A Writing Kick Start: Write With Others, Alone

You know how it is when you haven't written for a while?

Sounds of creak creak coming from the creative well and whispers of Can I still do this rising from the doubting monkey mind.

On December 30, I wrote my first poem of 2009. In past years I've written almost daily and now I felt like a deer in headlights: Where to start?

I had to put on my coaching hat and do what I'd suggest others do to get back on the pony: Get on the back of another poem (you can do this for any other genre too.)

Here's how I got back on the Poetry Pony:

• Went to Poetry Daily to get  a poem. Thankfully it was a poem by a poet I love, Frank Bidart.
• Went to my local cafe and sat down with a printed out copy of the poem. I read it and then wrote to it line-by-line with this formula: I inverted every word and phrase of Bidart's poem.
• Wrote to the end and then started to revise.
• Did I feel incompetent and out of shape and frustrated? HELL NO. It felt damn good to sit there communing with poetry. If you were at the Madison Park Starbucks on Dec 30th, and saw a woman sitting by a window with tears in her eyes, well -- that was me.

Most of the time we're writing, it's the process that matters. We can pull in our critical selves when it's time to do the revising and editing and prep a piece for public viewing. Until then, what matters is the doing, discovering, playing. Lock the judge in her bedroom until you're ready for her. But back to kick starting yourself.

Use other writers and poems/paragraphs as scaffolding

Use other writers, their work -- or some of your previous work -- as support, a writing partner or scaffolding.

Write in between the lines of a poem: write your version of each image or phrase; write the opposite, (as I did in the above example); use the lines  simply as company so you don't have white space in front of you.

Or, write your version of the next line of that poem all the way through. When you're done, remove the original poem and see what you have. Even if it feels like it's going to be nonsensical, you'll be surprised.

If you're a prose writer, take a paragraph you love from an essay or novel and do your version of the same.

Even if you're spending time copying the work of a fave writer all you're doing is giving yourself a writing work out and learning from a pro. Consider it skill-building.

The point is usually to Just Write

And if it helps to write with someone else's poem or opening novel paragraph or brilliant essay passage, do it.

You don't have to do it alone, you know.

Have fun!

Because We're All Writers

Are you a writer? Hell yeah!

In today's world where most of us spend our days writing emails and status reports, texts, tweets, blogs, and simply expressing ourselves and our ideas and intentions with colleagues and friends in some form of written communication -- we're all writers. Or what I call everyday writers.

On this note, I'd like to announce that going forward, my coaching is going to focus on helping people with their writing lives.

So, Tatyana Mishel Coaching is now called Everyday Writer: Coaching for People Who Write. People who write = everyone from formalist poets to creative professionals, solopreneurs and anyone who wants to have a more confident or playful or expressive relationship to their daily writing life, whatever that may be (writing poems, status reports, emails, love letters, blogs, business Web sites).

The coaching work  focuses on everything from how to write with more ease and find your voice to personal coaching around creative blocks and time management.

One of my projects, along with coaching packages, is to create a Writing Gym -- a place where people can come together to work their writing muscle in a community and get tips and support and helpful perspectives on expressing themselves in their perfect voice and learning to fly with it. 

This is all new and if you'd like to be a part of it and let me know what you think as it moves along I welcome your thoughts!  I'm in the process of  updating the Web site content to reflect the writing focus.

Here's to all your creative, expressive endeavors -- personal and professional! Because you are creative.

The (Easy) Art of Conversational Writing

Web sites, email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook -- everyone's a writer these days. And it's a good thing. The tricky issue becomes: How do you sound like you when you write?

The growing trend of entrepreneurs means a lot more people are going to have to do writing that really matters. Because Web-based bizzies are built on words rather than brick and mortar. And for any of us moving through the modern world we know it: Words matter.

First things first on the topic of finding your voice:

You already have a voice.

And now you get to learn how to harness that perfect unique voice and put it into your writing.

So we can really call this How to Sound Like Yourself When You Write and Not Sound Like Your Copy Came out of Some  Biz Writing Manufacturing Plant. A few things happen when you start writing in a natural way. The process becomes easier, the flow is more conversational and everyone gets along better. And … you may even (get ready for this)  like it.

Remember, you’re having a conversation

Here at Write Now, we concentrate on crafting profitable and engaging conversations between you, the brilliant creative biz owner and your perfect customers. The more naturally you write, the better the experience for everyone involved.

So, here are some tips for conversational writing.

