G is for Greenbacks: Taxes and Writers

I recently filed my taxes — always a thrilling experience.  But this time it hit me — when I go indie hopefully later this year, I’ll have to file taxes next year.  H&R Block handily provided me with information on things I would need to do, like get a second checking account, use one credit card for the business side, and keep receipts, even if I’m not sure they’re deductible.

But the thing that has me stumped is how to deal with the receipts.  Most of the filing solutions are tend to have a left-brained slant, so it makes it difficult to find a system that works for me.  In the past, many of those systems have gone by the wayside because they ended up being too complicated, or worse, black holes.  So I’m having to ponder what I need to do to keep me straight.

QUESTION FOR YOU:  Do you have any suggestions of what kind of system I can use?

 

How to Keep Me Away From Your Blog

I’ve been to two Blogger sites in the last week where the owner had enabled Capchas.  If the name isn’t familiar, it’s those weird letter things that pop up to help screen out spammers.  The text is often extremely distorted, because computers used for spamming can’t read it.

I’ve found it’s hard for me to read it, too.  Especially when letters like m and n run together.  I have to go through at least three or four rounds of capchas to post a comment.  That’s enough to make me go away and not bother, which means fewer comments for the blogger.  Lately, after a capcha rejection, I’ve been adding the following to my comment: “Is the spam that bad that these capchas are required?”  It is that annoying!

What annoys you about common things bloggers do?

 

I Never Knew I Was Bad With Details

Yup, it’s true.  Right-brained people are big picture thinkers and tend to be horrible with details.  But until I learned that, I actually thought I was detail-oriented, enough that I put it on resumes!

Throughout my life, I’ve been prone to sloppy mistakes — the kind that drive the details people crazy.  This was particularly true in the army, where attention to detail should be the army motto (it’s “This We’ll Defend”).  There’s nothing like missing that a document had the wrong year on it and a boss accusing me of lying about it.

So I overcompensated, to the point where I took a DISC test and was labeled a perfectionist, and I’m not one.  I don’t have trouble letting my work go once it’s done, which is a common perfectionist trait.  Nor do I endlessly revise sentences, trying to make them perfect.  But I would go back over everything as soon as I wrote it and fix the typos and omitted words.  I’d recheck work many times over, and still miss typos that had other people berating me.

Then my job changed.  I’d been running the audio visual support for a senior manager’s conference room.  It required a tremendous amount of attention to detail because if I made a mistake, it would have the scrutiny of an unhappy senior manager.  No one wanted to be around her when she was unhappy.  When it happened, all I could do was nod my head numbly, walk out the room, and search for a way to tighten the control again.

But when that job ended, it was like a tidal wave washed over me and carried away all the debris from efforts to control the details.  Overnight — and it was really overnight –the control was gone, and I couldn’t do it again if I tried.  But with it came an immense relief.

But now I’m having different troubles with details.  I got a critique back on my first two chapters, and a lot of the comments were on elements that are details to me.  It’s not a matter of tracking them — it’s just that I’m very sloppy with them, and I don’t see them as easily as someone who deals better with them.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to work with details?  I need some help before they drive me crazy!

 

The Planner Challenged

Ever had nightmares about showing up at the wrong time for a class?  That was me, in college.  I’d dream I’d lost track of one of my classes, and realize I hadn’t attended it the entire semester and was failing!

Time is something I’ve always had difficulty with.  In school, I did the work early so I didn’t have to worry about the deadline.  I’ve also worked a lot with memory because I’ve had trouble making planners work.  They’re made for left brainers.  I like to see my calendar parts in big chunks so I get the bigger picture, but a lot of the planners put the days in a more linear lefty format that hides them from me.  Those that give me the bigger picture are often insanely tiny, assuming that I will write neatly in pencil in very tiny letters.  I’m lucky if I can find a pen in the same color twice in a row, and besides pens are fun!

Most planner advice focuses on being efficient.  Liz Davenport advises, “Write EVERYTHING down, not just “really” important things, not just business things and not just what is convenient. Write down EVERYTHING!”  If I did that, I’d survive a week (maybe), and then I’d put the planner out of my misery.

But I’ve accepted (grudgingly, she admitted) that I have to keep one.  The convincing reason was when I scheduled two doctor appointments on the same day at the same time.  I’m currently using Day Runner’s Poetica.  It’s my fifth planner this year (yes, it’s only February!).  The feel of the cover appealed to the kinesthetic me, and the page design appeased the visual spatial me (which is the more fussy part).  I was very glad their 5 1/2 size left off the numbered appointment slots!

My immediate goal is getting into the habit of looking at it.  I’m only recording things that I will need to have with me (i.e., hotel confirmation number), things that I will forget, appointments, and time spent writing.

