4 ways to handle seasons when you can't write by Joanna Roddy

I'm going back to teaching full-time in about three weeks. Much of what I'll be teaching is entirely new to me and I have all the flurry of curriculum planning, new job orientations, in-service programs, and moving into my new digs. Oh, and I have two young kids at home. Oh, and I'm a writer and my agent is expecting a revision from me soon.

I think we've all experienced this. We reach a season that is not forever, but we know that the writing has to go on the back burner. For me, it's this first semester back to teaching. I'd like to think there are some ways to navigate these seasons with as much grace as possible, so I thought I would share my current strategy with you.

1. Finish up your commitments. Reasonably.
Before the madness sets in, if you have some foreknowledge of it coming, do what you can to tie up what you're in the middle of. For me, that means setting aside the two WIPs I have going and just focusing on my monthly article commitments and my manuscript revision. There are still a few weeks before things blow up, so this feels manageable.

2. Keep writing, but lower your expectations.
I know I just said that there are seasons when we can't write, but the truth is, we always can. At least a little. It might be 10 minutes a day, or one evening a week, or one retreat weekend this quarter, or one hour each weekend, but take something for yourself. We need balance to keep our sanity and even if it's a tiny amount, it's still keeping you in touch with that vital creative part of yourself. For me, I'm going to write on Monday nights with my writing group during our regular meeting time. We're shifting into a new season of actually writing together, which seems heaven-sent. That's all I've got to give to my writing, but I'm going to give it fully.

3. Accept this season for what it is.
It isn't forever. Next semester my class-load will be half and I won't be creating curriculum from scratch. You don't have to kill yourself trying to do everything. Let your writing mind rest and remember that fields that lie fallow are primed for flourishing the next year. 

4. Keep a notebook with you for ideas.
It seems ideas always come when you just don't have the time for them. Don't reject them! Just tell each idea patiently that you will pay attention to it when you can give it the respect it deserves. Then quickly take a note so you don't forget it. When your crazy season is over, set aside some time to just sit with those notes and really think them over. See what still resonates.

Being a writer is not contingent on your output. Ebb and flow is part of the creative life, and sometimes a forced reality of circumstances. Don't let it discourage you. 

While I live out the frenzy of my coming semester, there's a secret, quiet place inside me that is beaming about having my own office to write in where I won't have to buy coffees endlessly or leave at closing time. I won't be using my new office that way yet. But it's there waiting for me on the other side of this semester. And this image of abundance sustains me in the season of scarcity: me at my office desk, a mug of tea steaming beside me, three walls of windows around me in the romantic old Tudor building where I teach, and my manuscript open in front of me with quiet hours ahead in which to do my work. 

Attack of the SNI (Shiny New Ideas)

Me: *Stares at WIP on screen.*

SNI #1: Psst. Dianne.

Me: Go away. I’m busy.

SNI #1: It’s me. Your manuscript, XXXX, that you shelved two years ago. I was thinking, what if you changed me from YA to MG?

Me: That would be a major change. I’d have to practically gut the story and start over.

SNI #1: But it would address some of the feedback you got. All of the feedback, really.

Me: That’s a really interesting idea, but I’m working on something else right now.  *Stares at WIP. Types a comma. Deletes the comma.*

SNI #1: While you’re stuck, why don’t you make up a side-by-side outline – my chapters as they are now, and what would have to change to make the story MG.

Me: I’m not stuck. You’re bothering me.

SNI #1: Okay. I’ll go. But think about it.

Me: *Decides to re-read current chapter so far. Changes three words.*

SNI #2: Hey, Dianne, weren’t those two articles you read last night pretty cool? The one about gravitational waves and the other about turbulence and Van Gogh’s The Starry Night?

Me: Who are you?

SNI #2: You know who I am. Put the ideas in those two articles together and you get …

Me: You.

SNI #2: That’s right. Remember those 4 awesome adult science fiction books you read while you were laid up with a broken foot last month? If you were to write down your favorite thing about each of them, put that list together with the gravitational wave/turbulence thing, you’d probably have a really cool plan for a new story.

Me: But I’m busy with this other project right now.

SNI #2: Really? Doesn’t look like it.

SNI #3: And what about me?

Me: I remember you. I outlined you.

SNI #3: And then you never wrote me.

Me: You were boring. Like every other book idea I've tried to outline. I'm a pantster, and I need to accept that.

SNI #3: Maybe I wouldn’t be so boring if SNI #2 wasn’t hogging all the good ideas. Put the turbulence in my book! I want the cosmic turbulence!

Me: Look, I don’t want to write you now. *Points at WIP.* I like this one. My critique partners like this one. This is what I need to work on right now.

SNI #3: So why aren’t you typing?

***

Good question! Why aren’t I typing?

Maybe because my mind looks like this inside?

What's keeping you from writing today?

Feeling Stuck Creatively? by: Marissa Burt

Chapa Traffic Jam in Maputa, by A Verdade
licensed for re-use at Creative Wikimedia commons

For me, the term writer's block is a synonym for perfectionism. I feel blocked when I'm waiting for the perfect thing: whether it's the perfect plot-point, a perfectly well-rounded character, or even the perfect writing environment (Hello, Person-in-the-comfy-chair-at-Starbucks: you are in my spot!)

