When you’re sitting on the sidelines of your writing, there’s lots of room in the stands for your fears to crowd around. But once you get in the game, the fears can’t keep up with you. Fear hates a moving target. When you’re writing, even imperfectly, you gain confidence. You have this writing impulse for […]
The Writing Life
15/30 Inspiration for writers: Play with new genres and styles
So little time, so many ways to write! If you’re like me, you have a long list of things you want to write – short stories, personal essays, poems, books…where to find the time to explore all these genres and styles of writing? Free-writing offers an invitation to experiment without risk. No need to master […]
Change your world with this simple practice
So much of the information and inspiration out there goads us to GO BIG! And to MAKE A DIFFERENCE! That’s all fine and good, and sometimes those well-meaning encouragements just add fuel to the inner critic. The inner critic loves to say “Who, you?! You can’t even keep the kitchen clean, let alone change the world!” I believe in […]
14/30 Inspiration for writers: Recognize and claim your authentic voice
Where, oh where is that authentic voice of yours? It’s not hiding in others’ writing. It’s right there, in your pen or keyboard, waiting for you to ink a path to it. The problem is, it can take some effort to find your voice. I’ve found the quickest way to hearing our voice is by […]
13/30 Inspiration for writers: Bypass the inner critic
Before you sit down to write, there’s a voice – perhaps a chorus – singing a stinky tune about all the reasons you shouldn’t write. You don’t know what to say. You’re crappy with spelling. Someone else has probably already written what you want to write. Blah de blah blah. Your inner critic seems to […]
12/30 Inspiration for writers: Untangle sticky life issues
One of my favorite things about free-writing is that it can be used for any kind of writing. My students claim that after a month of free-writing, everything they have to write feels easier. Blog posts, emails, proposals…when they have free-writing at their disposal, words for any kind of project come easier. And sometimes, we […]
11/30 Inspiration for writers: Glean useful insights about our writing process
You know how we read books like Daily Rituals, trying to learn from other people’s writing process? It’s like we’re looking for the magic key that will show us how to unlock our own genius. The problem is that someone else’s key probably won’t work to open your writing gates. You have to – get […]
10/30 Inspiration for writers: Practice, practice, practice
The way to excel at anything is to practice. I have a yoga practice, a coaching practice and a writing practice. These are all very different but as practices, they have things in common. A practice requires you to show up regularly. A practice doesn’t demand excellence, or even good, on the first laps out. […]
9/30 Inspiration for writers: Discover more about yourself
The coolest thing happens in my writing classes. People sign up so they can get some writing done. But a bonus of the class is that they discover so much more about who they are, what they care about and why they want to write in the first place. No matter what you are writing, […]
8/30 Inspiration for writers: Your writing is a gift you give yourself
Appreciate that the time we spend on our writing as a gift we give to ourselves again and again. Writing might seem like a lot of work. And, in truth, it is. But it’s also a gift we give to ourselves. Taking the time to honor our writing impulse, even if we don’t know where […]