them how they got to you, unless it's a referral. In a different market with a different kind of practice it might really pay off for you.

But here's another thing to think about - and this goes to the mastermind session. If you are paying $130 a month (which is about what I'm paying) and that gets you one case a month (which it might), then you've potentially paid $130 to make $3000 or whatever your fee might be. Is that worth it? It probably is. Every law firm marketing tactic doesn't have to hit a home run. A bunch of singles will still get you a bunch of runs.

Fail to notice are missing during editing

As the of battle died down and twilight fell over the fields of Paldyggen, Lothar stood atop the hill and watched.

‘So many have died here today,’ he to his squire. ‘Loyal to the last, every of them.’

‘Sir,’ muttered young man. Lothar shifted his weight and leaned on the pommel his sword. He knew what meant – one day soon, he would king. There would be more battles like this, but none as bloody or as . The path was clear now, knew. He took a breath and raised his so that all men might hear.

‘We emerge from victorious!’ he bellowed. A ragged cheer came from the below. ‘With the blood of our fallen friends still upon us,’ continued, ‘with the smell our enemies’ fear in nostrils, with swords unsheathed and , we ride!’ Another cheer rang the valley. ‘We ride to Crown Point and to !’

Thrifty yet chic

I burn candles every day, mostly a little tea-light in a pretty glass with dinner (that's the 'minimum candle requirement'). On a day at home pottering, cleaning and relaxing, I love to light a high-quality scented candle. The only problem with high-quality scented candles though, is the high price.

I have been known to haunt the local L'Occitane shop (gorgeous French body products, as well as candles and incense) and when they recently had a half price sale on some of their candles, I was in. Around the same time I also scored a 30% off Ecoya candle.

In my dreams I burn Diptyque and Jo Malone candles with gay abandon, but I haven't reached those giddy heights yet. So we've established now that I get a little queasy spending big money on candles (which, after all, no matter how pretty they smell you just burn them, right?).

Do you know what upsets me more? Having to throw out the burnt-out base when the last little bit of wick gives in and droops into the molten wax, never to be revived. Leaving a thick foundation of wax with the remains of the walls of the candle also. All that lovely fragrance, trapped and wasted!

Then I started noticing a new product in shops - 'scented wax melts'. They piqued my interest. What if I snapped off pieces of leftover highly-expensive candle and melted them in my rarely used essential oil vapouriser? And do you know what? Just a little chunk of defunct scented candle placed in the vapouriser (no water) with a tealight candle underneath releases the fragrance as the chunk (sorry, 'scented wax melt') liquifies.

After a short while (around two tealight candles, so about 8-10 hours) the wax loses its scent and it's ready to be thrown out. If it was still a candle like in it's former life, it would have burnt away. But in it's new life as a wax melt, it just uses up the scent and stays put. I then leave it to harden and put the whole vapouriser in the freezer. The next day the wax disk simply pops out and I bin it. The vapouriser is left pretty clean too, just a tiny amount of wax to scrape off here and there.

That's how I get fancy candles out of jars too, put the whole thing in the freezer (when it's solid, not just after it goes out) and because freezing shrinks the wax a touch, it should come out relatively easily, sometimes a butter knife is needed.

So I'm here to say to you today, folks, do not throw away your fancy candles when you think there is no hope, because there is!

Romanticise places

(With thanks to The Antipodean)

I still remember the unique smell of Longlake, a gentle musk that carried on the breeze and wrapped itself around you like a comfortable old coat. It blew down from the power station on the hill, swooping over the rendering plant and through the sewage works before bringing its complex odour to the main street and the children’s playground.

Ah, the playground. Many happy hours I spent in that glorious fenced-off paradise, digging through the damp woodchips beneath my feet and searching for treasure – a glinting shard of broken glass here, a mysterious used hypodermic needle there. I still remember the time I found a strange-shaped balloon with a tiny reservoir of cloudy liquid in it. That was what Longlake was like – full of mystery and hidden wonder, from the burnt-out warehouse on the edge of town to the constant screech of brakes and occasional crunches of impact that came from the section of road the locals called “decapitation corner.”

How I long to go back there, even now. They tell me that the sinkhole swallowed everything from the pawn shop to the prison, but maybe one day I’ll head back to ol’ Longlake, just to see.

Finding Theme in Your Book: An Exercise in Searching for Repeating Patterns

After months of revising my novel-in-progress, I was still stumped as to its theme. My chapters hung together pretty well but the manuscript lacked that wonderful sense of wholeness that a theme-rich book delivers.

One evening I was reading a scene to my writers’ group. When I finished we talked about the characters, especially the main character, a search-and-rescue pilot. One of the writers, bless her, asked me that pivotal question that opens huge doors inside.


“They’re all circling the wilderness of their lives, aren’t they?” she said quietly. “Everyone in your book is on a search-and-rescue mission for themselves.”

She’d just given me my theme.

