Letting What You Love Battle Writer’s Block

Letting What You Love Battle Writer’s Block

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, multi award-winning author of the 
HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers

 

Writers’ Block is a malady many complain of. To cure it, writers have been known to write about it. But I think there’s a better way to tackle it. The ancient Greeks sought advice from the Oracle at Delphi but also inspiration. The Chinese did the same with the I Ching; the Egyptians the Tarot, the American Indians the Medicine Wheel, and the Scandinavians the Runes. Many today follow the Zodiac. All are more than superstition if only because we use them to better examine our own needs. When we know ourselves better, we are more creative.

 

A few Christmases ago my son and his wife gave me a book that included a set of cards—flash cards of sorts by Naomi Epel. When I use this kit I often think of my friend David Cho. He is Fung Shui Master to the Stars who coordinates people’s Chinese Zodiacs with the Chi in their homes and more. Like his clients, I found myself thinking more positively, even thinking in new directions, when he did his magic with a weird fountain made from a cattle trough and introduced it for good luck near our front door. It fits beautifully with the antique implements I use to from my polygamist great grandfather’s farm I use to decorate my front porch with. It was an exercise in learning to “own” my own past.

 

I once took the time to explore hieroglyphics, something that must have been difficult for even the Egyptians to read given the lack of punctuation and no firm left-to-right rules (or right-to-left, top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top rule, either!). There is something about the symbols that affect thinking, including the symbols you are reading in this moment.

 

I am convinced that following my inclinations made me a better writer but also inspired the first edition of my The Frugal Book Promoter, now in its third edition and the flagship book of my HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for Writers.

 

Aside from steeping myself in any topic that intrigues me which is a magic worker like none other, I find it works better when I do it with a pen and Post-it notes at hand. I write down anything that occurs to me and plop those notes into a Wedgewood sugar bowl that once belonged to my grandmother. You’ve never heard of “found poems?” When you fill a favorite container with scrappy phrases, go back through them and you’ll always find a poem there. Sometimes it’s just a suggestion. Other times several of those notes get strung together to make a complete poem. After I’ve assembled the lines, all I have to do is go back in a few weeks for a hard look and a harder edit.

 

Here are some other aids that will help writers and others from being their most creative in all kinds of ways.

 

Write something that helps another author. Send them a blurb (praise) to use to in marketing. Or write a review and post it on Amazon. Nothing works better to slay writers’ block than gratitude. If you need a starter for that project, check out The Art of Assssment: How to Review Anything  by Magdalena Ball at her site, The Compulsive Reader. Writing about the books we are reading inspires and saves that step of having to come up with a theme or storyline. Her book will get you started reviewing books, films, movies, restaurants and other stuff. And she assumes no prior reviewing experience!

 

When I visit museums I take my copy of A Describer’s Dictionary by David Grambs. When I run across new phrases and words that curators use in their descriptions and catalogs, I jot them anywhere I can find space on the title pages, the margins, etc. of this book. I’ll soon run out of space. I’ll probably just start stuffing it with Post-its!

 

I love to use “rules” of grammar. Rules are way different from laws; they’re ready-made inspiration for writing something new and a different. My penchants for that inspired  or anything my own The Frugal Editor (now in its third edition!) as a way to break rules creatively.

 

Let me introduce a web-friend of mine, Roberta Allen. Her book never fails to make me happy. I’ve never seen it in a how-to book on curing writers’ block, but I swear happiness is the best curative! It’s the The Playful Way to Serious Writing by Roberta Allen.

 

Of course there is always this classic approach to writer’s block: It’s Jenna Glatzer’s Outwitting Writers’ Block  with tips for writer’s block…er…inspiration…and it sets an example with lovely nonfiction prose.

 

Or, yeah. We can always try the “tried and true” methods of the ancients. The Greeks and Egyptians got a lot of things right; it couldn’t hurt to follow their lead.

