Ten Easy Ways to Beat Writer's Block

Writer's block is real.  It's a black hole of chaos.  It's a dead-end road and a junkie under the bridge.  It's exhaustion disguised as a tiny pixie you can never catch.  It's the dog who won't come when you call.  It's against the primal forces of nature!!!

Have a look at the clip below.  To write a rant like that you don't have to be a great writer.  All you need is a heart full of passion and lithe like a rope-walker.  Writer's block is about waking up your soul. And watching it dance.




The worst thing about writer's block is the way it makes you feel.  If you are a true writing addict, you'll get withdrawals.  Here's a list of symptoms you might recognise:

• Lethargy
• Nausea - sick at heart
• The shakes
• Nightmares
• Flashbacks of scenes/poems/emails you really enjoyed writing
• Irritation
• Tense, nervous headache
• Limp posture
• Insomnia
• Hallucinations - often of insects
• Sleeping too much
• Drinking too much
• Not getting your book finished and fearing you might die before you can ever write again...

Equipment:

So, you need a cure and you need it quick.  Luckily, there are ten easy ways to beat writers block. You don't have to try hard. In fact it's important that you don't try to write well.  Don't even think about writing.  To trick your mind into opening up - approach this like a game.  This game allows you to cheat, howl, fall in love, kill your enemies and fall through a space/time portal into another world.  All you have to do is make notes while you're there.  Easy.

To play the game you will need: 

• A cup of tea [coffee or water etc will do just as well]
• Some of your time [switch off TV?]
• Some writing utensils such as a computer or better still - a notebook and pen 

Ten Easy Ways to Beat Writer's Block:

1. Find a picture and write a load of rubbish about it.  Remember, this is not proper writing.  You're just messing about.  Write how you speak.  Ramble on and don't bother about following a thought. Put people in the picture and make them suffer. Think of your own suffering and give it to them.  Weep if you need to.  

2. Find some music and write a complete pile of manure about it.  Use the kind of music that you listened to when you were really happy one summer.  Dance around the room.  Write about the song and the effect it has on a character [not you] of your choice.  Throw in some dialogue.  Bang on about love or joy or being drunk or high.  Use a song that makes you feel like the singer understands your pain.  Write the lyrics.  Write your own lyrics.  Make it into a scene of dialogue.  Laugh at your efforts but do it anyway.

3. Find some film [movie!] and write nonsense all the way through like a crazy diamond singing in the chorus at the end of the world! Pick a film that is meaningful to you.  Pick a film with a great story.  Note the turning points.  Transcribe great bits of dialogue.  Describe the characters.  How would they react if they met the characters from your book?  Kill them? Love them? Hate them? Fear them?  Or you can just pick a film clip like the one above and write your own bonkers version of the speech - then put it into the mouth of a character you've created.

4. Find a person.  They can be dead or alive.  Find someone who isn't famous.  Give them a new name.  Give them three main character traits.  Put them in a situation that makes them angry.  Write a scene where they let rip at the person who made them so mad.  Imagine a person who never curses - and make them curse the God they always believed in.  Would they get violent?  Would they scream to be heard?  Make it surreal.

5. Find seven words.  Concrete words like: grass, jug, wave, oven, gun, marquee, jam tart.  Make patterns with them on the page.  Hide them in sentences that might fit your novel or story if you were writing properly but you're not.  You're playing a game which is quite different from writing.

6. Find a fairy story.  Find a gruesome one.  There are plenty of sites that will make you wish you'd never found out the real story of Sleeping Beauty.  Imagine you're a reporter.  Write a crappy piece of copy on the whole story.  Update it, and make sure someone goes to prison in the end.  Remember, in this game, you're the worst reporter in history but it doesn't matter.  You just write the words and your editor prints them anyway!!

7. Find a letter or an email from a friend.  What if you found out they were having an affair with your partner.  How would you write to them? What kind of attitude would you have? Murderous or grateful?  Or something in between?  Keep to your usual sloppy email style.  Threaten, cajole, plead and rage.  Either that or thank your friend acidly and invite them to tea.  Write back to yourself in the character of your friend.  What do they say?  How do they explain themselves?  Get lost in the game.