You may be aware of the separate parts of your outer story, how the acts work together, where the tension builds. You may even know a bit about your inner story, what meaning you’re trying for. But until the theme is identified, there is no sense that your book is greater than the sum of its parts.

Most of my characters were indeed “circling the wilderness” of their lives. My writer’s group friend had given me words for my book’s elusive theme—and now all my “islands” made sense.

Theme can’t be rushed. It doesn’t surface until it’s good and ready, until we have understood enough to see beyond the narrative, the basic story. When we start to look for the undercurrent that connects all the parts of our book, we begin to notice this river running through it.

Because it’s delivered without our knowing, placed in small ways that only feedback reveals, it’s often only midway through revision that we begin to sense our book’s theme.

In the early stages of the book journey, you are way too busy keeping your boat afloat to even notice the steady movement of this river. By now, in revision, you are getting the distance required to feel it.

Theme can surprise us with its scope—often much larger than we set out to present. Professional artists sometimes speak about years of making their art, watching it evolve into something greater than anticipated, their gratitude when a viewer or reader says, “Your piece spoke to me in such-and-such a way,” even when the artist had no intent toward that result.

This is the beauty of theme—its potential to transform an audience. Writers are astonished witnesses to this glory in our work; the good news is that during revision, we can also help it happen.

Finding Theme through Repeating Patterns
How do you start finding the theme in your book? Thematic hints often come into our writing as we explore the book idea. They emerge from the dreamy right brain and find their way into early “islands,” if we’re lucky.

Writer Flannery O’Connor called these hints “happy accidents.” We’re rarely conscious of putting these into the manuscript, but later, finding them during revision, we feel very grateful that they’ve escaped the editing pen of the Inner Critic, who would’ve dissuaded us of their usefulness in the story—one reason the “island” method of writing is so helpful. As you let yourself wander aimlessly through your story during its early drafts, the Inner Critic is lulled into believing you’re not really working.

At revision, we start to search for these thematic hints. There can be more than one major theme, but usually there is one that’s larger and sends out more hints than any other. These often show up as repeating patterns: images that recur again and again, an object a character obsesses over, something lost that’s remembered frequently, houses or lakes or countries that are visited often, lines of dialogue that repeat.

Each can hint at theme.

Think of the repeating image of yellow roses that threads through each of the three separate stories in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours. First it’s piped on a birthday cake, then gathered from Virginia Woolf’s garden, then bought at the florist for Clarissa’s party.

One repeating image can become thematic as it links the three very separate stories. Maybe the theme is the fragile beauty of life, which echoes the brief passages of Cunningham’s main characters.

This week's writing exercise lets you practice finding theme in published works. It's easiest to see there--and what you learn may translate to new viewpoints on your own writing. You may be able to more easily see and enhance theme in your book-in-progress after trying this exercise.

This Week's Writing Exercise

1. Writer’s notebook in hand, look over a favorite book in your genre that you have recently read. Record any repeating images you notice—place, objects, images, conversation.

2. Look for places where the author develops both a good sequence of outer events and demonstrates the meaning behind those events (often indicators of theme).

3. Ask yourself, What lingered with me after I finished this book? Theme is often present wherever we can’t get a story out of our minds.

Quiet Time

I've been having quiet time lately.

Hardly any computer at home, lots of reading, sparkling water instead of wine, home-cooking and early nights. It feels wonderful and is just what I need. Quiet time counter-balances the manic-ness that is life in our shop. Trying to keep on top of everything is a nightmare at the moment.

But I do my best and know that when we step in the door at home, it's quiet time. I take the original idea of quiet time from school-children, where the teacher designates a time to slow down, be still and relax. Soft music may be playing to assist. Quiet pursuits like reading are encouraged.

Quiet time is good for the soul, and helps you rejuvenate to face the world again.

Blissful.

LITERARY FICTION WEEK #5: End with an epiphany, no matter what

She sat down on the train toilet, feeling the crinkled sheen of the cheap toilet paper she had placed carefully on the seat. She knew that when she returned to Graeme, something would be different. Something would have changed forever. She shuffled her feet on the tacky plastic floor. Nothing stayed the same, she thought. She reached for the roll of paper by her shoulder and tore off three sheets, folded them back on each other and held them ready in her hand. She could never recapture what had gone before, what had fallen from her and been lost. Holding her breath, she strained. The train rumbled. She hardened the muscles in her abdomen and, after a few seconds, was rewarded with a muffled splash. There we go, she thought. There we go. Beyond the frosted glass of the small window above, she could just make out the shadows of trees flashing past. The journey went on.

