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Cultivate Creativity in Your Day Job & Down Time

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Creative Color in Your Day-to-Day

Before “breaking in” to a regular income–producing readership, most novelists, poets, and essayists toil away at day jobs while wordsmithing on the side. But just because you have a day job doesn’t mean you can’t exercise your creativity during the 9–5 grind. When you cultivate creativity in your day job and down time, you can approach your creative writing with a greater capacity to generate interesting ideas to communicate and intriguing ways of communicating them.

Creativity = Problem Solving

Creativity isn’t magic. There isn’t an Idea Muse who sends you incantations that conjure eloquence onto your blank pages. Creativity, at its most basic, is problem solving. It’s looking at the materials in front of you and devising a way to make them fulfill a need or desire you have. Author John Brown and the cast of Writing Excuses talked about this in a particularly good episode about the creative process.

Recognizing creativity as problem solving takes out a lot of the mystery of exercising it. There are problems that need to be solved in every situation a human being inhabits, and there are a few main steps to creatively solving problems in any given circumstance.

Learn your materials. Understand what you have available to help you solve your problem (whether that’s scissors, humor, or tax law). Be aware of your surroundings and resources.

Acquire your target. Most times you won’t have to create problems: they’ll come to you. Whether the problem is your children’s unwillingness to eat vegetables or all your wasted time at a slow desk job, there’s bound to be one or two basic issues you have to face regularly.

Apply your materials to your target. Obvious, isn’t it? Take what you have around you and use it to solve the problem in front of you. Find a way to make your grumpy coworker laugh; improve the office filing system; create a new product that fills a niche. Every time you find a new way to solve a problem, you become a little more practiced in the skill of creativity.

Problem Solving = Creative Writing Solutions

Using the process of knowing your resources and applying them to a specific target lets you practice a process that crosses over into your writing directly. When you’re writing, there are some tools you always have in your toolbox: plot, character, genre conventions, metaphor, scene changes, chapter breaks, punctuation, etc. You can use these in conventional ways, or you can turn them to unorthodox uses. (Similarly, you can use scissors as scissors or as an extension of your arm that helps you retrieve a document from the crevice between your desk and the wall. Or, you know, as a murder weapon or something.) If you keep an awareness of your resources and your target, you can use your exercised creativity chops to find inventive solutions that will delight a reader.

In each writing project you’ll also have project-specific tools: a character’s penchant for plums, the rhyme scheme you’ve been using for four stanzas, the death-theme you began on page 1. These are probably where the day-job creativity practice is most useful, especially the practice of making yourself aware of resources. The more aware you are of the tools you’ve given yourself, the better you’ll be at adapting those tools to plot twists, character arcs, and giving your reader a rollicking reading experience.

Creativity isn’t magic: it’s your applied problem solving skill. So the next time you run into a 9–5 roadblock, ask yourself, “How creative can I be today?”

Image by Simon Howden via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Weekly Roundup: 2/4–2/10

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Jeff Norton: Follow the Editor: A Recommendation Engine for Readers

This interesting piece looks at how editors, though vital to the traditional book-making process, are unknown to readers (unlike, for example, film directors and such). Norton postulates that traditional publishers could benefit from making their content curators—their editors—more of a branded selling point than they currently are.

Marie Brennan: Anthropological Warning Signs and How to Spot Them

Fantasy author and “ex-academic” Marie Brennan sheds some light on how to evaluate your research sources. Though this isn’t super publishing-related, I thought some of you fiction writers might appreciate some pointers on how to do good research. Brennan is in the middle of researching for a new novel, and she dissects an anthropology book to show you warning signs of bad research. If you’re not familiar with anthropology, but you use it for backstory and background information, it’s a helpful read.

Joshua Blimes: Do the Math

Agent Joshua Blimes breaks down the differences in author royalties for traditionally published hardcover, mass market paperback, and electronic books. He also tackles the differences for top-tier and mid-list writers, and ends by recommending that authors access P&Ls to help them calculate what sort of advance they should be able to negotiate out of a publisher.

When Should You Hire an Editor?

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As an all-purpose freelance editor, I field projects in all stages of development: brainstorming, developmental editing, line-by-line polishing, and the final spit-shine of proofreading. However, some individuals who contact me have projects that are not ready for an editor. If I take projects in all stages of development, how can any project be unready?

It depends on the project, and it depends on the author. First and foremost, before writers hire an editor, they should do enough work to make themselves proud. There are three main reasons why you should contract outside help with your writing, and the third reason doesn’t apply to everyone.

