Category: English

Creating sentences that you will never use… (why they told us that we shouldn´t be writers)

Who want to be a person that sit in a room for hours talking to imaginary voices that think that you are terrible at what you do.
Who want to be a person that spend months working on words that doesn’t ever feel really good.
Who want to be a person that may spend months working on a piece that maybe no one will ever read, even if published.

Most likely no one… but for many writers that doesn’t matter, because in general we think more on the following option:

Who want to be the person that spend many months working to change 1 person life.

I am not aware of many parents that tell their kids not to try to be a Doctor, Engineer, Lawer or a Business Mayor. Somehow doesn’t matter if you pick one of those “safe” careeers you will be ok. Even if you will be terrible at them, you will be OK.
Insterestingly enough, I know plenty of writers that got the opposite advise. “Don’t waste your time writing”, “You are not a writer”, “Pick a safe path” and many more things. My parents did it, as well as the parent of so many of my writers friends (and the parents of many that simply stop writing becasue of that)
I don’t think you pick to be a writer, in the same way that you don’t pick to be a doctor or a lawyer or a salesman. You are and you can train yourself to be better, much better.
Who want to be a person that sit in a room for hours talking to imaginary voices that think that you are terrible at what you do. Who want to be a person that spend months working on words that doesn’t ever feel really good. Who want to be a person that may spend months working on a piece that maybe no one will ever read, even if published.
Sales people make calls that never get anywhere, doctors had patients that die even when they do everything in their hand to help, business people invest months on projects that never accomplish anything… but somehow those are better bets… at least according to some parents.
If you ever dreamed to be a writer, then you need to write, spend the time, learn the craft, and discover that after many hours you will get a perfect sentence that you will never use…

Working with #OmniFocus: Using Perspectives as a Focus Changer on OmniFocus.

Perspectives are one of those things in OmniFocus that are really powerful if you know how to use them. I have been using them extensively for years and love them when I need to change Focus, because they can help me to re-focus or clarify the next set of actions in one movement.
Let me explain. We all change our focus, our location, our contexts if you will. The problem is how fast can you re-focus when you do this. In my experience it is in these changes that people waste a lot of time, we get distracted, we found little time suckers, and we think: “since we are going to do that, let me quickly do this…”
Many people can keep working trough their list for the simple reason that they follow step one, two, tree, and so on… but when they change activities, that trail is lost, and in many cases the productivity and more is too.
My day is full of interrumptions, between kids at home, calls for work, work per se, and other responsibilities… I start my day early, between 4:00 to 4:30AM because I have learn that the most important thing I have is the ability to focus on the next thing. If I miss those opportunities in wich I can concentrate and focus, in many cases I don’t find another one until the next day. Because of that I have come with some perspectives in OmniFocus that I open and check just before I am going to change activities.
We all have a lot of contexts, more than enough but in a way we need even more so we kept our lists in manegeable sizes. I have joke that I can really have 2 lists, @iPad and @iPhone. The problem will be identify what it is important if I do that. It is for that reason that I have plenty (and also because OmniFocus can remind me of certain context by location). The problem is we need more contexts to keep the size of our list manegeable, and at the same time we need a better way to access the important things on those lists, and give us crumbles to follow between activities so we don’t waste the time in general we don’t have.
For example, I have one for the Morning, that it is the first look at what I have for that quiet time before 7am when the kids begin to need my attention. This perspective show me a set of Contexts, that contain for things I need to rememeber, my affirmations, my goals and have also some things that I need to try to accomplish before the kids wake up at 7. This perspective make sure that I don’t waste time in my system on those two and a half or three hours that I have in the morning of quiet and focus time.
I have also one for every time I am going to leave the house, this perspective not only allow me to see my errands but things that I want to do (or take with me) before I leave home. Nothing worst that check errands on the go and discover that you forgot something because didn’t check the “before leave home list”.
I have more perspectives like this, like arriving home, the night routine, and more.
These perspective are really important to me because it is by the use of these that I can make sure that I can make the transitions with a minimum waste of time.
How do you handle transitions?

Working on my iPad: Where do you do work when you need to Focus.

