Whether you fall ten times, five times, or once on your chosen journey, each time will be a learning experience. I like to refer to those moments as ‘school fees.’ You put one step in front of the other, and each time you go down, you come back up, understanding something you didn’t know before.

In my journey to publication, I learned too many things to fit into a blog. But if I were forced to pick one thing, it would be the art of persistence. Learn it. Use it. Learn it again.

Persistence is what you need when you get to the end of your first draft and realize your plot is so full of holes you could drive an army of Mac Trucks through your story.

Persistence is what you need when the brilliant idea you had two months ago has lost its luster, and you want to quit because it’s difficult to put any words on the page.

Persistence is what you need when you have to tear your manuscript apart for the third time to make it coherent.

Persistence is what you need when your editor sends back more edits than there are pages in your manuscript.

And you’ll need an unrelenting push-through to run the gauntlet of the query process and get your manuscript sold.

But like the sun will shine tomorrow, if you persist, it will pay off.

I know because it did for me.

There are a gazillion planners on the market – the trick is to find one that works for you. Over the last two years, I couldn’t find a planner that served all my needs, so I purchased a large dot grid notebook and created my own planner.

This year, I’m trying something new.

I purchased the project planner by Laurel Denise. Her products have been around for a few years, but I’d only recently discovered her when I trolled YouTube in search of the “BEST PLANNER.” There are dozens of videos you could watch. I admit I sat through several. This one seemed to speak to me.

With a monthly calendar on one side and a weekly to-do list on the other, it dovetails nicely with the project planner pages in the back of the book. Check it out on YouTube.

I’ve also been attracted to Notion. Many people use it as a planner and a database to keep track of just about anything, from school assignments to books and podcasts on your list. It’s a robust program. The problem is the learning curve.

Notion lures you in by showing examples of how others have created a perfect database that is also aesthetic. After watching several YouTube videos on how to mockup your own Notion planner/database/calendar, etc.  – you’ll likely be exhausted or confused. I just gave up.

That was two years ago. This year I decided to give it another try, and Googled ‘Notion Planner’ and found a sizable number of templates for sale on Etsy. Delighted. I pressed the buy icon on this design, downloaded it, and bam – I was in and working on my plans within twenty minutes.

Notion has the advantage of being able to work on your computer and your phone. You gotta love the portability. I’m using both Notion and the Laurel Denise project planner in tandem – which will get me through the first quarter of 2023 with everything I need to accomplish – moved into the done list.

Good luck with your planner and your plans for 2023. If you have a favorite – leave it in the comments below.

]]> https://marialokken.com/2022/12/18/planning-for-2023/feed/ 0 https://marialokken.com/2017/05/08/line-producer-life/ https://marialokken.com/2017/05/08/line-producer-life/#respond Mon, 08 May 2017 11:00:33 +0000 http://marialokken.com/?p=2965 Read more]]> Dear Diary:

Today, like most days, I’m running one-hundred and fifty miles in a lot of directions simultaneously. My in-box sounds like Ms. Pac Girl on steroids. Ping. Ping. Ping. Twenty-five unread emails and counting.

I want to take my palm and smack myself upside the head for ever feeling bad when I wasn’t working and checked my emails a thousand times a day and found nothing, not even spam. I was stoopid. Today, they’re hitting my inbox like a broken bag of rice spilling all over the floor. I want to scream but I can’t, my office has glass walls and people may get the wrong impression.  Like maybe she’s crazy? Lunatic? A fringe Line Producer?

I look at my emails again and ask myself what’s happened to live communication?  Don’t we talk anymore and then I remember this morning’s ‘quick meeting’ that turned into a three-hour marathon and I’ve answered my own question. “Meetings are bad. They are not the answer,” I say. “Then what is?” I ask myself. Clearly self-reflection isn’t going to help because the emails keep coming. I’m surprised my in-box doesn’t break. Ding, ding, ding. Lordy.

I hate to cut this short, but my screen looks like it’s going to explode and there’s a line of people outside my door waiting for me to sign purchase orders, approve locations, and spend more money that’s not in the budget.

Diary, I know I’m not supposed to be a crabby-ass Line Producer. I’ll be better next time. I promise.

If you spend your days mashing things around in your mind… you’re in for it.  Those are the things that will take seed and grow until poof – one day they’re bigger than a chia pet.  They will pop out of your skull and take on a life of their own and start walking beside you like an uninvited co-worker on your quick trip to the salad bar for lunch.  Just tell them to stay put and shut up.  You actually have the power to do that.  You’re not really weak.

Why destroy Wednesday thinking about Friday.  I read this line in a book by Maeve Binchy.  It got me thinking.  Be here.  Be now.  Care.  Do your best.  Live life today.

Why is it that you never see other sportsmen spitting?  Imagine if they spit all over a basketball court?  It would be nothing but mayhem with size 14 sneakers slipping and sliding.  Or football – imagine those pros trying to hurl spit through their face masks?  Or even jockeys taking the time to spit while riding on the backs of an animal whose main objective is to fly like the wind – the back wash on that would be horrific.

