Why I'm a plate spinner ...

There was one vaudeville act that always fascinated me.  It wasn’t the clowns, the guy juggling the swords or the lion tamer who managed to stick his head somewhere near his pet.

The act that always fascinated me was the plate spinner. 

This was the guy who kept thirteen plates spinning on the end of thirteen poles … and none of them fell. He ran back-and-forth from pole to pole, giving the plate the slightest wobble, steadying it and giving it enough momentum to keep spinning.

It was more than skill. It was more than hand-eye co-ordination. It was a commitment to the plates, and never letting them fall. It was knowing that each plate needed to be watched and needed to have attention paid to it. It was knowing that the whole act depended on everything being kept moving.

You know, that vaudeville act is so much like writing.

If you’re a writer, you will more than likely identify with the plate spinner – keeping everything moving and not wanting to (or feeling like you can’t) let any of them fall. If any of them develop speed wobbles, we drop everything and head over to it to give it a bit more of a push, all the while hoping the other plates have enough momentum to keep going.

I was looking at my project list for my writing and all I saw was thirteen plates on the end of slowly speed-reducing poles:

1. A new blog post, which feels like it is way overdue, even though my calendar says it isn’t
2. Writing some more content to feed the hungry beast that is social media
3. Adding another 1,000 words to my current work-in-progress, because the deadline I set three months ago is getting closer, not further away
4. Editing that character in my completed manuscript to fully flesh him out because I’m starting to wonder if he’s a cardboard character with no soul
5. Writing up that idea for a new novel that broke into my head at 4am yesterday and could be the best thing I’ll ever write, but won’t be if I lose the idea
6. Following up that agent who I queried five weeks ago and hasn't troubled my inbox, even though I’ve been refreshing it every two minutes
7. Preparing a proposal for another agent who I am absolutely convinced will be ‘the one’
8. Reading two books at once to inspire me to improve my craft and because I can’t put either of them down
9. Researching other authors to see how they are marketing themselves to see what I could learn
10. Connecting with other authors on social media to check that my delusions of grandeur and massive insecurities – in equal measure – are normal
11. Dreaming about the cover of my first novel and what it might look like sitting on bookshop shelves
12. Exploring the professional development opportunities I would love to undertake if I had some money from this writing gig
13. Reading those five web articles about writing that will help my writing process improve by at least 10%

But the main skill I have to keep up is the ability to keep everything moving. Maybe this is one this you face as a writer yourself – the constant movement, the constant checking and the feeling like momentum needs to be propelling you forward.

But the one big lesson for writers actually came from a plate spinner I once saw. One of his plates dropped.  The audience gasped and sighed in collective sympathy as they saw a failed act.

I looked at those remaining twelve poles and saw a guy who had managed to keep twelve plates going at once.  That was amazing.

And it’s a lesson I continually remind myself when I comes to keeping my own writing plates spinning.

Dictation - by Adam David Collings

Everyone seems to be talking about dictation these days. A number of big-name indie authors swear by it, crediting it for improved efficiency and the high volume of output necessary to reach their level of success. The idea is simple. You talk to your phone or computer, and your voice is converted to text.

When I first started hearing about this new fad I wasn't overly interested. After all, I can type reasonably quickly, and I enjoy the feel of the keys beneath my fingers. Talking is not something that comes naturally to me, so why go down that path?

But there are some potential health benefit to dictation. Those who suffer from RSI in their wrists may find a great deal of relief. Then, there is the ability to walk while you work.

I used to do a lot of walking. I'd walk 15 mins from the car park into work, and then 15 mins back again. This daily ritual began to fade as I found myself working from home more often. My fitness has definitely gone down, and my clothes are getting too tight. Time to get back into exercise. But when? I was recently bemoaning to myself about lack of time. Sure, I could fit more walking into my day, but it's time-consuming, and I'm already trying to squeeze time into my day for writing. Then I remembered the dictation craze. Maybe there was something in this after all. Could I possibly kill two birds with one cliche?

But What about Cost?

The tool that everybody seems to be using is Dragon Dictate/Naturally Speaking. A quick check indicates you'll be out of pocket over $100. A reasonable investment, especially since many have a lot of trouble training the software to effectively recognise their voice. However, there are free options. Modern-day smartphones do a great job of understanding speech without training through products such as Google Now, Siri, and Cortana. It seems Google have been leveraging that technology toward dictation. Google Documents now has a voice typing mode. Another reason to love this free tool, and you can always copy the transcribed text into Scrivener or Word afterward.

