distractions

Focus Shift: Photoshop Your Moods!

Published on by Kristi Holl

In addition to a Covid family death, I lost two friends in December, plus my last (and favorite) uncle. The focus was on grieving, plus a severe autoimmune flare-up it caused.

With Christmas around the corner, I found it difficult to feel the joy of the season. And writing? That felt out of the question, so my work-in-progress languished. Everywhere I turned were reminders of loss and the pain of suffering loved ones left behind. It seemed there was little I could do but pray and endure and pretend to be happy, so that I didn’t dampen anyone else’s holidays.

But there was more I could do, which I learned inadvertently from my teenage granddaughter, Abby. She’s taking dozens of my W.I.P. England photos, resizing and refocusing them for use in blogs, plus Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest posts. I watched her change photos from bright and cheery to somber and shadowy, in keeping with my mystery series.

Photoshop Your Days

Abby was taking reality (the amateur photos I took), and either brightening or darkening the mood by what she chose to emphasize. So, I tried it myself, experimenting with a Yorkshire Dales graveyard photo (shown first below.) Using cropping and blurring and tints and hues, I brightened the mood (the second photo) and then used the same techniques in reverse to darken the mood (the third photo.)

Here is a shift away from the darker elements to a brighter spot in the photo. Definitely a cheerier mood.

Here is a shift in focus again, but this time ignoring the brighter spots, but focusing on the somber, darker elements.

A light dawned. Could I finagle with my own downcast soul in the same way I adjusted the photos? Could I take the circumstances of loss and sickness—the true snapshot of my current life—and adjust my mood by choosing what to focus on? What could I crop out that wasn’t helpful to focus on? Could I brighten the tone? What heightened contrast would give a truer perspective?

Focus on Eternal Truths

Yes, the truth was that those were sad days. But what else was true? These loved ones were out of pain now. I trusted that I’d see them again one day. True, I felt unwell, but thanks to Covid isolation, I was already expert at ordering food via Instacart. So two Christmas dinners arrived with all the prep work done. And since I love Christmas music and movies, I filled the empty spaces with more intentional joy. It was Philippians 4:8 in action.

But in addition to changing the focus to things that were true and uplifting and kind, I had to crop out a few things from the current picture. First was to stop thinking about negative events in the world and in the extended family that, beyond fervently praying, I couldn’t change. I reviewed my old copy of Codependent No More by Melody Beattie to remind myself what problems I was responsible for, and which problems in the extended family I clearly was not responsible for fixing. And stepping back to view the whole situation made it look much less disheartening.

Making these seemingly small changes reminded me of another book on my shelves, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time by Alex Korb, PhD. According to science, these small “photo app” changes  shift brain chemistry from depression to hopeful joy. I even read some of my own blog posts, like From Panic to Focus: Save Your Writing Project and Find Your Focus: Stick to the ONE Thing.

So, if your 2021 New Year looks less joyous than in previous years (for any reason), don’t despair. Do some creative cropping, change your focus, and brighten the picture. Watch how you are transformed by the renewing of your mind!

[Originally published January 3, 2021, on the American Christian Fiction Writers blog]

Uncluttered Office Equals Focused Mind

Published on by Kristi Holl

Are you ever overwhelmed by clutter (even good clutter)?

This will be primarily a photo sharing blog post—and you can skip to the last half of the post if you want to—but I want to share what prompted my office decluttering project.

I have a small 10-foot X 10-foot office which holds a treadmill/desk, a computer desk, a large table, and nine bookcases. 

Plenty of room for books, right?

You’d think so, but I also had books stacked everywhere, and no place to work or spread out research and papers. I have writing deadlines I must meet this summer, but I couldn’t settle down to work in my terribly cluttered office.

What To Do When Life Happens: Buy Books!

Since January when I broke my hand, followed by a couple of eye surgeries, things have piled up in my office. The rest of my house is junk free (other than closets and pantry), but I struggle with my office. Especially considering my bargain book-buying habit.

Lately, I’ve avoided my office, but there’s no other good place in my house to work. The chairs elsewhere hurt my back. There’s noise (even though I have a quiet husband). And my reference materials are stored in the office.

