Just wanted to let you all know, I’m hard at work finishing up a Big Important Piece of my dissertation before I start my new fellowship in two weeks, so the film series is on a brief hiatus while I get that done. Never fear, however! I’ve watched and taken notes on two more of the films (Pitch Black and Bandits) so as soon as my dissertation goal is achieved, I’ll get those write-ups posted. I can’t wait to talk about these films. There’s just so much to say! We’ll have fun with them, I promise.

In other news, my new website is days away from going live. I am SO excited to share it with you. I’ll keep you posted.

First, a note: I’m sorry this one took me so long to post. I had WAY too much to say. Believe it or not, this is the edited version.

So first off let’s figure out what we mean by structure. At first I was going to make an analogy between structure and a story’s bones, but on second thought, I’ve decided that it’s probably more accurate to think of structure — at least the way I’m going to talk about it — as also including the tendons in a story’s anatomy. It’s more than plot, after all, it’s also the escalation of tension, the sequence and manner of revelations, the turning points that drive the action. It’s the way the individual plot points hang together, the way the acts build on each other.

The better the storytelling, the harder it is to extricate structure from character and world. Writing about The Godfather proved a lot more difficult than I expected for this very reason. The film isn’t about a single character’s journey so much as it is about a huge shift in all the characters’ world. It’s about family and time and culture and choices and consequences. It’s about a father’s legacy. It’s about a regime change. One of the many reasons the structure of the film is so brilliant is because all of these elements are layered into the 27min opening sequence. The entirety of the rest of the film flows out of that infamous wedding scene.

As I talk about the way the story is told, I’m going to summarize the story WITH SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.

It’s Sicilian tradition that no man can refuse a favor on his daughter’s wedding day. Don Vito Corleone, known to his friends as the Godfather, hears a number of petitioners amidst the festivities celebrating his daughter Connie’s marriage to Carlo. The Corleone family consists of the Don, his wife, his daughter Connie, and sons Santino (Sonny), Fredo, and Michael, as well as adopted son Tom Hagan, now the family lawyer. Michael, a war hero, brings his American girlfriend, Kay, to the wedding. He tells her that his family is mafia, but he himself is not. After the wedding, we see Tom Hagan carrying out one of the favors on Vito’s behalf, and we learn that Don Corleone’s power extends even to LA.

The wedding and LA sequences establish the world within the film (film scholars call this the diegesis). They introduce us to all the players and let us get to know the Corleones at the pinnacle of their family life. The length of time we spend at the wedding tells us as viewers that this film is, at its heart, about family and legacy, so that later, when bullets start flying, we know that the resolution of the war is not the point. It’s because of this glimpse of the family unified and happy that the rest of the movie has the weight of tragedy even though the Corleones nominally triumph.

Soon after the wedding, the Godfather meets with Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, an up-and-coming drug dealer with ties to the Tattaglias, another mafia family. The Turk and his partners want to make a deal for the Corleones to provide political protection for their heroin business. Though Sonny and Tom are intrigued by the business possibilities, the Don is reluctant to get into narcotics and turns down The Turk’s proposal. The Don orders one of his top men to gather information on The Turk’s operation. Soon after, The Turk and Bruno Tattaglia arrange to gun down the Don in the street. They kidnap Tom and instruct him to take a message to Sonny. They want the deal they proposed to the Don to go through, and they believe that Sonny and Tom can make that happen now that the Don is gone. However, the assassins missed, and the Don is still alive. Everyone on both sides waits to see if the Don will pull through.

The turning point that really sets the action in motion is the Don’s meeting with The Turk. Sonny’s thoughtless disagreement with his father in front of The Turk gives the impression that Sonny would go for the deal if Vito weren’t around. Now perhaps the assassinations would have gone forward regardless, but it’s this perception of a policy disagreement between father and son that informs the deal The Turk and Bruno propose after the hits. They think that Sonny is the one to worry about because he’s heir to the family business. They don’t understand the unspoken truth of the Corleone family: that Michael, the civilian outsider, is the Don’s true heir. The circumstances of their misunderstanding only highlight the reasons why Sonny isn’t meant to be the head of the family longterm. So here we’ve got character revelation coupled with theme in a way that advances the plot and heightens the emotional tension. Have I overused the word brilliant, yet? If not, then I probably will soon because this kind of layering is BRILLIANT amazing.