I have learned over the years that I am not an Home-Office/Office kind of person. It is becasue of this that when I need to Focus there are two things I do. First is to grab my iPad. Second is to leave my Home-Office.
Some critics said that you can’t work on the iPad because doesn’t multitask, that it is exactly one of my favorite reasons to use it when I want to single task (or do focused work).
Having one application on the screeen force me to stay focused for a longer time, that at the same time help me to stay focused for longer time and finished the task in hand faster.
Where do you go/do when you need to focus?

Where is your map? Have you check it lately?

Over the years I have learn that ‘if you are not checking the map, you risk never reach your destination.’

Reaching a destination, is as much as to get there as it is to enjoy the journey. The problem is that there are moments that you will feel that you are lost, that you don’t know if you are going towards the goal, or away from it. There are moments that you really don’t know, that your instincts failed to tell you if you are in the right direction or not, that feeling of despair and frustration. That is the moment we should check the map, to make sure we can reach our destination.

As important as it is to check the map on those dark moments, is to do it on the high moments, on those moments that you feel you can take over the world, that you can accomplish everything, that you feel the world is too small to contain you, those moments, you need to make sure you check the map, to make sure you are taking on the right things, and moving your dream in the right direction.

Sadly, in my experience you and I tend to fail to check the map on both occasions,we failed to make sure that when we are in our high moments we are aiming into the right place and that when you are feeling low, you continue moving towards the objective. My question is why?

This is where this stop being useful, because honestly I don’t know. I don’t know why, I have no clue why I didn’t check the map the last time I was feeling that I could take the world, or why I didn’t check it the last time I was in a low, but on those occasions I didn’t.

The last time this happen to me, I failed to check the map, I even forgot I had a map, was like someone had stole the map. I wish to tell you that next time I will check the map, but you and I know that next time, we will forgot about the map again, and will over shoot the objective or feel like we are never going to reach it.

How well do you know the Tool you have?

Yesterday, I wrote about having the right tool for the job, and later on, via Twitter @thinkip bring to me the next question: How well do you know the tool you have?

This is an interesting question, that for a lot of people I know, the answer is: ‘not much’. That it is exactly the reason they need to get the new tools, the powerful ones. Most of the real power users I know, use old machines, not because they can’t afford new ones, but because they know there is more horse power left under the hood of the current machine.

To this day, I am always impressed how little people understand about Microsoft Windows, the operating system most likely they spend all day, or if you wish, how people can’t type, considering that they spend most of the time sitting in front of a keyboard and typing most of their day.

Knowing your tools is key in order to be able to define if you need more or less of them, if you need more or less power, for example, I have been a big proponent for people to upgrade to Windows 7, not because I think is great, but because is faster and run better on older machines than Windows XP or Vista. Most people I know, don’t need a new computer, they just need more Memory Ram, guess what, people will get a computer, because the one they have is slower. The reality is that if the old machine is old enough, will have more memory, what they need to begin with.

I understand that the reason this is reserved to a few, is simple, there is a whole industry to keep alive, that was part of the reason Microsoft, force a lot of us to upgrade machines for Windows XP and Vista, the reason new and more powerful video cards come every three months, the reason game makers are looking for new and more powerful machines, and the reasons technologies like Display Link are coming to disrupt everything, with that technology, you don’t need more power, their technology is design to expand the possibilities of your current machine.

Let me clarify, that the geek in my heart is not saying ‘do not upgrade’, don’t be fooled, I love a shinny gadget, and have bough my fair share of toys that end up in eBay, goodwill or in the hands of a lucky person, from iPods, to NetBooks, and a lot of junk in between… What I am saying is that in order to know if a tool will work, you need to know how to use it.

I was a mac user until 2004, at that time, I got a job selling PC software to Latin America. Virtualization wasn’t really possible, you could run stuff, but there were not real power, so I got a PC, the shinny object then, a Tablet PC. I love my tablet, use it for years, and finally sold it to a person in 2010 that to this day he is using it. (It was running Windows 7, the best OS that machine ever had). I Try to jump back to the Mac in 2007, and because, Mac OS had change so much in three years, (and the poor planning on my side) I end up going back to a PC and trying again the change to the Mac until 2008. The reason I failed to move from a PC to a Mac in 2007 was simple, I didn’t know or understand the tool. My knowledge of the tool was four years old. If I move to a PC tomorrow, (unlikely, really unlikely) I will need to begin to learn again Windows, but if the next Version of Windows ship, that will be know a key component of my success, since my knowledge will be so Windows 7 (or old knowledge if you prefer), I will be able to function, but to be fast and proficient,I will need to learn How to operate in Windows again.

