When I posted the previous post in the Out of the Postponement Loop series, I didn’t know if my next step in rescuing my “Early Drafts” project would be to look at the Shitty First Drafts cluster for structure and transitions among the bubble topics or to freewrite. Turns out, I didn’t take either of those … More Out of the Postponement Loop: Step 2 Writing from the Bubbles of an Idea
What happens when you promise yourself a writing reward, do the writing and skip the reward? Because you’re at least as smart as a dog, you stop trying. This video demonstrates what happens when dogs know they’re being cheated out a reward they earned. You might think that not giving yourself a promised reward is … More Why You Must Never Skip a Writing Reward
When we’re in the flow and the words flow effortlessly, writing is its own reward. We don’t need to reward ourselves then; in fact, giving a reward for something that is intrinsically rewarding can be counterproductive. But writing isn’t intrinsically rewarding all, or even most, of the time. The misbelief that it should be creates … More Writing Should Be Its Own Reward, Right? Wrong!
In a previous post, I promised to reveal my writing process as I move my idea about “Early Drafts vs. Shitty First Drafts” out of a Postponement Loop into a finished piece. Here’s my messy first step in pulling this rabbit out of my hat. In the past few weeks, I spent several nights exploring … More Rescuing My “Early Drafts” Project from a Postponement Loop: Step 1 Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat
For several years, I’ve had what I think is an excellent theory about why we shouldn’t call our early drafts shitty and what we should call them instead. Every time one of my students mentioned Anne Lamont’s “shitty first drafts,” I’d explain my theory and remember I want to write a blog post about it. … More How to Rescue Your Lost Writing From Postponement Loops
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 Donna Alward contacted me about giving a presentation to the Romance Writers of America Professional Author’s Network about writer’s burnout and the brain, she mentioned her own experience with burnout. She shares her courageous acknowledgement and insights in this rewrite of a post originally published on her blog. Donna is the author of over … More Standing In Your Truth: Guest Post by Donna Alward
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
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
Bane of Your Resistance 