Lamott’s advice is still about producing a draft, about writing something that will eventually become your finished piece. It’s output-focused: write badly now, edit later. Useful, yes. But what I’m suggesting for when you need a radical motivation boost is different. I’m talking about forgetting drafts altogether for the moment. No beginning, middle, or end. No sense of what this will become. Just pure exploration and play. Write with no destination in mind at all.
Tag Archives: writing mindset
Transform deadlines into opportunities for creative triumph with a thinking aloud partner
Reframing writing deadlines with a thinking aloud partner
A ‘thinking aloud partner’ (or perhaps, a ‘thinking allowed partner’) inspired by Nancy Kline’s Time to Think and the work of Peter Elbow in Vernacular Eloquence, involves liberating assumptions and verbalising ideas.
Why am I not writing?
Monday morning: a client began our session with ‘I know you’re not my therapist, but…’.
That’s right. I am NOT a therapist and nor do I try to be. But sometimes we need to explore the reasons that the writing isn’t happening (maybe now is not the time to write). Or why the words are flowing but just not getting out the door (often the hardest part).
How to write a unique nonfiction book. Or, ‘Help! Someone has already written my book’
The more you can position your nonfiction book in the wider conversation, the better.
Why writing belongs on your calendar (and why waiting for inspiration to strike isn’t the best way to get your book written).
I used to sit and wait for inspiration to strike before I started writing. I spent more time thinking about the fact that I wasn’t writing than actually writing. There was always something else that I should be doing – another email that needed replying to, another meeting I needed to attend or a cupboardContinue reading “Why writing belongs on your calendar (and why waiting for inspiration to strike isn’t the best way to get your book written).”
Focus on being productive rather than ‘busy’ using the Pomodoro® technique.
I’m writing this on a day when I spent two and a half hours on the phone on hold with HMRC (for my international friends, the HMRC is the UK tax office). The worst bit—the automated voice that kept saying ‘please bear with me’.. ARGGHHH Anyway, that stupidly long phone call brings me to theContinue reading “Focus on being productive rather than ‘busy’ using the Pomodoro® technique.”
Why a vision board isn’t the answer to finishing your book (or why habits trump goals).
Do you have writing dates? Why a vision board isn’t the answer to finishing your book (or why habits trump goals).
Successful writers know that it’s not about the critics
Watch this talk from Brené Brown, expert on courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, to understand why it’s not about winning, it’s not about losing, but it’s about showing up and being seen. It’s about stepping into the arena.