Writer's Block

July 22, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: DISTRACTIONS

  I don't "do" twitter.  I don't "do" Facebook.  I don't "do" Myspace.  I don't "do" Linked In.  At least not enough.  Enough so that I'd get widely connected. (…)

July 19, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: LOVE OF WRITING

  I cannot retrieve the past when I could knock out novels quickly.  Nor would I want to.  Rather, what I want is to feel connected more deeply to the novels I do write.  This is the experience I'm having with my new novel. (…)

July 16, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: INSPIRATION AND MOMENTUM

  I'm glad I do not write for a living.  That is, I'm glad I do not make my living as a writer.  I love to write, but I would not want to produce on an external deadline generated by others.  The deadlines I impose on myself are pressure enough. (…)

July 13, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: WAKE UP AND WRITE

  Pat Schneider has suggested that sometimes it is better when you're writing to read a genre different from the genre you're writing in.  I can appreciate that advice as I find myself reading Pema Chodron's Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion.  Pema Chodron is a Buddhist.  And, the book is a series of short (1-1/2 pages) chapters which can be read in any order the reader wishes, with the goal of helping the reader to become awake to their lives. (…)

July 10, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: ESSENTIAL AFFIRMATIONS

  In the last blog I talked about the need to reach out to others.  Here I'd like to present five essential affirmations discussed by Pat Schneider in her book Writing Alone and with Others.  She considers these affirmations necessary for any writing workshop/group. (…)

July 7, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: REACHING OUT

  In my last blog I talked about self-acceptance.  It's clearly a life long process.  And one of the ways self-acceptance can be facilitated is to reach out to others.  Very specifically, to supportive others. (…)

July 4, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: SELF-ACCEPTANCE

  Self-acceptance is very much related to forgiveness.  In fact, once you have forgiven yourself, you may notice you are in a self-accepting state. (…)

July 1, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: FORGIVENESS

  For anyone who has been reading my blog for the last six months, you likely will have noticed that I've been writing every three days.  I feel proud of myself that I've succeeded in this endeavor.  Yet, as of today, I have "fallen off the wagon."
  I have diligently been writing in my journal every single day for at least a year.   That is, I have never missed a day.  In the past, I have skipped days, and likely I will again.  However, it is clear to me that I have a fairly strong journal writing habit by now.  Habits and any creative activity are important (see Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life). (…)

June 28, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: "PERSONAL STORIES"

  I have not directly talked about writing your "personal story."  And yet, when I talk about writing in a freewriting format, it may well happen that you will write your personal story.  Here, in today's blog, I'm actually suggesting that you start by writing your personal story.  It's another way that gets freewriting going, and a way to access material that may prove fruitful for you personally and for your writing  both in terms of growth and creativity. (…)

June 25, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: FROZEN THEN FREE

  For a long time I thought I would specialize in writing coaching for the web.  However, as I worked with people who wanted to do different kinds of writing — not all of it what we would typically think of as creative — a common problem emerged over and over again.  People who thought of themselves as having writer's block were not unable to write.  Rather, they were frozen in getting started. (…)

June 22, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: NO TIME?

  No time to write?  Or is this just another name for fear?  Usually, it is thought that having no time to write means you are afraid.  Truly motivated writers find the time.  Scott Turow used to write on the train to work and back, when he was practicing law.   Kafka was a clerk who worked full time.  Philip Roth is known to have advised would be writers not to commit to full time writing until or if you can make a living from it.  Specifically he advised NOT to quite your full time job to write. (…)

June 19, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: FEEL THE FEAR

  Over time I have met many people who tell me they wish they could write.  When I talk to them about what they want to write, they usually are not clear.  Rather, they have a vague idea.  But, that's not what gets in the way.  What gets in the way is fear.  Fear that they cannot, after all, write anything of value.  Fear that they really have nothing to say.  Or they have nothing to say that hasn't been said before. (…)

June 16, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: FRUITS OF PATIENCE & DEDICATION

  In my last blog I talked about freewriting and flow, and ended up at patience and dedication.  It is simply not possible to be a writer without patience and dedication. (…)

June 13, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: FREEWRITING AND FLOW

  Flow goes hand in hand with freewriting.  Time dissolves.   Keeping your hand moving no matter what comes out of your pen is essential to freewriting. (…)

June 10, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: NOTICE YOUR INNER CRITICAL VOICE

  The more clutter I have cleared, the more light hearted I have been feeling.  Clearing this clutter has been leaving my mind freer to focus on the now, on the present.  I do not have to see myself as procrastinating in cleaning up clutter  — because I'm not.  There are still things that need to go, but I am scheduling them. (…)

June 4, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: CLEAN UP CLUTTER

  In my last blog I mentioned that I finally got fed up with being a writer-technician with no heart in my work.  The writer-technician was expressed in my PhD dissertation. (…)

June 1, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: THE PITFALLS OF DOING ONLY FOCUSED WRITING

  I have not talked a great deal about focused writing.  The reason for this is that without writing — that is, freewriting — there is unlikely to be focused writing that is gratifying.  Also, if there is focused writing, it is unlikely to have energy because it will not be coming from our creative selves. (…)

May 29, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: TO OUTLINE OR NOT

  You may be surprised that I'm even suggesting that we write from an outline since I typically talk about freewriting.  Yet the two are not incompatible. (…)

May 26, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: ROUTINES…AGAIN

  It is important to get comfortable with "writer's block."  It's part of the writer's way of being.  In the last post I suggested that there will always be writer's block whether we call it writer's block or we call it by another name. (…)

May 23, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: IS IT REAL?

  What if there is no such thing as writer's block?  Then what is there? (…)