LITERARY FICTION WEEK #4: Offer oblique biographies of your characters

As she walked down the train carriage, Annie composed an imaginary autobiography, selecting and categorising what she considered to be key facts about herself for an imagined posterity. When she was eight, she had eaten an ice-cream sandwich so cold it had given her a migraine. In her first year of university, she had lost a pair of socks when they had fallen out of her fifth-floor window. She only ate blackcurrant yoghurts when she felt she had earned them. Her bellybutton was slightly deeper than she would ideally like, plunging from the gentle curve of her stomach down into a tiny pit of wrinkled skin and fluff. It had been knotted by the midwife, whose name she did not know, in such a way as to leave a miniature knuckle of umbilical cord down at the base of the pit, like a grey-pink boulder plugging the hole. The colour of the fluff that formed in it seemed to be completely independent of the colour of the clothes she wore, emerging as small bundles of mysterious greyish lint. Sometimes, while she sat on her bed gazing at it, she imagined her navel was a separate creature in its own right, quietly observing the world from belly-height – the thought both thrilled and disgusted her.

LITERARY FICTION WEEK #3: Ask the difficult questions

She looked sidelong at Graeme. How well did she really know him, she wondered. How well did he know her? Most pressingly of all, how well did she know herself? How well did they know themselves as a couple? What did they think being a “couple” meant? Was that definition the same for each of them, or did one of them – her, she supposed – expect more than the other of this shifting, amorphous relationship? Where were they? What was happening? Would she know even if she knew? Was it, in fact, possible to know? What did she mean by “possible”? Was language ultimately subjective and, if so, did this rob it of its essential value as a conduit for shared meaning? What did she mean by “meaning,” she wondered. Why was she following this line of questioning? What was it that caused her to compulsively interrogate herself like this? Did she need the toilet? Was the journey from a state of unknowing to a state of knowing merely an illusion? Did knowledge have any intrinsic value? Seriously, did she need the toilet? How could one measure value in this context? What was it that ultimately conferred value? Another subjective judgement, perhaps? Another unknowable...

‘I’m going to the toilet,’ she said, getting up.

LITERARY FICTION WEEK #2: Invest conversations with layers of meaning

She turned to her companion and smiled.

‘Nearly there,’ she said. He nodded solemnly. They were nearly there – only two stops away now – but that wasn’t what she had meant.

‘Yes,’ he said. It was an affirmation, she felt, not only of her assertion but of the strange, unknowable bond between them. “Yes” – the undiluted positive, a simple, breathy syllable of agreement. Deceptively simple? Perhaps.

‘Have you got my ticket?’ she asked, already knowing the answer. How much of life was about asking questions you already knew the answers to, she mused. Yet the ritual had to continue. The world spun on its axis.

‘Yes,’ he said again. It sounded the same as before, this sibilant word that fell from his mouth, but it meant something subtly different, she couldn’t help but feel. What? She couldn’t say.

LITERARY FICTION WEEK #1: Open with a detailed description of something irrelevant

Low and flat – as was the rock, she supposed, that the first fish to venture gasping landward, all those millions of years ago, had struggled onto – the briefcase lay across the stranger’s knees in the thin, fluorescent light of the train carriage. It was not quite square with the man’s lap, resting a good ten degrees – roughly 0.17 radians, she quickly calculated – askew. The misalignment, seen both directly and reflected in the dark window of the train, transposed over hurtling fields and telegraph poles, bothered her a little. As for the briefcase itself, it was notable only for its consummate unremarkability; a brown gloss finish with a handle, she surmised – a briefcase so similar to the hundreds of others on that very train as to be rendered figuratively invisible. Literal invisibility, of course, remained beyond the capabilities of science and engineering. For now.

The man got off at the next stop, taking his briefcase with him.

Supermarket Supermodel

I picked up this book at the library a while back. It was on the recent releases shelf and the title 'Supermarket Supermodel' made me curious. It is written by Jim Cartwright, who also wrote 'Little Voice' (a play, and a movie).

It was a thoroughly engrossing and rather different book, and what impressed me most was that while the main character Linda was female, the author is male. He totally got inside her head. Linda is an English supermarket check-out operator, and after being 'discovered' becomes a famous supermodel.

One of the parts I really enjoyed reading was when Linda met Jackie Collins at a party. An odd situation, I know. I'm not sure if the author has met Jackie Collins in real life, but I just love his descriptions of her as an ultra-feminine, captivating and focused woman.

Here is an excerpt of the day after the party. Jackie has taken Linda home and gives her a bed for the night (she wasn't well at the party, and could not remember the address of the friend she was staying with). Linda wakes, hung-over, and has breakfast with Jackie.

Those few hours in her company gave me a world of wisdom, though there were no lectures or advice or anything like that. I can’t describe it proper. It was just like she was an education in herself. She was all the education a young woman needed just by being alive.

The way she did things, taking a call, picking a flower, pouring a drink, sharing a joke with the maid, laughing, winking, watching the ocean. She was woman in all her fullness, a rose, beautiful, fragrant, feminine, but that didn’t stop her from being powerful and who she wanted to be. It was like I was gathering it from her, getting the fragrance.

It was like the good fairy from the films when I was a kid, don’t remember her giving much advice, it was just her presence made everything better, the touch of her magic got you on the right track and wicked witches and goblins disintegrated at her jewelled feet.

