Turns out joining a group can be fun!

I never had much experience with the benefits of group membership as a child. The groups I was acquainted with were the unpleasant sort. The kind which incorporated mean kids and ruled the playground with an iron fist.

But as an adult, I have slowly come to understand how helpful a group can be both as a social bridge and a professional aid. Which is why I have become such a fan of the writing community and the groups which it forms.

At Rhode Island Romance Writers monthly meetings, I’ve received advice on writing, branding and marketing skills. Just as important, I’ve been able to meet a group of actual writers who, it turns out, are amazingly friendly.

As part of attending the Boston area romance writers conference, I joined New England Chapter of Romance Writers of America (NECRWA). At the conference I had the chance to meet several of the members. They too have been uniformly welcoming and helpful.

The NECRWA conference itself was an extraordinary experience. On a professional level, I was exposed to in depth information on the business of writing and selling books I wouldn’t normally have had access to. But the social aspect, again, took me by surprise.

I made friends.

I don’t know if this is a function of the groups I am meeting, but I’ve been blown away by a universal camaraderie. Experienced authors share information and advised rank beginners with a notable and laudable spirit of generosity. Fellow beginners share their knowledge, secure in the sense that this experience is not about competition but about lifting each other up.

Someday, I will attend the big one – the Romance Writers of America conference. I don’t know whether I will find the same level of welcoming friendliness there, but I think it’s possible.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about writers since I started meeting them, it’s that we all have the same hill to climb and we have to climb it again every day.

This takes a lot of the hierarchy out of writers’ groups.

Because even a million dollar writer starts out every morning the way she did when she first began – staring at a blank sheet and hoping the words will come easy today.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

I love organization books and tips.

When my children were babies and I was dogpaddling in a sea of dirty laundry, I happened on an organization book by Pam Young and Peggy Jones called Sidetracked Home Executives. The sister authors recommended an index card system of chore scheduling and you know how much I love index cards.

But eventually, I grew into other organization books. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was my bible for a while. His focus is on determining the relative importance of each task in the greater scheme of your life. If your life’s dream to juggle porcupines you will prioritize for practicing that skill over, say, washing the bugs out of your kitchen light fixture.

Then I stumbled on Getting Things Done by David Allen.

Allen’s philosophy of listing every single thing you want and need to do in your life is another way to decipher what is important to you. It’s a good way to de-clutter your brain. A bit like Marie Kondo’s Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Although you don’t end up with a satisfying collection of eleven bulging boxes of goods to unload at your local Goodwill at the end of the session.

So I was delighted to happen on Anna Carrasco Bowling’s June 28^th blog entry.

In it Bowling describes how she organizes her daily goals. She color codes the items in large groups. Essentials and big ongoing projects like editing or drafting different manuscripts each have their own color.

But what I love most is the category Bowling calls Problem Solving. She defines it as “anything I need to do before I could get down to business, or could affect my ability to write that day.” What is so brilliant about this, is the idea of scheduling time to think.

We all schedule our time, but what gets written on our lists are physical activities. There is a time for cooking, for cleaning, for writing, for bill paying, even for play.

Rarely do we block out time on our calendars for thought.

We should. Because thinking is the hardest part of our work. And the easiest to avoid.

So next time I write a to do list, I’m pulling out my colored pens and focusing on what’s most important in my day. Problem Solving.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Don’t Cancel Friday!

Recently I drove by a local church which hosts an annual fair for the weekend. But this year the sign listed the times the fair was open with the following caveat: Friday has been cancelled.

Really? Was my first thought. And then: is this a temporary cancellation or a permanent one? I mean I can see cancelling Friday occasionally, the ones with papers due, final exams or a bathtub which needs scrubbing. But if this is a permanent situation, I am concerned.

Cancelling Friday leaves us with six days a week. The immediate issue is, of course, the iconic Beatles’ song, Eight Days a Week. When there are seven days per week, the chorus sounds like a cheerful exaggeration. But if we lose Fridays and establish a six day week, the lyrics lose their punch.

I don’t have to tell you how catastrophic that would be.

For Muslims, Friday is the Sabbath,  for Jews it is Sabbath Eve. In either case, cancelling Friday would lead to general crabbiness among the many folks who depend on that day to rest and rejuvenate. It would be the  religious equivalent of cancelling nap time.