The Tattaglias and the Turk attempt to kill the Don in the hospital. Michael discovers the plot in time and saves his father’s life, but Sonny is so furious at this second attack that he retaliates and has Bruno Tattaglia killed. As the two families hurtle towards war, The Turk makes one last attempt to get his deal. He requests a meeting with Michael, who, as a civilian, is seen as a somewhat neutral party. Seeing no other way to protect his father, Michael assassinates The Turk and his bodyguard, a corrupt police captain. Michael flees to Sicily, and the Corleones and the Tattaglias go to war.

We’ve got three big turning points here in the legacy department. The first is when Michael intervenes at the hospital to save his father’s life. The second is when he proposes that he should be the one to take out The Turk. The third is when he actually pulls the trigger and completes the hit. This sequence is so intense it could be a mini-movie in and of itself. In the meeting, for example, Michael and The Turk speak Italian, and subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen. After Michael retrieves his weapon, however, the subtitles disappear. From that point on, all our attention is on Michael’s body language. Words no longer matter. The tension is unbearable. Michael’s eyes communicate terror, doubt, determination — and then he pulls the trigger. This act begins by revealing Michael as the heir to Vito’s dreams, then transforms him into the heir to Vito’s reality. It’s the most formal act in the film and my favorite.

While in Sicily, Michael falls in love with and marries an Italian girl. Back at home, Sonny and Tom attempt to hold the family together. They make a deal to send Fredo to safety in Vegas. Sonny gets drawn into Connie’s escalating marital problems. Upon learning of a particularly violent incident, Sonny runs out of the house unguarded in order to go to his sister’s side. He is ambushed and killed on the way. Soon after, Michael’s young wife is killed in a car bombing meant for him. Unwilling to risk his remaining children, the recovered Don Vito negotiates a truce with the Tattaglias so that Michael may return. During the negotiations, the Don realizes that the Tattaglias have been a tool of Barzini, another mafioso, all along.

The intercuts between Sicily and New York don’t just tell the story of the war, they also underscore the fragmentation of the family in Vito’s absence. Sonny’s hot-headedness, Tom’s ineffectuality, and Connie’s self-absorption interact to lead to Sonny’s death. Fredo’s weakness leads to his exile. Michael’s cool-headed ruthlessness transforms him from civilian to assassin.

There’s a subtle doubling that occurs when Michael’s wife is killed. The bombing happens almost immediately after Michael learns that Sonny is dead. We don’t know at this point that Sonny was betrayed, but we do know that Michael was. One of Michael’s guards and companions throughout the Sicily sequences is responsible for setting the car bomb. The close timing of the two deaths links them at the time and foreshadows later revelations.

At least a year passes, and Michael reconciles with and proposes to his American girlfriend Kay. With Sonny gone and the Godfather retired, Michael becomes head of the family. He promises Kay that the family business will be completely legit within five years. Guided by his father, Michael bides his time, lulling his enemies into a state of overconfidence and some of his allies into a state of worry as the Corleone family plans a wholesale move to Las Vegas. Don Corleone passes away before the move, but not before warning Michael that one of their people is a traitor. When one of the Corleone capos approaches Michael at the funeral to set up a meeting with Barzini, Michael knows he’s found the turncoat.

Michael agrees to become godfather to Connie and Carlo’s youngest child. On the day of the christening, which is also the date of his proposed meeting with Barzini, Michael orders a series of assassinations and takes out the traitor, the Corleones’ opposition in Vegas, and the other four New York dons, including Barzini. Afterwards, Michael meets with Carlo. Michael promises Carlo absolution and exile if Carlo will confess the name of the person who asked him to set up Sonny to be killed. Carlo says it was Barzini. Stone-faced, Michael goes back on his promise and has one of his men garotte Carlo, who has just unwittingly confirmed what many in the family have long suspected — that he set Sonny up to be ambushed.