So, I ask, and I really want to know – What is in the throats of most major league baseball players compelling them to hurl saliva and phlegm all over the place like it was confetti at a New Year’s Eve party?

I’m enjoying watching this World Series between the Mets and the Royals, but I make sure I’m fully fed before I turn on the game, let’s face it, watching may be fun and exciting – it just isn’t appetizing.

Brad: We had a great time. We went to the beach, and it was like 90 degrees, and we were like, “It’s so hot,” so we were like, “let’s get some lemonade.”

But you know, we like went to the lemonade stand and there were like 30 people there and when we finally got to the head of the line, the guy was like, “What do you want?”

And we were like, “We want three lemonades.”

And he was like, “Do you want them sweetened?”

And we were like, “We didn’t know you could get them like sweetened.”

And he was like, “Yeah, you can even have them with lime in them if you want.”

And we were like… “Wow, like that’s so cool.”

STOP. JUST. STOP. IT

It is so sad that using ‘like’ as an adverb has become part of our every day vernacular. When someone says, “She was like pissed”, the word like diminishes the sense of anger. She wasn’t like pissed, she WAS pissed. Big difference.

Like tends to dilute emotions, it’s weak and it’s lazy. Say what you mean. Mean what you say and stop, for the love of all that is precious in the English language, over using the word LIKE. I mean, like, you know, like snap to and communicate!

Some of the catch phrases that make me roll my eyes are:

Reach Out.

Don’t get me started.  I can’t.  I cannot.  I can’t even with this phrase.  I noticed it being used with increasing regularity about 3 years ago and now it’s in books, magazine articles and every day vernacular.  Mercy me, WHY?!  I don’t want people reaching out to me.  I want them to call me, contact me, try and find me, but reaching out, that just makes me think of the song Diana Ross made famous.

Circle Back.

This is someone’s way of saying, ‘Hey, I will try and get the answer and when I do, let’s get back together so we can discuss’.  But really, it just makes them sound like a snake circling back in on themselves.  At the very least it sounds as if you’ve lost your way.

Loop In.
A loop is a complete circuit.  However, now, looping someone in is including him or her when someone left them off.

Take It Off Line.

I believe the only reason this phrase has become part of any business conversation is because it takes 25-35 people to make a decision.  It begins like this.  Four people are on an email.  A question is asked.  Opps…no one on that email either knows the answer or has the authority to make the decision.  Okay, let’s ‘loop in’ 3 more people.  There are now 7 people on the email chain, none of whom either knows the answer or can make the decision.  But instead of taking people off this email chain you add another 5 in the hopes that looping in more people will get you the answers you need.  You now have 12 people who can’t make a decision.  It’s a wonder anything gets done in television.  At some point one of these 12 people is annoyed because you’re jamming their in-box with an email chain that is now so long, it would take 9 finger swipes down your phone to get to the bottom and even see what the heck anyone is talking about.  The phrase was invented to say – Hey, Yo! Stop. It.  Someone either find the right person who has the power to make a decision, or you all stop being afraid and make the decision – and that’s when they say – take it off line.  But really what they should be saying is – someone make a decision.

Weigh In.

There are so many snarky things I could say about this one but I’ll settle for just a few.
We are NOT at a Weight Watchers meeting.
We are not championship boxers before a match.
We are not slabs of meat at the butcher.
We are people, and if we need to get an opinion from someone senior in the organization then let’s just say: “ I’m waiting for Joe/Jane Doe to give us their opinion”.

Out of Pocket.

In my mind this has always meant that you stuck your hand in your Levi’s, took out some dollar bills and paid for whatever needed to be paid and eventually you got reimbursed.  No longer.  If you’re out of pocket you’re not reachable.  Why not say, hey, I can’t be reached.  I’m on vacation.  I took some time to go the dentist because I’m working a 60-hour week and my teeth need some attention.

As a result of this new jargon at any given time you may be on the listening end of a conversation like this:

I’m going to take this off-line and reach out to Joe who can then loop in Sheila because I know she needs to weigh in before we can get Ed to buy-in.  But I’m like totally unsure of what we really should do.  Maybe I’ll have a quick convo with Marcy and we can drill down and then circle back because there are so many moving parts.  But I need to do this in the next 24 hours because then I’ll be out of pocket. Don’t worry; I’ll be sure to copy 25 people so no one feels left out.

Enough said. We’re in a creative field. Let’s use our words

The Biggest Loser put the bull’s eye on the back of obesity in America.  While millions of people watch the show, I think there are far too many of them lying back on their couches shoveling handfuls of cheese popcorn into their mouths and throwing back a few beers all the while cheering their favorite to lose 100 pounds.  If you look through the window of any fast food restaurant in the nation – it’s not typically the slim and trim set staring back at you.  It’s usually the people whose body mass index is wacked out of proportion.  So it seems appropriate that reality TV would reflect a reality that needs attention and a change.

