Megan

Writing Like an Entrepreneur: Learning From the Founder of TOMS Shoes

Posted on July 23, 2015July 24, 2015 by Megan

This past week I tagged along to my husband’s company-wide annual meeting, expecting a lot of alone hotel time, some coffee shop stops and few ‘mandatory fun’ events. But this year had some pleasant surprises in store.

The very first meeting, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, walked onto the stage! (At this point you’re probably wondering what this story has to do with writing at all. Patience, my friend.)

Writing like an entrepreneur

Of course, his story of TOMS was inspirational, funny and tear jerking. But very quickly I began to realize that what he learned as an entrepreneur could be easily applied to the writing life as well.

Entrepreneurship and writing both share many themes. Both involve ideation, inspiration, and a lot of hard work. The following ideas are concepts that Blake shared and that I want to pass forward. I hope they bring you the focus and inspiration they’ve already brought me.

Give ideas a chance

When Blake birthed the idea of TOMS shoes, he had just finished a day of delivering shoes to kids in Argentina. To him, it was just a thought about how to keep kids in shoes and, ultimately, in school. But the next day when he shared it with an Argentinean friend, the friend was ecstatic. This friend’s passion and belief in the idea began to rub off on Blake, and before he knew it, they were making shoes out of a couple Argentinean garages.

The point: Give your ideas a chance. If a book, story or character comes to you in the wee morning hours, or while sitting at your desk at work, run it by a friend and see what they think. You might be surprised how quickly your idea can take shape if you just give it a chance.

Practical tip: Start an idea notebook. Make sure it’s small enough to carry with you, so as ideas come you can jot them down.

Learn from your critics

As TOMS began to take off, it wasn’t long before the very public criticism came. At first, Blake was angry. Couldn’t they see how many people he was helping? Then, he ignored them. Finally, he decided to listen. He invited some of his critics into his office to really hear them out. What he soon realized was that some of their critiques were actually true. Even though he didn’t like the way they went about it, he was able to learn from the critics and improve his business-model.

The point: Maybe you won’t always like how someone criticizes you, but that doesn’t me what they say doesn’t hold value. Do your best to evaluate what you can implement to improve your manuscript.

Practical tip: Check out Kyra’s post on getting the most out of your critique!

Use the experts

Blake was the first to admit that he wasn’t exactly shoe-savvy. So when things began to take off, he knew he needed to hire some experts in the field. He quickly hired a few people with previous experience at some of the largest shoe distributors. Later, when his people said it was time to diversify his shoe inventory, he listened. TOMS continued to explode.

The point: If you’re having trouble getting your MS off the ground, it’s probably because you’re in need of some expert insight. Find experienced editors, query experts, and agents to help you along the way. There’s no shame in getting help, and it’s pretty unrealistic to think you can do it all on your own.

Practical tip: Start with (non-friend) beta readers, then get yourself an editor and go from there.

What’s your next step?

Now that you’ve learned from Blake, what is your next step? Do you simply need to jot down some ideas? Do you need to re-visit criticism or pursue an editor? Whatever the case, I hope you give your MS a chance and start to write like an entrepreneur!

What to do with writer’s jealousy

Posted on June 17, 2015June 22, 2015 by Megan

We’ve all been there–whether swapping work with a fellow writer, engrossed in a gripping novel or just stumbling across a soccer mom’s blog–the heart beats a little faster, the face flushes red. Enter jealousy.

Eww. Even the word conjures images of crying kids and grotesque green monsters. When jealous rears it’s ugly head, we tend to push it down, embarrassed or ashamed. Even worse, we let it run wild, blind us to our own true desires. It’s not fun to admit, but we all have jealousy rolling around in the bottom of our emotional toolbox, a loose screw we’d rather forget was there.

But that’s just it. It is an emotion and it can be used as a tool.

Let’s turn this thing on its head a minute.

What if we viewed jealousy as device we could master, an emotion that didn’t debilitate (or turn our fingers into chubby green covet claws). I think it’s possible and really not all that hard. So if you’re a writer, these steps are for you just as much as for me. They’re simple and no perfect prescription, but you’ll get the gist… and you’ll also get the better of jealousy before it gets the better of you!

