The posts in the “Creativity” side of tjwithers.wordpress.com talk about my research into the creative process.
Sometimes, you don’t have a productive day. That happens. So what do I do with that? Am I still as effective a creator or worker if none of my ideas bore any fruit today?
Today I came across this awesome quote that speaks directly to that:
the seeds you plant
This post begins with viniculture and ends with your created masterpiece.
Why viniculture? Because viniculture is seriously hard. See, wine comes from grapes. And grapes are relatively “easy” to grow, but good wine is really difficult to make. If you want good wine, you have to make your grapes struggle for it.
Tasy, tasty grapes
This post will be a rant. Expect it. Don’t be too disappointed.
See how I make disclaimers? That’s because I’m an adult. And adults have expectations of other adults.
The expectation that I am fighting off by this disclaimer is that I should be able to write a coherent post because I am an adult and I am educated and I call myself a writer and I edit other people’s writing for a living and I got enough sleep last night.
Everyone has their own assumptions about what it’s like to be a freelancer.
Here’s what it is like for me and for the friends I know who are freelancers:
| Pros | Cons |
| I set my own schedule.I can take a break when I need to. | I set my own schedule.That means I become a workaholic, working 6 days a week when I can because I know I need money for the weeks when I don’t have work. |
| I negotiate my own contracts and pay. | Because I negotiate my own pay, I sometimes end up being paid “mate’s rates”. |
| I work from home or at my local library, so I’m more comfortable than in someone else’s workplace.I get to work in my PJs while listening to music! | I work from home.I don’t get to “go in to the office”. I have to be responsible for my own time.I have to make sure my internet is reliable. |
| I get to choose my own contracts. | I am constantly searching for new contracts.As outsourcing becomes more common, there are fewer contracts that pay a standard Australian rate. |
| I get to take a lunch break with friends. | I can’t just “duck out” to take lunch with my friends who work in the city – there’s travel time involved. |
| Clients are sometimes unreliable when it comes to paying you or providing you with the right files to work with. |
If you’re new to the creative workplace, what have been your experiences so far?
And if you need an editor for your novel, children’s book, memoir, textbook, website, company newsletter, or “other”, please let me know! Visit my freelance services page for more details on my services and to get in touch. I’d love to hear from you!
View my rates for editing, copywriting, or proofreading, on my Freelance Services page!
This post was written by TJ Withers-Ryan © 2013. Reblogging is highly encouraged as long as you credit me as the author.
Are you running the NaNoWriMo race with me this year? Let me know by writing a comment! We can cheer each other on to victory!
‘Tis my first year, and I’m pretty excited!
I’m using this as an extrinsic force motivating me to just get my novel finished already!
Remember what I talked about in my last post, the one about Scheherazade and the king of Persia? Sometimes you need a gun to your head to just get things done, right? So this should be great.
P.S. I made it!
2013 Winner of NaNoWriMo!
This post was written by TJ Withers-Ryan © 2013. Reblogging is highly encouraged as long as you credit me as the author.
‘Procrastination cat will do it tomorrow’ from Lolcat Research
Today we talk about the power of procrastination! But wait – how could procrastination possibly be a good thing? I’m so glad you asked!
All you ever hear is that procrastination means putting off important (but difficult) things and doing unimportant (but more fun) things instead. Ecclesiastes says procrastination is for the idle: “If you wait until the wind and weather are just right, you will never plant anything, and never harvest anything.”
And that’s definitely true. But procrastination – if applied in a useful way – is not all bad. In fact, Dave Windass (of the TED talk “The Power of Procrastination” http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxHull-Dave-Windass-The-Power) argues that procrastination is actually the key to being MORE productive, if used *in the right dosage*.
Coming to hang out at GenreCon 2013 on Saturday 18th? Shoot me an email (see my Contact Us section)!
Today is all about being creative under pressure. In the workplace, whether you are a person doing creative work in a non-creative industry, or a person doing creative work in a creative industry, we all work to various deadlines, and you need to know how to harness your creative process in a hurry!
The best example of successfully doing creative work under pressure is fairly ancient. The story of ‘One thousand and one nights’, also known as ‘Arabian nights’, is the story of Scheherezade in Arabia.
A portrait of Princess Dunyazade (‘The Coffee Bearer’) by John Frederick Lewis
When a Persian king, Shahryar, discovers that his wife has been unfaithful to him, he has her executed. He keeps on marrying a bunch of women, but each time, he executes her the morning after their wedding, before she has a chance to be unfaithful to him. It is the vizier’s job to provide these virgins to marry the king, but one day he finds they’ve run out! So his daughter, Scheherezade, convinces her father to let her be the next bride.
On the night of Scheherezade’s marriage to the king, she begins telling the king a tale, but she doesn’t give him the ending. He’s so curious to know how the story ends that he doesn’t execute her the next morning. He figures he’ll just wait until he’s heard the ending, then execute her the next morning. But that night, Scheherezade finishes that story and starts right into a new one. But she doesn’t finish it! So the king is forced to keep her alive for one thousand and one nights.
Coming to hang out at GenreCon 2013 on Saturday 18th? Shoot me an email (see my Contact Us page)!
Today is the continuation of the incubation theory, and how to use it: “How can we use incubation to get past writer’s block, without wasting time?” Examples of famous people who’ve put incubation to good use in their creative process.
If you’ve missed my past posts on incubation theory, and you’re wondering what I’m talking about, here’s the recap…
Young Businessman Thinking and Wondering While Writing a Paper
Image Source: Writing and PR Studio (BigStock Images)
Why should we sleep on it? This post discusses incubation, sleep, and dream theory! My own experience, words from a sleep psychologist, and a wacky experiment examining the creative process.
“sleep and dreams and creativity” by Rachel Olsen: http://rachelolsen.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/dreaming-and-creativity.html
My own experience:
So you remember how I was working on a novel and I just couldn’t finish it? Right, right, that was months ago. Well, I finally had a breakthrough!
I originally envisioned this novel in three parts, but currently only two parts of it work well. So I was thinking that parts one and two combined work as a standalone novel, with some revision.
But the problem that was to be solved was, at the end of part two, the heroine and her lover part on opposite sides of an intergalactic war. As enemies. So sad! And since I’m the kind of person who doesn’t deal well with sad endings (open that box of worms another day), this ending had to be fixed!
View my rates for editing, copywriting, or proofreading, on my Freelance Services page!
People often ask me what the difference between proofreading and editing is, or why editing is not just called rewriting.
Some of my pointers here are drawn from what IPEd (the Institute of Professional Editors Limited, Australia’s national editing association) says to authors about how to tell your editor what you need, but most of it is drawn from this year’s experience running my own freelance business as an editor / proofreader (TJ Withers-Ryan).
Step 1: There are three types of “editing”:
1. Proofreading – spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Have you any words out? Are there any typos like eextra letters? Fixing formatting errors like weird italicisation.
2. Copy editing – the line-by-line level, rewriting bad sentences. Does each sentence make sense? Does the author have any *annoying* mannerisms, technical jargon, or other bumps in the road that is their writing? Includes cross-checking facts and figures mentioned. This takes longer but is still pretty straightforward.
3. Structural editing – the story as a whole. Does each chapter have a point to it? Are the characters acting in a way that is consistent with the plot and their own motivations? This takes ages.
So, first, you need to tell your editor what type of editing you need them to do.
TJ Withers 