Tips for Saving Your Cyber-Sanity

I occasionally become cyber-flooded. You can probably relate. Maybe you've had to get off the internet all together for a few days just to gather your wits and complete a project. But even if that's not the case, it's easy to drown in information overload.

Especially with blogs.

I love the blogosphere. There is virtually an expert out there in just about everything, who is willing to share their knowledge. However, if you follow even a few blogs, it can be hard to keep up with them.

So here are some tips for sand-bagging in cyberspace.

1. Use a reader that will pool all your follows or subscriptions into one place like Google Reader or Networked Blogs to be able to quickly sort through the mass of material coming in.

2. As much as you love certain blogs, don't feel like you have to comment on all of them. As a blogger myself, I thrive on comments. (Please, leave me one if you aren't too inundated.) But I can't take the time to comment on everything I read. I comment in certain instances. These are:

• When I believe the writer needs encouragement, and my interest was truly piqued

• I want to thank the author for providing timely, sought-after information

• I want to help bring attention to this particular blog, piece, or writer

• To enter a contest

3. Don't follow blogs unless you've really looked them over and are sure that they frequently contain content that will interest you. I follow one blog right now that I'm considering deleting because since my initial follow, very little has come along in way of content I find enriching.

4. Take a few minutes each day to whip through your reader, marking as "read" or "delete" the posts that you don't have time or inclination for, and giving a quick read to those you do. If you get too far behind, it'll feel like the waters have crested and deluged you. You can't keep up. If that does happen, unless you plan to spend 5 or 6 hours in a waiting room anytime soon, I'd just hit "delete" or "read" and start fresh. It's really just like keeping up with email. Sort - toss - sort - toss.

5. If a blog piece looks interesting, scan. In my opinion, the most worthy blog pieces are brief and concise. But if a long one comes along with a title that's a real grabber, scan it before you decide to devote a long read time to it.

Like any file in your cabinet or on your computer, your blog file needs occasional clean-up. I hope these little tips help keep your cyber-sanity on high and dry ground.

Finish the WIP, Edit the WIP, then Dance

Have you seen that You Tube video going around which takes a comic look at the emotional stages of writing a novel? It's called Writing a Novel, posted by author James Andrew Wilson.

I just revisited it for another laugh. It's a creative, hilarious, yet painfully realistic insight into the glorious as well as the overwhelming moments involved in finishing a manuscript.

I'm deep in the ending stages. I just finished the pre-submission edit of The Red Fury, Book 2 of my Wisconsin historical series Empire in Pine. In essence, I've re-typed "The End". After some extraneous paperwork, it'll be ready to zip to my editor.

Not to mention -- drum roll -- I'm ahead of deadline!

REJOICE! Lalalalala!

I used to be like that guy in the video who got a little ahead of himself. H eprevailed against the odds and climbed to the top of the mountain, experiencing stage four -- Triumph! -- only to discover his joy short lived as he smacked up against the dark forest of editing. VINK! VINK! VINK!

Now, while I do relish the pleasure of a completed WIP, I revel less in the finished first draft, and save most of my exultant revelry for the part after editing, the part I accomplished tonight. Because experience tells me that editing is coming, no matter what.

So tonight is a brilliant setting sun and ice cream. It's dancing and a little blog hopping. It's the right time for those things.

Alas, I know there'll be more edits to come. Once my book is gone over with a fine tooth comb by the lovely staff at Desert Breeze Publishing, there'll be further things to address, I'm sure. Something I missed, though I've done my best to make my story error-free and sparkling, and I've sunk deep into character and plot to keep my readers turning pages into the night. I think they'll find The Red Fury gripping and possibly my best work yet.

But until then, I'll have to give it another round. Like Mr. Wilson says in his author video blog (also on You Tube) "Much of a writer's life is spent editing. It's a sad truth. We'd like to say that it's spent writing, but that would be a lie."

Speaking with Spirit (Thoughts on an Excellent Book, and a Heavenly Prodding)

I haven't done a whole lot of public speaking, but neither have I shied away from occasions to stand in front of a group and discuss topics I'm passionate about. I admit to thinking I would enjoy more opportunities for public speaking, even though I'm not an unflinchingly brave extrovert. I quiver with as much self-consciousness in the limelight as the next gal who'd just as soon be sitting before a computer screen letting her characters do all the talking.

But neither am I shy.

I bring this up because I feel God compelling me to learn more about effective public speaking. And I don't take His still, small nudge lightly. It may be I'll never have to do more than speak in front of a local community group. It may be only for my personal growth. But the last time God started leading me to "investigate an idea" it changed my life. I ended up homeschooling four children from kindergarten through high school graduation. (The fifth and final will graduate in 2012.)

With His prompting in mind, the most delightful book I've read on the subject thus far has been Speaking with Spirit - A Guide for Christian Public Speakers by Dr. Wanda Vassallo. I discovered it through American Christian Writers, a small but very worthy national organization devoted to the development of Christian writers in both fiction and non-fiction. I won't go into all the details, but Ms. Vassallo has a list of speech writing and speaking credentials a mile long, and she's one of the only writers out there to have written an entire book on this subject from a Christian world view. The opening of the book not only draws on Jesus' example as we consider audience, anecdotes, and personalization, but Ms. Vassallo addresses the issue of impact, and what it really means to speak before an audience as a Christian.

Topically, she addressed everything -- stage fright, vocal warm-ups, stage presence, mechanics, audience connection, humor, Q&A sessions, visual aids, technique, speech-writing, 16 types of speeches, length, meetings, evaluations, television, organization, and speaking the Scriptures -- not to mention a myriad of sub-categories within each of these.

As a writer, I was especially drawn to her material because of the way she stressed the importance of developing our connection to our audience. In that, there's no real difference between the written and the spoken word, and yet it's done at an entirely different level.

Do you feel as if God might be calling you to speak? Do you teach Sunday school? Preach? Lead meetings? Host Bible studies? Act as a club member or leader? Work as any kind of liaison, in your job or otherwise?

There are hordes of ways we are called to speak or teach, even if it is not our primary calling or ambition. I recommend Dr. Vassallo's book whole-heartedly.