Creativity Blocked? Here’s the Solution…

A guest post by Noelle Sterne from Trust Your Life

When I scanned the mail the other day, one letter caught my eye with handwriting I couldn’t quite place. Curious, I tore open the letter and, to my shock, saw I’d written it to myself.

Maybe I should have recognized my own handwriting, but it was like seeing yourself reflected in a window. Even though certain aspects look familiar, there’s a gap. Most of us don’t have a clear picture of what we look like or write like.

Three weeks earlier, a particularly important professional writing project had been rejected. After I poured out my despondency to a friend, she suggested I write a letter to myself extolling my virtues and mail it without a second glance or draft. Desperate, I followed her advice.

When I saw the letter again, I remembered writing and mailing it. But the mind is a marvelous, perverse organ, often defying logic. And writer and reader are two different creatures. Now, as intended reader, I felt I was looking at the letter for the first time.

In the past, I’d occasionally fed myself words of praise, but they always got towed under by the persistent waves of doubt and whipped by the accusing winds of audacity. Only now, seeing the scrawled self-acclaiming phrases, did I begin to believe them and, amazingly, felt lifted.

Writing yourself a letter isn’t a new antidote in the writer’s self-help bag of tonics for depression, futility, blocks, redefining your purpose, or other occupational ills. The letter can be used by any creative individual to support, encourage, and affirm. In The Artist’s Way, my favorite book for “creatives,” as Julia Cameron calls us, she assigns such a letter. Anticipating objections, she knows that writing and mailing a letter to yourself “sounds silly” but, as I discovered, “feels very, very good to receive.” (1)

Why Bother?
“Jeez,” you’re saying, “With all I have to do, I can hardly squeeze in some real time for my writing, painting, music, dance, pottery . . . . Why should I fool with a letter to myself?”

Here are only a few reasons:
1. It makes you write about your blocks. If you’ve been having trouble, the letter pushes you, not unpleasantly, to get the flow, or the pots, going.

2. You can scold yourself or spill out your frustrations and betrayed hopes without suffering through anyone else’s well-meaning, superior advice.

3. The letter nudges you to face your unproductive behavior and self-indulgent attitudes—procrastinating, avoiding a commitment to stick to a creating schedule, yielding to childish grief that you’re not in a gallery or command huge sums for your paintings, even though you’ve done nowhere near enough work to get so much as a sniff of recognition.

4. With your soul clean, in the letter you can now commit, or recommit, to correction and new action.

5. Without inviting the muffled giggles or outright scorn of friends and family, you can enunciate on paper exactly what you want—the well-worn but still precious ideal day/life.

6. When you describe your perfect day on paper, you’re visualizing your ideal creating time and activities and affirming that you do indeed deserve them.

What Should You Tell Yourself in the Letter?
You’ve probably already thought of several things. Cameron suggests two. Your adult self can address “your inner artist” about the dreams you want to make real. Or you can write as a best friend suggesting “a few simple changes” in your life toward achieving your dream. (2) You know them: solid gym sessions, more (or less) sleep, tactful withdrawal from a friend who calls five times a day or the committee sucking all your energy, cooking fewer gourmet meals (your family/relatives/friends will still like you), or other adjustments that give you more time, creative space, and focus for the work your heart cries out to do.

You can also address yourself as if you’re 90 looking back. Or write your letter as an “artist’s prayer,” as Cameron does in a powerful poem. (3) Or write out unabashed declarations of your artistic pluses and accomplishments. How often do we really acknowledge ourselves for accomplishments, even those as small as setting up our easel or buying a new CD to choreograph? (4)

So, the purpose of the letter to yourself is to make you feel better, remind you of your all-important life vision, and conquer those teeming demons of self-doubt. The letter bolsters, motivates, heartens, inspires, and chides you into more work, better work, and more consistent and daring work.

What Others Have Told Themselves
Many types of letters to yourself will work. I asked a small writers’ group to write to themselves. To help you to your own letters and learnings, here, with permission, are excerpts that apply to any of us creatives.

