YouTube for Writers

There are many tools available to writers out there. One that you may not have thought of (but I hope you have) is YouTube. When you stop and say "what would it be like to do. . ." there is an excellent chance that someone did and filmed it. You don't want to use exactly what you are seeing, but use it as a seed you plant in your imagination and let it grow. Chances are that you will come up with something even better.

You can learn what it is like for people who own an exotic pet, how to build a variety of different things, cook, clean, be a jackass, and innumerable other things. Having these things as a visual reference can be much quicker than reading through pages and pages of text. Now is you need to do in-depth research and lots of precise facts you are better off with reading all those pages, but for a quick burst of knowledge a video is just the thing.

I am always hearing writers saying that they are at a loss for an idea for their next project. Another thing you can make use of YouTube videos for is story ideas. While I get the occasional idea for articles I write, it can also make great fodder for coming up with ideas for fictional stories. There is no guarantee that you will come up with a story idea, but think of all the fun you will have doing the research.

You can also scout locations this way. View a variety of world locations to prepare believable descriptions of where you characters live, work, or travel. You can research what people in China say when making a dog barking sound. Find out what it looks like to drive into a telephone pole, jump from an airplane, or descend into deep cave. 

A word of caution here, you can get mired down in looking through videos. Unless you are just browsing randomly for ideas, knowing precisely the sort of thing you are looking for can shorten you searching. Also knowing that you have been looking for too long means that you are on the wrong track can help. Bail on your search and try a different angle. Be sure to use plenty of key words to help narrow your search. It may take some time, but you will learn to tell when your search is going nowhere and stop yourself from wasting more time in fruitless pursuit.

Sometimes the best way is to do an overall Internet search for your topic and then zero in on videos that come up in that search. Along the way you might find other pertinent ideas and information that you may not have realized that you need.

At any rate -- happy watching!

Weirdness Rules

People often call me weird. I take that as a compliment and wear it as a badge of honor. It means that I am unique, one of a kind, unusual, entertaining, and my own person. I walk to the beat of a different drum. I dance to music no one else can hear. I am me -- the only person no one else can be.

Most, if not all, my writer friends lay claim to the label weird and also wear it with pride. Some are weirder than others. When you are a writer you spend a lot of time living in your head (and heart) and that is bound to have an effect.

When we get together on Facebook we can get pretty strange. We have one thread with almost 32K comments that is about just about everything. The weirder the better. It started out normally enough, but somehow it took on a life of its own and has been going for almost two years. Some people will just drop by and type in a random word. Others drop in just to say hi. Some complain about their day jobs. It is where many of us compare our weirdness or declare our love of weirdness.

It doesn't all have to be weird. We also accept the labels of geek, nerd, crazy, freak, nut job, dork -- well, you get the point. So why do we accept these?

Well, first of all, few of us were among the so-called "normal" kids in school. We suffered the labels when we were young. We thought that they excluded us. It took us years to realize that those words really exalted us. It meant that we weren't average, boring, one-size-fits-all people. It meant that we had a lot more to offer the world than just joining the ranks of 9 to 5ers.

We aren't special. We aren't better. We are just . . . different. And we have learned to appreciate that about ourselves. It took some serious adaptation to get here though. Perhaps that is why writers have a reputation for being drinkers. I think now we are more likely to have other forms of medication. Like Abilify, Red Vines, and coffee. In my case I often go for the three P's -- Prozac, Pepsi, and popcorn. I would love to add pizza to the list, but then I would also need to add Prilosec.

But I digress. We watch too much television. We read too many books (is that really even possible?). We get into a Facebook thread and get caught up in playing silly word games with each other. Some of them are as simple as word association. Others are like the one I recently got caught up in. We started by discussing the word moist and how much people liked or disliked using it. (Now there is a hot button issue for you! ) The discussion eventually devolved into trading movie and television titles with the word "moist" replacing a word in said title.

As strange as it seems (and believe me it did get strange), we were actually working. Such games with each other works the mind, breaks down barriers, and leads to greater creativity. It is also a great ice-breaker and a way for us to get to know each other.

From there we get into the geek version of trading recipes -- we recommend books, websites, and writing tools to one another. This whole thing is unisex. It matters not the gender. We are writers and all equal under the pen.

