Peak Productivity (Part 2)

Editor’s Note: Last Monday, January 11^th, Writing from the Peak repeated a series given at the 2013 Pikes Peak Writers Conference by J.T. Evans and Cindi Madsen on Time Management and Productivity. The information was so well-received we wanted to share it with members who may not have had an opportunity to attend the conference. 

Part 2 of Peak Productivity

You can find the first part of this series here.

Schedule Time

Stealing moments of time is great, but if you can schedule time, even better. As a writer, you are a small business. Yes, you are also an artist, but remove that “artist hat” for a moment, and put on the “business hat."

As a one-person small business, you have to treat your writing like it’s a job. Sure, it might be a part-time job for some of you and a full-time job for others. Whatever the case may be, jobs come with meetings. We all hate them because we feel horribly unproductive while sitting in a conference room talking about the latest paradigm shift instead of being at our desks doing what we do best.

In this case, putting something down on your calendar can pull you away from your Real Life distractions (the dishes can wait) and put you in a place where you can get some words down on paper.

Make meetings for yourself in your calendar. Stick to those meetings. If something non-essential comes up during your meeting, decline it. Tell people, “Sorry, I have a meeting.” If you want, you can tell them it’s to write, but you don’t have to. If you stick to the line I’ve given you, people will understand and know you are busy at that time.

If you get to the meeting early, or if you stay late after the meeting is over, reward yourself. Maybe you get to go to the movies on Friday night, or have a date night with your spouse. Perhaps you get to buy that book you’ve been eagerly awaiting. Maybe it’s a spa day or just a candy bar from the local corner store. Set up appropriate awards for yourself that reflect how much of a “dedicated employee” you’ve been while working for your small business.

If you are late to a meeting or miss one entirely, then it’s time for punishment. Think about what your boss might do to you. Maybe it’s more work or additional meetings (e.g.: additional writing time). Maybe you don’t get to go to the movie. Maybe you don’t see it at all until it’s out on DVD. Maybe you have to get black coffee at the coffee shop instead of a frappachino. Maybe you call your massage place and cancel your appointment for next week. While you’re not going to the movies or getting a massage, guess what you’ll be doing? That’s right! You’ll be writing! (See how that works out?)

Reduce External Interruptions

When you’ve scheduled that meeting with yourself, get rid of external interruptions. These are (usually) things out of your control that try to steal the time you’ve made for yourself. Some of these are within your control, so grab them by the neck and wrangle them to your will.

Here are my tips for reducing external interruptions:

• Close the door. (if you have an office or bedroom to use)
• Put a sign on the door warning people away.
• Go somewhere else.

o   Coffee Shop

o   Library

                  o   A mostly vacant diner late at night

• Turn the ringer off on your phone. (Don't even let it vibrate)
• Turn off the WiFi on your laptop. (The Internet will still be there when you're done with your meeting, I promise.)

Most of these are establishing solitude. However, don’t become a hermit. You still need to have fun with family/friends and socialize. Balance your life.

Reduce Internal Interruptions

Internal interruptions are more destructive to the time you’ve made than anything else. These are things you do to yourself to keep from writing. I’m not talking about writer’s block. I’m talking about activities you actively engage in that distract you from your writing.

Again, turn off the Internet. If you need it for research then avoid:

Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Pinterest
Email
Not vital research
         

o   Avoid rabbit holes

o   Set a timer to limit research

About the Author: J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he keeps computers secure at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Quote of the week and the week to come

“The fact that I have been successful merely means that I can write and illustrate in my own way.” ~ Hugh Lofting

Source: Quotesgram

Hugh Lofting, born Jan. 14, 1886 and died Sept 26, 1947, was a British writer and engineer by profession, who resided in the U.S. and was responsible for the acclaimed Doctor Dolittle book series.