1. You have done all you can and you want your work to reach another level.

As per the Looseleaf editorial philosophy, I believe editors should help writers become better writers. That can’t happen if you, as the writer, throw down whatever comes to mind and chuck it at an editor. Chances are, you’ll chuck over a lot of stuff you could have fixed yourself, which means the editor wastes his or her time (and yours) fixing things you already know how to handle.

If you have 20 pages of a novel and a skeletal outline, you don’t yet need an editor: you need to write. If you have a manuscript with a chapter you know how to fix, you don’t yet need an editor: you need to revise.

But if you wrote the whole thing and tightened up all the chapters and sentences you could and you still want to take it up a notch, it may be time to bring in an editor. An editor can find what you couldn’t see yourself.

2. You have a specific change you want to make, and you’re not sure how to do it on your own (or that change would be many times easier for fresh eyes).

Many people rightly hire an editor when they have a specific task they want accomplished, but aren’t sure how to go about it. Some writers need to cut thousands of words but can’t decide what needs to go. Some researchers want to repurpose their work to reach a lay audience but don’t think they can see what needs to be changed. You might also need to condense a cast of characters, streamline your argument, or find where your plot won’t hold water.

This is a good time to get outside help. You have a specific task in mind, which makes it easier for the editor to help you.

This reason also applies to tasks like copyediting and proofreading, which are much easier for fresh eyes to do. For these types of editing, your specific task is taking out grammar, punctuation, and stylistic errors, and it’s easier for an editor to do that because he or she will not already be neck deep in your prose.

3. You’ve done all the work you’re keen on doing, but you need more work done.

The third reason most often comes up with researchers and businesses that are on tight deadlines. If you’re someone who needs to write to communicate, but you don’t pride yourself on your writing, then you might write the basics of what you need and have an editor to fix it up. Could you have done the task yourself? Maybe, but then again maybe you don’t consider writing your best work. Maybe your best work is the research, the ideas behind the business, or the conceptual work. The phrase-by-phrase writing doesn’t concern you as much, so passing that part to an editor or ghostwriter frees up more of your time for the parts in which you excel. You get to do more of the work that makes you proud.

I don’t recommend this reason for individuals who pride themselves on being writers. It’s rare for this reason to apply to a novelist, for example, because novelists are known primarily for their writing. Once you’ve done all the writing work you can, then you’re ready for an editor, and you can claim your own work with pride.

Weekly Roundup: 1/27–2/3

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I only have these two links for you this week, but they’re really good.

Kristin Nelson: The Rapidly Evolving Role of Agent

Literary agents are adapting to the changing landscape of publishing, and though some do it by introducing a conflict of interest (by becoming digital publishers), the Nelson Literary Agency has designed a platform that allows them to help their clients take advantage of electronic markets and avoid taking on the publisher role. Check it out. If you get confused on some of the finer points (Kristin is mainly giving an overview), look at Courtney Milan’s opinion on the subject (Milan is one of Kristin’s clients). She goes into some examples of how, in the NLA model, the agents act as liaisons, not as license holders.

Jane Friedman: 5 Attitudes Toward Publishing You Should Avoid

Friedman looks at five attitudes she hears people tout and that make her worry about them. She asks you to really think about the things you say and make sure you know what you want.

Looseleaf Contest: Appealing to Readers with Your Writing Blog

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inkPageant

For the month of February I’m partnering with inkPageant, a writing blog aggregator, to bring you a contest you can enter by posting on your blog. There are two prizes:

  1. A 20-page critique (or 3 hours of copyediting, if you don’t have a manuscript ready)
  2. A 50-page critique (or 6 hours of copyediting)

The 20-pager will be given randomly (you can have up to 3 entries) and the 50-pager will be given to the person who writes the best post that appeals to both writers and non-writers (i.e. readers). I’ll explain how to enter your posts in the contest in a minute. First I want to explain appealing to readers and how you can do it without leaving your writing-related comfort zone.

Appealing to Readers

I’ve mentioned before that fiction writers who want their blog to attract readers need to learn to blog about something other than writing. The easiest way to do this, while still appealing to your writing buddies and improving your own writerly sensibilities, is to review something with a plot (e.g. books, TV shows, movies). Ideally you’re reading and viewing things that would also interest your readers, and the time you spend analyzing those works will help you develop your awareness of story elements in your own work.

You can also blog about things that will interest your reader and relate to the books you write. For example, horses interest readers, and writers who need to know about horses for their books could use a few prods in the right direction. Historical fiction, steampunk, and other genre readers may be interested in clothing styles for certain time periods, as will writers who write in those eras. There are entire worlds of topics you can write on, most of which will appeal to readers. (But if you only talk about the craft of writing, you’ll miss your mark.)

Readers also tend to enjoy satire of genre tropes and expectations, so if you’ve got satirical chops, funny always wins over readers.

