by Jenna | May 19, 2016 | Writing Articles
As the proprietress of an online program designed to help writers build a daily writing habit, every once in a while someone says to me, "But Jenna, what if I don't want to write every day?"
My answer is, "That's okay."
If....
The reason we advocate daily or near daily writing in my writing community is that most of the time, the writers who come to us are flat out struggling to write -- at all. And it turns out that the more frequently you write, the easier it is to sustain the habit.
Some writers CAN write on a different schedule and it works perfectly well for them. That's completely fine. I have no objections. Because if you're someone who can write two to three times a week and keep that going over the long haul, that's great! Or if you like to go for months without writing and then have no problem cranking out a book without getting burnt out or frazzled, all the more sparkle bright ponies for you. Really.
But if you're someone who wants to write but isn't, or isn't living up to your desired level of productivity and completion, or keeps getting burnt out in binge-writing frenzies, or is wrestling with procrastination, burnout, perfectionism, or writer's paralysis, you might want to try our daily/near daily approach. It just makes it so much easier to break the patterns you're stuck in.
The thing is, a tremendous amount of paralysis that can build up for writers. It's all founded in fear -- fears of not writing well enough, of succeeding or failing, of public humiliation or ridicule, and more. All that fear builds up in our unconscious minds and sends us in an entirely OTHER direction than writing. But when we first break that pattern of writing-aversion and turn toward writing again with a small, doable step like writing for five to fifteen minutes, we can build new neural connections that reinforce writing as a positive thing in our lives. And if we do it again the next day, it makes it easier and easier to keep going. And once we build our writing up to habit levels, we start operating out of a whole new paradigm, one where taking a day off here or there doesn't throw us completely off track.
No matter what though, the bottom line is this: Do what works for you. There is no one right way to write. There's no one right answer to how to write. Different approaches work for different people. Find yours.
by Jenna | Apr 20, 2016 | Writing Articles
There's this idea floating around that the way to find time to write is to cram writing time into every square inch of your life. Just write while you're waiting for your dentist appointment! Just write while you're standing in line at the grocery store!
I don't think that's sound advice.
The thing is, we already lead crazy, busy lives. Most of us have plates filled to overflowing as it stands, and cramming writing into every tiny pocket of time feels like it will be the thing that finally breaks the dam.
Writing like a maniac looks like a recipe for burnout and stress to me, rather than a graceful fulfilling of one's true calling. I don't know where we got this idea that productivity and just doing more are the same thing. Many proponents of the just find 15-minutes method of writing seem to have bought into this idea.
Having said that, I do advocate writing in 15-minute (or smaller) blocks of time in the following circumstances:
- When that's all the time you actually, truly have to write. Look, I'm a writer, a mom, and a business owner, I get it. There really is only so much time to go around. It's okay with me if you say, I have to write, this is what I have, so I'm going to make the most of it. But, and this is important: Ideally, you'll do it in a scheduled, planned part of your day, not as something you race to cram in during a stolen moment somewhere. I wrote a script in 15-minute increments of time, and I've got two writers in my writing community who recently finished projects in 15-minute chunks: one mom who wrote her first novel and the other a coach who wrote her parenting book. It's a perfectly valid way to write!
- When you're building a writing habit. When you're first setting out to build a writing habit, it pays to start small. Most of us with big dreams to write have commensurately-sized fears that stop us in our tracks and have us come up with all kinds of excuses not to write. Writing in small increments of time helps us sneak past the fear, kick the excuses to the curb, and get our butts in our writing chairs. There's nothing that says you have STICK WITH 15-minute increments of writing time in the long term, it's perfectly fine to build up to more once you've increased your tolerance for writing (in other words, once the blue meanies stop screaming quite so loudly in your head). Having said that, again, see #1. If that's what you've got, work it, baby.
- When you're re-building a writing habit. If you've fallen off the writing wagon, for whatever reason (travel, illness, loss, etc.), you can reboot yourself with a 15-minute writing sprint. If I ever find myself off track with my writing, I usually say something to myself like, "I can at least write for just 15 minutes." And then I set my timer, and I'm off. Note that I usually don't write past the 15-minute mark on a reboot day but just use that to get myself into motion again. I'll often write longer the next day and build back up from there. (The reason not to go past the goal is that you end on a high note and in a positive place for the next day.)
- When you actually feel like writing while you're waiting for something. Rather than feeling like you "should" be writing at every moment, notice when you want to be writing. Lately, as a tired mom of a now 23-month-old toddler, sitting and staring at nothing while waiting in the doctor's office is a luxury I'm reluctant to give up for just about anything. But pre-baby #2, I happily wrote while hanging out waiting for appointments because I wanted to. In other words, do it if you want to, not because you "should."
