The "Freedom" of My Chains with Carolyne Aarsen

So whenever I see the word speedbo I’m thinking…..speedo….and then my usually overactive imagination transports me to Europe and I think of blithely unselfconscious, overweight men wearing these things. What probably amazed me more than the actual wearing, was the attitude of these men. This is me. Love or leave it. I don’t care. You gotta admire than kind of confidence – the freedom to be whoever they want wear whatever they want wherever they want.

Freedom is something our joint countries were founded on. Freedom of expression, freedom of association and, well, the freedom to wear speedo’s I guess.

As a child, whenever I thought of Freedom, though, it wasn’t Speedo’s that came to mind. To me Freedom meant being completely unfettered. Freedom meant space and openness and the option to make any choice I want. Going to bed when I wanted, eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and doing what I wanted. No restrictions. No rules.

However as I got older I started to realize that true freedom is really about chains. About discipline. I remember reading an interview with a famous pianist who talked about the hours of practice and the discipline it took to become a world-class pianist. Scales and repetitive playing and hours and hours of practice. Doesn’t sound very free, does it? But….but….the practice, the constant repetitive work, the steady practice laid a groundwork which created freedom. The freedom to play simple and complicated pieces of work. The freedom to sit at the piano and let the music pour forth.

Discipline creates freedom.

I have to remind myself of the same thing when I’m writing. I struggle against discipline. The day to day battle to get the words down on the page. To stay focused on the work. These days there are so many distractions for writers that I didn’t have to deal with when I first started writing and all that was available for me was the snail-slow speed of dial up internet. Not only has the internet connection gotten faster the stuff available has increased exponentially. These days I can start checking out the best leather for saddle making remember that I have to transfer some money from my bank account to my credit card and end up watching a video of a baby teaching a dance class all the while thinking as soon as this is over I simply MUST find out why a judge on The View is crying……and then it’s lunch time.

Don’t judge me. I know you’ve done it too.

This is what freedom can look like but we know that it’s not the kind of freedom we writers want to indulge in. We want the freedom to tell our story, to bring our hero and heroine through their character arc, to get to that first kiss, to bring them to the happy ending. The freedom to write. And in this month of Speedbo, we are trying to stick to the goals we have set.

Instead, the siren call of the internet gives us the freedom to take tests to find out what kind of color I really am and what my Hippy name is with a few breaks to beat our friend’s high score in Bejewelled.

As writers we are easily distracted. I claim it’s because our minds are always roaming back and forth seeking ideas, other ways to say what we are saying, juggling story lines of other books we want to write and scenes that are coming up and how we should get there. These are hard enough to deal with. The internet adds an extra lure and creates a huge time-suck that we all know about all too well.

Trouble is, we also need it to stay in touch and do research. Both important tasks. But if we are truly honest with ourselves we spend inordinate amounts of time that don’t fall under either of those categories. Nor is it vital that we answer every e-mail that comes our way or check out that website on the best way to paint your living room.

What to do? What to do about this pernicious time suck? I know there are a lot of programs out there that can block the internet. I used one called Concentrate but you had to specify which programs you wanted blocked and which internet sites and type them all in and I don’t have time for that because I get bored and feel a sudden need to watch a monkey video. I needed something simple. Quick and Easy.

Enter Freedom. Freedom is a nifty difty little program that runs on Macs and PC’s. It costs all of $10.00 and it gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

It is simplicity itself. After installation, you get it started, tell the program how long you want it running for – I usually go for 120 minutes which is two hours – and hit ok and that’s it. Your internet is off for however long you’ve got it going for.

And the best part?

Good luck in changing your mind! You can’t just turn it off. In order to do that you need to close your programs and re-start your computer. You are stuck in an Internet-free zone until the time runs out!

You are now forced to write! Sucker.

Which is exactly what I need. Normally I start writing I get a bit stuck and even though I know this program is running and without conscious thought and my mouse drifts over to my sidebar all on it’s own where I have all my programs and my internet icon and I hit it and nothing happens and, face palm…..right….no internet….and with a sigh, back to work I go.

Calling it Freedom is perfect. It pushes everything aside. Narrows your focus. Creates a situation of self-discipline where, if we are honest, the true freedom to write lies. It chains you to your word processing program and with that discipline……you are truly free. Nothing is pulling at you, dragging at you, distracting you, making you think there are more important or fun things to do. Because, like those moments of exercise that we force ourselves to do, we know we are happier when we are disciplined.