One author wrote to himself from a simulated advanced age:
Don’t make the daily excuses. They add up to a wasted life. Don’t do what I did and live each day only to get through it and for creature comforts. You still have time. Your yearnings to create won’t disappear, nor will your gifts. They’re waiting patiently for you and, with the least encouragement, will rush to express. Take hold and don’t lose your dream.

Another writer instructed herself in the need for balance and self-nurturing:
Listen to music again. Read the books you like. Instead of stupid television flipping, you know how fulfilling a symphony or well-written paragraph can be. Take a course. Get outside and enjoy the air. Go play with your husband. Sit in a field and write. Breathe.

A third underscored visualization of the ideal life:
Keep dreaming. Dream that you can be and are what you want to be. Dream you’re writing exactly what you want to NOW, and keep returning to this dream. Eventually it will become what you are.

A fourth cheered on:
You’re on the right path. Keep seeing your path with passion and purpose. Whatever writing you’re doing, do it wholly. Whether you judge it “creative” or not, you’re developing and enriching your gift. Believe in it and yourself to do it.

Your Turn
Go on—give yourself this gift. Take about a half hour, settle into a spot you love, and begin. Once you finish, fold the letter into an envelope (somehow email isn’t as powerful), and mail it.

When, in a few days, you quizzically peer at the dimly familiar handwriting on the envelope, as I did, and then open and read your letter, I guarantee you’ll be astonished. You’ll also be bolstered and buoyed, moved and humbled. Your creative fires will flare and fuel your dedication. You’ll resolve on a schedule for your current project and stick to it.

And, more than ever before, you’ll accept and value the person who wrote that letter.

Author, editor, writing coach, and spiritual counselor, Noelle Sterne writes fiction and nonfiction and has published over 250 pieces in print and online venues. In her new book, Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books), she helps readers let go of regrets, relabel their past, and reach their lifelong yearnings. Visit Noelle at www.trustyourlifenow.com
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Categories: Art of Writing, Creativity

How To Dream Without Making Dreams Your Master

A guest post by Ollin Morales of Courage 2 Create

There are a lot of people who dream about writing a novel but never actually sit down to write anything.

In my opinion, these people aren’t lazy, irresponsible, weak, or cowardly. In my opinion, these are simply people who’ve yet to learn how to dream without making dreams their master.

Why We Would Rather Dream Dream Than Actually Live The Dream

In his famous poem, “If,” Rudyard Kipling shares several important lessons that he hopes will help his son become successful in life. One of the best parts of the poem is when Kipling tells his son that he should dream but “not make dreams [his] master.”

Now, when I first read this line, I had no idea what Kipling meant. But, two years ago, when I finally began to write the novel I had dreamed about writing, I finally understood what Kipling meant.

It was only then, when I started to pursue the dream and not just dream the dream, that I learned that the reason why so many writers don’t even begin the novel they dream about writing.

It all comes down to this sobering fact: we would rather dream the dream than actually experience the high-highs, and low-lows, of what living out the dream is like.

We know consciously (or unconsciously) that the actual living out of our dream requires us to face rejection, failure, boredom, disappointment, depression, as well as acceptance, success, excitement, encouragement, and jubilation.

But in our dreams we have the benefit of only experiencing the positive aspects of the dream-realization process, and we’re free to censor all the negative aspects of that journey.

How Dreaming Becomes Your Master

Now, I’m not knocking dreaming. I think dreaming is important. Vital even. We all need to have a vision. We all need to have a concrete goal of what we want out of this life, and dreaming helps us define both that goal and that vision.

So, a dream is always a great place to start.

But where dreaming goes bad is when you get stuck on that vision, or goal, and don’t leave any wiggle room for improvisation or adaptation.

Dreaming becomes your master when you don’t allow yourself to take the first step in making your dream a reality, because you believe that all the stars have to be aligned perfectly in order for you to proceed.

