I’m Stuck! What Do I Do?
It’s normal to get stuck in life from time to time. It’s excruciatingly painful to stay there, though.Here is what you can do to get unstuck.First of all, it’s important to not make “being stuck” any worse than it is through over-reacting.How do you do that?By realizing that “being stuck” is nothing other than an overly emotional reaction that has caused you to get stuck in your left, logical, critical, judgmental brain, which doesn’t have the capacity to deal with emotional issues. As a result, all it knows how to do is to freeze up, which is what “being stuck” is all about.Ugh.Secondly, it is important to realize that you can get completely unstuck in as little as one 45-minute writing session.Try a Circle Drawing to move through a writing session to get yourself unstuck. Here’s how:Set aside a convenient time to totally accept whatever direction your writing takes you.Make [...]
Summer Is For…
I can tell you how to really kick some creative butt this summer, hunker down, and write that book, but it wouldn’t do much good. So I’m not going to even try to lay down that law. Instead, I’m going to suggest that unless you have an already written book being readied for publication and release, you just accept summer for what it is … a time to chill out, connect with family, take a vacation, and catch a nap or two in the hammock. I am not going to tell you to forget your writing, though. That would be a waste of time, for doing so would be like telling you to forget that you are a creative being, which would be truly ridiculous. I am going to suggest how to use your summer constructively to best prepare for ending the year on a strong writing note. Consider these…. Plan [...]
Why Every Author Needs to be On Goodreads
If you’re not on Goodreads, you need to be. Goodreads is a social network specifically for authors and readers. It is one of the most visited websites in the world. Goodreads helps people find the next book they want to read. Think of it like Pandora Radio or Spotify, but for books instead of music. It is considered to be a “Facebook” for authors and readers.Since Goodreads has more than 20 million members, it is a great place to market your book.For writers who are published, I encourage you to set up an Author’s Page. It is the first step to connecting you with your readers on this site. You should also list your book on LISTOPIA, a section of Goodreads that has a list for every kind of book imaginable.Goodreads also has a great book-advertising program that allows you to target people who have highly rated specific authors. Are your books similar to those of a popular author? You can target their fans with an ad for your book.And [...]
EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
Guest Blog by Kristina AshleyI was nervous. I write all the time, but this would be a new level for me. I walked into the classroom for the free Write in the Divine Author Within State that Tom Bird offers where I live in Sedona, Arizona. In one way it felt like coming home. I would be sitting among other hopeful writers and we would all be there opening ourselves to a place within where words flow like an unbridled river. That felt exciting to me. In another way, though, I felt there was a possibility I could fail.What if I couldn’t get in “the state?”What if I just wrote a bunch of mind play?I chose a seat near the front so I could see and hear Tom clearly, in hopes of avoiding any potential failure.Tom sat down in a very easy-going way and told the class his personal story. [...]
Is it time to give up?
The first writing class I ever taught was a fifteen-week class at The University of Pittsburgh. I was nervous at the final session, as a result of not knowing how the students thought I had done. The authors I had been given the opportunity to work with for the last four months lined up at the end of the final session to offer their goodbyes. Since their course had been collectively 45 hours in length spread over 15 consecutive weeks, we had gotten to know each other quite well. As a result, each author shared a considerable amount with me about his/her experience on the way out. All was going well until the fifth person in line stepped forward to say his good-bye. He was a middle-aged man. From what he had expressed to me, he wanted to write a book more than anyone else in the class. He had performed marvelously [...]
5 Steps to Writing Your Book
Guest Blog by David Thalberg of BrandStandBooksIf only the writing a novel was as simple as wearing your lucky sweater, sitting down in your favorite chair, with your trusty pen, laptop or Smith-Corona, and then getting to it. It’s become trite to answer the question: “So what are you up to these days?” with the answer: “Oh, I’m working on a book.” I live on the West Coast – you know how many people I run into who answer that question with: “Oh, I have a screenplay in development?”It’s easy enough to give that answer. The hard part is actually sitting down and writing that damn book. Over the past few days, I’ve asked some author friends what it took for them to get over the hump and write their FIRST book. One of my friends made a really good point when I asked her this. She said that it’s [...]