I've learned to not freak out when I'm feeling stuck, and instead remind myself that every step, however small, is a step forward for my writing. So here are my favorite things to do when I'm feeling stuck:

1. Breathe in the story. I often do this when I'm brainstorming a new project. I will immerse myself in the story world. Sometimes that means checking out all the steampunk movies I can find from the library. Or cooking my character's favorite food. Or attending an event my character would be interested in. For my current work-in-progress, I've been channelling my inner Disney Channel and spent a whole afternoon re-watching THE PRINCESS DIARIES 1&2. I don't approach these activities looking for something specific to put in my story - I mainly want to be inspired by the atmosphere of my story.

2. Play with the setting. I like to re-visit kindergarten days and pull out old magazines, scissors, and paste to make collages. But nowadays, there's Pinterest, and it's super easy to accomplish this same goal by pinning images that inspire my setting.

3. Interview the characters. There are hundreds of templates online for character interviews. I always drag my feet on this one, because it seems so silly, but then when I actually do it: it's amazing! My characters go from flat and frenetic to motivated, well-rounded individuals.

4. Rework a specific scene. If the plot is stale or forced, I'll try re-writing the scene from a different angle, attempting a different character's point of view or 1st person instead of 3rd. I think like an actor that never performs a scene the same way twice and change setting or time of day or supporting characters to see where that takes the story. I'll ask What If? and Why? questions and recall Peter Jackson's advice in the special features on THE LORD OF THE RINGS DVDs (Yes, I've watched all however-many-hours-of-them. Twice). Is this scene moving the story forward? If not, it gets cut.

Beautiful. Isn't it?

5. Raise the stakes. I imagine the worst possible outcome would be for my main character at the moment, and then write that scene. Poor characters. I'm sorry. Here. You can have the cushy Starbucks chair.

6. Write or Die. Besides being an awesome bumper-sticker phrase, this is my go-to website on the days when I loathe my story and think every plot-point is boring, every character stale and carboard-y. I feel like no one will ever want to read my writing - I don't even want to read it. Then I click over to Write or Die (the freebie trial version is awesome), and let pressure do its thing. Some of my most unexpected plot twists have come from Dr. Wicked's Writing Lab.

http://writeordie.com/

And all these things may not add to my word count, but they do move my story forward. They are the  work of writing. So get rid of the perfectionism, and aim for perseverance instead. Every step, however small, is a step forward on your writing journey.

How about you, Mayhemers? What are your favorite go-to tips for getting un-stuck?

On Blogger's Block by Joy McCullough-Carranza

(This is my brain in playwright mode.)

Since I joined Project Mayhem, I have had plenty of ideas for blog posts, usually a couple months ahead. This month was the first time it snuck up on me and I felt completely blank. Absolutely nothing to share. Blogger’s block, if you will. (I rather fervently don’t believe in writer’s block, mind you, but blogger’s block seems to be a thing, based on the philosophy that what I experience must be true, anyway.)

Part of this is because my mind is not on middle grade fiction these days. Honestly, I’m kind of peeved with middle grade fiction. (It’s not really the books themselves. I still love the books. But still.)

And part of it is because my playwright persona is in full swing, with a world premiere of the play of my heart opening in February. It turns out my playwright brain works very differently from my MG brain. In fact I thought I would have a first draft of a new novel by March 1^st, but as it turns out, my brain is beginning work on a new play instead. Because it’s in playwright mode and it doesn’t shift easily.

So I’m in the awkward place of needing to blog about middle grade as a Project Mayhem team member, but not really having anything to say about it. In grappling with how to deal with that, I thought I’d just be honest. After all, it seems we’re mostly writers here. We’ve all had those days—or longer—when we’ve felt we really didn’t have much to say.

My personal belief about writer’s block is that there are certainly periods of time when what we write is utter garbage—sometimes extended periods of time—but that it is always possible to writing something. And so I have blogged something.

I hope by the time my next Project Mayhem slot rolls around, I will have found something more substantive and interesting to say. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Do you believe in writer’s block? How about blogger’s block? What do you say when you don’t feel you have anything to say, or is it sometimes better to just be quiet for a while?

The Importance of Beginnings by: Joanna Roddy

Story beginnings have been tricky for me. When I started editing with my agent, that was one of the first and hardest things I had to work on. At one point she said, "Your main character wakes up thinking about chess. So we think he's a chess geek. Is that what you were going for?" My adventurous hero with a burning desire to travel the world with his archeologist grandpa? No. Chess geek was not what I was going for. I was just trying to get him to an important scene as quickly as possible. Back to the blank page for me.  

Something I've learned since then is that the beginning of a story has more weight than the rest of it. Your reader is trying to orient themselves to the world, to the characters, and to your voice. The first few things your character does and says DEFINE that character for your reader. 

The beginning of your story is like a resume, trying to get your reader to hire you for the job of temporary entertainer--and if that reader is an agent or editor you want to work with, then you want those pages to shine. 

As I entered a season of ruthless and wholescale editing, I noticed how the Pixar movies that my kids watch are so tightly written. Everything has a purpose: humor, plot, character, or setting, and usually several at once. In a 100 page screenplay for an audience with a notoriously short attention-span, there is no dross. And within the first few minutes, you clearly understand the main character, the world they live in, and what they want.  

Pixar screenplay writer, Michael Arndt, made a YouTube video about Pixar's approach to story beginnings. This is just packed with great ideas. Have a look if you have a few minutes.

His basic formula for the very beginning of a story:

1. Right away, introduce your character, the world they live in, and show them doing the thing they love most.

2. Show that they have a flaw, which flows out of their grand passion--some way in which they take it too far.

3. Show clouds on the horizon--some hint of the conflict or emotional challenge the character will face for the rest of the story.

