When I first started writing, my biggest complaint was the chronic shortage of time during my day. I mean, come on, who has time to torch brain cells all day at work, be a dad and husband (or mom/wife, student, fill in the blank), pay the bills, do all the normal things that “normal” people do and still have time to slog through creating something from nothing one agonizing word at a time?

I used to think there wasn’t enough time. Truth is, I still think that on most days until I remind myself that I’m wrong. Actually, I just look at my friends who have proved me wrong time and again–people who live much “busier” lives than I do, but somehow found ways to outproduce me.

When I drilled down to how they did it, the answer became clear: they just had a better handle on their time than I did. Somehow, they squeezed more out of their 24 hours (the same 24 that I had) than I did. And it drove me crazy. I mean crazy crazy. Like, I began to suspect my friends were cyborgs crazy. Then I figured out that they weren’t and began experimenting with how to do it for myself. And I’m going to share some of these tricks with you because they just might help you reclaim hours of your day.

So, here we go. Here are a few ways to recapture your time and make it work for you instead of the other way around: Continue Reading

I have a friend. We’ve been through a lot together, both good and bad, and have the scars to show for it. Now this friend, he’s an artist and spends extended amounts of time in solitude creating his art. He’s quite good and, generally speaking, has the confidence to match.

But a few times a year, as we talk about the creative process and what it’s like to work through it, one of us will slide off into a funk that usually begins with the words, “I feel lost and can’t seem to figure out what comes next. My art is trash, I don’t have what it takes, so maybe it’s time to just call it quits and see what’s on TV.”

We had this conversation recently. It was his turn to slide.  Normally I listen, offer a word of encouragement, and try to pat him on the back as a way of saying everything’s gonna be all right. But as we talked it dawned on me what was really going on. My friend had lost sight of who he was because no one was there to remind him. Continue Reading

Thanks to PBS, I’ve changed my mind on the whole “do I outline a story before I start writing it or do I just start writing and let it happen” argument.

I ran across a really fascinating piece on the Documentary Channel recently on industrial design titled “Objectified”. It’s a piece that the filmmakers describes as a look at…”

“…our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.”

It was really quite good, especially the interview with Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head designer who brought them into the company’s design lab. Something he said has stuck with me this week. He was talking about the iPhone and how the design team’s aim was to create something that was so well designed and intuitive that it felt inevitable, undesigned, something people would hold in their hand and say, “Well, of course that’s the way it should have been designed. Why would you do it any other way?”

His comments especially set me thinking about the implications of design for storytelling, because it certainly exists in that world, too. Just like furniture, computers, and music, stories are designed. They are thought through, worked out, and produced (for lack of a better word) with an end “user” in mind.

Ever finished a book and thought, “I totally could have written that story” because the author made it look…easy? Or, have you ever been swept away by a story’s characters, pace, and suspense to the point that it felt real? Maybe more so than your own life. Both of those are examples of design executed well enough that you don’t notice the design or the designer at work behind the scenes.

I had a long conversation about this with Ted Dekker recently and he echoed what I was thinking. The best stories are the ones seem to unfold effortlessly as if, like Jonathan Ives said, feel “inevitable”. They are the ones that make you say, “Of course that’s the way it would’ve ended” (even if the twist shocked you).

But, make no mistake about it. Pulling this off is something of a small miracle each time it happens. As I thought about it, I scratched down some notes. Maybe these will help clarify the picture a bit more.

How do you create an “inevitable story”?

Let the story settle then emerge on its own. Most stories gestate over the course of years as writers dream, think about, and piece seemingly unconnected scenes together in their mind. At some point, it feels right to begin. The story feels ready to come out. I have a friend right now who just hit that point with a novel he’s beginning. Don’t rush it.

Give it bones. Framework is important. Humans aren’t just muscle, neither are we just bone, spirit or soul. We’re all of it, but without our framework, our bones, we don’t get around very well. Same goes for stories. They all need structure and that means laying it out. Call it outlining, if you want, or whatever. Either way, it’s essential.

Give it time. This is where most people quit because the process is brutal and wrought with banging your head against the wall, coming up with new ideas, scrapping the ideas, starting over. Again and again and again. But that’s part of the deal. If you have 15 minutes, check out this Wired article about the making of the iPhone. It’s an interesting look at what it takes.

In physics, objects in motion are said to have a momentum. This momentum is a vector. It has size and a direction. It has velocity.

This is significant for me because the single greatest thing lesson I’ve internalized this year is the all-importance of momentum. Whether you’re a writer or something else, the same is probably true of you, too.

We exert tremendous amounts of energy overcoming inertia, simply getting started and headed in the right direction. Then after we’ve picked up some speed we let up, ease off the gas, coast. It’s a fatal mistake where dreams are concerned because gravity is relentless and, unlike us, doesn’t need sleep.

The challenge isn’t beginning. That’s simple. The trick is continually and consistently adding “push” to your situation so you can keep momentum. Knowing how to do that is a thing that’s unique to each of us. I have a friend who keeps a list of his goals in front of him everyday and reads it in the morning and evening. I know someone else who wrote a future article about herself talking about what it took to become the success she is (will be). Me, I keep a piece of paper in my office. All it says is “New York Times Bestselling Author Kevin Kaiser.”It’s enough to remind me to shove the pedal back down to the floor when I want to give up (which is most days).

Bottom line…find whatever it is that encourages you and adds “push” to your day. Keep your momentum, especially when it’s hard (which is most days), because it’s easier to keep a moving object in motion than it is to start a dead one rolling.

How do you keep momentum?