Writer's Block

Do you ever have one of those bad writing days when, no matter how hard you try, the words just won't flow from your brain to your fingertips? I'm having one of them today, right now, this very minute. I've been struggling all morning to write marketing copy, but I can't. It's frustrating. My writing brain is just not aligned with my writing agenda today.

How do you handle writing block times? Do you walk away from your keyboard, go do something totally different, maybe something that has absolutely nothing to do with writing or even using your brain? Perhaps you throw a load of laundry in the washer, go for a quick five-minute walk, or read a fun book?

The technique I'm trying is writing on a subject other than the one my brain is refusing to address. I'm writing this blog. If, when I'm finished here, I still have writer's block on this project, then I'll  unpack one of the many boxes in our house (we recently moved), and try again.

That's the key to writer's block--persistence in spite of the roadblock in your writing way. Keep at it; don't stop writing. Believe me, I know the danger of stopping. Once, several years ago, I had writer's block and I walked away from my writing. I simply gave up. It took seven years before I was able to sit down and write again. Seven years!

So, a few minutes or even hours of frustration pushing through writer's block is worth your effort. After all, you don't want it to turn into a seven-year delay, do you?

Keep on writing!

Coach Sue

Success

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."~~Maya Angelou

Write Who You Are

"... [W]hile you're alive, it's never too late to be who you might have been." 


Barbara Haines Howett writes this sentence in an article she wrote, which is published in the February issue of The Writer magazine (www.WriterMag.com). I was reading the article while working out on the elliptical this morning at the gym. Funny, I thought, I was just thinking while walking my warmup routine, of all the students I have taught who have said to me that they are not writers and/or it's too late for them to start writing. I always ask them: Why? Their answers are usually the same: Writers are special people, people born to write, people who have been writing since they were very young. Nonsense, I respond. Writers are people just like you and me. The difference between them and you is that they are writing. Yes, it's that simple. They are putting their thoughts down on paper (physical or electronic) every day. Whether they are writing in a personal journal, blogging in cyberspace, or pecking away at the next Great American Novel, they are writing. Moreover, they are writing from who they are as unique beings. There's no one else in the universe like each of them or you, for that matter. Yes, the subject matter might have been written about many times before, but only you can bring your perspective to that subject, which makes the piece different, special, unique--you. 


And, that's why you have to start writing today, right now. Your community, your state, your country, your world, our universe need to hear what you have to say in your writing. We need to look at things from your perspective. No one else can do that for us. So claim your place in the line of this world as a writer, now, and get writing.

The Four Steps of the Writing Process: Step 1--Pre-Write

Whether you're writing an article or a book, following the Four Steps of the Writing Process will make the task more enjoyable and faster:

1. Pre-write
2. Organize
3. Write
4. Edit

Most people skip steps 1 and 2 and jump right into Step 3. And, that's where they usually get stuck. That's why, too. In other words, Steps 1 and 2 prime your writing brain muscle for the actual writing part of the whole process. In fact, the actual writing part, Step 3, is only about 20% of the entire process. That's right, writing is 80% preparation and editing, and 20% writing.

Pre-writing, Step 1, is all about getting the information, one of my favorite slogans in life. It's all about gathering the ideas that you might use in your actual writing. There are many techniques you can use in the pre-writing phase, such as free writing, brainstorming, concept mapping, and taping your voice as you discuss ideas with another person. The idea in this step is to write, or tape, without censoring your ideas as they flow. Just capture them and tell that internal censor of yours to go away, for now.
Once you get a lot of ideas down on paper, or tape, now is the time to sort through them and choose the two or three ideas you really want to commit to. This is Step 2. In grade school, our teachers often called it outlining. But I call it organizing because that is basically what you are doing - focusing your brain on a few ideas in an organized fashion. After you've chosen two or three ideas you want to focus on, go back to Step 1 and do some more free writing, brainstorming, or concept mapping around those two or three ideas.

Next, I'll tell you how to complete Step 2 and move on to the actual writing part of the process.
In the meantime, if you need my help on any current writing task or project, please contact me at:
sue at thewriterscottage dot com.

Happy Pre-Writing!!

Tips to Keep You Writing

I’m teaching an ESL writing class this semester at the local community college. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. The students in my writing class are advanced speakers of English as another language besides their native language. They are from South Korea, Egypt, Brazil, Caracas and Romania.

Although they are mostly fluent in speaking English, they need to improve their English writing skills. That’s why they were placed in my class. They have been writing paragraphs all semester, polishing their skills so that they write at least three passing paragraphs. They’ve nearly achieved this goal as a class. At the end of the semester, we are going to enjoy food from everyone’s native culture and discuss tips and tools to help them continue to improve their writing.