Suze had been a good teacher, she knew lots of things and could teach you stuff and tell you loads, but she wasn’t what she taught, she wasn’t it. Jackie was it. She really was everything Suze worked and strained to be, but Jackie was just it. It didn’t really matter what she said or did but how she was.

We listened to the soul music and now and again she’d say let’s change the track, and it was always right and took us one deeper or one higher or suited the next thing she was going to do. We both did the breath in at one point and smiled.

Too soon it was time to go. She took care of everything, paid for my flight home and got her driver to take me to the airport.

Then I left LA and, resting in Jackie and the soul music, I flew home, flew home on it. I knew what I wanted now, I wanted to be like her. Strong, glamorous, independent, doing what she wanted but still loving and a woman.

Supermarket Supermodel
by Jim Cartwright

Feeling the Fear and Writing Anyway--Facing the Inner Critic

In each stage of writing your book, chances are you’ll meet a most unsavory part of yourself: the Inner Critic. It’s a negative self that delivers negative self-talk.  It casts its own particular light or shadow on your writing life, and it can stop you completely.

Many writers have different names for their critics. Sue Grafton, the mystery writer, calls hers ego. “Ego is the piece of me that’s going, How am I doing, champ?,” she says. “Is this good? Do you like this? Do you think the critics will like this?
Because that has nothing to do with creating.” In order to “get in touch,” she adds, “I have to block out ego.”

For me, the Inner Critic reminds me of a helpful, slightly worried elderly aunt. “Are you sure you want to write about that?” she’ll whisper in my mind. “What will people say if they know that about you?”

I always ask my book-writing classes to start a log of negative comments from their Inner Critics. The idea is to write down those moments of discouragement, doubts, or boredom. Because only after reading those comments can my students realize that they aren’t quite true.

I sometimes ask them to bring the notes to class after a week of logging. We may laugh over the Inner Critic’s sneakiness, but we marvel at how common the problem is.

We learn that, at first, the Inner Critic starts with slightly unhelpful comments and small doubts. These comments grow until they seem logical, even worth listening to, until they gradually erode confidence. Call it self-talk that leads to discouragement or avoidance.

As you read the sampling below, you may find your own Inner Critic’s voice.


Favorite Inner Critic Comments
“You need a lot more backstory here.”
“This section will take months of research. Stop writing and get started. It’ll be a good distraction.”
“You need to explain what John is thinking here. Your writing isn’t good enough to just let the action show it.”
“For God’s sake, use bigger words. Everyone will think you’re uneducated.”
“Get to the action. How is anyone going to know what’s happening if you go on and on about setting?”
“This is pretty boring, you know. Maybe wrap it up faster.”
“Your mother will hate this section. Kill it.”
“Why don’t you run out and get the dry-cleaning now, then write when you get back?”

Let’s face it. The Inner Critic is part of any book journey—no matter how many books you’ve published. That’s why your first step is to disable its influence. How? Common wisdom suggests you fight it with any means you can. But that often turns into a never-ending battle.

I’ve discovered another way: Get to know your Critic and make it an ally, not an enemy.

As you explore and plan your book, the Critic will worry that you don’t have a good enough idea. It will hint your ideas are seriously lacking and can’t be put into a book.

As you write your book and form the chapters, it will convince you the draft is definitely good enough to show your best friend—right now, today! This, of course, is a not-so-subtle sabotage attempt, made real when your friend asks about missing parts and you crumble with the realization that you have omitted half your story.

As you revise, the Critic will get bored with inner story, theme, pacing, those essential fine-tuning steps each book writer must implement. It will even tell you to edit out the juicy parts because all your relatives will shun you when they read them.

And as you try to sell your book, the Critic will come into full battle mode. It may suggest you stop now before any rejection letters arrive.


Blocked? Face the Critic and Write outside Your Story
When the Critic gets big, writers get small. Many stop writing. But that's not the goal, when you're pen-deep in a book project. So what can you do?

Turn and face your Critic. Get to know your own particular Inner Critic and how it delivers its sabotaging self-talk. Learn to feel the fear and write anyway.

Once when I was unable to move ahead on a particularly difficult scene in a memoir, I located my writing notebook under the manuscript pages and began writing about being literally sick with shame. As I wrote, I got the idea to start a “treaty” letter to my Inner Critic, thanking it for its help in keeping me safe all these years.

I wrote about how I appreciated its role. I wrote how I understood why it brought caution to my writing life because it had my best interests at heart. With each sentence, I felt a lessening of tension in my gut, a softening in my heart. No longer waged in battle, I able to see my Inner Critic in a new way.

Then I asked it kindly to step aside, to let me write this chapter. I explained why I needed to write it, reassured the Critic that this story didn’t have to end up in the final book. I just needed to get it on paper.

When the letter was finished, I closed my notebook and went back to my desk. The chapter flowed out better than I could’ve imagined and the Inner Critic was noticeably calmer the rest of that writing session.

My Inner Critic only wanted to protect me from the shame of fame: people looking at me in a different way because I told about a business failure many years before.

By collaborating with this gate-keeping voice, instead of rejecting its help, I was able to proceed.

