How Do I Love Thee, Francis Crawford . . .

Let Me List the Ways

by
Linda Lael Miller

I am an inveterate maker of lists. One application of this penchant, only recently applied and founded on the oldest and simplest of time management advice, i.e., to make a to-do list and follow through on it, has literally revolutionized my life. In a mere six weeks, I wrote and polished the initial draft of my medieval romance, My Lady Beloved.

I began this> process by getting out my date book, tearing off a few pages from one of those blotters with the dateless calendars, and planning out the next six months. I marked those days when I could not reasonably expect to write, and tried to keep my natural tendency toward over-optimism in check. I set my sights on three completed drafts in a given year. (I know that's a lot of books, but I'm trying to get my name out there in a big way--see section on listing goals!)

From my study of the calendar pages, I concluded that I needed to write ten pages per day, four days per week in order to achieve my objective. In my case, that left seven weeks for revisions, promotion, travel and just vegging out—something I do too little of, according to those nearest and dearest.

Now every evening I make a to-do list for the next day, including a page quota, a reading program ( 2 chapters from a book on writing, 2 chapters from a work on history, philosophy, mythology or anything else that might broaden my horizons in some way), and exercise—which I believe I is vital to any writer’s success. (But that’s a subject for a whole other article.

I also use lists to solve problems, listing ways to improve my health, my relations with family members and employees, etc. Recently, when one of those inevitable professional disappointments struck, I made lists of way I might make some strides in my career, and I came up with so many dynamite ideas that, in the end, I was glad the so-called setback had happened.

Listing my goals . . . helps me focus

Listing my goals, in considerable detail, helps me to focus on what I’m trying to accomplish. Right now I’m working on losing weight, buying a vacation hideaway, completing three books by the end of the year, and improving my showing in the marketplace.

Beneath each goal, I listed the reasons I wanted to achieve it, the obstacles I would face, the skills I needed to acquire, the people I would need to help me (networking has probably been the most valuable tool I’ve used in recent years), and then I mapped out a plan. Every category required a list.

Too simplistic, I can hear some of you saying. Everybody knows you have to write out your goals, and use a to-do list to get things done.

And that's true. Just about everybody knows. But surprisingly few people actually apply this basic knowledge. It just isn't enough to have a hazy idea floating around in your head--you've got to know exactly what you want, only then will you be able to formulate a plan of action. Contrary to what some self-help gurus would have you believe, wishing doesn't make it so--not with big, important goals, in any case.

101 Wishes

I have had some spooky experiences with smaller endeavors, though. After reading THE ALADDIN FACTOR, I wrote out the recommended list of 101 wishes and some of them were pretty off-the-wall. I wanted to see Princess Diana, and when I wrote that down, I figured there wasn't a chance in you-know-where that it would happen, even though I live in central London part of the year.

Sure enough, one day I was walking down the street on my way to the post office, when I noticed a hubbub in front of one of the local custom lingerie places. You guessed it--there she was, live and in person. I rushed to the drug store, bought a disposable camera, and waited on the sidewalk for my moment of greatness. The Princess left the shop and I got a great picture to prove the tale. Several other items on the wish list came through in similarly coincidental ways.

I use lists in plotting books as well, sometimes starting with nothing but a concept or a couple of characters looking for a place to express themselves. I always start with a yellow legal pad and a handful of Sanford Express extra-fine tip pens, asking myself, What are twenty things that could happen in this book?

I don't judge the answers--that's important. You'll stem the flow of creativity if you weigh each idea as thought the fate of the rain forest depended upon it. In the beginning, it's quantity over quality.

As you get better and better at this technique, you'll be amazed by the results.

The same technique serves when I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of the story, or in a particular chapter.

I do a lot of public speaking, and my first step in preparing a speech is to make just such a list of the things I want to get across during my talk. Now that I've had some practice with this, I often come up with 25, 30 or even more ideas.

Are they all usable? Of course not. But I get past the surface stuff and into areas of thought I would otherwise have missed.

The uses of this technique are virtually endless, and will apply to any segment of life. My friend Debbie Macomber and I use the method to brainstorm, and recently we met over my dining room table to come up with stories to pitch to Hollywood, three for her, three for me. And while neither of us has racked up a sale--yet--the agent who represents us both was pleased with our ideas and is actively marketing them.

Another favorite trick--and the reason for the title of this article--is my Fantastic Hero List. In my opinion, the best hero I've ever had the pleasure to come across in a book is Francis Crawford of Lymond, created by Scottish author Dorothy Dunnett, and featured in the six glorious historical novels referred to as the Lymond Series. (Ask any librarian.)

