writing work

Encouragement Pages: 5/22/19-Stuck In The Middle

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“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

Encouragement Pages: 5/20/19-Stuck In The Middle

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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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Encouragement Pages: 5/17/19-The Beginning

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Writing is alot like riding a bike, and skinning your knee.

After skinning the this same knee, you still have a desire to ride your bike. But you also don’t wanna fall again. So, what do you do? Heal up and get right back on it.

There is not easy way to start a WIP (Work In Progress). It’s not easy to pick it up after you get stuck! But time never works in a writer’s favor with WIPs. Never. It only gets harder to pick up. It gets harder to get back in the groove of it.

Waiting makes it harder to even want to work at it! Be brave dear ones!

Be brave! Pick it up.

In Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-5/10/19

One of my favorite things about writing is the work. I know that sounds repetitive, but it’s the rhythm–the fury that is unmatched! No high is like a writer’s high.

When the words crash from your brain to page or screen, when everything makes sense, and it all works together: time, effort and imagination.

Chase the words.

Find the high.

It’s Yours. Messy Desk And All.

Growing up, I dreamed of having a desk.

I wanted a space that was mine, and that I could write or draw on. Living in apartments for most of my life, that luxury was never afforded to me. When I got to college, I finally had a desk. I was so happy! Being happy in nursing school as a writer? Not so much.

But now, I have one again. I was accustomed to writing on the backs of books, kitchen tables and even the floor. Trapper Keepers made the BEST desks in a pinch!

However, there is something special about the desk I have now.

It’s mine.

It’s all mine.

There a printer, with paper. Pens. Scrap paper. Post-its! Magazines! And I smile at all that chaos.

Why?

It’s mine.

It reminds me that I am a working writer. It is the evidence of the last four years of trying to make this hobby a career. Further evidence that I’m making progress at it!

My desk is messy because I’m a writer.I write. And I got the space to do it.

Own your space. Own your talent. Make magic.

Encouragement Pages: 4/24/19-Put Your Thoughts On Wax

Writers use all kinds of tools to get the work of writing done. One of the most overlooked tools is what is a freely installed app on your phone.

Voice Memos.

This feature allows you the unique ability to record your idea, with a time and date stamp. It’s your own ‘poor man’ copyright. Take advantage of this feature. It’s not as sexy as pen and paper, I know. There is a sensual nature to that, without a doubt. But if preserving the story is the goal, keeping the idea in tact the mission (read: especially, if pen and paper aren’t available!) record it.

It’ll save your sanity.

And maybe keep you from cursing your future self for not recording the idea at first unction.