Tag Archives: inspiration for writers

A guest post by JJ Bennett.

When I was asked to talk about growing as a writer, one thing for me stood out. Every time I pushed myself, I succeeded. So, how on earth do you push yourself when you’re just starting out? Good question. Stop treating yourself like a hobbyist and treat yourself like a professional.

It’s so easy to relax in your comfortable zone as a writer. You write when you can, dabble in blogging, have that one book collecting dust on your shelf, and you call yourself a writer. I’m just as bad as the next person when it comes to procrastination. So, how do you make that jump? It’s fairly simple. Make better choices.

Sounds easy, but it’s not. Let me explain. Professionals have deadlines, meet with other professionals, and work every day in their craft. They don’t let things stand in the way with getting the job done. They work hard and fast.

Let’s get moving in the right direction then. I’d suggest following these guidelines.

1. Attend a professional writing seminar where you’re asked to produce writing.

Yep, other professionals are going to read and critique your work. Get over yourself. You’re a professional. The best way to improve your writing is to get feedback from other professionals. You’ll be surprised by your growth. While you attend, the pressure of having to write to a higher standard will help you grow as a writer. You will be amazed by the work you produce. Only by being cornered to produce, will you grow at a faster rate than otherwise.

2. Your new best friend is having a deadline.

Professional writers have deadlines. Give yourself some. I’m not talking about goals like I want to write 2500 words a day sort of goals. I’m talking hard deadlines where other people are waiting for your work. If you’re trying to finish that “first book” then pay for an editor before you finish the story. It sounds crazy but most editors (at least the good ones) are months out until they can take on a new client. Pay and get on the list. This way you are invested in the task. You’ve made a commitment to both yourself and the editor. You’re making a “blood oath” so to speak that they’ll have your manuscript in hand in “X” amount of days, weeks or months. Professionals only work under deadlines like these. Get some!

3. Make a place to write.

Not everyone has a beautiful oak carved desk with matching built-in shelves in a home office. Sure it would be nice, but most of us live in the real world. This doesn’t mean go kick your kids out of their bedroom just so you can have an office, but it does mean you need to make a space of your own. It could be a small computer desk in the corner of the front room, bedroom, or even in a closet (if you have a large walk in). Find a space that’s yours and yours only. Remember, you’re a professional. Your area is only for you. I have friends who write in trailers, rent office spaces away from home, and make a space somehow. Wherever your space is no matter how big or small, don’t let the kids do homework there. It’s YOUR SPACE! Ultimately, if something goes missing, is lost, or spilled on… it’s all on you. Taking responsibility is part of being a professional.

4. Make yourself a schedule.

Professionals have their life mapped out. They have a planner or calendar of some kind. It could be on their mobile devise, on a computer, on paper–just somehow get organized. If you have a blog, write down the days you need to post. Write down days and goals to meet your deadlines to others as well as yourself and then integrate it into your family schedule. One schedule to rule them all…

5. Live it.

This one is pretty easy to explain but the most difficult to do. You need to set your priorities.

6. Stay Educated in the Business.

Part of being a professional is staying up on trends. What are people in the field of writing talking about? You need to understand your profession and what’s working and what isn’t. If you read, research, and understand the business side of writing, it will only strengthen you and your standing in the industry.

Getting out of your comfort zone is hard. People don’t like it. It causes stress, inadequacy, and it brings your faults to the forefront. Nobody likes that. It’s hard work and it’s so much easier to coast through life at your own pace than to push yourself. Without that push however, you won’t see that growth that you’re looking for.

If you take these steps to move out of your comfort zone you’ll become a better writer, people will take you seriously, and your writing will show all your hard work and dedication you’ve put into your craft. Sure, it’s nice to sit back in your easy chair and coast through life dreaming of becoming something. But, you’ll spend all your life dreaming instead of becoming anything. It’s time to put down the footrest and get up out of your chair. Get out of that comfort zone.

