In Defense of Wikis, Self-Published Authors & Other DiY-ers

I have to admit I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons and all things collaborative. I love the idea that there's this enormous knowledge/information/research entity out there, with a zillion participants posting, borrowing & swapping information all at once, like a virtual flea market for ideas.

Like any other research tool, wikis have their drawbacks but I've found some good information on them. Since I've worked in both public school systems and libraries, I'm familiar with the usual objections over using information found on wikis and collaborative commons. But dismissing them out of hand isn't a useful response. According to a study done in 2005, Wikipedia had close to the same factual error rate as Britannica. As one writer on a site devoted to recording such error rates pointed out, a better tactic would be to teach students how to use Wikipedia and other such sites wisely.

Something similar is happening in the world of publishing. Fifteen years ago, beginning writers were still being told to stay away from self-publishing (not to be confused with vanity publishing). Self-published authors were suspected of lacking credibility or being hopelessly amateur.

Much has changed in the last decade. While fiction writers are still advised to hawk their novels at conventions and pitch their ideas to agents, self-publishing is perfectly respectable for writers of non-fiction. The grandaddy of all contests, the Writers Digest annual, even has a category for best self-published nonfiction books. What caused this change?

I haven't done any exhaustive studies but my guess is that enough writers became tired of spending 9 hours pitching & querying for every hour spent writing. A few brave souls said "to heck with it" and began publishing their own material. Eventually a critical mass was reached, a turning point where self-publishing became a common practice.

I'm betting that much of this movement came about because large numbers of writers realized that they didn't want to spend the rest of their lives chasing someone who could make their dream come true. Pursuing agents and publishers takes enormous amounts of time and energy, most of which could be better spent in actual writing. In cases where the author desperately wants to be published, it puts a lot of power in someone else's hands. And in the end, some of my fellow writers argue, an agented book is not necessarily a better book; there's a lot of mediocre writing out there.

DiY tools have kinks to work out. They're not perfect. But they make the distribution of information much more accessible for those who want to participate. They open to door of participation to more people, most of whom want to participate because they love their topic of choice, not because they're getting paid. They allow us to consider the possibility that maybe we're all smart; maybe each of us has something worth saying, a contribution worth making.

Making a contribution is, after all, the whole idea behind the DiY life.

DiY Art

"We are all capable of being our own entertainers and culture creators."
Hal Niedzviecki, from The Big Book of Pop Culture - a how-to guide for young artists

Niedzviecki, who edits a 'zine called Broken Pencil, wrote his book to encourage young people to write songs, make films or engage any of the arts simply for the joy of making things and sharing them.

He points out that not long ago people routinely entertained themselves by singing, dancing or storytelling. They made useful items that were beautiful as well as functional. They didn't compartmentalize Art-with-a-capital-A. If someone from the colonial period or the Middle Ages visited any American city today, he'd probably be puzzled about the way we figuratively lock creativity away in a mental cabinet as if it's something rare and breakable, to be brought out only for certain occasions. Or he'd wonder why so many of us now insist we're not creative or that we "can't" tell stories, make something with our hands or sing just for pleasure.

What Niedzviecki calls Independent Popular Culture (as opposed to the commercial kind) is all about reclaiming the universal drive to create, and every person's right to create & share our creations. Just because.

When It's Time to Go Live

Maybe you're happy doing whatever you love just for yourself or to share with a few friends. But what if you want to eventually publish, sell or perform in public? What steps should you take first? How will you know when it's time?

I'll use writing as an example since it's the field with which I'm most familiar.

• In an earlier post I mentioned the importance of critique groups for writers who aspire to publish. Ongoing participation in a good critique group with at least a few long-term members who know the writing business can help you grow immeasurably, both as a writer and in business sense. Find or form a group. Willamette Writers has chapters throughout the greater Willamette area, including Clark County. You can also try Craigslist. Even word of mouth works if you know enough people in the area.
• Join the equivalent of a professional association. Membership in local groups such as Willamette Writers carries many benefits, including reduced fees for conferences. If you work in a specific genre, you can join the national organization and see if the national association of writers in this genre (for example, Mystery Writers of America) has a local chapter.
• Make use of the feedback you're given during critiques, especially if its given by someone who's been through the process before - preparing query letters or a synopsis, pitching to an agent or negotiating a contract. While you don't want your work to be revised beyond recognition, experienced critique-ers can help you make acceptable changes.
  