In contrast to our glimpse of Tom and Vito’s grief over Sonny, we barely saw Michael’s grief over his wife. Michael’s lack of overt emotionality did not, however, mean that he’d forgiven or forgotten anything. Instead, the close of the war set up the final act of the film. The revelation that Carlo intentionally beat his wife in order to draw Sonny out into the ambush closes out the doubling between the deaths of Sonny and Michael’s first wife. The delay between the deaths and Michael’s vengeance adds to the emotional weight of this final sequence, as does the third betrayal. The moment when Michael becomes godfather to his sister’s child is the moment when he both claims and subverts his father’s legacy. Without the earlier doubling between Sonny and Apollonia’s deaths (Apollonia being Michael’s first wife), Michael’s execution of all his most powerful enemies might be read as a pragmatic political move. However, the final scene with Carlo is intensely personal, and it ties this series of executions to all the emotions we haven’t seen Michael show. It transforms them from good politics into revenge served cold.

Later that day, the family’s things are in the process of being packed for shipment to Vegas. Connie rushes in, screaming for Michael. She accuses him of killing Carlo without care for what that would mean for her. When Michael tries to comfort her, she breaks away screaming and crying some more. Kay witnesses the confrontation and Connie’s accusations, and when Connie leaves, Kay asks Michael if any of the accusations are true. Faced with her persistence, Michael tells her he will allow her to ask him about his business this one time only. She asks again, and he says no. Kay gasps in relief, and the two embrace.

Kay leaves the room, but she turns and looks back at him in his office. Men surround him. A capo kisses his hand and calls him Don Corleone. Kay’s face says she knows he lied.

NOTE: I’ve added a bit to the following for clarification purposes. The new bits are underlined so you can find them easily.

One of the reasons I picked The Godfather for this exercise is that it’s so much richer than you’d think if you just nailed its structure down into acts in the traditional sense. From that perspective, I tend to think of it as Act One: Before the Fall (everything up until Vito turns down The Turk); Act Two: Michael’s Choice (up through Michael’s assassination of The Turk); Act Three: The War (up through the meeting of the five Dons); Act Four: Michael’s Revenge (up through the death of Carlo); Act Five: Michael lies to Kay (the denouement). The first and last acts both focus on the relationship of Don Corleone to his family and his people. The second and fourth acts focus on Michael’s pivotal choices. The middle third bridges the gap. It’s quite elegant, really.

But as we’ve seen, The Godfather is more than that. It’s not just a coming-of-age story — Michael Corleone becomes a ruthless crime boss — it’s also a tragedy. The heart of the film is with steady and loyal Vito, not with the increasingly cold Michael, and as events unfold, it becomes apparent that we are watching the death of Vito’s dream. At the beginning of the film, the Corleones are united. At the end, Michael stands alone, feared and distrusted by his family most of all. The Corleone family triumphs over its enemies, but the viewer, like Vito, is left disquieted and saddened by the cost of that victory.

And this is why I wanted to talk about structure as more than just plot. It’s the conflict between Vito’s dreams and his children’s actions that lends tension to the film. Yes, eventually the focal point is Michael, but Sonny and Fredo and Connie are each just as big a disappointment in their own way. Arguably, only Tom is faithful to the Don’s legacy, but Tom isn’t up to the task of saving the Corleones from themselves, which is perhaps its own disappointment.

Before signing off, I want to look at the opening sequence more closely to really get at the brilliance of the sequence of revelations. The film opens at the high point in Vito’s family life. Connie is getting married; Sonny and Tom are learning to take over the family business; and Michael has come home a war hero. Fredo is a fool, but at least he isn’t getting into any trouble. Given the number of wedding day petitioners, the Corleone family’s power and influence seems assured. The future looks bright.

The first clue to the film’s core conflict comes when Vito insists on holding off taking the family photos until Michael arrives. The fact that Michael is this late for the wedding establishes a distance between this son and the rest of the family. The lack of rancor in Vito’s voice or manner indicates that this distance is in some way expected or desirable. Vito has already shown that respect is vitally important to him during the opening scene with the undertaker, so why isn’t he angry at Michael’s lateness? There’s a mystery here that only deepens when Michael eventually shows up with his American girlfriend, Kay.

No one questions Kay’s presence, though she is one of the only non-Sicilians, other than Tom Hagan, at the wedding. Then, when Kay questions Michael about his father’s business, he tells her that his family is mafia, but he is not. So now we’ve got a youngest son who’s late to his sister’s wedding, brings a non-Sicilian date, outs the family business, and rejects his place in it — but there’s no hint of rebellion in his attitude towards his family. He’s distant, but not ashamed. The rest of the family, especially his father, is obviously incredibly proud of him. Gradually, we come to realize that for whatever reason, Michael is special. Michael is Vito Corleone’s shining hope.

