The Pull of the Real World

I'm very pleased with the progress over the past few days. I've been happily writing like mad. And the stack of articles I've already finished keeps growing (it is well over a foot high now--I just measured it). Unfortunately, my life has been beckoning me back into the "real world," and I can't ignore it anymore. My email was getting really stacked up. I'm meeting with one of my authors tomorrow. One of my other authors sent me a bunch of pictures to review. I need to get started on the Annual Report for the Trauma Psychology division. And the next issue of Clinical Lactation is due soon. I had a conference call with my associate editors tonight to go over manuscripts.

And that's just work stuff. I haven't even mentioned kids, and husband, and animals, and house.

My point is that most of us are usually not allowed time to just write. As I have indicated in previous posts, this is the single-most challenging aspect of being a writer: learning how to prioritize, or at least work into your schedule, writing time.

If I didn't have such a tight deadline, I could just mosey along with my writing, doing a bit here and there. On the other hand, I think I was using that approach, which is why I am now over a year overdue. :-)

So back to the pits for me.

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you a happy and healthy 2012.

Christmas Present

It's 11:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve and I'm about ready to call it a night. We've had Christmas dinner. We went to church. We even opened a couple of gifts. Needless to say, I am not working tomorrow.

I've had a very productive few days, working pretty much all day and most evenings on the book. My pile of research articles I've finished with is now about 14" high (see earlier post), and I'm finding that quite motivating. The first two thirds of the book is taking shape.

I'm still working on broad strokes at this point: trying to figure out how to structure chapters, what information to include and what to leave out, where to cite it in the text. I'm nowhere near finished, but I can see it taking shape. This is the point in the process where the project itself becomes the motivator. I find myself wanting to finish "one more pile" or articles, or as I started out this morning, working my way through all my articles on the health effects of hostility (do I know how to have a good time, or what??).

As great as it's been to really dive into this book, it's also time for break. Christmas is a fairly obvious time to break. But even at another time of year, taking a break from writing is usually a good idea. Remember, writing does have to fit in with the rest of your life--and that's going to be hard to do if you don't have a life.

So even on a tight deadline, I'm giving myself a little present: Christmas Day without my computer. I'm not sure what I will do with all that free time. But I'm confident I can come up with something. :-)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Making Progress Through the Pile

It's been two days since my last post and I'm happy to report that I've been working every spare minute on the book. It's been overwhelming at times, which I knew it would be, but I'm happy to see some slow-but-steady progress. And I've been marking it with the growing pile on my office table. Allow me to explain.

I've written many types of books. As I mentioned in my first post, the book I'm working on now is my 22nd. Some books use only a few references (love those!). Others require references in the hundreds. I'm working on one of those. I wrote the first edition of this book in 2002. It's on trauma and health--a topic that researchers have really embraced over the past 10 years. And I've been collecting articles for the revised edition all that time.

Do you get the idea that that's a LOT of articles? That's putting it mildly. I have a file drawer bursting at the seems, a bunch of pdfs, and a whole bookshelf with carefully marked books and journals. How long should that take?

I'd estimate that it takes me anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to read, digest, and write up results from a single study. When you multiple that by what's in my files, I think you can see why I was dreading getting started. As I wrote in an earlier post, the amount you do in the beginning seems like a drop in the bucket compared to what you still have to do. It's enough to make you want to watch a lot of TV and forget the whole thing.

Which brings me to the point of tonight's post. When you have a large goal, you need to give yourself clear markers about where you are and what you have already accomplished. In my case, it's the PILE.

True, I could file the articles I've finished neatly away. But for now, I'm enjoying them in all their glory at 8 inches high--and growing. That pile is messy, but it's providing me with tons of inspiration. So when you work on a writing project that seems overwhelming, give yourself lots of little reminders along the way of all the things you have already accomplished. It will encourage you and hopefully keep you from panicking (as much) about all the things you still need to do.

Yes, I still have a long way to go--but by God, I'm finally making progress.

Snow Day

I am just beginning Day 9 of my quest to write a book in 50 days. So far, I am making decent progress. There is still a mind-bending amount of work to do. But I've managed to do a lot more than I expected. That's especially true over the past couple of days, in part because we have a snow day. True, the storm was not nearly as severe as they predicted. But it did mean cancelling and moving some appointments around. The net result is that I found myself with some extra time on my hands--and that meant a chance to write.

As I described in an earlier post, one of the real challenges most working writers face is finding time to write. This is especially true if writing is not your full-time job. Often, people who write have other full-time jobs, either at home or out in the workforce. Having blocks of time is often not very realistic. Learning to use bits of time is the only way most of us get anything done.

But then there are those miracles of time that occur almost at random. A cancelled appointment, a delayed flight--a snow day. If you want to write, try to be prepared for when those moments strike. Bring whatever it is you are working on with you wherever you go, and have it in a workable form. This could be print or electronic. Just make sure that you can actually do something with it.

