Write Like An Elephant

I am a self-help junkie, especially when it comes to improving my writing skills. I enjoy articles that focus on technique. But what I really need is to improve is my work habits. Believe it or not, I need look no further than one of my favorite animals: elephants. It's not for nothing they have one of the largest brains in the animal kingdom (and that includes humans).

• Most elephants are active at dawn and dusk (oh and by the way, my new thing I learned today is the term for this: 'crepuscular'). As most elephants in the wild live in some pretty demanding weather environments, this tells me they are focusing their activities in the parts of the day that will allow them to be the most productive with the least effort. They're working smarter, not harder. Only the dumb elephants are out rampaging around the African savannah at high noon. So why is it I waste so much time scrolling through a meaningless Facebook feed, when I could have spent the time finishing up my current book project??? If elephants had Facebook, they would only check no more often than once a day, right before bed, no longer than 15 minutes. Wait - what am I saying? If elephants wanted FB, they would be on it by now. Clearly, they are too smart for FB. Don't be a dumb elephant!
• Elephants often work together. The females form herds or family groups. They help each other with child care and grocery gathering. In captivity their goals sometimes shift more toward elephant hijinks such as hatching escape plans, but they still work together like the gang from Oceans Eleven - plans are devised, tasks are assigned, diversions are orchestrated. We writers often tend to be introverts. We are attracted to the solitary lifestyle of a writing career. But we may overlook the benefits of support from our fellow writers. Whether it is in person in the form of a critique group or writer's conference, or online via discussion groups, blogs, or Twitter feeds, embrace the communal support available. We're all better for it.
• Elephants are able to accomplish said elephant hijinks because they have, to quote Ghostbusters, 'the tools and the talent'. Other animals may be smart, but lack an amazingly useful tool such as a trunk. Vice versa, sometimes the animals with the cooler tools like web spinning or running fast are maybe not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Elephants have that great combination of intelligence and physical tools. They can come up with a plan, and also execute it. And here's where I struggle - I can plan with the best of them, but like the Oklahoma Department of Correction, am very poor at executing. I have seen enough writing articles on topic generation to know some folks go the other way - they have trouble coming up with ideas. Can't have one without the other. We need to be great at both.
• Elephants rarely lie down because their straight legs are perfectly designed to support their standing weight. I have a hard enough time getting up and down at five-foot-nine and a hundred-and-something pounds. If I weighed 5000 pounds, I'd never lie down, either! As a writer, what are you perfectly designed for? Blogs or books? Traditional publishing or self? Fiction or non? Whatever it is, find it. Do it. Don't force yourself into something that you're not built for.
• Elephants don't sleep much. They need to spend 20+ hours a day eating because they are so big. The elephants who choose to sleep a lot aren't the skinny elephants - they're the dead ones. As writers, we need to be keenly aware of how much of our time should be devoted to our top priorities, and what will happen if we don't follow through.