Only later, after the unsuccessful hit on Vito, do we find out what everyone else already knows: that Michael is kept out of the family business by Vito’s express command. Tom, in particular, frequently reminds the others that Michael is a civilian, to be kept safe and protected. And this is what I mean when I say that the way tension is layered into this film is brilliant: the mystery of Michael is resolved only to set up the fact that his civilian status is about to be violated. We get clear on the fact that Michael is a civilian right before he goes to visit his father in the hospital. When Michael is confronted with his father’s vulnerability in the hospital and acts to save him, he gets punched in the fact by the corrupt police captain who’s helping The Turk. The police captain violates Michael’s civilian status and threatens to arrest him on false charges. So now we have Michael pledging to protect his father and getting treated as a combatant by those who should know better. The game has changed. The old rules no longer apply. And we had only just figured out what they were!

The second to last act functions similarly. We are presented with a new Mystery of Michael which is paid off with Carlo’s death and Kay’s distrust. The first time it happens, we learn that Michael can be counted on by his family. The second time, we learn that he can’t. We get it. We get why he does what he does, why he becomes who he becomes, but like Vito, we mourn.

So there we go. I could say more about The Godfather. I can ALWAYS say more about The Godfather, but this post is already triple the length I intended. Please add your own thoughts in the comments. I promise to get the next review up in a much more timely manner!

Hi all. I just wanted to drop in and let you know that I haven’t had time to finish the write-up yet. It’ll be up sometime this weekend. (By the way, tweeting along with the film was really fun. I’ll definitely keep doing that.)

After much hemming and hawing and even some nail-biting, I’ve come up with the following list for our summer film series on Storytelling. Thanks to everyone who tweeted or facebooked me a suggestion! I’m pretty happy with this list. It’s got lots of fun stuff for us to talk about. You’ll note that it’s pretty heavily skewed towards genre films. That’s on purpose. I write genre fiction, and I study genre films. It seemed fitting.

Structure and Plot
(turning points, escalation of tension, sequence of revelations, etc.)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• The Godfather (1972)
• Pitch Black (2000)

Character and Dialogue
(first impressions, revelations, consistency, wit (or lack thereof), etc.)
• Bandits (2001)
• Secretary (2002)
• Cookie’s Fortune (1999)

World-building
(evidence of power structures, community, laws of physics — both literally and figuratively, depending on genre, smoothness for teaching the audience what “normal” is for the world of the story.)
• Dark City (1998)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Chicago (2002)

Written to Genre
(use of/twists on conventions, sense of building on a history)
• LA Confidential (1997)
• Scream (1996)
• 28 Days Later (2002)

The first film we’ll study will be The Godfather (1972). We won’t necessarily be doing the rest of the list in order, but I’m Italian — I can’t not do this film first.

I’ll be (re)watching the film and taking notes on Tuesday night (June 1st) at 9:15pm EST, and as an experiment I’ll be tweeting as I do so. You are welcome to watch & tweet along if you want. The review will be up Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how long it takes me to write.

I’m really looking forward to this!

I’ve been giving my upcoming film series some thought, and I’ve got a preliminary list of films I’m going to analyze for their storytelling craft. Suggestions welcome, either in the comments or via twitter (use @foulpapers for this one). I’ll take at least one more week to refine this list, then we’ll start in on the actual series.

This list isn’t exactly a “best of” for each of the categories. Instead, I’m focusing on films that 1) I can say something interesting about, 2) haven’t already been analyzed to death elsewhere, and 3) I can stand to watch at least one more time, and probably two or three more times after that! The final list will only contain twelve films, so if you have a favorite, speak up!

Structure and Plot
(turning points, escalation of tension, sequence of revelations, etc.)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• The Godfather (1972)
• Notorious (1946)

Character and Dialogue
(first impressions, revelations, consistency, wit (or lack thereof), etc.)
• Bandits (2001)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• When Harry Met Sally (1989)
• Secretary (2002)
• Cookie’s Fortune (1999)

World-building
(evidence of power structures, community, laws of physics — both literally and figuratively, depending on genre, smoothness for teaching the audience what “normal” is for the world of the story.)
• Dark City (1998)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain (2001)
• Lola rennt (1998)
• Singin’ in the Rain (1952) or Chicago (2002) — I want to do a musical, but I’m not sure which one yet.