He goes on to explain the rest of Act 1, by the end of which your character has a goal and has set off on the journey of the rest of the story. He summarizes: "So your story is coming out of your character's deepest desires and their darkest fears. The thing they love gets taken away from them and the world is revealed to be unfair. To put things right, they have to make the journey that is the rest of the film. And by the end of the journey, hopefully they'll not only get back what they lost but they'll be forced to fix that little flaw they had when we first met them."

Formulas can be prisons or wings, depending on how you work, but as a jumping off place, I found this advice super helpful. 

How do you start a new story? Do you use a formula or have any advice to offer? I'd love to hear!

7 Tips about Writing Groups by Joanna Roddy

My beloved writing group, down the pub one Monday night.

About 4 years ago my first novel was halfway complete and had been sitting untouched for a year. My firstborn daughter was 9 months old and I wondered if I would ever go back and finish it. But then something magical happened. I swear it was divine providence or kismet, and it saved my writing.

I found a writing group. Or, I should really say, a writing group found me.

Natalie Goldberg
Photo credit: Mitsue Nagase

Writing guru Natalie Goldberg came to a local writer's conference and I attended her keynote lecture with two aspiring writer friends. Goldberg is a huge advocate of freewriting and she suggested finding people to freewrite with for accountability. We were all three inspired. 

We soon figured out that between the three of us we knew enough writers to start a group. I was a little reluctant to commit with a baby and a new part-time teaching job but thought that I could at least come occasionally.

But from that first night, something happened. Six or seven of us showed up at an all-night diner that served bottomless coffee and pie. We freewrote, we shared aloud, we did another round, and we left inspired by each other and encouraged by our own work. I picked back up my novel and showed up to our group every Monday night. In less than a year I was attending my first writing conference and querying agents alongside two of my group members.

Four years later, our group has changed, but that same creative energy, mutual respect, and accountability is still there. We've supported each other through agent querying, literary contests, and at this point several novels, memoirs, and screenplays. We've also gone on writing retreats together, implemented a book exchange at Christmas, and eaten a whole lot of pie. Sometimes we still freewrite or send something to the group for feedback, but mostly we share the writing life together, buoy hope when discouragement strikes, celebrate good news, and share whatever inspires us.

I recently joined a different formal critique group. We meet every two weeks for 2 hours and the group critiques longer pieces by four out of the six of us on a rotation. I love the way that this keeps me accountable to produce new work with some regularity and receive feedback from multiple perspectives. My original writing group has become my tribe, but it can also be nice to have someone who isn't already in your corner offer their honest response to your writing.

Here are some tips for forming your own writing group:

1. 6 people is a good number, 7 max. You should be able to fit around a table or a living room together and your work should get feedback with some regularity. Agree together on whether the group will be open to new members or closed.

2. Decide what you want and find likeminded people. Critique? Accountability? Group freewriting? Submission buddies? Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need most. You all deserve to get the most from the time you are giving to each other.

3. It’s ok if you don’t all write in the same genre. The variety can be refreshing and teach you a lot about craft. But it's probably important that you really believe in each other's work if you want a group that will last.

4. Make goals for yourself and share them with the group. Sometimes just saying something aloud to another person who’s going to follow up with you is enough to inspire you follow through.

5. Make goals together. Do NaNoWriMo, submit a piece to a literary contest, attend a writing conference, or pitch to agents together. It's the Thelma and Louise approach: holding someone’s hand makes it easier to jump off that cliff.

6. Do stuff outside of your meeting times together. Think about planning retreats, inviting a local author to come talk to your group, and going to writing events like book-signings, lectures, or SCBWI meetings. We've had several authors talk to us about their journey to publication and we even had a pitching expert coach us on pitching and writing conferences. We all contribute some cash to thank our visitor and everyone benefits.

7. You’d probably be surprised by how many writers you know. Start there and ask them if they know any writers they want to invite. Alternatively, local chapters of SCBWI and most regional writing associations have critique groups that you can sign up for.

I haven’t personally had any bad experiences with writing groups, but I can imagine a domineering, competitive, needy, or neglectful member could really derail the group dynamic. I’d be interested to hear from any of you who have had a difficult group experience and what advice you’d give. And what are some positive tips you’ve gleaned from your own writing group experience? I’d love to hear!

Stickers, Word Counts, and Other Demotivational Tools by Dianne K. Salerni

The image above was the first “demotivational poster” I ever saw – back in 2009, according to the date I saved it on my hard drive. There are many sites devoted to these satiric little beauties, including Despair, Inc., where the motto is: MOTIVATIONAL PRODUCTS DON'T WORK. BUT OUR DEMOTIVATOR® PRODUCTS DON'T WORK EVEN BETTER.

I had my own experience with demotivation last month. Having resigned my teaching position (due to despair in the workplace, ironically enough), I was faced with the task of making writing my full time job. A fairly well-known YA author suggested the “calendar method” for staying on task. It basically boiled down to giving yourself a sticker for every 1000 new words written. At first I laughed at the idea of a former teacher giving herself stickers. But – I did find some shiny stickers when I cleaned out my desk at school. What the heck? I thought. I’ll try it.

At first it was great. I usually write late at night, so my family checked the calendar every morning to see if I’d earned a sticker the night before. They high-fived me when I got two stickers in one day.