This week on Writing from the Peak

Jan. 18          Peak Productivity, (Session 2)  by   J.T. Evans

Jan. 20          Getting back to Writing by Kathie Scrimgeour

Jan. 22          Sweet Success celebrates Tena Stetler

Sweet Success celebrates Shannon Lawrence

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Shannon Lawrence’s horror short story, “The Blue Mist”, in the anthology The Deep Dark Woods (ISBN 978-0692565070, 148 pages), was released by Revolving Door Press on October 25, 2015. It is available in e-book and paperback at Smashwords, Amazon, Createspace, and Barnes & Noble.

The anthology: In the Deep, Dark Woods... Fear abounds. It may be creatures that only you can see, or the fevered imaginations of your nightmares. Perhaps these monsters are the ones that bite and claw, or the ones that come out of the grave. No matter what, when you go walking in the woods at night...you may not make it back out.

The short story: A prospector left behind to clean up after a local menace makes a deadly mistake.

A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her fiction can be found in several anthologies and magazines. When she's not writing, she's hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings. You can find her at www.thewarriormuse.com.

New Year's Resolution: Go Forth and Get Rejected

Every "no" means you're one step closer to a "yes." 
~ Ali Eickholt

By: J.T. Evans 

How many rejection letters did you get in 2015? Ten? Thirty? Sixty? Three-hundred?

If you have more than zero, you’re doing something right! I personally racked up more than sixty rejections for two different novels during the course of 2015. That’s not counting the slew of emails I received declining short stories I’d submitted to various markets.

While I wish something had landed for me in the past year, I do my best to not let it get me down. I have to be honest that there have been some rough patches for me in 2015 when I just knew I’d found the perfect market for the perfect story… and it didn’t work out the way I’d hoped and planned.

With the support of my family, friends, my critique group, and Pikes Peak Writers, I’ve managed to remind myself that good things are coming. I don’t know when or how, but they’re coming. I’m not going to miss my opportunity.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

~ Wayne Gretzky

Like The Great One says, if I stop shooting, I am guaranteed to miss. I can’t let that happen to my writing or me. The shots I’m taking today are better than the ones I took last month and those are better than the ones I took last year.

Every sentence I write is better than the previous one that fell from my fingertips and hit the keyboard. With each effort I put into building my “writing muscles,” I get stronger, faster, and more agile. I know I can do this.

You can do this as well.

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. 

You must set yourself on fire.

~ Fred Shero

Obviously, I don’t want you to self-immolate (or immolate in any manner), but if you sit around and do nothing with your writing, you’re waiting for spontaneous combustion. I’m challenging myself in 2016 to set myself on fire (again, not literally), and get more work out in the world. I sent close to one hundred submissions (some queries for novels, some for short stories) in 2015.

In 2016, I’m challenging myself to break that record and submit more than one hundred items out into the world for consideration.

New Year’s Resolution:  Go Forth

 and Get Rejected ~ J.T. Evans

Who out there is willing to step up to my side and light that fire in themselves? Who is going to break their personal best for racking up the rejections?

If you aim at nothing, there’s a very good chance 
you’ll hit it.

~ James Scott Bell

Even though I’ll be blasting out the submissions in 2016, I will not be doing so blindly. My plan is to ensure each market (or agent) is open to submissions in the area of the story, and send highly targeted submissions. In military terms, I’m looking for my “high value targets,” and I intend to hit a few of them. (Again, stop with the literal thinking. I’m not actually going to reach out and punch an agent.)

When you’re taking the action of submitting your stories to a market, make sure it’s a good fit. Yes, this might narrow the field of markets, but if you have enough stories under your belt, you can submit several stories into the world at the same time.

There is no such thing as failure. There is only experience.

~ Terry Mixon

When I receive a rejection, I have one of two reactions:

If it’s a form letter, I “meh” about it for a few seconds and file it away into my rejection email folder. Those don’t hurt me. They don’t stop me. I hardly experience them at all. If I receive a personalized rejection letter, I experience those. I read them. I re-read them. I ingest them into my spirit and being. I learn what I can from them. I improve where I can from the feedback. I do not fail because of them. Then I file them away in my rejection email folder along with all the rest.

I encourage you to do the same. Keep the rejections. Learn from them. Live through them. Succeed in spite of them. You can do it. I know you can.

Now, go forth and get rejected!