8. Find something you've been working on. Imagine a reckless, drunken, delirious poet is going to write the next bit.  Let rip.  Thank god it's not you doing that kind of writing.  When you get over this writer's block, you'll be much better than that...

9. Find a long walk.  Go on it. It doesn't matter if it's in nature or down the back alleys of your home town.  Take your notebook.  If it's cold, take fingerless gloves.  Every five minutes write down something you see or smell or taste or touch.  Just one sentence.  You don't have time to be all lyrical and writerly.  Just jot it down and keep walking.  When you get home, put the walk in your story.  But make it mean something.  Is your main character leaving home? Meeting a secret lover?  Picking up a bomb for use later?

10. Read a book.  Read like you don't care.  Read with your whole heart.  If you don't read, you might never write again.

Here's some music you might find useful as a writing prompt:

Visiting Mike in Jail...

Visiting Mike in jail last weekend was... great.  It was so good to see him.  He was pale and he's lost weight but he's okay.  There's a light in his eyes, like he's seeing much more than I can.  In some ways, it was like he was at peace.  The worst is over.  The court martial.  The threats in the street.  The pressure of never knowing what was going to happen next.

It made me want to explore the whole issue of following your instinct.  I don't mean the kind of instinct that drove Machiavelli.  Not the urge to power, the urge to dominate, to hurt, to take by force, to control others... No.  I mean the other instinct - the compassion principle - the one Freud left out when he looked into the human psyche and saw nothing but sex and death.  He forgot about love.

Oh, and with that I'd put compassion for the self in there too.  But not self-aggrandisment.  You know the sort of thing.  It sounds vague and woowoo but it's the root of all good.  Self-nurturing - leading to the capacity to nurture others.  Self-worth - leading to recognising the worth of others - no matter how remote they are.  The thing is - Mike really cares about the child in his mother's arms injured in a rocket attack.  He's not bothered about the politics, not in a radical, crazy way.  He's in touch with something more balanced than that.  The instinct of altruism - we're all born with it - most of us anyway.  How do we lose it?  Carelessness?

The most important question is this: How do we find it?  Awareness.  I know that sounds vague too, but it's true.  Being aware that suffering is a shared experience.  Not a remote viewing situation.   

So, when I talked to Mike - it didn't really matter what we talked about.  I told him about my wild dancing the night before.  He talked about his shoe-cleaning duties.  Ben Griffin was there - a man with a big story in his eyes.  And two others, good men, great men, men who feel things, true things and have done something about it.  Outside, other like them.  A poet.  A guy with dreads and the biggest heart. An older man who cared enough to rage against rape as a weapon of war. 

Compassion junkies.  Peace heroes.  Give them a medal and parade them through the streets.  It won't happen but in a parallel universe...

Instinct - the compassion instinct - you don't have to be perfect to be in touch with it.  You don't have to live a certain life or crawl on your knees to a sacred mountain.  You just have to listen.  I think it sounds like the tide turning on a calm, sunny day.

I'll try and link a short video of the vigil outside Colchester prison that day. And thank you to all those who were there.  And to everyone who has written to Mike and supported him on facebook.  The tide turns like a whisper.  But it makes sand out of mountains.  We think we'll always have war, domestic violence, cruelty and torture.  Maybe that's just another mountain sinking into the sea.  Who knows?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxazNPBw8oo

Refusing to Kill is Not a Crime.

