Fall Reading List

If I ever find time to read, this is what I'm going to work my way through this fall.


Possession by A. S. Byatt (rereading)
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Jeeves Omnibus by P. G. Wodehouse
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

What are you reading? What's next on your list?

What it means to be a WAHM

My bosses

I am a full time freelance writer. I am also a work-at-home mom (WAHM).

In many ways, my life as a writer and my life as a mom blend together seamlessly. In other ways, I find myself wondering if my children are sacrificing for my career, or if my career is sacrificing for my children.

I think sometimes people think WAHMs have it "easy." After all, they get to work from home, they get to play with their kid(s) all day, and they get to do it all in their pajamas with Days of Our Lives playing during nap time. Right?

Well, not so much.

In order for me to be successful as a WAHM (which means success as a writer and as a mom), I've had to approach my day very differently than a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) or a WOHM (work-outside-the-home mom) does. The biggest difference is in my daily schedule.

I have a very detailed daily schedule. In fact, according to my schedule I have very little down time. In practice, there's more down time than it appears, but I've padded the tasks I have to do each day to allow for distractions or side-tracking caused by "my bosses" (see photo above). If I don't have a very structured schedule, it's too easy for me to not get things done because I figure I can do them later. As it is, I can look at my schedule and simply do what it says to do during a certain time slot and know that, by the end of the day, I'll have gotten through the things I needed to do.

I also get up earlier than the rest of my family. My husband gets up around 7:15 every morning to get ready for work during the week. Bean is up between 9:30 and 10:00 every morning. (Bunny kind of does her own thing.) I get up at 5:00 a.m. every morning (including weekends) and get ready for the day, then spend time working until everyone else gets up. Having that extra time is what I need to get my day going on my terms so I can have a good day once the kids are up.

Though this is one thing I'm still working on, being highly organized is also key to being a successful WAHM. Not only do I have to stay organized to stay on top of deadlines and in contact with clients, but I have to stay organized to stay on top of my home responsibilities. I have lists and a calendar and I write everything down so I don't forget anything.

The biggest thing, which I know I've mentioned many times, is balance. When you work from home, you can't work all the time, and you can't let yourself get distracted so that you don't get anything done.

It's not easy, but I have to tell you that making it work is definitely worth it to get to spend so much time with my kids, and to get paid to do what I love so much.

A shiny new idea

I wasn't going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I didn't last year because we moved to a new place in November and my son had minor surgery. I missed scribbling furiously every day in November last year, but didn't think I'd participate this year, either.

Well, that changed this past week when I was struck with a shiny new idea for a story.

I'm not going to go into detail about the idea right now. It's really only the kernel of an idea at the moment and I need to take some time to develop it a bit more before I commit it to the permanence of the Interwebz. However, I will tell you that it deals with the intersection of religion and some aspects of the paranormal.

Are you scribbling for NaNoWriMo this year? What are you doing?

Good reading or Gag-inducing?

I've been thinking about what makes a piece of writing "good" lately. Maybe it's because I've been working on the coffee house book, and maybe it's because I've been working on a reading list for the fall. (I've been terrible about reading lately, but my schedule is a lot better now!) My reading time has been pretty limited lately, so I don't want to spend time on something I don't like.

But fiction is so subjective that to declare something "good" is hard to do. And if you do decide something is good fiction, that doesn't mean others will agree with you. That said, I think there are qualities a piece of writing can have (within subjectivity) that make it "good."

Engaging. A story has to draw you in. If you read a story and are very aware you're reading a story (unless that aspect is intentional, of course), it's hard to enjoy it.

Suspension of disbelief. Whether the story is realism, speculative fiction, or bizarro literature, good fiction is written in a way that lets you believe that what's happening in the story, however unlikely (or impossible), could actually happen.

Rewards rereading. I've read lots of stories that I've enjoyed, but when I read them again, problems are exposed. On the other hand, I've read stories that I could read every year and take something new from it every time. Good stories can be read more than once.

