In the previous post, I promised that you can train your brain to follow two simple commands that will transform your writing no matter how resistant you are. The first was Sit-Stay. The second is: Pay Attention To the trainer, Pay Attention means “look at me, make eye contact with me” (which is why some […]
Master Resistance with Two Simple Commands Part 2
In the previous post, I promised that you can train your brain to follow two simple commands that will transform your writing no matter how resistant you are. The first was Sit-Stay. The second is: Pay Attention To a dog, Pay Attention means “look at me, make eye contact with me” (which is why some […]
WAHOO!
Today is my target date for completing Chapter 10 and I just did that an hour ago. That means the first complete draft of Around the Writer’s Block is done! It’s 217 pages long and weighs in at 62,400 words. I feel good, proud, satisfied, but not ecstatic. That, I guess, is the cost of working […]
Celebrate!
We need to reward ourselves and celebrate not just when some major milestone is reached, but for each step that brings us closer to the milestone.
10 Reasons to Show Up for Your Writing Today
By Rosanne Bane Showing up for your writing might mean drafting or revising, but it also means doing any of the other things that are essential to writing: research, reading, mind-mapping, clustering, brainstorming with other people, sketching a character, doing a writing exercise, creating a timeline, transcribing interview notes, and so on. Even if you […]
Wanna Bet?
By Rosanne Bane In my Writing Habit class, I invite students to “bet” on themselves each week. If they want to bet, they put a buck in an envelope and write their commitment for what they’re going to do that week: so many days of creative play (aka Process), so many days of this kind […]
Reward Yourself Part 2
By Rosanne Bane Running Is Its Own Reward If you’ve ever seen a border collie run an agility course, you’ve seen the epitome of self-rewarding behavior. If you haven’t seen a well-trained dog run agility, take a look at this or another youtube video of a border collie running agility (I suggest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTt4lGhxjw&feature=fvw) Clearly, these dogs […]
Reward Yourself Part 1
By Rosanne Bane Is Writing Its Own Reward? When I blogged about using chocolate to bribe ourselves to write (When All Else Fails, Use Chocolate), the post got three times more visits than any other post. But when I ask writers about consistently rewarding themselves for their writing efforts, many react as if I’ve suggested […]
Writing Life Lessons: When All Else Fails, Use Chocolate
“Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.” “When in doubt, just take the next small step.” “You can get through anything if you stay put in today.” These are lessons in Regina Brett’s article “45 Life Lessons and 5 to Grow On” published in The Plain Dealer, Columbus OH back in 2006. Apparently, the […]