Taking Care of Business - Ciaran Murtagh

People always think it must be brilliant working from home, and as I sit in my freezing shed with frost on the inside of the windows waiting for the heater to come out of hibernation long enough to stop my breath steaming, I have to agree.

Sure it has it's problems, like wondering if you're going to make enough money  to justify turning on the heaters in the first place, but it also has lots of benefits. You're your own boss. You can work when you like and you can fit working hours around other things you might need to do in the day, like picking fluff out of your belly button, nursing that Bargain Hunt addiction and wondering what you're going to wear for dress down Friday, even though every day is technically dress down Friday. Truth be told, I sometimes have a 'can't be bothered to get dressed at all' Thursday...

But work does still need to be done. You can't just sit in your shed inhaling the sweet fumes of your a-ha themed scented candle (true fact) and dream of being JK. So how can you make a success of working from home? As Elvis said - you gotta Take Care of Business.

1) Routine

There is something about a commute to work that gets you out of home space and into work space. I'm not saying I want to sit on an overcrowded, overpriced train in order to be more effective, but I find I have to do something. When your commute is literally 'walk to the shed' or in previous incarnations 'walk to the spare room' then there's little time to transition.

This morning I've got myself up (big tick there), got two kids up, dispatched them to two different schools and nurseries, did the bins, tidied bedrooms and now it's time to work. Trouble is I don't really feel like it. I need to do something to kick myself into gear.  For me it's a blast at the gym, for you it might be a walk, a swim, reading the paper, something that kicks you into a different place. It may seem like you're wasting your time - the kids'll be back before you know it, there's stuff to be done. But as Billy Bragg said:

'I know it looks like I'm just reading the paper, 

but these ideas I'll turn to gold dust later

'Cause I'm a writer not a decorator...' 

2) Planning

I like to know what I'm doing in a day. Some people like to plan the night before, that's never been my bag. It's also impossible sometimes. I have book deadlines that might be a month or two in advance, I have TV deadlines which are literally 'by lunchtime' and I have the joys of working with Australia and the US who work through the night to give me work I didn't know existed in the morning.

Regardless, each morning I try and make a plan for myself. It doesn't have to be colour coded and covered in sticky notes, literally a numbered list - I am going to do these things in this order and then I'm going to stop, unless Australia wakes up early. It gives my day structure, and while it might not go according to plan, at least I know what I'm diverting from so I can come back to it in due course.

3) Breaks

Take breaks. You are not a loser for taking breaks. Procrastinating is not the same as taking a break. Recognise when you've hit a wall. I can spend an hour staring at a screen getting nowhere, I go and make a cup of tea and the thing clicks into place like a magic eye puzzle (ask your parents). Breaks are important.

4) Writing is not the only work

My job is a writer, therefore you might think the only time I'm doing my job properly is when I'm putting words on a page. It's not true. We're not coal miners, we're not paid by the tonne. Research is work. Answering emails is work. Sorting out your receipts is work. Invoicing is work. Sometimes - and don't tell my wife - sitting in a bath with a notepad and pen at two in the afternoon, is work. Don't beat yourself up too much about targets and word counts. If you are doing something that contributes to making the core business of what you do easier and more successful, you are working.

5) Don't eat the biscuit

That is literally it. In an office, you eat all the biscuits people judge you. When you're your own boss you can eat all the biscuits, go out and buy a new packet so nobody knows, eat them too and then only get blamed for eating one packet of biscuits. That has never EVER happened by the way.

What I mean is, fight your urges and your temptations. There are lots of things you could be doing and no one is going to know if you do them instead of work apart from yourself. Know what your distractions are and try and break the habit of going to them. You'll get more done, and in my case, stay slimmer.

That's it. Merry Christmas. Keep on trucking and may all your notebook pages be white.

What Do I Do All Day? or The Third Diary by Sheena Wilkinson

My friend Alison is great at presents and this was no exception: thoughtful, beautiful and so ME. But I felt a kind of guilty dismay. It was the 2nd January. Normally I love getting a present late, but this was a DIARY. A very special suffragette diary. I adore diaries and very year I keep two – one, my proper appointment diary with everything in it, and then a daily journal, the latter usually a Christmas present from Auntie Iris. 

un embarras de journaux

The big diary is always well under way from October as that’s when bookings start to come in, and I had started Auntie Iris's the day before. It would feel like bad luck to start the year again in a different diary. What could I do? Whatever I did, I ran the risk of upsetting one diary (I’m a ridiculous anthropomorphosiser of inanimate objects), and besides that, how wasteful!

the beautiful diary 

The beautiful suffragette diary sat rebuking me on my desk for a few days.  As it happens, I had a really busy January, creatively: day after day of just writing and editing, with very few other commitments. My ‘real’ diary was empty and yet I was spending hours every day at my desk.