Rule #1: Write the way you speak

If you find yourself writing sentences you wouldn’t say out loud in a million years, scrap ‘em. If you’re stuck, pretend you’re speaking to your perfect customer. Speak out loud. Write that instead. When you write how you speak you are literally catching your voice. 

 Remember: If you throw your personality out the window when you sit down to write (and you’re going to hear me say this a lot), you sound like everyone else out there. And probably like you have a twig up your arse and don’t have many original thoughts or ideas. When you get comfortable writing closer to the way you speak you sound like yourself. Voice!

I’m on a mission, I admit, to free the entire world of this kind of shit: Our B2B bandwidth modalities incentivize our customers to reuptake their inhibitors through maximizing our polarity torts. This kind of writing is a sin against nature, and I don’t even believe in sin.

Rule #2: Use grammar-of-the-day

If you’re at a grammar crossroads, go with conversational grammar over Strunk & White or AP rules. Again, we’re having conversations here, not applying for a copy editor’s gig at the New York Times.

 Example: Instead of writing With which hand did you pick up the tennis ball? go with Which hand did you pick up the tennis ball with? Yes, we can end sentences with prepositions.

This is not to say I approve in any way of this kind of thing: Me and my partners would have went to the end of the world for your success …. That’s just plain bad and wrong.

Rule #3: Know when to add the needed dirt details — don’t withhold Make sure you offer information to support a detail, concept or idea when it’s needed — just as you would in a conversation. As you revise your writing, imagine the place where a live person might interrupt you and ask for more details or an explanation.  Example:

Instead of: I’ve discovered three unique ways to help business folks kick ass and move to the top of the mountain in their working life. To quote a Dale Carnegie … Write something more like: I’ve discovered three unique ways to help business folks kick ass and move to the top of the mountain in their working life. They involve discipline, a keen sense of play and wearing pink shirts, but we’ll go more into detail on that a little later. There’s this  Dale Carnegie quote … 

Whoever’s reading this will want to know something about these three unique ways ASAP. Screw Dale C. And by addressing the unique ways up front (being withholding is not a great writing tactic by the way) you get to express yourself in a true voice, just as you’d do it in conversation. And your audience can trust you’ll be hanging with them and anticipating any questions, and answering them along the way. And being yourself = authenticity = building trust.

Rule #4: Have some fun for goodness sakes we’re not saving babies here

Well some of you may be saving babies because the written word has this kind of power. But the message here is: Relax. Be yourself. Enjoy this new way of doing business that embraces authenticity and a natural writing voice. Transparency is in. And so is appropriateness and respect — as in, you may swear like a sailor with your pals but maybe not with clients – but you already know that.

Let yourself play around, experiment and enjoy the process of letting your voice out in your writing. You never know what — or who — you may discover along the way.

Truth or Dare Writing Prompt

Here's a writing prompt that's also a dare.

Write about the thing you don't want to write about.

If you need some nerve to go for it -- as I did yesterday morning -- tell yourself you can throw the pages away or delete the files the minute it's done. (Mine is still there, and not so scary or threatening or embarrassing.)

Some years ago I noticed something while standing in my kitchen staring out to the lake. There were some things -- personal traits, qualities, longings, secret desires -- that I was embarrassed to admit to myself. And at this time there was this thing aka a moment of truth I was letting myself see. I'm not going to say what it was, but seeing it let me also catch it and deal with it and move on in a positive direction. 

Once you bust something, it's hard for it to take hold of you. It can't sit there in the dark corner scaring and taunting away.

Make sense?

If it doesn't, which makes sense, it might if you start writing down all the things you don't want to write down that you might find inside that beautiful Gucci luggage.  Open it up and let yourself see something you really want or desire or dream about or are afraid of. Write out every stinking detail.

Then tomorrow, you can write about what you found there.

You may be a bit more liberated.

If you need a prompt, start with:

Nobody knows about ... or I will never tell anyone including myself about ...

Remember: writing isn't lethal. It doesn't cause illness or obesity or natural disasaters. You won't get arrested (at least in this country) for writing it down. 

Think of your writing as the key that takes you to new places: scary, perhaps -- but always someplace new and unexpected.

Happy adventuring!

What's Your Story -- In Six Words?

Hemingway allegedly said his best work was this six-word story:

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Here's one by Margaret Atwood:

"Longed for him. Got him. Shit."

Which makes me think about other ways to use a six-word story.

And when I say "story" I mean anything.  Your life story. Your state of mind; your work-life manifesto; a new-biz plan. 

