I usually push chores aside, or do them halfway, to carve out time to write. Knitting fits into the small moments of the day, like waiting at the preschool for pickup. A project is easy to pick up and put back down (usually).

A friend with two kids recently showed me her silverware drawer. To save time, she decided to throw out the plastic insert. Now she just dumps the forks, spoons and knives in there willy-nilly. Her new system saves a few minutes every time she unloads the dishwasher, and it’s still easy enough to find the utensils she needs.

That got me thinking. What changes can I make to my daily routine to eke out a little more novel-writing time during the day?

Before becoming a mom, I set aside long blocks of time to work on my book. Having kids has forced me to work in 15- or 30-minute segments, usually during naps or first thing in the morning before anyone wakes up. Anything beyond that is a bonus!

It’s impossible to gauge exactly how much time I’ll have during a writing session. An expected 8 a.m. wakeup time might turn into 6:30 or 7 on any given day. So instead of waiting for a good long break, I plunge in and start. I don’t bother with optimal writing conditions any more, because they so rarely occur.

It’s freeing to train oneself to write in small, productive bursts. I prefer to work at 10 a.m., with caffeine and no noise, for two or more hours. But I don’t need that kind of setup. I can get something done between shoveling bites of cereal in my mouth and that first “Mom!” or “Waaah!” call. Although caffeine always helps.

I fit knitting into my life one row at a time. It often takes weeks to complete a small project. That’s sort of how I’m feeling about my novel right now. I’m aiming to do a little novel work every day. A few new sentences, some edits, or even reading James Wood’s HOW FICTION WORKS all count. It feels great to be writing consistently again, even though it’s slow and the luxurious 2-hour blocks are scarce. I could certainly use more time, but I’ll take what I can get and do my best to use it wisely.

Back to my friend and her silverware drawer, we all make time to write.  What are some of your life shortcuts? Have you given up any activities to devote more time to writing? If you’re a parent, how do you squeeze in your writing time?

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-AR

I love writing parties. This past weekend I attended my first Intentional Ducati event, hosted by Joanna Rose and Stevan Allred of the Pinewood Table. Here’s a detailed description of the idea, but basically participants are given prompts to incorporate in a 1,000-word flash fiction piece. The theme this time was “firsts” in love, like a first breakup, first kiss, etc.

We gathered last Saturday night to share food and to read our stories, which were supposed to include a reference to Romeo and Juliet, a type of clothing not commonly seen in public, internal rhymes in three adjacent sentences and one or more objects from a list of six nouns. Some were easy to spot–like the Shakespeare references and the “boy wearing extremely baggy pants.” Others, like the internal rhymes, were so subtle that I kept getting swept up in the writing and forgetting to listen for them.

Until preparing for the party, I hadn’t written a short story since 2006, when I put together a Ducati piece. (That time, though, I didn’t attend the event due to giving myself a concussion in the kitchen of my new rental house.) Moreover, until last week’s experiment with flash fiction, I hadn’t finished a piece of fiction in more than two years. (That was my novel, BODY COPY.) It felt so great to work on something short, framed by the boundaries of content and word count. And it felt even better to finish it. And then read it out loud to an audience of writers who had written their own pieces using the same prompts.

Writing that 1,000-word piece reminded me how much I love revision. How it feels to lift out the excess. To see, and then strengthen, connections that weren’t there at first. And I do love working within specific boundaries. Sometimes I feel like such boundaries allow me more creative flexibility. In college writing courses, I always took more risks when working on a specific assignment. The grand sweep of a novel, especially an epic one, can be daunting in scope and possibility, compared to a measured, limited exercise.

Do you write flash fiction? If so, for fun or as a break from your novel? Do you work from prompts or just start writing? How many words do you aim for (or what’s the maximum)? I’m interested in writing some more short pieces and could use your advice!

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-Al

My 4-year-old made these to share with her preschool classmates.

For me, Valentine’s Day has always been about more than romance. I use it as an excuse to express love and appreciation for friends and family.

For one thing, it’s my mother’s birthday, so growing up we celebrated her with cake and red and pink wishes for the upcoming year. And as I’ve mentioned before, I love sending cards and goodies. Valentine’s Day is a great reason to buy some high-quality chocolate and stick it in padded envelopes to share a little sweetness with my dearest friends.

This year is the first in a while where I didn’t send any cards or chocolate out, because February sneaked up on me, so this photo will have to do. My 4-year-old daughter made these tiny hearts to give to her preschool classmates today. They’ll also be celebrating with pizza and cookie decorating. What fun!