Written to Genre
(use of/twists on conventions, sense of building on a history)
• LA Confidential (1997)
• How to Steal a Million (1966)
• Scream (1996)

My April quest for Balance turned into a bit of a screwball comedy. I decided I should start paying more attention to playing at the busiest time of the academic year. It was a good idea, but damn I have poor timing, so let’s just say Balance is May’s quest as well and leave it at that (for now) because I have something else I want to talk about today.

I’m obsessed with the list of outstanding Romantic Comedy films that Jenny Crusie and the Cherries are compiling over on Argh Ink. (I’m obsessed with that blog in general. Crusie cracks me up.) The conversation in the comments contains some awesome debates over the conventions of the RomCom genre, and I have no doubt the final list will be well worth watching.

I’ve learned a lot about writing over the years from studying films, and it occurs to me that a series of film studies might be really fun to do for Foul Papers. I’m thinking maybe a best-of list followed by in-depth analysis of the individual films? I want to play with the idea of best-of categories, though. Instead of going with genre, I want to look at craft.

Off the cuff, the categories might be:

• Structure and Plot

turning points, escalation of tension, sequence of revelations, etc.

• Character and Dialogue

first impressions, revelations, consistency, wit (or lack thereof), etc.

• World-building

evidence of power structures, community, laws of physics (both literally and figuratively, depending on genre.)

• Written to Genre

use of/twists on conventions, sense of building on a history

Any other suggestions for categories?

When you’ve decided to commit full-out to creating a life you love rather than settling for one you can tolerate, it’s easy to get caught up in the momentum of the area that’s easiest to change and neglect to put your energy into balancing out the other areas.

I’ve spent the first quarter of the year constantly challenging myself to do new things with my health and my work. Now it’s time to take a break and just settle into this new skin for a while. It’s time to (re)balance.

My life is working pretty darn well. The words keep flowing. The ideas keep coming. I can’t stop smiling at people when they ask me how I’m doing. “I’m FANTASTIC,” I say.

All of which is to say that I’m happy. I am not, however, terribly well-balanced. I realized a few weeks ago that I need to be much more intentional about keeping my work in check and allowing space for other things in my life.

The problem-that’s-not-actually-a-problem is that I love what I do and who I work with, so I don’t always notice if I’ve been spending all my time working because I’m having so much fun. This forgetfulness is the actual problem: I wind up neglecting people (and hobbies) I care about. I forget to make time for things like going hiking or reading novels or getting facials or throwing popcorn at the noisy people in the movie theater.

Not that I do that last one.

So I’m not trying anything new this month. I’m reevaluating what I’ve already done and seeing where I can consolidate and where I can let go. I’m checking all the ToDos on my list against my intentions for the year and erasing everything that doesn’t either:

1. Serve my highest purpose, or
2. Rock my world with fun.

When was the last time you looked over your schedule with your own best life in mind?

Consider joining me in my challenge this month. Breathe in, breathe out. Go to dinner with a friend. Plan a movie night. Bake a loaf of bread. Go for a walk on a bright sunny day.

Just be.

This one’s for the fiction writers.

We all want to create characters that live and breathe and jump off the page. Those are the characters people care about, and I’m talking series-finale-of-Six-Feet-Under-level CARE. While I was gearing up to write this post, I rewatched the last six minutes of that series on YouTube. Then I sobbed for ten minutes and had to go wash my face before I could come back and actually write. It’s been years since that show went off the air, but I still miss the Fisher family.

Fortunately, you don’t have to stick solely to the solemn and heart-wrenching to make people care about your characters. Look at Jim and Pam on The Office or Chuck on, er, Chuck. Funny or silly works just as well as deep, if the character has depth.

Here are a couple of writing exercises to give your characters dimension.