I thought my trouble was focusing as I’ve tried to get a grasp on my writing time since returning from vacation. But when reading I Was Busy, Now I’m Not by Joseph Peck, I was struck rather forcibly by this statement:

“There are two things to organize—your time and your space… Removing clutter from your physical environment helps you think more clearly and brings more peace. Getting organized is crucial to the matter of redeeming the time.”

Where Do I Start? Unclutter 101

I had tried to straighten up my office many times, but I simply had no room for everything, especially the books I had collected for the last 25 years. What to do? As when dealing with any issue, I figured there was help available “out there,” and so there was. I found the Becoming Minimalist website and signed up for a 12-week Uncluttered course. I thought that surely, with the help of videos and weekly email pep talks, I could bite the bullet and get my office functional again.

One weekend and fourteen fewer bags of books later, it looks terrific. (See the contrast below.) All the book shelves are still full, but the floors are clear, I can see the treadmill again, I re-discovered so many unread books, and I can find things! Five bags of books were donated to the Book Cellar downtown for re-sale, and nine bags of books went out in the trash. (I mark up all my nonfiction and scribble notes all over the margins, and no one wants them for re-sale.)

Saying Good-Bye to Friends

I grieved, truly, as I parted with my books. I glanced in many of them, noting the dates and messages in the margins which reminded me of what I was dealing with at the time. Those writing books and self-help books chronicled my various recoveries over the years, and those books were like my friends. Those authors and their support or advice were always at my fingertips. If only I could have kept them all!

Here are the before and after photos of various parts of my office. There are many British photos and mementos from my trips to England, and yes, my mini Christmas tree with the British ornaments stays up all year. I love my office now and can’t wait to go in there in the morning. The minute I sit down at my cleared-off desk, I actually feel focused. And I am still surrounded by a ton of books, which makes me really happy.

If you need to do this too, I hope you bite the bullet. You may find that it’s the only cure you need to give yourself instant focus.

BEFORE and AFTER Removing the Clutter

   

   

 

   

 

For other ways to focus, try some of these articles.

From Panicky and Distracted, to Peaceful and Focused

Published on by Kristi Holl

Right now, I really must be focused. When this posts on Friday, I will be in Houston, waiting to board British Airways to head across the ocean. But less than 24 hours before leaving, I am sitting here fighting panic at everything left to do before we leave. I should have realized this weeks ago, but packing for a month’s absence is a bit more complicated than being gone for a week. A no-brainer, right?

Usually my To-Do lists are orderly, with little check boxes beside each item. I have tasks in all areas: writing, fitness, family, food choices, and other areas that I like to track.

NOT TODAY!

I gave up earlier this week on having orderly to-do lists because I had too many items every day to fit into my normal planner. No problem, I thought. I’ll just systematically and calmly deal with each item, check it off, and go on to the next one.

Except at the end of each day this week, I had more left to do than I’d hoped for. To honest, I panicked at the amount of extra tasks to do (on top of regular life stuff). So on much of two afternoons, I watched Britbox and Acorn TV instead, dreaming of England without actually making much progress to get there! (Why do we do this? While it felt calming at the time, I actually set myself back even further.)

Calm the PANICKY Brain

So this is my to-do list left for today, with five or six writer things to do before I can start the packing or run to the store for shampoo and all the little travel things you need. Then run some laundry, clean out the refrigerator, and try to figure out how I am going to fit everything I want to take with me into a suitcase and carry-on.

My mind goes TILT-TILT-TILT as I think of packing plenty of warm clothes, hiking boots, books I simply MUST have with me (despite carrying a fully loaded Kindle), those plugs that will enable me to use appliances and my computer without starting a fire, my special foods, and all the rest.

It’s obvious that a third of it will have to stay home. I always choose to take the books, so this trip I may be wearing the same sweater and jeans in every photo taken! Perhaps I’ll go to the nearest village that has an Oxfam store (like our Goodwill) and get a few “gently worn” sweaters.

But what’s the answer to my panic this morning and exchanging it for peace? Taking several really big, deep breaths to calm my racing heart. Closing my eyes and meditating on some truths I know in my heart.

Shifting the Worries to Bigger Shoulders

Related imageI’m not the Good Shepherd. I’m not even an assistant shepherd. Instead, I’m like one of these Yorkshire sheep. I’m not in charge, and I’m not doing life alone. He leads me beside the still waters.

All I need to do is pray for help. And keep breathing! And calmly take one task at a time. It will all get done. I’m not alone in this adventure. And what’s more, it will be fun!