(Because, between those rejections, there will be acceptances.)

About the Author: J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he keeps computers secure at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Peak Productivity

By: J.T. Evans

Editor's Note: For the next four Mondays, Writing from the Peak will host a four-part series on time management. The blogs will include tips and actual events that may help you make the most of yours. 

If you've been keeping up with Writing from the Peak you know that we ended 2015 discussing stress, ways to increase our writing time, and advance our careers. Ideally, now that we've turned the calendar to 2016, you're ready to set goals. A big part of achieving those goals is through time management. Today I begin a four-part series on the subject. Some of you might recognize this as material that Author Cindi Madsen and I presented at the 2013 Pikes Peak Writers Conference. Fortunately, unlike our computers, the thread of time management never requires new software updates. To be successful, writing or not, people need to engage in effective time management.

The series will cover the following topics:

·       Make Time

·       Flashback to 2010

·       Stolen Moments

·       Schedule Time

·       Reduce External Interruptions

·       Reduce Internal Interruptions

·       Idle Your Engine

·       Increase Your Productivity

·       External Motivations

·       Internal Motivations

·       Magic Spreadsheet

·       Conclusion

Make Time

You cannot find time.

It’s not a quarter on the ground waiting to be picked up. You are allotted the same 168 hours in a week that everyone else gets. There’s no way to get extra (except for maybe that pesky hour shift during daylight saving, but an extra hour a year won’t make a difference to anyone.) You have the same time as everyone else. What you make time to do is what matters. Every time I hear someone say, “I’d love to write, but I can’t find the time,” I grind my teeth.

If someone is truly passionate about an effort (writing, working, family, hobbies, or whatever), then they will make the time for it. The advice I'm giving is for those people with passion to write, but can’t seem to make the time in their lives.

The excuse of not having time falls in the same bucket as not being able to “find” time to do something. I just don’t buy it.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I had the will, and I found the way. Let me show you something that's rather shocking:

Flashback to 2010

Activity	Hours per Week
Full-time graduate student	20
Full-time+, lead software engineer	45
President of a writing group	8
Webmaster of a writing group	8
Commute to/from work	8
Sleep (~6 hours per night)	42
Family (Wife + 2 year old son)	25
Writing	15

I’m not posting this chart to brag. I’m showing you this to illuminate how busy Real Life can be. I was left with a mere 15 hours each week to work on my writing. During this year, I started (and finished) a novel, and roughly a dozen short stories. This is not including the endless pages of critiques I did this year and the countless papers I had to write for my graduate degree.

Because of my busy life during 2010, when someone claims they can’t find the time to write, I call them out. Everyone can make the time to write if they are passionate enough about it.

Now to the meat of things. How do you go about making time to write?

Stolen Moments

You don’t have to block out hours on end for writing. You can steal moments from your life with which to write. This means being prepared to write at any location and at any time. Make sure you always have a writing device and some paper with you.

If you can, drag your typical writing implements with you everywhere. This can be your laptop if that’s your preferred writing method. At a minimum invest in a pen that is comfortable for your hand and a few Moleskin (or similar) notebooks. Keep one in your car. Keep another in your purse (for the ladies). Keep another in your office desk. Keep another in your back pocket if you can. Scatter them around your life. You never know when you’ll have a moment or five to write.

One winter, I hit a pretty hefty patch of ice and found myself up against a fence in a bar ditch. I couldn’t get out of my car, but I was unharmed. After calling my wife to let her know what happened, I called for a tow truck. They told me it would take about an hour for them to arrive. I pulled out my notebook and outlined five short story ideas. I didn’t get to write any of them at that moment as I was in “idea mode,” but it was still forward progress on my writing. This was a stolen moment for me.

Here are some places/times in which you can steal moments. These are all things where waiting and doing nothing is common.

·       Emergency Room

·       DMV

·       Lunch Break

·       Driving (voice only or percolate on your story)

·       Public Transportation

·       Oil Changes

·       Waiting on others

·       Auto repairs

·       Napping Baby

·       Child goes to bed early

Make sure to keep your laptop battery charged at all times. You never know when a moment will strike to write! Tune in Monday, January 18 for Part two.

