The Effective Author: Research

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author stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, research, stress

©2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the 10^th in a series of 35 articles, focused on topics you need to be conversant with, in order to become a truly Effective Author.  I’ve offered 2 articles on notes, saying notes are the lifeblood of your writing.  The fact is, unless you have an eidetic memory, whenever you do research, you need to note what you learn in some form.  Then, you can actually use it later.

For me, the greatest secret in research is the ability to take notes in the Notes app of my iPhone. This has eliminated a lot of pieces of paper around the office, the car, purses, tote bags, and my home.  And today, Apple released IOS9, which enhances the Notes app. Now, when you open the app, you see a title line and the first line of each Notes folder; previously, you saw only the first line.  Now, you can indent sections, create a circle to be checked later, bold some text, and insert photographs.  The app now operates more like a simple word processor.  This is great news for authors like me, who sometimes need to draft an entire article using the Notes app.

If you’re thinking, oh, but wouldn’t some voice notes app be quicker or more efficient? No.  I don’t like those because they require transcribing; autotranscribing is a whole process that isn’t ready for prime time yet.  And my life is so busy that any step I can eliminate is one more thing I can get done in that saved time.

There are 3 main forms of research I use. Two are collected as I live and pursue what interests me: quotes and stories.  Every time I hear an inspiring quote, I put it in my Notes app and email that to myself, then lift the text to my main Quotes collection.  This system creates a backup, so you never have a notes crash.  Stories, incidents, characters, scenes, and ideas all seem to spring forth around me and insist on being included in my collection.  My life seems to be like the PBS catalog t-shirt that proclaims:

CAREFUL, OR YOU’LL END UP IN MY NEXT NOVEL. 

The third type of research I do takes more focus.  I dig through medical research reports,  to see what new science is emerging, and how that can help my clients.  Sometimes I also dig though theological writings and scriptures, to come up with simplified answers to spiritual questions people ask me.  Then, you guessed it: I enter summary comments in my iPhone Notes app and email them to myself. Then I file them in Word documents, by topic, under the BOOKS section of my document collection.

The truth is, I love research. I love the way the many facets come together like the blades of a kaleidoscope:  elements of information, visuals, sounds, smells, beliefs, quotes, and movement of time.  Research is the foundation of the writing process, as in the process pyramid illustration above.  What processes are you using for your research?  You’re becoming the Effective Author.  Questions?

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com. 

The Effective Author: Writing With Your Smartphone

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author stress, Effective Author, Smartphone as author's tool, stress

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

I remember being so delighted with a cartridge pen, in my early writing days.  It was one step up from a quill pen and ink bottle!  I thought of Tom Sawyer having to rewrite his lessons with a feather quill pen, every time I wrote with my beautiful red-barreled pen.  I have been writing since second grade, and the forms and directions of my writing have changed a few times.  The field of writing has also changed more than perhaps any of us could have imagined.  And so has the array of equipment available to help any author.  In fact, we now have the most efficient tools ever, available to us.

This is the seventh in a series of 35 articles to help you become a truly Effective Author, in the reality of the writing market today.  Most of your success will require attention to factors other than the actual writing.  Today, I’m focusing on the smartphone as an author’s tool—and stress preventative.

Here’s a great example of the power of your smartphone.  Recently, during a power outage, I was on deadline and had run down my laptop’s power.  I just hated to revert to paper and pen by flashlight, because then I would have had to keyboard in the whole article when the power came up.  But my smartphone had plenty of juice and a backup power unit.  So, I worked in my Notes app.  First, I selected and copied sections of my COLUMNS Notes, created a new folder of Notes, and labeled it with the name of the column.

I pasted into that folder the section from my COLUMNS notes.  Then I expandedfrom the notes, and wrote an entire column within that folder–yes, still on the smartphone.  (Apparently there is no limit, or there is a generous limit, on the number of words you can have in one Notes folder.)  Then I copied the text of the completed column, went into my Email app, pasted the column text into an email, and emailed the column to myself.  Soon the power came back on, and I was able to capture the column text from my laptop’s email, then use Word to format and post the column online.  Ta daaaah!

Jay Kay said,

I learn fast and I take note of what I’ve been told.