Dreaming becomes your master when you don’t adjust or recalibrate your dream to the random curve balls life throws at you.

Dreaming becomes your master when you seek a pure, unadulterated version of your dream, and refuse to compromise for anything that isn’t exactly what you had imagined.

Dreaming becomes your master when you refuse to be open to opportunities that weren’t apart of your initial dream “plan,” but that may still help you realize your dream in the long run.

Dreaming becomes your master when you think you must “coddle” your dream and not let it be “tainted” by “impure” or “less-than-ideal” circumstances.

Waiting for ideal circumstances, or seeking to create ideal circumstances, is exactly how your dream gets deferred.

How To Dream Without Making Dreams Your Master

So, here’s what you must do if you’re continually deferring your dreams on a day-to-day basis:

Admit it. You have let your dreams become your master.

Now, for your own good, escape from your bondage and take the following actions toward your freedom:

Make a decision. (Remember: decision = action.)

A theater teacher once taught me this vital lesson: he taught me that “decision = action.”

For many of us, indecision is the constant foil to fulfilling our dreams.

We can’t decide on the best way to begin realizing our dream, because we see too many ways in which our decisions could lead us to disaster.

So, if you’re stuck in indecision, remember that as long as you stay undecided you won’t be able to move forward with you dream.

But, if you want to move forward, just make a decision. Any decision. A decision will always propel you into action, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself taking a real step toward your dreams.

(By the way, don’t be afraid if your decision does lead to disaster. If your decision produces an unfavorable result, you can always decide to try something else later.)

Stop analyzing. Just experience.

Another way we allow dreams to become our master is by overanalyzing our dreams.

We analyze the probability of us succeeding, or we analyze how much money we might make, or we analyze what awards we might, or might not, get. We study the statistics, examine the percentages, pore over the stories of people who have achieved something similar to what we desire to accomplish. We start there, but we don’t end there.

We spend hours upon hours comparing, contrasting, pondering, conjecturing, stipulating, estimating, and extrapolating all aspects of our dream—but we never just choose to EXPERIENCE our dream.

If you want to stop making dreams your master, you need to stop analyzing your “chances” of realizing your dream, and instead make the choice to experience the realization of your dream.

Remember that analysis is just thinking, and just thinking about your dream won’t get you anywhere. So, just move from thinking to doing, today.

Know that the living out of your dreams means that you must experience the “low-lows” of the journey as well as the “high-highs” of the journey. This is all part of the process.

Nobody gets an easy ride.

Well… except for Kim Kardashian. And Snooki. And rich people’s pets.

But you’re not Kim Kardashian, Snooki, or a Yorkshire Terrier from Pasadena, California so just get over it, get to work, and expect that the ride is not going to be perfect.

Stop comparing yourself to others. You have a unique journey you are meant to fulfill.

The bad news is that you’ll never be able to achieve the kind of success that someone else has already achieved. But the good news is that no one else will be able to achieve the kind of success that you may potentially achieve.

So, focus on achieving the success that is only possible for you. Focus on succeeding in ways only you can succeed. Forget everybody else.

Detach yourself from the outcome.

Ask yourself to succeed in engaging in the process, and not in realizing the product.

In truth, what will come of your attempts to realize your dream is not really up to you. What is up to you is if you take the time today to try to make your dream a reality.

So don’t demand that you achieve great work, just demand that you will try to achieve great work.

Dream In Moderation

Dreaming is good, but just like with anything else, too much of it can be dangerous.

So make sure you dream in moderation. Dream, but be careful not to let that dreaming get in the way of you achieving those dreams. Dream, but don’t let dreams become your master.

Instead, be the master over your dreams. Admit that living out your dream, and experiencing all the low octaves and high altos of the process, is a whole lot better than just imagining your dream, and allowing your life to play out like one, long, monotonous chord.