Never a good idea.

All of these reasons are important, but the most significant impact of going Friday-less from my perspective is the library book issue. First, I go to the library most Fridays so I don’t have to be book starved on the weekend.

More importantly, at present the books are due two weeks, fourteen days after I take them out. If we cancel each Friday, I will have only twelve days to finish my reading. This means something in my calendar will have to give. Because it certainly isn’t going to be my reading schedule.

So I’m not complaining, because cancelling Friday might just be my best excuse ever for not scrubbing the bathtub.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

Perfect is not the goal.

You can learn how to write a perfect first draft by taking college level courses, by hiring a coach, by lots and lots of practice and, my personal favorite by going to a pub.

Last week, my husband and I were on the road in Portland, Maine and happened to choose Andy’s Old Port Pub for dinner. The food was good but the music was better.

The Unsinkable Ronda Dale and her pick up crew of excellent musicians served up a platter of blues, country, R & B and a whole bunch of other songs you probably recognize but don’t remember the words to. Some of the attendees were friends but Ronda drew strangers in too.

As customers settled into their seats, Ronda included each one in her performance. Some picked up a microphone to join her in a song. Those who were too shy to sing, were handed rhythm instruments. Ronda didn’t ask if you had music experience before handing out shakers or if you had performance skills before sharing a microphone. Because perfect was not the point. Fun was.

And this is also the thing to remember about beginning a manuscript.

If it’s perfect, you are doing it wrong.

Writers have issues with first drafts. Okay, I have issues with first drafts. But I’m guessing you do too. It’s safer to get sidetracked into fixing errors than to risk a leap forward.

This is an excellent way to remain at not quite perfect chapter three for the rest of your life. Fun? Not.

And this is wrong, because writing, like musical improvisation is a chance to play and chances to play don’t come along often when one is a responsible adult with boring obligations like taking out the trash every Wednesday night and bringing the cans back in every Thursday..

So, if you visit Portland on the second Tuesday of the month, stop at Andy’s Pub for the most fun you’ve had in a while. If Ronda invites you to sing, say yes. Even if you can’t sing and you don’t remember the words.

And if you want to finish that first draft, take a piece of paper, nail it to your wall and inscribe it with the following in big red letters: It’s a frickin’ first draft. It shouldn’t be perfect.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.

A book review on a Monday?

Normally I do a book review, if I do one at all, on a Wednesday. But this one couldn’t wait. Because even two days without Joni B. Cole’s Good Naked on your shelf is too long.

I generally borrow a book from the library and sample it before making the leap to purchase. A book has to be compelling and enduring to make it onto the seat of glory which is my writer’s bookshelf. You know, it has to have a long shelf life.

Members of this elite group have to be useful resources without being egotistical. Okay, Stein on Writing is egotistical, but he’s entitled. And it’s nothing personal.

The Elements of Style is more like a dictionary. You can be fond of it, and I am. Still, it’s hardly something you turn to when you are looking for consolation.

But last time I visited the library, I accidentally ended up in the non-fiction section of new books. And I was lured into sampling Cole’s delightful guide to writers.

I’m a sucker for a serious writer who laces her work with a puckish sense of humor.

And Cole does.

Good Naked is a coherent account of the challenges and joys of writing. But it’s also a series of freestanding essays. Each one addresses a single writer issue with a kind of brisk compassion you hope for in a good therapist. Cole discusses handling destructive criticism, the mythical literary advantages of being a tortured soul and writer’s block in a way only someone who has dealt with these issues can.

Each essay is like the conversation you wish you could have over a cup of tea and a plate of scones on the back porch of your friend’s home overlooking the river. Boats laze in the sun. A bee bumbles through the overgrown rose bushes. And you are laughing because what your friend is saying is so funny but also so true.

I’m buying Good Naked. Because when I am stuck, it’s good to be reminded I’m not the only person who has ever fought this particular battle before. And to remember that the sorts of battles writers fight with their spiky pens, laser sharp pencils and laptop shields are winnable.

Good Naked belongs on every writer’s bookshelf.

Rose Grey has written three romance novels and is hard at work on a fourth. Wednesday is generally book review day. Unless it isn’t. If you liked this post, come visit the rest of the blog at www.rosegreybooks.com. Hot Pursuit and Not As Advertised are available as ebooks and as paperbacks online.