persistence

Living the 5-Minute Life

Published on by Kristi Holl

I’m too old, I’m too tired, I can’t write for hours anymore… But something won’t let me quit writing! Is there a solution?

Through a lot of trial and error, I found the solution for me: the 5-Minute Life. It didn’t just revolutionize my writing. You can also break a bad habit, or start a good habit, or rest when you’re weary—all in 5-Minute slices of your day.

Solving Problems, 5 Minutes at a Time 

Want to break a habit of overeating at a meal and not stopping when you’ve had enough? After your meal, set your kitchen timer for 5 minutes and do something else. Maybe you’ll still eat more when the timer dings, but many times you won’t. The craving actually disappears in about 90 seconds, according to “habit experts.”

Want to start a new habit? Maybe lift weights, floss your teeth, write on your work-in-progress daily? Set your kitchen timer for 5 minutes, and when it dings, you can quit! Or, if you feel like going longer, you can and often will. (Getting started is usually more than half the battle, and you conquered that. Staying in motion is immeasurably easier.)

What about weariness or those pesky aches and pains? When you realize that your body is protesting, stop and set your timer for 5 minutes. Close your eyes and do deep breathing. Listen to uplifting music, something that soothes your soul. Wander around your back yard and see what’s blooming. You’ll be amazed how much 5 minutes can refresh you. (Just don’t waste it on your phone, email or social media. You’ll feel worse instead.)

“It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it. If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process, is to guarantee disappointment.” ~~James Clear, author of Atomic Habits

WELL, YES . . . AND NO.

Live the 5-Minute Life? How?

“To crave the result [the finished manuscript] but not the process [your writing habits, or eating habits, or sleeping habits, etc.] is to guarantee disappointment.”

I had a suspicion that something was wrong with my process. After floundering, I would have wonderful energetic re-starts, but the older I got, the amount of time I could stick to my writing schedule grew smaller. No matter how you take care of your health, age happens (if you’re lucky) and energy declines a bit each year.

I was sick and tired of giving up, getting depressed over NOT writing, then reading motivational books, praying hard, making check charts for the closet door to keep track of my work hours…and after a week or so, quitting again.

When younger, I could keep a rigorous writing schedule while teaching and raising kids, but not now at 71. I wanted to live the process and love it, but I found myself no longer able. [And it still bugs me to admit this.] Did that mean I had to quit writing books? It was beginning to seem so. 

But, but, but…

What if I could invent a writing process that I COULD fall in love with all over again? When I started writing and publishing in 1983, I had to work my writing around a newborn, a toddler, and a newly adopted boy from Korea who spoke no English. But I found a writing process (writing in bits and pieces) that worked for me then, so I launched my career (while we added yet another baby.) Many of those experiences became my two writing books, Writer’s First Aid and More Writer’s First Aid.

The More Things Change…

. . . the more they stay the same.

I’m no longer scrambling for bits of time in the same way. But getting started writing when not feeling well or when busy with volunteer and grandchildren activities still takes some grit. However, writing or marketing for five minutes is doable for anyone.

Yes, more than half the time, my 5-minute chunks of writing or marketing stretched into 30-45 minutes. Even when it didn’t, though, I was astounded by how much I could do in 5 minutes–just like I had trained myself to do during the baby years. I started giving myself high fives for every bit I wrote. Silly maybe, but it worked!

Where There’s a Will

I stop for different reasons now, of course. It’s not because a toddler fell and cut her lip or a baby needs changing. It is more often the aches in my wrists [shattered left wrist in 2017 and broken right hand in 2019] that crawl up my arms. But while stopping is different, starting is remarkably similar.

Give it a shot and see! Live the 5-Minute Writing Life!

From Panic to Focus: Save Your Writing Project

Published on by Kristi Holl

In the fall of 2019 I spent several weeks researching a mystery series set in a small village in the North Yorkshire Dales. The locals who own the shops depend on tourist trade from daily bus tours and mountain bike groups.  In early 2020 villagers sent out a plea for the tourists to please stay home during the coronavirus scare. Students and parents (now working and learning from home) were coming to the villages in droves on their unexpected “vacations.”

They posed a threat to two distinct groups: the high number of older at-risk people living in the villages—and the sheep.

At-Risk Sheep?

Yes, but it has nothing to do with the virus. It’s lambing time in the Yorkshire Dales. Hiking groups climb up through the pastures. Bikers race down the trails on the other side of the stone fences marking the fields. Their dogs, often loose, bark at the sheep. The sheep startle easily, then panic and run. With pregnant ewes, the mere running can make them abort their lambs.

We writers can also react to fearful circumstances with panic. There are good reasons the Bible compares us to sheep needing a shepherd. We don’t lose lambs if we panic, but before our writing dreams come to fruition, we can lose the work we are carrying that God gave us to do.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Being terribly unsettled by COVID-19 is totally normal. Our families, regardless of age or situation, have faced huge changes these past weeks. As time passes, and people we know come down with the virus, the temptation to panic grows. Panic allowed to settle in (fed by constant exposure to the media) can derail our writing schedules for months.

