People who work for a living know that being efficient and productive is not always easy. It can be even harder for those of us who attempt to work from home or write from home after work. It’s definitely hard to stay focused sometimes.
 
Sure, we start out with the best of intentions and with specific goals in mind—edit 20 pages of a novel, revise an old poem—but we soon find ourselves distracted by any number of things. Take organizing your desk, for example. It may start off as an innocent and sincere attempt to tidy up and possibly focus better, but it often leads to more interesting discoveries, such as that dental appointment postcard for, oops, last week, or a perfume sample, a clipped article, an overdue bill. Then, resolutely, it’s back to work! At least, that is, until the coffee needs refilling, the pencil needs sharpening, the bathroom needs visiting. Then the dryer buzzes, your neighbor calls, the dogs bark, your kids wail, and the door-to-door weirdos descend. 

But that’s not all. Most of us use computers for writing, researching, and corresponding with others. And since the Internet is an integral part of computer use, we are faced with yet one more terrible distraction. With rehab clinics sprouting up all over the place for those poor souls addicted to YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and 4chan, it’s obvious there’s a serious problem. We can only hope that those of us who work with computers can be strong and resist the temptations. And distracting temptations there are! Such fabulous, time-wasting activities abound, and we can’t resist giving you a small sample.

There are plenty of ways to get distracted online, even aside from the usual time-wasters like obsessive e-mail checking, surfing celebrity gossip news, and trolling forums and chat groups. There’s www.ICanHasCheezburger.com if you like pictures of cats in funny poses and www.PetsInClothes.com, which is pretty self-explanatory. Avoid www.DoNotPress.net, or you may find yourself pressing the big, red button obsessively, and definitely stay away from www.SubservientChicken.com if you haven’t already become addicted.

You can write “articles” for Uncyclopedia.org and feel good about being “published.” Or post something unique for sale on Craigslist, like that two-foot wad of gum you’ve created by wandering Yankee Stadium. (It’s kind of fun to see who will stop by your house or call you about it, and you might even make a few bucks!) It’s also amusing to bid for strange items on eBay, increasing your bid by increments of 50 cents at a time and hoping that someone outbids you before you become the owner of a pink flamingo bouncy house for the backyard…unless you really like pink flamingo bouncy houses.

As writers you can disguise some of these distractions by calling it “higher education” or “research.” At www.lunchtimers.com you can play a game with a whiteboard and lots of colorful letters to move around and form words—see the writing connection? The problem is, there are also other people grabbing letters and moving things around at the same time, so it’s even more distracting than it should be.

On second thought, maybe there’s no getting away from online distractions. Maybe we should all devote an hour a day to worthless pursuits—pushing red buttons, bossing guys in chicken suits around, and laughing at pets in clothes—and just get it out of our systems so we can get down to business.

Concerts can be exciting…the anticipation of which songs the artist will play…the unexpected, extended jam sessions and alternate interpretations…the encore. Write about the best song you have ever heard performed live at a concert. Think about it carefully, because this song may be surprising to you. Focus on one specific song performance that had that special something. Can you remember what you felt as this song was playing? Did it give you goose bumps? Thanks to the content of the song, were you reminded of a person or place or time? It has been said that music is the universal language…how did that language speak to you? Try a bigger challenge and write a poem based on your experience. 

Like E-mail, E-vites, and E-queries, E-publishing refers to electronic publishing, representing a brand-new concept in providing reading material electronically. The work can be published online or on a CD or in a format that is compatible with a handheld reading device. Aside from general formatting, the production and printing aspects have been eliminated from the publishing process altogether

It may seem like one of those sci-fi visions of the future—people reading books and magazines from electronic devices as they hover over to the next docking station—but E-publishing is here, and it’s probably just a matter of time before it becomes mainstream. Nothing will ever take the place of a cozy paperback to read by the fire, but in this age of eco-awareness and with the love affair humans seem to have with gadgets, E-books just might be here to stay.