They say it isn't a prision.  On the website for Colchester detention centre they write "... this is not a prison, it's a military correction unit...".  As if that sounds better.  To me it doesn't.  Military correction sounds harsh and unyielding.  It sounds like a place where the individual doesn't count for much.  It sounds like a place of stern, authoritarian punishment - a place where the concept of 'correcting human behaviour' is  cold, technical and thorough. 
Yesterday afternoon I spoke to Mike for the first time since he's been inside.  He sounded okay.  His courage covering up the fact that he wasn't okay.  He's not free.  That's not okay - especially when you consider what he's done - or refused to do.
There's a t-shirt in support of him somewhere on the net - I must get hold of it.  It says "Free Michael Lyons - Refusing to Kill is Not a Crime".  Brilliant.  Surely Mike can't be one of the few human beings on planet earth capable of this insight?  I mean, he's bright, there's no doubting that.  But refusing to take up a rifle (an SA80 assault rifle, capable of killing a man/woman/child at 300 metres) and use it in anger - doesn't take a lot of brains surely...
It takes heart.  A lot of it.  Some people say he should never have gone into the navy if he felt that way.  Well, he went in as a medic at the age of nineteen.  He studied trauma medicine and battlefield triage.  His baseline was that he was there to heal not to kill.  Perhaps it sounds naive.  And maybe it is.  Or maybe it's such a simple, obvious truth that those of us who think we are mature have missed the point.  Truth is simple as well as beautiful.
I didn't realise how much I've been holding back a ton of feelings about what he's going through.  I've buried myself in work.  The shock of his court martial and the following weeks of intense busyness provided a soft blanket around the reality of his situation.
But every day I think of him.  They provide education in there and I know he's studying.  But there's hard labour too.  And of course, a military regime designed to 'correct' him.  I wonder if he's being bullied because of his stand against war.  I'm anxious about the physical training - he's in the navy - he's not fit like the army grunts who run the place. 
So, all the fear, sadness and worry came out in a flood.  I didn't want to cry on the phone.  We only had ten minutes.  I asked all the mum questions: What's the food like?  Have you made any friends?  Are you okay?  And every question pulled me into the fact of what was happening.  Because I've asked him the same things at every stage of his life.  After school.  In basic training.  When he was stationed on a remote Pacific Island. But it felt so different to ask them because he's locked up.  It felt painful and frightening and unjust.  After all, people have threatened to attack him on the street because of what he's doing.  Some people have even said he should be shot for his beliefs.  There are a load of people who want to harm him for refusing to kill. 
After the phone call, I got a call from the Padre (the vicar of the prison).  He was kind enough.  And he cheered me up in his own, rather jolly, military way. 
But the fact remains.  Mike's in prison for refusing to kill.  What does that say about all of us in this country?  What does it say about the human race?  What does it say about the future?

This is one of the greatest anti-war films ever made. 

Thoughts on Festivals...

Having just got back from Camp Bestival, I'm in the post-festie chillout state of mind.

And one of the things I thought about while I was there was this:  Human beings have been gathering for feasting, music, entertainment and revelation for thousands of years.  In fact, it may well be one of the things that glues our social behaviour together and so it is actually - an essential activity!!!

Camp Bestival is a family festie with plenty of kids' stuff including craft tents, baby chillout, woodland playpark and soft play.  The adults get to see great bands, listen to performance poets and eat wonderful food.  The children get to ride on the carousel.  There's even a skate park rigged up for older children, complete with amazing BMX and skateboarders putting on a show a couple of times a day.

All good.  Certainly better than Glastonbury which has become too money-grabbing, too hard-edged and too uncomfortable for all but the most dedicated binge drinker.

And however much I enjoy Camp Bestival, despite the hills (pushing a pushchair up and down them is mind-numbingly hard work), desptite the pricey, overblown, in-your-face commercialsim - I might never go again.

 Why?  Because, like Glastonbury and I suspect most other music, arts and entertainment festivals there's a vacant hole in the middle of it.  I couldn't put my finger on what it was to begin with.  And then it came to me.

The soul is missing.

For example; at Bestival, the healing field was right next to the loudspeakers blasting out hardcore skater music.  Brilliant for the skate park.  Rubbish when you're having a chilled out massage.  And there was no - field of reflection.  No quiet place.  No wishing tree.  Don't get me wrong - there was plenty of wonderful, amazing stuff.  Dingly Dell was the closest you got to peace but.... it was about having more fun.  A good thing.  But soulful things can be fun too.

Thoughts like that made me realise that Glasto went downhill the year the Krishna's left.  In the old days they'd set up a huge marquee giving out free food (dahl and chapatis - delicious) and chanting their wonderful harmonies.  It was a great place to relax, eat and be still. Meditate. Reflect.

Now, I'm not a Hindu.  But it doesn't matter.  Because what the Krishna's gave us was the most important element of a human festival gathering.

Soulfulness.

Our ancestors knew this.  Stonehenge heralded the rising of the sun on midsummer morning.  Almost certainly the centre of some kind of sun worshipping pagan cult -  the gatherings would be about music, dancing, poetry (I expect), storytelling, meeting, flirting and all the other things we get today.  But it included a place for the soul to be nurtured too. 