In another example of the power of the smartphone, my QUOTES collection has now grown from nothing to over 80 pages, thanks to my phone.  When I hear or see a delightful quote, I quickly go into the Notes app, into the QUOTES folder.  I enter the quote, followed by two dashes and the name of the person who uttered the quote.  Then I use the take-it-out function to email the whole updated QUOTES folder to myself.

When the new quote arrives in email, it’s labeled QUOTES.  My master QUOTES collection is a Word document on my laptop, filed under BOOKS.  I have it divided by topic, and each topic is highlighted in a box.  The topics are in alphabetical order, except GENERAL, at the top of the document, and UNSORTED, at the end.  When I want a quote for a column or book, I can easily find one in my own collection.  Or, I can do some research, find new cool quotes, and add to the collection.  I often add quotes from live events I’m attending, emailing them to myself directly from my phone. To pull new quotes from my laptop’s email, I simply select the text and drop it into the right place in my master QUOTES document.

Let your smartphone serve you, not a quill pen.  Organize your notes and quotes more each day. And stay tuned to this series.  I want you to be a completely Effective Author.  Questions?

 ___________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice.  Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.   Want an appointment? Or to ask Kebba to speak for your group?  Just email Calendar@kebba.com.

 

The Effective Author: The Power of Smartphone Notes

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author stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, Smartphone notes, stress

 

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

At lectures, some of you have already been taking notes on your iPad mini or your laptop.  But then how do you organize the notes so you can retrieve them?  At last, I have developed a system.  Smartphone users, rejoice!  It’s time to cultivate your smartphone “Notes” app!  First, open that app.  Then create some categories.  I have about 20.  Now open different folders of notes with a word in capitals that is the category name: QUOTES, LIST, COLUMNS, NOTES (these are notes that don’t have their own folders), MYTOPMENTOR, MY UPCOMINGBOOK.   These first words in each NOTES folder will show as titles of the different Notes folders, when you first open the app.

Of course, substitute the actual name of your top mentor, for notes from their TV show, teleseminars, and such. And substitute the actual name of your upcoming book.  Now, every time you need to make notes, you’ll add them to that folder in Notes on your smartphone. At the end of each lecture or inspiration, use the “send it out” function and email that category of Notes to yourself.  Then, when QUOTES or LIST arrives in your laptop email, you’ll select the text and drop it into a Word document.  You can also select just a section of your QUOTES notes, for example, and drop it into an email to yourself for insertion in a column you’re writing.

Here’s a great example of the power of your smartphone.  Recently, during a power outage, I was on deadline and had run down my laptop’s power.  I just hated to revert to paper and pen by flashlight, because then I would have to keyboard in the whole article when the power came up.  But my smartphone had plenty of juice and a backup power unit.  So, I selected and copied sections of my COLUMNS Notes, created a new folder of Notes, and labeled it with the name of the column.  Then I wrote an entire column within that folder, yes, still on the smartphone.  (Apparently there is no limit, or there is a generous limit, on the number of words you can have in one Notes folder.)  Then I copied the column text, pasted it into an email, and emailed the column to myself.  Soon the power came back on, and I was able to use Word to format and post the column online.

In just one example of the power of notes, my QUOTES collection has now grown to over 80 pages.  It’s a Word document filed under BOOKS.  I have it divided by topic, and each topic is highlighted in a box.  The topics are in alphabetical order, except GENERAL, at the top of the document, and UNSORTED, at the end.  When I want a quote for a column or book, I can easily find one in my own collection.  Or, I can do some research, find new cool quotes, and add to the collection.  I often add quotes from live events I’m attending.

So now, are your notes more organized?  Are you at least inspired?  If you still have a pile or some notes lost in your To Be Filed stacks, keep your spirits up!  The more you create notes in your smartphone or computer, the fewer pieces of paper you’ll have, and the easier it will be to pull a few, transcribe them, and file them in your computer.

Until next time, keep gathering your paper notes and practicing with your smartphone and laptop.  Those notes are still the lifeblood of your writing.  Next time we’ll talk about how to organize the notes in your computer, saving you hundreds of hours of frustration as you go along.  My goal is to show you how to reduce author stress and help you to become a completely Effective Author!  Questions?

