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April 12, 2008
WriteSuccess Dedicated to the Success of Aspiring, Stalled and
Struggling Writers ISSN 1543-8090
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IN THIS ISSUE…
- From My Desk
to Yours: Work Around Your Writing Blocks
- Article: The Best Time to Begin by Steve Goodier
- From the E-mail
Box
- Setting Your Sites: Useful Sites for Writers
- Article: The Reluctant Writer by Pamela White
- WriteSuccess
Stories
- Calls for Writers
- E-zine Ad Swaps
--- This issue of WriteSuccess is sponsored by...
WAR
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fee, payable to Winning Writers. Postmark deadline: May 31. Judge: Jendi Reiter. Include cover sheet with contact information.
No name on poems. Submit online or mail to Winning Writers, Attn: War Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant Street, PMB 222, Northampton,
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WRITESUCCESS QUOTE
"We are
all cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff
out." --Ray Bradbury
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FROM MY DESK TO YOURS: Work Around Your Writing Block
Hello:
My house becomes very cluttered during the winter months. Try as I might, I can never keep up with
it, and it eventually consumes me. I have reached this point for the third April in a row.
One reason this
occurs is that my partner John is home from mid-November to mid-April, bringing with him the piles of paperwork, catalogs
and files related to his summer seasonal business, not to mention his laundry, Sudoku books, magazines and what have you.
He is comfortable amongst his stacks, a comfort level I share up to a point, until the scale tips and I feel smothered by
his stuff. Oh yes, we have discussed this disparity in comfort levels. We simply haven’t reached an agreement on exactly
how to deal with it.
Other contributing factors to my winter clutter accumulation include the shorter hours
of daylight (like many people, my energy level goes down with the sun), the hubbub of the holidays along with the acquisition
of even more stuff, and the reality that I juggle my full-time day job with my desires to build up my freelance writing career,
publish WriteSuccess, and make time for creative hobbies I enjoy. John is not solely responsible for the clutter, not by a
long shot.
Finally, there’s the simple fact that I loathe housework.
Needless to
say, this clutter zaps my energy and smothers my creativity. I am, as I’m sure many of you will identify with, incredibly
sensitive to my physical environment. I love light and cleanliness and color and a comfortable, but not rigid, sense of order.
Until I have the time, energy and opportunity to restore some of that order in my house—which seriously
won’t happen until John brings his business baggage back up north for the next seven months--I have a choice to either
allow the clutter to be an excuse for not writing, or find a workaround. I’ve chosen the latter. I’ve moved a
number of my writing projects and WriteSuccess files to my the laptop I use for my day job, and do my writing during breaks
or before and after work hours from my more-organized (not to mention clean) day job office. I also do some of my market research
from here, and have been working on the Web site that will be cyber home to my future writing business.
If
you haven’t been writing, try looking at what excuses or reasons you have either consciously or subconsciously been
using to keep you from it. Whether it be a cluttered home, a packed schedule, a lack of ideas or a lack of energy, consider
your own possible workaround. I guarantee that once you find a way around what’s blocking you, your creativity and energy
will soar.
Here’s to your writing success.
Mary Anne
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***
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***
ARTICLE: The Best Time to Begin
By Steve
Goodier
Philosopher and economist Friedrich Engels said, "An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."
Perhaps it is easier to talk about what to do than to do it.
U.S. District court judge Woodrow Seal was active
in a philanthropic organization known as The Society of St. Stephen. It is an internationally recognized organization
with the sole purpose of helping people in need.
One day a church invited Mr. Seal to speak to their congregation
and explain to them how they might begin a Society of St. Stephen. The plan was for the him to speak on the various programs
of the society, then follow up with a time for discussion. The people took their seat and the minister introduced the
featured speaker. The judge helped himself to cookies and poured a cup of coffee. When the introduction was completed, Judge
Seal walked over to the piano, put his coffee cup on top of it, and began to fumble in his coat pockets. Finally, he pulled
out a wrinkled piece of paper and from it read the name of a mother and her four children, including their ages and clothing
sizes. He noted several other unmet needs of the family and mentioned that their address was on the paper which he carefully
laid on top of the piano. The judge then said, "If you want to start a Society of St. Stephen, then you should contact
this woman by 11:30 tomorrow morning. If you are not able to help her, don't worry, I'll be in contact with her tomorrow
and I'll get her help by mid-afternoon."
With that, the judge turned to leave. "Now, forgive me,"
he said, "but I really must be going. Thank you for inviting me and for the coffee and the cookies." Before anyone
could respond he walked out the door. It all took less than five minutes.
Here was a group of people who thought
they were going to spend an hour listening to a program on how to help others in need, and maybe discuss its merits for a
while. Instead they spent an hour deciding how to help one family - and the next day they did it.