Little kids aren’t shy about talking about love or offering hugs and kisses. It seems my daughter talks about love every day. She bubbles and gushes about her friends and won’t let a playdate end without a hug or a quick smooch. She knows who she loves and isn’t afraid to show her feelings. She has recently taken to listing all her family members, one by one, and saying she loves us.

“And I love myself,” she usually adds at the end.

This Valentine’s Day, after I kiss my husband and thank him for being so great, I’ll pick up the phone and call some of my East Coast friends to say I miss them and love them. That’s what cards mean to me anyway–taking the time to brighten someone’s day. And if I have time, inspired by my daughter’s confidence, I’ll do something fun for myself, like go get coffee or carve out an extra 15 minutes for writing.

Do you plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day tomorrow? If so, how? If not, why not?

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My 4-year-old loves the shiny new floor, but I'm excited to add some cushy throw rugs.

While I don’t have a writing room of my own, we’re turning the basement workshop into a family office. The final major piece was sealing the concrete floor, which happened Monday. I think it looks a little like marble. My daughter says it’s more like ice. (She proceeded to ice skate around in circles between the wood beams.)

Other than moving the furniture back in, we still have to add throw rugs, window treatments, bookshelves and baseboard molding.

My corner will feature a massive desk and a filing cabinet. I’ll hang a beautiful etching by the artist Betty MacDonald featuring a woman with bird’s nests in her hair. It’s one of my favorite pieces of art, and it reminds me of the crows in my first finished novel.

I’ll have to decide how else to dedicate my space to writing. Perhaps I’ll hang my Hero’s Journey map on the wall. Or put up some fun quotes. I’m sure I’ll continue to write at the kitchen table while the kids sleep, but I look forward to having a dedicated writing space in the house.

Do you have a writing room? Or a writing corner? How have you personalized your space?

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I recently photographed this full rainbow in the back yard--and if you look closely, you can see a faint double rainbow hovering above it.

I still remember the first time I saw a full rainbow, just like the ones in picture books.

I was 15, and my family had traveled from New Jersey to Washington state to house hunt. I loved the place, its impressive row of windows and its proximity to the water. I loved what would have been my bedroom. I even loved the local school after visiting for a day. But living there would have meant moving all the way across the country from everything I had ever known.

On that trip, my parents and I were driving in the car when one of us spotted a full rainbow out the window. I can’t remember who saw it first, but I remember pressing my nose to the glass and feeling this unbelievable sense of joy. A whole rainbow!

Even seeing a portion of a rainbow was rare where I grew up; they are a lot more frequent here in the Pacific Northwest.

Like many little girls, I had doodled countless rainbows on countless pieces of scrap paper during my childhood. And I had long ago memorized ROY G BIV, the order of the colors. Until that moment in the car, though, I had never seen more than a portion of an arc, and even that was pretty rare in New Jersey. It felt absolutely magical to see a full rainbow for the first time.

We didn’t move to Washington. But I ended up in the Pacific Northwest nearly 10 years later, and I’ve been here ever since. It’s a land of full rainbows. And it’s still magical every single time I see a full one.

I still think about that house sometimes. The life I would have led as a teenager in Washington state. The friends I would have made in that lovely little school. I wonder if that early delicious taste of the Northwest is part of why I fell in love with Oregon so readily.

There are many moments like that in fiction, where the road forks and the character chooses one route over the other (or is forced one way or the other). That’s one of the reasons I write: to explore paths I’ll never take in my own life. To find out what kind of gold lies on the other side of the fictive journey.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-zJ

Emma Burcart put a lot of thought and time into creating the perfect place to write.

I’m so excited to introduce author Emma Burcart today. Her fiction merges women’s issues and literary sensibilities into a tantalizing blend of humor, relationship wisdom and beautiful language.

Emma’s one of the most driven people I know in terms of creating and sticking to a daily writing routine. So it’s especially wonderful that she has put together a guest post on that very subject. I’m also thrilled that she’s sharing photos of her colorful, stylish writing room. The space she has created for herself is so inspirational.

Welcome, Emma!

Making Time and Space for Writing

By Emma Burcart

Emma Burcart

When I first started writing it was a hobby. I wrote sporadically, when I felt like it, and without a plan for what it was going to be. Somewhere along the way I took a few writing classes and joined a critique group. Over time writing became a bigger and more important part of my life. I stopped writing with my laptop balanced on the coffee table and dug my dad’s old desk out of my parents’ garage. I set up a desk area in a small corner of my living room, with a book shelf and small side table for my printer. I felt like a writer.