• Make necessary revisions and run them past your group several times. I liken the process to running something through the laundry; when your copy comes back from the group nearly free of editing marks -when it looks clean - it's time to get ready for the next step.
• Consider entering contests (for artists, juried shows; for performers, open mikes) if the entry fee isn't prohibitive. Evaluators and judges are human and each has her own subjective preferences, but even so, any feedback you receive will give you an idea of how your work measures up to professional standards.
  
• Above all, learn the protocol for submitting work in your field. This will help you avoid making the sort of faux pas that let everyone know you're an amateur, such as sending a full unsolicited manuscript to an agent. Even if the fine points of business bore you, you've got to learn the accepted procedures if you want publishers (or gallery owners or talent agents) to take you seriously.

These points are just a start. For more information, look up any of the Writers Market publications or the equivalent resource for your field.

No Customers Were Harmed (Or Inconvenienced) During the Making of This Haiku

If your day is so packed that you can't actually sit down at your customary spot - for writers, this might be a home computer; for musicians, a piano - for a serious work session, try carrying a tiny spiral notebook with you and jotting down ideas that pop into your head during the course of the day. You might find yourself getting little one-minute bursts of inspiration that don't directly relate to your current project but still keep the energy going. Or keep your brain awake.

Awhile back, people in the department where I work began writing haiku responses to things that happened during the workday. I can't even remember how it started but it generated some funny poetry. It takes as little as a minute to write a haiku poem - the same amount of time it takes to write down a phone message or scan the email in-box - so you can limit your haiku jottings to random quiet moments. You can even compose haiku in your mind while attending to a rote task like washing dishes or stuffing envelopes. Unless you post your work somewhere (like the door to your office), no one need know about it.

The One-Minute Creative Wake-Up might be the only thing you need to get through an especially dull day...and you never know what might eventually come out of all those snippets.

Making Dreams Real: Stopping a Downward Spiral

When embarking on a big project such as writing a novel, this is how the process goes for some of us:

1. Set a goal - the bigger the better so that we'll be really motivated. How about drafting three chapters every day?
2. On Day 1, still bursting with enthusiasm, we meet that goal.
3. On Day 2, real life intrudes and we fall a little short.
4. On Day 3, an emergency at work or home - two co-workers call in sick, the pipes burst -and we manage to draft only a few paragraphs. Despondent, we decide that maybe this writing business is a pipe dream so we quit entirely for a week, spending our free time eating potato chips and watching reality TV.
5. On Day 10, we realize we're bored so we resurrect the Big Goal. And the process starts over.

Until recently, whenever I resolved to cut back on coffee (about every 3 months), I pulled out all the stops. Not only did I resolve to cut out all caffeine cold-turkey, I also decided to go vegan and start jogging 7 miles every day, and...

Then when I inevitably fell short of my goals, I'd get discouraged and quit entirely. I'd ruminate on what a slacker I am (Dr. Pamela Peeke, author of the Fit After Forty books, calls this "bottom-feeding"). And nothing was accomplished.

In the cognitive therapy branch of psychiatry, they call this all or nothing thinking. Many of us fall victim to it at some point. Only within the past year have I started a habit of challenging all or nothing thinking, and learning how to be happy with what I'm able to manage on any given day.

If you find that all or nothing thinking is a challenge for you, try this for a month: keep a log of everything - every little thing - you do towards reaching a goal each day. Some days your log may read, "Drafted my synopsis" or " Practiced for an hour." Other days it might say "Wrote 50 words," or "Played one scale."
After a month you'll see just how many small steps you've taken - you'll probably be surprised at how much you've actually been able to accomplish. This in turn will motivate you to do more.

Incidentally, an accomplishment log can help stop any downward spiral in its tracks, whether you're on a creative mission, trying to lose weight, paring down debt & saving money...any challenge that seems overwhelming at times. By stamping out perfectionism and accepting good-faith efforts, you set yourself up for success.

Everything I Know About Hard Times I learned from M*A*S*H

One of my favorite remedies for a bad day / hard times at work (or anywhere else, for that matter) is watching our old M*A*S*H DVDs. For me, the misadventures of the gang at the 4077 have a way of putting my own issues in perspective, whether they involve an unpleasant interaction on the phone or floor, equipment problems that refuse to be resolved, or knowing that after work there'll be an urgent repair job waiting at home.