Without that, the whole atmosphere seems - unfinished.  Okay, I can see that the people selling food on the site didn't want anyone giving out free food.  But why not?  People still bought food from the stalls.  And free music?  Sacred music is different.  It's great to see Primal Scream or anyone else whose music you love - but spritual chants, songs, mantras and hymns tap into something else.

Something that needs filling.

Because nothing else fills up that particular human space in the heart. 

Do you neglect or nurture your soul?  I'm not talking about religion here.  Just the human capacity for transcendence.  Compassion.  Acceptance.  Courage.  Clarity.

Doesn't matter if it's nuns signing Gregorian chants, Hare Krishnas, Buddhist mantras, Christian singing or any other form of spiritual expression... it just should be there for the whole thing to have meaning beyond consuming products and whirling children about.

It can be a part of entertainment.  It can be a part of music and festivals and revelry.  It can sing and dance and give you a plate of dahl and bread just because it wants to.  Without soulful living, as our ancestors were well aware, we're nothing but a bunch of howling monkeys.  Which is fine.  But it won't fix the world.





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Writing an eBook for Spiritual Healing...

Everything in life is always a work-in-progress.  Nothing is ever finished.  In his book, Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore (psychotherapist, ex-catholic monk), describes this work - talks about how we ignore important signs.  Signs telling us that the only work that matters always comes from the inside out...

For example:

You have a glorious wedding day -  and then there's the ongoing work of a marriage. Do you negotiate problems well -  together?  How can you overcome snoring, moods, dirty laundry etc. without going mad?  Is it abusive or nuturing?  In the end, however much you belive in marriage - a loving partnership cannot always survive the storms of life.

The miracle of birth?  A baby is an adult for most of his life - so there's the ongoing work of a familial relationship. The subtle dynamics of family life shift and change - a kaleidoscope of colours.

A career?  You qualify, you get the dream job and then... there's the ongoing work of the reality of your choice.  Does is enhance your life?  Does it damage it?  Is the dream more of a nightmare? Are you nurtured or trapped?  Appreciated or used?

You find a lost child, a grown woman and yet still a precious child.  Where's the road map for that journey? Work-in-progress.

Your son goes to prison because of his conscientious objection to the war in Afghan.  You rage against a world that is still stupid enough collectively to believe that blood means peace.  You miss him every day.  You worry for his health.  You fear for the future of the human race.  Overcoming anger and fear - work-in-progress...

Someone once said (I forget who) "...the first step to wisdom is to call things by their proper name...".  Where do you start with that?  When a builder builds a house she names the materials.  Timber frame.  Concrete foundation.  Door.  Window.

When I approach my life it's from the inside out - there's no other way - we all do it whether we're aware of it or not.  I have to name my emotions.  Fear, squeamishness, irritation, joy, love, confusion and so on.  Then I have to name the places where they come from.  Then I have to name their destination.  And the destination is always the same.  Gone, gone, gone.  Everything passes.  Everything changes.  Everything becomes something else. A dark  mood, a war, a beloved grandmother.  Anxiety becomes serenity.  War becomes peace.  Grief becomes a knowing acceptance.

So, this brings me to the ebook I'm writing about spiritual healing.  Because let's face it, as a wise recovering junkie once told me - "...get the spiritual part right first.  Because if the spiritual stuff (deep stuff - I'm not talking about religion here - just a soulful approach to life) is right, everything else follows..."


Creative writing prompts are jumping off points.  I'm working on a book that is full of these jumping off points.  Combined with the art of meditative freewriting - a playful, exploration of your deepest world is the only work you really need to do.  The rest will follow.


Anyway, if anyone out there has an idea for a good creative writing prompt - a word or phrase which can act as a door or a window into the real world - the world of the human soul - please let me know!!!

Peace, writing and love, Jill

How to Write a Healing Journal to Recover from an Emotionally Abusive Relationship

A few of you have asked me questions about keeping a healing journal. But what is a healing journal? It's a place where you write freely and openly about your emotions linked to the experiences you've had. And it's important to note that you'll never write anything you are not ready to handle.

It doesn't have to be a daily habit – you just write when you can. But try to make time about twice a week to come to your journal and be with your feelings.

