Writing Process

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 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 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 7, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: MORE ON CLEARING CLUTTER

  I have more paper clutter to clear, but I have made such a dent that I literally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The next thing I need to clear out are more books.  Now, I happen to love books, and I am probably addicted to collecting them.  However, my garden is overgrown.  If books could sprout weeds, surely I would have many. (…)

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 14, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: MENTAL BREAKS

  You know you've got a "serious" writing habit when you don't write for a day and you feel you're having "writing withdrawal."  This experience is positive because it's likely to get you back to writing the very next day. (…)

May 8, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: WRITING COACHING GROUPS

  I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the power of a small group of people to energize each other.  I am speaking in particular about the small writing coaching group I have been working with. (…)

May 5, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: WRITE WHEN TIRED

  There's no better way to get to the truly uncensored you than writing when you're really tired.  When you believe you can't think anymore.  When you believe you cannot possibly have anything to say. (…)

May 2, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: GET OVER YOURSELF

  I can't believe these words, "Get over yourself," have come out of my mouth/pen.  And yet, what could be more true than the need as a writer to "get over yourself."
  Being impressed with yourself or wanting to press others will NOT get the writing job done.  Just get in there, roll up your sleeves, and be willing to have fun writing. (…)

April 29, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: KEEP A NOTEBOOK

  I guess you could say that the suggestion to keep a notebook is  a writing tip.  The notebook can serve as a place for random thoughts, observations, and writings.  It can also serve as an ongoing personal journal. (…)

April 26, 2009

• WRITER'S BLOCK: ALL WRITING IS PRECIOUS

  Before I understood that ALL writing is precious, I would throw out what I didn't like.  I didn't understand then that what I was really doing was discarding parts of me.  Or maybe I really wanted to throw out those parts, hoping it would mean that they no longer existed. (…)