I remember when I got my first iOS, an iPhone first generation. I was coming from a Palm Treo, that I could use with my eyes closed, the change was hard. For a while I carried both, the Treo and the iPhone, took me learn how to use the iOS to leave my Treo behind. If I decided to migrate from the iPhone (Highly unlikely too) the first thing to to is to learn to use the new device, the new tool.

In a production environment, (and you are in one, even if you haven’t noticed) you can be only as fast as the bottle neck or weakest link, the bottle neck is Always the Slowest part of the machine, type 25 words per minute, that’s your bottle neck, learn to type 45 to 60 and you will discover a new bottle neck, is for that reason that David Allen says: “The Better you get, the better you’d better get”, a quote that I really love. In case that you are not aware of the last idea, the idea that you are a production environment, the great Peter Drucker defined you as a knowledge worker, but what you are is a production unit or environment, regardless if you work for a small one person firm or a fortune 1000 you are a production unit, and the more you know your tools, the better you do, the more smoothly and efficient is the production.

I share in this blog before, that I was going to ditch my iPad, until my friend suggested that I should instead of complaining about how bad was my on-screen typing, learn to type. I download the software, and have been practicing daily. I am not typing as fast as I can type on the physical keyboard, but guess what I am typing over 50 words per minute, and improving. Also guess what, since I am learning to use the tool better, I am working mostly exclusively in the iPad, but I can work now anywhere. I am not carrying the external keyboard, and I am not feeling that I am loosing productivity, on the contrary, I am more productive, because I can work really anywhere carrying only the IPad, I don’t need the MacBook, or the External Keyboard, and I am typing fast enough that I don’t feel I am wasting my time.

Knowing the tools you use, is key for productivity, doesn’t matter if you are a writer, a sales person or you design machinery. The better you understand your tools, the more efficient you can be with them, and the more you know them and the more you understand them the better transition you can do when/if you choose to change them.

Are you using the right tool?

Using the right tool for the job, is one of those thing that are incredibly important. Not all tools works for all task, and not all tasks require the same tool.
For example, to write, I prefer my iPad over any other tool, including my MacBook. The reason is simple, it’s the focus. I can focus in the iPad in a way I can’t in the MacBook.
I have share with many of my friends, that in a way I get remind of the early nineteen nineties when the laptops began to get used by regular people. You had a powerful desktop at home, if you had a laptop, the laptop was to do the lightweight work. The interesting thing was, that the computer industry convince us that we need powerful machines, more and more power, not only in our laptops that for many of us morphed into our main machines, but in our smartphones, we need more screen size, we need more space, more speed, more for the simple reason that we could have more.
In May 30, 2007, one month before Steve Jobs announce the iPhone, Jeff Hawkins announce the Palm Foleo, basically a dumb terminal for your SmartPhone, at that time, for the Palm Treo, one of the most versatiles and advance smartphones then. The world laugh at him, and Palm sadly cancel the project three months later. The Foleo was based on the principle that the average smartphone had enough power to be your main machine, and for most people in the go, he was right. If instead of the iPad you give me a good keyboard, a 10 inch screen that will connect to my iPhone (yes like the Motorola Atrix, that is an Evolution of that old Foleo) I will not need or use my iPad, and if it’s not because I like the form and function of the Apple iOS and don’t like Android that much, I will consider getting the device and getting rid of my iPad and iPhone in the name of one device.
But going back to our topic, and leaving my rant behind, are you using the right tool?
As I said, I have a MacBook, that honestly I don’t use, it’s use for posting blogs with images (for when I write in Mind Like Monkey), keeping iTunes, so I can see all the movies in our Apple Tv in our room, Skype and FaceTime when we do it all the family, and final edit and book creation, for anything else, between the iPad and the iPhone I am basically covered.
That means that I may keep the laptop, but also means that the need to have multiple laptops is disappearing, I see in our household than when time came to upgrade computers, we will get iPads and a common computer. This days with the iPhones, most of our computer needs are cover, in my case I keep the iPad to write and read, while my wife loves to read on her color Nook. The laptop, is in a table, barely used.
The other cool thing of having the right tool, is that you discover that you need less, long time ago, I use to travel with two Laptops, and had a heavy and versatile rolling case, I now carry a bag that fit only my iPad, and most of the time, I only need my ScotteVest.
 