Your writing is your biggest dream. Treat that dream with reverence.
Rather than squeezing writing into the interstices of your life, take a look at its importance to you and give it a proper place in your day. This might mean taking a good hard look at the way you're prioritizing your time and what you're choosing to do with it instead of writing, and it might mean getting creative about how you're scheduling yourself, but I'd much rather see you having moments to breathe AND moments to write.
by Jenna | Mar 3, 2016 | Writing Articles
I mentioned in a recent post that I've written "in the past" about choosing your "three big rocks" for the year. Turns out "the past" was 2007 (!), so I thought it was worth sharing again.
I believe this idea has tremendous validity in our overly busy world.
Turns out, when we focus our efforts on the important things we want to accomplish and create with our lives, we are more productive and we are happier.
The Three Big Rocks concept has been spread by Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
I've heard it told a number of different ways. Here's an abridged version:
A time management expert places a large wide-mouthed jar on the table, and then puts several large rocks carefully into the jar. When the jar is packed to the top, he asks, "Is this jar full?"
Everyone watching says, "Yes."
He says, "Really?" He adds pebbles into the jar and the group watches as they work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he asks again, "Is this jar full?"
By this time, the group is skeptical. "Maybe not," they say.
"Good!" he answers. He adds sand to the jar and it fills in the spaces left between the rocks and the pebbles.
Once more, he asks, "Is this jar full?"
"No!" they shout.
Once again, he says, "Good!"
Then he takes a pitcher of water and pours it in until the jar is full to the brim.
He then looks at the group and asks, "What do you think is the point of this Illustration?"
One eager beaver raises her hand and says, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit more things in."
"No," the speaker replies, "that’s not my point. The Truth is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you will never get them in at all."
We have to pick out what our "Big Rocks", organize our priorities around those, and only then look at what else we want to add into the remaining interstitial spaces of our lives.
No more of this "I have to take care of [8 million small things] before I can put my attention on my writing." Trust me, it doesn't work. Where you put your attention is what you get more of.
I've learned to put my focus on only three big rocks for any given day, and for the year as a whole as well.
Writing, of course, is always one of my big rocks. I manage to get MOST of the little things done as well. And the rest of them? Well, they aren't usually that important.
For this year, my three big rocks are my kids, my writing, and my business.
For today, my three big rocks are working on this blog post, working on my script, and writing two testimonials for my beloved coaches.
What are yours?
Powerful questions to ask yourself:
- What are the three most important things I want to accomplish today?
- What are the three big things I want to create or accomplish this year?
- What truly matters to me in terms of how I spend my time?
- How well are my choices matching up with what matters most to me?
You might also like this article I wrote for ScriptMag on the subject of being too busy to write.
Happy writing!
by Jenna | Feb 24, 2016 | Writing Articles
Does staring at a blank page paralyze you?
Here's how you can work around it.
It's a common vision of a writer's life. Sitting and staring at the blank page, waiting for inspiration to come. But in my opinion, it's a terrible strategy for a certain breed of writers.
From my experience working with so many other writers, the ominous blank page can be incredibly paralyzing. It usually triggers paroxysms of perfectionism, because we feel that we must come up with the perfect line, the perfect way to begin, or the perfect topic. And if you've been hanging around here for any length of time, you'll know the vicious cycle of perfectionism, paralysis, and procrastination is one of a writer's greatest enemies.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I'd be paralyzed by a blank page myself, but I never allow myself to be confronted by one.
If you're someone who feels frozen in the face of all that white space, here are some strategies to help you get into the flow of writing, whether you're blogging, writing short pieces, articles, or stories, or working on full-length long-form masterpieces.
- Begin with an idea. Sounds super simple, right? It's not always so easy to do (we can talk about generating concepts another day), but once you're in the habit of writing, you'll find that coming up with ideas is less cumbersome that it might be now. When I'm starting a project, I'm walking around thinking about it for hours or days before I sit down to write. Because I blog on a weekly-ish basis, I have a constant stream of ideas coming into my head, so I pretty much always have an idea of what I'll be writing about when the time comes. If I don't have an idea for a blog post, I'll often ask the writers around me for ideas. There's always something up, somewhere!
Alternatively, if I'm starting a script, I'll be honing and crafting the concept in my head and on paper before I sit down as well.