This little program has more than doubled my productivity. And like Pavlov’s dog, once it’s running my mind is conditioned to focus on the writing because there is nothing else to do. It’s work time, not internet time. It is one of my go-to programs and is always available in my dock. See. Right there below iTunes and above iPhoto.

You can still access your other programs, just not any that require an internet connection. It can be shut off but like I said, to do that you have to close it and do a full restart of your computer and if you’re that dedicated to move onto wasting time, there’s not much any computer program can do for you, quite frankly.

But for those of you dedicated Speedbo’ers, this could be just the thing you need to stay on task and help you achieve your target. It could be the best $10.00 you’ve spent.

I know we’d like to think we can have enough self-discipline to avoid the lure of the internet and maybe you can. Good for you. I am full of admiration and envy.

But for the rest of us mere mortals, we need that extra discipline.

We need the Freedom of our chains.

Good luck in achieving your goals this month and try to get the vision of that chubby European man in his Speedo out of your brain.

(If you want to know where to get this amazing little program that runs on Mac and PC check out the link below.

https://macfreedom.com

Ruthy here! Yikes I forgot to add this last night, but our dear, talented buddy is giving away  THREE SETS of Carolyne's newest books "Her Cowboy Hero" 

and "Reunited With the Cowboy", books 1 and 2 of her "Refuge Ranch" series!

Leave a comment inside to have your name thrown into the newly-purchased, fancy-schmancy cat dish!

Writing Continuities, Babies, Westerns and Romance with Carolyne Aarsen

Hey there. Carolyne Aarsen here. 

Sitting at my computer, all alone, trying to work up the energy to go for a walk and then dive into edits. When I had starry-eyed dreams of writing, I didn't realize how much time I would be spending on my own - just me and the voices. There are many times I wished I had a group of people to work with.  People who cared about my characters the same way I did. People who could help me work through the process. I have a writing partner and we do fantastic together, but sometimes you just need another voice.

And then, into my life, came continuities. These are editor driven series written by various authors. The first time around I was overwhelmed by the people I was working with. Smart, savvy and quick. They helped me decipher the ‘bible’ and showed me to create a proper flow from one book to the next. I discovered that working in this group environment was way more fun than I thought it would be.  I had found….my people. And every time, after that, when I got asked to do a continuity, I said yes.

This past year I’ve had the special privilege of working with an amazing group of people. Okay, I know your thinking “Obligatory public thank you speech” wherein you proceed to gloss over any and all troubles that occurred within the group.

But I don’t need to to any glossing over. We had such a great time together. There was an energy and interaction that made the writing more fun. 

It all started with the introduction of the fellow members of the continuity. We introduced ourselves and we were away. Val Whisenand set up the first book and let us know what she was doing as she fleshed out her characters, gave quirks to secondary characters - Rusty Zidek and his mule -  and introduced new ones. She set up the story world, Ruth took over from there and both gave me a foundation to work with. As Jenna, Brenda and Deb all participated we solved problems in the storylines, came up with additions and changes. Details were seen to and inconsistencies were addressed.

There was an energy to the group that I fed off of. Whenever I read what the others wrote, I would get pushed to try just a little harder. To write a bit better.

ISN'T THIS STINKIN' ADORABLE???? OH, I JUST WANT TO SMUSH THEIR LITTLE CHUBBY CHEEKS!!!

Every morning one of my favourite moments was when I opened my e-mail and saw all the letters from my fellow continuity writers. I knew they understood the story world I usually spent so much time by myself in. They knew my people and I knew theirs. 

With this group I had people to complain to, people who understood my story and cared about my characters and slowly, as we work together we started sharing more than just story ideas. We shared personal stuff. We shared virtual cups of coffee and tea and chocolate. We became friends.

I truly had a wonderful time working on this continuity and I was sad to see my part in it end. I hope it shows in the story!

Ruthy here: We had so much fun on this project that it should be classified as illegal by federal marshals!!! (Because federal marshals are C-U-T-E but not as cute as cowboys!!!!) Carolyne's right, we not only worked well together, we became friends and that made the whole project special.

Come on inside and leave a comment... no drive-bys!!!... and Carolyne is graciously giving away 3 (THREE!!!) copies of "Her Montana Twins" and one winner will receive a copy of those two precious babies (Her Montana Twins) AND three books from Carolyne's "Hearts of Hartley Creek" series! 

We've got Friday morning food revved up, a full breakfast buffet from Le Peep (Love their food) and fresh coffee with a barista on hand! Come on in... Set a spell... Let's talk writing and great books!