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How to Write Ideas that Lift Themselves Off the Page — Every Time!

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 24 Comments

Even the Humblest Star Still Shines

Shine!

A writer makes meaning by giving thoughts structure and expression. Whether we write to inform, entertain, or inspire, we hope our message will leave the page or the screen to be received in a reader’s mind. It’s no easy thing to connect simple words in ways that have life and meaning. It can seem that we’re at the mercy of an unfriendly muse who is stingy with ideas and generous writer’s block. That’s just not so.

Writing isn’t the luck of ideas. It’s work. It’s also knowing how to access ideas.

A photographer knows that the best light will offer the opportunity to shoot the fabulous picture. A composer knows that the right sort of silence will allow him or her to hear music no one’s heard before. In the same way, writers know that making room to think makes masterful writing is easier.

We write best when we have room to think long, deep thoughts.

Self conscious and selfish ideas need small spaces to thrive. Stressed and cranky tones and sloppy logical fall away when we give ourselves room to think. Our minds can’t hold fear and think long and deep and wide at the same time.

Thinking long thoughts is like deep breathing or stretching with a yawn. In a writerly way, it’s a shot of oxygen to our creativity.

Put on music on to write or sit with the sounds outside your window. In some way give myself room to listen. Wait for the words and ideas to fill the space where you are.

Listen for a rhythm. Thoughts will start occuring. Listen until they do. When they do, the words come on their own. Those words will sneak past your internal editor.

Think those long, deep, and wide thoughts. Then write with abandon. Now that you can see what you’re thinking, take away all of the words your readers don’t need. You’ll know when you feel the ideas lifting themselves up — they’re the ideas that you want to read over again because they say something right and well.

Notes lifting off the page from sxc.hu


Whether you’re writing a blog post, a business plan, or love letter to your worst critic, if you want your words resonate — to lift themselves off the page — give yourself the space and oxygen.

Do you think that time and space when you write make a difference in how your writing is received?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

image: sxc.hu

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Conversation as a Cure for Writer’s Block

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Talker’s Block? I Don’t Think So

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Imagine this. We’re friends, sitting on my balcony, enjoying the sunsetsailboats on the horizon across Lake Michigan. (It might take a minute to get the image, especially since the aforementioned balcony doesn’t exist.) We’re drinking our favorite beverage and discussing what’s new, what’s news, and what’s interesting recent history.

You’re speaking about how you see the world. I hear a thought you share, and it prompts one of my own. You listen and elaborate on what you meant. I sip my wine and then I say,

“Um, I have nothing to say. I’m suffering talker’s block.”

I don’t think so.

Conversation as a Cure for Writer’s Block

Ever heard anyone say that they have talker’s block? Sure everyone has moments when we have nothing to say or no comeback, but do we get brainlessly blank when we’re talking to our friends? Do we sit around watching the Superbowl, listening to a debate, or seeing someone Twitter on a new iPhone . . . then find ourselves without word one? No, of course not.

Conversation is a participation sport that has only one team. In a conversation, people share ideas in a relational, flexible way. Whether they’re “Oh yeah, I know what you mean!” discussions or “You’re totally missing the point!” debates, conversations work the same. Conversations have three key elements in common that work in this way.

  1. We put an idea or observation out there. That thought might come with some explanation, but it’s not a one-way communication. The trading nature of conversation limits how detailed and supported an idea can be.

  2. Someone responds. Folks interrupt with emotion, add information, or completely disagree. Whatever the response, it changes the substance and direction of the original thought. An additional point of view always does.

  3. We reply to the response. No matter our intent when we first spoke, the the response calls for an answer of its own.

That third point is the key. Conversation is organic and goes where the thoughts lead us. It’s the thoughts that count. It’s the meaning making that moves the conversation forward . . . or not. In most conversational journeys, someone starts the engine, but everyone owns some part of where the conversation goes. (A solo journey doesn’t mean no conversation at all. Ever think about what you would say to a friend, when he or she wasn’t there?)

When we add to a conversation, we draw from what we know, what we’ve experienced, what we imagine, and what we wonder about. We do that in response to thoughts that other folks have shared.

Here’s the bit not to miss . . . we draw from the same places — what we know, what we’ve experienced, what we imagine, and what we wonder about — when we start a conversation.

When we’re conversing with friends . . . we don’t edit our thoughts or tie them up like a presentation. We put the focus on who we’re talking to and what they’re saying, not on how they’ll be looking at us. We trust our friends to hear what we’re saying or ask when they can’t. We make room for feedback, so that we know. We respect their thoughts.

Want to how to cure writer’s block?

I just told you.

If you’re feeling blank, draw from what you know, what you’ve experienced, what you imagine, and what you wonder about. Put an idea or observation out there. Focus on who you’re talking to and leave room for feedback. In print or on the Internet, write a conversation.

I started the engine. Here’s the keys. Your turn to drive.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to get rid of your writer’s block forever? I’ll show you how.

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Are You a Writer? 7 Traits that Writers Have in Common

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 156 Comments

Bloggers and Writers

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Lately I’ve noticed a number of bloggers who draw a line between themselves and the word writer. I already knew a number of writers who do that as well. That word writer seems to be one that can take years to claim.

When I investigate why this is so, the answers are intangible. The idea, writer, seems to fall into a category with ideas like success. Every person is struggling to find a meaning that makes sense. It’s not about money. It’s not about volume of work. It’s about meeting a self-defined goal of becoming a writer.