Then, the inevitable “stuck-point” happened – the thing that occurs several times in every one of my first drafts where I’m not sure what needs to happen next. I might know the next plot point – just not how to get there. Days went by. No stickers. Usually, when I need to stop and think about my draft, I know I skip some writing days, but this time I knew exactly how many days I’d missed. Because of those damn stickers.

No stickers meant I wasn’t writing. No stickers meant I obviously couldn’t hack it as a full time writer. No stickers meant I was an idiot to quit my day job. No stickers probably meant I would never finish another book again! I’d been a full-time writer for less than a month, and I’d already failed!

Incidentally, during this time period I was conducting a series of a paid gigs as a visiting author at a summer camp for student writers. One of the most frequent questions I got was, “How do you combat writer's block?” My answer was always, “Walk away from the project.” I don’t know how many times I gave that answer before I realized I wasn’t allowing myself to follow my own advice!

As Matt McNish and Marissa Burt expressed in their excellent blog posts earlier this summer, writing doesn’t always mean putting new words on the page. The most commonly given advice for full-time writers (in fact, for all writers) is to write every day.

But “writing” can mean:

• Blogging and making new contacts
• Creating a promotional package for school visits
• Looking up contacts to send the promotional packages to
• Updating your website
• Taking out old stories you never intend to finish just to play with voice and POV
• Re-reading a book that uses a POV-switch you hope to emulate in a future project
• Brainstorming ideas for another story
• Researching Colonel Percy Fawcett’s journey into the Amazon just because you might model a character after him some day

I ignored the demotivational stickers and did all those things above, which furthered the business of writing. After about ten days, I started adding words to my WIP again. And I threw out the stickers.

Goals are good, and so are schedules. Writers should have those things, but only to the extent that they motivate us and make us feel good about ourselves and our work. The instant they start to demotivate, they need to go. If I don’t write new words for a week because I decide to binge-watch all 4 seasons of The Killing on Netflix, then yes – I need a kick in the butt. But if I don’t write new words for a week because I need time to think about my story, then that’s just part of being a writer.

This counts as "writing", right?, by: Marissa Burt

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/07/27

I can end this post right here, yes? I think all writers have to resonate with this on some level, because writing requires self-motivation from a group of people who are often easily distracted by imaginary worlds, let alone all the interesting things right there in front of us.  While there is something to be said for sitting down and eking the words out through sheer force of will, I'm beginning to let go of the drivenness that says every writing-moment must equal words on a page.

Matt's earlier post about being okay with not writing every day was spot on, and I'm going to springboard off that and say that sometimes things that have absolutely nothing to do with writing are useful for building creativity. No, this is not a weak attempt to justify my ridiculous fondness for Candy Crush, but I do think mindless indulgences - whether it's frittering away a few minutes online or daydreaming out the window - do something for our creativity.

It's like how I stop to do a few stretches after I've been hunched over my laptop for an hour. My body needs a break and a reset. Why do I begrudge my mind the same?

So I'm learning to factor wasting time into my writing time. If I have a whole four hours to write, I've come to accept that about 30% of that will evaporate into research rabbit-trails and a quick visit to facebook and another trip to the pantry.

All that being said the ability to focus in and really get lost in the world varies with the stage of the manuscript. I squander writing time frivolously during the first draft, but as I reach the end of the manuscript, I find it difficult to even stop for lunch, and if a brilliant plot twist strikes, all bets are off.

What about you? What do you do to reset your creativity? And 'fess up, Mayhemers, what are your secret time-wasting indulgences?

Writing Prompts for Getting Unstuck by Joanna Roddy

Photo Credit: Drew Coffman

My last post was about returning to the joy of writing--learning to play on the page and let go of the need for right answers. One of the underlying assumptions there is that you can actually show up at the page and free-write as an act of discovery. 

But I'll be the first to admit, sometimes the blank page is intimidating as heck and you just don't know how to begin. This is the time to pull some trusty tools from your belt in the form of writing prompts. Even a single starting phrase can be so helpful! Here's a roundup of some of my favorite prompts for fiction writing.

Style prompts:

1. Try it from another point of view or tense: This is pretty basic stuff, but if you're inclined to write from third person omniscient past or first person present (there are many others, but I won't go into them here), switching to another POV/ tense can give you tremendous insight into scenes and characters that you didn't have the other way. Even if you don't decide to stick with the new style, the occasional foray into a new point of view can be a wonderful exercise, keeping your writerly skills limber. 

2. Experiment with another narrative voice: Stretch yourself. If you tend to be flowery, channel your inner Hemmingway and write a scene like it's a newspaper article. If you prefer to be concise, think about how to make the writing more lyrical. You might even try writing it as a poem. Try out stream-of-consciousness, satire, humor, and literary voices. You can even use an author's voice you love for inspiration. At the end of the day, your voice is your own, but trying out other styles will make you better able to find the unique sound of your characters, and you might find something that works for you that you never expected. 

Character-based prompts:

1. Rewrite a scene from another character's point of view: This does wonderful things for your character development and might reveal potential plot possibilities as you get in touch with that character's motivation.

2. Try on a character's voice: In a similar vein, write a new scene from a character's POV you haven't tried yet. This is especially nice for a character whose voice you haven't found yet, or who's coming off as one-dimensional. Try it with your villain!

3. Base a character on someone you know. If a character's voice is difficult to hear, try to "listen" to someone whose voice you're already familiar with. Build in those quirks and mannerisms that create a personality. Just make sure it's not an exact replica, lest you commit libel.