As Hal and Sidra Stone, authors of Embracing Your Inner Critic, write, “To go beneath the criticisms of the Inner Critic and convert your distress to understanding, you must always remember how and why the Critic was born. You must remember the important role it has had to play in protecting that very young, vulnerable, unprotected, and sensitive child that you used to be.”


This Week's Writing Exercise
Write a letter to your Inner Critic.

First, get to know it on paper--describe it, sketch it, paint it until you feel you have a handle on its particular way of being only yours.

Then get out your writing notebook. Begin your letter to the Inner Critic with gratitude--always a good way to soften any resistance. Yes, you may be fuming at the chains, but start by thanking this part of yourself (for it is) for its never-ending vigilance.

Then renegotiate your contract. What can you ask for that would give you more freedom?


This blog post is excerpted from Week 4 of Mary's 12-week online class, "Your Book Starts Here, Part 1."   The next session begins January 17, 2011, and is limited to 20 students. The class is entirely virtual (online).  Fee:  $420 for 12 weeks.  For more information or to sign up, contact the Loft Literary Center Education Department at loft@loft.org or call 612-379-8999.

Starting a Law Firm in the Northwest? Then You Must Check This Out

If you are here, reading this blog, then you have already taken one great step toward starting a law firm. You are thinking about it, you are researching it, and you are dreaming about it. Good for you. But at some point in time rubber must meet road. And there is no better time than the present if you are thinking of starting a law firm in the northwest.



I've talked about this guy before, but next Friday, October 15, in Seattle at the Rainier Square Conference Center Rjon Robins will be giving a day long presentation (broken up into two parts) about how to start a successful law firm. He is joining up with the King County Bar Association to put this presentation on, and if you have any thought of opening up a law firm you must attend.



I won't make you go back and read the original post I wrote about him, but about a year ago I purchased from him a revenue doubler system. I like to refer to it as starting a law firm in a box. It came with a bunch of manuals, a bunch of CDs, and a once a week group telephone meeting with him to discuss what was going on. I give him and his information and advice a lot of credit for helping to get me to where I am.



The presentation is broken up into two parts. The morning session is called "How to Start a Law Firm" and the afternoon is called "How to Grow a Law Firm." Honestly, no matter where you are in the state of your law firm, it would do you well to attend both sessions.



Oh, and by the way, just to make things clear, I am not being paid in any way whatsoever to promote this seminar, though if you go I will probably be there. I just know what a great help it can be to those starting out and I wanted to take the opportunity to let you know about it. You've been so informed.



Hope to see you there!

Increase the body count

The policeman says “so where is your papers then?” And I say “hang on officer. I will get them”. But I don’t get them, instead I get a knife from the kitchen and I come back to the front door and I kill him, then I think maybe I will be in trouble, so I go to my friend Ian’s house and I say “hey Ian can you help me escape from the police because I killed a policeman”. . .

Ian looks at me and says “I don’t know man that sounds pretty bad, let me think” but I do not let him think because I kill him. Then when his wife comes home and screams and is not cool with all of it I also kill her. Anyway the police send more policemen and they have stun guns and stuff but its ok because I kill them too, I get arrested and go to court so I kill the judge and then what I do, is I drive off in a stretch Hummer, with a rocket launcher on the roof and I’m all like “Yeeeeaaaahhh!” and when ever people mess with me and stuff I kill them with the rocket launcher especially Mr Cheebing who is my teacher for double science and I’m like “no way!” and he is dead by a rocket.

A perfect afternoon on the sofa

I love this photo of Gwyneth Paltrow from one of my favourite movies A View From The Top. I watched it (again) yesterday. It’s just so silly and funny, but at the same time really motivational, AND it includes scenes of Paris. Not to mention Gwyneth’s character is made over during the movie from tacky to chic. Le sigh. No wonder I adore this movie.

I wrote this quote down while watching; it spoke to me (in Candice Bergen’s voice, with a twangy Texan accent):

‘No matter where you’re from, no matter who people think you are, you can be whatever you want, but you gotta start right now. Right this second in fact’.

Candice is Gwyneth's mentor in the movie, a former flight attendant who has retired and written a book. Watching the movie I was thinking to myself, I would really like to read that book. Shame I can't order it from the library.

After watching the movie I am motivated to do better in all aspects of my life - at work, in my slimming efforts, being a good person. The list goes on. I love it when movies do that.

Make your influences clear

‘Please, you’ve got to listen to me,’ I shouted, hammering on the door. ‘Doctor Browning! Open the door!’ It opened a crack – just enough for an eye and a shock of white hair to appear.

‘You’re crazy,’ the Doctor whispered. ‘There’s no such thing as time travel.’

‘You’ve got to believe me, Doctor,’ I pleaded. ‘I’m from the future. My name is Martin McFoo. You sent me here and now I’m stuck. You built a time machine out of a Lamborghini using uranium to generate six point one terrawatts of energy.’