How to Enter Your Posts

To enter the contest, register at inkPageant and submit your post to them. They’ll review your post and add it to their pages.

Winning the 20-page Critique. Any post, whether it appeals to readers or not, gets you an entry for the 20-page critique prize. You can have up to 3 entries (each blog post is an entry), and the winner will be chosen randomly at the end of the month.*

Winning the 50-page Critique. I will review every post inkPageant aggregates in the month of February, and the post I believe is of the best quality and best appeals to readers and writers will win the author the 50-page critique.*

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*If you’re already a Looseleaf client, or if you’re a family member of mine, you’re disqualified.

Eye-Catchers: My Favorite Covers from 2011

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I haven’t analyzed a cover for a long time (not since Mira Grant’s Feed), but before the first month of 2012 passed I wanted to share with you my favorite covers from 2011 and why I think they work.* My top three are Blackdog by K.V. Johansen (illustration by Raymond Swanland), Embassytown by China Miéville (illustration and design by David Stevenson), and The Hum and the Shiver (photographs by Valentino Sani and Marilyn Angel Wynn). They all have excellent lines to draw the viewer’s eye and serve as compelling introductions to the stories inside.

Blackdog: A Study in Eye Movement

Blackdog by K. V. Johansen

There are a lot of things I love about this cover, but all of it hinges on the spectacular illustration from Raymond Swanland. The color scheme is striking even though it isn’t flashy, because Swanland has a nice contrast between the lights and darks that adds flavor and variety without having to be extreme; the image packs a lot of elements in without feeling busy; Holla-Sayan (the guy in the foreground) is compelling.

But the thing that strikes me the most about this cover is the motion. Everything is moving. The owl is in a dive (as are the other shadowy birds), and that dive moves in the same direction as the ribbons of cloth coming from Attalissa (the girl in the center). The contrast of the bright circle in the center with all the darker elements draws your eye, but then it’s easy for your eye to flow around the rest of the cover elements following the motion lines. Then you get caught up in the intersection where Holla’s hand and his sword meet, you move up to his face, and you get hit head-on with the fact that he’s looking out from the cover. His face is the only element that isn’t synchronized with the upper-right–to–lower-left flow, and because of that it strikes a strong chord.

This cover is a study in the power of eye movement. The movement sucks you in, and the illustration has enough detail to keep you captivated for a while. Definitely long enough to decide you want to buy whatever is behind that cover. (As a nod to whoever did the text, the title color contrasts well with what’s behind it, but harmonizes with the existing illustration. It’s placement also defers to the illustration, which is smart considering how strong the illustration is.)

Embassytown: Room for Imagination

Embassytown by China Miéville

The first think I like about this cover is the color scheme. You can’t get more contrast than between black and white, and red is my favorite accent color. It’s a striking scheme that never seems to get old (for me, at least; I’m sure other people are sick to death of it).

David Stevenson uses the red judiciously: he only uses it for the author name, which is a lightweight font compared to the title typeface, so the red remains an accent, but not the note that stays with you. Where the Blackdog cover had a lot of diagonal motion, this cover is strictly top-to-bottom. The contrast of the black and red (or the black and white, depending on the viewer) draws your attention to the top. Then your eye filters down through the inverted pyramid of the jumbled letters and finally to the city, which is made up of vertical buildings.

The space between the title and the bottom of the cover is the part I like best about this cover. The jumbled letters give you an idea that words are important to the city below. It gives you hints; it gives you an impression of what Embassytown, the city, is like; it gives the city both a glow and a shadow. Those hints and impressions and contrasts are interesting, and they’re ripe for a viewer to start creating a story of their own with the image, a story that will compel them to read.

The Hum and the Shiver: Simple Can Sell

The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

This cover is different than the other two because it relies on two images instead of on a specific illustration (if you’re a self-publisher thinking about a stock-photo cover, take note).  Neither photo would make as compelling a cover alone. The landscape image is full of beautiful color. The yellows and oranges in the sky catch the eye, and they do so all the better because they’re bordered by the unobtrusive blue of the mountains below.

The shape of the mountains draws down in a V that guides the eye to the central figure (the other image). Like the city and the jumbled words of the Embassytown cover, this figure lets you, the viewer, start to tell yourself a story. Here is a woman, partially transparent, holding a stringed instrument. Because she’s nondescript—you can’t really see her face, you don’t know exactly what she’s feeling—you have the freedom to fill in the gaps.

This cover is simple: the contrasting colors draw your eye, and the solo, nondescript figure lets you tell yourself a story. It’s powerful from an emotional sense, and it sets a beautiful tone for the book inside.