The six-word story of who you are, what you're doing,  what you're trying to create, or what you've been up to for the last six months.

So what would a series of six-word stories say about your life?

OK, I'll start:

Fired! Now I can be me again.

Just launched biz. To be continued ...

I coach. You can do it.

People say they can't write. Bullshit.

After my heart broke, compassion entered.

How to start writing? Move fingers.

Time to write blog. Aaaak! Done.

Why go walking? To see herons.

So those are some of my six-word stories. How would yours go?

Drop off any of your stories in Comments.

Thanks to Sonya for inspiring the post of Six Word Stories.

Why I Think Writer's Block is Bullsh*$

The fabulous sustainable arts designer Dinah Coops recently asked me about writer's block. "Is it a myth?" she asked.

For some writers it's very real.

Personally, I don't buy it. Which means I'm bound to get a big fat case of it next week. Ahh, no I won't.

So here's why I think Writer's Block is bullshit:

I think the act of writing, like much of life, is a decision. A choice. 

And, I think of writing as a physical act. It is physically putting fingers to the keyboard or moving pen over paper and then opening up to what comes in: images, characters, words. And pushing through the desire to look out the window or get up and clean out the fridge.

I believe in "writer's block" as much as I believe in exerciser's block or eating-healthfully block or kind-behavior-block or listener's block.

I do believe in not writing, though. And being stuck. Or in a rut, or just in no mood to write. But that's life.

Sometimes you're just depleted. There have been a few times coming off a huge writing rampage where I'm on Empty and I need to fill up a bit. Usually I'm just on Empty in the big scheme of life. Or I can feel something shifting and changing inside me, wanting to go in a different direction. So it's quiet time for a while.

A lot of writers, like me, don't work really well when we don't write. Or exercise. All of us, I believe, have things we need to do in order to work properly as human beings. Gardening, taking a stroll through the woods, running, playing music, reading trashy novels, having sex, helping others, cooking, traveling, praying, making jokes ...

Writers write. And sometimes they don't. But why do we have to give it this sickness called Blocked?

I asked my design friend Dinah about "visual artist's block" and she sings pretty much the same song as I do. Dinah believes it exists, but she's personally never bought into it. Some artists, she said, "just need to take a little vacation from their art work."

In the meantime, here's a beautiful book on the subject of making art in the modern world, Art and Fear. It's not as scary as it sounds, really.

And just to cover my ass: Every writer has a different take on Writer's block. I'm sure it's hard to face the beginning of a new novel after you've sold a trillion copy and became famous and everyone's eyes are on you to see what you'll do.

But for today, I don't believe in writer's block.

Artwork: Gratuitous shot of my chapbook cover, artwork by Darwin Yamamoto.

How to write a last-minute blog post

It's Friday night. You didn't write your Friday blog post yet. And you made a contract with yourself that this was a Blog Day.

How do you do something quick and easy and stick with it?

Start with a photo. I found one in my photo files.

And then pose a question, like:

What makes you feel like the hungry animal in the photo?

Hmmm, now what. Follow up with a second question:

And when you feel like that, what is the perfect way to quiet the call for your choice of "food?"

For me, it’s often a good feeding of the arts. And the other night, I realized how this beast has been roaring inside me for a while. 

Two nights ago went to see a director's cut of dances at PNB. These are usually a sampling of contemporary dances but this program was more classical. It included George Balanchine. Personally, I never have to see a piece by George Balanchine for as long as I live.

So what did I do watching the traditional G.B. dance? Cried a little. Yup, I was moved to tears.

Because I was so hungry my body reacted with tears that represent a state of relief and appreciation. Ahhh, beauty, movement, music, I can breathe again, life’s worth living. Much, much better now.

I was so hungry I was moved by this:

 

When I’m really more into something like this:

 

So that’s what I am often asking for in a state of Feed-Me hunger: art. 

And so goes my last-minute Friday evening blog posting. I (re)learned something, too.

So what can you do when you want to make a post and the day’s almost done and there’s hardly any time—or desire left?

Let’s review:

Find a photo that grabs you.

Post it. Then start writing to it. Without knowing what you’re going to write. I told myself if I just wanted to write “crackers” underneath, that would be fine. But it never is, I always find something else to say.

There’s magic in getting started, like your internal creative muse wakes up and comes running downstairs to play. More!, it says.

See? done. Lesson learned I may get my mom and I some tickets to the symphony.

Feed me!

And now, good night.