Illustration by Agata Kawa from Le Carnet Rouge
This image is on my Pinterest board for my novel's main character.

World-building prompts:

1. Go on a research quest: Set a timer for an hour and go on a wikipedia stumble. If thar be dragons in your story (Yar!), for a broad example, start at the page on dragons. Let your whimsey take you to a link from that page and then another from the next page and so on. Gain inspiration from mythology, history, science, and real-world parallels to your story. Take notes. Bookmark pages. Save images that inspire you along the way (Pinterest is great for this). If you exhaust your first stream of research, start another. When the hour is up, stop and write a short scene, setting, or character sketch from what you've discovered. Make sure you limit your time researching (you could do this sort of thing all day!) and follow it with writing. 

2. Pull a magazine or Pinterest image and write about it: Find something that strikes you, that speaks to your project or a specific character. 

3. Create a detective file: If someone were to come upon your fictional world, what is some of the evidence they would find of your story? Are there letters, emails, books, objects, bills, texts or any other physical evidence you could write down or describe? 

4. Write a letter: In a similar vein, write a letter from your hero to another character in your story. See what you find out about how they see themself, the other character, and their situation.

Photo Credit: deblund.com
One of the cards from Fiction Magic

And here are a few prompts inspired by Deb Lund, who recently spoke to my local chapter of SCBWI and is about to come out with a very cool product, a 54 card deck called Fiction Magic: Card Tricks and Tips for Writers filled with prompt phrases and a guidebook. I'll be the first in line to get one when they come out. And, no, I'm not related to Deb--I don't even know her! I just like to toot horns worth tooting. These mostly fall into the category of plot-development prompts:

1. Take something precious away from your hero: If you're relying on an object, relationship, character trait, or skill to save the day, see what happens when you take that away from your character. See what they have to do to get it back. Don't let them off easy!

2. Give more power to your villain while you hide your hero's strengths: The character and the reader need to feel that the stakes are high and the deck is stacked against them. Write a scene where your villain gets more traction. 

3. Make your hero disappoint someone: Whether they don't come through, break a promise, or shift their loyalty, see what happens when your hero makes a bad decision that hurts someone close to them. What are the relational consequences? What are the implications if that relationship stays broken? How will the hero have to alter course to repair the relationship? What will the plot consequences be because of that?

4. Consider an unlikely pairing: Think about how two opposite or unrelated characters might find their motivations to be mutually beneficial in some way. Bring them together and see what happens. Just think of some of the great examples of this in literature--Legolas and Gimli, Sherlock and Watson, Gollum and Frodo, even Hook and Tinkerbell, to name a few. 

That's a few to get you going. If you try any, I would love to hear how you get on with them. What are some prompts in your tool belt that you have found helpful? 

The Joy is the Writing by Joanna Roddy

Hermione Granger is my alter ego.

I was the girl always raising my hand in class. I was the one who always had the right answer. I may not have been a mini-McGonagall stickler for rules, but I did have the annoying habit of correcting people all the time. I even had frizzy hair. If only I could do magic too.

Thank goodness we all grow up, even Hermione, and I’ve learned to temper those tendencies with some self-control and found an outlet in teaching. Oh, and I bought a flat iron to tame the frizzle.

I would never advise anyone to dumb it down to make other people feel more comfortable (I'm talking to you, girls). But while cleverness and scholarship have their upsides, acting like a bossy know-it-all (It's wing-ARD-ium levi-O-sa) never helped anyone. And needing to always have the right answer has become the single biggest block to my creative life that I've had to overcome.

Just this month, I finished a major rewrite of my novel and I can say something about it that I've never been able to say before: I love my story. It needs editing and polishing, but it feels right in a way it's never felt before.

It’s taken me awhile to get here.

After college I had a shiny new writing degree, but when the time came to write for myself (and not for assignments), I was completely paralyzed. At first I applied to MFA programs, thinking an academic community would develop a writing life for me. And then I started to read everything about writing that I could get my hands on, especially other writers' chronicles of their own insecurities and the writing practices they developed to face them.

It seemed that I was not alone. Everyone feels this monolithic fear about their work. Everyone has to get their butt in the chair and work anyway. And if I could summarize my own fear in one sentence, it was this: I was afraid of not knowing what to write.

I was so comfortable always knowing the right answer that when it came time to create my own right answers, to speak from that solitary authority of the author, I was terrified that I would have nothing to say.

After some attempts at previous projects, which were all non-fiction or historical (safety in facts: research and given plots), I took a leap of faith and started writing a children's fantasy novel, which was what I had always wanted to do. And then I spent a year researching the heck out of relevant mythology and creating an elaborate back history. I was looking for safety in facts again. But little by little I began to let the facts prod my imagination into fictional possibilities.

It took me another three years to finish the novel. Every time I came to a point in the story I couldn't see past, I shut down. I stopped writing. I plotted like crazy. I didn't trust the work itself to show me the way forward.

I've read enough about writing to know that "inspiration likes to find you hard at work." So I would carve out the time, which became a concerted effort after becoming a mom. I showed up at the page. I wrote. But I kept blocking myself with fear. Whenever I didn't know what to write, even if it was just the next word, I escaped to wander the internet, or compare my plotline to the Hero's Journey, or read author blogs. The going was slow.

I have been editing my novel with my agent for the last couple of years and at the beginning I thought, Finally! I have an expert showing me what to do. Right answers in the form of editorial notes. But by the end of my first revision, I was sick of my story and sick of working on it. Right answers were a checklist and the work became a chore.