_____________________________________________________________

 

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice.  Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.   Want an appointment? Or to ask Kebba to speak for your group?  Just email Calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: The Chaos and Creative Power of Your Notes

Tags

author stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, Organized notes, stress

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

From the first article of this series, on The Effective Author, I have been urging you to take notes.  Notes are the lifeblood of your writing!  So in what form have you been taking them?  Did you email yourself, scribble on a napkin, or just hope you would remember?  It’s time to harness the chaos and creative power of your notes.

A famous psychiatrist once said that he wrote an entire book based on what he called “napkin notes”.  He said, for a year, every time he had an idea for his book, he would pen it on any nearby piece of paper.  When he got home, he would empty his pockets and dump all the notes in a drawer.  At the end of the ear, he duped the drawer and organized the notes into a book.

Notes on paper are still a wonderful way to take and keep notes, for some people.  Especially if you like to sketch out the order or relationships of concepts. However, paper notes can get spilled on, they can blow off your table or desk, and they can easily get lost.  Although you may like one single bound notebook.

John Varvatos said this:

A part of my kind of design and inspiration ethos is that I carry around a leather notebook and I sketch in it, doodle in it, write notes in it, and I put pictures in it.

If you are with Varvatos, by all means keep your system.  But remember, he has to manually insert the pictures and any clippings he will refer to.  Then he has to keyboard into the computer any text he wants to use in a document, then scan the pictures.  What a mess.

Paper notes are really hard to put in order, unless you date them and always write on the identical type and size of flat paper.  I used to have napkin notes, like the psychiatrist, and I relied on any of a dozen little spiral notepads, a few types of post-it pads, and quarter-sheets of printer paper.

Gradually, I got rid of every other size of paper, for notes, and started using only the printer scrap, cut in quarters with a paper cutter.  However, I still had notes on meditation, on car mileage, on Things to Do, and on various articles and books.  On the fly, when I had ideas on any of these, it wasn’t practical to keep the mileage records on blue paper, the book notes on pink, and meditation notes on purple.  So I was drowning in quarter sheets of paper.  At least I dated almost every little piece.

For a while, I started emailing myself from my phone to my laptop, with important information, books needed, dates of events, and so on.  That was helpful. But then, how to retrieve them so they can actually be used?  This has been my biggest challenge as a writer: notes are either organized or useless. NEXT TIME we cover my latest solution, which has saved my notes collection, my time, and my sanity.  Until next time, start gathering all your notes in a central place, and get rid of all the odd-sized notepads.  I want you to be a completely Effective Author!  Questions?

____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and award-winning author.  She also is an ordained minister and has a natural healing practice. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br),and Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office.  Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.  

 

The Effective Author: Got Criticism Stress?

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Criticism Stress, Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The Effective Author

© 2015  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Did you wince when you read the title of this article? I still, always, flinch when I see or hear the word “criticism”. That’s because of my experiences with people literally shouting their negative views of me when I was young. For most people, criticism is actually harmless. But sometimes it hurts to hear it. And while our feelings may be hurt when someone thinks we should improve, there may be great value somewhere in their comments.

Famous positivizer Norman Vincent Peale said,

“The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

There can be career gold in someone’s evaluation of our writing. But let us differentiate between grousing and useful criticism. Negativity reveals the most about the commenter.

Recently, I met someone whose conversation really turned me off. We were at a speaker event. I found the two speakers well-informed, clear, and compelling. They gave me so much to think about that I was fairly lost in my happy muse. Suddenly, one attendee near me launched into a stream of evaluative commentary, aimed at the primary speaker. He offered one negative comment, then another, then yet another. He criticized the content and effectiveness of the presentations. He even offered that much of the one presentation had been “off-topic”. So impressed was he, by his wonderful and incisive criticism, that he repeated portions of it several times.

I disagreed with all of this man’s points. And I was embarrassed at his persistence and unnecessary negativity. Others must have also been wondering, “[W]ho does he think he is?” Days later, I wondered if he had belonged to a debate club or speech club at some point. Some of those groups are structured to invite evaluative remarks after talks. Otherwise, common courtesy is to keep ANY negative thoughts to yourself.