I think you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish in these odd moments of time if you are ready to go. In fact, you may even start to look forward to delayed appointments, inclement weather, and time spent waiting. These "inconveniences" will become your opportunities. While others complain, you will recognize them as a blessing in that they grant you the miracle of a block of time to write.

The Efficacy of Bribes

Last night, my husband proposed a deal: if I worked hard on the book, he would take me to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I've been dying to see this movie ever since I learned of its release (the remake of the classic George Smiley/John Le Carre tale). It was a fabulous bribe. I worked like a slave all day. Problem is, it's only in limited release. The nearest theatre is about 10 hours away. Of course, we didn't find that out until after I had completed a whole day's work. Oh, well.

We went out to dinner instead.

The movie didn't work out, but it illustrates a larger point. And that is the efficacy of bribes. Writing's hard, especially when you first start a big project like a book. So feel free to give yourself some reasonable incentives for reaching certain milestones. It will make the process a lot more pleasant.

Eventually, the work itself will become the incentive. But it doesn't hurt to kick start the process with a few well-chosen bribes.(Just be a little careful with food bribes or your may end up with another problem....Trust me on this.)

I'm happy to report that I made some significant progress this week. I've been moving content around, rearranging and splitting chapters, and have decent drafts  of several of them. There is still much content to add. But I'm seeing the book starting to take shape, and that's always a good thing.

In the meantime, I'll continue to reward myself for each milestone I attain. And will definitely go to see the newest version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and will fix regular pots of cinnamon tea in my new French press that I carted home from Belgium. (It's red! Too cute to leave behind.)

I'm now on Day 6. Writing this blog has proven helpful in keeping me focused on the task at hand. So that's for your support. Talk with you tomorrow.

The Deep End

I have been hard at work for the past five days on my book, and have made quite a bit of progress.  The problem is that I'm still in a state of absolute panic. I've experienced it with every book so far. You finally get started and no matter how much progress you make, it seems a drop in the bucket compared to what you need to do. No matter how fast you write, you have this feeling that it's not fast enough. It's like when you are shoved into the deep end of a pool. Your head goes under water and you come up as quickly as you can, sputtering and gasping for air. Your mind "knows" that you are safe, but there's that moment of blind panic that happens before the more-rational part can talk you down.

For me, this is one of the more unpleasant parts of working on a book, and it doesn't go away until I'm at the halfway point--or beyond.  Right now, I'm questioning whether I was completely nuts to propose the 50-day deadline. And this panicky feeling is a big reason why I have problems getting started. I'm looking at a huge stack of research articles that I've barely dented. How in world will I ever get through them all? And do I even need to?

On the other hand, I can take comfort in knowing that I've finally begun. Take a deep breath.

Having been through this many times before, I know that it will get better. It's just time for my rational brain to kick in. Still waiting.....

In the meantime, I can do some work on my cognitive pathways chapter.

It's Not All About the Muse

I'm going to share a dirty little secret about writing: sometimes it's really boring. Those of you who write regularly know what I'm talking about. New or aspiring writers sometimes think writing is all about inspiration and being in "the zone." Personally, I love those days when I am in the zone. That's the place where hours disappear and you don't even realize it. Where the words just come to you. Where you thank God for your ability to write.

But that state is more the exception than the rule. And learning to work through the dull times is what turns you into a seasoned writer.

Today was a case in point. I came back from my appointments this afternoon and got to work. I first dove in on my chapter on the neurophysiology of trauma. Since so much new research has come out, I was nervous about working on it. I was afraid that I would have to completely dismantle the original chapter. But to my surprise, the chapter from the 1st edition actually held up quite well. There was lots of material I needed to add (and will still need to add), but the original structure was solid.

After finishing my initial pass through that chapter, I worked the rest of the afternoon, and into the evening, on formatting two chapters from the original rft format and making sure my references were all in EndNote. There are a lot of references so this process took a long time.

"References? Surely that doesn't count as writing!" I would argue that it is. Working on the "housekeeping" items of writing still moves you towards your goal, and it's great work to do on those days when you are less than inspired. True, it might be good to hire that task out to someone. But I think we sometimes lose sight of the ability of a mindless task to get things going. Obviously, you can't finish an entire project by working on nothing but references. But I find that attending to the housekeeping items can be enough to start that flow of creativity.

And once that happens, look out world. :-)

Signing off for now.

The Siren Call of Everyday Life

One of the greatest challenges writers face is being able to carve out time to write. Our lives and our attention get pulled in a hundred different ways, and before we know it, another day has slipped by with no writing. It's hard to resist the siren call of our everyday lives, with tasks that say to us: "I need your immediate attention."

As tempting as it would be to disappear for blocks of time, it just isn't reality for most of us. That's certainly true for me. Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. My son is home from college. I  have appointments and things I need to attend to.