But something really great happened this time around the editing loop. It was a confluence of things, really, that somehow culminated in my own shift from head knowledge to heart.

First I finally read Stephen King's On Writing this fall. One of the things that really stayed with me is his emphasis on situation-driven writing over plotting. He says to set up an interesting situation and the rest will follow. He also says, "And if you do your job, your characters will come to life and start doing stuff on their own. I know that sounds creepy if you haven't actually experienced it, but it's terrific fun when it happens." I thought, Darn it, I want that to happen to me!

And then I took a 3-day solo writing retreat and I forced myself to write all day, every day. No internet, no people, no activities, just word count goals and lots of chocolate. And something started to happen. I let myself discover the scenes as they unfolded. They took me unexpected places, introduced unexpected characters. It was thrilling!

An author I really love published the final book in her trilogy last month and as I read some interviews she gave about it, I was struck by the realization that her complex, multi-layered series came together as she was writing it. And when you read her work, it's obvious: the writing itself is the pleasure. It's a feast of words. And yet, she was able to create a cohesive, successful whole by trusting and listening to the work as it unfolded.

And that was when the light bulb went off. This thing I've always known cognitively--writing is about writing--sunk into my gut.

Trust the work.

Let it show you the way forward.

Just get your butt in the chair and write.

I'm writing with less fear and a lot more joy, coming to the page excited to see what may unfold instead of terrified that I don't have the right answer.

Imagination by N.C. Wyeth

Writing is a lot more like reading a good book than engineering.

It's the difference between taking a test and going on an adventure. And not only am I thrilled to now know the difference between the two, I feel like I hit the jackpot because the adventure, which is a lot more fun, is the path to a writer's best work. Aren't we lucky?

So, what is your biggest fear when you write? Do you struggle with blocking yourself or needing to have a detailed plan? How have you overcome that? And what are some unexpected discoveries you've made about your project while you were writing it? 

Chris Eboch on Staying Productive

What do you do when your imaginary friends won’t talk to you?

Sometimes writer’s block is really just a form of exhaustion. This is a hard business, and it can seem to take forever to get anywhere. There’s so much to learn, so many decisions to make, so much to keep track of, and of course far too much to do. And unfortunately, success doesn’t lighten the load. Whether you are not-yet-published, a debut novelist with 1001 “must do” publicity tasks, a midlist writer juggling work-for-hire jobs with your own fiction, or an award winner suddenly in so much demand that you don’t have time to write, the writing life can get overwhelming.

Sometimes we need to take a break from all the pressure and reconnect with the reasons we fell in love with writing in the first place. You may find it hard to give yourself permission to take a vacation, but research has shown that people get less effective if they work too hard for too long. In the 19th century, when companies gave in to union demands for a 40-hour workweek, productivity climbed despite the shorter hours. And office workers may have even fewer “good” hours than manual laborers, on average about six per day.

In the short term, working long hours can help you achieve goals, but an extra 50% of work time may only produce 25% more work. Fatigue sets in and productivity drops. Even more important, after eight 60-hour weeks, productivity has dropped so low that most groups would be better off if they’d stuck with a 40-hour workweek the whole time.

Fortunately, for many people writing feels like a break from their full-time job, so it’s more like a hobby than extra work. And in some cases, that loopy state of exhaustion may free up creativity. This can be helpful for rough drafts or brainstorming sessions. I’ve gotten some of my most creative ideas during 2 AM bouts of insomnia. Still, if you are feeling burned out, consider whether it’s time to take a break, rework your schedule, or try something new.

Fellow Mayhemer Joy McCullough-Carranza says, “I’m not a writer who has to make herself write – I am almost constantly working – so I am very comfortable taking a couple weeks off if things have reached a breaking point. Sometimes a critique partner gently suggests this might be useful and it almost always is. In those breaks, I read more than usual, watch more TV/movies, etc., and I’m usually itching to get back at it before too long.”

Here are some more specific tips:

– Get enough sleep. I know, it’s often harder than it sounds, but studies have shown that losing an hour of sleep each night for a week causes cognitive degradation equivalent to a .10 blood-alcohol level. People in that state typically don’t recognize that they are impaired, so people who can survive on six hours sleep a night may not thrive on it.

“Get enough sleep” may go against advice you’ll find elsewhere, such as get up early or stay up late to write. Individuals must find their own balance. If you can’t eliminate some other task from your life to free up time, you may need to snatch a few minutes here and there to write, or block out time on weekends and vacations. (See part 4, “How Do You Find Time to Write?”)

– Write something just for fun with no worries about marketability. Play! This can help you remember why you wanted to be a writer in the first place. Even better, it takes off the pressure, which may help counteract perfectionist tendencies or fear of failure.

– Take yourself on regular “artist dates” – trips to museums, zoo, or art galleries, walks in the park, thrift store shopping. Plan a goofy craft party with friends or your family. Read great books just for enjoyment. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott calls this filling the well. If you don’t take enough in, you won’t have anything to give out through your writing.

– Take a writing class that may get you fired up again. For the time being, don’t worry about what you “should” learn next (say, how to find an agent.) Instead, try something that sounds like fun (poetry, memoir, paranormal fiction?), even if you’re sure you’ll never try to publish in that area. Many classes are offered online. You can also check your local community college or community center, combining learning with socialization. Even reading books or magazines on writing could help you feel inspired.

