Sometimes postponing is a form of resistance, but in this case, postponing is the first step in resolving resistance. I don’t want to, but I really need to move a few projects from my Current Projects list to my Someday list. So with regret, I’m postponing my new fiction project. I still play with the … More New Book Update: Why I Need to Postpone My Novel
If you read the previous post and thought there isn’t enough productive work in Incubation to count as Product Time, you’re going to be flabbergasted by Hibernation. Circling Through You can move through the stages of the creative process many times in one project. The drafting or revising you do in Verification can cause you … More Are You Blocked or Hibernating?
Some days your writing unfolds like a lotus, some days you’re floundering around in the muck. Some days you get golden ideas out of nowhere; some days your inspiration is buried in mud. Some days your research gives you the one glorious bit you need to make weeks of previous research click together; some days … More No Mud, No Lotus
In No More Secondhand Art, Peter London describes how the phrase “forbidden colors” freed him from an artistic block. “It was now apparent to me that my stuckedness wasn’t my failure to use well what I had; it was a failure of my imagination to allow me access to a full range of possibilities…” London … More Denying Possibilities Creates Writer’s Block
Don’t know where you’re going? Excellent! Not sure how you’ll get there? Outstanding! On your way anyway? Kudos! Know everything? My condolences. But take heart in the fact that you’ll be able to get back to not knowing eventually. Most resistance is caused by fear. And fear of the unknown is the biggest fear of … More Certainty is a Certain Route to Resistance
Question: When is bad writing better than good writing? Answer: When wanting to write something good means you don’t write at all. When you’re polishing a piece of writing into the final manuscript, you want to select each word with deliberate precision. This is the time to fine tune the rhythm and tone of each … More When Bad Is Better
In the previous post, you identified your writing habits and your resisting habits. To transform those resisting habits into writing habits, it helps to know just a bit about how habits work in your brain. When you think a certain thought or take a particular action, a series of neurons fire in sequence along a … More How to Build Stronger Writing Habits
Anything you can do to strengthen your writing habits and weaken the resisting habits will make your life so much easier and satisfying. Resisting habits are the thoughts and actions that make it less likely you will write. For example, consistently checking your email and Facebook when you think about writing decreases the chances you … More Do You have Writing Habits or Resisting Habits?
In a previous post, I invited you to share your definition of writer’s block. Here’s how I see it. True writer’s block – the full-fledged aphasia and paralysis of wanting and needing to write, making yourself available to write, and consciously enduring the agony of not being able to eke out the words – is … More Writer’s Block Is Rare, But Real
Is writer’s block, as one writer described it in a LinkedIn discussion forum, nothing more than “a psychosomatic illness which afflicts wannabe writers or poseurs”? Is this a fair assessment or the equivalent of a man who’s never seen combat declaring “Shell shock, battle fatigue, PTSD, whatever you call it, is the refuge of cowards … More Do Real Writers Get Writer’s Block?
Bane of Your Resistance 