‘Six point one terrawatts?’ yelled the Doctor. ‘That’s impossible!’

‘You did it, Doctor. You sent me in the car at ninety-nine miles per hour and I came back in time and now I’m probably going to sleep with my own mother. It’s kind of disturbing if you think about it.’

‘Great Skeet!’ exclaimed the Doctor.

‘Listen, please,’ I said. ‘I need to go back. You’ve got to send me back. I have to... RETURN TO THE PRESENT!’

Emphasise your villain’s bad qualities

Doctor Slithingly watched the readout on the computer screen and rubbed his hands together.

‘Excellent,’ he muttered, his voice a thin, rasping hiss. ‘Excellent!’ He laughed to himself in a chilling falsetto. ‘Soon my plan will come to fruition. Soon I will destroy them all!’ The room resounded with the sound of his insane giggling.

This was the culmination of years of research – years of testing tissue samples and creating unnatural biological hybrids – but now it was over. Now, finally, he would destroy them all – every single type and variation of leukaemia. In doing so, he would render useless the work of thousands of charitable organisations as well as denying medical professionals the world over a source of income. He would prevent the publication of hundreds of inspiring stories of survival and sacrifice which might otherwise have sold millions of copies worldwide.

‘Bwahaha!’ he laughed. ‘So long, you meddling haematological neoplasm, you!’

Making your home like a boutique hotel

I found this article over the weekend. It's about the 'staycation', a new-money saving way of going on holiday by staying at home. I'm all for the staycation. As small business owners, we don't get to go away much at all, but our version of a staycation is to spend the night (or even - gasp - two) at a fancy hotel ten minutes down the road from our shop. It still feels like a holiday!

What I like most about this article is that it has lots of lovely ideas on how to make your home like a boutique hotel, and quite novel ways to enjoy your staycation. They may seem a bit silly, but, like the carpet picnic, are actually really fun, and shake up the ordinary. And we all need that sometimes.

I think our next staycation will be at home. And in the meantime I will be using all the wonderful tips on making our home like a boutique hotel. Why not live like this every day?

Here is the article:

Holidaying at Home

This is how my next holiday will go: the husband and I will pack the kids into the car at a civilised hour. We will drive for 10 minutes, have a leisurely brunch somewhere new, then drive for another 10 minutes to our boutique hotel.

It will be spotless and private. There will be flowers on the table, luxury toiletries in the bathroom and plenty of toys for the kids. The beds will be comfortable and configured exactly to our needs. There will be a cosy fire and the mini bar will be full of complimentary treats. Our hosts will have anticipated our every desire.

It will be our own house.

It's called a "holiday at home". Which is not the same as a week off work that you spend at home because the bathroom needs repainting. Nor is it (necessarily) a week spent in front of the television.

A holiday at home means you become a tourist in your own city and transform your home (even just in your mind) into a hotel. That means no work, no chores and no errands. It means abandoning your routine and trying new things: foods, restaurants, parks, attractions.

Yes, it might take a leap of imagination, especially if your home is closer to a backpackers' lodge than a five-star hotel and it rains for the entire week, but if you can pull it off think of the benefits: no expensive airfares, no jetlag, no "are we there yet?", no $9 Mars bars from the mini bar, no need for carbon offsets, no driving in circles in a strange city.

Holidaying at home has caught on so strongly in the US it's got its own buzzword: the "staycation". With the financial crisis and soaring oil prices, staying home has become the new going away.

Like any holiday, a staycation can benefit from preparation. Save for it and set a budget, just as you might for a holiday overseas. Tie up household admin and loose ends before you "go". Use some of the money you might have spent on airfares and accommodation to get gourmet groceries and treats delivered and book a cleaner, a gardener, a lawn-mowing service, a laundry service, a mobile massage therapist and beauty therapist, a dog walker, a nanny - even a personal chef.

Wellington life coach Cassandra Gaisford suggests you pinpoint what you need a holiday from. "What needs to remain the same, what needs to change? If you need a break from walking the dog, or the ageing cat is peeing on the carpet you may want to think about checking them into a pet motel.

"Plan some FTEs - first-time experiences. Rediscover your sense of adventure. Break out of the comfort rut. Your FTEs don't have to be huge - they may be seeing a show or eating something different."

Transforming your surroundings can also help you relax into holiday mode. Ponsonby interior designer Fiona McLeod suggests you ask yourself what it is about a luxury boutique hotel that's appealing.

"For me it's tranquility and minimalism. Get everything off the floor except your furniture and your feet, and completely clear the kitchen bench except for a bowl of fruit. If you have a fireplace, light it, and add to the ambience with candles and aromatherapy.

"Treat yourself. Buy a pile of magazines and fan them out on your coffee table. Buy luxury bath and shower products and splash out on a few extra accessories, like designer cushions, new towels or an ornamental bowl, to make your home slightly different from the norm."

