Creativity is born in uncertainty. It’s a grand Easter egg hunt – the more you search, the more possibilities you explore, the better your chances of finding the best solution. Your challenge is that even if you may be consciously willing to keep looking, your brain isn’t. Too Efficient For Our Own Good Sometimes Because … More Your Best Writing Lies Beyond Certainty
If you ever put off writing because you didn’t know how to start, you know how intimidating the unknown is. We think we’re supposed to know what we’re going to write before we write it. It’s not the uncertainty that stops us; it’s our fear of uncertainty. There’s this myth that knowledge is power. That … More Embrace Uncertainty and Reject Writing Resistance
When I retired as a creativity coach, I started looking for alternatives. So I am particularly pleased to tell you about a new resource offered by Joel D Canfield. You may remember Joel from previous guest posts, his blog SomedayBox.com or one of his 18 books. Joel created a forum to help writers and artists … More 500 Days of Not Writing and How to Start Again: Guest Post by Joel D Canfield
If you feel scattered and find it difficult to focus your attention on your writing, you’re not alone, not weird, not wrong. You’re probably suffering from mental clutter. Your brain is filled with too many things to think about, remember, ponder, take action on. You’re struggling to make sense of a cacophony of demands on … More When Mental Clutter Limits Your Writing, Clearing Your Mind Takes New Meaning
My last post explained how chronic stress rewires the brain to make the limbic system more reactive and the cortex less active. The more stress we feel, the more we react from the limbic system, the more we rely on the limbic system, the less creative we can be and more stressed we feel. How … More Pulling Out of the Writer’s Stress Spiral of Death
I’m fascinated by how we go from not knowing to knowing. Think about it. Everything you’ve ever written, everything anyone has ever written came from we-don’t-know-exactly-where. There was a time when those words, ideas, images, those characters didn’t exist. Then someone made scratches on a page or tapped out letters on a keyboard and entire … More Don’t Know Where to Go Next With Your Writing? Congratulations! You’re on the Verge of a Breakthrough!
One year ago today, I said goodbye to Blue, aka Boo Boo Blue, Princess Abooboo, Bluester and so many more silly names. Grief fades, love endures. And yet, all I have to give you in a post today is a reminder (repost) of why opening yourself to this kind of grief is essential for writers. … More Why Dogs Make Us Better Writers
I love a good paradox and this is one of my favorites: the best way to set your creativity free is to impose creative constraints. Poets do it all the time. The sonnet, haiku, sestina, villanelle, quatrains, even the common limerick are all examples of the structures and constraints poets use to keep their writing … More Free Your Writing With Limits
Publishing is business; writing is art. Writers must attend to both the business side and the art side of their lives, but in what ratios? Challenging as it is, creating art is where we find joy. Publishing is where we hope to find satisfaction and success, but where we’re far more likely to find disappointment. … More How Recommitting to the Art Side of Writing Eased My Resistance
I met Eileen Peterson in a Loft class more than ten years ago. Eileen has a delightfully pragmatic approach to making life work as a working mom who writes and a writer who works and parents. Writers with or without children can benefit from Eileen’s insight into how to make time for writing. She’s honest … More How I Make Time for Writing: Guest Post by Eileen Peterson
Bane of Your Resistance 