When was the last time you honestly revise your needs, that you honestly check that you had the right tool, and that you were using the right tool. When was the last time that you replace a tool, that honestly didn’t need a replacement.
 

SHORT STORY: On the Gun sight

“You are right Andrea, two million dollars is without a doubt a number interesting enough to be considered, but I want to be clear that this is the last job and to be totally honest with you, I don’t like the fact that we don’t have information about the victim. I don’t like the fact that they are picking the hit place, but I understand that they are paying well for it and I hope that all the precautions that you are taking are enough. I don’t like that all that we know is that is someone from a Bank, that doesn’t help, so little information make me vulnerable.” With that Sidney Seahorse stand up from the table that he and Andrea were drinking coffee and begin to walk towards the north of the city from were he had come some hours ago. The morning was cold, you could feel it deep into the skin, it was an unusual morning in Manhattan Beach in witch the humidity level can be felt, one of the nicest things about Manhattan Beach is that you rarely feel the humidity.
Even that Sydney wasn’t that far, Andrea told him clearly so there wasn’t any doubt that it was an order, “Tomorrow at the fifteen hours, be in position, they will tell you the information so you can proceed.” Sydney didn’t stop, but he got the message and based on his perception of the risk and the unsure he was about this job he decided to so something unusual, but something that regardless the future, he wasn’t going to regret ever.
Officially Sydney Seahorse was a software consultant, in reality he was a high paying killer, half a million per head. In this case they were offering him two millions because the risk was really high and he will need to listen to live instructions, if this job would not had come from the hands of Andrea, most probably Sydney would had say simply no. Andrea and Sidney had been working together many years, between the two had make more blood steams than the water of the Nile and for a long time, Andrea was the closest thing to trust that Sidney knew, Andrea had been the brother that Sidney never had or never knew, until that tragic afternoon in Paris.
Sidney had just finished a job in in the suburbs of Paris and was getting ready to take a plane to return to Los Angeles, when he met Antoinette. Until that moment, Sidney didn’t knew what love or trust was, after three month of romance in Paris and with the arrival of the winter, they decided to move together to Los Angeles, now more than six months together, Sidney was ready for retirement and ask Antoinette in marriage. It was the moment to change his life, but this last job was going to give him the security that he needs, seven million dollars, deposited in eight accounts around the world, each one with a different identity, Sidney had during many years plan everything so he could disappear.
The afternoon before his last job, Sidney walk around with Antoinette, they walk barefoot in the sand, eat in the beachside, drank wine in the dusk, and they give into each other until dawn.
The next morning, Antoinette woke up and went to the bank she work, Sidney took his vehicle and drove to the house he use to hide his sniper rifle, his clothes and the rest of the equipment. He took a disposable cell phone and a bluetooth headset. There was something weird, something was telling Sidney that this job wasn’t worth what he was getting paid for, regardless he prepare himself completely.
It was three o’clock, Sidney was in position, his sniper rifle loaded, from the gun sight he could see people drinking coffee, at three fifteen, he received the call, the voice on the other side simply said: “Your objective had a red shirt and is sitting on one of the tables on the west side, with a person with a yellow shirt, the job should be clean, any questions? Confirm the Objective”
Took less than a second to Sidney move the gun sight and aim directly in the head of the victim and for the first time in fifteen years he could not make the mortal shot, he said back in the headset: “Please provide additional information in the Objective”
The voice on the other side said: “The server is leaving a Coffee cup in the table at this moment”
There was a silence, Sidney look for other coffee with desperation and without stop looking on the gun sight, there was no other red shirt, the only red shirt was Antoinette who was drinking coffee with someone in a yellow shirt. The desperation got into Sidney’s head, the fear took over the trigger, finally, he close his eyes and did the only thing he knew how to do, a direct shot in the head.

