It's that time again!

Hi,

Well, the hubbub of Christmas has settled and I'm ready for the New Year.

I'm starting my schedule for 2011 (if you need a speaker, I'm currently booking) and finding that my set work hours are more important than ever. I know freelancers who work when they "want" to, but the most successful ones set hours when they are working and hours when they are not.

I love the flexibility of working for myself, but most days I settle in, even if I don't feel like it, and work. I arrange for childcare during those hours. Since this is my last year of full time homeschooling, (on top of everything else) I wonder what 2012 will bring in terms of scheduling. Will I have more or less time to work? However, I can't worry about that now. I can only worry about the next year. Am I right?

I often hear the excuse that people don't know the future so they don't schedule. I know one woman who is actually actively resistant to any type of schedule. She becomes defensive and upset when asked about her work hours. My response would be to ask why she's upset, is it  because she's not getting anything done?

I know another freelancer who fiddles the day away, running to meetings that go too long, lunches that take half the day and then, when her husband is due home from work, she sits down to write. Like a child caught not doing her homework, she then makes a big display of working into the evening. I'm not sure if this is a maturity issue (that she can't self schedule her time) or a starting work issue. There are always a million little things that we need to do, but if we put those onto the schedule as well then we can't use them as excuses. For example, on a heavy writing day, I schedule laundry. That way I don't sit all day long. If I get into my work, especially my fiction, I can sit for eight hours. Not ergonomically good for me. If I schedule laundry, I get up every hour. The trick is to JUST do the laundry.

I have another friend who thinks that writing time means get on the phone and chat time. I used to get calls saying, "I knew you were home today writing, so I thought I'd give you a call." ERG! If she knew I was working, why would you deliberately choose that time to call me? I realized ... that's what she did during HER writing time. Chatted on the phone.

My solution if you want a coffee break ... and her work days were a continual one ... schedule them! E-mail a friend and ask if you can enjoy a cup of coffee together from 10:00 until 10:15, then stick to it! I had another freelancing friend who was an amazing scheduler. We'd chat for a scheduled 15 minute break then go back to work.

My lunches at home are an hour long. I flex the time I take lunch sometimes but typically I take lunch when the rest of the world does .... from noon until 1:00 p.m.

My biggest pet peeve is not making deadlines. I have one friend who never misses a deadline. I hire him for almost anything I need jobbed out. I know the job will be done, and done well. It will come in on time and make sure that I get my work done when it needs to be so I make my deadline. He's always so flabbergasted when he gets a holiday bonus, he says he's just doing his job. Yeah but ...... there are so many who don't.

At any rate, I digress. I am doing my annual scheduling today and blogging will be back on the schedule weekly. For a while I was blogging daily but with the new company and the adjustments in business I'll need to redo the schedule so that it's workable.

I wish you a Happy New Year and a blessed schedule for 2011.
Much love and joy,
Karen

Book Proposal Disclosure

I wrote a book proposal for my first book, Children of Light. It's a fifty page marketing report that took me nearly a year to write. It outlines my marketing plan in detail.

Now, anyone in marketing can tell you that the way you plan to market is highly sensitive. You hope that you come up with ideas others haven't, found venues others are still looking for, and in general, beat people to the punch. So, it should come as no surprise that marketing reports are not to be shared.

Recently, I've received help with a website and business start up from an agency that keeps pushing to see this report. Sheesh. I've sidestepped as much as I can and I finally had to say ... not going to happen! I asked some of the members of my consultancy board and they agreed that the report needs to remain close to the vest.

The odd thing is that this agency tends to believe that unless they see it, it doesn't exist. It doesn't really affect me, but it's a strange way of doing business, wouldn't you agree? hmmm. It's funny, the main gal has been immensely helpful in setting up the LLC and getting my sellers permit but kind of treats me like I don't know what I'm doing. She runs to a local writer with questions, which is fine but doesn't realize that I have about seven times the credentials. I've written for so many national and international publications I quit keeping track and just throw the complimentary copies in a bankers box when they come.

I have, however, had a two and a half year gap shere I made a transition from magazine writing to book writing and that may be throwing people off. You know what? I'm okay with that. I'm okay flying under the radar for now.

