Your imagination is a living garden. Like all gardens, it can suffer from overgrowth or neglect!
Overgrowth for your imagination can lead to being bombarded with thoughts, not knowing quite where to begin. However, this is not the bliss you think it is—writers must write. You cannot, should not, make a habit of hoarding your ideas. The snakes of self-rejection and self-doubt thrive in overgrowth.
With Love & Ink
JBHarris
There is a discipline to writing.
That discipline, that ability to will your imagination beyond what you think is available, is what will sustain you when you think no words will come.
When I was a little girl, my Aunt Linda taught me how to swing. She told me that I had to ‘pump’. She taught me how to swing because she wasn’t always going to be there to help me to push–to get me as high up as I wanted to be. She taught me to generate my own power, my own speed, and do it from inside me.
This is the same wisdom I am going to give to you.
The power to write, even when you don’t want to, is within you. In those core muscles which make up inspiration, motivation and creation. You can do what your imagination is demanding–you must push.
In order to reach the height within, you must push.
You push past what zaps your time.
You push past the voice that tries to sap your ideas.
You push past the lie of ‘there is just no time.’
Just like you pump your knees, grabbing the links on the swing to hang on as you ascend, it will take that same tenacity to create when you don’t think you can.
What you need, you already have. Just how deep are you willing to reach down to get it.
Keep the rhythm.
Find the beat.
Trust your talent a little bit today. What thing of light, of dark, of horror or light ate going to develop?
What (or whom) will you pull out of the air?
Trust the things your imagination sees and hears. Perhaps even chase a few.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
New YouTube Channel: JBHarris Writing Services
Are you shocked?
No one is more shocked than me, honestly. With all the content that I create, the next logical step is going to a larger audience! This audience includes you lovely people, as well people whom desire to see what I do behind the scenes.
Here is a brief rundown of the channel and what to expect:
JBHarris Writing Services is a channel where help guidance, resources and teaching materials are given and made available to those desiring to become writers.
On the YouTube Channel, you will still see the things you love like the One Minute Words (posted on Instagram), as well as The 10-Minute Take.
I wanted to implement the 10-Minute Take this past summer, but life got in the way. The 10-Minute Take is when I take a concept or topic and expound on it for 10 minutes; this will be similar to One Minute Words.
There will be book reviews, author shout outs, and even glimpses into my TBR list! But the emphasis will always be writing, giving tools to do that better.
The goal in the beginning is to upload at least twice a week. There are videos that I haven’t shown on any other social media. These videos will be there as well.
So, expect a flurry of videos in the beginning, and at least two videos a week on Mondays and Fridays. There may be bonus videos sprinkled in, but those are the main two days for right now.
Don’t worry, dear ones. The blog will still be up! I will still post, and create–this is just the next leg of this journey.
I hope you’ll be the part of it.
*Note: This concept will be discussed on The Writers’ Block podcast on 9/26. This podcast can be found wherever you get your podcasts, see the end of the post to get all info!
I had an English professor, Dr. Karen Kalenevitch, who gave us a trick to combat the hell that is writers’ block. She told us about something she called the story machine.
Now, what is this you ask? I’ll tell you.
You take an empty bag and write random phrases, places, date or names on it and throw them in the bag. You shake it up, and pull out 3 slips of paper. From those pieces of paper, you can construct a story. Perhaps from there, a free write. From there, a draft. From that draft, a revision. From revisions, to stories.
Try it.
You may never know what you come up with.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Remember to subscribe to the podcast, and follow The Writers’ Block Podcast on Facebook!
Click here for FB info!
I know where I was on this day 18 years ago. I even know the clothes I had on. I know what was on the radio, who I was on the phone with–even the shrill in my mother’s voice when she asked if there was a movie on Channel 4 when the second plane hit the other tower.
This week will be impossible for a great many people today. Writing, journaling, is a therapeutic tool. It is a way for you to confront what you are feeling in a controlled way. It is a way to heal, reflect and analyze.
There is a way to control and deal with tragedy and mourning. There is a way to deal with loss outside of medication. Writing is a purge of the soul as well as a tool against the encroaching madness of the world.
On today, consider blank pages to scream on. They are always willing to listen.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
There is nothing so devastating as being scared to write down the thing which is on your own head. Such a paradox to create something and then not bring it to the light of paper or screen.
There is nothing so devastating as to want to create, only to fear the outcome.
Sometimes dear ones, these things happen. Especially, when it something outside of your normal comfort zone. Something that may be seen as a little wilder. Sexier. Scarier. Darker.
The doubt is most disconcerting, yes. But, it is not insurmountable. Consider it the reminder of your mortality. The reminder that every story, every idea, has and needs a certain amount of care. A level of respect and concern before beginning and finishing any work.
It could even be a guard to being to hasty before starting a new work. Switching a genre. Even thinking of using a pen name. Sometimes the doubt can allow the story to incubate, stew a while. This way when you come back it, the thought–your thought, subject to your talent and its skill–is or may be more easily managed.
The doubt is a yellow light, a stop sign. But it is not, nor should be a considered a brick wall. Listen to the doubt. Sometimes its background noise, sometimes it it’s your imagination reminding you to just wait a minute. In the waiting, you may just make what would be a good story into something phenomenal.