What’s your experience with planners?  Do you have any tips for the planner challenged like me?

 

Ever Feel Like This?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Usually by the time I come home on the last day of the work week, I feel like the kitteh above.  Friday evening all I want to do is lay around in front of the TV set and be happily lazy.

What’s your favorite Friday ritual — watch movies?  Go out to eat to celebrate the end of the week?  Do something quiet and low-key?  Pet the cat tummy?

 

Being Right-Brained and the Math Horror Zone

The first time I realized I was right-brained was a few years ago.  I’d picked up a book called Organizing for Your Brain Type. As I was reading, I suddenly realized, “OMG!  It’s me!  This is me!”  It was explanation of why all the things that worked so well for everyone else didn’t work for me.

Math was one of those things.  Right-brained people are holistic thinkers and very creative.  It takes a huge mental shift to think sequentially and be logical.  My first experience with this was a 2nd grade math class.  I was called up to the chalkboard to figure out a math problem.  Evidently I was taking too long, and the teacher spanked me in front of the class.  Can I hide now?

I got by in later classes, I think, because I memorized a lot, and I could watch for patterns.  I was still a poor student when it came to any kind of math.  Fractions and division were particular confusing.

But what got me was algebra.  It was required in high school, so I had to take it.  The teacher goes to the chalkboard and scrawls out something like X + 7 = 15, then starts dashing off formulas rapid fire.  I was still stuck on what the heck X meant.  Then the teacher assigned us homework.  I took it home, and it was, “What do I do with this?”

So I asked my father, who is a math guru.  He showed me how to do the formulas.  My brain started to hurt from all of the logic.  It took a long time to get the work done, and was mentally exhausting.  But I checked my answers against the back of the book.  Yay!  I’d gotten all of them right.

The homework came back from the teacher with a big, ugly 0 at the top and slashes through every problem.  I never did better than that.  The teacher couldn’t be bothered to tell me what I was doing wrong, so I got a D for the final grade.  I looked down at that D and wished that it had reflected all the tremendous effort I’d done.  I worked harder than all the other students and yet, had nothing to show for it.  I walked out of that class without learning anything new and hating math.

School days are always a horror for kids, something Buffy the Vampire Slayer took advantage of.  Have you traversed the minefield in school and survived to tell the tale?  Share it, so I can feel like I’m not alone in the Math Horror Zone.

 

The Most Tedious Part of Research

I don’t always enjoy research, at least not the way people who dive into research do.  I’m never going to be in danger of putting it all in there because, instead, I have to make sure I do enough.  To me, it’s a tool of writing, like proofreading is.  But there are some things I like better than others, and some things I found downright tedious.  The most tedious thing for me is:

Lectures.

I’m a kinesthetic and visual spatial learner, which is a really weird combination.  My learning skills lean more toward hands-on.  It’s very difficult for me to stay involved when I just have to sit and listen to someone drone on, even if it’s a subject I want to be interested in.  I don’t always get good notes from a lecture, and if the speaker isn’t good to start with, I tend to get very little out of it.  It can help me to get notes and other reading material on the topic beforehand, but a lot of speakers won’t do this or wait until the last minute to prepare.

What’s the most tedious part of research for you?

 

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SHW5C3KGKVSY

 

Right Brain Novel Organizing: Making Spreadsheets Work

One of the hardest things to work with for me has been the spreadsheet.  It’s mostly commonly the tool for tracking submissions, but I’ve also seen people talk about using it to track scenes, characters, and you name it.  But to me, a spreadsheet is sequential, which is bad for right-brainers who don’t think sequentially.  It’s also essentially a list of details, and details are not a right-brainer’s strength.

And yet, sometimes a spreadsheet is the only way something can be done.  When I was working on a newsletter, we’d get 20 or so articles in, and invariably I’d find out I’d missed one.  That would occur, of course, after I’d gotten them all into newsletter format.  Since Microsoft Publisher isn’t very flexible for major changes like adding an article, it was always very aggravating.

The solution was to make a checklist of sorts, listing the articles.   I could refer to it and make sure each one got in.  It, of course, required a spreadsheet, so my challenge was to make a spreadsheet look — well, less like a spreadsheet.  Yet, it would also still able to use the spreadsheet features like sorting.  This is what I did:

1.  Row height: 30 (the default is 15, so this is a big increase).   The extra spacing makes it easier to read and look less list like.

2.  Font size: 18 (default is 11).

3.  For the first column, I use different colors.  Admittedly, I don’t spend a lot of time on this — I just click on a cell, and pick the first fill color, click on the second cell, pick the second fill color, and so forth.  Though I like bold colors, I generally stay in the pastel zone for a spreadsheet.  I have to be able to read any text I type or write in it, and pastel just makes this easier.

