encouragement

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-12/18/2019: The Grand What-If’s (1)

The end of the month—end of the year!—is in a matter of weeks.

To that observation, I leave you with this question:

What if you believed you could do it?

I mean it, what would happen you believed you could write the work you set out to create—independent of other people’s opinions or support?

Only you can answer this. And should do so immediately.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

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When You Push Your Wishes, They Become Words

“I wish I could write.”

I cannot tell you how often I have heard this from clients and other writing friends. But I tell them the same thing I will tell you:

“Write anyway. Wishing won’t make words.”

When you make the time to write–when you fight for it in some cases–you will be amazed as to what happens in that space. When you push your wish, you can make words.”

Push the wish, you push the words.

My wish for you, as this year ends, is to push the wishes. Rage against the excuses and time constraints. I want you to stop giving yourself the out of saying “I wish I had time to write.”

Push your wishes into reality!

Encouragement Pages-12/09/2019

“Let it stir…”

Stephen King says to let the story ‘reveal itself.’ To that I say, ‘let it stir.’

What this means is to let it develop. Let it brew. Let it come forth naturally—just like woman that’s pregnant.

Just like when you stir coffee or hot tea, making it just the way you like it.

Let it stir. Let it bubble. Let it brew.

The idea you have, the one you keep rolling around, or you aren’t sure about, follow it. Let it stir, let it stir you.

You’ll be amazed what you come up with when given when you’re patient with yourself.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages 11/29/2019

Writing is one of the few professions were merit is your credit. Where your ability to honor the others that come before you, allows you to increase your influence and networking.

One of the worst things you can have as a writer is ‘bad credit.’ The worst thing you can be labeled as is a writer that takes work without credit, or publishes other people’s work as your own, or whom is known to not ‘own your own pen.’

I know the process of writing can be hard, it can be thankless, and an easy out can [seem to be] plagiarism.

Don’t fall for that trap. You can do better.

Don’t ruin your writer credit.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Note: The topic of ‘bad credit’ as a writer will be discussed is Season 2 of The Writers’ Block Podcast–which resumes on December 5, 2019.