Creativity coach, writing and creative process instructor, speaker, author of Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Write the Way You Want (Penguin/Tarcher 2012) and Dancing in the Dragon's Den (Red Wheel Weiser), Teaching Artist at the Loft Literary Center.
In our previous post, we explored how Action Maps break through writer’s resistance by breaking big writing projects into manageable steps. To help you identify the multitude of small steps your Action Map might include, I provided a list of possible tasks. The relevance of the tasks listed will depend on the type of writing … More Action Map Your Way Out of Writer’s Resistance Part 2
The bigger a writing project is, the more likely it is to create anxiety. The more anxiety you feel, the more likely you are to employ your favorite form of resistance. You might decide to wait until you have more time or know more about how to get started (procrastinate). Or you might find something … More Action Map Your Way Out of Writer’s Resistance
When I started revising my novel, The Essential Path, back on January 3, I started keeping a new journal just for the novel. It didn’t include as much detail as my Product Time Tracking Table, but the short, simple journal entries worked for me. Around the Ides of March, I realized I hadn’t written in … More New Book Update: Easy Doesn’t Always Do It
What’s wrong with this picture? The writer is asking to be rewarded; he should be rewarding himself! It’s no accident that the Get Around Writer’s Block flowchart says “Reward myself,” not “Ask for reward.” The research is clear: when incentives are offered for routine work, they work; when incentives are offered for creative work, they … More What’s Wrong with this Picture of a Writer?
In our previous post, we illustrated how to use an Action Map to break big writing projects into small steps you can work on in a 15 minute Product Time session. You don’t need your Action Map to be perfect, but the more details you capture on Post-It Notes™, the more effective you can be … More Personalize the Action Map to Free Your Writing
Rewards are in the eye of the receiver. A reward is whatever the person getting it wants. What I find rewarding might be “mngh” for you. Rewards for writers might include: beverages: sip of special coffee or latte, tea, hot cocoa, lemonade food: a bite of a cookie, a few M&Ms, a piece of chocolate, … More What Rewards a Writer?
Rewards cause your brain to release the neurotransmitters that allow you to rewire your brain. This rewiring takes more time and repetition than your conscious mind might think necessary. You might spend several weeks or months repeating and rewarding a series of tiny, incremental steps to acquire the writing habits and skills you want. If … More Rewards Rewire Your Brain for Better Writing
Speaking is natural and innate for humans; writing is not. Likewise, much of what dogs do in agility are natural behaviors – running, jumping, climbing – but navigating the teeter-totter is not. Watch the first 40 seconds of this if you’ve never seen a dog on a teeter-totter. What does teaching my dog to walk a … More Reward Your Intermediate Writing Steps
If you’ve seen a border collie run an agility course, you’ve seen the epitome of self-rewarding behavior. Clearly, these dogs are eager to run. You might think that because these dogs are having so much fun, they never needed to be rewarded for doing agility, that agility was always its own reward. Not so! What … More Why Rewards Work for Writers
Joel Canfield commented that he’d like more information about the Reward Yourself box on the Get Around Writer’s Block flowchart. The funny thing is that when I ask writers about rewarding themselves for their writing efforts, many react as if I’ve suggested they do something immoral or indecent. “Writing is its own reward!” they say, … More Write, Reward, Repeat
Bane of Your Resistance 