The Great Outdoors

On a day when you feel really discouraged from writing. Stop. Pick up your purse and any other essentials and get outside. Take a bus, drive or walk your way to somewhere you can sit in the outdoors. It may be a park bench or the middle of nowhere if you live near enough to it, or for some the best you can do is a window overlooking the street outside, but find a bit of nature and the outdoors and let it blow the cobwebs out of your mind.

Speedy Introductions

Think of some people you know, some characters in a book you have read or just randomly write up a person. Now, give them an introduction as if they just sat down at the table across from someone, speed dating. In a quick introduction how would you sell them to the person on the other side of that small table?

A Best Friend is Timeless

Through all history and through all the world of people living or dead (and considering we never really know anyone all that well) who would you pick to be your best friend? Someone you confide in and someone who can confide in you. Someone who you can depend on and give back the same. Why would you pick that person? Write a scenario where you and your fictional best friend talk about a problem you are having right now.

Close Your Eyes…

Close your eyes… pick up something (not your hot coffee cup!) and describe it by touch alone. What do you miss by not being able to see and more importantly, what do you discover through touch that you would have overlooked if you could just plainly see what it was? Consider all your senses next time you describe a scene, a person or a thing.

It’s Okay to Lose Your Mind

Next time you’re on the bus or taking a shower or any one of a dozen things and places where you can let your mind wander, write down at least three of the things your mind comes up with. I always get interesting ideas while in the shower or waiting for the bus to get me where I’m going. I don’t always write them down. Sometimes I just don’t have pen and paper or I am just too busy once I’m at my destination. I regret it cause the best ideas come when you just let your mind have free reign.

Market and Genre Busting

How many different kinds of writing can you think of? Beyond the non-fiction and fiction there seem to be an endless variety of genres and styles and mediums for writers to get into. Everything least thing you read, someone has written.

For non-fiction writers (other than the obvious books and magazines) consider corporate writing (internal employee and external media and client publications), government ministries and bureaus putting out information and campaigns for the public, script writing for TV, movies or theatre, technical writing (specialized information which needs to be written simply into instruction manuals), public relations (speeches, creating slogans, commercials and a public image), and consulting (offering your special expertise).

Fiction writers have a different angle to consider. Look at different publications but consider a different genre. Are you stuck in a rut with your story, turn it into a soap opera instead. Branch out to the style of an old western, science fiction, horror, or make it a mystery. Try poetry, can you narrow down all your thoughts into one short haiku?

Why not try something new? After all that is the best way to beat writers block. If you keep trying new ideas I doubt you will ever feel you can’t write.

Having options is the best revenge.

Feeling Like a Fraud

I wrote this in my blog. What do you think? Do you feel the same way?

You have no idea what a big fraud I feel like. I’m no expert in or about anything and yet here I am writing newsletters for Pagans, travelers, gardeners, writers, decorators, and so on. Who do I think I am? But, more than that why do they listen to me? There’s the real mystery.

It’s weird isn’t it? When I’m writing I have in my mind the critic who keeps shouting over my shoulder that someone could poke their eye out if they listen to me. But, I keep going. I keep writing anyway. The sending for publishing part is even harder than the original writing part. If you actually try to publish your unexpertness someone is bound to catch you and report you as the fraud you are.

I admit I know nothing beyond the contents of my own brain. Maybe that’s good enough. I do have a lot up there after all.

Those brain contents and our research are all any of us have to go on really. Think about that next time you feel like you’re a writing fraud. If someone can read your words and come away with something concrete or something they see as good then you’re doing your job as a writer. You don’t have to be the perfect expert with all the answers. Sometimes it just takes someone to write it, even if all they really know are the questions.

Better Procrastination

What would you rather be doing? Here you sit at this machine, your face plugged into a monitor your fingers slaving away over a keyboard, chances are you aren’t really all that comfortable sitting there… what would you rather be doing?

Think about it. Take your time…. well, ok take all of a minute. I can wait that long.

So? What would you rather be doing than writing? How about sailing, dancing, traveling, swimming, spending money at the mall, enjoying a really good coffee, kissing your sweetheart… it can become quite a list.

So, when you procrastinate instead of writing, why do you tend to do things not even on your list of things you’d rather be doing?

Don’t give me that innocent look.

Next time you start to procrastinate by playing some computer game, watching the soaps, checking for email and so on and on, stop and think. What would you really rather be doing?

Then take some time and do it. At least a modified version of whatever you would rather be doing.

Writing is a job but it’s not a torture. If you don’t give yourself a break you will suffer and so will your writing. But, make sure you take a real break. Don’t just aimlessly procrastinate then feel guilty for it later. Accomplish something and feel good. Come back to your computer ready and happy to write. Refresh yourself by doing something you really would rather be doing.

Besides, everyone knows writing isn’t a real job. Our cover is blown, might as well make the most of it.

Robots Don’t Make Good Writers

Writing has rules, we know about grammar, spelling and punctuation. There are also genres of writing and each has it’s own rules of style, theme and plot. Romance is always about a relationship, the words in between make up the story but the genre insists on a successful relationship between two people. Mysteries, have their rules about dastardly deeds and criminals caught in the end. Horror has bad creatures/ people who end up being slain by the hero. You get the idea.

If you write in one genre for awhile you can line up the basic plots alphabetically and just fill in the individual details like names and dates. It can become routine and you begin to wonder if a million monkeys typing at millions of computer keyboards could not, after all, come up with a best selling novel.

So, to get out of feeling like your own cliche, read other genres. Read fiction and non-fiction. Read news stories. Read recipes! Go to the library and pick a book at random. Read things that have nothing to do with your usual writing, other than the use of words and language. In reading other genres you can find ways to break out of your own cliched plot. Small things, as the basic elements are ingrained and expected. Still, if you can get around feeling like a robot writer, that’s a good thing.

Sense of Writing

The act of writing is very much about the five senses. But, how do we know there are only five?

I’ve wondered if there are other basic senses we just don’t know about. I don’t mean a sixth sense like ESP. Beyond those metaphysical senses. What if there is something just as physical as sight but since we don’t have eyes we can’t see it?

We know music because it’s a sound and we can hear sounds. Hearing is one of our five senses (sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing). We know what we like to eat because we can smell and taste it. It seems to be there could be other things we will never know, things we aren’t equipped to sense.

I have no idea what other sense we might be missing. How could I? I don’t have the sense to figure it out. But, it does seem possible for something like that to exist. After all, there would be no music if we couldn’t hear it. Just as there would be no words if we couldn’t read them.