How do you not let dreams become your master? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Ollin Morales is a writer. Courage 2 Create chronicles the author’s journey as he writes his very first novel. This blog offers writing advice as well as strategies to deal with life’s tough challenges. His blog was named one of The Top Ten Blogs for writers by Write To Done two years in a row (2011, 2012), and has been featured on The Huffington Post and Colorlines.com

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Categories: Art of Writing, Creativity, Fiction

Mastering Words: Transform Your Writing Weakness into Strength

A guest post by Angela Ackerman of The Bookshelf Muse

Each day, we seek to put our best foot forward. We shower, dress for the day’s activities, style our hair. We plan, organize, gather our things, and check the mirror before leaving to pluck stray fluff off our sweaters and straighten sleeves.

Why?

  • To enhance our strengths.
  • To appear confident.
  • To show the people who interact with us that we are collected and ready for whatever comes our way.

It’s human nature to minimize our weaknesses. We hide zits, disguise thinning hair and avoid talking about our embarrassing mistakes. But in writing, covering up flaws can keep us from success.

Attitude

All writers shares a common epiphany on the writing path. I call it Staring Into The Abyss. This experience happens when our writing has strengthened to the point where blissful ignorance rubs away and we begin to realize just how much we don’t know.

It’s a dark moment, a bleak moment. We feel shock. Frustration. Despair. Some stop right there on the path, their writing spirits broken. Others take a micro-step forward, progressing toward the most important stages leading to growth: acceptance and determination.

Once we come to terms with what we don’t know, we can set out to learn. Taking on the attitude of a Learner is what separates an amateur from a PRO.

Asking for help

Writers can strengthen their skills on their own, but it’s a lot of hard work. Reaching out to other writers will shorten the learning curve considerably. Critique partners can help identify your weak areas and offer strategies to improve. They also will know of resources which might help.

There are many great sites for writers to find a critique partner or two. I recommend The Critique Circle (free & safe to post work). There are also sites like Absolute Write, Critters Workshop and Agent Query’s Critique Partner Wanted board. Or let someone play matchmaker for you: Ladies Who Critique & Rach Writes.

Read

No matter what areas need to be worked on, books can help. Find inspiration through your favorite fiction authors and in ‘how to’ books (here’s a good list to start on). Pick up a few and take notes. If you can, pair up with another writer to read the same book and then discuss it. Learning together gives you a better chance to fully understand any topic.

Resources, resources, resources

There are thousands of articles on writing that can teach strong writing technique. Plotting, Story Structure, Voice, Description, Showing vs Telling, Style, Dialogue, Characters…whatever areas you want to develop, there is content out there to help you.

The trick is finding the best nuggets of information without losing your whole day online. Try this Search Engine for Writers for starters. Then, bookmark The Writers Resource which is a must-have for any writer. And saving the best for last, turn your gaze to the sidebar! Write to Done is a treasure trove of fantastic material for writers.

Think outside the monitor

Many of us are introverts, and it’s easy to get caught up on the keyboard and screen. There’s nothing wrong with this, unless your rectangular life preserver is holding you back. Writing Groups, Conferences, Work Shops and Retreats are all excellent opportunities to hone writing skills and meet mentors. Writing events need not be expensive–get involved in a local writing group and see what events have a low or no cost for members.

When you’re looking for opportunities to learn, don’t forget the movies. So much can be gleaned by watching films to see what makes them work. In fact, some of our biggest epiphanies as writers will come from studying screenwriting. I highly recommend reading Save the Cat & Writing Screenplays that Sell. These books are pure gold. Trust me, your writing will thank you!

Write and rewrite

Transforming writing weaknesses into strengths takes time. Choose learning strategies that work best for you and never stop writing. Each step of the way, apply new-found knowledge to the page. We learn most of all by doing, so always make time to write.

Angela Ackerman writes on the darker side of MG & YA. She blogs at The Bookshelf Muse, a description resource hub for writers. Her book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression is scheduled for release in April 2012.
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Categories: Art of Writing, Creativity, Fiction, Habits, Productivity - Tags: , , , ,

Know Thyself. 7 Truths About Writers

A guest post by Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn, one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers

Claiming the word ‘writer’ for yourself can be a big step. You may have been writing all your life but do you actually call yourself a writer?