Becoming a writer — that resonates with every writer I know.

People ask me how I knew I was, how I know I am, a writer.

Let’s talk about writers I know.

Are You a Writer? 7 Traits that Writers Have in Common

Naturally, if the idea of a writer is self-defined, I can’t tell you when you will feel that you can call yourself a writer. However, I can tell you a few things about writers that seem to be true about writers — from every first grader I taught to every great writer I’ve ever researched.

  1. A writer is a paradox of ego and self-doubt. We need both to keep on task and to keep in control. Knowing oneself is the only way to invest in the work and still be able to let go when it’s time to stand back and revise it.

  2. Writers often start out feeling like an imposter. The message we’re told is that the writing is strong and compelling, or well on its way, but we think the messenger could be mistaken.

  3. Writers get lost if they compare themselves and their work to other writers. The same is true if they write for approval.

  4. Even the most inexperienced writer knows when the writing is wonderful. The problem is that we have to learn how to tell when the writing is not good and how to have the courage to fix it.

  5. Writer’s block is fear, or exhaustion, or both. It can be managed if we know its source.

  6. Every writer is in a self-actualizing process. Writing is an apprenticeship. A writer is always becoming a writer.

  7. Nothing in life can prepare you to be a writer, except everything in your life.

I would say the best advice is to paraphrase Troy Worman. “Don’t wait for permission to be a writer.”

Every day I write, I learn something about myself and other people.

How do I know I’m a writer?

Try as I might to avoid it, I simply must write.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
The Problem with Writing . . . 25 Things to Know BEFORE You Write for a Living
Love at First Write: 5 +1 Steps to Your Authentic Writing Voice
Why Dave Barry and Liz Don’t Get Writer’s Block

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Writer’s Block: Unblanking the Blank Screen

Filed Under Successful Blog, Writing | 32 Comments

Why the Blank Screen Is Scary

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Ah, the blank screen.

The blank screen. It’s an invitation to look foolish, to be boring, to write something that we’ll regret. Some of us can use the blank screen to scare the proverbial pants off ourselves imagining how badly we might screw things up.

The blank screen reminds us that our thoughts will be there for the world to see.

A famous Guindon Cartoon said it better.

Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.

Fear of a blank screen, writer’s block, really is — a subtle fear of exposure — fear that people will see things in our thoughts.

Combine that fear with the idea of marring a pure and perfect white screen, and a writer can get totally ‘whelmed. (Who needs to be overwhelmed? Feeling ‘whelmed is quite big enough for me, thank you.)

It helps to know what we’re up against.

Unblanking the Blank Screen

The key to unblanking the scary blank screen is getting something on it we want to say. Some writers can type until they know what that is. I’m not one of them.

I find freewriting visually stressful. When I do that, all I see is a blank screen getting messier and messier. All I feel is me getting more and more distracted by the problem that I don’t know what I want to write.

What I do instead is look away from the menace of the vast white space. I get up and hunt down one sentence — only one — one sentence that says something I want to say. I use questions like these to help me.

  1. What something have I learned or learned about lately?
  2. What news have I heard that I’d enjoy adding my point of view to?
  3. What have I read that I might want to recommend?
  4. What pithy comment was left on my blog this week? How might I respond?
  5. What pattern, behavior, trend have I noticed?
  6. What question do I have that I want answered?
  7. What skill or a technique might I teach?
  8. What argument might I give the pro/con to?
  9. What lesson have I learned this week? What funny story can I share?
  10. What pet peeve or problem have I got a solution to?

The possible questions are unlimited, of course. I start with these, and look through books, cabinets and drawers, and the refrigerator while I’m thinking. The moving around and looking helps my brain unfreeze.

It’s not long before a sentence warms up to me.

I go back to my computer, and I write that sentence across the screen.

The screen is not blank anymore. I’m no longer distracted by its emptiness.

Now I can get to writing.

That sentence? It often becomes my headline. When it’s not, it’s usually my last line. Can you tell which one it is this time?

What questions would you ask to help folks unblank the blank screen?

UPDATE: IF you don’t read Joe’s post Liz Had My Idea Before Me, you’ll be missing a clever and entertaining blogger’s post.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help with a problem you’re having with your writing, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Why Dave Barry and Liz Don’t Get Writer’s Block
Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet
10 Ways to Start a Blog Post — 01-29-07

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Working in the Wrong Order OR How to Stop Building a Writer’s Block

Filed Under Productivity, Successful Blog, Writing | 17 Comments

Melissa’s Story

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Her name is Melissa. Her resume came in a stack of 150 resumes. She was my only interview. She had it on paper — an top-notch education in Instructional Design — and proved it in person — intelligence, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn. Melissa was a perfect match for the entry-level editor’s job I had to offer. She lived up to it ever day and became a dynamite writer and editor.

While Melissa was training, she and I would meet weekly. When we got to month three, she came in with a problem. “I just can’t get my writing done.” she said. “I get myself and my workspace ready, and then I’m stuck with nothing.”

I asked her to tell me about her day.

Her description wasn’t surprising.

Melissa was working in the wrong order.

Very often without realizing, we send the muse packing. We build our own writer’s block instead — simply by how we order our day.

After a short conversation, Melissa solved her problem. She made one change and never had an issue with getting stuck again.

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