Judge Seal wasn't
content to sit around helplessly waiting for people to make a decision. The problem for most of us is not lack of knowledge
but lack of action. When all is said and done...more will have been said than done. But like the Chinese proverb teaches,
"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now."
What are you trying
to plant? The second best time to do it is now.
---
Purchase Steve Goodier's books and sign
up for his free inspirational newsletter at: http://LifeSupportSystem.com.
***
FROM
THE EMAIL BOX "I have an unshakeable belief that
each of us has not only the
potential to live a rewarding and purposeful life but also the
responsibility to do
so." -- Bill Strickland
Hi Mary Anne,
Great issue. I'm gonna buy Strickland's book. But there's something
about that above quote that bothers me, and I think it's relevant to writers. "Responsible" can mean "the ability to act independently and make decisions," or it can mean
"liable to be called to account." I think Strickland uses it in the second way, and I think that precludes acting
in the first way. It implies that we "should" act responsibly, that it's not our choice, but our obligation.
And obligation can get in the way of acting independently and making authentic decisions. To act independently and make good decisions, it helps to be able to freely choose our decisions and actions - without
being called to account by others. To live a "rewarding
and purposeful life", I believe we do best when we have the freedom to make our own choices about what kind of life we
want to live. If we want to lie on the beach and drink rum, we're free to do that. If we want to ruin the planet, we're
free to do that. If we want to disappoint our parents and become "writers", we're free to do so. Many of the writer's I coach struggle with the inner dilemma of being true
to themselves vs. living up to other's expectations of them; between freedom and obligation. I think one of the greatest blocks to creating anything is the notion that we "should" do it, or that we
"have to" do it. Or "ought", "must" or "need to" do it. And not just because it takes
away independent choice and action. It also makes us feel like crap! "Shoulding on yourself," as the late Albert Ellis (founder of RET -- Rational Emotive Therapy and Rational
Emotive Thinking, a founder of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Thinking) said, is the basis of the three "nutty beliefs"
that caused most of the emotional dysfunction he saw in his nearly 70 years in practice. The beliefs that:
• I should do well,
• You should treat me well, and
• The world should
be easy
and combinations thereof put people into conflict with reality whenever they don't do well, people don't
treat them well, and the world is not easy. Let's put this
in the context of writing. If an aspiring writer believes that
she should do well, that people (such as agents, editors and reviewers) should treat her well, and that writing should be
easy, she's likely to be for a world of disappointment and hurt. Keep it up, and it'll lead to feelings of helplessness,
hopelessness, and despair. Ugh! When people experience emotional
conflict of this sort, they usually forego independent choices and actions, in favor of reacting to emotional conflict. They
divert their focus from creating what truly matters to them to get rid of (or relief from) the "feeling" of conflict
that they create via their nutty beliefs. Seeking relief is the source of much of the post-modern world's dependence on
consuming "stuff", and substances! When we react,
the power is not in our own hands, it is in the circumstances - often in the sense of obligation we should or have to do what
others think we should do. "I so want to be a writer, but my parents want me to be a lawyer, and I don't want to
disappoint them." Sound familiar? If you want to get unstuck emotionally, and get the power back into our own hands, I recommend psychologist Karen
Horney's advice, "Cherchez les shoulds!" ("Cherchez les" is French for "find the.") To get over dysfunctional emotions - feelings of stuck, stalled, and struggle,
or worse! - find those shoulds and turn them into true desires and authentic choices. Instead of "I should do this",
think/say, "I really want to do this; I choose to it." This
brings me back to Brickland's quote and the notion that we're responsible (or somehow obligated, and will be called
to account) to live a rewarding and purposeful life. This is a kind of "should" and adopting it can lead to its
opposite occurring. It can lead to emotional conflict and wasting our life trying to get relief from that (mostly) self-created
conflict. I'm in danger of rambling on, so I suggest we
take Brickland's quote, and change it slightly. Just change "responsibility" to "choice." Try it.
Say it to yourself both ways, and see which makes you feel more empowered to make your own decisions and act independently. And if you want to be responsible in the other way, to be accountable to God, the
Universe, the Earth, other people, your parents, then chose to do so. It'll have a lot more power than shoulding on yourself. Cheers!
Bruce Elkin
Life/Work Renewal Coach & Consultant
Fr.ee
e-Newsletter at
http://www.bruceelkin.com/newsletter.html ---
Do you have feedback regarding this newsletter? Any requests
for topics or resources you'd like me to include? Please feel free to drop me a line (or several!) at MaryAnneHahn1@aol.com
***
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Name your phobias, look up words that mean their opposites, and laugh at absurd quotes.http://thinks.com/words *** Encyclopedia Mythica The award-winning internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Here you will find everything from
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