All this to say .... everyone is soooo curious to see this marketing report. With good reason. It's a how-to map to my selling! WHY, pray tell, would I share that with ANYONE! Sheesh. I'm not an idiot people!!! Keep your plans to yourself unless you want others beating you to the punch.

Have a great day,
Much love and joy,
Karen

Research

I love doing research. For a while, right after I graduated from college, I looked into working for Rand Corp. and doing it full time, but life has a way of leading you down a different path than you've mapped out. Now I must content myself with researching books and articles ... you know what? That's more fun anyway!

The only research I don't love is technological. It's a different language for me. This weekend I upgraded our phones to ones with keyboards and added texting to the plan ... the day after they outlawed texting in cars. My argument has always been that I didn't want to receive them either, because I knew people were contacting me from their cars ... except for my nephew. He's a paramedic and is anal about stopping to text or call. He's seen the results of trying to do both.

Now that it's outlawed in cars I feel more comfortable having texts as a part of our lives. Not only that, I had major discounts on our phones if I upgraded. All that to say ... I have to learn a new phone! Blech! I read the little book. It gave me the bare essentials. My son's eyes lit up as he saw e-mail and search engines on the menu. I reminded him that he's limited to tools for now. No "Get it Now" crud. We went through a time when I was calling our cell phone company once each month on some weird thing they'd sent that appeals to kids. If I had it to do over again, my son would be the second line, not the third. He gets tons of stuff sent to him by the company that we never get on the first two lines. I think they're playing the odds that the third line is a kid, you know?

At any rate, I'm doing research for my second book today and as soon as I finish chatting with you all, it's back to work.

Have a great day!

Much love and joy,

Karen

I'm getting better ...

at taking a day off once in a while!

I took yesterday off and didn't work. Yipppeeee! I did, however, get my Christmas cards made and put in envelopes. I need to print out the letter yet but I feel much more relaxed now that I know that's handled.

I'm going to be signing up for Constant Contact but I haven't done it yet. I want more professional newsletters. I keep wondering what I'd put in for content. The gentleman talking about it said to copy and paste content from other places. I have issues with that as a writer. I don't mind directing people toward an article that I feel is relevant, but I'm certainly not going to post it in my newsletter. Call it the oversensitivity of a writer. Am I right?

I'm fighting with my website being a blog. While I'm starting I don't want to spend a ton of money on one, but since I will do mainly e-business I wonder if that's wise. I can get what I want on a blog but I'm not sure it looks professional enough. I love my publishing site and so far everyone else has too, except for one person. I think that may be a matter of taste since her website is one I don't like. It's too bare. SIGH. I'll figure it out eventually but it may take a while.

I want to get some work maintenance tasks done this morning so I can play with my son. I can't tell you how many self employed people are taking today off. Probably the same proportion of people employed by others. I have a friend who always seems to be in crisis or taking vacations. One or the other. Needless to say she's always frantic when working.

She makes fun of my propensity toward scheduling everything, but I think I end up with more quality free time than she does, and my evenings are my own.  I have set office hours and, by adhering to them, I get done what I need to get done so I'm not always working, working, working. While she took a four day weekend, I will work from 6:00 - 9:00 a.m. this morning then take the rest of the day. I will also work from 6:00- 8:00 a.m. tomorrow doing prep work so that when I get to my office on Monday, my tasks are lined up and I don't have to waste time figuring out where I am and what I need to do.

I'll be the first to admit that each person has their own way of working, but dang! Lack of scheduling at all would drive me insane! I don't think it's healthy. It's why most businesses have set hours and why the SBA requires them. I guess if you don't ever hire anyone you're okay. If you end up hiring staff you'll have to set hours and then adjustments to both staff and scheduling would be necessary at the same time.

At any rate, it's 9:00 dear writer friends so I'm popping into the shower and getting my house under control. Once the laundry is started, my son and I have a Wii tournament planned.

Take care and have a wonderful holiday season!
Much love and joy,
Karen

Feeling Wonky ... But Good!

Hello everyone,

We're starting to paint in the kitchen. Keep in mind that I live in a fifty year old house so I've got all the wonkiness of age working with me. Kind of funny ... poor house! I can relate. I've got fifty years too and I'm a little wonky myself.

You can see the terra cotta (Earthen Jug) color behind the stove. The walls are actually that color on the bottom and a warm candlelit color on the top. All except for the area behind the stove, of course, which I had painted the terra cotta color. Doesn't it pop?