That’s when I had my brainwave – my suffragette diary could be a record of my work – not the workshops, the events, the school visits, the train times and the flight references and the mileage, but what I think of as my ‘real’ work – writing. I’ve always kept a word count when I’m writing, but this is a bit different. As well as word count, I note down (very briefly) when I’ve spent the morning in admin or preparation. I’ve found this invaluable – it shows me very clearly what I actually do all day and helps me not feel guilty when writing progress isn’t what I’d like it to be. It's also a good excuse to bring out the highlighters! 

As freelancers, we often struggle with boundaries. I know I have written before about the danger of overworking. This new way of keeping a third diary (and it takes seconds every day) is, for me, a valuable record of what I do all day. Sometimes every day. It encourages a sense of achievement. And when I come to count up my days worked at home for my accountant next year, there it all is in one easy place. 

Not for everyone, but I love it. And I wouldn’t have started it if I hadn’t felt guilty about receiving a third diary, and such a lovely one! And now I can confess to Alison… 

FACT OR FICTION - WHICH ONE'S FOR YOU? By Ann Evans

As well as writing fiction, for the last 30 odd years I've also written magazine articles on all kinds of topics. Just over the last few days I've been working on a Doctor Who toys article to tie in with the programme's 50th anniversary in November and an article on the charity Dogs for the Disabled which this year celebrates 25 years of assistance dogs working with disabled people.

Sometimes when I'm talking about writing to schools or adults even, the mention of writing articles results in a bit of a glazed-eyed look as they imagine how boring it must be to write up some dry old factual stuff which can't possibly be half as much fun as writing fiction that takes you off into the fantastical world of your imagination. 

Me all set for my first flight in a helicopter.

But once I've told the class about combat flying in an army helicopter, racing down the Thames on a police boat, watching a Swiss mountain rescue team at work and interviewing the likes of chef Gordon Ramsay and iconic comedian Norman Wisdom, you can see them seriously considering whether non-fiction writing is something they might actually consider taking up.

One of the nice things about freelance writing is the fact that it's open to all, so long as you have the ability. You don't need special qualification, you can do it as a hobby, or you can try and make a bit of money from it. Age doesn't come into it either. Young or old, so long as you've learnt the craft of article writing, have the ability to immerse yourself into someone's world to learn about their passion so you can write about it – and you have some method of capturing their words and taking photos. Then what's to stop you?

Seeing the Thames Police at work - so
exciting!

When you're doing a mix of fiction and non fiction writing, they compliment each other so well. While books, edits, awaiting publisher's decision etc can take months or even years, an article can be written in a day or so (I used to be quicker when I was at the Cov Telegraph!) And you can see your results within a matter of weeks sometimes.

Of course article writing still carries all the disappointments of rejections; and changing editors can often make a huge difference to your work being accepted or not. But on the whole the two genres rub along very nicely together.

Yesterday I came across my first scrapbook and the first article I ever had published. The very first thing I had published was a reader's letter to Weekend Magazine which earned me the grand sum of £1.50 and I was over the moon about it. The first proper article was in Nursery World in 1979 for which I earned £9. I'd got one toddler and one new baby at the time so felt suitably equipped to put pen to paper (or fingers to typewriter) to write about avoiding jealousy amongst siblings when a new baby comes along. 

My first ever published article 1979.

When it was published they'd illustrated it with a generic picture of a toddler and baby, and I thought, I could have sent a photo in of my two. Lesson learned! Articles do better with photos or illustrations.

How to make a wooden darts case came next, suitably illustrated, for Dart's World magazine, this linked in with my social life at the time, playing darts in a ladies darts team – couldn't hit a barn door these days!

All sorts of articles followed, coinciding with my attempts at writing stories and gradually the two fell into place, side by side, fiction and non-fiction – and the path was set.

Teaming up with a photographer friend, Rob Tysall, was the best thing ever and we'd go 50/50 on anything published. As our articles were rarely commissioned, it was pot luck whether our hard work would result in being published or not. (Actually nothing changes!) But it was (and still is) exciting to keep an eye out in WH Smiths to see if we'd got anything published each month.

From the early 90s I started writing for Dogs Monthly with Rob taking the photos – and amazingly we still do to this day. As we're both massive dog lovers, writing about dogs has resulted in getting out and about meeting some amazing dogs – generally working dogs and some amazing people.

In the hope that there's lots of other dog lovers out there, I've just sorted through a few photos of dogs we're written about over the years. A picture may paint a thousand words but behind every picture there's a story. Enjoy the doggy pics, and thanks Rob (Tysall's Photography) for taking them. 

How about you? Is non fiction and article writing part of your writing life? Or do you just love dogs?

Richard Curtis practising for Crufts.

Canine aquatherapy but he stopped to
pose for the camera!

Swiss mountain rescue
(simulated for our article)

Mary Ray's amazing dogs

Please visit my website: www.annevansbooks.co.uk