 

MORE ABOUT THE WRITERS ON THE MOVE
AND “FIRST CHAPTER PLUS” COLUMNIST

 

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of “Fourteen San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen” and was given her community’s Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts.  Carolyn writes nonfiction for writers, poetry, and fiction and has studied writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She will soon celebrate two years dedication to writing for the @ReaderViews’ fun flip e-magazine First Chapter Plus edited by Suzanne Violante. Neither she nor Karen Cioffi, founder and editor of this #WritersontheMove blog have never contributed to my own very rare attacks of writers’ block by asking me to hue (on cue!) to a holiday theme or specific topic! Just knowing I have a column to do each month is the little nudge required to get inspired.

 

Keeping Our Spirits Up for the Good of Our Writing Careers

The Best of Times, Not the Worst

Keeping Our Spirits Up 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

I was excited to be given an honorary membership to a site designed to help writers keep their spirits up in spite of Murphy’s Law, Writer’s Block and all the other boogeymen we writers have convinced ourselves are out there. I know I wasn’t so chosen to go on the forum to complain about my down days, but the brilliant (truly!) site owner had no idea that “no moaning” is my modus operandi on the rare occasions I feel stuck.

No, it’s my grandmother’s Wedgewood sugar bowl. On the rare occasions I begin to ruminate on the time I frittered away between the time I knew I wanted to write and the time I got busy focusing on it, I go to that sugar bowl where I’ll find dozens of scraps of paper. Some scraps are unreadable, but I’ll always find one or two that I scribbled on long ago that pull me out of my funk. They may include an image I didn’t want to forget or an improbably idea for a story or book. Sometimes I don’t find anything all that useful in the moment, but I always find myself smiling or laughing out loud at myself.  Once, I found enough images to write what poets called a “found poem; ” that poem eventually worked its way into a chapbook I published with another upper in my life who partnered with  me on the Celebration Series of poetry chapbooks. An Aussie (seems Aussie’s are always uppers!), Magdalena Ball runs a review site (http://CompulsiveWriter.com), and always seems ready to collaborate on some misery-fighting project. 

I have a ton of other such antidotes for any mood that aims to defeat me. I have never felt compelled to visit to a therapist or a psychiatrist, but I wouldn’t rule that out if necessary. I address some of those techniques in my first how-to book for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter. It includes sections on overcoming fear of marketing, fear of success, and fear of failure so I go back to my own book when I begin admonishing myself about what I might have achieved if I had started publishing earlier.

I bring a background as publicist, journalist, marketer, and retailer to my practice of staying pretty jolly and focused. Having other careers has helped. When we bring a whole slew of life's experiences to a new pursuit, we can feel secure much more quickly. That's something I keep reminding myself of, too. Years of retailing, as an example, helped me figure out how to market my first novel when my first small publisher failed miserably at that pursuit so it wasn’t the struggle to switch gears it might have been otherwise. 

My biggest hurdle was related to a recognized problem that psychologists sometimes call the “I’m-Not-Good-Enough” syndrome. With "only" a bachelor's degree and some study overseas, I did feel insecure about reaching out to the academic community. A man at a party encouraged me not to let that hold me back, assured me that UCLA would be interested in me as an instructor because they often take experience rather than solely academic credentials into consideration. That was how I started with my HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers which I needed to teach marketing to writers back in the early 2000s (most marketing books were written for businesses and marketers in those days!). Though I don't remember that mentor's name (maybe I never knew it?), I will be forever grateful to him. I am here today—and was maybe chosen to be part of this authors-aid site-- because I like the whole "pass it forward" idea--no matter the industry. And I firmly believe we are never so darn smart we can't learn from both newcomers and old-timers. 

So you want to know about this miracle site. Here’s the sad part: This site didn’t take off. Authors can’t use it to share and encourage one another. I hate the old saying, “There is more than one way to skin a cat!,” (disgusting, isn’t it?), but it is a truism. And sometimes a sad event leads to reexamining other possibilities, other opportunities and other says to look at downers.