As the character of Jenny said in the first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch said, "But I like weird. I love weird. I bask in the glow of weird!"

Udderly Amoosing

Trying to write to a specific topic can be very difficult and challenging. It requires  some serious

lateral thinking. The example that comes to mind is from back when I was writing a lot of poetry and I was faced with writing a love poem. This was a baffling topic for me since I am not exactly a hearts and flowers kind of gal.

Each year the Poetry Society of Colorado would have their annual contests for members. There were twenty or so contests and I became determined to enter every one every year. Unfortunately for me there was a category for writing a love poem. I wracked my brain for days. Nothing was coming to me. I reread the description. ANY kind of love. Hmmmmm. I could work with ANY. What kinds of love were there? I didn't have to stick with the gushy, gooey romantic stuff that is ordinarily associated with a love poem.

So what was love to me? What examples of love did I note around me? Mother and child. Brother and sister. Father and tools. Humans and pets. My stepmother and housecleaning. I was getting closer. Having opened up alternate definitions of love was having an effect on me. From out the the blue I remember seeing a news story of a moose somewhere back east that had fallen in love with a cow.

Those gears in my head started grinding to loudly that the neighbors were complaining. I didn't need some saccharine tome to love. No indeed. I could go with my true strength in life -- humor! So I set to work. Boy, was this gonna be good. And it was. The resulting poem took second place in the contest.
Check it out here:

Opposite Attractions

©2000 by Laurie Kay Olson

The course of true love makes no excuse –

As was the case with a certain moose.

Though I can’t really tell you how,

He fell in love with a Jersey cow.

In the field where she placidly chewed her cud

He stood as though rooted in ankle-deep mud.

The townspeople tried to remove him in vain.

The harder they tried the more it was plain.

He watched his true love with adoring eyes

While she regarded him with mild surprise.

I’ve heard that those two are standing there yet,

As much in love as two species can get.

The moral of this story is simple and sweet –

Love may be found wherever two hearts can meet.

It is short, to the point, humorous and definitely falls into the category of ANY kind of love. I learned that I can write to just about any topic I'm given as long as I keep my mind wide open to the possibilities and don't just say "Oh, I can't do that!" The truth is that yes, I can. If I am really saying I can't I need to be honest with myself and say "This topic is so intimidating that I choose not to." 

Are there topics that I would choose not to write on? Well, certainly there are. I'm not into porn, Goth, punk, heavy metal and so on. I'm not taking some moral stance, I just don't have the background to go there -- not even with lateral thinking.

So before thinking that you can't write about something, take a small step to the right or left and take a look at the topic again. That may be all you need to see the subject in a different way and give you the inspiration to write something wonderful.

Z -- Zero Hour -- Meeting Deadlines

One of the benefits of having worked in the field of print journalism was that I had to learn to meet hard deadlines. I also learned that sometimes those "hard" deadlines can be negotiated under certain circumstances.

Time management has been a big subject for many self-help gurus because it is something so many of us suck at. The biggest part of managing your time is knowing how to set priorities. There is one analogy for setting priorities that is one of the best and most of you have heard. It is the one about the mayonnaise jar and the rocks, pebbles, and sand. If you don't know it, or if you need a quick refresh on the story, click here.

Whatever is looming on your schedule with a hard deadline is one of the rocks and has to come first. It is "eyes on the prize"" time. Other things in your day must be relegated to the level of pebbles or even sand. This is much easier when you are on the job and everyone around you is also on deadline.

When you are freelancing and working from home you have to be strong and take yourself in hand. Turn off the phone and wait until you take a break to check messages. Return only those calls that are CRITICAL at that moment. If your kid is out there bleeding your priorities shift. If your kid is calling you to whine that the convenience store is out of blue raspberry Slurpees, it can wait.

Don't answer the door unless it is the police or other officials. This is no time for verbal jousting with a Jehovah's Witness.

Make sure that the kids and pets are employed elsewhere if need be. I know that I often get the most done in late morning when the cat usually naps. Earlier in the morning on nice days she will repeatedly come to the door and beg me to come outside with her. While this is REALLY cute, it can be a real time suck.

Stay nourished and well-hydrated. Set yourself up with food and drink in your workspace. I try to stick only with water since caffeine makes you pee and I don't want to spend writing time in the bathroom.