The Craft of writing or the Story I am showing

I was discussing with a close friend of mine a couple of days ago, about what to write in this blog. In a way, this is the place people that reads my book (coming in the next weeks) will come and stop by, so I should write for them. In other way, I should write about this craft that I am learning, not only to learn more, but also to understand better about it. In case you have doubts, I continue looking for writers that had learn all they need to in the craft. If you find one, let me know, most likely I am not interested in read them anymore.
We spend some time discussing this, and my friend was in the position that anything that it’s write in here should be about the story, this was not a page about the craft, therefore there were no place for it. He make a good argument here, no question about, and I think the answer lies more in a balance.
I am a writer, and I love to the pages of those writers that I like to see what are they writing, and love when they talk about the craft. I am sure, if I would not be a writer, I will be less trilled, but in that case you can choose to rad the next one. There is the trick. The Balance. I need to work into publishing something for other writers, and something for those that are only readers (I appreciate both). Based on that, I decided to take it that way, I don’t know yet the proportion that I will write fro readers and for writers.
I had quit this blog twice in the last months, because I wasn’t sure were this this was going and I was trying to focus my self on finishing the book, but lately I am looking forward to be here, to develop this, and to make this a nice place to come and play, with others.
Would you prefer to read only about the craft of writing or you will also like to see the story, how the story is coming, how the story is showing. I think I like both.
 

The iPad as a Writer Tool. Editing the first Daft

I am working on editing the first draft of my next novel, or novella if I decided to kill a part of it. I do this in the iPad, this allow me to read, edit, add and modify all the text I wish. The only problem with this approach is that if I want to know the exact changes is a two step process.
To my knowledge, there is no software in the iPad that allow you to track changes (plus I use text files), therefore if I made changes those are final. To work with this limitation, I made a copy of the ‘Original’ first draft and work with a second set of files, so if I want to visit a part I can, and it’s not impossible.
This allow me to work into the draft, edit, add, change delete and more without worry. If I need, I can always access the original text file using DropBox. If I have no internet, I can do it using my iPhone, as a second screen.
Editing in the iPad is fun, since you can get the full screen, you can also get the full reading experience that your reader will get, but you also get the ability to work into the file.
If everything goes as planned, this book should be revised in the next couple of weeks, and then shipped to the editor. We seem to aim to the end of may for this. Wish me luck.
 

How to fail as a Writer. Let the fear win.

I love to write, even that every time I write, there is this fear that try to get control. I love to write. I have love it for a really a long time, but I let the fear and the ideas of others get between my writing ideas and the actual action of writing, so I simply stop writing. I decided to agree with all those that said it was impossible to make a living as a writer, you may fail, you should try the secure stuff and instead of do it, I decided to stop writing.
For me, stop writing make it all impossible, impossible to make a loving as a writer & impossible to fail, you can’t fail in something you are not doing, but for me not writing make me fail on more than that. I try the “secure” way, it was fun, but not what I want it. I am a writer, not because I can’t succeed in the “secure” stuff, I am a writer, because even on Theo worst days feel better to have written today.
For me writing, make possible other stuff, make real other things, but I can be a writer unless I show up,showing up is what make it real for me. I show up everyday and write, I will never be the kind of writer I wish unless I show up. In the way I see it, I failed, all those years that I was too afraid to type, to afraid to write, to afraid to tell to the world that I was a writer, those were the failures years, or the preparation years as recently a friend of mine remind me, but now I show up, regardless of anything else, I am succeeding, success is being a writer, success is sit and write, is bring the stories inside outside so the world can enjoy it, success begin when I write.
I love to write, somedays when is hard to start, I fantasize on being written instead of writing, regardless of how much I love writing, there are days that I just want to be written and done.
But writing is an everyday exercise, you need to show up in the days you are inspired as well as in the days you wish all had being written before and you should not be doing this.
I love to write, and like any other writer, the people around you is afraid of what you are doing, they think is crazy, impossible to make a living out of it, and afraid that you failed. Next time consider the following: What is impossible? What are you failing in? Why not try it? They said is impossible make a living as a writer, but there is many many people doing it everyday, you will fail because no one will read you and no one will know who you are, people most likely don’t know who you are today, in the worst case scenario, nothing will change, and no one will ever know, but you will be a writer. There is a really long list of great writers, that were discovered after they died, I am not wishing that to you, or me, or anyone, but what you prefer, get to your dead bed and wish you had written, or smile because you did. I choose the second one.
I wrote last year a novel, “The Writer”, we are in the last stages of getting it ready to publish in Amazon, SmashWords and more. I will say soon, I have Written, and the world will if they choose to acknowledge, but if not, I will continue writing, because if I may fail, let me fail while I am writing like crazy, let me fail while I let a trace of words that if I am lucky will touch some day one heart.