About the Author:  J.T. Evans writes fantasy novels. He also dabbles with science fiction and horror short stories. He is the president of Pikes Peak Writers. When not writing, he keeps computers secure at the Day Job, homebrews great beers, spends time with his family, and plays way too many card/board/role-playing games.

Quote of the week and the week to come

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” ~ Jack London

 

Google and biography

Jack London, born January 12, 1876, was one of the most popular American authors of the 19th century. A journalist as well, he was best known for this adventure novels White Fang and The Call of the Wild. He died in 1916.

This week on Writing from the Peak

January 11:  Peak Productivity (Time Management Series Part One)

January 13: New Year's Resolution: Go Forth and Get Rejected by J.T. Evans

January 15: Sweet Success celebrates Shannon Lawrence

Sweet Success celebrates Kristi Lloyd

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

Kristi Lloyd’s short story, The Hut of Yasmine Babushka, was released October 2015 in the e-magazine Quantum Fairy Tales, Lucky Issue #13 by Quantum Fairy Tales publishing. It is available at www.quantumfairytales.com

Yasmine Babushka hasn't seen her family in over sixty years, but everyone is coming for the Harvest feast tomorrow. One of the holiday's most anticipated recipes calls for a delicious, yet difficult to acquire, ingredient. Will Yasmine be able to harvest the delicacy in time to please the rest of the Babushkas?

Kristi is a wife and a stay-at-home mom of two children. Besides writing, her hobbies include reading, cooking, and baking.  Email her at: generations1926@gmail.com

The Drive to Write: Do you have what it takes?

By: Deb McLeod

Image courtesy of Flickr: Nicolas A Tonelli

My husband, John, and I watched the movie “Whiplash” a few days ago. If you haven’t seen it, you must.

Short synopsis that only includes what I need for this article: A young drummer at a premiere conservatory is pushed to excess by his teacher. But the drummer wants it so he takes the abuse until he snaps and attacks the teacher and the teacher ends up getting fired. Student and teacher meet later at a jazz club and over a drink the teacher confides the following: (Note – the F bomb has been edited out – a few times.)

Truth is I don’t think people understood what it was I was doing at Shaeffer. I wasn’t there to conduct. Any moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to push people beyond what’s expected of them. I believe that is an absolute necessity. Otherwise we’re depriving the people of the next Louis Armstrong. The next Charlie Parker.

The story rests on the fact that Charlie Parker was laughed off stage in his young career but that only made him more determined. The teacher, Tucker, cites the logic that if Parker’s teacher hadn’t humiliated him and Parker hadn’t gone back to practice and practice and practice so he would never suffer that humiliation again, there would have been no “Bird.”

Tucker, expresses his frustration at the students who give up, who don’t take it seriously, who don’t practice. The students who have no drive.

As a writing coach I understand the frustration. I have had clients whose voices could make you weep – there are scenes I still remember hearing in my writing circles that I can almost quote. What really makes me weep is that many of those incredibly talented writers aren’t writing any longer.

The hardest part of my job is to fan the passion and drive in the writers who cross my path. Generally they come to me with the passion already lit. But, many of them prove they don’t have the drive.

Since I saw “Whiplash” I’ve been wondering how you fan that drive. What makes one writer slink away after a humiliation or a rejection and another try harder? Why is it so hard for most writers to close off the noise and focus on their work? Because that, my friends is the number one reason the clients who stop writing, do stop writing. They cannot or do not want to close off the noise and focus on the work.

I used to tell clients if you can live without writing then you should. I’ve mellowed on that a bit, but maybe that needs to be resurrected again. Writing is hard. The apprenticeship is long. It may not ever be financially or critically rewarding. Is it ethical of me to encourage writers without sugarcoating the conditions?

