So, what does all this clutter cleaning have to do with my writing?  Well, I was doing my daily journal writing and the topic was about cleaning up clutter and about not knowing what to write about.  And then I heard my own inner critical voice chastizing me for not knowing what I wanted to write about.  And, hearing that voice told me that I needed to write about that critical voice.  How I hate the tone of that voice!

Now, as I write, I find the power of that voice diminishing.  I know it has a place in my writing life.  It alerts me to what I need to concentrate on.  How I wish it would be gentler.  But, critical voices cannot, by their nature, do that.

So,what I learn over and over is to focus on what the inner critical voice wants to tell me that's of value for me, and bypass the unpleasant… sometimes even horrific… style it uses to talk to me.

Today, it was clear to me that my inner critical voice wanted me to let my readers know that it does not mean to harm us writers, but rather to alert us to something we need to pay attention to.

What is your inner critical voice alerting you to today?  What is it that you can take from the inner critical voice without being defeated by its tone?

Am I ever going to read all the books I haven't read?  Highly doubtful.  And, in the past when I've finally forced myself to part with books — at one point I donated about 1000 and my shelves remained full — I didn't miss them.  And so, I've begun the process of weeding out again.

I will always collect books.  They are necessary to my writing… and thinking processes.  However, I have made up my mind that I will read the books as I buy them, and decide whether each is "worthy" to be put on my bookshelves.  My bookshelves are sacred places.  Not to be cluttered, but to have books on them that are meant to be savored.

Knowing where each book can be found stimulates my spirit to pick up my pen and write; whether I refer to the book, or simply know where it exists.

Have you looked at your "clutter" lately?

– Mark Twain

For any of you who are parents, you will remember how happy you were to hear your first child's first words.  Nor did you correct the way your child spoke the word.  You were simply excited to hear "the word."  And as your child grew, and their vocabulary along with it, you did not correct how your child spoke.  Not until you sensed that your child had comfort with speech.

This "lesson" is only recently being applied to the world of writing whether for children or adults.  When learning to write starts with this "uncorrected" approach, the child can produce words that carry significant personal meaning.  The rules can and do come later.  To learn more about the specifics of the method, see Lucy Calkins' The Art of Teaching Writing. It is useful for both children's and adult's writing despite the fact that contemporary adults have learned specific "writing rules" early in their lives as school aged children.

In order to get going with your writing, it's necessary to forget the writing rules you have learned and just start somewhere, anywhere.

As Henriette Anne Klauser said in Writing on Both Sides of the Brain (p. 13), "Sometimes you need to begin in the middle and go back to the beginning and then write the end and then stop.  Often you do not even know how this thing best begins until you have figured out the end."

Uncensored writing, writing where we suspend our usually harsh inner critic, is generally referred to as "free writing."  It's been around for a long time and is one of the staples of any writer or wannabe writer's toolkit.  There will be time to read, re-read, organize, revise/edit.  But, without free writing there can be no beginning, middle or end.

So begin now, with whatever comes to your mind. Do NOT think.  Let your pen or pencil be your guide.  You can use the computer, but you're more likely to access the right creative side of your brain if you write by hand.  do not stop until you've set a timer and the timer has run out, even if it means repeating yourself or writing nonsense words till the time runs out.  If you've never done this exercise, likely 10 minutes will give you a positive experience.  It will get you past the point that Henriette Anne Klauser calls "the wall."  "So, welcome the wall.  Good stuff lies just beyond.  Keep on writing past the exhaustion or the emptiness, past the urge to quit, and reach the summit" (Writing on Both sides of the Brain, p. 18).

Begin at the beginning of whatever finds its way to paper.  Trust the process.  You'll get to the product you desire.

At the same time, though in different places throughout Wild Mind as well as throughout Writing Down The Bones, Natalie talks about the importance of keeping your hand moving either on paper or on computer. While these two concepts "appear" contradictory, it seems to me that what the author is saying is that we're all human, and that we need to take our humanness into consideration when we write. I know I felt relieved to hear her talk about the "laziness" factor.