Jamie Oliver has created a show and a movement with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.  Produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions, well known British chef, Jamie Oliver tackles schools and their idea of what consists of the basic food groups.  We’ve sunk pretty low, when schools consider french fries a vegetable – I’m just saying.

The Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels, has a new series premiering this Tuesday.  She’ll temporarily move in with families and attempt to get them to live healthier lifestyles in Losing it with Jillian.  I believe they’ll either lose weight or lose their minds.

In August, The Style Network tackles the issue with a new docu-series, Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back from Daisybeck Productions. The series will highlight the emotional journey of four obese teens and one pre-teen who attend a weight-loss boarding school in North Carolina.

Obesity wasn’t a problem on the frontier.  If you wanted to eat butter you had to churn it (great upper body strengthening), if you wanted steak, you had to ‘hunt’ it before you threw it on the grill.  And bread, was a whole ‘nother matter.  You had to grow and harvest the wheat (back breaking work) before you could even think about turning into dough.   People worked hard, they didn’t eat preservatives and candy was a luxury.  We’ve become complacent, and we’ve become excessive.  Seriously, it’s time for a reality check when it comes to thinking MacDonald’s or Taco Bell can be anything close to a nourishing low calorie meal.  I’m happy to see that producers are creating shows that tackle tough issues and hopefully prompt a change.

Cliché as it sounds, I never thought I’d live to see the day.  Here’s how it happened – I was at a meeting in the Time Warner Building last week, a beautiful structure located directly across from Central Park in New York City. The first several floors of the building have a myriad of shops to delight any business person waiting for their next meeting.  I was 20 minutes early for my appointment so I thought a quick trip to the public restroom to fluff my coiffure and take away the shine was in order.  Imagine my surprise when I stepped up to the wall of sinks and in addition to seeing my reflection in the mirror I saw television screens embedded into the glass.  I’m not talking about an actual TV monitor built into the glass, what I saw was the futuristic technology of a ‘television mirror’.

So astounded was I, that I whipped my camera out and began snapping away.  A total stranger who happened to be standing by the sink thought I was a lunatic to be taking photos in a public restroom. Perhaps she thought I was with the Board of Health instead of the creative person I am seizing an opportunity to share too much information on my blog.  In any event, I’m not sure my description or my photos do this technological wonder justice (where’s Ted Fisher when you need him), but I couldn’t resist capturing the moment.

After my wonderment faded (3 minutes later) I shook my head, tsk, tsked to myself and asked the question – Do we really need television in public restrooms? There are some places that should remain quiet and private without being bombarded by any sort of information.  Unless the planet is about to disappear into the ozone layer, I say leave that room public or private alone and free of distractions except for the occasional scented candle.

What about you – do you need news updates every single minute of your life?

What’s right with this picture?
This is the obvious next step in the evolution of using technology to your advantage.  News organizations can now present stories they wouldn’t have had the resources to cover themselves.  It allows them to get breaking news the millisecond it happens without ever sending a reporter or crew to the scene.

What’s wrong with this picture?
If you know me you know I’m not enamored with the news media in general.  You’ll know that I don’t think we receive fair and balanced or even accurate reporting from many ‘respected’ outlets.  You’ll know that news journalist often misquote their sources, and that the more horrifying the headline the better.  What passes for news today in the alphabet soup of 24 hour news stations like CNN, FOX, and MSNBC,  straddles a very thin line between fact and  the ‘host’s’ viewpoint. This is not news; this is cooking up the news.  Its opinion wrapped in a fact or two, with a dash of hubris, a sprinkling of humor, and a smidge of weightiness thrown in for credibility.  Citizen journalist is just the very next step in the evolution of 24 hour news coupled with 21st century technology.

However, I believe citizen journalists may take a step that many journalists wouldn’t– and that’s ‘creating’ the news.  Do I need to remind you of the Balloon Boy fiasco?  His alleged disappearance spread on Twitter faster than you could type 140 characters.  Most people just hit the retweet button.  It was ‘news’ that was spread to hundreds of thousands of people before anyone realized it was TOTALLY MADE UP.   It’s sad, but people do want their fifteen minutes and they want to be heard.  Millions of blogs are proof of that.

As citizen journalists enter the lexicon of our ever increasing all media world – what can we count on to be true?  Considering how far we’ve come from the Walter Cronkite days – how far will we go?  Will we each have our own channel as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook merge?  Will our channels have news we create?  Will I be able to friend someone half way around the world and get their viewpoint of the news, news that is happening in their country?  If so, then we’re creating a world where the news is all about someone’s viewpoint and opinion and not about facts.

We all have opinions, and some of us even have cameras.  It’s a perfect combination for home grown news.  Welcome to the 21st century Citizen Journalist.

What’s your thought?  How do we keep the news from becoming a potpourri of individual opinions? And do you want to?