Because I happen to write romances, an intriguing, memorable hero is a necessity. I simply asked myself, What are twenty things that make Francis Crawford fabulous? The answers, for me at least, are a recipe for a better hero.

The same process, of course, could (and should) be applied to heroines, villians, secondary characters, settings. Again, the applications are unlimited.

Too often, in genre fiction at least, we encounter a green monster phenomenon. A book comes out, makes every bestseller list in the universe, and goes into a bejillion printings. The author's advances skyrocket--in short, everything we would like to have happen to us happens to them.

It's only human to feel a little jealous, at first anyway, but too often we snipe at that writer, maybe just in our minds, maybe to our friends. Maybe, God forbid, on the Internet. We say, or thinks things like, So-and-so isn't even that good of a writer . . . I could do better than that, any day . . . It's all in who you know . . . Some people get all the breaks . . . on and on, ad nauseam. (If you're wondering why that ignoble list came so readily to my mind, it's because I'm guilty of the same infantile, counterproductive mish-mash.)

There is a better and more constructive list we could make, on paper and in our minds.

My policy, when I feel like this about a fellow author and his/her novel, is to buy that self-same book, sit down and read it with as little rancor as I can, and then write a positive, detailed list of what made the story work. No fair dwelling on the negative stuff--whatever we might like to tell ourselves, if a books sells, it's because that writer did something very right. Something the readers liked. Doesn't it make sense to find out what that something is and use that knowledge to improve our own work in any way we can?

Bibliography of my life

I like to keep a list of the books I read, a sort of bibliography of my life, not only because I derive a sense of accomplishment from wading, however slowly, through a fairly daunting personal reading program, but because at some point I plan to compile a suggested reading list to use as a handout when I do speeches and workshops.

I list places I want to visit, in the U.S. and abroad. It constantly surprises me how often a chance will arise, seemingly out of nowhere, to visit a city or country I have noted, but there's no real magic to the phenomenon. When we set goals, and list them, we are more alert to the opportunities that are all around us. We pick up on things that are said, articles in magazines and newspapers, classes at the community center, etc. It's the same principle as buying a new car and suddenly seeing the same make, model and color everywhere, or being pregnant and noticing that everyone else in the world seems to be expecting as well. The cars and the maternity smocks were there all the time, of course; we notice because our interest has focused our attention.

One of my own objectives, lately, has been to increase my public speaking schedule, and thus become known to more people outside my usual milieu of romance writers and readers. Because I was conscious of this, and had written it down, I was (and am) watching and listening for material on giving seminars, workshops and speeches. I like people, I enjoy speaking, and I have plenty to say, but I have neither the time or the knowledge to secure the bookings I would need to achieve my aims.

The answer to my dilemma came in several forms. I hired a publicist, following Debbie Macomber's lead, and she is working to obtain speaking engagements, but the more dramatic result of my decision came when I learned that a woman who works upstairs books seminars for a living! I asked for her help, and she has agreed to contact markets all over the United States, in return for a commission. Had I not been focused on this particular endeavor, however, the idea of approaching my professional "neighbor" would probably never have occurred to me.

List-making can . . . motivate

List-making can serve to motivate, as well. Although I love exercise once I've started, making myself begin is usually difficult. I solved this problem by listing the reasons I want to exercise--the usual ones, such as health and longevity, while certainly worthwhile, were not enough to compel me onto that treadmill. What did?

1). Stamina--I've mapped out an ambitious strategy for achieving my goals, and I'm going to need strength to see it through. Also, I spend a lot of time running through airports and meeting with book sellers, buyers, etc., and those things, while pleasurable for me, are also physically and emotionally demanding.

2). Weight loss--I've had a weight problem ever since I quit smoking in 1986, and it's slowing me down. It isn't helping my self-esteem, either. I'm ready to solve this problem and go on to other things, and exercise will definitely help. (I've got picture of Joan Lunden on my refrigerator door--she is my role model not because she lost fifty pounds, but because she's kept the weight off for years--for encouragement.)

3). Ideas. There it is again, that magic word. Exercising increases the flow of oxygen to the brain, and since I've taken up walking on my treadmill five days a week, I've had inspiration to spare--or straw to spin into gold.

This article first appeared in the January 1997 issue of Novelists' Ink,
the official newsletter of Novelists, Inc. -- a professional organization for writers of popular fiction.

© Linda Lael Miller, 1996

Photo credit:Charles William Bush