Today was a case in point. I'm nearing completion of my term as associate editor for the journal Psychological Trauma. That means that I must finish reviewing my stack of articles before the end of the year. I spent about 4.5 hours doing just that. This task has to be completed online, and so as I worked, I received numerous emails from people I'm collaborating with on various research projects. Zhen has just finished analyzing data for our domperidone study. My friend Doug is looking at the family violence data in our Survey of Mothers' Sleep and Fatigue. I'm keeping track of the incoming articles for the next issue of Clinical Lactation. As much as I would like to check out from the world until my book is finished, the more  realize that it is impossible--and perhaps not even desirable.

So what should we do? Today, with a morning full of work on other projects, and only an hour and a half until I had to leave for an appointment, I decided to take my own advice: use those little blocks of time that are available throughout the day. When you are focused, it's amazing how much you can do. But without a conscious plan, it's incredibly easy to piss away the time and have nothing to show for it. Faced with this short amount of time, I started blocking out my chapters. I copied and formatted material from the first edition, added some of the new material I had written for other projects, and started to get a rough idea of where I would place sections of the book. I've been meaning to do this for months--and it felt great to finally do it.

I know I will face similar dilemmas on other days. And at some point, I really do need to stop writing and get caught up on email. But it's good to get going. And knowing that I would be blogging about what I did today kept me focused on the task at hand--and not finding something fun to read on my Kindle. :-)

More tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

Day One of My Captivity

OK, maybe my title doesn't reflect the most positive attitude. . :-)

True to my word, I did spend the better part of today getting started on the book, carefully reading a stack of articles that I needed to wrap my head around before I could start writing and revising the 1st edition. In practical terms, what that meant was reading very long articles with sentences like this

A basic model of PTSD neurobiology
The biological perturbations observed in patients suffering from PTSD are numerous, and likely reflect an enduring dysregulation of multiple stress-mediating systems that occurs as a result of a psychological "shock." These pathophysiological perturbations presumably occur in patients with genetic, epigenetic, and experiential predispositions when exposed to certain extreme conditions.....

Got it? I think you see what I mean. (PTSD=posttraumatic stress disorder)

Actually, the stuff I was reading was really important, but the writing was so cumbersome that it took approximately a billion hours to read. The boredom factor had something to do with how amazingly easy it was to get pulled off task. I was right to dread this part, and did manage to muddle through--at least today's stack. I had to keep reminding myself that this was also part of "writing," even though I didn't actually write much today.

Nevertheless, I learned some really important things today.

1) I read, in detail, about a variable called "centrality." I stumbled on it when reviewing an article for Psychological Trauma. Centrality refers to whether a traumatic event becomes a defining point in someone's life. Some of the questions that assess centrality are as follows:

• "My life story can be divided into two main chapters: one is before and one is after this event happened."
• "This event has become a reference point for the way I understand new experiences."
• "I believe that people who haven't experienced this type of event think differently than I do."

The more central the event was to someone's identity and their thoughts about who they were, the more likely they were to have PTSD symptoms. The applications for this are huge. I know I'll be making some new presentation slides about this one.

2) In the articles on the neurobiology of trauma, I learned about some of the new brain-imaging research, which specifically suggests some new possible treatments for reversing the "chemical cascade" that accompanies traumatic events. The implications for that are also huge. We can't prevent people from experiencing traumatic things. They are part of living in this world. But wouldn't it be great if we could keep those events from causing so much long-term damage?

So this topic is definitely worth my time. And I'm also sure that as I get further into this topic, I'll stop my kvetching. But for now it's nice to have someone to complain to.

Thanks for listening.

A Bold New Adventure

Hi everyone:
I have a confession to make. I have a book under contract that is now a year overdue. It's been bothering me--a lot. Ironically, it's a book I actually want and need to write. It's the second edition of my book, Treating the Lifetime Effects of Childhood Victimization. The first edition of that book has been the foundation of most of my work over the past 10 years, and the field has grown so much since then. But the first edition was also the most conceptually difficult book I have ever written. I thought it was going to kill me in the process. To say that I am a bit anxious about diving in again would be a classic understatement.

I also find that other priorities seem to always jump ahead in the queue. So I need some incentive. I've decided to set a rather ambitious--and public--goal for myself. In 50 days, I head to Europe for some speaking engagements. Before I go, I'd like to send this manuscript to my editor.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to write a book, I invite you to join me on this adventure. This book is not my first; it is actually my 22nd. I know from long experience the ups and downs of this process. I know how easy it is to find something--anything--else to lets you avoid that blank screen and blinking cursor. I also know what it's like to actually finish a book and see it go out into the world.

The role of writer is not a particularly glamourous one. But it can be one of the most satisfying jobs you do. So if you're interested, or maybe just a bit curious, fasten up your seatbelts and let's get going. It's going to be a wild ride. :-)
Kathy