Here’s an informal quiz you might take before you embark on this long journey into yourself. Answer these questions and see if you have what it takes:

• Do you enjoy life in your head?
• Do you have a knack for figuring out the plot in a movie or a book? 
• Is reading a fact of life? 
• Do libraries and bookstores make you feel warm and fuzzy, like long days with a fireplace, coffee, a pen and paper and no one home for hours? 
• Do you enjoy working in solitude – I used to say, pile on more work than I can get done and close the door on your way out. 
• Do you read with a deep purpose? 
• Does approaching a writing project excite you for the discovery of the project and not the result (fame, fortune and other fairy tales)? 
• Can you stomach the rejection? The criticism? The loneliness? The fact that an acquaintance and a worse writer than you has success first? 
• Can you close it all out and get lost in your stories? Do you want to? 

Can you live without writing? If you can, maybe you should. I really mean that.

I teach with positive methods rather than the negative of intimidation. I had teachers like that. The ones that signaled there was a club I didn’t belong to. And yes, to a certain extent, it made me try harder, if only so I could go back and thumb my nose at them when I had a NY Times bestseller. Well I haven’t had the bestseller yet and they have long since left the building. I write now for me. I write because it’s the thing I love most in the world.

As a coach and a teacher I happen to believe everyone has a voice and all voices should be heard. But does that encourage someone who doesn’t really have the chops?

When I think of what encouraged me, I can honestly say that it wasn’t a teacher at all. It was the fact that I can’t not write. I can’t live without books and movies. I love getting lost in a project. I love getting up at 4:30 and heading out to Starbucks to work on my novel for the next 5 hours. I love my client’s projects too. Many times more than they do.

It’s January. Time to reassess. What’s it going to take for you get in the chair, dig into your soul and pour it on the page? 

When you’re done, send it to me and we’ll celebrate it together. Then sit down and do it again.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, MFA, practices novel research immersion. For her novel, The Train to Pescara, Deb journeyed to Sardinia to study ancient goddess worship and spent time in the Abruzzi village her great-grandparents left in 1905. Her metaphysical knowledge for the Angel Thriller, The Julia Set, culminates from four years of studying and teaching meditation, clairvoyance and chakra healing. For over fifteen years, Deb McLeod has been a creative writing coach helping other writers to embrace their passion and get their words on the page. For more, see www.debmcleod.com.

January Letter from the Editor

If you’re a writer, and I suspect you are if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably a fan of quotes. I love quotes. Quotes give me "aha" moments and quotes make me think. Or in some cases they make me laugh.  For example, take this one from Nia Vardalos. “My New Year’s resolution usually starts with the desire to lose between 10 and 3,000 pounds.”

Uh-oh, if you’re a writer, you’re probably aware of foreshadowing, and you know where my letter is going. It's January, and this is the month that is all about resolutions and fresh starts. It’s our chance to throw any 2015 failures and disappointments out the window and hang pretty new draperies for 2016 to light the way for success.

Seriously, on December 31, I brought in the New Year staying up past one in the morning writing. It was like turning the page on a calendar revved some part of my muse, which tapped me on the shoulder, saying, “Hey there, slacker. Get to work.”

We work in Pikes Peak Writers. It’s part of who we are as an organization. Are you aware that in four months all this snow will be melted and we’ll be walking in the doors of the Marriott to attend the Pikes Peak Writers Conference? 

Worried you can’t afford it? Check out the website Go Here and Dare to Dream. Early registration pays off.  We also have payment plans. Or if you’re particularly needy, but a driven writer and PPW member, you have until January 15, 2016 to apply for a scholarship.  Go Here Check out J.T. Evan’s Ask the Prez on this very issue. 

We’ll focus extensively on time management this month, but we also have some very special articles in the cue. Sweet Success Coordinator Kathie Scrimgeour submits her very first article on Writing from the Peak. Hint: You do not want to miss it.  

Writing Coach Deb McLeod is back on the first Wednesday of the month with her expertise, along with a challenge about rejection from J.T. Evans. Later in the month, Karen Albright Lin writes about characters. Also, this month and every month, we celebrate our members Sweet Successes. Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers and have good news to share? We want to know all about it.

Go ahead and make those resolutions and set those goals. They're good for you. But really, 3,000 pounds? Lose that much weight, you’ll have to jump around in the shower to get wet!