1. Write a description of your character from her own point of view. It might be her hypothetical profile for an online dating site or her work bio. If you’re writing sword and sorcery, it might be one of the Wax-On-Wax-Off training exercises that her enigmatic swordmaster/senior sorcerer forces her to do for no seeming reason. If you’re writing science fiction, it might be her ship’s log. The purpose matters only in so far as it gives you an audience and sets the tone. The key is to get at how she sees herself.
2. Now write a description of your character from the point of view of her worst enemy. I’m not talking about the person who hates her for her shiny shiny hair or the serial killer out to get her because she’s interfered with his Diabolical Plot, I’m talking about the person in her life who she’s hurt the most.
3. Lastly, write what I call the “Karen By Night” description (yup, it’s a song, press play below if you haven’t ever heard it. It’s hysterical.). This one is a glimpse of your character through the eyes of someone who’s just figured out they don’t know her at all. Why did they hold their former impression of her? What has changed that impression?





Karen By Night – Jill Sobule

In a very superficial sense, these three descriptions should seem like they’re all of different people. When you look closer, though, and consider the relationships each of the speakers has to the subject, the descriptions should overlap enough to paint a portrait of a complex and interesting person. If they don’t, try again. Still having trouble? Write a description of one of your friends and then ask that friend to write a description of herself. Compare the two. Look at the contradictions, the fissures that come from approaching something from two different points of view — these are what you’re going for with your characters.

Remember, have FUN doing these! They don’t have to be perfect. No one else need ever see them. The point is just to get a handle on the Karen-By-Night inside every one of us.

And if you, like me, are missing the Fishers and are sitting there getting nostalgic about the best series finale of all time, go ahead and watch the video below. Just make sure you have Kleenex handy. If you haven’t ever seen the show and have no idea what I’m talking about, go get the DVDs and start at the beginning. Trust me.

Click here to view the embedded video.

PS I know I have a tendency to speak in pop-culture references, and not all of my readers are hip to the Lorelai Gilmore of it all, so if you need a reference explained, just ask in the comments.

PPS Lorelai Gilmore (played by Lauren Graham) was the main character on the show Gilmore Girls. She spoke in pop culture references. She also wore cool clothes and had shiny hair. She’s my TV BFF.

It’s not like we ALL haven’t avoided writing at some point in our careers – grad students and professional writers alike! Here are my top five strategies for getting past that block and actually writing your dissertation:

1. Sit your butt down in the chair Every Single Day.
   
   Even if you’re only sitting there for twenty minutes, and all you do is brainstorm your next research steps or write up notes on the essay you read yesterday, establishing the habit of writing daily is key.




2. Set quantifiable writing goals.
   
   For some projects, it’s easier for me to write to a short word count goal – say 250-500 words. For others, I prefer to set a timer and just write until it dings. Steer clear of goals based on finishing a certain section. If I’ve written 1500 words in two hours that day, but not completely finished my analysis of Angela Carter’s Beauty and the Beast retellings, I don’t want to view that work as a failure! Two hours of focused writing? 1500 words? That’s a major success! Set goals that can be measured by a program on your computer, not by the tiny tyrant in your brain.




3. Don’t be afraid of the sh*tty first draft.
   
   Too many writers get hung up on perfectionism at the expense of getting words on the page. Any professional writer will tell you, the only perfect pieces of writing are those that haven’t made it to the page yet. Worry about making the words pretty during revisions. For now, just get the ideas out so you can start connecting them into an argument.




4. Workshop your writing.
   
   So you have a sh*tty first draft. Now what? Take advantage of your university writing center, if you have one. If not, buddy up with a fellow dissertator (preferably one who ISN’T in your field) and workshop each other’s chapters. Workshopping your writing will make the argument stronger and the writing tighter. It will also toughen your skin as a writer so that later, when you’re dealing with the Q&A after a job talk or you’re getting back peer review comments from your top-choice university press, you’ll know how to distinguish between a critique of your argument and a critique of your phrasing. You’ll know how to respond with grace and good humor. You’ll learn to fix your most common writing mistakes after you make them, then you’ll learn not to make them, and then, if you’re really determined, you’ll find NEW and BETTER mistakes to make, and you’ll learn to laugh when they’re pointed out to you.