Then I became a real grown up and bought my own condo. More important than a guest room was a writing room. I was ready to make writing more than just a hobby. It had become such a big part of who I am. A writer needs a room.

I started to research colors as soon as my offer was accepted and the contract signed. It turned out that orange inspired creativity. Exactly what I needed. I picked out a black and white damask wallpaper for one accent wall and metallic silver paint for the ceiling. I wanted a room that not only inspired me to write, but a room in which it would be impossible to fall asleep.

Emma has outfitted her bold and elegant writing space with plenty of organizational necessities, including a bulletin board.

The day I closed on my condo my step-mom and I went in with paint and paper. My writing room was top priority. I could decorate the rest of the place slowly, but the writing room had to be move-in ready. While the orange paint dried we went to Ikea and I bought my very own desk and bookshelf. The first two pieces of brand new furniture I’d ever owned.

Moving in was pretty quick and painless. I had a few friends to help. When they all left I went into my writing room and set up. Desk, bookshelf, bulletin board, and my dad’s old desk as a printer stand. I set my computer up and put a coffee mug full of pens on the corner of my desk.

The next day, I got up and wrote. And it’s been the same thing pretty much every day since. With an inspiring place to write, it’s not so hard to get up early. So, I started a new routine. Every weekday morning my alarm goes off at 4 a.m. Yeah, it’s early. But I set the timer on the coffee pot so it’s waiting for me when I roll out of bed.

Every morning I sit in my beautiful orange writing room and write for two hours before work. In the beginning there were excuses to fight and days I didn’t want to get out of bed. But I always did. And now, a year and a half later, it’s almost easy. The hard part is when six o’clock comes and I have to stop writing to get in the shower.

I’m not sure if it’s the orange walls or the new desk that makes the difference. Maybe it’s just the commitment I made to myself and my writing. But since I made the time and the space to write, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’m a writer, after all.

What have you found inspiring? Are there any routines that make you a more productive writer?

Thanks so much for visiting, Emma! You can find out more about her and her work at www.emmaburcart.com, or by visiting her very entertaining blog, Occasional Epiphanies. She’s also on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. And if you’re interested in being a guest blogger here, please pop me a note at laurastanfill at hotmail dot com. 

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-zb

Author and website designer Julia Stoops did just that for her book PARTS PER MILLION. The result is beautiful, profound and captivating.

This is one of a series of works by author and visual artist Julia Stoops featuring Nelson, the protagonist of her novel PARTS PER MILLION.

Partspermillion.net incorporates character biographies, photographs of the story’s location, thoughtful FAQs about Julia’s creative process and more. The site background is a piece of Julia’s original art, and artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner rendered compelling black-and-white illustrations that make the novel’s characters come to life.

Julia is one of the most creative people I know. She’s a writer, an artist and a professional website designer and branding guru. You can learn more about her visual art and writing here. I interviewed her last spring about PARTS PER MILLION, her research process and using multiple point-of-view characters as part of the Seven Questions series.

Do you have an author or novel website? What are some of your favorite author sites and why?

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-yp

This little red wagon was my husband's when he was little.

We’ve had a few days of wintry weather here in Portland, including a lovely, swirling blizzard-like snowfall Tuesday night.

The next morning, though, we woke up to slush and rain. My husband and I talked about that little-kid feeling of being up late peering through the window at all the flakes coming down. Oh the potential! It was so disappointing waking up to puddles and spots of grass reappearing beneath the pristine white. (Hello, you slushy gray reality.)

We were glad, at least, that our daughter woke up in the middle of the night so the three of us could spend a few hushed moments staring out the window and imagining sledding and building snowmen in the morning.

I want to capture that sort of hopeful, first snowfall delight in my historical novel, LOST NOTES, when my protagonist first arrives in New York City in 1853. Despite misfortune, Henri is intoxicated with the possibility of this bustling place and what he can do now that he’s far away from his restrictive family. But my critique group read his arrival, as written in the first draft, as Henri being naive and unafraid and not particularly sympathetic. He should have reacted strongly to the crowds and dirt, they said. He should have been scared, too–all good points about a young man hailing from a sheltered village in France.

I’ve been thinking about all this since our group meeting in November, specifically why I’m so set on Henri having this initial idyllic view of his hometown and then New York. Thinking about the falling snow brings me closer to an answer. I want Henri to set out on his adventure–his quest–full of expectations and hope. I want him to close his eyes at night full of excitement about the next day.

