Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Workloads

As a writer, I long ago learned the ancient art of managing workloads. This comes in handy at college, when I have tutorial work that needs doing and acitates that need drawing up for the same day. So what did I do..? Well, I ate my lunch, drew the acitates, then went straight to the computer room (where I witnessed rule breaking - someone used the printer to print on an acitate... bad idea).

My work for the tutorial was done at lunch with time to practice writing on a white board, and then written up in easier to read hand writing after education class (at which the acitates were complimented - yuss!!). The tutorial work was also highly praised.

As was my board work by fellow students, and all that in a shrot space of time.

Now apply this to your own life - if you have several things that need doing, plan your time well. If it's a short story for a competition, drop something else like a TV show and work on it. Record the show instead and watch it at a later stage. Same for magazine submissions of poetry and fiction (and non-fiction... I always forget to mention that...)

Oh, and apparently I give good advice on writing. For instance, you feel bad about your novel in its first draft - edit it. But leave it first so that it's fresh to you. The editing will improve it! And if you're writing a play/screenplay, have friends read lines at you so you can pick up on poor dialogue that you didn't notice first time around. Simples.

To be honest, I know that's good advice, because it's not original advice. It's the same stuff I read in three books. Follow that advice. It'll make you feel better, and it'll improve your manuscript. (unless you have no ear for dialogue... record ti and play it to a trusted friend as well, that way you have a second opinion, aside from the readers who might struggle with potentially poor dialogue...)

Also, one week to Lent! I have my "Wrote Today" Chart printed, because I set up the wireless printer... I had to print something.

And five days until my birthday... just saying.

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