I came home with a very excellent haul of cool buttons and met some great people, too. Here are the buttons I came home with:

And here’s my button from the show:

Thanks to the organizers Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen and to Gallery Gachet for hosting. I’m already looking forward to next year’s show.

If you want to participate next year, be sure to get on the mailing list at hotoneinchaction.com.

I’m leading a drop-in zine-making workshop this Saturday. It’s free! Come hang out and make stuff! It’s at Project Space (222 E Georgia St in Vancouver) from 3 to 5pm.

What the Heck Are Zines, Anyway?

Zines are little self-published booklets and magazines. You make ‘em yourself, and you get to put whatever you want in them. Zine-making is all about self-expression, creative freedom, and sharing. It’s more about passion than perfection. (I make a little zine of short fiction and illustrations called Pinch. It’s one of my favourite projects!)

Why You Should Come

1. We get to hang out and make stuff. It’s fun!
2. If you have any questions about how to make a zine, print a zine, or assemble a zine, I’ll be there to answer them. I’ve been making zines for over ten years.
3. We’ll be making a collaborative zine based on a theme, so whatever you want to contribute will go into it, and then we’ll make copies for everyone. You can write, draw, or collage your contribution.

So bring your buddies and get creative.
See you there!

As many of you know, I’m currently slogging it out with the fifth draft of my novel. It’s tough work that requires a lot of creativity and a lot of problem-solving, which means that periodically, I get stuck. I hit a wall and have no idea what to do, no clue how to move forward.

These moments happen in every creative project and are tough for us all to get through. Knowing how to deal with them is critical, because this is when you are at highest risk of abandoning your project. So how do you get through it?

Sleep on it!

A lot of creative work happens subconsciously. You don’t even know you’re working on your project until you’re just walking around somewhere and BAM! the idea comes to you. Harnessing this process is a perfect way to get out of those frustrating “stuck” moments. Here’s how:

Step 1: Review

Review everything that pertains the problem, and do it quickly. For my novel, this includes skimming the chapter I’m working on and any relevant notes. Just go for a general, abstract overview – five minutes maximum.

Step 2: Set the Intention

Say, “Hey, brain, I really need to figure this out. I’m going to take a break. Can you work on it while I’m not paying attention?” – This is the part where you firmly set the intention that you want your subconscious mind to get to work on it.

Step 3: Sleep On It

Take a nap! Or, if it’s late, go to bed for the night. Or maybe go for a walk, or wash the dishes, or read a book. Do something that takes your mind completely off the problem.

Step 4: Wait for the Ideas to Show Up

Come back to the work later and wait for the ideas to come. They’ll show up! Just be patient and accept whatever thoughts you’re having. The solution to your problem might be unexpected. It might be outside of what you thought you wanted to do or what you’d planned on doing. This is okay! Your brain is smart – let it tell you what your project needs.

It’s been working for me. Last night I hit a major impasse with my novel where I realized that I needed to add a whole additional chapter of backstory, and I had absolutely no clue what it was going to be. I reviewed the notes and went to bed asking my brain to figure it out for me. Now, the next morning, I’ve just finished a work session in which I came up with the entire chapter’s worth of backstory, and it all makes perfect sense and is exactly what the novel needed. And all this without me actually having to do any work! Literally, all I did was have a good night’s sleep and a nice leisurely breakfast. The ideas were waiting for me when I got down to work. Thanks, brain! You’re the best.

Try it out and see if it helps you, too.

I use a charming, home-made progress-tracking calendar to keep me going. I made my new one yesterday, and here’s what it looks like:

How It Works

For every day that I do an hour, I get to fill in a square. If I do an extra hour, I get a star sticker! It may seem silly, but it works. This is what I used to help me finish my second, third, and fourth drafts. Here’s what that calendar looked like:

Look at all that awesome work done! The idea is to make this new, empty calendar as full as the old one. I’m allowed to skip two days a week without freaking out. If I miss three days, it’s time to panic, because that means I’m on the slippery slope that only leads to procrastination, more procrastination, and the inevitable abandonment of my novel that procrastination brings. Yikes! I don’t want that, so I’ll do my five days a week. EVEN IF IT SUCKS.

This hour-a-day strategy saw me through the last three drafts. It’ll see me through this one, too. So here goes! I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I’m going to fill in my calendar until this sucker is done. (You hear me, novel?! Prepare to be owned! Muahahaha!)

Wish me luck!

Not true! When you meet someone, your business card does influence the first impression that person forms of you (or your business). Just like a wimpy handshake or shaky tone of voice can influence how that person perceives you, so can a wimpy business card. It even has the same tactile quality as a handshake – it conveys information about you through the sense of touch.

And do you really want anything that influences your first impression to be saying, “I’m wimpy!”?

It doesn’t have to cost a lot extra to get your cards printed on a nice quality stock. If you can, go to the print shop and check out some samples before you decide to print your cards there. If the samples don’t feel or look great, shop around elsewhere. Don’t be a wimp!

This is the perfect time to take a break, because that’s your brain giving you the clear signal that it needs some empty space. It’s saying, “Hey! I’m turning off now! Let’s do something else!”

Don’t force it to keep going! Even if you have a lot to do, and you think you should keep working, you’ll only end up burning energy while getting nothing done because… YOU CAN’T WORK WITHOUT YOUR BRAIN!

Why sit and bash your head against your work when your brain’s already checked out? Take a break. Try just fifteen minutes of empty space. Look out the window, stare at the wall, go for a walk. You’ll be rewarded later with better focus and more awesome progress on your work. I do this all the time! Trust me, it makes brains happy.

Starting with an evaluation is a good idea. What projects could you make progress on in the space of this week? If you’re like me, you can only handle two or three priorities at once, so keep your focus narrow. The next step is to ask yourself what small individual tasks you can do on those projects.

And then, most importantly, ask yourself this: What small task would be a huge accomplishment for you right now?

Your huge accomplishment might be a tiny thing.

A huge accomplishment for you right now could be something as small as writing for ten minutes or replying to an email you’ve been dreading. If it’s challenging to do and makes you feel good when you’re done, then it’s an accomplishment for you, even if it may seem small.

Because really, when you think about it…

The biggest accomplishments (like, for instance, writing a novel) are made up of tiny accomplishments that happen along the way (like planning the next chapter or writing 2000 words).

So don’t expect to be doing some Big Huge Epic Thing this week. Do the little thing that will move you towards that and make you feel awesome along the way.