During one really bad year that involved working a physically demanding FT job, helping Noel deal with bullying at school, getting through the deaths of several family friends (all of them under 55) and seeing another friend through cancer treatment, my entire family would collapse on the couch at the end of the day and watch several episodes with me.

After thinking it over I figured out why the show resonated with all of us - the characters used coping tactics that would serve well in real life:

• Laugh. Dark humor is actually a pretty effective way to help yourself and those around you get through times when you're all flying by the seat of your pants. Savor harmless but annoying absurdities instead of trying to make sense of them. If your day was too ridiculous to be real, pretend you're in a sitcom and it's your job to make people laugh.
  
• Keep serving the people you're supposed to serve as best as you can, even if you're so tied up with red tape that you feel like a mummy. I've worked for a number of large entities, including several school districts, and I know that trying to make meaningful changes can make you feel like you're hurling yourself against a concrete wall. Several friends who work for major retailers say that some of the decisions that come from Headquarters are incomprehensible; they could only have been made by people who aren't working in the field. This seems to be pretty universal. You have a lot of company. Keep slogging onward.
• If your life workload has become so grueling that you're chronically fatigued, perfect the stop-drop-and-nap technique of catching up on sleep. Watch a toddler if you need instructions. Start taking 10-minute catnaps during breaktime (if the staff room atmosphere is crowded and chatty, putting on a headset is a good do-not-disturb signal) or pack a blanket in your car for half-hour rest during lunch. Take another 10 before diving into post-work drama once you get home. You can't spend the rest of your life surviving on sleep tidbits but it got Hawkeye & BJ through those 24-hour nonstop surgery runs.
• When you're eating on the fly, watch your c-rations. Nuts, whole wheat crackers and fruit can get you through an afternoon. Twinkies and Mountain Dew won't. And any caffeine after the first post-lunch cup of coffee probably won't help your alertness level (I've tried. Many times) and it may give you a headache.
  
• Like the dirty-sock rotgut the good doctors brewed in their tent, it helps to have a comforting ritual or two at the end of the day, although you might want to think twice about their poison of choice. Sometimes you need to forget things for a little while. Keep a stock of movies, music, chocolate - anything that doesn't destroy your health.
  
• Just as important - keep a few hours a week for things you enjoy, such as your ballroom dance class or bunco group, even if you think you "shouldn't" take time for yourself. During high-stress times, you need them more than ever. Col. Potter didn't stop oil painting. Klinger always coordinated his accessories, even for KP. As the late great Kate (Hepburn) said, "Never forsake those activities that keep you out of the nuthouse."
• It's okay to lose it sometimes. Bawl, hug your teddy bear like Radar, play practical jokes like BJ, or drive your car out to a deserted field at the end of the world and scream like Major Houlihan. Just don't blow out your vocal chords.
• Hang together. Now isn't the time to shut yourself away from friends. If you're afraid of taxing their ability to listen & empathize, have an official gripe session (a friend of mine calls them "Whine and Cheese" parties) where everyone gets to cry on each others' shoulders. After the air clears, go out together & do something fun.
• Finally, remember that everything eventually ends. Even the Hundred-Year War didn't last forever. If a particular event, such as graduating or finishing a tough project, will help the hard times ease up, post a day-by-day countdown sheet on your wall and mark off each day when it ends.

Maybe you'll even have your own personal V-Day celebration.

Making Dreams Real: Down to Earth Organizing

Earlier I posted a link to a book list about organizing. This has been a challenge for me most of my life. Several weeks ago I realized that since the youngest boy (sorry, young man) has moved out, now is the perfect time for me to not only get the office and other rooms of the house in order, it's also prime time to decide exactly what I want to accomplish during the final third of my life, weed out everything that doesn't support this purpose, decide on a mission statement and set up systems that support what I'm trying to accomplish.

Are you at this point? Are you a 40-50 something faced with an empty nest, the sense that this is an opportunity, and you don't know what to do? Do you freeze at the mere thought of going through all that stuff, your electronic or paper records or your calendar? Check out Susanna Sanka's site. The author of The Not So Big House provides a downsizing system that works because it gets to the heart of why we cling to clutter, whether it's old stuff, outworn activities or relationships that don't serve us well.