One of his heroic qualities is to make the best of a situation rather than wallowing in what goes wrong. Henri ends up at a brothel in a notorious New York slum, but at least he finds a place that welcomes him. His gratefulness and his sense of honor go a long way in continuing that idyllic view of things for a while longer.

Certainly, as my group pointed out, Henri stays sheltered and naive too long in this first rough draft, especially in an environment where sex and commerce intersect–and where women end up when they have no other options. But in order to get him to become more realistic about the world around him, I needed to understand why he’s so hopeful in the first place. I don’t have an answer, yet, but the snow has gotten me thinking about potential. When Henri sets off for America, he knows anything can happen, and instead of being afraid, he feels liberated. He’s ready to be a hero in his own life. And that’s as good a place to start an adventure as any.

Have you had any epiphanies about your work lately? Or are you stuck trying to solve a particular problem?

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Rereading a favorite book reminds me of that afternoon cup of tea with a squirt of honey. Fun fuzzy slippers. A hot bath. It’s like comfort food without the calories. Just opening to the first page offers a surge of delight. Even if the details are hazy, I know the story well enough to anticipate the joy of meeting the characters again and being transported to a setting that previously enchanted me.

I’ve reread books most often when sick or exhausted or stressed. I’ve reread after surgery. During the early stages of labor. On airplanes when I don’t want to give my full concentration to a new discovery. Between classes back when I was in high school and college. And often, these days, I pick a familiar favorite off my bookshelves because I’ve run out of new books.

Right now I have a few fantastic new-to-me novels and one short story collection waiting for my attention (thanks to my husband and his excellent Christmas-giving abilities and two awesome book-gifting friends). But I’m leaving them in a happy little stack for the moment, because I’m in a rereading phase. It’s January. It’s wet and foggy. And I’m sleep deprived. I want the comfort of opening a great book and venturing forth into a story I’ve already discovered.

I just finished Jane Austen’s MANSFIELD PARK, which I read for the first time about four years ago. Prior to that, I devoured Chang-rae Lee’s ALOFT (for the third time).

Right now I’m rereading THE LITTLE BOOK by Selden Edwards. I wrote about this excellent work of historical fiction when I first started my blog. I’m enjoying being transported back to fin-de-siecle Vienna, and into Edwards’ imaginative world of time travel, lush historical details and richly developed characters.  I can’t wait to read his next book, slated for an August release.

What books are your fuzzy slippers? Do you have favorite titles or favorite authors? Or are you one of those readers who only reads each book once?

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My copy of the anthology came today, and I'm excited to start reading.

It’s always so lovely to report good writing news.

A number of writers in my personal community were published in a literary anthology, THE FROZEN MOMENT: CONTEMPORARY WRITERS ON THE CHOICES THAT CHANGE OUR LIVES, released last month by Publication Studio.

The collection, edited by Colin Farstad, is an enticing mix of essays, poetry, stories and narrative nonfiction. The 24 authors include Tom Spanbauer, Liz Prato, Dian Greenwood, J.W. Griffith, Kathleen Lane, Margaret Malone and Gigi Little, all of whom have been part of my writing life here in Portland, Oregon.

THE FROZEN MOMENT is available through the Publication Studio store. And if you live in Portland, there’s a reading scheduled for 5 p.m. this Sunday, Jan. 15, at Crow Arts Manor, 850 NE 81st Ave., #114.

Gigi has been featuring “tastes” of the collection on her blog, Ut Omnia Bene. Pop over there to read tantalizing short excerpts from THE FROZEN MOMENT, including (so far) works by Charles Dye, Andrew Printer, Michael Sage Ricci, Judy Reeves, David Ciminello, Tori Malcangio, Margaret Malone, Tom Spanbauer, Liz Prato, Akhim Cabey and Elva Redwood.

Publication Studio, which is based in Portland, Oregon, also has locations in Berkeley, Vancouver, Toronto and a roving one known as the Midwest Radical Culture Corridor. Gigi just informed me that if you live near one of these studios, you can order a book on site and watch it get printed and bound right there in front of you. How cool is that? I ordered my copy of THE FROZEN MOMENT online, but next time I’ll definitely go down to the local studio for the full experience.

“We attend to the social life of the book,” explains the Publication Studio website. “Publication Studio is a laboratory for publication in its fullest sense—not just the production of books, but the production of a public. This public, which is more than a market, is created through any and all means—physical production, digital circulation, and social gathering.”

Congrats to all the writers involved in THE FROZEN MOMENT. I can’t wait to read your work.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p1bhaB-yl