The only problem with a project like this is that it sends my home into disarray. Perhaps disaster is a better description. As I say in my talks, my home is a symptom of where my head is and when my home is this dissembled I struggle to maintain organization. It's short term and I do okay, but I need order in which to create. So, I'm whining to you! In a little over a week it'll be a recent memory so I just need to hang in there.

I attended a meeting today on my financials. I would love to make a little extra money but I'm so realistic. It's hard to imagine a flush bank account. Am I right you other freelancers? The transition to books from magazines and newspapers was longer than I thought. I keep thinking it was a little over two years but am realizing that I started that transition back when I started homeschooling Ryan. Sheesh! That must have been more like four years ago I started phasing out customers. Then about eighteen to twenty four months ago I phased out speaking because of health issues. Now, it feels like I'm starting from scratch.

Of course, I still have my clients as contacts but who knows? The magazine world has experienced a lot of downturn. I found out recently that a speaking engagement I did each year for NWEA (Northwest Educ. Assn) is no more. Who knew? The last couple of years have been all hospitalizations and surgeries for my son and me.

So, dear writing pal, I'm beginning again. I'm excited to present Children of Light, my first nonfiction book next month, as well as launch my new publishing company, Caspara Publishing, LLC. I'm excited, a little nervous and a whole lot of happy. I can sleep at night, sure that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing which is saying something.

God bless all that you do and write today.

Much love and joy,

Karen

My mini talk at SBA/Western Dairyland

... went okay. I really smoked through the material. It's so funny! People are soooo resistant to the idea of cell phones or multitasking being the enemy of effective time management. The thing is, sooner or later, they'll get overwhelmed and give some of the tips a try. For some people it will be an "aha" moment, for others it won't be a good fit.

Western Dairyland taped about five minutes of it to put on their U-Tube site. They wanted to tape the entire thing but I just can't give permission for that. That's like giving away an entire talk for free! I'd have to be nuts to allow that and give away copyright. I told both the supervisor and the gal taping that only five minutes of taping was allowed. Hopefully they understood that it didn't mean they could tape the entire talk. It's so hard to get that across to people. They don't get it if they don't write and speak for a living.

I'm running through the layout of my book this week and I've got my column due at some point. I'd love to relax tomorrow since my son is going to his grandmother's house for the day, but it seems like when he leaves, I work. <sigh> Ah, well.

It's Saturday evening and my movie comes on soon so I'll take off.
Much love and joy,
Karen

Constant Contact Seminar

I spent the day in a Constant Contact seminar and the biggest lesson I took away was that I need to have a social media plan instead of running all over the Internet willy nilly. I also need to figure out some type of e-mail notification system. I'm not at the point of going with Constant Contact but it's certainly a thought for the future when I move from start up to growth. Right now I just need to get my books out, you know?

I haven't written assignments in about a week because I've been so concerned with the business start up for Caspara Publishing LLC, but the rubber meets the road next week. I have both my column and various assignments due plus content for my website. I need to get things prioritized. I'm an organized person but start ups are always huge amounts of hours and work that you don't see coming. Well, you see it coming you just lie to yourself and think you can get it all done. You know the hours are long, even so you're surprised that you're up at 5:00 a.m. working and still working at 10:00 that night ..... hellloooooo blog!

I like talking to you all though. It helps me process the day I think. As a writer, I need to verbally process and this does it for me. I recently moved my blogging from a.m. to p.m. for that reason. It's a better fit for me.

If you're thinking about it check out our website at www.casparapublishing.com or our facebook page for caspara publishing ... we'd love to have you follow. ;-)

If you're dancing around a deadline tonight, know that you're not alone. I'm dancing too! We'll buckle down first thing in the morning. Set out your sharpened pencils and a fresh notebook. Tomorrow we conquer the blank page.

Have a great night and sleep sweet,
Much love and joy,
Karen

Do you have a business plan for success?

hey writers ...

how you doin'? (Think Joey Tribiani on Friends). Did you have a productive day?

Monday is a day of organization for me. I have housekeeping tasks that consist of record keeping, prioritizing assignments, getting deposits ready and the like. By the end of Monday morning I'm usually feeling ready for the week.