Guest Writer Bio:

J.J. Bennett grew up as a Southern California native and moved to Southern Utah in 1989. She and her husband Matt, reside in St. George with their four kids. Jen is the creator/head of the “Authors’ Think Tank“. A group by writers for writers that supports both traditionally published and independent writers. She has written articles locally for “The Independent” and is currently working on her debut YA novel “The Path.” She enjoys travel, cooking, music, and has a deep desire to become a Bigfoot hunter. Find out more about her at www.jjbennett.com.

Time is Taken, Never Given

September 25, 2013

Nathan Barra

Motivation Nathan Barra The Writing Life 2 Comments

I work insane hours. I will often spend as many as thirty to forty hours at a time on the job. One hundred or more hour weeks are the norm, not the exception. Don’t pity me. I knew what I was getting into when I took this position. In fact when I was recruited for this opportunity, I chose it over four others for the challenge it brought me. My recruiter was honest with me, and to this day, I believe that I went into that choice with my eyes open. I knew that I was committing to a lifestyle, not just a job. Even still, my work leaves me with precious little time for my two life goals.

First, I want to be an amazing father.

Next, I want to be a professional writer.

That’s it. If all that is written on my tombstone is, “He was a damn good father and writer,” well, then it would all have been worth it.

One of the major challenges of my life is making time. I gave up on finding it years ago. I’ve come to realize, that no one will ever make me a good father, or a professional writer. If I’m going to have the time for either of those things, I need to take it. Because of that struggle, what free time I do have is precious. The greatest gift I can give my loved ones is a small piece of the time that I carved out for myself.

There are a thousand things that demand my attention. Sometimes, it is easy to let all the noise of the world overwhelm my two life goals. My job, along with everyone else’s work, exists to further its own existence. We all come to work to make money for the company, and in turn, take some of those earnings back home with us. My job will never make me a professional writer. That’s not what we do. Achieving that ambition will never help the company’s bottom line. Because of this, my work will never give me time to write. If I’m going to have that time, I must seize it.

No one will ever give you time. No matter how much my significant other, my friends or my family love me and want me to succeed, they will never be able to give me the time I need to write. Because they love me, they want to spend time with me. Truth is, I want to spend time with them too. But at some point, I need to write. The very best my loved ones can do is give me space. That gift is a gift of love. What I do with that space is up to me. Do I take a nap? Do I catch up on my reading or those television shows I have been neglecting? Do I stare into the depths of my navel and think about writing?

Or do I work? Do I take that gift of love, that gift of space, and use it to make something?

In the end, one piece of advice that I can pass on from my own struggles is this: seize your dreams. No one will seize them for you. Even if they were so inclined, in so doing, they would be rendered meaningless. It is in the struggle that accomplishment translates into meaning.

Only The Best – A Challenge

September 24, 2013

Frank Morin

Craft & Skills Frank Morin Motivation 2 Comments

This month we’ve had a lot of great posts with tons of concrete advice on how to break through a wall or break out of a plateau where we might be stuck. But what about life in general? Do we ever feel stuck, unmotivated?

Breaking out of those ruts can be harder than overcoming writer’s block. One of the keys is to try to identify what motivates us. What makes us smile or laugh or cry, helps renew our enthusiasm, or drive?

Something that dives deep, strikes a chord, resonates with our deepest held beliefs. Something that inspires hope or love.

The greatest books and movies are those that touch such a chord, that drive us to tears when they connect with our reality. Think Rocky, Gone With The Wind, Titanic, and It’s a Wonderful Life. Think The Help, or Pride and Prejudice.

It might be a romance, like An Affair To Remember, or it might be a heroic drama like The Dirty Dozen (I love the scene in Sleepless in Seattle where the men and women get emotional over these two different films – watch the clip here).

Whatever the story, the truth is someone put together the right sequence to touch your heart deeply. Those kind of stories can inspire us to be better people, help us break out of an unproductive rut, or change our lives at a fundamental level. That’s one of the reasons I love good stories so much, and why I work so hard to write them.