As with any good holiday, a staycation is about eating fun food. If holidays mean lobster and fresh mango, put them on your shopping list. If you regard cooking as a chore, don't do it. Go out for meals at restaurants and cafes you've never tried, or live on "room service" (home-delivered takeaways). If you enjoy cooking, buy gourmet and unfamiliar ingredients and create new dishes.

After our family staycation, we will return home at leisure, perhaps stopping at a cafe on the way to transition out of holiday mode. We will be rested and stimulated. And the bill will be very reasonable.

The rules of a staycation

1. Set a departure time.
To help you make the mental switch to holiday mode, and declare an end date. Get excited.

2. Switch off the world.
No phones, no email, no mail, no internet and definitely no work. Tell your boss you're holidaying in the Sub-Antarctic Islands and can't be contacted.

3. Abandon routine.
Eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired, drink whenever you declare it to be cocktail hour. Let the kids play Scrabble until midnight and give them chocolate for breakfast and Weet-Bix for dinner.

4. Hire "staff"to do your chores.
Do not go on errands or do housework.

5. Diet be damned.
If you even touch that packet of mixed veggies in the freezer, you're disqualified and have to go back to work immediately. Daily icecreams are compulsory.

6. Go on day trips and try new things.
Be a tourist: think dolphin-watching, a harbour cruise, a wine tour, a drive in the country, the Auckland Harbour Bridge walk, shopping somewhere new for something fun. Hire a luxury car, do a wine-tasting course, try something creative, go to the theatre or learn a new sport.

7. Avoid familiarity.
Take the children to playgrounds and parks they've never been to before. Play tennis (if you don't usually). Walk or cycle as much as possible.

8. Spend your holiday allowance frivolously.
Buy a good book and new toys for the kids (and you). Turn your home into a day spa.

9. Send postcards.
Take photos, make videos, buy souvenirs.

10. Host cocktail hour.
Serve your friends daiquiris from coconuts. Better still, invite them for the weekend - even if they live nearby.

- Of course I don't agree with the point about sending your pet away. That to me is the best part of the staycation, you get to enjoy your pet's company too. -

Creating the Page-Turner: Tricks to Great Pacing in Your Books

For twelve years, I wrote a syndicated weekly newspaper column. I only had six hundred words each week, so I learned to wrap the column neatly. The ending was always tied up with a clever image, like a bright bow on a tidy package.

When I went back to college for my MFA in fiction and began my first novel, this search for closure no longer suited my writing.  Novels explore, they expand, they lead to deeper secrets and more adventurous events.  When one of my teachers noticed this tendency to neaten up my chapter endings, she decided to broaden my understanding of pacing.  How it differs in books--as opposed to short pieces
like newspaper columns.

First she tempted me with a question:  Did I want my reader to close my book after each chapter, feeling complete and able to walk away from the story?  Even though my newspaper-trained writing mind yelled, Yes!  I knew the answer was, "Not at all."  I wanted a page turner.

So she shared this amazing trick:  She advised me to read the last paragraph of each chapter and rework it slightly, to pause the story in the midst of an unanswered question, an unfinished situation, or a foreshadowing of problems to come.  To not wrap up anything, really.  To leave the reader in a state of wondering right up to the end of the book, when the story concludes.

Negative Capability--A Lesson from John Keats
The poet John Keats worked extensively with something he called “negative capability.”  This theme appears in much of his work—and in brief, it's the willingness to be unresolved and accept that uncertainty is a good thing.   Not so easy for a closure-lover like myself, trained for years to create airtight packages.  But as I researched this in novels I loved, I realized most of my favorite writers did it.  Whether by accident or by design, they always left me with bigger questions at the end of their chapters than I'd had when I began reading.

I read further on the subject, revisiting the work of Rainier Maria Rilke, and his 1903 book, Letters to a Young Poet.  In this priceless volume, Rilke advises his young friend “to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.” Rilke explained that the answers to these questions “could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now” in hope that we can “live [our] way into the answer.”  

I decided to apply this to my book manuscript.  I was by now convinced that readers might well enjoy this suspension, this openness, in books as a whole and at the end of chapters in particular.  Even though  I had to deliberately unlearn twelve years of a certain writing style, I spent day after day working specifically with this new understanding of pacing in my chapters.

It took months to figure out new endings for my chapters, but once I began to explore the idea of creating incomplete endings, the tension in my book increased dramatically.

Finally my novel was published, and I began to hear from readers who confirmed the effect of this pacing work. I still have the letters and emails.  “I stayed up all night reading your book” and “I couldn’t put it down—I finished one chapter and had to begin the next one to find out what happened.”  Worth all the work, I decided.

If you want to try it, here's the exercise I used.  It's excerpted from my forthcoming book, Your Book Starts Here, which will be published at the end of 2010.


This Week's Writing Exercise

1. Find a published book in your genre and open it at random. Squint at several pages, studying the ratio of white space to dense text.

2. Read two pages aloud. Listen for the sounds, the rhythm. Does it feel fast or slow? Where does the pace vary?

3. Locate a chapter that contains a suspenseful moment or turning point. Notice if the sentences are short or long, if the verbs are particularly vivid. How did this writer adjust pacing to create this tension?