That’s the thing about writing — whether in your native language or another language. You must keep writing every day. If you don’t use it, you will definitely lose it.

So how can you incorporate writing in your very busy daily life? Here are some ways I listed to discuss with my students:

• Buy a daily writer’s book, such as The Writer’s Book of Days. These books are great because they give you a writing prompt for every day of the year. Some of the prompts are sentences you are supposed to finish, topics, or questions to answer. You are supposed to write for 15 minutes nonstop. I used to do this daily writing practice every day. I haven’t done so in a while and I can tell in my writing! When I was writing from my book of days every day, my writing on my day job and in my freelance work improved and I sold more pieces! The lesson here is to write every day and these books are great tools to help you do just that.
• Write morning pages before you get out of bed. Julia Cameron talks about these in her bestseller, The Artist’s Way, another excellent book for all writers to read by the way.
• Read one book about writing at least every month (I think it’s best to read two writing books a month, but let’s start with just one). Right now, I’m reading Sol Stein’s How to Grow a Novel.
• Read at least one novel a month for pleasure. And, while you’re enjoying the story, pay attention to how the author writes it. In fact, you could read the novel the first time for pleasure and then go back and re-read the novel to study the author’s technique and the general techniques for fiction writing. I know of one now-famous author who started writing fiction by doing this practice. It helped her see the geneeral format for the genre she was interested in writing. She then went on to write and publish many bestsellers.
• Of  course, we cannot forget about writing in our journal every day. Journal entries are different than morning pages and the book of days writing practice. Journaling is for our eyes only; it is more personal. When we journal, we don’t worry about grammar or style; we just write and write and write. It’s the time we gift our creative muse to just “let it all hang out.” Journaling is very important to honing our writing skills and assuring our creative muse that we will pay attention to her and we are serious about being writers.

That’s all for now. I’ll add more after my students and I have our discussion in a few weeks.

Happy Writing!

Sue

Write Right Through It

It's been a tough few days. A dear family member is struggling in the intensive care unit of the local hospital. This person has been dealing with a chronic, and ultimately terminal, illness for 14 months. Now, their body has developed pneumonia. It's hard to say whether the person will recover in this world or move on to the next.

My husband, Rev. Bob, and I have been visiting our family member daily over the holiday weekend. We just sit quietly in the room while the patient drifts in and out of sleep. Every once in a while, they ask us a question; we respond, and the quiet, sleep-drifting routine resumes.

As I sit there, I notice that my husband is taking notes in his journal. I asked him one day what he was doing. He said that "writing helps me understand and hear God's voice in my heart." I remembered a journal I had filled several years ago when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life's journey and the insights, comfort and healing I received from simply "writing right through" those arduous days. It's true that writing is healing. Several 12-Step groups include writing as one of the spiritual tools of recovery because the practice of writing down our thoughts, feelings, doubts, questions, even what we hear our God saying to us, helps. It makes a difference.

Writing right through it works, too, when you are struggling with your writing projects. If you feel blocked or stale, try setting a timer for 15 minutes and then just writing down whatever comes to your heart. Keep writing  without stopping for 15 minutes. When the timer buzzer sounds (and hopefully it is a pleasant, non-jarring sound), stop writing. Take a break: stretch, go for a quick walk, drink something refreshing. Then return to your journal entry. You'll see some remarkable insights or gentle nudges or just some great heart housecleaning on those pages. Now, sit down and write for real on that project you've been working on. Your writing will feel smoother, will flow more easily, and will be more in tune with your unique writer's voice.

Keep our family member in your thoughts and prayers for God's will to be done. And, as always, Happy Writing!

Peace and Serenity,
Coach Sue

Accomplishing the Impossible... 15 Minutes at a Time

I like this quote from St. Francis of Assisi:

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

Writing feels impossible sometimes, especially if you’re trying to write a book or flesh out a query for a fantastic new idea that occurred to you overnight. It seems that writer’s block will never move out of the way.

But if you study St. Francis’s words, you can see the old adage “Do it for just 15 minutes” come to the surface. In other words, if you’re stuck in your writing, choose a task from your mundane to do list and work on it for just 15 minutes. Set a timer if you must to make sure you stick with that 15-minute guideline. Then when the buzzer sounds, switch over to your writing task, again setting that time for just 15 minutes. Your writing will flow out easily from your creative mind because you have “warmed it up” with your 15 minutes of doing what’s necessary. Now you’re doing what’s possible–writing. Keep practicing this routine every day, and next, before you know it, you’ll be accomplishing what you previously thought was “the impossible”: finishing your book, completing and sending the query on that great new idea… achieving your dreams of being a writer.
Happy Writing!
Coach Sue