– Take a class in something completely different, just to stretch your mind. Art classes are good for exploring creativity, while a course in history or politics may give you topic ideas. Studying a foreign language or music might tap into different parts of the brain.

An action-fantasy inspired by the Arabian Nights -
Publication was squeezed in between other projects.

– Brainstorm new ideas. After a strenuous year where I wrote a novel, several nonfiction books, and multiple articles, plus edited an older manuscript and took two books through the self-publishing process, I found myself not wanting to start a new fiction project. I stopped worrying about the book I was “supposed” to do next and reread some of my favorite innovative novels by other authors. I came up with a completely new idea – yet one that drew on many of my interests – and I started to feel hopeful about fiction again.

– Keep perspective. I remind students who want to be professional writers that they are trying to switch careers, which normally would mean going back to college for four or more years, and then maybe doing an internship or starting at the bottom and working their way up. So why do people think their first manuscript should be a bestseller? It's not like writing is easy!

It would be nice if we didn’t have to think about projects as study and homework. However, I know lots of my “dead files” are not worthy of publication. They were part of learning the craft and finding my voice. Realistically, it can take years to find success. Just because you’re not there yet doesn’t mean you can’t get there.

Most importantly, remember that you deserve a break sometimes, and your writing may be better for it.

How do you balance writing with the rest of your life? Have you taken a vacation from writing? Did it help or hurt your progress in the long run?

Chris Eboch’s novels for ages nine and up include The Genie’s Gift, a middle eastern fantasy, The Eyes of Pharaoh, a mystery in ancient Egypt; The Well of Sacrifice, a Mayan adventure; and the Haunted series, which starts with The Ghost on the Stairs. Her book Advanced Plotting helps writers fine-tune their plots. Learn more at www.chriseboch.com or her Amazon page, or check out her writing tips at her Write Like a Pro! blog.

Sage Cohen's “10 Ways to Harness Fear and Fuel Your Writing”

I found this article at Writer's Digest online and, with permission from the author, Sage Cohen, am excited to post it here at Project Mayhem today.  As writers, we all experience the "fear factor" at one time or another, and Sage provides some wonderful tips for overcoming that fear.

THANK YOU, Sage, for allowing me to share your awesome article.

The writing life presents endless opportunities to meet fear. Facing the blank page, sending work out for publication, and reading to an audience can all be triggers. Fear is neither good nor bad—it’s simply an emotional weather vane that lets us know where we are meeting or anticipating challenge.

Fear becomes a problem when we do (or don’t do) something to try to avoid feeling it. And this is what too many of us are in the habit of doing. For example, if we let the fear of rejection prevent us from pitching or querying or submitting, we are ensuring that we’ll never realize our aspirations. Even worse, we’re reinforcing fear’s position as captain of our craft. But when we consciously work with fear, we can actually harness this energy source in ways that support our writing goals and enhance our writing experience. Here are 10 ways to do it.

#1 Learn to identify subtle signs of fear.

It’s easy to identify fear when we’re about to throw up or pass out or run screaming out of a building. But fear has many subtler faces that can be hard to discern. If you’re overperforming, underperforming or avoiding performing at all, chances are good that fear is in play.

For example, did you ever consider that the piece of writing you just can’t get right—and therefore endlessly revise—may be a reflection of your fear? That the important project you can’t find time to start is likely being thwarted by fear? Even your turbocharged accomplishment mode could be driven by fear. When we find fear at the root of a challenging habit or behavior, we are fortunate—because with awareness, we have choices.

#2 Acknowledge your fears without putting them in charge.

We all have negative thoughts that creep in when we’re afraid. Our job is to make sure they don’t short-circuit us. In A Beautiful Mind, when someone from the Nobel Prize committee asks schizophrenic mathematician John Nash how he silenced the voices that threatened to interfere with his work and his life, Nash replies something to the effect of, “I didn’t. They’re talking to me right now. I have simply made a choice to stop engaging with what they’re saying.”

This is every writer’s opportunity with fear—to learn to live with the negative stories that get airtime in our minds, without letting them limit what we know we are called to do. Chances are good that your fear is just trying to protect you from meeting pain. Once you give it a chance to see that you’re going to be just fine, it will likely let up, and eventually even shut up for good.

#3 Focus on process instead of results.

Fear tends to be focused on projected outcomes—which we cannot control. So, why not use fear as a signal to turn your attention to your process, instead? What we do have influence over is the intention, commitment and labor of love that goes into our writing. When you give your attention to following through on a goal, taking steps to improve your craft, researching places to submit, or reading that book on marketing, you are creating a forward motion that makes it harder for fear to hold you back.

#4 Put perfectionism in its place.

Many of us have this idea that we’re meant to be perfect as writers. Instead, try thinking of your writing as akin to your fingerprints. They are what they are—unique patterns that exclusively represent you—not good or bad or better or worse than anyone else’s.

Instead of trying to perfect your writing, then, strive to get acquainted with this pattern and become more and more proficient at expressing it. There is no endpoint in this process, and we will never arrive at “perfect.” So why not give up the chase right now, and just enjoy the resonance and beauty of our humble, flawed writing as it is? As Leonard Cohen sings, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Rather than “perfect” as an end goal, try setting your sights on “finished,” and see if that gives you a bit more appreciation for the light that seeps in.

#5 Don’t make things harder than they need to be.

If you’re used to approaching your writing life from a place of fear, you’re likely to expect that being a writer is really hard. Fear gets us all knotted up such that we have to work twice as hard at writing, publishing, promoting and presenting just to overcome our own resistance. Such an attitude lands you shoulder-to-boulder, on an eternal uphill climb. This gets tiring fast.

