Archive | October, 2013

Have Squirrels Hijacked Your Creative Brain?


Maggie River’s “Squirrely” is Winner #4 in the Where’s Your Creative Brain photo contest! Congratulations Maggie on your squirrel training skills! Please email your mailing address to me and I’ll send you a copy of Around the Writer’s Block. I hope Maggie’s talent for taming squirrels transfers to her writing life because squirrels are a […]

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Position Yourself Beyond Writer’s Resistance


I hate it when anyone leaves something on my desk. In all honesty, my office is typically in a state of creative flux (aka messy). Some might question how I can even tell that someone has touched my desk. So it’s certainly not that I fixate on things being in a particular place. It’s pure […]

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Going “Outline Commando” to Avoid Writer’s Block


“Excellent!” was my first thought when I read the title of Brian Klems article Six Secrets of Writing a Novel Without an Outline. I had found another writer willing to go “outline commando.” (Why I think outlines don’t work) “Absolutely!” I thought when I read Secret #3 Follow Rabbit Trails: “It’s inherent to the creative […]

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Treat Your Creative Brain to Something New


Seven-year-old Jillian H. collaborated with her mom, Raime H., to create this response to the question “Where’s your creative brain?” Right where it should be — at the desk. But they don’t want to leave it at the desk too long. Fortunately, Jillian and Raime can take their creative brains out for a treat. They […]

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Where’s Your Creative Brain Prizes On the Way


If you haven’t sent your five entries to the Where’s Your Creative Brain photo contest, what are you waiting for? Your chances of winning one of these prizes are far greater than any lottery and you don’t even have to buy a ticket, just send a photo! (details on how to enter) Wednesday Oct 16, […]

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New Book Update: Making Progress By Postponing


In my last New Book Update, I admitted that I had too many “top priority” projects. So I made the difficult decision to postpone work on my new novel. Since then, I recognized how perfectionism had pushed me away from the novel I finished drafting years ago. And I scheduled a mini-retreat in January to […]

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Where’s Your Creative Brain Photo Contest Winner #2


B. Adams “Coloring Grover” wins the second drawing in the Where’s Your Creative Brain photo contest! B. happens to be in my Writing Habit class at the Loft, so she’ll receive her prize — the Stained Glass Mandala coloring book — in class next Monday. You could be the winner of our next drawing on […]

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Break the Saboteur’s Hold on Your Writing


One of the ways the Saboteur stops us is to use rhetorical questions as barriers. Questions like: Who do you think you are? Who do I think I am to write _______? Why on earth would anyone want to read what I write? What makes me even think I can write _______? How could I […]

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