Writer Self Care

This month’s meeting was great. After the business portion concluded several of us stayed on to socialize. Our collective tiredness came up several times; prompting me to write a post about a topic I’ve meant to cover for a while now. I call it writer self-care. Pam has written an article about all the hats that a writer must wear. Hopefully, she can share some or all of it with us soon. It’s not a laundry list of why you’re burnt out, but an eye-opening look at all the stuff we do. That’s part one of being an Indie—being willing to ‘do it yourself’ when you may have no experience and no idea what you stepped into. One of the big reasons NIWA leadership past and present took the time to get our feet under us and birth a sort of NIWA 2.0 is that we needed to spread it all around more effectively or we were going to burn out. NIWA events are awesome and we’re making headway at changing people’s minds about Indie publishing, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Let me cover just one more angle about avoiding burn out. If you ask most people to close their eyes and think of a writer they probably don’t think of someone joyously tapping away out a keyboard with sunlight streaming through a large window beyond which children and pets romp with quiet abandon. No. Their vision is probably closer to a prematurely-aged person wearing rumpled clothes, chain smoking while they pace a one room loft over a martial arts studio, muttering to themselves, “downstairs their always kicking and screaming.” When I was six, my parents asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. They said I could pick anything I wanted, they would be proud of me even if I was a garbage man. I said, “I want to be a writer.” As I recall with vivid detail, they said, “…but you could be a garbage man or anything. Just pick something you can make money at.” Well, that was my first introduction to “reality.” As years went by, I collected more impressions of writers. “You’ll only be famous after you die.” “You have a better chance of winning the lottery than becoming a writer. That’s even if you don’t buy a ticket.” That little gem was from a teacher who first diagnosed my dyslexia. My favorite was, “writers are second only to dentist for suicide…they’re also big drinkers. Do you have a drinking problem? Because writers are drunks.” That one was said to me in an interview. I didn’t get the job. So…I’m starting this thread hoping to leverage the creativity of the NIWA community to compile ideas for writer’s self-care. What good is it if NIWA erases the stigma of Indie publishing as vanity press, if the reputation of a “real” writer is a destitute, suicidal drunk? So what are your favorite ways to fight off funk, control the creative chaos, obliterate obligations, crowd out criticism, etc. I’ll start out by saying, I’m a huge believer in vitamin D (consult a physician blah blah) and walking. Also lots of water. At least those are my basic first steps to keeping a good attitude. Toward organizing my chaos, I currently favor “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. I strongly recommend that book. I personally don’t write at home, though I have an office type space. I prefer a coffee shop, because I like to leave the house every day. I’m trying to teach myself to write in bursts of 20 minutes and then get up and walk around. I’ll let you know if I get that worked out. LOL. Okay, so what are your ideas? It could be anything that makes your life as a writer better, richer, or less stressful. Let’s make writing one of the happiest, healthiest, most well-balanced professions. Check out the book "On Becoming a Man" while its free on Kindle this week.