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*Remember, I’m not extensively skilled as a designer. I’m decent with typography and word-based design, but not stellar when it comes to creation. I leave the illustration and design to my more able colleagues. You don’t have to be able to create awesome stuff to love awesome stuff and to be able to say why.

Weekly Roundup: 1/20–1/27

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Angry Robot: The Return of the Open Door

Angry Robot LogoAngry Robot, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy, ran an open door submission policy for a month last year. They’re going to do it again, but with slightly different rules. They will only accept epic fantasy, and they will only accept submissions that follow the format and standards laid out in their open door submission guide. Unless you write YA, in which case any type of SF&F is cleared for you to submit to their YA imprint, Strange Chemistry. Submissions will be made through the Angry Robot website April 16–30. That means you have a few months to get your manuscript completed and finalized before you send it in.

(To learn more about my thoughts on Angry Robot’s publishing style, see my post here. I’ve also reviewed one of their books, Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City, here.)

Gini Dietrich: Reading Fiction Helps Your Career

Remember last week, when instead of posting a weekly roundup I posted about how important stories are? On Tuesday of last week, PR pro Gini Dietrich posted about the same thing, but in a different context. She cites a thick chunk of research to back up her claim that reading fiction helps your career. See? Stories are important to your daily life as well as to your world citizenship.

Digital Book World: Bookseller Backed by Big Publishers Advocates Abandoning Digital Rights Management

Anobii, a bookseller whose stakeholders include the UK arms of HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House, is hoping to leave DRM behind. They’ve got good reasons too, including trying to give Kindle users more options.

Buying Habits: Brick-and-Mortar vs. Online

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Bookshelves

I recently moved to a new city, and I’ve had trouble finding a solid brick-and-mortar bookstore (possibly because I know hardly anyone here, so it’s difficult to ask). Many of my book purchases have moved online, and I’ve had a great experience so far. Most of the books I order are pre-orders, and buying them online and having them shipped as early as the release date allows is a low-hassle way to get my books.

But I’ve realized that no matter how easy buying books online is, I buy different books, and in different quantities, when I’m in a physical store. Below are my findings about my different buying habits:

  1. Online I buy one book at a time. If I’m looking for The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, I buy The Rook. Online stores make this a very simple transaction.
  2. In brick-and-mortar stores I’m more open to books I’m not seeking. As an example, I visited my home town last week, and while at the local Barnes & Noble, I bought a book I’d never heard of, Myths of Origin by Catherynne M. Valente, because the cover caught my eye and the back cover copy intrigued me.
  3. In brick-and-mortar stores I buy more books. Especially if, while on my way to get what I’m looking for, I stumble across a book I’m not actually seeking (e.g. Myths of Origin).
  4. I prefer online stores for books I anticipate. Refer to my earlier statement about my pre-orders. If I know about the book in advance of the release date and it’s something I’m interested in, I buy it online. I’m guaranteed to get it faster than I would if I waited to go to a brick-and-mortar store.
  5. I prefer brick-and-mortar when I want to discover a book.

The last point is one I’d like to linger on. Online stores are easy, convenient, and have frequent discounts (I am particularly fond of the discounts I get for pre-ordering). But I’ve never found them compelling as a method of discovery, nor do I enjoy trolling review blogs and websites to find my next read (this is the method I often hear touted by ebook and online gurus). Discovering a book worth reading is almost as pleasurable as the read itself. With most books I “discovered” buried in the shelves of a bookstore or library, I remember what appealed to me first, what emotions I felt when I chose the book, whether the glue smelled uniquely appealing, and what rationale I had for purchasing it or checking it out in spite of the stack of books I already had in hand. I remember what was next to it on the shelves, and I remember those books when I next need to discover something new.

That experience, for me, has not been equaled or even approximated by the online buying experience. Despite all the doomsayers, some have predicted that brick-and-mortar stores won’t disappear, and I certainly hope that’s the case.

Given my thoughts and experiences, I wasn’t surprised when Digital Book World 2012 posted an article stating that ebook “power” buyers buy less than their print counterparts. I was surprised by DBW’s explanation for why—i.e., ebook buyers scout for cheap and free ebooks—though in retrospect it makes sense (especially because I still buy print books, so my experience doesn’t directly translate to ebooks). But in my experience with buying more books, and more unknown books, at brick-and-mortar stores, it makes perfect sense that online ebook purchases would generate less revenue.

Then again, maybe I’m a bizarre nostalgic offshoot who evolved an unnecessary need to smell a book to form a bond with it. What are your experiences with online and brick-and-mortar stores? Do your buying habits differ based on the setting? Do you still “need” brick-and-mortar stores to find your next read, or do you rely on other methods of discovery?