When you find yourself working at a pace that feels unreasonable or exhausting, take a step back to consider whether or not fear is at play. Being driven to accomplish and succeed can be a very useful quality in the writing life. But your drive could also be the fear of failure in disguise.

Sometimes, just being still is all our writing lives need from us. Often, more happens—or has room to happen—when we simply allow it without trying so hard. What if you were to expect some task that feels hard and scary to be full of ease and delight, instead? I’ll bet you could work faster and more efficiently—and even get better results—without fear weighing you down.

#6 Retrain your bad habits bit by bit.

Do you catch yourself doing just about anything to avoid getting started on or back to work on a writing project that really matters to you? Or, on the flip side, do you tend to write and rewrite an endless succession of drafts, unable to decide when a piece is finished? Try setting and enforcing some performance standards.

If you find yourself scrubbing the toilet with a toothbrush to keep busy instead of starting that piece of writing you anticipate to be difficult, give yourself a time limit: 10 minutes with the toothbrush, then 10 minutes at your desk. Whatever happens, happens, and then you are excused. The point is to give yourself the escape valve (otherwise, you will rebel), but then make sure you actually follow through with your goal.

Similarly, the next time you catch yourself about to revise that piece yet again, try setting a cutoff limit: three drafts, total, and then you will declare the piece finished. Indulge your habit to a point, but then decide when enough will be enough. Resolve to stop getting in your own way.

Like any practice, the more you implement whatever standards you’ve set, the more reliable you will become. Experiment with your own ways to accept and move through your resistance. Don’t forget to be friendly to the resistance. It just wants to keep you safe. Bit by bit, you’ll earn its trust.

#7 Do what scares you because it scares you.

What do you fear most in your writing life? Take a moment to evaluate if it truly is likely to do you serious harm. If the answer is no, then I invite you to make a point of doing this very thing—as much as you can—until you exhaust fear’s charge around it. I’m not suggesting this process will be fast or easy, though that’s possible. But I do know that the more ambitious you are in tackling a significant challenge, the greater your self-confidence will be on the other side.

In my own writing life, public speaking has been the numero uno fear to conquer. This first came to my attention in second grade, when I skipped callbacks for the role of Gretl in The Sound of Music because I was so terrified that I might actually be cast. (Though I was afraid, I really wanted that role!) I vowed then that I would not let fear interfere with my goals or desires again. And I’ve been working with my fear ever since.

How have I done it? By singing and dancing and acting in every play, performance and band that would have me. And in the past 20 years, by reading and speaking publicly at every opportunity. Flawed and committed, I’ve stayed with it and I’ve gotten better. I’ve had major humiliations and significant successes. I’ve learned how to prepare and that I can trust myself along the way. It’s taken a long time.

#8 Keep your eyes on the prize.

If you have something more interesting to focus on than fear, it’s far less likely that fear will hog the spotlight of your attention. One way to hold your focus elsewhere is to clearly articulate for yourself why you’re working on a particular piece of writing, what motivates you to stay with it, and what the imagined end result will be.

For example, if you know that the article you’re writing about cultivating organic community gardens is going to teach you about something that’s both a core value and an expression of your platform, you have an intrinsic reward that’s worth writing for. If you understand that meeting a deadline and a word count while earning a paycheck is going to bring you one step closer to being a professional writer, that can keep you focused on crossing those finish lines. When fear creeps back in, let it be a signal to remind you to hold that focus steady.

Writers with defined goals have a better chance of achieving them.

#9 Be realistic about your worst-case scenarios.

Fear exists to keep us safe. If you are feeling fear, you are likely perceiving danger. The harder you try to silence the fear, the louder it will get to try to protect you. Therefore, I propose that you lean into that fear, and really listen to what it wants you to know. For example, consider an inquiry process like this:

You:    Why am I unable to finish this story?
Fear:    Because if you call it “finished,” then you might find out it’s bad. If you never finish it, then you never have to send it out, and you’ll never know. You’ll be safer that way.
You:    What’s wrong with finding out it’s bad?
Fear:    Then you would be a terrible writer.
You:    According to whom?
Fear:    The people who read it. The publications that
reject it.
You:    But wouldn’t finishing something and getting feedback likely help me improve so that I might be one step closer to reaching my goals?

Your fear will have to agree.

#10 Set your fear of fear free.

In short, fear isn’t the problem—fearing fear is where we run into trouble. When we exit this loop, we’ll be in a better place to see clearly, aspire meaningfully and stop tripping over our own self-defeating feet.

I’m not saying that when we release fear’s vise grip, all of our goals are realized and our dreams come true. But it’s been my experience that we have far more room to breathe, experiment and evolve when we’re not squeezed into those small and invented stories that have been dictated to us by fear.

Your life and your writing are both precious resources. Don’t waste a drop of either. Put fear in charge of helping you see where you’re ready to grow, and be curious about how to move from fear to trust. When you walk through fear’s doorway, you have a chance to step into your greatest potential.

Sage Cohen is the author of the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World from Queen of Wands Press and the nonfiction books Writing the Life Poetic and The Productive Writer, both from Writer’s Digest Books. She has published a variety of articles on the writing life in Writer's Digest magazine, Poet’s Market and Writer’s Market. Sage holds an MFA from New York University and a BA from Brown University. Visit her at pathofpossibility.com.