Panic is nothing new for followers of God. Imagine the Israelites as they faced the Red Sea before them and the chariots pursuing from behind. The people cried out in terror at what was about to overtake them. And what was Moses’ response to them? “‘Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and watch God do his work of salvation for you today. . . God will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!’” (Exodus 14:13-14 MSG)

In other words, when faced with impending doom and disaster, you should:

  • Fear not,
  • stand firm,
  • watch God work,
  • and stop spreading panic with your words.

Still great advice today.

Human Sheep at Risk Today

Most people in the world feel a similar panic at the virus situation. Specifically, for writers, book deadlines are right in front of us, but the coronavirus bears down from behind like those Egyptian chariots. How can we possibly write? Moses’ words are as applicable to us as they were to the panicked Israelites.

Remember that the Lord is still our Good Shepherd. We are still His sheep. We hear His voice. He knows us. We can still follow Him. We are trying to birth our stories during this time, but if we panic instead of trusting God, we are likely to abort the work He has given us to do.

Stay close to the shepherd. Do your part to keep yourself and others safe. Encourage one another instead of using your words to spread panic. Be calm and peaceful, and ready to account to non-believers for the hope that is within you. (1 Peter 3:15) Then, even in these times, you will be able to give “birth” to your writing projects.

We’re All in This Together

My mystery writer friend runs daily in the Yorkshire Dales, and she took this photo on the top of the fells. There were few tourists hiking or biking, and she was encouraged by the cooperation with the villagers.

Even the sheep practiced social distancing!

[First published on the ACFW American Christian Fiction Writers blog.]

Follow-up trips to the UK have been cancelled (twice), but God willing, I will return there near the end of September.

How the Chunky Method Saved My Life

Published on by Kristi Holl

A couple of months ago, after being sick and traveling and meeting two book deadlines, I stalled when given some unwelcome health news which required tests and more tests. I got really, really behind on an adult mystery, and for hours I would struggle to write, only to throw it all out at the end of the day.

I was used to writing in 90-minute or two-hour blocks, taking a break, then doing it all again. I’d used that schedule for years, since I no longer have small children living with me. But sickness and burn-out had taken their toll, and I wouldn’t make my deadline at the rate I was going.

Enter the Chunky Method!

I had signed up to attend a Saturday writing workshop, and I was eager to be around other writers t. The speaker, Allie Pleiter, was to talk about her book, The Chunky Method Handbook: Your Step-By-Step Plan to Write That Book Even When Life Gets in the Way. To be honest, I didn’t expect to learn anything really new. I just wanted to be encouraged.

I got so much more!

In a Nutshell

Based on our personalities, our lifestyles, our season of life (small children, day job, retired empty nester) and our health, we all write in different “chunks.” By Allie’s definition, a chunk of writing is what you can comfortably do in one sitting, stopping when you pass the point of “this writing is good” into “the writing I’m doing now will have to be tossed out because it stinks.” She had a test for determining the length of your natural chunk. Big and little chunks are equally valuable.

Frankly, I was going to skip the test when I got home and move on to the rest of her book. I had to get busy! Anyway, my natural chunk for years had been about 90 minutes, or about 1500 words. I knew that already. But was it anymore? My writing life was certainly no longer working.

Back to the Drawing Board

I decided to do the chunky test. (You’re supposed to do this five days in a row, one chunk per day.) I didn’t have five days to use for this, so I did four chunks spread throughout a day. I was careful to stop when I felt too tired to keep going productively. Big discovery!

My chunk had shrunk!

I wasn’t able to comfortably write 1500 words at a sitting. My four chunks averaged only 500 words, and my sitting was only 45 minutes. At first I was really dismayed. I was too far behind to write the novel in 500-word chunks. Or so I thought.

I had nothing to lose by trying this method of writing my “comfortable chunk,” then resting a good while, then doing another “comfortable chunk,” and so on throughout the day.

Changing It Up

It worked! Before the Chunky Method workshop, my struggles had only produced about 1200 words per day, and sometimes not that much. Using the Chunky Method, I was able to average about 5,000 words per day rough draft, and some days nearly 8,000 words. And with the rest breaks between the chunks, where I walked or just went outside, I wasn’t stiff and sore or even very tired in the evenings. [NOTE: Determining your “chunk” is just the first step in the Chunky Method. I would tell you more, but I don’t want to plagiarize her book.]

Because I was writing so close to the deadline, I followed my own advice and got a paid critique from a writer I know and trust who has written award-winning mysteries. (Thank you, Mary Blount Christian!) After revising according to her excellent critique, I was able to turn in the manuscript on time. (And very little revision was requested by the editor this time too.)