Know Thyself was inscribed on the ancient Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi. People would go there to seek knowledge of the future or to find revelation about themselves. The words were a reminder that the first step to truth is to look inside.

Fundamentally, writers write, they put words onto a page or screen. But there are other aspects to writers. Do you recognize yourself in these traits?

1 We are loners

Writing is a solitary art. Even writers who collaborate create their pieces separately and knit them together later. We are not naturally team players. To be a happy writer is to enjoy solitude for creation. Writers are often introverts in the sense that they are energized by time alone with their minds. They may love being with people but it tires and drains them. I spent many years thinking I needed to be a team player, that it was essential to being a rounded person. Then I did the Myers Briggs test and found that introversion is just a natural state for some of us and certainly more dominant in writers.

2 We want recognition

Writers have egos and our desire to see our words in print or type stems from this need to be recognized. We want the six figure book deal. We want to be on Oprah or the New York Times bestseller list. We want to write words that change people’s lives. We want to be read. For all that to happen, our writing needs to be out there in the world.

3 We are scared and doubt ourselves

We want people to read our words but at the same time, we fear criticism and negative reaction. We compare ourselves to others and we often come up short. We doubt that we are original or that people will even want to read our words. We worry that we have opened ourselves up too much to the world, and then we fret because we haven’t been truthful enough.

4 We are deeply creative but sometimes forget this

When I was working as a corporate IT consultant, I found my creative side withering and dying from lack of exercise. I wanted to write a novel but I couldn’t imagine even starting one. I didn’t believe I could find that creativity in myself. So I started saying an affirmation on the daily commute. ‘I am creative, I am an author’. I said that over and over, and gradually I began to explore ideas and start to write. Four years later, I have two novels available on the biggest bookstore in the world. Although we may spend years in the wilderness, we can resurrect that creativity.

5 We know execution matters

Ideas are abundant. They swirl in the air about us and we pluck them down. We form them into finished works. People talk to us about the ideas they have, for this book or that story, but they don’t execute on the idea. We write, and we finish what we started.

6 We are always improving

Writers are readers. We learn from others by their words and we constantly try to improve our own ways of expression. We take courses on how to improve our writing. Sometimes we spend more time on reading books about writing than we spend actually getting white on black. We are obsessed with understanding why this works and why that is successful and we put what we learn into practice.

7 We know there are dark places within

Inside us are memories, emotions and an imagination that runs deep. We go there to tap into the experiences that make our writing resonate. Sometimes what emerges may be violent or horrific, resonant in truth and raw in emotion. We write with the knowledge that most people feel these things but they don’t admit to themselves that they exist. We have the ability and the strength to write those words without apology.

Do you agree that these are truths about writers? Are there any more?

Joanna Penn is the author of thriller novels Pentecost and Prophecy. Her site TheCreativePenn.com helps people write, publish and market their books and has been voted one of the Top 10 Blogs for writers 2 years running. Follow Joanna on Twitter @thecreativepenn

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The Pros and Cons of Comparing Yourself to Other Writers

A guest post by K.M. Weiland of Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors

With the advent of writing communities on such networking sites as Twitter and Facebook and half a thousand forums and Nings, writers are perhaps more social and less solitary than at any time in our history.

This brings its fair share of both benefits and drawbacks, since our easy access to other writers—both those who are striving to be published and those who have a dozen bestsellers under their belts—causes inevitable comparisons.

Are we as good as they are?

Are they as good as we are?

Let’s explore what we can gain from answering these questions, as well as the pitfalls to avoid.

Cons

Jealousy: Easily, the most destructive con of comparison is that of jealousy. Sometimes this jealousy is the simple result of having read a book that spun its tale with such gossamer characters and seamless themes that we were left astonished.