Emotional. Good fiction evokes emotion, positive and negative. Authors who write good stories are the ones who get you to love the characters they want you to love and hate the characters they want you to hate. Whether you like what's going on in the story or not, you react to it.

What else makes a good story?

What makes a bad story?

The Work-at-Home Dress Code

When people talk about working from home, one of the perks that inevitably arises is the ability to work in pajamas all day. And some people do. I have. It's easy to do that when you have two little ones to chase and your work is all online so you don't have to meet clients face-to-face.

However, lots of people who work from home say you shouldn't work in your pajamas. They say getting up in the morning and dressing for the day as if you're dressing for work puts you in the mindset of work. You may even be motivated to get extra work done if you're dressed for work.

I can see that side of it. In fact, that's what I've been trying to do in my own work day lately: get up in the morning and get dressed (including shoes), and work before the kids get up for the day.

For me, it is about putting myself in "work mode," but it's also that I feel better when I get dressed in the morning. I'm more awake and motivated. I feel ready to tackle my day. I've found it's also less tempting to curl up for a quick nap on the couch if I'm dressed with shoes on than if I'm wearing pajamas.

I'm not saying I wear business professional (or even business casual) clothes every day. But I get dressed in something comfortable, something I like, and something I would be happy to meet a client in, if the need arose. I'm happy in jeans and a t-shirt or a casual skirt and top.

What do you wear to work at home?

My Daily Schedule

When you work from home, no matter the industry or field, finding a balance between your work and home life is imperative. It can be easy to let your work self get distracted by things at home (TV, Internet, laundry, etc.) or let your home self get distracted by work (emails, phone calls, articles, etc.). Many people find they either procrastinate terribly, or they never close their office. Neither is healthy.

Finding balance is something I've been working on for a long time, and I'm finally feeling comfortable in where I am. The key for me has been building a schedule that includes home and work tasks throughout the day. This enables me to get everything done I need to for work, but gives me the breaks I need to get home tasks done, as well. Since that's the way I have my schedule set up, I can be comfortable walking away from work when it's time to clean, and I can be comfortable walking away from house work when it's time to work.

You can see my detailed daily schedule here.

How do you balance your home and work life? Do you find yourself drawn more to one or the other?

Story cards

The coffee house book is one in which chronology matters, but the story is not necessarily chronological. Because of that, I'm considering using story cards to help me keep the story line and story-telling organized.

The idea is that I'll write a summary of each chapter/scene on an individual index card. I'll number them chronologically in one color, then arrange them for the story arc and number them in another color. That way, I can see which events come in which order chronologically, as well as which events come in which order within the fabric of the story.

Has anyone used this method for organizing story events? If so, how did it work for you?

What I've been doing lately....

My sister, brother, and niece visited at the end of July for my daughter's baptism. I'll be back soon (today or tomorrow) with a "real" post.

Resource Books

When I'm doing freelance writing, I have two books handy. One is the The AP Stylebook. The other is Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. With the work I do for DMS, these books are valuable; I refer to them frequently.

Of course, that's my freelance life. I use different resources in my fiction life. Before starting the character biographies and outlines for the coffee house book, I (re)read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Both had elements I wanted to be more familiar with for the purposes of my storytelling. As I'm completing the character biographies, I have a copy of The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking by Robert Atkinson. I'm also perusing shelves here and there to find some good resources about gourmet coffee.

When I started writing fiction seriously, I didn't realize how much I would lean on nonfiction resources. I naively thought I would sit at a computer and make up a story off the top of my head and that would be that. Now I do a lot of research and writing (character biographies, outlines, backstory) before I even start telling a story.

The right resources can really push a story in the right direction. They can create a depth you didn't know could be there, a plot twist no one saw coming, or even clarification on something you thought you knew well enough to write without fact-checking. Regardless of the reason, finding good resources is an important part of writing fiction (and nonfiction). And every writer has books they keep handy when they sit down to write.

What are your writing resources? How did you come to use them?

Happy Independence Day!

Photo source