So, in case you’re stuck, or you’re trying to write in the midst of stressful circumstances, I’d encourage you to buy The Chunky Method. It could change your writing life. It sure did mine!

Wise Words: Persistence in Writing

Published on by Kristi Holl

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Nothing.

So today I’m bringing you three recent posts on the topic of persistence in writing. Each article approaches the subject in a slightly different way. All are though-provoking and encouraging.

So if you’re thinking of quitting, read these articles first. You just might change your mind!

 

Unlocking Your Potential

Published on by Kristi Holl

Winston Churchill once said, “Continuous effort–not strength or intelligence–is the key to unlocking our potential.”

I believe he’s right. Over the years, the writers I’ve seen succeed weren’t the most talented. They were the ones who refused to give up.

Plugging Away

I pondered that principle last month during NaNoWriMo when I was sick or gone or being interrupted. I also watched the 38 people in my NaNo Challenge Group plugging away through much tougher challenges than I had.

Samuel Johnson said, “Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.” In a like vein, Helen Keller (one of the most determined people you’ll ever read about) said, “We can do anything we want to as long as we stick to it long enough.”

That’s good news to me! Is it to you?

It’s Your Choice

We may not be the most talented writers. We may not be the most clever or well read. We may not have an MFA in writing or be able to afford expensive writing conferences. BUT we can each choose to persevere, to stick to it till we finish.

Know where you want to go, and map out a clear strategy on how you plan to get there. Team up with writing friends and encourage each other. There are many ways to study and grow, ranging from free online courses and books to expensive MFA programs at prestigious colleges.

But in any case, the only person with an advantage is the one who refuses to quit. Is that YOU?

Staying Afloat in ToughTimes

Published on by Kristi Holl

aRecent events–the economic recession plus all the changes in publishing–have left many writers in a quandary. Is being a writer still a viable option to earn a living?

To quell the rising panic, it helps me to remember that things have always gone in cycles. This isn’t the first time of upheaval, and it’s likely that it won’t be the last.

Publishing Drought

In my thirty years of being published, I’ve had two very dry periods. One five-year period when I sold nothing happened in the 90s. Another three-year dry period of nothingness happened with the last five years.

It might help you to know what I did during those times to stay financially afloat and keep on writing.

A Previous Recession

When my book career began in the 80’s, I had five or six relatively easy years with my editor Gail at Atheneum. We did eleven hardcovers together before Gail lost her job in a corporate take-over and downsizing. The publishing industry then was a lot like it is today.

At that time, I got two manuscripts back. Within six months, all my books went out of print–so there was almost no royalty income then. My last two books in a Christian series were not published either. (I found out much later that this happened to a lot of writers.)

This horror was followed by five years of no new books, sending out proposals, rewriting proposals, writing queries, and spending a ton on postage and photocopying costs when I was making zilch on my book writing. (There was no online writing then, no email submissions, etc.)

Getting Out of the Slump

Then in a bookstore I found a book called Making It On Your Own: Surviving and Thriving on the Ups and Downs of Being Your Own Boss by Paul and Sarah Edwards. In the marketing section, a statement leaped off the page. This one piece of advice jump-started my disappearing career. “You need to experiment until you discover what particular combination of your skills and abilities at what price will be valuable to what group of people within the current economic realities.”

It said to experiment, so I tried different things to see what might work. The following year I wrote a story for an anthology, entered several contests, did some short manuscripts for children’s magazines, wrote some writers’ articles. I created a new workshop on revision and did eighteen months’ of school visits with it.

Time to Evaluate

The next step recommended by the book was to use the 80/20 Principle on your experiments. So I sat down with paper and pencil and analyzed: “What 20% of my work has generated 80% of my income?” In other words, what strategies had worked for me? Where should I be putting the bulk of my energy to survive this financial writing slump?

Well, I had bombed on contests and all fifteen short stories; I did sell the story to the anthology; my fastest response and most money, though, came from writing articles for magazines and doing the revision workshop. More than 80% of my income was coming from that 20% of my work. So (while I continued to write my middle-grade fiction novels) I concentrated on those two things to pay the bills.

Surviving the Tough Times

During that time, some nonfiction articles became a series for Children’s Writer, which turned into ideas for “Support Room” articles when I became the Institute‘s first web editor. A few years later, those ideas sparked my book, Writer’s First Aid, as well as several articles for the SCBWI Bulletin.

The slump eventually ended, as it will again for writers struggling in the current recession. After five years of selling no books, I sold four of my middle-grade novels in one year. If I had quit writing my fiction during that recession, I would have had nothing to sell when publishers started buying again.

So during the slump five years ago, I did the same thing: found ways to stay afloat to pay some bills (mostly educational writing), but also kept writing middle-grade fiction and studying and learning. Last year I finally sold two of the books, one of them being More Writer’s First Aid.

Writing slumps will come and go in cycles. Don’t stop writing in the dry periods. Instead remember that old adage: This too shall pass.