4.  Then I add a row between each of them, 8.25 in height, so very narrow.  It’s just there to further break up the spreadsheety look.

When most people create a spreadsheet, they either use the default font size or make it even smaller (eye chart time!) so that everything will fit.  Here, I’m making it bigger and spreading it out so it looks a little less sequential.  And the color — that, surprisingly, makes a big difference in separating out the rows to me.  So there are ways to make an existing tool work for you if you’re creative!

 

Right Brain Organizing: Using Color

Being right-brained can make it difficult to organize a book — or for that matter, anything — because the process just doesn’t work the same way.  But one of the best tips I’ve run across is simple: Color code.  Right-brainers tend to be more visual, so color is ideal for instant recognition.  Instead of having to remember where I put something, I just go to the color.

My first introduction to this was when I ran across File Solutions from The Container Store.   I’ve gotten very picky about organizing solutions because so many of them have been a waste of money.  But this system was four color-coded categories on pre-printed labels.  I didn’t have to think about where I was putting papers because there were labels for it.  When I brought it home, I decided I’d just get the folders ready for the first colored section.  I ended up doing everything in one day, and it was amazing having places to put things where I could actually find them.  I’ve had the system for 4-5 years now, and when I need something I just look for the color.  Better still, I don’t lose things as often any more.

So for stories, color can also be a useful tool.  When I start a project, I assign it in a color in my head.  Miasma is Irwin Allen Yellow.  Masks (or whatever it’s going to end up being called) is Navy Blue.   Some general guidelines for using it:

• One project = one color.  Keep it simple.  It’s easy to remember that a project is green.  It’s not so easy if there are three other colors involved.
• Pick colors you like. They have to excite you and make you want to refer to it.  That’s part of the fun of using colors.
• If you’re working on more than one project, make sure the colors contrast so they don’t get mixed up.  Even if the two spiral notebooks are diverse shades of blue, it’s very easy to grab the wrong one.
• Pick colors you can easily find.  If you need to pick up a spiral notebook and then later file folders, you want to be able to find the same color again.
• Always listen to yourself.  I really like patterns, so I tried getting spiral notebooks in patterns.  While I liked the patterns, it actually made it harder for me to instantly recognize the notebook in a pile of other stuff.

I’ve used this for composition notebooks, file folders, and even in Scrivener for Windows (you can color code the cards and turn it on for the icons).   A lot of this is going to be trial and error, but when color is involved, it’ll be a lot of fun!

 

Writing Without a Net

I just finished the craft book Story Engineering, which I found to not be a very good book for a variety of reasons.  One of them is that the book continually says that people who don’t outline will never get published and will only have a mess for a story with sarcastic phrases like, “Good luck with that.”  As an adventure writer (I really, really hate the term pantser), I’ve seen a lot of outliners who don’t get adventure writing.  Outlining is easy for them, even something they need.   So they think we’re just mavericks not following the rules or that we must be using an outline and not calling it one or just being stubborn (Story Engineering, unfortunately, hits all of these points).   We’re poohed when we say an outline destroys the creativity or told that we simply didn’t do the outline correctly.

It’s actually an organizing issue, and a right brain issue.  Writing is inherently a left brain function and most writing advice tailors to that–it’s inside to outside (parts to the whole) and generally sequential.  But right brained people also end up writers, and they think differently.

Or to be precise, they have to think differently.  Right-brainers need to see the big picture — that is the story in it’s entirity — so they can get where it needs to go.  Literally, we have to write the story to get what it is.  That’s why there are kids in school who are assigned an essay along with an outline and write the essay first, then do the outline.  This is because we need the whole story in front of us to see how the pieces fit together.  Now I can hear outliners going, “Yeah, that’s what an outline is for.”  Uh, no, it isn’t.  An outline puts pieces together into a whole (inside to outside) and is very sequential, which is why the outliners like it.  And why the adventure writers can’t work with it.  We take the whole and see the relationships into the pieces in a holistic way (outside to inside).

Granted, people who write without an outline do have a lot of problems with getting a final draft done.  That’s where they have to learn — not how to write an outline or plan the story — but to revise in one draft.  That starts with understanding the big picture, something I think a lot of people don’t realize they have a big skill in.  They also have to understand where their weaknesses are when they use a holistic approach to creating a first draft so they can try to offset it as much as possible and spot it when it occurs in the story.  That also means that they have to know which elements they can let go — things that will happen and will happen well without trying — so they can focus on the parts they have to pay attention to.  I have trouble with where to start the story and have to spend a lot of time making sure I start it early enough (no, that’s not a typo) or it’ll affect the entire story.  But characters?  I know I can toss those into the story, so I don’t worry about them.  Each one of us is different in what we need.

For adventure writers, we’re not broken.  We think differently.