What about mobile?

That's all well and good, but you don't want to lug a laptop around with you while you walk, so I had a look to see if I could use the phone app for google documents to dictate. The mobile app doesn't make mention of voice typing itself, but the standard google keyboard has a microphone button, which enables voice typing mode.

I'm using the Android platform, but a quick search indicates that both iPhone and Windows phone also have voice typing options. After a quick experiment, I found that Google voice typing did a pretty good job of understanding my speech. There was an incorrect word here and there, but no less than the inevitable typos that creep into my writing anyway. Getting the punctuation right might be a bit of a pain, but in a recent podcast, author Joanna Penn indicated she planned to dictate without any punctuation, and sort that out at the computer later.

Proponents of dictation often suggest you start by dictating an outline or brainstorming notes, rather than launching straight into first-draft material. This sounds like a good idea. I plan to give this a go sometime soon. With 24 planned episodes in my episodic serial, I have plenty of outlining ahead of me.

Dictation won't be for everyone, it might not even be for me, I don't know yet, but it seems there are no longer any barriers to giving it a go. The only problem that I have yet to find a solution to, is not a technical problem. The issue is that of self-consciousness. Namely, when you bump into someone during your walk, and they notice you talking into your phone. I think a quiet area where you're unlikely to come across other people might be wise.

So what about you? Have you tried dictation? Does it sound like something you might want to try?

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Adam David Collings is an author of speculative fiction. He lives in Tasmania, Australia with his wife and two children. Adam draws inspiration for his stories from his over-active imagination, his life experiences and his faith.

Adam is a great lover of stories, enjoying them in books, movies, scripted TV and computer games. Adam discusses these on his own youTube show – Stories with Adam Collings.

Find him at adamdavidcollings.com or sign up to his email list for a free short story.

But what would you speak about?Jo-Anne Berthelsen

There I was, chatting away to some people who I thought knew me. At least, they already knew I was an author. But when I mentioned something about one of my recent experiences of speaking at a particular venue, they appeared quite puzzled. Eventually, one of them asked a question I have heard several times before.

‘But ... well ... what would you speak about at these places?’

More often than not, this is meant as nothing more than a polite enquiry about the sort of topics I am comfortable speaking on, in which case I am happy to fill them in. Yet sometimes I feel there is more behind such a question. Sometimes these people seem incredulous that I as an author—and particularly a novelist—might have anything to say that could interest or encourage or challenge others.

Now one might well (and perhaps rightly!) put this defensive response of mine down to pride and self-doubt and that slight ‘chip on the shoulder’ attitude some authors seem to display at times. But such a question disturbs me for a different reason as well—and that is that it shows how easily we can pigeonhole people. Fiction writers, these people seem to think, just write novels. Yet most novelists I know have thought long and hard about the themes featured in the fiction they produce and are quite passionate about them. In my own six published novels, I explore such themes as the love and grace of God, forgiveness, becoming the person God created us to be, overcoming rejection, dealing with anger and bitterness, and holding onto our faith in God. I feel deeply about all these and love talking about them when given the opportunity.

Beyond that, however, I believe many people are interested in hearing about how a writer goes about creating a book and about the challenges and rewards of the writing journey and of being a published author. I have spoken about such things in both church and secular settings many times and have learnt to be prepared for all sorts of questions. So we as authors have the opportunity of sharing about both the process and content of our writing and of thus being used by God in a unique way.

Now I know some of you might still cringe at the thought of public speaking. Perhaps you have had bad experiences in the past with this. Or perhaps you have more of a naturally quiet, retiring personality. We are all different. I know too that I am blessed to have had so much experience standing up in front of others and speaking in various capacities. In the past, I have worked as a high school teacher and also as a local church minister. But there is no doubt we all have something to say and a story to share. We would not be writers if we did not.

So I will continue, I suspect, to be disturbed—perhaps even a tad annoyed—when writers are pigeonholed and regarded as having little to talk about. But how about you? Have you encountered such questions in your own writing journey? Do you feel writers have anything to say?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.