Mountain Man

When I was in high school, I sat through a sermon from a pastor on the topic of mountaintop experiences. His point was that it’s easy to believe in God and live out your faith when you are having a mountaintop experience, but it’s in the valley that we struggle. He then proceeded to compare the valley to our everyday life saying that some valleys are lush fields where the crops are planted and the work must be done to fund future adventures to the peaks. I had some heartache with that at the time but I didn’t have the time to analyze what might be behind that. I’ve recently run across the book, “The 4-Hour Work Week,” by Tim Ferriss, in which he suggests that hate is not the opposite of love. He suggests that hate and love are two sides of the same coin and their opposite is actually apathy. I’ve heard this sentiment before and can see the logic in it. Ferriss goes on to say that sadness is not the opposite of happiness. Again they are two sides of the same coin. He suggests that happiness is too vague and when people pursue it they often settle for the least risk or temporary lifestyle gain. The true nemesis of happiness/sadness is boredom. This follows my understanding of depression. I’ve had depression off and on over the years. It’s been described as numbness resulting from repressed rage. That sounds right. When you’re angry about something and you believe that you can’t or shouldn’t do anything about it you have to go numb in order to avoid dealing with it. You either drink, or do something else to raise the level of white noise in your life in order to drown out your issue but it doesn’t go away. At some point, you shut down and go numb. I’m participating in Noble Heart’s calling intensive with Gary Barkalow and his crew. While doing some of the homework for the retreat, I encountered the strange realization that some of the most difficult, painful, risky, exhausting, and even sad moments of my life are the times that I felt most alive. Those times were also filled with moments of triumph, community, adventure, and joy. They were also times I felt closest to God via his provision over my life. So my mind instantly connected the idea Ferriss brought up with spiritual experiences and I realized that Mountaintop experiences and valley experiences are two sides of the same coin. The valley does not represent the average day, but the terrible fall from attempting something great. The opposite of the spiritual Peak/Valley coin is the rut. The rut is that monotonous place we find ourselves when we’ve too often chosen the safe thing instead of the great thing. We let fear of the valley keep us from climbing the mountain. Here’s why God hates the rut as much as we do. If we climb the mountain, we call on God’s grace and we pursue an experience (intimacy) with God. If we fail, we call on God’s mercy and forgiveness and our intimacy with Him also grows. God can use situations when He needs to bail us out. If we spend our time trying not to need God, intimacy is reduced. I began to wonder why the old preacher’s expectation was that we should return home from a mountaintop experience to a rut and then try really hard to avoid sin until the next opportunity came to climb a mountain. Seriously, why shouldn’t our goal be to stay on the mountaintop? My hunch is that his answer would be, the risk. I say, risk of what? The worst that could happen is that you fall into a valley and God grows you. I don’t think coming down to a midpoint, or mediocre altitude is a good compromise in God’s eyes. The biblical support for my theory comes from the verse ?? that says we can abide in Christ. How do we abide in Christ if our concern is to be safe? So here’s what it looks like to stay on the mountain top. Well, like the pastor pointed out, it’s a lot easier to do the right things when you actively pursue Christ. I tried to fast and made it two days. I bet if I were in a situation where there was no food I’d survive much longer. It wouldn’t be fun, but it might make me a better man. Either way, living life in a way that I never miss a meal has made me fat. I detest exercise for the sake of exercise. I love to walk, but not on a treadmill or even in a circle track. There has to be a reason I’m going from point A to point B. If these two physical things could benefit my health and would be much easier if I were in a situation that forced my hand, then basically a contributing factor to my fatness is a lack of hardship. I’ve dieted, joined a gym, none of it engages my heart. I’m just not built to deprive myself of things. Now I acknowledge that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. God provides us restraint. What I’m saying is, I’ve lived a lifestyle of avoiding discomfort and not risking to achieve greatness and I need to start living a lifestyle of pursuing God at all costs. I suck at mediocre. I can’t compete on the middle ground. I’m designed for something more.

Free ebook

A Christian Inspirational book I co-authored with Janice Seney is free on Kindle this week. This is my first non-fiction so I'm really excited. You don't have to own a kindle to read it. I'd love to have you review it, but every download helps. I'd love to give away 1,000 books this week, so between now and Friday please go here: http://goo.gl/3dPAm and take advantage of this opportunity. Feel free to share this link with your network and help me get to 1,000 downloads.

PS If you are plagued with this announcement on Facebook already I'm sorry. It's hard to know who is seeing your updates and who doesn't. 

A. R. Bunch
_______________________________________
No one succeeds without great effort, but many people work hard and don't get what they want. The first key to success is deciding what you want.

