Why do you do that? Waste an hour with email or social media? Or find another way to distract yourself away from writing? Why do you wait to write? Or edit the same paragraph again and again?
Why is so hard (at times) to do what you love?
It might be time for a reminder: The point isn’t to be a writer who never experiences resistance, the point is to have compassion about why you do what you do and the insight and tools to respond effectively so you can get through the resistance back to writing.
The easiest way to refresh your writer’s brain might be listening to a review of brainy-writer basics. The International Association of Conscious and Creative Writers just re-released my interview with them.
- Learn about your brain in easy-to-understand, layperson’s terms
- Understand why a limbic system takeover trumps your writing commitment and creativity
- Discover what you can do to reverse those limbic system takeovers and put your creative cortex back in the driver’s seat
- Recognize why habits are far more valuable and reliable than discipline or will power
- Identify the three habits that support the writing life
- Decide which habits you’re ready to adopt and design your commitment plan to build those habits
- Gain appreciation for your own efforts so far, and be reassured that you can be the writer you want to be and the world needs you to be.
In addition to my interview, “What Conscious Writers Need to Know About Writer’s Block”, you can hear Marianne Pestana discuss “A Conscious and Creative Approach to Launching and Marketing Your Blog” and Nancy Levin’s encouraging words about “The Power of Self-Belief: Owning Your Worth as a Writer with a Message.”
IACCW Interviews here. (You must be a member and membership is free.)
Bane of Your Resistance 
2. When you have links to post, to your class descriptions at the Loft, for example, could you link to a page on your website with the information and from there link to the Loft’s website?
I’m getting many 404s when following your old links. I know right now I’m in the ancient section, back in 2010, but I’d still like to read.
Thanks,
Theresa
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Hi Theresa, I appreciate and apologize for the inconvenience. The time it would take to update so many years of posts, however, would have to come at the cost of publishing new posts. I hope you can understand why I’m not going make that investment. Thanks for reading and thanks for caring enough to suggest improvements. Please feel free to suggest others.
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Hi Roseanne,
I have two suggestions.
1. You posted on accountability on 2/10/10. (I’m sure you have several other times, but that’s the first I’ve gotten to in my search.)
Have you ever considered hosting/running a serious accountability group?
I write fanfic, and I deal with resistance quite a bit. Most of the time I cave; I’ve had a really bad experience that still, for some reason, seems to haunt me subconsciously; I lost what I thought was an extremely good solid friendship many many years ago. She used some of my bad writing habits as some of her excuses. Some of our mutual friends that I thought would support me went with her, though one was supportive of us both. Can’t fault her for that.
To this day I struggle with those same bad habits, and I’ve never been as able to write as freely as I did then. Really stupid.
I have tried accountability several times before, but there’s never been anyone to call me on my lack and missed goals. Many authors either frown on fanfic and/or don’t consider it real writing, so it’s not worth trying professional groups.
I had one group that I was posting regularly to. Unfortunately it was mostly 0s. I had a response from one of the regular contributers that was nicely phrased, but basically, “you don’t have to post zeroes and negatives here.” She didn’t mean it to be ugly, I believe, because I’ve talked to her before, but ouch! There only three of us that posted with any regularity, I haven’t since then.
I need a group that, when I post 0s or don’t meet my goals, will ask why. I know a couple of main reasons and need my feet to the fire to fix them, but the rest….
Nobody cares if I write or not, enough to call me out when I don’t and/or don’t finish. I deal alot with “no one else really cares, don’t bother” feelings. Not fun feelings.
Theresa
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I’d love to listen to that, but even after confirming membership, the page with your information doesn’t show any link or audio.
Any idea where I’d find that?
joel
On Thu, Feb 1, 2018 at 7:05 AM, Bane of Your Resistance wrote:
> rosannebane posted: “Why do you do that? Waste an hour with email or > social media? Or find another way to distract yourself away from writing? > Why do you wait to write? Or edit the same paragraph again and again? Why > is so hard (at times) to do what you love? It might” >
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Thanks Joel for letting me know the link wasn’t working. I’ve updated it and it should work now. Sorry for the delay.
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Hi Joel, I’m sorry to hear that you’ve not found the audio yet. Here’s how to access it:
1. Use the purple login box for FREE Members on the left hand side of this page with the password that was provided when you registered for membership. If you need to be reminded of that, please email iaccw@juliamccutchen.com.
2. Once you’re logged in, click on the tab for the Past Events page which you’ll see on the left hand side of your screen. You’ll find the audios there for Rosanne’s interview as well as all the others from 2017 and 2018 so far.
Enjoy!
Julia
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Thank you for sharing your expertise and experience so generously Rosanne. I know that many people have benefited greatly from understanding all that you teach about writer’s block. The interview will remain available for all Free Members to access (alongside all the other interviews from last year and this) for the forseeable future. Thanks again!
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Thanks Julia!
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