- Immediately empty your brain onto the page. Once you've got your idea and it's time to sit down to write (you do have a time to write, yes?), do a "brain dump" onto the page. If I'm working on a blog post, this means kind of spewing out the ideas I've got on the subject onto the page, randomly or in order, it doesn't matter, as well as coming up with a working title (often temporary) that becomes the "container" for the piece. Usually I'm imagining myself talking to all of you, so that helps too -- it feels like I'm writing down the conversation we're having in my head.
If you're blogging and struggling at this point, you might even want to write down and answer a question, like, "Where do my readers struggle with this?" Or, "What would be most inspiring for my readers on this subject?" to get you going.
If I'm working on a script, I have a kind of formula that I complete, and it starts with capturing any ideas I have for the logline and story concept, so I begin with getting those onto the page along with anything else I "know" about the story as well.
- Turn to structure. From there, start organizing your project. With blog posts, since I've written down the ideas, I start organizing them into a natural order or flow that occurs to me. It doesn't have to be perfect, I think of it as a work in progress, just like my working title.
If I'm working on a script, this is where the heavier-lifting comes in. I have a set of parameters I "fill in" (that's the formula I'm talking about in step two). I detail my main characters' goals, motivations, and conflicts. I break out major plot points. I outline scenes.
- Fill in from there. Once you've got your structure, just start filling it in. If I'm writing a blog post, this means fleshing out and refining what I've started with. When I'm working on a script, I import my scene outline into my screenwriting software, and then fill that in.
This way, I'm always "filling in" and responding to what I've already set up for myself, rather than starting from a "blank" anything, so I never feel lost or paralyzed. Well, maybe not NEVER. :) But much more rarely.
So if staring at a blank page for you is difficult, use these ideas to get something (ANYTHING!) onto the page to get yourself jump-started, and go from there.
by Jenna | Feb 18, 2016 | Writing Articles
It has been nothing if not interesting to observe myself and all the machinations I’ve gone through as I’ve brought myself closer to claiming my dream of becoming a writer.
Here’s my update:
Challenges
Well, for starters, as soon as I made the public commitment to write 4 times per week, I found myself in the quandary of putting on a live event and heading out of town, both of which required an extra level of preparation and definitely disrupted my normal routine.
Then, when we came back from L.A., I promptly came down with the “cold of the decade” and found myself completely uninterested and unwilling to write (or work, for that matter) while taking care of myself and my son, who was also sick. I promised myself that this week, I’d get back on track. And I did. Well, sort of.
Really, though, I see the cold as a giant temper tantrum. Julia Cameron describes a kriya (Sanskrit) in The Artist’s Way as “spiritual emergencies or surrender,” something designed to get our attention and say, hey, “Get it?”
I feel like this is a similar situation — On some level, I’m resisting doing the Big Writing because it terrifies me, so I choose to get sick and busy as a way to avoid doing it. Pretty creative, right?
It’s also fascinating to watch my inner critic pester me with, “it’s not creative enough, it’s not good enough,” etc.
Which reminds me, my 3rd submission, “The Gospel According to Lucky,” for the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge did not get me through to the next round, but I got some great feedback and decided I like the story enough to want to rewrite it.
So I sent it off to some writing friends for feedback, and holy smokes, did my inner critic ever go into overdrive. He (yes, my inner critic is a he) was going all crazy about why they hadn’t gotten back to me yet, that they hated it, that they were writing each other about how bad it was and couldn’t figure out what to say to me, etc. etc.
Luckily I didn’t buy it and busted my I.C. by telling my husband about what he was saying so we could both laugh at him.
One more little temper tantrum: I’m writing this on Saturday instead of Friday like I’d planned. Jeez.
Progress & Celebrations
The good news is that I DID work on my big screenplay (the title is in flux so I can’t tell you what it is yet) and I was able to outline the story even more. It’s a fascinating project. It seems like every time I sort out one bit of the story, I find 10 more unanswered questions to address. I swear this thing will just write itself once I get all these questions answered.
I’m also thrilled that I made it to the 3rd round of the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge. That was my goal and I met it. Woo-hoo! I also received some extremely helpful feedback from my writing buddy so I’m planning to rewrite that script soon. (No, he didn’t hate it, he said, “I dig the script.”)
Another thing I’m super happy about is watching my creative process around writing unfold. Who knew it would be this way? I certainly have my ups and downs, but I’m finding that I like to toss around ideas and play with them until I feel solid about the “big ideas” and then I start writing. I like that. :)
Plus, joy of all joys, my husband and I are writing a short story, called “Angel of Misfortune” for the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. It’s due today. Can I tell you that ever since I met this man I’ve dreamed of us writing together? It’s so fabulous! And I think the story is pretty good. Oh joy. :)