Have you ever been the one who was utterly incensed by a speaker or presenter or even a pastor? Definitely, I personally have been there. If this ever happens to you, then you have a number of alternatives.  In general, do not waste your time or energy staying around people who truly drain you.  Remember, you are always at choice.

(1) Go to the restroom. Stay until you can be positive about something.

(2) Say “excuse me- I have to go” to the people who invited you, and slip out, in a relaxed-looking way. I once felt the need to do this, shortly into a famous person’s show. On the way to my car, I discovered the hotel had a beautiful fire circle set up for those who might be out for a walk that chilly night. I stayed there for an hour, stargazing and listening to Heaven. I turned the unpleasant experience into the memory of a lifetime.

(3) Forgive their imperfections and simply nod while smiling politely; raise your eyebrows a little while smiling, to communicate your receptivity. Make notes for your next article, character, or chapter, while looking up now and then and nodding thoughtfully.

And before you report to anyone that you had such a deadly experience, consider what Criticism Stress you may be creating. Ask yourself: Is it true?  Is it kind?  Is it necessary?

Now having considered the times when you felt the urge to offer criticism, imagine others reading your writing.  People have every imaginable background, mood of the moment, and motivation.  Some live to put others down.  Some have low blood sugar or chronic migraines.  Some are naturally cranky, or simply perfectionistic. Let them criticize if they will.  Your job is to do your best job with your writing and let your soul, your values, and your passions shine through.

Elbert Hubbard said,

“The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.”

So the next time it’s your turn to be on the receiving end of potentially hurtful comments, don’t give in to Criticism Stress. Just look peacefully polite, and listen for possible gold. Now you’re growing as an Effective Author.

___________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: In What Form to Write?

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author stress, Effective Author, In what form do I write, stress, The Effective Author, What do I write

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the fourth in a series of 35 articles I call “The Effective Author”.  Since I have found that my writing life is over 80% non-writing activities, I am offering this series to save other writers a lot of frustration. If you have just dropped in on this series, get out your notes and start processing along.

We have talked about finding your delight in writing: your passion topics, past/present/future, fiction/nonfiction/blends/both.  I’m recommending that everyone notice what excites and absorbs them, in reading or in their own writing.  These are the topics and formats that will pull you forward and energize you as you write.  Notice I say “these”.  You may have multiple areas and formats.  A number of authors do, and they actually write under different names for the different series or areas.

Some people love to have a marketing name and perhaps an avatar (cartoon-type image of themselves) to go with the marketing character.  Some like to write under their own name, no matter what they are writing; I’m one of those.  In the academic environment, sometimes faculty are expected to be very serious.  Sometimes, they are expected to publish only scholarly works.  In 1970, a professor of Greek and Latin literature, at Harvard University, learned a hard lesson in this area.  He wrote the blockbuster best-selling novel, A Love Story, and then he wrote the screenplay for the blockbuster movie.  Erich Segal might have had better politics with his academic community, had he written his popular works under a pseudonym. Segal wrote not only scholarly works, but a variety of screenplays (e.g. Yellow Submarine) and novels.

And this brings us back to the question of what formats will be best for your writing.  If current life interests you, blogging (300-800 word articles) or articles for news media may be for you.  Write a variety of articles on timely topics, and submit them to newspapers, the Huffington Post, The Observer, and any other online news outlets that your topics seem to fit.  Submit your articles in the style and length(s) you see in each publication.  Do you want to write about lifestyle, prominent people, fashion, skincare, or financial management? Do you write humor? These topics may fit best in magazines, trade publications, or in the Lifestyle sections of newspapers, online or in print.  Any of your short articles can be linked together to become books.  Let your imagination run wild at the countless combinations that are possible.

If you like characters, actions, and story development, either biography or fiction may be for you. Major biographers can make a lot of money.  And some people’s lives have been at least as exciting as fiction.

In fiction, first try writing microstories (around 300-500 words) such as One Minute Mysteries.  You can write short stories of, say, up to 20 pages, or novellas of perhaps 40-75 pages.  Full novels can run up to 600 pages, continuing in trilogies (e.g., Lord of the Rings) and even prequels. Novelist Jeffrey Archer also writes short stories, which he publishes in collections (e.g.,Twelve Red Herrings).  If you start with short stories, you may fall in love with some of your characters, and you may find them informing full-length novels.