Happy New Year 2016!

About the author: Donnell Ann Bell is the managing editor for Writing from the Peak and the coordinator for the monthly Open Critique held on the first Wednesday of every month. She is a best selling romantic suspense and mystery author. To learn more about her books, find her at www.donnellannbell.com

Quote of the week and the week to come

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

 

Source: Google, Bing & Wikipedia

Scholar Isaac Asimov, (1920-1992) was one of the 20th century's most prolific writers, writing in many genres. He was known for sci-fi works like Foundation and I, Robot. He was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers during his lifetime.

This week on Writing from the Peak

January 4: Letter from the Editor, Donnell Ann Bell

January 6: Deb McLeod, The Writing Coach

January 8: Sweet Success, Kristi Lloyd

January Open Critique

6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

January 6th
Cottonwood Center for the Arts
427 East Colorado Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80903

This FREE program provides a critique experience for a small number of writers who seek feedback on manuscript pages and who want to learn how to have positive critique group experiences.

PPW’s Open Critique program is facilitated by Donnell Bell with the occasional experienced guest critique partner. During Open Critique, Donnell and the guest critique partner will provide comments, criticism and suggestions on participants’ manuscript pages, as well as model positive behaviors, techniques and procedures for critiquing.

It is our hope that participants will not only receive valuable feedback on their writing, but will also learn how to create great critique groups of their own, or learn how to improve existing critique groups.

Each month Open Critique will accommodate up to eight participants with a maximum of eight manuscript pages (double spaced, one side) per person. Bring at least 8 copies. To request a slot to participate, email your request to critique@pikespeakwriters.com. Slots are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, and are only considered for the month in which they are received. Participants will receive confirmation and instructions via email.

PPW reserves the right to give priority to new participants over those who have attended multiple times.

 January Write Brain

What: Find Your Voice…Then Use It!
Who:  Michael Shepherd
When: Jan 19, 6:30-8:30 pm

NEW LOCATION Where: Venue@21c (upper floor, to the right if coming in the upper entrance) of Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80920


More Information: This topic is treated with near-reverence by those who seek the mythical ‘voice’, but a distinctive author’s voice is already within you. Find Your Voice…Then Use It will encourage writers to confidently allow their personality–their unique voice–to shine through in their writing. Writers often feel they must discover a distinctive pattern and tone to write in–usually on the heels of a best-seller’s style–but ‘voice’ can’t be contrived; it is an individual pattern of thinking, feeling, and expressing ourselves as writers. This workshop will explore the unique author’s voice in all of us.

About the Presenter: Michael Shepherd learned to write at an early age, and there are those who still say he hasn’t significantly advanced his craft in the intervening years.  He is a product of the State of Maine school system, where the official motto is: “If the minimum isn’t acceptable it wouldn’t be the minimum, now would it?” It’s on the state flag, you could look it up.

He survived a 29-year career in the military and, when they didn’t lock the back door after he retired, snuck back in and found a job as a government employee specializing in international relations. If that’s not enough to keep you up at night…
He has published two novels: Easy Street, about a private eye in the throes of a mid-life crisis, and Hell with a Gun, a Western. He is currently working on a Mexico-based novel about human trafficking, entitled Pieces of One.

 January Writers Night (free)

January 25, 2016

Location: Kawa Coffee

Address: 2427 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80909

Fourth Monday of every month

6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Join fellow writers for PPW Night on the fourth Monday of every month.

PPW Night is two full hours of discussion, laughter, and fun with other local members of Pikes Peak Writers.

The direction of the meeting is decided by the participants and can include discussions about query letters, obtaining and working with an agent, writing conferences, or other specific points of the craft.  If nothing else, we talk about books!

If you have any questions, or if there is a specific topic you’d like to get on the agenda, send an e-mail to the host, Deb Courtney, or call her on her cell phone at 719-337-9049.

Meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30 and run until about 8:30.  These are drop-in meetings, so feel free to attend all or just part of them.

See you soon!

For more detailed information about Pikes Peak Writers events, check out http://www.pikespeakwriters.com/