It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that the Clarion Writers Workshop is a thing near and dear to me. Attending the six-week workshop in 2010 was a milestone in my writing career. The annual write-a-thon, where writers commit to writing goals and ask friends, family,and strangers to pledge money to go towards funding the workshop.

I’ve always liked stories about mundane things. Everyday people who might be ignored or worse, shunned — garbage men, teachers, farmers, butchers, prostitutes, factory workers — who find themselves in extraordinary circumstance and rise up to the challenge.

For months, we kept the animated film “9” (2009) on the DVR. I kept telling myself that I’d sit down and watch it on the weekend, and inevitably being too distracted to do so. We came home a few nights ago and discovered the DVR had deleted several of the oldest recordings, including 9. That made me sad, because I really did intend on watching it soon. Kind of mad, I fired up Netflix and watched it that night.

As writers, we fill our toolbox with things that help us in our craft. I’ve been experimenting with a few new things of late, trying to boost my productivity. Two of them in particular are making a difference.