Shiny Paper Clips by Jim Hart

One of my previous jobs required strong organizational skills, the practice of constantly setting (and communicating) priorities, and the ability to track thousands of pieces of work to meet tight deadlines. I had to really pay attention.  And my co-workers were convinced that all it took to distract me was a shiny paper clip.

Sometimes that shiny paper clip took the form of phone calls, endless cups of coffee, quoting from last night’s sitcom, a really good song on the radio, or a knock-knock joke.

Businesses, churches, and other organizations have long understood that to pay attention and keep on track that they need to work from clear vision and mission statements. Everything that is done is looked at through the lens of those statements. When deciding what direction, program or activity to expend resources on, if it doesn’t fit with their vision and mission, they won’t pursue it. It keeps them focused and on track with what they want to accomplish.

Here are some quick definitions:  “A vision statement is a picture of your organization in the future. It is your inspiration and the framework for all your strategic planning. A vision statement articulates your dreams and hopes for your business. It reminds you of what you are trying to build.”

“A mission statement is a brief description of a company's fundamental purpose. It answers the question, "Why do we exist?" The mission statement articulates the company's purpose both for those in the organization and for the public.” (http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/businessplanning/g/visionstatement.htm)

I tend to look at the vision as ‘what’ and the mission as ‘how’.

Amazon’s vision is "to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said that their vision is "We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products.” (Read his complete statement at http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/22/the-cook-doctrine-at-apple/)

Our vision at Hartline Literary Agency is “to find the finest in new and established authors. Our common goal is to help authors grow and develop their careers.” (You can see our entire statement at http://www.hartlineliterary.com/statement.html)

The concept of creating and working from a vision statement and a mission statement is a concept that can be put into practice by every person with a goal or something that they are trying to accomplish in life. When I was in youth ministry I had a personal vision and mission statement.

As a writer, have you thought much about your vision and mission? Have you articulated it in your proposals? Look at the two definitions above and substitute the words ‘organization, business and company’ with ‘I, my, me, and mine’.

I began to think again about vision and mission statements when reading through manuscripts that did not live up to the proposals. Especially non-fiction. They wandered and got off track. There were too many detours into territory that did not strongly support the message of the book. There were distractions.  

Staying on course with a personal vision and mission statement helps to filter out the activities and content that will hinder us from the effective and efficient delivery of our message.  It can be a good weapon in the fight against the shiny paper clips.

What’s your shiny paper clip?

Writing distractions by Terry Burns

I've gotten enough of the negative campaigning by both political parties, name-calling, half truths, inuenndos and outright lies. I said something about it online, and then wrote a personal blog on it on my website. I want the character assassination to stop and for them to get down to talking about issues . . . how they are going to fix this country.One lady agreed with me, then went on to say that Republicans should wear white hoods so we would know them for what they are. Oh yeah, she got what I was saying.

But my purpose here is not to get political on a literary site. The point I am leading up to is all this has me very distracted. At the Oregon Christian Writer's Conference we were talking about writing time, and one of the biggest thieves of this time is distractions.

I've heard it all of my writing life. "When the kids grow up and move out I'll have time to write."

"When I retire I'll have plenty of time to write."

"When I finish doing (insert big project here) I'll have lots of time to write."

There is never time to write. We don't have it now, and we aren't going to magically have it down the road when some big life change event happens. Life expands to fill available time. Writing time has to be carved out of whatever we are doing at the time and jealously protected. That can be difficult if those in our life haven't "gotten it" yet and aren't helping us to do it. If we aren't getting that support at home we have to take steps to get those closest to us to see that we are serious about our writing, that it isn't just our newest hobby.

I've been lucky. The two people closest to me in my life 'got it.' Mom was the one that really pushed me to write in the first place and was my biggest supporter. I'm so happy she got to see me achieve some measure of success at it before she passed away. My wife, Saundra, is the strongest supporter a man could want. Both of them not only would help me carve out the writing time, but would get on me if I wasn't doing it.

These days writing has to a large extent given way to working as an agent, spending my time trying to get the work of my clients out instead of writing myself. I still get to write some but for the most part my focus has changed. But I still have to work to carve out the time for it because life is still there, still expanding to fill my time, and distractions are still rampant, like social networking . . . and political campaigns.