My URLS
www.facebook.com/TaleScribe
http://funamazingetc.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/SufferingRancor

My UNYK ID is: SAJ 281

5 Things an Author Must Always… #1 Always carry a somewhat nice pen. A $40 pen will be stolen in a heartbeat. So will a $2 pen but you can probably shrug that off a little easier. Longhand might not be your preferred writing method, but writers need to capture story ideas as well as non-writing action items just to keep them out of our heads. Paper seems to materialize when needed but it can be good to carry that also. A pen, however, is a must for other reasons too. For one, you might need to autograph a book when you least expect it. The key reason I carry a pen though is that people often ask to barrow one. It’s a great ice breaker. I like to use that opportunity to say, “as an author I always have a pen.” Often the person who is hurriedly using my pen will notice the word author and ask, “do you have any books out?” That’s a great opportunity to tell them about my book (elevator pitch) and hand them a business card. #2 Always carry business cards. You may have cards for your books or simply send everyone to your website as a central clearinghouse; either way, have them on you at all times. I use cards that guide people directly to a single book and other cards that have my website and a google voice number so that I don’t have to hand write a number or give out my cell out to strangers. #3 Always carry copies of your books. I put a special box in my trunk and I carry a selection of my novels. Some people struggle to sell books in person, but I always found it harder to sell books on-line. I probably sell upwards of four books a week out of my trunk. That’s an extra 200 books a year. Just don’t do it when you’re in a bookstore that carries your book. #4 Always memorize an elevator pitch. Be able to articulate the plot of each of your books in a three to five sentence blurb you can say in two seconds. Where possible, include a hook that makes someone want to buy the book. Note: some authors will shake their head and say an elevator pitch should always contain a hook but with children’s books or a non-fiction it might not be appropriate. Feel free to follow up your pitch with a call to action. Something along the lines of, “I’ve got one in my car if you’d like to buy it. They are available online for $xx.xx but I can sell my copies for two bucks less. #5 When autographing a book, always ask how they spell their name. I ask if they want it personalized first, but I’ve never had someone say no. The correct page to autograph is the title page, which contains the Title of the book and your name. If you have an illustrator or other person, it’s a good idea to have them autograph some in advance. I also try to include a piece of information about where the book was purchased. For example, “It was great running into you at Di Tazza Coffee.” For one thing, it’s hard to think of something to write after “To so and so…” I number the first 10 author copies of each book I publish for trunk sales or promotional giveaways, but I also number the first ten autographs on books sold at a particular event.

Another cool gadget to tide you over

Check out this tree-tent-hammock thing. It's really cool. http://inhabitat.com/suspended-tentsile-hanging-tent-provides-a-portable-safe-haven/

Origami Kayak?

Okay, I've been really remiss on updating this site, but in my defense I've had a lot going on. In fact I've got some big news to share...in addition to seeing good progress on Suffering Rancor the Audio Book, I'm also very close to landing a job as lead editor of a brand new website with an audience predicted to hit 1 million subscribers in the first month. More details to follow. So today's amazing gadget comes to us via gizmag, and makes so much sense I'm already in love with it. The two hardest things about boating are transporting the boat and storing the boat. Enter this little foldable number.

As always, this post is brought to you by Suffering Rancor: http://www.amazon.com/Suffering-Rancor-Return-ebook/dp/B008D5SAYW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348263179&sr=8-2&keywords=Suffering+Rancor

If you noticed that it's been awhile since I posted, sorry! I got busy finishing my BS degree, then a quick vacation from reality, then I spent August drafting on my next big novel project, while working on the Audio version of Suffering Rancor (which I hope to launch at Orycon in November)...So I've been a little busy. Still, when I ran across this video I had to post it totally innovative device from Guatemala, which I'm sure will be outlawed here instantly. "Oh Andy! You're so cynical." I can hear you think it. BUT remember the Segway? Great idea, ecologically sound, and San Francisco and Portland OR were the first places to outlaw them. I firmly believe that people need, NEED, to experience risk. When we make the world completely safe, or at least suffer the communal delusion that we have done so, we will have destroyed the humane race. Mark my words, we need risk.