If I don't schedule those rotten housekeeping tasks like filing and the like I lose big. There are no spare moments to do them in and I lose time looking for things. So, when I schedule them, they get done and I'm more settled all week. Trust me, if you don't schedule all those pesky maintenance tasks you'll pay for it.

I'm writing a business plan for my publishing business. I thought I had one in place until a gentleman who listened to me said, "You've planned for every foreseeable disaster, which is great. What is your plan if you experience success?"

"What?"

"What does your business plan look like if your company takes off and does well? What if someone wants to invest money with you? What if you suddenly need to go public with your stock? What if you need a loan for your business and the banker wants to see your business plan to understand what the risk is?"

I gaped at him. I had bupkiss. Nada. Zip.

It's not that I don't believe in myself. I do or I wouldn't have started this endeavor. But dang. I'm a Midwesterner. I plan for tornadoes, floods, blizzards ... I don't plan for sunny days. It made sense though. If business is that good I'll be busy. I won't have anything in place to help me make decisions if I don't have a plan in place. So, I'm working on one.

Do you have a business plan? For that matter, do you have a mission statement that helps you decide what you're doing from day to day? Check out the poll to the right and ring in.

Take care and have a great week,
Much love and joy,

Karen

Writing Mistakes

So why is it that anytime you write a blog on writing you undoubtedly screw up your punctuation, misspell words and can't grasp simple grammar concepts. It's a humbling experience.

I don't have time to blog tomorrow morning so thought I'd throw down tonight. It makes me crazy when I make simple mistakes. I use spell check, I reread what I've written ... so what gives? ERG.

It's like a person forgets everything she's ever learned. I'm sure my college profs are rolling their eyes and wondering what I spent my money on.

But then, over the years, I've become somewhat of a believer in the rambling nature of blogs. When I first started I wrote entries that were nearly magazine articles and the blog resembled an e-zine. Now, however, I journal a little more. While I have a point, in this case my idiocy, I don't edit and re-edit. In fact, I don't really agree with editing posts ... unless there is a gaff so heinous that you have to address it. That's nearly every blog entry. The only things that are flawless are the flowers in the pics of my garden.

At any rate, as a writer, anytime you write about writing you will make some of the biggest mistakes on earth and never see them. Just know that you aren't alone. Jump in with both feet anyway!
Happy writing!

My New Book - Writing the author blurb

OK, so I'm supposed to be writing an "about the author" blurb for my book, Children of Light, and it's hard!

I don't know what to say. I have to list credentials but it feels like bragging. I have to describe the book, but it feels like I'm trying to describe my life in a couple of hundred words. How do I begin to tell people what they need to know about this book?

It's a rocky faith journey, it's a less-than-perfect advocacy journey, it's a sometimes hellish parenting journey. It's an everywoman story I guess. While the Christian market wanted to sanitize the book and even take out words like "butt", the general market didn't think it racy enough and most wanted the faith portion taken out. So, if I'm bastardized by both groups, where do I fall? Do I fall with everyone else who is trying to muddle through a life unexpected?

We're all tiny little shipwrecks on the rocks, foundering, waiting for rescue. Okay, some of us are big honkin' steamer ships that sank when we hit the icebergs of disability. For the most part, we're everyday people, trying to make sense out of something that doesn't come close to reason.

I hope the book does well. It's about Ryan and I. His story, my story, our story. I also gave pragmatic ideas on coping with stress. Ever hear of autogenics? You will. At any rate. It's the book I wish I would have had when Ryan was younger. Someone to tell me it's okay. You're not alone, you don't have to be perfect ... more importantly, no one else is perfect either, no matter how "in control" they look.

Take care of you today. I'll publish a writing tip each month. It'll be on the side bar to your right. I don't know what you call it in blog speak but it's a sidebar in the writing world.

Welcome to my writing blog!

Welcome to the writing site of Karen J. Olson,

I'm glad you stopped by. This blog is for all thing writing and for my writing endeavors. It is not an e-zine but a blog where I talk about the writing life.

It's a solitary life. Without a community of writers to connect with you will begin to stay in your own head too much, you know? Makes a nut out of the sanest of us.




Join me, as I blog each day about writing.

Glad to have you aboard my little blog boat!
Much love and joy,
Karen