One of E-book readers’ common complaints is that no one wants to sit down at a desk and read a novel off the computer screen, and even though you can curl up on the couch with your laptop, the resolution of the screens leaves much to be desired. So readability is a problem. Handheld reading devices were invented to resolve that issue, and there are several models on the market, such as the Sony Reader, Microsoft Reader, Amazon Kindle, and eReader. There are also Webpads and PDAs that offer E-book reading capability. Some of these devices have enough memory to hold dozens of E-books, including reference books that could be invaluable to students and business people. And they’re lit from within, so it’s easy to read in bed without disturbing your sleeping partner! The technology for these devices changes daily, and for now it’s a wait-and-see to determine what will become standardized in this market.

So far there are thousands of e-books to choose from, and this number is sure to increase dramatically if the concept catches on. Nonfiction and how-to books were the forerunners in this new technology, but Stephen King paved the way for more famous novelists to explore the medium. His E-book, Riding the Bullet, shook up the industry and forced publishers to begin the process of adapting to the changes. It took a big-name author to make publishers sit up and take notice, but E-publishing offers newer writers an alternative to traditional publishing.

For writers considering breaking into the world of E-publishing, there are a few things to consider.

ADVANTAGES:

• The author usually makes a higher percentage of royalties for E-books, and royalties are often paid more frequently—but sales numbers can be markedly lower than print, at least for now. And there are no advances paid to e-book writers.

• Because there is little financial investment required by the publisher, editors are more willing to take risks on new writers and nontraditional work.

• Electronic publishing is ideal for smaller work, since a print run on a small project is rarely cost-effective for a traditional publisher.

• Printing is the most expensive aspect of publishing, and E-publishing offers a more economical and eco-friendly alternative. E-publishing also offers a much faster turnaround—generally a few weeks or months after acceptance—compared with up to two years at traditional houses.

• It’s extremely easy and cheap to make updates to E-books that are already in circulation, which is invaluable for nonfiction, how-to books, and technology-related work that changes constantly.

• It’s easier to self-publish in E-book format when traditional publishers don’t feel the work would sell well. If E-book sales prove the publisher wrong, they are sometimes willing to pick it up and sell it in print.

• Authors usually retain all other rights to the work, while traditional publishers claim as many rights as possible.

DISADVANTAGES:
 
• The reading devices are still quite expensive, and it’s hard to commit to the price when the technology may be obsolete a year from now. And the price of the works themselves is not significantly cheaper than their paper counterparts, which hurts sales.

• E-publishing does not offer all the layers of quality control that traditional publishing provides. You, the author, are responsible for the editing of the book, and you must do all the marketing yourself. At a traditional publishing house, there are a host of professionals to provide quality control and up sales for your work.

• E-book publishing credits do not carry the same weight as print credits.

• Piracy is much easier with electronic work.

• You miss out on seeing your baby on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. (However, since e-books have ISBN numbers, your readers can walk into B&N and order a copy of your book.)

There is no substitute for the smell and feel of a brand-new paperback or your dog-eared copy of Wuthering Heights. But be prepared for a marked increase in online reading material and electronic reading habits. You may find yourself reading The Wall Street Journal in bed on Sunday mornings from an E-book reader sooner than you think.

A collective noun refers to a group of people or things, such as “family” or “flock.” It can be confusing to determine if the noun should function as singular or plural when trying to match a verb with it, so let’s break it down.

SINGULAR COLLECTIVE NOUNS:
 
Mathematics is my favorite subject.
The mob was rounding the corner.
A pair of scissors is on the kitchen counter.         

PLURAL COLLECTIVE NOUNS:
         
Where are my scissors?
The headquarters are located in Boise, Idaho.
         
EITHER WAY:

Many collective nouns can either be singular or plural, depending on their context, and here is where the confusion often lies. For example:

The jury have mixed feelings about the prosecutor’s cross-examination. (Where the individual members have differing emotions.)

The jury is sequestered. (Where the jury is a single entity.)

The staff is waiting in the conference room. (Single entity.)

The staff have special qualifications for this project. (Referring to individual members of the staff.)

My family is very dysfunctional. (Referring to the family as a unit.)

My family have always been proud of me. (Referring to the family members individually.)

Reverend Smith’s flock is very devout. (Single entity.)

Reverend Smith’s flock are always competing with each other. (Individual members are competing with each other.)

The distinctions between singular and plural usage can be pretty subtle. Your job is to decide if you want to focus on the individual or the whole, and match your verbs accordingly. As always, once you’ve made your decision, stay consistent.