5 on Writing (4)
5 On Writing is an occasional series of 5 Links of Interest.
Another five interesting links out there from the writing world. I have some New Years reading for writers - productivity tools within four out of five of these.
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2009 Goals Planned in a Dashboard Mind Map
Today I spent a fruitful day planning out all my writing and other resolutions into some 2009 goals and objectives, and setting them into a series of mindmaps. Together they make up a Life Dashboard MindMap.
For 2009 I have several personal goals, some large family tasks (such as adopting another child into the family), some work and study goals and many writing goals. Organising all of these takes a lot of planning of dates and impacts. My months and weeks of tasks are planned through the central 2009 Life Dashboard Map.
In this post, I discuss quickly how I planned out my goals for this new year today, and show you some of my own goals and strategies opened up for you within the two mindmaps.
Sources for the original mindmap templates which I used to create this suite of maps are linked to, for your own reference. You will be able to use these if you are a user (as I am) of Mindjet MindManager Pro Version 7 or above. Happy planning for your own writing goals this year also.
All I Want for New Years is a Moleskine
New Years greetings to all out there.
This is being written at 7pm on the New Years Eve, with another five hours to go until the next year. My home country of New Zealand clocked over into 2009 eight hours ago. As I’m tired, I wish a little that I had. But we’ll see if I can make it through to midnight.
As a final wish from this year into the next, I will tell you a little sad story. Being the silly season, my family has spent quite a few days doing “stuff” - family stuff. Yesterday it was post-Christmas sales shopping, and we watched a pantomine. Today we went to the movies. We are also playing a lot of electronic games which arrived under the tree for all family members.
In shopping, I went looking for what I thought should be a simple writing pleasure - my first moleskine journal. In our county capital city, I never found one. How sad is that? I had the good intentions to start a proper writing journal for the New Year, and even developed some thoughts towards decorating it, and organising it, and had finally persuaded myself to try out that holy grail of many writers - a moleskine. And no shops sold them. Not even the proper stationery shelves of “proper” reader’s havens like the two good bookstores in the city. I’ve seen them previously there, but no longer. Not when I really had set my heart on one, anyway.
So, I am bereft a moleskin, and therefore a writing journal for the first of January - tomorrow. But my search will perservere, and I will not be scuppered in my desire for the moleskin.
But before I go - I started pondering why they are called moleskins, and worrying about the plight of actual moles - there are plenty of mole hills scattered across the roadside verges in my surrounding countryside, and I actually like the little creatures.
How Did Moleskine Notebooks get their Name?
Answer 1 : Edmund80 :
There’s an ordinary English word, moleskin, which, as you might guess, originally referred to the skin of a mole. About a century ago, the term was extended to apply to a type of cotton fabric that looked and felt a bit like natural moleskin. Strictly speaking, the oilcloth that’s used for covering notebooks is not moleskin—it isn’t fuzzy—but for whatever reason, that’s what it’s called.
See further at http://itotd.com/articles/565/moleskine-notebooks/
Answer 2 : zbeckabee :
Moleskine is the heir of the legendary notebook used for the past two centuries by great artists and thinkers, including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.
It was produced by a small French bookbinder, that supplied Parisian stationery shops frequented by the international literary and artistic avant-garde for more than a century.
In the mid-1980s, however, it no longer became available. In his book “Songlines”, Bruce Chatwin tells us the whole story of his favourite notebook, which he nicknamed “Moleskine.”
See further : http://www.moleskine.com/eng/_interni/storia/default.htm
The Components of a Writing Business Plan
Firstly, I’m not a business plan writer by any way, shape or form. I used to work in I.T. and was a very good writer of Test Plans and Strategies, of juggling budgets (which weren’t really mine) with bodies, and facilitating a compromise over the overall business product sales goals with the time given to me to achieve quality in that product (normally in direct disproportions).
What I wasn’t was a small business holder or self-employed contractor going with cap in hand to my bank manager wanting to provide enough evidence to convince him that I was worth a gamble on, and that I really did need to invest in some more stock, and perhaps also needed another staff member to help out.
I figure some of both a regular old Business Plan and some of an I.T. Software Development strategy might give me a shot of producing my 2009 Fiction Writing Business Plan. Or maybe not. Time may well see…here is my own steps to building a business plan / goal plan or career plan for 2009’s Writing Efforts…
Top Ten New Years Resolutions for Writers
Happy New Year and a prosperous 2009 to all the writers and their families!
It’s that time of year again - the time of good hope, and even bigger intentions. Below I’ve wound up the best New Years resolutions for Writers I could find - sources of others are listed below. Many are slightly more specific goals than the Top Ten Christmas Wishes I wrote of previously. That’s the nature of New Years resolutions - they tend to make a little more specific those good feelings brought about by seasonal good will.
From a personal viewpoint, I don’t share some of the following goals - but then, there’s always room for the personal…mine are about to be actioned through the writing of a 2009 Writing Business Plan.
I am going to make some of my own News Years writings goals actually work by writing them out as a Business Plan and Strategy. My next entry will take you through the Components of a Writing Business Plan.
The Yearly Review
2008 in My Writing Life
Before I go off on a lovely sparkly New Years goals kick, to be fair to myself - I have to work out what of this last year worked, and what could have worked better. That’s how I get to my goals of next year, right?
Right.
Review then…
[A minute or so later...]
Um, it’s not that much fun, really. To go back and think about everything that I have done writing-wise this last year. I’m more a future-forward make-a-wish kind of person, but must be practical about this.
The Christmas Book Box
Merry Christmas and Seasonal Greetings to All!
Here in my family we have a few Christmas traditions, but one of my favourites is the Christmas Book Box. This was started a few years ago, for my daughter, who still couldn’t read at that point, but has been brought up being read to since she was a month old baby. This year at school, she’s shot ahead in her own reading, but despite this, nothing beats the family custom of reading at bedtime together.
I thought, as a final Christmas item I would share with you our Christmas Book Box custom.
A Muse or a Split Personality?
I recently noticed a brand new blog out there on the topic of writing. Entitled Write for Your Life, the author of the blog is a writer from Sheffield, England, named Iain Broome. The blog itself promises some interesting discussions if the first post is anything to go by.
Iain’s first post is entitled, “Writers, abandon your muses - they’re a work of fiction!” The blog goes on to argue that a muse doesn’t exist - it’s just a way of releasing blame for procrastination or non-writing productivity onto a voiceless entity rather than accepting it from within ourselves.
Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for the Writer
Gifts, Gifts, Gifts. In many ways, the family with a writer within has an easy time of it when the holiday season comes along. All you pretty much need to do is offer some more books, or writer’s supplies.
Gifts for the writer don’t necessarily have to be expensive but can be very thoughtful. Both are important in this time of economic hardship for many of us.
Here are my top twelve gifts for writers, plus another twelve options below.
Top Ten Christmas Wishes for the Writer
Christmas and Seasonal wishes to all. Here’s my personal Christmas wish list for the writer within. Following up, I’ll have a Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for The Writer and some New Years Resolutions also. Oh, and an actual Business (Action) Plan to make some of these so-called wishes or resolutions come true.
