5 Things I Love About Working at Home

Following Yahoo's rather clumsy announcement that its workers were to report to the office, pronto (without sugarcoating the accusation that some were just plain slacking off), Herb Greenberg wrote an excellent, concise piece in defense of working from home.

Go ahead, read it - I'll wait.

I agree with him about the serious side of things - thinking is underrated, and too often hard to do well in a bustling office. He's right, too, about the greatest drawback to working from home: you never leave work behind. Ever. <sigh>

Now, back to the more positive aspect of things: I'm especially eager to second Greenberg's praise of phone calls.
 ( What's this Retro thing?  Tell me again, how do I use it?)

Perhaps because texting and instant responses from social media are so prevalent, the good-old-fashioned telephone is enjoying a certain glow. I swear I've noticed the person on the other end of a phone call is MORE attentive than he/she would have been a couple of years ago - which I attribute to the phone's relative novelty.

Speaking of the phone, that's just one of many things you don't have to worry about when you work at home: annoying your co-workers when you talk too loud, or place every call on speaker.

Add to that list - no worries when you burn popcorn or re-heat fish in the microwave. Well, at least you won't upset your co-workers when you do; your spouse and/or kids are still likely to complain.

I'm quite sure Yahoo and Marissa Mayer don't care, but for what it's worth, here are five of my favorite things about working from home:

1. The obvious: no commute, dress code, or office politics
2. My neighbors recognize me - and I them.
3. The softer side: my dogs are the fluffiest co-workers a girl could ever have.
4. Health bennies a-plenty! Comp time is no problem; I can manage my schedule and doc appointments, walk at lunchtime (or mid-morning, or both) eat super-healthy leftovers, and enforce my own no-toxic-perfumes and other policies without risk of offending someone.
5. I get to pick my own background music, every day - and if I get up to dance, no one complains.*

It's not all fun and games at home, of course. It is work, after all. Without a boss looking over your shoulder, you've got to find your own motivation to get things done, and when things go wrong, it's all on you. But I'll cover the drawbacks of working at home (staying fully charged, for one thing) in another post. For now, I guess I'll just put on my dancin' shoes and work away. 

~Diane Stresing

*as long as I remember to close the shades

Fiction Habit: Critiquing what isn't there

I'm fortunate to be a member of a very talented online critique group. What I've learned from the group over the years could fill a book. But cursed as I am, a copywriter with a fiction-writing habit, I won't have time to write that book for many years. *sigh* Anyway....

One of the many invaluable things a critique group can do is point out what isn't in a manuscript that should be. More than those nagging questions (what happened to the donkey on page 7?)  I'm talking about things like missing elements. Believability. Conflict. An arc. A resolution. If you write without an outline (as I believe most fiction writers do) it is possible to write a story without a very important ingredient. It might look good, but there's a missing ingredient. Think chocolate cake without sugar. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you know?

On the other hand, a critique group can also consider what you've (perhaps purposely) omitted and give you an honest assessment regarding its relative necessity. As a story sweeps the reader along, a lot of little details can and should be left out. What kind of shoes the main character is wearing, what he had for breakfast, and whether or not he crossed at the light or brazenly jaywalked. 

If you, the writer, have glossed over a detail that needs clarification, however, it's the crit group's responsibility to call you on it. (You need to explain how the donkey got from Milwaukee to Martinique.)

And yes, it will sting. That's when you say "thank you," and put the manuscript in a drawer, figuratively or literally, for 24 hours. (Of course I recommend you save it to your external hard drive; don't get me started on back-up issues.)  Then, get your red pen, and get the donkey home. 

Gettin' the Lead Out

What do you?

I'm a writer.

Oh, what do you write?


And that's where the conversation usually fizzles. "I'm a writer" is a great conversation starter. But it's usually a short conversation. It's hard to gauge your audience's interest.

Usually, I aim for the shortest version of the truth. "Mostly newsletters and press releases, things like that." Frankly, it's enough for most people. If I get a raised eyebrow or a glimmer of interest, I'll add, "And I wrote a hiking book."

Some are obviously relieved that I don't fancy myself the next Stephen King, JK Rowling, or Dr. Seuss. Others are disappointed that I'm a 'commercial' writer. They WANT to hear about the fun stuff. So here I am, baring my soul: I write fun stuff, too.

One of my poems (Monster Lunch) appeared in the July/August issue of BabyBug. I'm writing a nonfiction book about vegetables for middle grade readers, and a couple of YA novels.

If you're interested, keep reading. :)