Writers hate to make mistakes in print and the fear of that is a common source of resistance. But Niels Bohr defined an expert as a person who “has made all the mistakes that can be made in a narrow field.” I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I don’t think I’m anywhere near making … More Embrace Mistakes to Sidestep Writer’s Block
Re-vise: def to re-tighten the screws on a vise attached to your head. (Definition suggested by Kurtis Scaletta.) Re-vision: def to see differently because of the tears brought to your eyes by the tightening of the vise on your head. Re-sist: def to insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that what is, is not … More Revised Definitions of Revision and Resistance
Writer’s resistance often comes from fear, but sometimes it comes from not understanding and respecting the creative process and our own unique way of working within that process. We get wrapped up in how we think we should write and worried that we’re doing it wrong. “I should have this figured it out by now.” … More Stop Shoulding Yourself into Writer’s Block
The previous post, Want More Time to Write? Uncommit Yourself!, was tongue-in-cheek because if you can laugh about yourself and your commitments, you can decide to do something positive about the serious consequences of being overcommitted. Sometimes we truly have so much to do and so many commitments to honor, we don’t know which end … More Seriously Uncommit Yourself
Feeling overwhelmed? Have so many things on your To Do list you don’t know where to start? Tempted to postpone your writing – again – so you can take care of all those other things that somehow you ended up being responsible for? You need the new, patented UnCommit Yourself Method to create spare time! … More Want More Time to Write? Uncommit Yourself
Expectations and demands that our writing MUST be something are a great way to get ourselves stuck. It’s a paradox: you can only do what you really want to do when you stop trying so hard to do it. Creativity thrives on these kinds of paradoxes.
If you don’t think of writing as something you have to do, you never find time for it, but if you do make writing something you have to do, it leeches all the joy out of it.
Here’s where a Product Time habit comes to the rescue.
… More Keep Writer’s Block at Bay by Keeping Writing Something You Get to Do Part 2
This blog is two years old today and I’m so glad I get to write it today. (Mini-brag: for two years, I published at least one post per week, which was my commitment when I started. Hooray for me!) How often do you talk about writing as something you “get to do today”? When you … More Keep Writer’s Block at Bay by Keeping Writing Something You Get to Do Part 1
Is there a real difference between a creative flow state (while writing or engaged in any other creative activity) and being lost in a digital trance (which could include being absorbed by TV, emails, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, shopping, etc.)? For most of us, the digital trance is so close to what we’re really looking for in the flow state, we keep going there, hoping that this time it’ll be all we need without enduring the risk and fear that come with surrendering to the flow. What happens in the brain with addiction and resistance are very different processes. But the search for something that’s almost what you need is remarkably similar. … More Does Your Writer’s Block Rely on a Digital Trance?
The idea that only certain writers get writer’s block is snobbery and classism. There is nothing inherently noble or damning in being blocked or feeling resistance. … More Only the Good Get Blocked
Bane of Your Resistance 