The one that I am worst at is staying away from television and Facebook or Twitter while writing. I almost always have the TV on and Facebook up. If I am totally engaged with what I am writing this doesn't pose a problem. When I am struggling and any diversion will do it is a bad idea. It I am really stuck a trip to the bathroom or a short nap is more effective at getting things moving again.

 Setting deadlines for yourself and meeting them is a great exercise for a writer.  Those writers that have challenged themselves by participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) put themselves in a position of needing to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. To do this one must write more than 1,600 words a day. While it is called "national" writers around the world, not everyone makes it through and finishes because it does require the discipline of meeting your own deadlines.

There are many ways that we all meet deadlines in our daily lives, from getting to work on time in the morning and making to doctor's appointments, to getting dinner on the table before the family starves to death. Meeting writing deadlines is much the same. We learn how long it takes to do things and budget out time accordingly (see Taking Time).

Of course there will be times when circumstances will arise that will keep you from meeting your deadline. Like the proverbial getting hit by a bus. My bus last year was my mother passing away and I had to take almost a total break from writing for a month while I dealt with one of the biggest crises of my life. The editors I was working with understood completely and gave me a pass -- for a time. This wasn't going to go on forever if I wanted to continue writing for them.

One of the important things about writing deadlines is that, if there is a good reason for missing a deadline, the deadline can sometimes be renegotiated. If your article isn't going to be ready by the 4 p.m. deadline you talk to your editor to see if it can be slipped into the paper just before it gets put to bed (sent to the printer). Perhaps another day would work. There is always the possibility that they are holding the press time until another article or some bit of advertising is ready. It never hurts to ask. It does hurt to make a habit of it.

Xena -- Warrior Writer

I have a Halloween costume for a sorceress that I named Xena -- long before the warrior princess.

She is a seer and a wise woman, a medicine woman, wearing a scrying glass, and carrying a crystal ball and an enchanted staff. She wears her hair in a braid coronet around her head. She has become a whole character, not just a costume. I'm a writer. It's what I do.

There are armies of characters billeted in my head. There are whole worlds, some already discovered and many more yet to be discovered. Fortunately, I do not have costumes for all of them.

There is one world in which I have been spending a great deal of time. I am editing one book that takes place there and planning a second book. The place is the fictional Succotash County, Arkansas, a magical little corner of the world in my head. It is a place were the funny, strange, weird, and bizarre are in play at all times.

I don't know if I was born with all of these people in my head or if I somehow collected them along the way. I suspect the latter. Somehow they appear just when I need them. Kind of like old friends I haven't seen for awhile. I don't spend a lot of time agonizing over character development.For me they come fully developed and usually charged with plenty of attitude.

A writer friend on Facebook recently asked the question of our writing community of how we create characters. There were many different responses, from writing a page on each character to filling out worksheets. I seem to take a more intuitive approach. My response was that I "get to know them as I write." They know who they are and, like making friends,  I find out as I go along.

They seem to come in and exit on cue like actors on a stage. I do not choose how they look, they just appear in my mind. Otherwise how can I explain that my male main character looks like television chef Alton Brown? It I had been thinking it instead of feeling it he would have been likely to look more like George Clooney. To be honest, the Alton Brown look is far more real. I would like to say it was a stroke of genius, but it was more like just a stroke.

The only characters in the book based on real people are the main character (loosely based on myself), the MCs mother (loosely based on my mother), and the cat (based not-so-loosely on my cat). Everyone else is a complete denizen of my mind.

There are some associations to the outside world. Somehow Sheriff Harlan Tuttle is the cousin of a redneck, gravy-loving character that Jay Leno used to do on the Tonight Show. Who knew? These things happen.

Foxworth Memorial Park is a tribute to one of my muses, comedian Jeff Foxworthy. I also named a business for comedian Bill Engvall for the same reason. Just to be clear here, the book IS humor.

The minister's daughter is named Georgia Brown Fanning because she was born at a Harlem Globetrotter's game in Atlanta.

But I digress.

The reality of all of this is that in someways all of these people are me. Much like actors in different roles, writers take on different personas  The trick is that we do it far more often as we spend a few hours writing. Like an actor performing in a one-man show, we can cycle quickly though the characters in a scene. We may take a pause occasionally to regroup our thoughts, then we keep going.