Stephen King said,

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials,no batteries,hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.  What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”

The Effective Author wants to create that perfect entertainment, in any number of lengths and forms.  Are you making notes on your passion areas and your possibilities?  Are you checking the Best Sellers lists?  I want you to become that Effective Author.  Questions welcome.

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: What to Write About?

Tags

Effective Author, stress, The Effective Author, what to write, Writing a book

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the third in a series of 35 articles I call “The Effective Author”.  In my professional writing life, I have been astonished that so much of my “job” is not-the-writing (http://wp.me/pw4HM-pa).  So this series is being shared to encourage other writers, who may be frustrated by the huge set of non-writing processes that are necessary for the professional writer.

In yesterday’s article, I began asking whether your writing delights you, and who you want to delight with your writing. I also argued that you don’t have to choose between fiction and nonfiction; many successful writers have published both.   I hope you started making notes, or sketching out what came to mind with those questions and examples.

Today I ask you to consider what you want to write about.  With your pen poised at your notes, consider this: What are you passionate about?  What are the burning issues to you?  Love, crime, social justice, politics, interpersonal problem solving, religion/spirituality, humor, leadership? What do you spend most of your time thinking, puzzling, or feeling about? What is most of your conversation about?  Is your mind often on some other country or time period, or both?  Or are you often thinking about the future and imagineering what it may become?  Are you fascinated by lives of the prominent, past or present?

If you are already writing, is it easy and satisfying for you?  If so, maybe you are already in your best groove, or one of them.  Is your research and writing hard work, but you love that and love the pieces you write?  Does your writing take place in the present, but you would really like to see what those characters would do in an earlier era?  What writers or writings do you most admire, and what is it about them that fills or fuels you?  With your answers to these passion questions sketched out in your notes, take a trip to a large bookstore and start prospecting. What sections are you most drawn to? What authors capture you?  In the bookstore, add your reactions to your notes.

William H. Gass said,

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold.  They change the world into words.

Guess what?  You may have just frameworked your future writing genre/s!  But wait!  Before you commit firmly—and you need never do that—consider the example of author James Redfield.  Never heard of him?  No cheating.  Don’t look him up yet.  Redfield wanted to write about spiritual principles that some would call “New Age”.  He wrote a handbook, and a friend recommended that he write it as a novel.  So he did. And it is a very exciting adventure novel.  Since 1993, over 20 million copies of The Celestine Prophecy have sold worldwide, as well as a number of spinoff books.  And here is the possible punchline for you as a writer: James Redfield now gets to live as he wishes, entirely centered in his favorite subject, spiritual living.  He gets to do radio, TV, workshops, magazine interviews, and more writings, all because he wrote from his passion, first as nonfiction, and then as fiction.  What passion of yours would you like to live as a lifestyle?

See if your notes are now showing some patterns. Consider that your writing will be most likely to excite others—and sell—if it excites you.  So draw a line, start a new section of notes, and start brainstorming about kinds of articles/posts/books you might write, in your passion areas. And feel free to write me with any questions.  I want you to become a truly Effective Author.

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: Why Write?

Tags

Effective Author, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, why write

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

This is the second in a series of 35 articles I call “The Effective Author”.  I mentioned in the first article (http://wp.me/pw4HM-pa) that I had discovered my professional writing life– of many years– is mainly about activities and considerations other than the writing itself.  So I am offering this series to encourage other writers, who may feel bogged down by the many aspects of our writing lives that encumber or enfold the actual writing process.

I began writing in great volume, in my holistic stress-and-pain management career, because I was getting tired of hearing myself explaining the same principles and medical discoveries to every one of my clients.  And while I gave talks to every professional group that invited me, those 30-45-minute talks were necessarily superficial.  So I wrote hundreds of articles and evolved a selection of them into my first book, Discover The Secret Energized You.  Yes, the “The” is capitalized in the title, because of another book that was wildly marketed at the time.  I’ll tell that story in another article.

So are you a person with a mission, who needs to write for that reason? Or are you simply craving to write?  Please, make notes on your thoughts.  One easy technique is to take a blank piece of paper, and begin sketching: your reasons for writing, what you have been writing, what you would like to write, what you would like to be known for.  Imagine your obituary: what will it say about you, your writing, and your life?  What would you like it to say?