4. Next look at the chapter transitions. Study the paragraph that ends one chapter and the paragraph that begins the next chapter. What effect does it have on you? Are you left with a need to turn the page, read on? Or is there a feeling of things being wrapped up?

5. Copy three paragraphs into your writer’s notebook, changing where they start and stop. See what effect you get with different pacing.

Starting a Law Firm | This and That

Starting a Law Firm | Demand For Posts

I'm back. I actually got a comment today that asked if I could update what I was doing or try to get on a more regular writing schedule so they knew when to check back. I'm trying to write every week, but sometimes I just get too busy to do it. When things pile up, the less important things get pushed back. Sadly, this is a less important thing. With that being said, however, there is this nifty little thing on the right side of the screen that says "subscribe in a reader." Click on it and follow the directions and it will let you know every time I write something new. That way you don't have to keep checking back in all the time.

Postage and Copying Fees

Had a request about postage and copying fees. I buy stamps when I need them. Usually use a book or two per month, depending on what's going on. If I need more I just go buy more.

As for copying, I don't do any copying. If I need a copy of something I scan it into the computer and print it out. That rarely happens. If someone wants a copy of something I try my hardest to let me email it to them so they can print it out if they want to. Part of starting a law firm is controlling costs. This is an easy way to do it.

As for the rest of the office supplies, I go through a package or two of paper a month, and that's about it for office supplies. But you have to remember, I'm a criminal attorney and we don't have a lot of paper flying around like you crazy civil lawyers. We prefer to pick up the phone or send a nasty email when we have a problem instead of filing a bunch of motions (joking...sort of).

New Law Clerk at the Firm

I finally did something I should have done a long time ago and hired a law clerk. She's been working for me for two weeks and it's been awesome. She doesn't really spend any time at the office. I know you're dying to hear about the set up, so here it goes.

I pay her $15 an hour. She just keeps her time and gives it to me. I pay her like a contract employee - so I don't have to worry about taxes. She just gets a 1099 at the end of the year like any other contract employee would. We meet on Mondays for an hour or so. At the meeting we go over what she's been doing and I tell her about new cases I have and new projects I have for her. Then I email her more detailed instructions and any materials I have that can help her get started.

I have a rule that she can come to any court hearing that she wants to. I've got a highrise account so she can see what's scheduled. If she has questions, I answer them. We talk a little strategy here and there and I try to explain why I'm doing what I'm doing. She does her work where ever she wants (she has access to the office but it isn't necessary) and emails me her work when it's done. I use track changes to make comments and suggestions until a final product is created.

Here's the great thing about having a law clerk, though, it cuts my work time in half. If you've been practicing for any amount of time you quickly learn one thing - spotting the issues is the hard part, doing the research is the easy part. But, with that being said, doing the research is the time consuming part. Law clerks love to research and write - it's all they know how to do so far. So it's a great trade off for me. I get to teach a law student how to be a lawyer, and they get to create some great work product doing something they know how to do.

And I guess that's the starting a law firm lesson of the day - learn how to leverage your time. Sure, you could do it all, but how fun is that? And, with the time you save on research and writing you now have that much more time to devote to marketing your law firm, which is just as important (and something your law clerk definitely can't do).

Here's an old post about hiring law clerks. I have no idea what it says!

Phone System Changes

Also wanted to let you know that I have signed up for a free trial with receptionhq.com, a virtual reception company. I found that I was missing too many calls with court and things like that and needed someone to make sure I didn't miss those. I just signed up with them this week and have been pleased with the service so far. The rates are reasonable, and they seem like they know what they are doing, which is nice.

I know you all love hearing about law firm phone systems and the nuts and bolts of starting a law firm so I thought I'd throw you a bone.

Ads on the Site

I decided to put ads on the site, and you may have noticed that. I didn't do that for those of you that actually read these posts, I did it for people that are just passing through and like what they see. Please only click on the ads if you are interested in the product. That's the whole point right?

Have a great weekend. And let me know if there's anything you'd like to talk about specifically.

Emphasise your hero’s good qualities

Once upon a time, there was a king who was just and wise and strong and handsome and clever and all the people in the kingdom loved him. However, he had never found a wife. All the women in the kingdom loved him, of course, but he was so devoted to ruling his kingdom well and enjoying all the wonderful food and wine his subjects produced – particularly the wine – that he had never found the time for marriage.

In order to make his kingdom the best it could be, he took a lot of money off his subjects in taxes, so it was important that he spent lots of money on wine so they would get some of those taxes back. He was a very thoughtful king. And in order to keep his kingdom safe, he executed a criminal every day and hung the body on the gate of his palace. Some days, the king’s guards had to work very hard to find someone who looked like a criminal!

One day, he was walking in the grounds of his palace when he saw a beautiful servant girl carrying two pails of milk to the kitchen. The king, being a romantic at heart, noticed that with her hands full, there was no way the servant girl could stop him touching her...