We constantly walk around with this cast of characters in our heads. Sometimes they stop talking to us and we experience writer's block. Other times they all start talking at once and we take up drinking (just kidding).

Sometimes I think of it as having an alternate universe inside my head, or perhaps just a different dimension of this one. We are never alone. (Cue eerie music here.)

Write On: Getting Past Writer's Block

To be honest, this is not usually a big problem for me. Indeed, I have trouble shutting my brain down and letting the ideas stop for the moment. However, it does happen. Sometimes it is that excessive flow that caused the block -- much like a log jam on a river. Here are some of the ways I have found to move beyond the block:


Blank Page Syndrome: I love the blank page. It is so ripe with possibilities. Because of that it is easy to get intimidated. What to do? Where to start? Basically this is similar to the fear of failure. You always want to write your very best and looking at that blank page reminds you of this. Keep in mind that you will write crap. Lots of it -- and it doesn't matter. The blank page is there for you to explore all of the possibilities it can hold. Mess with it. Write anything at all. I knew an English teacher once who had his students do "jottings." This was an exercise to connect them with their right brain and let the words flow. To get going it doesn't have to be on what you are planning to write, just write. Prime the pump. Once you have the words working, then you can turn to your story. Nothing has to be perfect on that blank page once you get to your story. Just get it down. You can fuss over it and tweak it later during editing and rewriting. You may find that what you thought was the beginning is really somewhere in the middle. That's okay. It's all okay.

Where Do I Go Now Disease: One of the problems with being a writer is that we see a great many possibilities for every action. We can easily get stymied by which course of action that our character  should take next. We can lose ourselves considering our options. What if? What if? What if? You need to get out of this loop. Get up and walk away. Do something else for a bit. Preferably something that gets your hands working and not your brain. No TV, no music, no reading. During the warmer months I garden and I get a great deal resolved while working with the soil and the plants. Ideas and resolutions abound out there. During the colder months I will knit, crochet, or do cross-stitch -- nothing complicated. Somehow keeping the hands moving does something to the brain making it work better. I discovered in high school that working on my home ec crocheting under the desk in history class made me remember the teacher's lecture extremely well. It is a shame that the standard school system frowns on multitasking or we would have a larger bunch of kids who are far more well-educated. Find your Zen activity and make use of it. If all else fails I resort to actually cleaning the house.

The Road Block Condition: You've been racing along with your latest manuscript and all of a sudden you are stopped in your tracks. Traffic is at a standstill. You don't know for sure if there is a wreck ahead or if there is just a family of skunks crossing the road. Whatever the block here is, you need to get things moving. This is a great time for brainstorming. There are many techniques out there that have you drawing lines and making circles and such. I just make lists. If there is a specific topic I need to write to for an assignment I start with that topic. You can start with whatever it is you are needing. For example, say I need to write about cowboys. What do I think of when I think of cowboys? Horses, bridles, reins, hats, chaps, jeans, lasso, Roy Rogers, cowboy songs, Bonanza, Ponderosa, the wide-open range, tumble weeds, boots. . . Invariably something in the brain starts to move. I go from single words to phrases, to ideas. The progression eventually takes me into actual ideas of where to go with my subject. I used this method to write many cowboy poems when that wasn't my sort of things. Though this method I managed to pair the idea of the armchair quarterback with cowboys and wrote a series of three poems about The Armchair Cowboy, all dedicated to my father.

The No Clue Infection: For most writers who stick to fiction, this is rarely a problem. Most of the fiction writers I know have more trouble turning the idea machine off rather than trying to get it moving. If you write articles, blogs, columns or essays, you can sometimes be coming up empty. When I wrote for the Colorado Daily newspaper I would occasionally resort to browsing the yellow pages in the phone book. Usually not the big ads, but the tiny little entries that no one notices. This led me to finding a school for Santa Clauses and a great seasonal article. That was back in the days before I had regular Internet access. More recently I have stumbled across some great ideas while surfing the web. Did you know that a Jewish dog can have a Bark Mitzvah or that you can adopt a bee? Taking some time to just wander can provide some great material. It is up to you to find your own angle if it is a subject that is popular. Find one that isn't so popular is a true gem to add to your writing resume.

Just remember that writing can be extra difficult if you aren't feeling well. Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest and fluids. Don't forget to exercise. That is a great Zen for getting your brain working.