We look at this brilliant author’s perfect prose, and we hate them just because they’re so much better than us. Or perhaps a writing buddy has just nailed a plum contract with the Agent of the Year. What did she do to deserve that honor, especially when—let’s be honest here—her writing leaves a lot to be desired compared to ours?

Jealousy is a flaw common to the vast majority of writers (due largely to the next con on our list), but it’s one that gets us exactly nowhere. The sooner we can stand up to our feelings of jealousy, put them behind us, and work toward being genuinely happy for our fellow writers, the more content and the more productive we’ll be.

Because, let’s face it, there’s always someone who’s better, richer, or luckier than we are. Jealousy is a never-ending melodrama of pain and pettiness.

Inferiority: Perhaps the reason jealousy is so prevalent among authors is that it almost always follows on the heels of its kissing cousin: inferiority. Very few writers are able to maintain perfect confidence in their skill.

When we run across a writer whose prose is more effortless than ours, whose characters are more realistic, whose paychecks are larger, and whose accolades are louder, we can’t help but compare. And when we find ourselves wanting, we either want to plot laborious and exhaustive murder for the object of our comparison, or we want to crumple in a corner and bawl at our general wretchedness. Sometimes both.

In one sense, this chronic inferiority complex is actually a positive thing, since it keeps us honest. As Orson Scott Card put it in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, “Writers have to simultaneously believe the following two things: The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in English. The story I am now working on is worthless drivel.”

Maintaining humility in our work is crucial to our genuineness as artists. But we can’t take this too far. We have to be able to reach a place of objectivity from which we can honestly compare our work to other writers, glean what we can from that comparison, or, if there’s simply nothing to be gained (as would be the case if we, say, compared the latest advance on our books to Stephen King’s), shrug it off as the inconsequentiality it is.

Pros

Inspiration: Comparing ourselves to other writers isn’t all bad. So long as we keep the downfalls in mind and are prepared to avoid them, we can actually gain a number of benefits from considering our fellow writers and how we measure up against them.

Honestly, can you imagine living entirely segregated from writerkind?

That would mean no books to read.
No fellow crazies to understand our quirks and obsessions.
No writerly energy to feed off.

We gain our inspiration from the art of others, from hearing about our writing buddies’ struggles, and from bouncing ideas back and forth.

If I were to write a thank you note to every author I’ve read, loved, and inevitably compared myself too, I probably wouldn’t have time to finish my next novel. Because most of us write the kind of books we enjoy reading, we are constantly reading books that are similar to our own. We recognize similar elements, compare them, and learn how to improve our own characters, plot, and prose as a result.

It’s a win-win situation, because who’s to say our mentors may not someday read one of our stories and find some similarity that brings that next epiphany to their writing?

Motivation: Once we get over the crumpling and crying brought on by our sense of inferiority in comparing ourselves to great writers, our next step is to rise from the ashes, pen in hand, motivated to blot out the very reason for our inferiority. The brilliance of this other author isn’t a boulder to crush us; it’s a mountain to scale.

Perhaps today we’re not good enough to be mentioned in the same breath with our heroes, but, you know what? If they can do it, so can we!

Reading great writers and comparing their brilliant stories to my own has been one of the single greatest factors in motivating me to keep writing, keep learning, keep trying. Nothing is more exciting to the dedicated writer than reading good fiction. Good stories excite us and drive us forward. We close the covers on a good book, and the first thing we want to do (after buying the sequel) is run to our keyboards and funnel all that inspiration and motivation into our own writing.

As with so many things in the writing life, successfully comparing ourselves to other writers is all about balance. If we can tamp a lid on the cons and embrace the pros, we can use the success of our fellows to launch ourselves to even greater heights.

It should be the goal of every writer to be comparison worthy. Hearing someone say, “I wish I could write as well you,” isn’t only the highest of compliments, it’s also a sign you’re giving back to the writing community the benefits you drew from it yourself.

About the Author: K.M. Weiland is the author of the historical western A Man Called Outlaw and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. She enjoys mentoring other authors through her writing tips, her book Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success, and her instructional CD Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration.
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