Month- or year-at-a-glance with days of the week following a sinusoidal curve. March-December 2010 on 12" square scrapbook-sized paper.
Created these pages to track baby milestones for a scrapbook but thought others might be interested in the "wavy weeks" (inspired by W. Bradford Paley's 2007 planner: http://wbpaley.com/brad/index.htm).

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This one is related to the Scene Solvent template, but focuses on a scene you've already written, but aren't happy with. When I'm editing, I sometimes find it difficult to edit large blocks of text between lines and in margins, so I end up just rewriting them (especially if they're just really far gone). I put this template together to make sure I get it right in the rewrite.

Again, this comes from knowing how your own mind works. If I tried to fix a scene just in my head and by marking through and rewriting sections of it instead of the whole thing, God knows what would come out of it. This keeps my thoughts organized.

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This one is closely related to the Problem Scene template I'll post next, but they differ in one respect. Scene Solvent is for the scene that just won't go down on paper for you.

This happens to me all the time in my writing. I'll be trucking along and writing away until I get to one tiny little scene. Usually it's a transitional scene that is supposed to bring me from one important event to another.

I'm having a horrible time with two of my novels for just this reason. I've come to a standstill. I won't call it writer's block because I know what comes later; I just don't know how to get there. I created this template in an attempt to resolve these problems.

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I don't know if I've described it before on this site, but one of the things I do to keep on track with my novels is to create organizational manuscripts of them once I get to a certain point. I do this because I am extremely scatterbrained and need to have some sort of guide along the way. In these organizational manuscripts, I include:

- Parts already written;
- Oodles of notes (culture, literary, characters, food, etc.);
- Character sketches for main characters;
- Character summaries for minor/supporting characters;
- Summaries of the settings/places important to the story;
- Maps of places in the story (some actual places, and some imagined - I use Open Office Draw for my fictitious maps;
- A summary of the story and a summary of intent/theme;
- An outline;
- Writing exercises and style notes for problem areas;and
- What I call ponder sheets. These are the most important for me. I ask myself questions about scenes I haven't written and leave space for writing ideas.

I've had a couple of writers say that this sounded too constricting for them. It's true that some writers will find it constricting, but I always leave myself plenty of wiggle room. An organizational manuscript I've been using for a while will be filled with smaller sheets of notes stapled into the booklet, exed out anything and everything. So no, I don't find it constricting.

In any case, this is a form I created to help me get started on new organizational manuscripts. I wanted something that would allow for everything to be on one page, so I made it a legal-sized fold-out.

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This is a form I came up with to help me organize the hazy images of scenes that roll around in my brain. This is also good for those of us with overworked memories who mourn the scenes we've forgotten. No mourning necessary if you have them written down already!

I've already used this a time or two, and it has accomplished for me what I wanted it to. It gave me a very clear picture of a scene I had been thinking about for several days, and now I know exactly how to use it in the story.

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First, I'd like to apologize to the author, Alyson B. Stanfield, for having taken a year to read and review this book. She graciously gave me a copy and in between my busy schedule, and reading the book, I got lost. In fact, I started this book three times over. Not because it was a bad book but because it was so chock full of good advice that every time I picked it up and read a bit more, my mind would churn and I'd go off to put some of her advice into practice. Time passed and I'd have to go and start it all over, just so I could make sure I gave the book a proper reading to write this review.

I'd Rather Be In the Studio is an amazing book that, while targeting artists looking to build their business and promote themselves, I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking to promote their passions. Stanfield structures the book around eight basic excuses that artists (and writers, *ahem* *cough*) conjure up when faced with marketing and self-promoting themselves and their work— excuses such as "I don't have the time," or "There aren't enough hours in the day to do it all," or "I'm an introvert." Stanfield refutes each excuse in detail before going into the action-chapters that help to combat each excuse. For example, she mentions in the "My art speaks for itself" excuse that an artist's work never really speaks for itself, that when others say things about an artist's piece of art, they are simply reacting to it (good or bad). Then she follows up this section with two chapters: one that shows you how to harness the power of an artist statement, and another on speaking or teaching as an expert in the field.

Blog Brainstorm - Download (29.29 MB)
Yearly Goals - Download (33.22 MB)

View photos here: http://ahhh-design.com/goals-a-new-year/

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Editor's Note: Hey gang, sorry this article is late in posting, it has been done for awhile but since it features a huge nine-book signature upload, we've been having a hard time locating server space to host the files. We're putting the files on Jordan's site for now; so go easy on his web server. Thanks for your patience!

Last month, I introduced you to the The Middle Way Method, which is a productivity system I made up that works for me. Today I'm going to show you the kit that I made for use with that system. One of the reasons I created this system was because I wanted to ditch the binder. I've been wanting to create my own books for a while now, and this gave me the perfect opportunity to show off my creative skills. I'm currently using the first book I made as a journal; and my second, third, and fourth books become the basis of my planner.

As you can see from the first photograph, my kit has three parts: a 9-signature planning book, and two single signature sub-notebooks: a Weekly Diabetes Tracker (containing 6 weeks of data) and an address book. I also keep a stash of index cards inside the kit, when I need them.

Before you set about to create your own kit, I suggest you read the following articles:

• innowen's Intro to Bookbinding 101 article. It teaches you bookbinding vocabulary and gives you an idea of the tools you'll need.
• Michael Shannon's Make Your Own Moleskine-Like-Notebook post. Use the instructions and techniques in this 5-page guide to bind the main book together.
• innowen's Intro to Bookbinding 101: Your First Book article. This guides you through the process of making single signature books (handy if you want to create sub-notebooks).

Includes: at-a-glance, blank daily, blank monthly -- duplicates of pages pushed to left/right sides of page to make room for 3-hole punch on 2-sided printing:

Very minimal and light to inspire creativity and leave room for your own notes and doodles to shine!

View photos here

DOWNLOAD (35.04 MB)

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