Healing writing has a long history. In ancient Egypt a sick person would write sacred words on papyrus. They'd then soak it in water – and drink the lot!! There is no need however, for you to eat your healing journal when you've finished it. Some people find it cathartic to burn their words when they've written them out. Just feel free to do what you want when you've finished a journal – knowing that each one is a step on the road to your recovery.

Journalling is a great way to heal from an emotionally abusive relationship. The person who has done the most research into the phenomenon of healing writing is Pennebaker. He found that healing writing works best if it includes real events, emotions and thoughts about the emotions you've written about.

Here are four ways to dive into your healing journal:

1. Use a prompt. This can be a sentence or a phrase. Something like: 'The worst day I remember was when...'
2. Ground your writing by focusing on a single event that took place in a real time and place.
3. Use creative writing techniques to bring the emotional reality to life. This might include writing from the senses i.e. smell, touch, taste, hearing and seeing. Another good creative writing technique is to include dialogue. Remember, it's not important to write exactly what was said. You don't have to recall every word. Just imagine yourself in that scene and write truthful dialogue using the kind of language that each person used.

This gets easier the more you do it. Especially if you use free-writing and don't plan out what you're going to say beforehand. This kind of writing is becoming more popular. There are loads of different names for it now: poetic medicine, creative journalling, scriptotherapy, narrative psychology etc.

Pennebaker also found that those who responded really well to healing writing had to deal with some pretty hard emotions to begin with. A bit like clearing out the negative to make room for the positive. But don't give up. In the long-run, if you stick with it, healing writing can improve your physical as well as emotional health. Many of the participants in Pennebaker's studies had significantly higher killer white blood cells at the end of the study. In other words, writing boosted their immune systems.

By writing fast and with an open heart, you'll allow yourself to be both vulnerable and courageous on the page. This takes a bit of getting used to, but it works. Writing out painful memories as if they scenes in a film, scribbling dialogue and your internal thoughts is incredibly powerful. It's both a validation and a release.

An emotionally abusive relationship can leave you suffering from a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. This means you'll be dealing with flashbacks and difficult memories about the past. But healing writing can ground all this stuff for you – often in ways we don't understand.

You don't have to write for a long time. Five minutes is a good way to start. Set an alarm or timer and perhaps build up to fifteen minutes of continuous 'flowing' or free-writing after a while. There's no right or wrong way to do this. Even if you begin by writing the same words over and over, finally you'll get to the place where you can say what needs to be said, what needs to be heard. By You. You don't have to share it with anyone. It's as though once you write it down, it's easier to let it go.

What kind of thing should you write about? Well, using prompts is a good way to take you straight into the heart of things. Are you anxious about your children? Write it out. Are you fearful or angry? Why? What was the trigger. Explore on the page. Dig deep and discover what is really going on in your head and your heart.

Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Make it real and personal. This way you'll be able to use your journal as a notebook of personal development. Change will happen on the page. You don't have to be a writer or a poet to write what you need to understand. Over the years you'll find that healing writing is a wonderful healthy activity. You might even grow to love it! 

Love, writing and peace.

www.wolfinyourbed.com

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Twitter Guide for Authors - 3rd Edition - The Savvy Book Marketer Guides

Twitter Guide for Authors - 3rd Edition - The Savvy Book Marketer Guides

At last!! Some real advice for those writers who love their computer and want to
explore all corners of the known internet world.
I've only been on twitter once and it scared me.
I know, I'm easily spooked.
Now I've ordered this book, and I'll let you know if it's useful.
I'll go through it and do what it says and if it changes the way I access social media, or opens anything out
or makes me get excited about the hithertofore esoteric world of tweeting -
I'll recommend it.
Oh, and by the way - public doman stuff is fools' gold.  I got so excited about
it in one of my earlier posts - but I've come rushing back from that
experiment to say - leave it well alone.
Writers should just write their own stuff. Sigh.  You'd think I'd already know this.
But anyway here's the thing I've discovered recently.
You know that old creative writing teachers mantra: Write what you know?
It's rubbish.  Instead -
write what you love.  Write what excites you - and write feverishly, with passion and
without boundaries - in first draft at least.  Why not?  Let me know if you agree with this.  Leave a comment somewhere in cyberspace. 
Jill