William Wordsworth wrote this:

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

You need not limit yourself to being either a fiction writer or a nonfiction writer.  Some of the most wildly successful fiction authors started in science careers, and wrote technical books before they wrote fiction.  Consider Kathy Reichs, the creator of 19 mystery novels based on the adventures of Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist.  The television series, Bones, is now in its tenth year.  Consider Elizabeth Peters, actually a doctorate Egyptologist named Barbara Mertz, who is known for her Amelia Peabody series centered on Egyptian archaeology adventures.  With 19 novels in that series alone, Mertz also penned a non-fiction companion volume.

Write down or sketch out what you love to read and why.  Were there kinds of reading that delighted you in the past, but now perhaps you think you don’t have time for that/them?  For several years, when I was single, I greatly enjoyed the Second Chance At Love romance novels.  A friend gave me a box of them, and they were diverting, refreshing, and encouraging.  Now that I am extremely happily married, that wonderful group of novels don’t interest me at all.  But sometimes I still judge the novel categories for a literary contest or two.  That exposes me to all kinds of novels, and it refills my imagination.

Here is the biggest question:  Does your writing delight you?  If so, you’re writing in a good genre for you.  If you feel tired and strained when you are writing, are you in the wrong area or genre?  Or do you simply need some tools to make it easier?  Feel free to write me for help if you are stuck.  I want you to become a truly Effective Author.

_____________________________________________________________

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.

The Effective Author: First Thoughts

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Effective Author, how to write, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, The Effective Author

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS,OM.  World Rights Reserved.

In my life journey as a writer, I remember early English class instruction in such exciting topics as sentence structure and paragraph construction.   Now I am the award-winning author of three books, several course curricula, hundreds of articles, and two meditation CDs.  I never set out to be a writer.  And I’ve found that the writer’s life is only about 10 percent about how to write or about actual writing.  To be an effective author, it is crucial to know a lot about the markets for writing and about skills authors need for time, energy, space, personal, and market management.  So, for this and the next 34 posts, I am offering pieces on what I now believe a person needs to truly be an effective author.  No need to stress about your success.  Just include the surrounding skill areas, and you’ll be on your way.

I had some advantages in getting to where I am.  My home environment was filled with books and thinkers’ magazines.  Literally.  The living room was lined with built-in bookshelves for novels, philosophy books, and encyclopedias. Magazines in English and German were everywhere.  Dad read Der Spiegel–like Germany’s answer to Time Magazine–in the evenings, to keep his knowledge of German fresh.  Sometimes, on trips, Dad bought Readers’ Digest in the airports. It was fun looking through all the topics and humor.  When we had reports to write for school, it was easy and—dare I say—fun, digging through the encyclopedias for bits about Abraham Lincoln or how apple trees grow.  We also went to the town and school libraries a lot.

Mom loved reading fiction, and she taught us to read before first grade.  She especially loved (and still does) mystery novels.  By High School, I took up reading mysteries, to try to bond with her, but she read them so fast (and still does), that that didn’t really work.  Meanwhile, I began to absorb the patterns of fiction.  I believe now that the best writers are those who fell in love with reading at some point.

Looking back, I do remember being told I was a natural writer.  What a shock.  That happened in High School, when we were twice asked to write a descriptive paragraph.  Somehow, I decided to write a microstory each time.  I had a quiet hour in the school library, and I used a thesaurus to make my sentences more colorful, as I told my tiny stories.  At that point, I had already seen the One Minute Mysteries, microstories in collections, where the reader is invited to guess the solution to a crime.  So I believed a story could be told in 300 words or less.

Later, I earned a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in sciences, for which I had to write countless papers.  In my engineering career, and when I changed over to holistic pain- and stress management, I was still avidly writing columns. Writing had become easy for me. I was driven by a passion to help people.  I still am.

I hope you’ll journey with me, over the next 5 weeks, and write out your own thoughts as I share mine.  Who knows?  You may be ripe to be a truly effective author.

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition. Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine. Both that book and Peace Within are available through her office.  Just email books@kebba.com. 
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com.