words and pictures....
August 12, 2021
Now that I have confessed to not writing for a very long time, I thought it would be a great idea to share five ways to kick start your writing. I’ve used these ideas in the past and I am working through them yet again, in effort to kick start my writing again. I know the struggle is very real for so many writers. Let’s get writing… Here we go!
August 11, 2021
I have to say, I been thinking about this problem for quite some time now. This thick, cold steel wall of writer’s block that now seems wholly and completely impenetrable. As I ponder this problem yet again, today I have come up with the top ten reasons why I am not writing.
(more…)March 15, 2021
Greetings of the Day to All…
I’ve been working on breaking a long spell of writer’s block, that has quite frankly, gone on too long. Writing here on a more regular basis has been very helpful and I’m starting to feel accountable to showing up and writing something, anything on this page. The fact is, I’ve got a lot of things to write about and right now that seems more appealing than working on memoir and personal essay revision.
So, I’m a mission to shake off my writer’s block and I hope you’ll join me on my journey as I poke about for interesting things to write about and maybe bring back an old popular topic here, Daily Affirmations.
Life is a path. It’s a metaphor I use often because I am a walker, and over the years I’ve recognized the changes in my life are shifts in the path. One year into the COVID pandemic, I shifting my path. I am not sure where it will lead me. Time, non-existent time, will tell.
April 27, 2020
I’ve been ruminating on these thoughts for a while now… Here we all are in another day of limbo, waiting for the Coronavirus to move on past us, so that we can all resume our lives. We know now that life won’t be the same as it was before this started. We’re all tasked right now with figuring out what the new normal will be. I think we’re also tasked, those who are called, to ask what can I do differently in my life, because my life, all of our lives are now forever altered by this global collective trauma, Coronavirus.
It’s hard to look away from the numbers as the weeks go on. It’s hard to turn away from the raving lunatic at the podium. It’s hard to not feel so many collective emotions that are flowing together and passing through us all, whether consciously or subconsciously. For me personally, I feel as though I must bear witness to this life altering time. Most days I find myself sitting in the still in deep contemplation. Eventually as I work through the things in my head, the bearing witness, I find my mind is still and clear.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to the page since this started. I try and let what I write drop away, by deleting it. Something I am always loathe to do. There might be words of value somewhere on that page that I just dumped. So today, I’m not dumping this page. I’m just letting my thoughts flow and letting my readers know where my head is at in the midst of Coronavirus – Stay at Home life.
Thankfully in the midst of all of this, we see new beginnings are happening all around us. Whatever the new normal will be, let’s all make the most of it. Peace…
August 12, 2016
In the past, my writing style typically leaves out the all important first stage of writing—pre-writing. When I write, I tend to write and then rewrite but rarely ever do I engage in pre-writing.
Needless to say, when I started taking creative writing classes at UMass Amherst UWW, I learned that I was cutting out an integral part of the writing process. Jumping right into the writing phase works if you know what you are going to write about, but when you’re stuck pre-writing frees up space and opens up the creative channels.
Reading Chapter 1 of Connie Griffin’s text, To Tell The Truth in my Magazine Writing class gave me a keener understanding of how to use pre-writing as a strategy to break free from writer’s block. The creative process needs the freedom to be expressive, and pre-writing can be seen as a fun exercise in letting go, while also trusting one’s subconscious in a “nonjudgmental and forgiving” way. (p. 5)
The Getting Started (p. 6 – 7) section in Chapter 1, helped me to understand that pre-writing is comparable to a dancer warming up with exercise and practice, or a painter sketching in a rough outline on his canvas in preparation for creating his painting using the tools of his craft. When seen in that light, I suddenly found how pre-writing should and could fit into my process. (more…)
May 25, 2016
Reading Jane Bernstein’s essay “How and Why” brought to mind my own very speculative mind and spirit that is in constant query as to the how and why’s of things. As a writer, my speculative mind and spirit causes me to look deeper into my own heart and mind, and I feel that it also grants me a strong intuitive mind that understands what is deep within other minds, connecting me to depths of humanity and life itself. Reading “How and Why,” I could identify with Bernstein’s running, in that I walk, to clear my mind and “mull” things over. (Griffin p. 11)
When I am walking outside in nature, I lose myself into the landscape that envelops me as though I am one with it. When I am walking outside in nature, I tune out any extraneous real world soundtrack and tune into the concerto of bird song or the rustle of the leaves or marsh grasses whispering in the soft breeze or perchance keening in the wicked wind. My mind becomes clear, empty in that process of immersing myself in nature and it is then that I mull, as Bernstein does when she is running. There is a space in a clear mind that creates from a point deeper, more connected to the soul, which is a vital point of connection needed to write in the first person about one’s self and life.
The practice of reading other writers on their struggles with their craft is so helpful. All writers struggle with finding their voice, creating the right space to work in, shutting out their inner critic and getting past self-doubt. Those are just a few of the issues that writers face. As I continue to work through my own issues with writing and work to shape my first memoir, look for more posts here on Writers on Writing.
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