So, a few people have emailed me about my current productivity tools. They want to know if I'm using Circa, if I've given up on fountain pens, if I ever use software, and so on. One even deduced that the reason for my absence from DIYPlanner was because I had crossed from analog completely into the digital world. The latter is certainly not the case, and my forays into the land o' ones and zeroes have typically resulted in my throwing up my hands in frustration, wondering how some people live without paper. (Keep in mind I'm an IT professional and gadget freak, so I don't say this lightly.)

So, read on for a little summary of my daily gear at the moment....

A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative author: Roger von Oech asin: 0446404667

Creative Whack Pack author: Roger Von Oech asin: 0880793589

Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition) author: Michael Michalko asin: 1580087736

Day-Timer 80844 Personal organizer starter set, aviator leather binder, 5-1/2x8-1/2, dark tan asin: B00006GNWW

Leatherman 830039 New Wave Multitool with Leather Sheath asin: B0002H49BC

Lowepro Slingshot 200 All Weather Backpack (Black) asin: B000B9O83A

Pelikan 800 Series Fountain Pen - Black, Fine Nib 995563 asin: B000CN9KWO

Lamy 2000 Fountain Pen - Black, Fine Nib L01F asin: B001D3PYT0

Nikon D90 DX 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens asin: B001ENOZY4

I've been searching for the perfect writing software for awhile now. I know that this mythical software won't improve my writing skills per se. But having the right type of writing software does help keep what I write and its structure organized while I work on choosing the precise words and setting them down onto the virtual page. As such, I've used several different applications geared towards writing professionals, and I think I have found the right application for both my writing needs and style. It's called Scrivener and it’s published by Literature and Latte.

Over the years I've found that writing a book or novel requires much more than just starting at the beginning and working your way to THE END. Writing the first draft gets messy and sometimes authors don't want to write the whole piece from the beginning. Instead we may want to focus on character sketches, world building, or we may just want to get the most exciting climatic scene written first. Using a traditional word processor where everything is entered into a single document, containing multiple non-linear thoughts on a myriad of subjects, is hard to do. MS Word was not designed for creative, chaotic writing that jumps around; it doesn't conform to non-linear thought patterns. If I were using Word to do heavy writing, the moment I decide to skip 100 pages into the text to first revise a scene and then move somewhere else to jot a note about a character, I'd end up spending more time searching for the two locations than I'd spend actually typing in the text itself. That's where modular writing and Scrivener come into play.

Recently I've had a growing interest in finding books that help creatives grow their own business. They seem to be few and far between. I reviewed Craft, Inc. last year and found it a great resource for starting your own business. However, while it covered many aspects of running a business, I found that it wasn't good for actually teaching you how to set-up and create your own business from conception to reality. Enter Lisa Sonora Beam and The Creative Entrepreneur. Billed as a "DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real", this book not only teaches readers the fundamentals of building a business to match their creative dream, but it presents the core business concepts in a way that makes them easy for creative personalities to understand.

The Creative Entrepreneur developed out of workshops that Beam created and offered "creatives" who wanted to take their craft and turn them into viable business opportunities. She does not believe that artists need to starve in order to succeed. This book is her legacy; it shows artists that they, too, can grasp business concepts that turn their artistic visions into concrete and functioning business plans—no matter what they are. At first glance, this book looks more like an art technique book than a business fundamentals primer. Don't let the shiny fool you; The Creative Entrepreneur packs an informative punch. Beam introduces the book by explaining how the visual journalling process aides in the process of business creation. She encourages readers to follow along with the exercises in this book, just as if they were sitting in on one of her workshops.

The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real author: Lisa Sonora Beam asin: 1592534597

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. In January, I got asked to participate in a special limited edition anthology to help benefit musician SJ Tucker, who had medical issues in 2008. I accepted the offer and prepped my story for publication. For awhile now, most of my time has been focused around helping market, publicize, and spread the word about the book. Last Thursday the editors (Phil Brucato and Sandra Buskirk) announced that the book arrived from the printers and on Saturday, I drove to Seattle to help box books with 16 passionate people.

Many of you who have visited my personal website already know about this book and how excited I've been. For those of you who do not, I'd like to introduce you all to RAVENS IN THE LIBRARY. A compilation dedicated to SJ Tucker, born out of love for music, magic, and the muse. This special VERY limited edition book has been compiled to defray the medical expenses and recovery of musician S.J. Tucker. The anthology will NOT be released in stores, and it is NOT downloadable! It will be available only as long as those expenses remain unresolved. After that, RAVENS IN THE LIBRARY will disappear. Along with my story, it features stories written by many of my favorite writers including Newberry Award winner Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, and Francesca Lia Block. Order your copy today and help a good cause!

This is big news for me and for my writing career. I'm excited to have been apart of this anthology and hope that it's the first of many new works published by me. This is also the reason why I've sort of disappeared from this site and have not been regularly getting posts or reviews up for your enjoyment. I have a quite a backlog of reviews that I am working my way through, so expect more from me as soon as I can get things written. Before I wrap this plug up, I'd like to also announce that I will be signing copies of RAVENS in Seattle this Wednesday, March 25th, at The Dreaming Comics in the University District. So if you are local to the Seattle area (or even Portland, Oregon) come on up, meet me (and many of the other authors/artists) and get your own copy of Ravens.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support to D*I*Y Planner and for being patient with me as I struggle to find the balance between the publication, writing posts here, and editing my first novel.

Those of you new to D*I*Y Planner in the past year or two may or may not know about my tarot love affair. I'd have to say it goes beyond the metaphysical. I use the cards for more than divination: journaling with the cards and involving them in my creative writing, for example. In 2006, I wrote about how tarot can help generate story ideas. Rkfoster also wrote about tarot and paper-based planning.

