Author: Jennifer P. Harris

The Power Of The Hidden Gems

One of the coolest things about being a writer, the absolute best thing, is looking back through drafts. Revisiting work that you either forgot about (it happens!), left unfinished, or decided to abandon because the lure of another project. However, make the time to revisit the old work.

Why is this important? It shouldn’t be on the surface, but it should be something you as a writer do periodically. Reflection is a muscle to a writer, especially in matters of their own work! There does come a time when you must have a working detachment to your work. notice I did not say to become hyper critical about it, or towards it.

You must be able to view unfinished work, as that: unfinished. Not bad. Not unworthy. Not horrible. But unfinished. The work awaits you, and you for the work.

The work is always there!

In examining the work left undone, you have to see it as both done–and undone. You may yet fall in love with it again. Research, time and experience sometimes congeal to grant the fuel a writer to complete what is left–of their own work. You would even be surprise at how flipping a character’s POV, gender, or revamping a subplot into the main plot could work wonders!

Here are your hidden jewels, dear ones. Go find them!

Get to work.

Encouragement Pages-01/17/2020

Discouragement. Doubt. Self-rejecting.

These are the dragons writers must continually slay. It is not sufficient to leash them, they must be slain. At their deaths, you fuel your pen.

Do not reason with discouragement.

Do not listen to doubt.

Do not think so little of your imagination that you will not entertain or humor it.

Slay the dragons.

And dispatch them without mercy.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-01/15/2020

Discouragement is a hostile dictator. It must be overthrown daily! It must be studied and be subdued. Do not become a willing vessel for its whispers.

Discouragement comes and breathes fire to your imagination. Wanting to consume what is live and pumping in you to that yearns to create! It is a dragon is of the worst kind. However, it can be defeated.

When it rears its head, hissing and snapping, screaming at what you cannot do?

Slit its throat with your pen.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

The Joy Of Self-Recycling.

There is this concept of a draft-drawer on my podcast, The Writers’ Block. But the concept in its entirety is not my own. I heard the marvelous Anne Rice mention that she doesn’t throw any work away–she puts it in a drawer.

Genius!

Anne Rice says that she does this because she wants to be able to go back and revisit a work, and have something to draw from. I agree. As a writer, you need to have, to develop enough faith in your work that you value even the things you do not complete!

Enter–the Draft-Drawer.

The things you have stored away, hidden away or you find yourself second guessing? Don’t toss them away: save them. Why you may ask? Not everything that is incomplete is impossible. Not every project, every poem, every novel is created, finished in a linear fashion! Some things we start need to sit with us a while longer. The POV redone, more research added. But nothing should be tossed away because the process to create it is hard.

What is in your draft-drawer? What things have you kept? What things do you need to revisit? Why have you not revisited them?

The draft-drawer is a form of self-recycling. Your imagination is both the source and end of all things in this capacity. You control the pace and flow of the work! With you saving the work, this work undone or unpolished, you grant yourself the freedom to start again; creation is at your demand. Do not sell yourself so short as to throw something away.

The Three R’s found in Ecology are apt with writers as well, albeit with a twist:

Rethink. Reuse. Recycle.

Encouragement Pages-01/13/2020

Today, I remind you of something basic.

Every language has an alphabet, has dialects, accents and regional sayings. What I want you to remember is you are a writer. You have more than just letters to command, you have histories to bend to your will.

You have the power to replay, augment, even mystify what is familiar. You have the power to retell histories as both the victim and valiant. Don’t fear that.

The letters, the language are merely a code.

You, dear writer, need to—must!—decode it.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-01/10/2020

The WIP.

Work in Progress.

The thing about about a WIP, any WIP, is that it will take time. You have to understand that writing is done in *3 parts:

1.) Inspiration

2.) Researching/Development

3.) Producing

The writing is both art and process. Do not shy away from the process. The process is where all the good stuff is; get to the good stuff.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

*Look for this as a miniseries. Soon.