What to do with writer’s jealousy

1. Figure out what kind of jealous you are.
Do you a) wish you had what the other has or b)wish the other didn’t have it? There’s a big difference. With option a, you can go somewhere. But option b should be avoided. A shows you that you are positively dissatisfied. A dissatisfaction that is not just discontent for the moment, but a dissatisfaction that says I want to do better, be better. Option b is the uglier side of jealousy. Wishing ill of others, wishing they would not succeed or even that they’d fail. This kind of thinking will never help you succeed; bashing another writer in your brain will only waste away think time and take up creative space. So if you’re b, forget it. It’s not worth your time; you’re headed toward a life of disappointment. If you’re a, keep on keeping on.

2. Figure out if you really want what you think you want.
This is can be tricky, because thanks to social media and all this Internet jazz, it’s pretty easy to be swayed by another person’s form of success. But really take time to evaluate. Do you want to be published in a magazine? Do you really want a popular blog? Do you want to write a YA book? Think about what goes into these accomplishments and decide if that’s really what you’re aiming at. If not, then move on. Re-focus on your end goal and discern if you’re taking the right steps to get there.

3. Take steps toward what you really want.
If you’ve realized that the flare-up of jealousy comes from a place of simple and pure motivation towards your goals. If you can honestly say this is what you want, not what someone else wants for you, not trying to fit the status quo. Then look at your life. Look at your calendar. Are your making and taking the time for stepping toward your goal? If not, it’s time. Don’t put it off any longer. Make a weekly map and make it happen, one day at a time.

Turning jealousy on its head is definitely a journey. If you’ve found ways to deal with writer’s jealousy, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Note from Lara: What a great post, Megan! One way that I deal with writer’s jealousy is to cheer writers on instead. Many writers don’t participate in writing contests out of fear, fear that their pride would be damaged or fear of jealousy of other writers. What if I don’t do well in the contest? What if others do better? The only writer we should be comparing ourselves to is the one we were yesterday, last month, last year, five years ago. Every writer has his or her own path to success, but each one is filled with rejection and self-doubt.
I’ve created a new contest called pg70pit. It’s anonymous, so the only writer who will know if you get into the final seven or get agent requests is you. Any writer with a complete, polished MG, teen, or adult novel is welcome to enter, with the only exception being the genre of erotica (since excerpts will be posted publicly). Find out more at bit.ly/70pit, or visit bit.ly/LaraBlog on July 7th to see the top entries!

Unlocking your creative process

Posted on April 8, 2015April 8, 2015 by Megan

Recently I wrote an article for a client on how creatives get their ‘ creative juices flowing.’ (It’s in the editing queue or I would totally link to it). In order to get some insights, I posed a question on HARO, and within a day my inbox was flooded. Writers, designers, illustrators, and craftspeople were all full of ideas on how to make ideas happen and get creative.

As I began to leaf through their responses, something struck me: each of these individuals has his or her own creative process.

All of them have a way in which they go about starting, sustaining and finishing a project. A few people even described their creative process to me, with others just highlighting a phase or step they take when creating.

Then I realized something else: I was not familiar with my own creative process.

As someone who’s been writing and drawing since learning how to hold a pencil, you’d think I’d have a hint by now. Nope. Thinking about how I create feels like closing my eyes and trying to picture my face. Strange.

If you’re like me, your creative process may be a bit of a mystery to you; it may feel strange to try and capture it and duplicate it later. But I’m convinced that unlocking my (your) process is the key to understanding how to improve both the process and the final result.

The first step to unlocking your creative process is to simply understand the components of creating. I’ve listed what I believe to be the four main phases of the creative process. (I’m sure there’s zillions of opinions and ideas about what the creative process actually includes, so keep in mind, that this is just my take.)

With each phase, I’ve listed a few questions you can ask yourself to better understand your personal process and start thinking about ways to improve it.

1. Ideation
Everything starts with an idea. Ideation may happen when you’re lying awake in bed, going for a long walk outside or taking a shower. It’s different for everyone, so the key to this step is finding out what starts your idea engine and making time for that activity.

Ask yourself: where and when does ideation happen for me? * Do I carve out (enough) time to do the activities that bring me ideas?

*If you can’t think of any specific times/places that ideas happen, you may want to start trying some different brainstorming techniques to see which works for you

For me, spending time riding my bike or walking in nature is what inspires ideation.

2. Invention (Creating)
This is the phase when you actually start to put the pen to paper, fingers in the clay, a brush to canvas. Actually starting can be the most difficult (and longest) step in the process. As you think through your creative process, you may have several sub-steps* that fall under invention in order to get you all the way through to the next phase.