I consistently tell people that the cards are an excellent writer's companion. The pictures speak to the imagination, the cards weave stories when set side by side in a reading. In addition, the symbolism just begs to be written about in a narrative form. I've always wanted to write a book on tarot--one that goes into detail on using the cards for creative inspiration. However, Corrine Kenner beat me to it. Her Tarot for Writers demystifies tarot and shows writers how to use a deck in fueling their creativity and writing practice. Tarot for Writers is jam packed with techniques, writing samples, and reference sections on both the meanings and symbols found in tarot.

The book has three main sections. Part one gives you the low-down on what tarot cards are, their history, and how to use them. Kenner introduces tarot in a way that doesn't confuse or scare people who have never worked with a deck before. Part two gets to the fun stuff. These seven chapters discuss prompts, games, spreads and general information on applying the tarot to every aspect of the writing craft from plot to characters to setting and more. There's even a chapter on using a tarot deck as your own Writing Coach. Part three takes you on a card-by-card tour of what each card means, its literary connections and archetypes, and gives a list of prompts to kickstart the muse. Finally, Kenner ends with a glossary of tarot terms and symbolism--which for me was a nice touch. I tend to use a lot of symbolism in my own work and I can see myself using the symbolism glossary as a handy reference guide.

Tarot for Writers author: Corrine Kenner asin: 0738714577

I have a confession to make. I love editing my novel. Yep, I love ripping scenes apart, uncovering what works or doesn't, discarding whole chapters (and random fluffy bits), and then rewriting it all over so that makes sense and matches the story in my mind. It's a freeing feeling to be able to do this: Take 50,000 words, scrap most of it, and then build it all up again with clarity and a tighter sense of what really matters to telling the story I want to say.

Last year I had the goal of editing one of my NaNoWriMo novels and self-publishing it. I figured that If I gave myself a deadline, then maybe I'd actually do something with it. After all, if you schedule a deadline, you must stick to that goal, right? Boy was I wrong. I sat on it. The most I did with it was to admire it from afar, in its Circa-bound glory. I then focused on everything else surrounding my book's eventual publication, like buying books on self-publication (none of which I've read yet) and keeping up with the latest print on demand news. Not once during all that time did I sit down to re-craft my draft so the story was worthy of publication. Seeing that it's 2009, I can assure you that my "setting a deadline" plan did not work for me at all.

So how did I get from doing nothing to loving it? What drove me to make the dreaded leap from first draft to better draft? Two words: Collaborative Editing.

Hand-drawn & typed:
Year at-a-glance, the 12 months of 2009 and a blank notes page -

Very minimal and light to inspire creativity and leave room for your own notes and doodles to shine! :)

DOWNLOAD (5.5 mb)

Blog and downloads here:
http://ahhh-design.com/diy-planner-templates/

Previous Templates
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/4552
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/4815
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/4816

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Finally!

One of my goals in 2009 was to finish my Swirly Q GTD Template set - and I am happy to say that it is now FINISHED!

This series is smooth and gentle in shades of lavender and green. Exquisitely unique, your will be in awe of this coordinated series!

The entire set consists of:

* Notes
* Graph Paper
* Mind Map
* Agenda
* Expense Report
* Phone Log
* Project Planner
* Personal Profile
* To Do List
* Weekly Template
* Monthly Template

They are also available in three-paks, separated as follows:

Set One:
* Notes
* Graph Paper
* Mind Map

Set Two:
* Agenda
* Expense Report
* Project Planner

Set Three:
* Phone Log
* Profile Page
* Things to Do

Set Four:
* Weekly Calendar
* Monthly Calendar
* Yearly Calendar

It has taken hours of work to bring these templates to fruition - the graphs are high quality vectors and the templates are presented in PDF format, which lends itself well to print at most any size. There are wide margins to support punching to fit both Circa and traditional 3, 5 or 7 hole binders.

The three-paks are priced at a reasonable $5.99, and the entire template set it $24.99. Many satisfied customers have purchased my templates and have been extremely happy with them.

I can also customize and portion of these for you, whether you need your week to start on a different day, or anything else that you require. I'm also happy to create a brand new custom set just for you. Feel free to contact me at blog@freshfocus.info.

These templates as well as my Java Template Pak are available from my blog, and you will find them at this link: http://freshfocus.info/blog/my-gtd-templates.

Thanks for viewing this template and I hope that you will enjoy them!

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Every now and then (usually when I get bored), I open my email's spam folder. I scan the messages for anything that looks legit, and then push the button that dumps everything else into the trash. While I didn't catch anything this time, my eye did stop across the most interesting subject line: "Resolve to Learn".

What a great line and way to ring in the new year, I thought to myself. Resolve to learn. Since August, I've been in a stuff purging mode. I have been clearing out the clutter and trying to re-align my priorities and self with all the things that matter to me most. This mode always gets me thinking about the new things: projects, classes, or techniques I'd like to try. I suddenly found myself drifting away from wanting things to thirsting for knowledge.

So, when I read that subject line, naturally it got me thinking and listing all the knowledge-based things I wanted to spend my time (and cash) on in the new year. At the top of the list comes my desire to get tarot certified. I've been wanting to do this for years and I figure 2009 is the time. Next comes a small list of conventions, festivals, and retreats that will feed my literary, artsy, and spiritual lives. Finally, there's some classes and writing groups to participate and maybe teach. Of course, all this is in addition to the goals I have set out for myself this year.

I'm excited that the new year is finally upon us and that there's 364 days to pursuit these new knowledge-focused items. Tell me, what sorts of things do you resolve to learn in 2009?