See you all on the other side of the pond!

The Disappearing Writer: Now You See Him, Now You Don’t!

Published on by Kristi Holl

 I appreciate the notes I’ve received since re-starting the blog this month. I was asked a number of times, “Where have you been the last two years?” Because my Writer’s First Aid blog is all about helping writers hang in there and not quitting and not giving up on writing dreams, it’s certainly a legitimate question. As one person asked, “When writers disappear, where do they go?”

So this post is more about me and my life than most posts I write. Hopefully, you will be encouraged not to quit when life “happens,” as it does to us all. The last two years, it just happened that a LOT of life happened. Some events were quite painful, some intensely annoying, and some brought great joy. In each case, I learned valuable lessons. So . . . here are main events since I disappeared!

My Mom’s Sudden Passing

Mom and Dad’s engagement picture, 1948

Two years ago this month, at the time of my last new blog post, I was battling some symptoms (losing eyesight, exhaustion, hair falling out, not sleeping), plus I’d signed too many book contracts and was struggling to keep up. My mom in Florida (88) had had major heart surgery and other hospitalizations. Then my sister called to say Mom (who had recovered SO well and was even back to ballroom dancing) had died suddenly. So the summer of 2016 passed in a blur as we dealt with estate matters, cleaned out her house where she’d lived for 41 years, and got it sold. As those of you who have been through this process know, it takes a while to recover.

Sign on Gravestone: I Told You I Was Sick

During this time, I continued to get sicker, but doctors kept writing the symptoms off as “aging” issues that I needed to accept. Not very helpful! I burned the midnight oil Googling symptoms. Long story short on the health issues: when you are sure there is something wrong and doctors aren’t/won’t/can’t order the tests you need, find an independent lab nearby and order the tests yourself. I’m so glad I did!

By the time I could convince doctors that there was something seriously wrong with me, I had had the lab work done, got a diagnosis, and started a treatment program of my own found through reading online, watching conference videos, and studying current medical research. By the time doctors diagnosed my main issue, I had been on a treatment program of supplements and major dietary changes and was starting to see improved lab results. Be proactive in your own healthcare! It’s an ongoing learning process, but I am thrilled to feel better now than I have in years.

New Books Out

I was writing a lot during this time, and here are the last six adult mysteries I have had published by Annie’s Publishing. [I had someone ask if this was self-publishing. No, it isn’t. This company does many mystery series, and I have written for four of their series. They publish in hardcover, and now ebooks too, I’ve heard. https://www.anniesfiction.com/]

      

     

I have thoroughly enjoyed writing for my own age group after only writing fiction for children nearly thirty years. The only mistake I made was signing too many contracts at first, not taking into account the length difference between adult and children’s books. That sounds like a no-brainer, I know, but it didn’t register till later. You can read about them here if you want to know the plots: https://www.kristiholl.com/mysteries-for-adults-and-children/

Watch Your Step!

In April of 2017, I was gardening in the back yard, stepped backward without thinking, and tripped over a full watering can. I went down hard on our rocky dry Texas soil, tried to brace my fall, and broke my left wrist in four places and popped out my left shoulder. I avoided surgery but had to have three casts over eleven weeks, as they put me in traction and lined up each bone so it would attach. (I have tiny bones, without enough to attach steel plates and rods to, so I’m glad they avoided surgery.) They have a saying at the hospital: “crooked arm equals straight bone.” It was hard to believe when I saw the finished casts, but the x-rays did indeed show all the bone pieces in straight lines. [After seeing the shape of the cast, it made sense that physical therapy had to follow.]

I still had contracts to fulfill, and thankfully I had broken the left wrist. I used to enjoy writing by hand, so that’s what I did, filling up spiral notebooks and writing 55,000 words by hand in a couple of weeks. [I actually DID enjoy writing with no distractions that come with a computer. Your paper and pen don’t ding, squeak, ring or crash.]

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Once the last cast came off, I had to start typing, but after all summer in casts, my wrist was frozen in a position with the thumb pointing up. I couldn’t rotate my wrist so that the palm faced up or down. I knew that the physical therapy later for my wrist would correct this, but in the meantime, I couldn’t type on a regular keyboard.