Ask yourself: what holds me back from starting to invent/create? Where do I do my best inventing/creating? Do I have (enough) time carved out to invent/create?

*planning, organizing, outlining…

3. Reflection
This is the phase in your process when you look back at your work to reflect and evaluate. For writers, this is asking someone to read your work, going to a beta-reader or hiring an editor. This is also self-reflection, thinking through and assessing your creative process and your finished project. This step is often ignored and can be the scariest part of the creative process. It’s hard to think about our work objectively and face the flaws, but ignoring the reflecting phase is as silly as denying the fact you have a hammer in your house. This phase is a powerful tool that allows us to hone our craft and improve our process.

Ask yourself: Do I actually reflect? If so, do I use reflecting to improve my finished product? Do I have (enough) time carved out for reflecting?

4. Re-inventing
The final* phase in the creative process is reinventing (re-crafting, or recreating). Often after reflecting, we can feel overwhelmed or sick of our project and give up on or ignore it for a time. Getting to the point where we are actually willing to reinvent can be difficult, but is absolutely key to accomplishing our creative process. Reinventing is the place where we take what we learned in reflection and improve upon what we’ve created. Though the name I chose for this phase might suggest a total over-haul, that is not the intent. The reinventing stage is to simply re-visit what you’ve made and make improvements.

Ask yourself: Do I allow myself to reach this step? What is hard for me about this step and how can I remove these barriers? Do I have (enough) time carved out to recreate?

*We may go through several rounds of reflection and reinventing before we finally “finish” with a final round of reflecting.

Now what
Now that you know the components of most creative processes, it’s time to map out what it takes you to make and carve out time for each phase. More on how to map out time to create in posts to come…

For the comments: How do you create? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about your own creative process and what makes it work!

originally posted on suzieruewrites.com

Coping with your critics

Posted on March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 by Megan

I recently spoke with an aspiring author who had been hearing a lot of criticism about her manuscript. To the critics, her plot just wasn’t believable, her character was too well-adjusted. This is not an uncommon phenomenon. As aspiring authors, we all have to undergo a vast amount of critique (even self-critique) to wade through our first MS.

But even well-known authors—the published, famous ones—have probably seen the internet rants of critics calling their work “sub-par,” “elementary,” “contrived.”

It stinks, but in some form or other, criticism will be part of our writing experience. So instead of running from it, we need to find some ways to cope and even use this criticism to our advantage.

3 ways to cope

1. Don’t take yourself (or your work) so seriously. No matter how artful and ethereal your poetry is, no matter how well-rounded your character, you are still a human being that shares earth and oxygen with the rest of us; therefore, you are fair game to be criticized.

I found this “critique” in a favorite zine of mine called Funwater Awesome 3. The author clearly doesn’t take himself too seriously and decided to include this critique from “Hester Heckles” in his second edition of the zine:

Zach: Most people are fine with the pointless feel-good of your zine, but I, for one, want more than what’s in the flabby folds of your head. There is nothing practical in your zine! Nothing of quantifiable SUBSTANCE! Where are the true Tumwater tales, the lessons, the stories of some use to people of today? Good minds want to know. —Hester Heckles

2. Fish out the practical pieces. If someone says your writing is weird, well, you don’t have a whole lot to go on. Put it out of your head and move on to something more practical. If a critic or editor says your work feels wordy, you have something concrete, something you can begin to re-craft with. Just like Heckles told Zach a few specifics (she wanted some Tumwater stories and lessons), you need to look beyond the crazy parts of the critique to find the practical pieces that will improve your MS. Obviously, you will need to ensure you can trust the source behind the critique before you go slashing words and hacking your MS apart.

3. Find a friend to balance the scales. Sometimes we need someone to encourage us and lift us up when all we’ve been receiving is negative messages. And sometimes we need a friend to bring us back to earth when our flag is flying a little too close to the thunder clouds. The key is to find someone who is balanced: NOT a people-pleaser, but a person who can both encourage and criticize from a place of truth and tact.

Now that you have my three little ways to cope with criticism, go off and conquer your own Hester Heckles!

Note from Lara: Chuck Wendig wrote a related post today about critiques, “How to Make the Most out of a Writing Critique: Ten Tips.” His post is a nice complement to Megan’s, but note that his blog contains graphic language.