So, yeah. I can take a minute to feel sad, but lots of social networks, writers’ associations, really texty—you know, dry and boring, based on principles and not real experience. And mostly not for writers. That wasn’t a downer. It was an opportunity.

and educational programs that might otherwise be thought of as support groups are out there. All are filled with people willing to share—rather like a therapy group. That’s sort of why I was determined to teach a class in marketing for writers back in the day, so determined I overcame my fear of academia with a little encouragement from the gentleman I met at that party. That lead me to writing a “text” for the first class. The texts on public relations and marketing I found were 

That experience turned into my multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers. It includes both the first and second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter 
and The Frugal Editor and How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically.  (I hate seeing authors spend money on stuff they can do better than anyone they hire!). In the case of the winningest book in the series, The Frugal Editor,I hate to see authors assume that an editor assigned to them from a big publisher is always in a better position to make choices than they are!

Most of all, I believe that the best way to keep our spirits up is reveling in the successes of others and learning from failures. We can be there for one another. This is not a competition but a sharing experience. Forget the negative words. There is a way to succeed in a notoriously difficult field. This is the best time for that. We can take control of our own futures better than ever before! 

Just know you are not alone. 

And make yourself an equivalent of my antique Wedgwood sugar bowl.

THIS WAS FIRST POSTED MAY 2019, BUT IT SO HITS THE MARK IN WHAT'S GOING ON NOW THAT WE REPRINTED IT!

What to Write About? Hmm

Sometimes it’s a challenge to figure out what to write about. This is often called writers block.

Even though there are a plethora of subjects that call out to you, what do you actually know about?

I personally think you can write about anything, whether you know the topic or not. Thank goodness for Google.

Here are some tips on how to get the writing muse on board. 

Write to Done (1) offers 20 quotes that might get your creative juices flowing. The main point I got from this article is to write about yourself. No one can write a true story about your feelings and life. You are the only person who could truly act in your own book.

I like what Neil Gammon had to say: “The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So, write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”

Makes sense doesn’t it?

Have you ever Brainstormed? This is a fun way to get those juices flowing.

1. Draw a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper.

2. Put the main idea in it, like what you’d want your genre to be: murder; thriller; romance, etc. Whatever you are thinking of.

3. Now draw three lines up from the main circle and three lines down.

4. Put circles around the end of those lines. Then think of your genre. Let’s choose ‘romance’ just to make it interesting for me.

5. One of the lines I drew out from the main circle may say: “Settings,” the next circle could say “Titles,” and the third, “Characters.” The bottom ones could be, “Mannerisms,” “Dialog,” and “Plot.”

6. From each of these circles you could extend more lines and circles and connect more information like under “Minor Characters," you could put a place or state or country.

Work with each circle drawing off more ideas as you go. Before long, you might have a beginning for a story. It’s a fun way to get those brain cells working.

Other tips to get a story going: 

- Google “How do you brainstorm for a novel?”
- Do you have a short story you can expand into a novel?
- Have you read a book and thought you could write a better ending? Pursue doing that.
- Does something on the news catch your interest?
- Maybe something in the local newspaper?

Whatever catches your interests, write it down and pursue the subject. You never know where it will take you. Have fun and enjoy it. 

Reference:
(1) https://writetodone.com/stuck-for-ideas-20-quotes-what-to-write-about/ 

Linda Barnett-Johnson is a Virtual Assistant for authors and enjoys writing poetry, short stories, articles about writing and making up quotes. Many of her articles and poetry have been published. She’s a former editor, former assistant editor of Long Story Short ezine, former administrative director of Long Story Short School of Writing. You can locate her website here: www.lindabarnett-johnson.com She also posts new books, writing articles and author interviews on her blog: http://lindabarnett-johnson.blogspot.com/ Always looking for guest bloggers that would post writing tips, articles and anything to do with writing.