ThanksGIVING

25 November, 20154 August, 20182 Comments

15 Bookish & Writerly Things I’m Thankful For
My Gift to You
Small Business Saturday–Cyber Monday Editing Deals

15 Bookish & Writerly Things I’m Thankful For

My editing clients! I wouldn’t be able to blog or stay home with my kids if it weren’t for you. I’m daily inspired and encouraged by your creative spirits. You’re THE BEST.
The books patiently waiting by my bedside for me to read them
My local library, for saving me hundreds of dollars a year with all their books and comics and movies.
Librarians, for being insanely helpful and brilliant.
This reminder from Shannon Hale:
https://twitter.com/haleshannon/status/636907891379736576
This GIF:
https://twitter.com/larathelark/status/667520389229101056
Indie Booksellers (like Addendum Books) and lit mags (like Revolver) who put on awesome literary events.
The social media accounts which show how hilarious and human book publishers are.
The couple hundred writers who participated in #pg70pit this summer—Thank you! We’ll be doing it again in 2016!
The readers & writers who joined in my first BookDeeply writing seminar / book club. (You can still join! Nominate next spring’s debut author in the comments below.)
My fellow MS Editors—you raise me up so I can stand on mountains. Oh, wait, that’s Josh Groban.
Writing/editing/reading social media—Twitter, for helping me find my tribe, and Bookstagrammers, for making my daily doses of books and design easy and convenient.
The community of comics creators at OA Live.
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY
And YOU, for reading my blog! Thank you!

What literary wonders are you thankful for this year? Share in the comments!

My Gift to You

If you are not of a geeky persuasion and/or have no appreciation for popular culture, you probably won’t appreciate this. But if you know who Pavel Chekov is, then I hope you like and enjoy.

I made a series of geeky to-do/checklists for you. I call them…

wait for it…

the CHEKOV LIST.

I’ve got blue ones with trekkie insignia…

Assorted colors for color-coders:

and black and white sketchy ones for those trying to save some toner…

They’re free! You can download them by clicking the image below.

If you do download them, and if you enjoy them, do me a favor and rate them on Teachers Pay Teachers, please!

Eventually I’ll add more writing worksheets to that site, so let your writing instructors know about it. 🙂

Have fun with these, print out a bunch for friends, enjoy!

Editing Deals

From now through Cyber Monday, request a quote from me to receive big discounts!

Note: November is the craziest month for Marine families, so my posting schedule is a bit off! We had the Marine Corps Birthday Ball last weekend and have Thanksgiving tomorrow, so November’s query workshop and the Act Three post will be a bit delayed.

Time Management (& Printable 2015-2016 Quarterly Calendar)

5 October, 201526 February, 20208 Comments

One of my goals for October is to get more organized and be better at time management. The problem with being a work-at-home mom is that I’m always working and I’m always a mom! I’m all for being holistic, but nobody should be working all the time!

I’ll start with my calendar management, and then I’ll share the app I use to schedule my days.

Calendar Management

I took a class at my university called Writing for Organizations, and during that, I was taught how to use Gantt Charts to map out projects. I’m a visual person, so I really enjoyed it. But I haven’t applied that chart since! I created a template in Excel so that I can start using it to plan out individual months.

Download the Excel Template

I also created a quarterly calendar, originally for our family so we could see the whole year at a glance, but then I decided it would work really well for planning out my projects, too. In fact, you could use highlighters to create Gantt Charts on your calendar.

FIND THE 2018 PRINTABLE QUARTERLY CALENDAR HERE

Day Management

First I downloaded a Pomodoro app. The Pomodoro Technique is to set a timer for 25 minutes, work that entire time, take a 5-minute break, and then repeat two more times. After three or four “pomodoros” you get a longer break.

I picked 30/30 because I liked the graphics and the ability to color code.

You can modify your ratios between work and break. I generally split the hours up this way: 40 minutes doing something I like (like editing). 5-minute break, 10 minutes doing something I dread (like answering emails or doing dishes), and another 5-minute break.

I also schedule in leisure time, food prep, and play time with my kids. Having the day mapped out with this app helps me to see that I DO have time for everything. 30/30 is especially recommended for people with ADD/ADHD.

Motivation

If you’re struggling with motivation, I recommend the Coach.Me app. You can also try Habitica for an RPG-inspired app.

What are your favorite methods for time management? Share in the comments.

[free printable!] SMART Goals & Don’t Break the Chain

5 January, 20155 January, 2015Leave a comment

I’ve updated the SMART goals and Don’t Break the Chain calendar with a printable calendar for 2015! Make and keep your resolutions with this free download.

Lara Willard

UPDATE: Links have been updated with a full 2015 calendar!

I don’t really do New Years resolutions in January. Sometimes I set goals for myself, but April is generally my goal-setting month because it’s the month in which I was born. Doesn’t hurt that it starts with April Fool’s Day, so if I make a completely unreasonable goal, I suppose I could change my mind on April 2nd.

Back in January I decided 2014 was THE year for me to once and for all finish the manuscript I’ve been working on. The past few months I’ve been reading up on productivity, attending time-management and goal-setting workshops for artists, and setting short term and long term goals.

There’s a difference between a goal, though, and a SMART goal.

Making SMART Goals

S-Specific

Your goal needs to be specific. “Be a better person” is a good ideal, but not a…

View original post 735 more words

Manuscript Format Template (free download)

25 October, 20142 June, 201622 Comments

Have you read my posts on Formatting your Novel Manuscript? If not, read part one here and part two here.

I surveyed forty literary agents in October of 2014 to ask them which font they preferred for submitted manuscripts. The clear winner was Times New Roman. Many agents read pages on e-readers or mobile devices, and TNR is a web-safe, system-installed, serif. Using TNR allows them to read pages without changing formatting first, but it is also an easy font to change.

Download the MS Format TEMPLATE.

Right-click the link above and “save as.” I saved it as a Word Document, even though I personally use Pages, so if there are any issues, please report them to me! Our PC isn’t working, and I don’t have Word on my Macbook Pro.

This template uses paragraph styles, which you can import into any preexisting document. Otherwise save a copy of MS Format TEMPLATE, rename it, and begin typing or pasting your manuscript.

Read through all of the instructions on the template, and save it as-is to keep as a reference. Do not type into the original TEMPLATE—type in a duplicate or copy file.

Copyright Notice:

This template was created by me for personal or educational use only. You may share it with others—simply give them this link or share the link on social media using the buttons below. You may not pass this template off as your own or charge anyone to use it. You may not upload the template to any website or blog.

Of course, you have full ownership of your own manuscript, whether you use my template or paragraph styles to format it.