Tag Archives: how to be a better writer

The final countdown

I must say that part of me is relieved and another part of me is concerned.  Starting with this post, I have only five posts left to complete my commitment of doing a post a day for a year.  I challenge anyone to do this exercise.  Your creative writing skills will improve dramatically and you will be surprised with what you can pull out of your ass at the last-minute.

This blog has been such a part of my journey for the year.  It is kind of like a journal but it is aimed at others to more of a degree.  This is the first venture that I’ve done where I didn’t have the illusion of making millions.  My only intention was to just do it for the sake of doing it.

I will be going into more detail about this process in post 365.  In the meantime, here are two pictures that I created 13 years ago.  I called them ‘beginnings’ and ‘endings’.

I’m happy to share it with you…

 


Blocked

Again I find myself sitting here staring down the barrel of a blank page with no inspiration to write anything.  ”It has to be real and from the heart” my brain echos to itself.  I’ve looked up “blog topics” on the internet and have two articles in the draft folder that I currently think are shit.  What to do?

I’m taking my own advice.  Just start writing.  Don’t wait for some magic moment.  GO!!!!  So here I am writing about not being able to write.  I have always believed these posts to be some of the best because they are honest.  Not that my other posts are not but, there is something very honest about admitting that I get stuck and stumble.  We’re human after all.  What a strange sentiment; “I’m only human and I make mistakes”.  It’s like we have this built-in mechanism that establishes our rank to a God of perfection.  I wonder if animals every say “I’m only animal and I fling feces at others”?  What an interesting experience we humans are in.  Between Gods and Beasts.

What was I saying?  Oh yeah… I don’t have anything to write about.

Maybe it’s the pressure of the final stretch.  I’m just shy of 300 posts for my post a day for a year challenge and I’m starting to think in terms of quantity.  That’s a bad move because it shuts down my creativity and establishes my mental accountant.  Bean counters shouldn’t run the creative department.  I admit that I thought “oh, only 69 posts left til 365.  If I do 7 posts a day for the next 10 days and program them, I will be finished.”  How lame is that?  Definitely NOT inspiring.  That’s a production line.

I do believe that when it comes to creativity we have the ability to shut ourselves down.  ”I’m not a creative person”, “I can’t write”, “I’m going to get it over with by treating my creativity like a production line” are phrases that I have heard and the last one is what I thought.  After reading this, I’m reminded that this is us being creative.  By saying “I’m not creative” we are using our creativity to create and enforce that circumstance in our life.

I entitled this post “blocked” because that is how I felt today.  Then I remembered my rule…

Just write.  Just paint.  Just start.

… because the walls are not real.  They are perceived.


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