I want to try an experiment. What is one movie or book that touched you in a deep, meaningful way? It’s useless to put together a top 50 best books or best movies of all times because different stories touch different people. It’s too subjective. But each one of us has a personal list.

So what book or movie moved you the most?

It’s all too easy to find works that speak to me. When I read a book or watch a movie, I deep dive. I get sucked in completely. For me it’s a vivid, powerful experience, and so I find myself responding emotionally all the time. Whenever the hero faces the ultimate test and risks all to achieve their goal, I find myself choking up and responding to the stakes that they’re feeling because I feel them too.

In movies, I get sucked in almost too easy. From Wreck-It Ralph to The Avengers to October Sky, I’m fighting tears at the end of all of them. In books, most of my favorite authors trigger a powerful emotional response. From Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson to Hard Magic by Larry Correia to The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

But even so, some works stand out and make a deeper impact. In books, both Enders Game by Orson Scott Card and The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson impacted me greatly with their fantastic twists at the ends. But one of the stories that I found even more powerful was The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Kal, one of the main characters, pushes himself to the utter brink to save others, and that heroism demands a reaction from any reader.

In movies, a couple of my all-time favorites are Star Wars and Avatar. But I was also powerfully moved by The Shawshank Redemption and Remember the Titans.

There are many others, but that’s enough for today. This is not an easy question, but taking the time to find an answer can give you a clue as to what motivates you, what themes or qualities you respond to. In life, perhaps you’ve just identified qualities you want to emulate more every day. In writing, perhaps you’ve just identified what element you need to add to our own work to make it really shine.

Please add your comments, and then share the challenge with friends on Facebook or Google+ or whatever other media you use to connect. See if they’re willing to share an example too.

I think we’ll find some common themes, and a few surprises.

Let’s find out.

Breaking Into The Next Level Of Craft

September 2, 2013

Frank Morin

Craft & Skills Frank Morin The Writing Life Writing Tools No Comments

We all know the journey to becoming a professional writer is a long one. It takes a while to “Break In”, and no two writers ever seem to take the exact same path to get there. New writers are told to keep working, be persistent, and they’ll get there.

It’s like dropping off an inexperienced climber at the base of a challenging mountain and telling them to just start climbing, and eventually they’ll make it to the top.

But there are trails on a mountain, easier paths marked by those who have gone on before. True, but someone who knows next to nothing about mountain climbing can still easily get lost. Same for writers. There is lots of help available, but sometimes we don’t know enough to know what’s missing when we get stuck.

Climbing a mountain is done in stages, and one thing that comes as a shock to some new writers is that becoming a professional writer is similar. We don’t Break In just once. There are levels to craft, plateaus we reach on our journey. Sometimes we get stuck there, unable to Break In to the next level and resume the climb up toward the ultimate goal.

Throughout the month of September, we are going to explore some of these writing plateaus where we’ve been stuck, and ways we’ve found to pass the barrier and Break In to the next level of craft.

Sometimes we need a mentor, a writing group, or an unusually honest loved one to tell us we can do better. When I decided to pick up writing several years ago, I pounded out 70 pages in one weekend and thought, “I’m on my way!” My wife read those initial chapters and said, “I don’t like your protagonist.”

She was right. He didn’t work. First obstacle.

Thankfully the answer to that one was straight-forward. Swallow pride, throw away thousands of words of crap for the first (of many) time, and start again.

Sometimes we need a seminar or a conference or a book on writing to illuminate the shadows and show us a couple steps forward down the path. We might need to arrange our schedule better to find more time to write.

And sometimes we just need to write another hundred thousand words of crap before we get it.

In the end, we all hit multiple plateaus, or ruts that block our forward progress. But we don’t have to stay there.

This month the shared wisdom and experience of the entire group will help map out some possible routes to reach the next plateau.