Unfortunately, as in life so in writing we can be too hard on ourselves. We can and often (or sometimes) do expect too much of ourselves or of our writing. In Overcome Writer's Block Easily I discuss how to deal with the saboteur, that part of ourselves that can interfere with the movement of our writing work. While it (he/she) may have good intention for us, the tone of voice we often hear in our heads is anything but comforting. And, gentleness is what we need from ourselves in order to genuinely hear our "real voice," and move forward.

What is true is that I am happy and relieved as well to do what I very much enjoy… even love… doing. Writing. And, I write today without being critical of what I'm writing because being critical — self evaluative — means that I'm not being in my experience of the moment. If I'm not in my experience, my genuine thoughts, that reflect the "real voice," I talked about yesterday in my blog, definitely won't be represented. So, here I am, not writing about Natalie Goldberg who has influenced me a great deal. What I believe is that I need to re-read the entire book that I read so long ago before I know what my real voice wants to say about it.

I'm trusting my intuition. In life as in writing, trusting our intuition is what makes things work out well.

As I've mentioned at other times, other writing strategies… and in fact, a plan for writing… is presented in Overcome Writer's Block Easily .

That passage especially made me realize a major reason I encourage people (writers and want-to-be-writers) to simply write whatever comes into their mind. Namely, writing "whatever" is very much like just speaking. And when we're speaking without self consciousness, we are speaking from our real voice.

It doesn't matter what kind of writing we do, for it to be real, it needs to come from deep within us. So, writing "whatever," without thinking about it, and not worrying how good or bad it is, is truly essential.

For more techniques on writing see Overcome Writer's Block Easily.

If we focus on the positive outcome, it can help move us through the fear. A writer with whom I was recently working comes to mind. She was having a really hard time believing that it was her natural born right to enjoy the process of writing. "What are you waiting for?" I asked. And she was puzzled. We discussed some fun symbols she could put in her writing space to remind her to have fun…. which is what she really wanted though was terribly fearful to have happen. She put the various objects in her writing space after that. It was no miracle, but it came pretty close.

Seize the day continues to be the message I give myself each day. It is as well a message I impart to my clients.

You can read more about my writing strategies in Overcome Writer's Block Easily

The issues involved in writing remain as significant for the blogosphere as in any other writing modality. It is, however, the newest mode of expressing oneself in writing along with other internet writing forms, like articles, newsletters and ebooks.

I believe that the information available in Overcome Writer's Block Easily is important for anyone who is writing in any format for the internet. It has not only helped me, but in addition I have recently been teaching a course on writing easily for the internet, and have found the principles from Overcome Writer's Block Easily to work extremely well, whether you're a guy or a gal. I definitely like that.

It is frequently recommended that writers have a regular routine — which I support as well — and yet, I can as well support the activity of a huge burst of writing after a period of "deprivation." The deprivation can occur because of some external factor(s), or because instead of writing something, anything, no matter what, we just fail to write. In Overcome Writer's Block Easily I don't address reasons that we don't write because for the most part, once we make up our minds to write, we can keep ourselves moving. Still, it is important to note that there will be times (hopefully short) that this does not happen, and we then experience a burst of activity. So why not enjoy the burst?

Life is not orderly and predictable. We need to be flexible whether in life or in writing. I was terribly frustrated being unable to get on and blog, and yet I realized I could generate an alternative plan… write by long hand. Like in the very old days. And I could have blogged a lot though I chose not to. I decided to use the time for other activities that for various reasons I had put on hold. It's good I got many of them done.

It's definitely a positive thing to roll with the punches. It represents emotional well being. Why not when stuck and frustrated reframe the situation as one that inherently offers options? In this case, I chose to hand write, and share my thoughts belatedly. Who says blogging has to appear on the day you blogged? Bending the rules to fit our needs leads to emotional growth… in writing and in life. And emotional growth leads to happiness. And happiness, no matter how we define it, is what we're all after. So, the unexpected turn of events actually was positive after all.