Another great resource is Marilyn Paul's It's Hard to Make a Difference if you Can't Find Your Keys (Ouch! Even the title hits close to home for me). She tackles a number of myths & misconceptions, one of which could be stated "Organization is the opposite of creativity. A messy house is the sign of a free spirit." I call it the Free Spirit Myth. I half-believed it for a long time because childhood experiences bore it out.

I grew up in an extremely organized family - well, at least my mom put forth a valiant effort considering she had a husband, six kids and chronic medical conditions. We were a Navy family and my mom's house had to pass the white glove test until my dad went civilian. The house always met basic standards of cleanliness, and there were places for everything. I didn't get to do fun stuff like draw or read until I'd done my chores, and sometimes those seemed endless.

One of my classmates was also the eldest of six kids but there the resemblance ended. Her mom taught art and stitchery classes at our church and school. Whenever I visited, I reveled in the opportunity to play, make something or help my friend assemble a snack without having to clean up immediately afterward. Piles of stuff lay everywhere. The kitchen was a hive of happy activity. Visiting this friend provided some relief from the exacting standards at my house. I stitched, wrote and drew there in a way that I wasn't able to do at home.

Because of this, I carried into adulthood the notion that order and creativity are mutually exclusive. In college I believed that I had to choose between a professional attitude towards time & money, and a life-as-art viewpoint. Over the last 30 years I've reaped plenty of evidence that this dichotomy doesn't work - it's hard to be a respected freelancer if you don't return calls promptly because you've lost the phone number again - but until the empty nest, it didn't feel like something I could tackle.

Marilyn Paul confronts the Free Spirit Myth in her book. She really challenges the notion that being an artist means leading a tempestuous, disorderly life.

I've come to realize that she's right. We all have a right brain and a left brain. Each of us may be predominately one or the other but we're capable of using both. When a right-brainer says "Oh, I just can't balance my checking account/get my files together/learn about this internet stuff," it's as much a cop-out as a primarily left-brained accountant or engineer saying "I'm just not the creative type." Nonsense, both of them.

If you're looking at a wonderfully blank datebook because the kids are adults and thinking that you might like to try one of those activities you put aside 25 years ago, Sanka and Paul provide good preludes. Make sure your spaces, priorities and calendar support your goals.

The Importance of Being Honest - Critique Groups

One way to bring grounded "earth" energy into a creative practice is to join a critique group. A good critique group will give you valuable feedback on your own work, allow you to learn from others by critiquing their work, and provide support in a form you can actually use. I've belonged to a critique group for about ten years. During that time I've learned more about the art & craft of writing fiction from this group than in any class I've taken or book I've read. I wouldn't dream of submitting a piece to a publication without running it past the Main Street Writers at least once.

I was fortunate to find a good group, one that gives honest criticism but in a friendly, helpful spirit. I've heard nasty stories about dysfunctional groups where members rip each others' work to shreds. I've also visited groups where members merely stroke each other, providing plenty of warm fuzzy feelings but notspecific information that would have helped me improve my writing. When you're first starting out in any art form, you'll mainly need simple encouragement and appreciation. If, however, you want to advance beyond basic skills, you'll have to seek out constructive feedback.

Here are some things to look for if you're in the market for a critique group:

• Do the members genuinely like each other even if they differ on certain issues? Is there an atmosphere of mutual respect? Is criticism presented with the intent to help? If so, good. If people seem catty or deliver critiques laced with thinly disguised barbs (I've sat in on a few of these), you'll probably end up as unhappy as they are.
  
• Are participants glad when one of their members scores big - signs on with an agent, receives an offer, etc? If so, it's a good sign. However, if the group is composed of hyper-competitive one-uppers, run far far away.
• Is there a reasonably good mix of personalities and temperaments? In my group, several of us are "forest" people who read for overall impressions and several are "tree" people with a sharp eye for detail. It helps immensely to have both types represented. It's also good to have both introverts and extroverts, both quick thinkers and ruminators, both taskmasters and gently encouraging types.
  
• Of course schedules vary and life's events can get in the way of meeting, but is there a core group of members that meet consistently and reliably? It's almost impossible for a group to be effective if it doesn't have a group commitment to meet & work regularly.
• Does the group take care of work first, saving the socializing for afterward? It's great to catch up - I consider my fellow critique group members to be friends as well as colleagues - but it's easy to get sidetracked unless there's a strong sense of purpose.

