Writers’ senses are always a little more keen than others. We see the world three ways:
How it is
How it could be
How it could become
Today, look at the worlds and circles you inhabit. Examine the spheres in which you move. I bet there’s a story there.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Get to work!
Writing is more than words on a page! It is more than buying pens and notebooks! Writing involves work, dear ones! Part of that is research. Which means what? Say it all together: READ!
Most writers start of as readers, or in some way fascinated by language. Reading, feeding your curiosity to the point of frenzy, is the best way to keep your mind sharp. To expand your imagination’s boundaries.
The work of writing will always involve reading.
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Look it up!
Writers are these weird people with thee strangest walking around information!
Example: The pH of blood is 7.35.
Yes, that’s a real fact. But, I digress.
Writers need to remain curious! Things that intrigue you, scare you, turn you on, look them up! Your research base as a writer needs to be ever expanding!
This includes words you don’t know—vocabulary is still your meat and potatoes. Remember that.
Good luck!
I believe in you!
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
I want you to go back to the drawing board today.
I want you to go on your computer, the Cloud, phone or desk drawer. I want you to look at your work.
The unfinished. The unstarted. The drafts. The doubts.
I want you to look at your work.
I want you to be aware that these pieces of tangible imagination came from you.
Now, with that same bravery, pick one to finish by the end of the year. It’s only May. You can do it!
Honor your talent.
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
“Work the work.”
With any WIP, this is the best advice I am able to give you, fellow oracle and aspiring scribe. There is must be a methodology to what you plan to create. There must be a plan other than ‘I am going to just write and see what happens.’
This is good enough for the immediate–you can’t work or edit a blank page for sure–but that runs short. You must determine to make the completion of your WIP a priority. This means you will have to decide how not to be stuck–and if you are stuck?
You have to be able to examine how you got there.
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Don’t panic!
Everyone gets stuck every now and then!
With any WIP, you may get to a point when it’s not necessarily a block, but a sticking point. I call this being stuck in the middle.
This happens when you get to a point in your work when you don’t know what will/should happen next. Again, it isn’t a block–it is portion of story/project where you are unsure where to go next.
A block is a stoppage of all creativity, not the uncertainty of where to go.
The best thing to so when you get stuck is to be unstuck. You become unstuck by walking away from the work. Stephen King said that ‘the story will reveal itself.’ This means you have to be patient. You have to be perceptive to inspiration, and any creative energy.
Like anything stuck, you have to be patient. And you have to have a strategy.
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
I’m constantly coming up with ideas. I have to record them or write them down to keep track of them all! However, the scariest part is still the start. Not the research, but the start–the actual putting of idea to paper or screen.
But the fear is always, “How is this going to come together?!” However, the fear of not doing, consumes the fear of doing. The start is terrifying! But it’s more terrifying to keep all that locked up.
Let the people in your head out!
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