5. Sleep, play, enjoy your life.
   
   I’m not saying don’t ever lock yourself in a room and go all out – there is a time for that. I’m saying that your brain/mind needs recovery time. If you train your body hard every day, you’ll burn out and injure yourself. Your mind is a part of your body. (Suck it, Descartes.) Give it time off to rest and rejuvenate, and you’ll be shocked at the inspired connections you make. One caveat: if you’ve been abusing your brain for six to seven years or more, it’s going to take more than a day to get back up to full speed. Keep repeating this mantra while you take a guilt-free nap: Slow down to speed up. Slow down to speed up. Oh, and still write every day.

Have tips of your own? Share them in the comments.

Today we have a guest post from Emily Long, the Time Rescuer. You know I’m obsessed with my ToDo list. When I saw what Emily was doing to keep hers under control, I asked her if she’d post over here as well. Though Emily is talking mainly to entrepreneurs, the tips she gives are great for academics and writers as well.

Without further ado, here’s Emily!

My to-do list was 3 pages long. Double sided. It ranged from “Make eye appointment” and “call Mom” to “create teleseminar talk” and “create social media plan for client A” to “research homemade cat food” and “learn Quickbooks.”

I had just gotten back from being out of town unexpectedly and was in the midst of several new business projects in addition to my regular client work. And a life. Somewhere in there I had a life beyond business and to-do lists.

I was working frantically trying to get caught up and get back into a regular schedule. But the list just kept growing and I kept getting more and more scattered.

I left my keys in the door 3 days in a row. I was 2 days late paying a bill because I just forgot all about it. I drove across town to Target 3 times in a week for the same item because I kept forgetting it. (I don’t even want to remember what else I did that week!)

I was doing all sorts of weird and forgetful things, but what I wasn’t doing was the important genius work for my business – you know, the stuff that is actually going to build my business and increase my income?

I don’t know any business owner who hasn’t occasionally felt like their to-do list has taken over their life. Unfortunately, most of our to-do lists have little to do with our genius work. Instead they are cluttered with items like getting groceries, going to the post office, doing laundry, getting a haircut, taking in the recycling, and returning those endless emails.

I call all these to-dos time drainers – mostly because we often go about them haphazardly and spend a lot of jumping from one to the next without a plan or structure. When our lists get too long, we can start to get scattered. Then we end up with even more to-dos that drain our time and energy away from our genius work.

So, what to do about all those time-drainers?

Capture them.

Gather them up and create a system for doing them. Instead of doing those individual to-dos of life randomly whenever they pop up – set aside a predetermined amount of time each day to take care of them and batch similar ones together. Do the same for the bleed-y business to-dos (email, scheduling appointments, social media time, etc.).

Here’s an example of how I’ve done it:

Monday is errand day. This is when I get groceries, run to Target, take in the recycling, go to the pet store, and the post office.

Tuesday is household to-dos. That’s when I do laundry, clean, go through stuff and de-clutter.

Wednesday is appointment day. I schedule all my massages, hair appointments, dentist appointments, eye check-ups, etc. on this day.

Thursday is business only day – no to-dos allowed!

Friday is finances. This is going to the bank, doing Quickbooks, paying bills, and reconciling accounts.

And I don’t just say – “I’m doing errands on Monday!” I schedule it in. It’s on Monday, I’m doing errands from 4 pm – 7pm.

Then, I schedule in daily time for the bleed-y business to-dos. 11 am – 12 pm and 3 pm – 4pm are set aside for checking and answering emails, scheduling appointments, and doing social media.

The beauty of creating a system like this (and you’ll have to tweak it to fit your life and business, of course) is that you no longer waste hours of time in a week because you’re making your 3rd trip to the grocery store. Instead of losing focus in the middle of your creative work 3 days in a row because you had to stop to go to an appointment, you knock them all out in 5 hours on one day and don’t have to worry about them.

The best part (at least, for me)? Your life is no longer taken over by to-dos. You no longer wonder when or how you’re going to fit them all in. You know. It’s written down and planned. Your brain can relax because it knows you’re taking care of it and it can just focus on your genius work.

Capture those time-drainers and get them in a system.

Free up your life to do the work you love to do.

Emily Long is a social media consultant, speaker, and writer. Emily delights in teaching entrepreneurs and self-employed business owners how to use social media – while making it fun, easy, and effortless! If you want to be grow your business and your income with social media without wasting your precious time and energy, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to Rescuing Time at www.timerescuer.com.