writing is work

Encouragement Pages 4/28/2023

The writing you have to do is because you want to do it!

Writing is one of those things which are both solid and fluid. It can be done at any time, any where, and even with anyone! And for that cause, for that reason, it is the thing by which grants unnamed people immortality or grants hope to other places.

Write because you want to.

Write because you need to.

Write because…you can’t help it.

You can do it. You must.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

April 2023: REVAMPING

As of This year, I am in my 8th year of indie writing, blogging, and authorship.

Has it been easy? Of course not!

Yet, what has allowed me to keep going, to trust in my talent, and make in-roads for myself (and others) is my ability to revamp my approaches or content, and pivot when need be and necessary.

Why, this blog happened because I saw a need, and sought to fulfill it. While there are other writers who do what I do, only I can do it like me–to the tune of over 1000 posts at this point (I’m pretty proud of that!).

Yet, the most crucial tool that I can use, and use often is revamping. I often look at what I am doing that is working, what isn’t working, and what I need to do better.

In order to do what I love to do, which is write, I need to be able to look at what I am doing not just as an artist–but an adult! I still have a life outside of words! Since I have other responsibilities, I have to build like around those also.

Revamping is a tool–and a necessity.

April 2023: REVAMPING

The scary thing about writing is what it will require you to do: CHANGE.

It will require that you look at what you want versus what you have, and consider if it can be better, if it is working, and can it be better.

Writers an be stubborn.

Writers lie.

Writers will say what is working when it is not actually working.

Writers require a unique support, like all artists do because of the demands on our creative energies.

Writers also are–adaptive!

The plasticity of writing allows us to look at what isn’t working, what is working and change. But this ‘change’ is what we run from, and need to confront. By confronting it, we allow room for us to look at what we are proud of and want to keep, and examine what we can (and should) do better.

Embrace the process.

Embrace where you are going.

You can do it.

April 2023: REVAMPING

Here are the 10 things you can ask yourself before you decide to revamp your writing:

1.) Do I have a writing schedule? If I do, what could I do to improve it?

2.) Do I like what I am writing?

3.) Do I want to try to write something else?

4.) Do I like writing on paper, screen or transcribe my thoughts?

5.) What am I scared of writing a specific thing?

6.) If I am scared, what am I exactly scared of?

7.) Do I have a writing community to plug into in order to get support?

8.) Do I need writing support?

9.) What am I comfortable writing about? Have I gotten too comfortable with it?

10.) Overall, do I think what I am doing is working?

Encouragement Pages 4/3/2023

The fact that you have not given up is demonstrative that you will don’t want to. What does that mean, exactly?

It means that something in you wants this writing–and you are willing to see where it will take you.

As Nikki Giovanni said, “If you love it, it is going to work.”

You can do it.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

March 2023: Go!

“Can I do it?”

“Will I do it?”

“What if no one likes it?”

The answer to these questions are as unique as the authors who pose them. Yet, the fact you are even posing these questions to the wall, to windows, or the people closest to you–means that you have enough in you to temper creativity with apprehension. Every creative person does!

Yet, while some of recoil from the stories in our head that demand to be told, some of us go anyway.

Even if you fail, you can try again!

Even if you think no one will like it, that doesn’t matter. The better question is do you like it?

Your first critic and champion will be and is always you.

Don’t give up before you get started–KEEP GOING!

Go and see what happens!