Here are a few steps that make up a healthy critique process:

• First, positive feedback: what's right with the work?
• Second, criticism framed in a positive light: what improvements could be made?
• Third, specific suggestions: how could those improvements be made?
• Finally, offers of help if appropriate: how can I help my colleague make those improvements?

Artists, writers and performers who aspire to "go live" with their work can't afford to skip the critique process, especially if they hope to eventually sell or make a living at it. But critiques don't have to be painful - it all comes down to finding the right people.

Making Dreams Real: Balancing Earth and Air

"Don't stop building castles in the air; that's where they should be. Just don't forget to put foundations under them." Paraphrase of Henry David Thoreau's famous quote.

In the healing system of Reiki there's a concept of balancing energies called Earth and Heaven. People who tend to be primarily Earth are practical and they get things done. But sometimes they also find it hard to imagine different ways of doing & being, or with trying new solutions. A Reiki practitioner would say this person has too much Earth.

People you'd call Heaven types have great imaginations with no problem dreaming big and visualizing outcomes; however, they often lack the practical skills to plan and execute their dreams. These people are said to have too much Heaven.

Everyone who works hard on the job and at home & still wants to do things that are personally meaningful needs a balance of Earth and Air. For the next few weeks this is what I'll write about. I'll include a lot of resources that have helped me in my own quest for balancing imagination and practicality.

One excellent place to start, for those of you who learn primarily through reading, is with Martha Beck's Finding Your North Star. Among other things, Beck talks about four different personality types, their strengths and weaknesses in the making-dreams-real process. Some people are great dreamers, some get off to strong roaring starts, some are slow but steady workers, others like laying foundations by doing introverted tasks like research, while still others enjoy going out into the world and making connections. The thing is, any given project will require each of these traits at some point but most of us just aren't good at all of them. Beck gives practical ways to get things done in spite of what may be holding you back.

Clearing Brain Fog - Quick Fixes

Here are more ways to fight fatigue while you're working. These are specifically physical:

• Give your brain a shot of oxygen with deep breathing. You can learn a number of breathing exercises in a yoga class or on a DVD. One I've found to be effective: inhale deeply enough to fill up your lungs, hold for a count of 10 and exhale.
• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, bend forward from the waist, and let your upper body dangle. This circulates more blood to your brain.
• If you can get away for a few minutes, take a fast walk around the block or parking lot. Sometimes merely getting outside will snap you back to consciousness.
• Aromatherapy works for me every time. If you work in a scent-free environment and can't wear anything scented, take a small bottle of peppermint, lemon or rosemary essential oil (most stores with organic sections sell the Acacia brand, including Fred Meyer), uncap and sniff. Two years ago I bought an aromatherapy inhaler (it looks like a Vick's inhaler) at New Seasons - the blend contains eucalyptus & mint, and still has a strong aroma even after years of regular use.
  
• If you drank your last cup of coffee more than four hours ago, a small one now might work. If you've been guzzling it all day, it won't. Try mint tea instead.

If you've been on your feet all day and it isn't only your brain that's tired, try these:

• If you work in a building with a decent-sized staff room, you can bring a yoga mat (even an old blanket will work), spread it out on the floor and do sitting/laying yoga poses. These three are especially helpful for cranky lower backs: knee stirs (lie on your back, hug both knees to your chest and "stir" them in small circles), the Bridge (lie on your back, bend knees to a right angle with feet on the floor, and raise your hips), and the Star (lie on your back, cross your right leg over to your left side and let it rest there. Then cross your left leg over to your right side).
• If your staff room won't allow getting on the floor, find two chairs. Sit on one, put both feet on the other so that your legs are completely straightened, and hang forward from the waist. Another lower-back easer: sit cross-legged on the chair and bend forward, feeling the stretch.
  
• If you can lie on the floor, try tennis ball acupressure. Place a ball under the part of your back that feels tight, and lower yourself on top of it.
  
• And to get through the rest of your shift, use a peel & stick heating pad, available at most stores like Walgreens.

If you work in a physically active job where you're "on the floor" most of the day, I recommend that you start incorporating yoga into your daily routine, whether you already work out or not. After as little as a month, I bet you'll notice a difference in how you feel at the end of the day.