However, I found a new keyboard online that looked like something out of a Star Wars movie. It didn’t matter that my wrist was frozen in place because with this keyboard, you type with your thumbs pointed up. It is for people to cure carpal tunnel syndrome or who have had a broken wrist or wrist surgery. My speed was very slow, and I had to do a lot of one-finger correcting, but the book got turned in on time, and I took a break then.

Blessings in the Brokenness

I had had a lot of thinking time when in my casts since I couldn’t drive, and for a long time it was painful to ride anywhere in a car. It gave me time to think, to evaluate my frenetic writing lifestyle, and make some changes.

I remembered a book project that I’d put on the back burner for more than five years, one of those projects that you’re not sure will sell, but you’d love to write anyway. I decided it was now or never. Who knew when I might encounter another deadly watering can? So that’s the project I’m working on now. 

Wedding Bells!

The most joyous event in recent years happened just two months ago. My middle daughter, Laurie, was married outdoors at a ranch in Tucson, and she was just the most beautiful bride. All four of my grandkids had parts in the wedding. I try to respect my kids’ privacy, but I’m going to post just one photo of the girls and me. Our whole family welcomed her husband, Jeff, with open arms. Isn’t it wonderful how a joyous event like this can totally eclipse the tougher events?

 

I’m Going to Summer Camp! Are You?

Camp NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge that happens in July. It’s different from NaNoWriMo in November because you can work on ANY type of creative project of any length, not just a 50,000-word novel. First drafts or revision, scripts or stories or poems or essays… all are welcome! You track your goals based on word count, hours, or pages, and they welcome word-count goals between 30 and 1,000,000 words.

You join an online cabin with up to 20 other writers. It starts tomorrow, and it’s still not too late to create a cabin or join someone else’s cabin. I like small groups myself. My cabin has only two people in it: my long-time writer friend and accountability partner and me. If you’re interested in joining a cabin of your own, check it out: https://campnanowrimo.org

I’m glad to be back in contact with you all. And thank you for notes I’ve received this month after I resurfaced. Writers make the best community!

Attention, Writers! (It's a Choice)

Published on by Kristi Holl

If you’re traveling west, you’ll end up in California. Go East, and you might land in New York instead. The direction you choose determines your destination.

But what makes you choose one direction over the other? For most people, it’s whatever grabs your attention. If warm beaches and surfing snag your attention, you’re more likely to head west than east. As your attention goes, so goes your life.

What does that mean for your writing life? It means that when distractions come along–and they will–these distractions can snag your attention, pull you off course and change your direction if you’re not careful.

The Formula

Whatever grabs your attention (internally or externally) determines the direction you head. And the direction you head determines where you end up. This is true for everyone. For every area of your life, the formula is the same:

Attention –> Direction –> Destination

How can you make this “principle of the path” work for you instead of against you in your writing life?

This? Or This?

You can remember that we have choices. We don’t have to be ruled by the things that initially grab our attention. (Attention-grabbers include pop-up ads when you surf the web, commercials for food on TV, new cars as you drive by a car lot, a fight with your teenager, and being snapped at by your boss. Attention-grabbers can be those worrisome thoughts that flit through your brain like mosquitoes, about family or money issues which have nothing to do with writing.) We can choose to give our attention to these things. Or we can remove or disentangle our attention from something and deliberately place it somewhere else.

According to Andy Stanley in The Principle of the Path, “Whereas emotion fuels the things that grab our attention, intentionality fuels our decision to give certain things our attention.” In other words, distractions excite our emotions and snag us almost against our will, but we can intentionally choose to give our attention to something else, like a goal.

Death to Distractions

This is good news for writers! We all need a strategy for dealing with things that distract us from our writing goals. Distractions do more than rob us of our writing time that day or that week. They can set us on a path that will lead us to a destination we don’t want.

You don’t think so? Does it sound melodramatic? Well, look back on your life. Are there areas you now wish you’d given more attention to? Maybe you wish you’d paid more attention to your health or your marriage or the way your handle money. Things might be better for you now if you’d given more  attention to those areas then.

Fork in the Road

The same thing is true of your writing career. If you are consistently turning away from unwanted distractions and choosing instead to give your attention to writing and writing-related activities (reading, studying, networking with other writers), you’re heading in a good direction. You will end up at a different destination five, ten or fifteen years from now.

Each time a distraction tempts you to veer away from your writing, you’re at a fork in the road. You will choose one path or the other. I hope you choose the writing path!