Tools for Writers

Overcoming Resistance

June 15, 2018June 15, 2018Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

To begin, tell me a little bit about yourself. How many of these have you experienced in your writing life during the past two years? I’ll include checkboxes so you can keep track.

Never finding the time to write
Making the time but not writing
Dreaming of writing but never getting started
Starting but never finishing
Starting but never finishing that one particular piece
Thinking you can do it without help
Thinking you’re beyond help
A love/hate relationship with your writing
Focusing on unhelpful negative feedback and ignoring positive feedback
Focusing on positive feedback and ignoring helpful negative feedback
Wanting to write deep but writing shallow
Writing for others instead of yourself
Writing for money but not treating it like a business
Reading about writing instead of writing
Seeking out feedback before you’re ready
Seeking out the wrong level of feedback
Ongoing health challenges like
Unexplained fatigue (physical or mental)
Mysterious illness (a neverending or recurring cold or flu)
Injuries (constant little accidents)
Addiction of any kind (substance, activities, self-destructive habits)

How many did you check? (Put the number right here)

Is it more than zero? I’ll bet it is.

If so, you’re facing Resistance.

I’ve written nearly 20 books and 200 songs in the past 11 years. I checked 17 boxes. SEVENTEEN.

I’m facing Resistance.

You’re facing Resistance.

Resistance? What’s That?

According to bestselling author Steven Pressfield in his groundbreaking work The War of Art Resistance is the mental and emotional pushback we feel when we dare greatly by being creative. It is our unconscious mind protecting us from what it thinks is the danger of emotional vulnerability. It shows up in all the ways in that checklist above, and more.

Resistance is a bully. It will stand in your way and stop your writing. It will knock you down and hurt you, emotionally, even physically.

Resistance strikes nonfiction and fiction authors alike. (Memoirists, are you listening?) Writing a nonfiction book is still a creative endeavor and will expose you to the same fears.

It will stop you from writing using the tools you checked off in that list above.

It’s Not Just You & I

“I was ashamed. I have spent a good many years since—too many, I think—being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction and poetry who as ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent.”

“. . . in my heart I stayed ashamed. I kept hearing Miss Hisler asking why I wanted to waste my talent, why I wanted to waste my time, why I wanted to write junk.”

Who was this loser?

Stephen King. Stephen 350 million books sold King.

This is a quote from his On Writing which, although not precisely instructional, is the most inspiring book I’ve read when it comes to staying the course as a writer.

This is the quote that gave me my writing life back. (I’ll tell you that story someday if you like.)

Our inborn desire to have our work respected can lead to problems if we put what others believe about our “God-given talent” ahead of what we choose to write. It’s one of many ways Resistance twists natural feelings into quicksand.

What’s a Writer to Do?

You cannot defeat Resistance once and be done with it. It’s part of our mental and emotional makeup. What you can do is make it irrelevant. Note that I don’t say “ignore it” because you can’t ignore a bully. But if you defuse them, do things to take away their power, they are no longer a threat. Like the bully at school (or, frankly, in the office) they still show up every day. But we don’t have to keep giving them our lunch money.

Being a writer is hard. You don’t have to do this alone.

Too many writers face the emotional struggle to write without proper support. After years of writing about it, I’ve created a forum to help writers and artists deal with writer’s Resistance.

It’s not going to be a collective moan-fest or chat-fest. It’s a guided learning environment, a community of writers making a safe place for some “you’re not alone” emotional support. It will also cover practical and actionable tools and processes to get you writing and keep you writing.

Membership is $5 per month or only $25 for the whole year. Questions? Comments? Shout ’em out below and I’ll answer every one.

Battling Writer's Resistance (via @JoelDCanfield ): Click To Tweet

5 Powerful Upgrades to Your Writing Software

March 12, 2018March 2, 2018Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Dave Chesson, @DaveChesson

For every challenge a writer faces, there is a helping hand available in the form of a tool or app.

While no tool is a replacement for talent or creativity, there are plenty of options available to make your writing process smoother and more productive.

From comprehensive writing suites packed with powerful pro features, to smaller scale solutions to a single specific problem, there is software available for every need.

We’ll now take a look at five of the best writing tools available, and explore exactly how they can benefit your personal writing process.

Scrivener

Have you ever been frustrated by the limitations of standard writing software like Microsoft Word or Google Docs?

While these tools can be suitable for simple writing projects, they are often far from ideal for longer works, such as full-length books.

Scrivener is a powerful writing application absolutely packed with features. Some of the key benefits offered by Scrivener include –

The ability to store and access your research within the same environment you write in
An easy to use outlining mode to have a ‘big picture’ overview of your book
Free community created resources, such as Scrivener templates
Powerful editing and revision options for longer works

Scrivener is one of the most comprehensive and fully featured book writing software applications on the market. You can also enjoy a fully featured 30 day free trial and a range of Scrivener discounts if you decide the software is right for you.Continue reading

Using Google Keep

February 12, 2018February 11, 2018Tools for Writers

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

If you’re like me, sometimes you can get ideas at the most inconvenient times. Like sitting at an intersection, waiting for a light to turn green. Or in the produce section of the grocery store. And I have to write these ideas down. I may think that I can remember them, but I never do unless they’re recorded somehow.

Many times I’ve resorted to scribbling things on the backs of receipts but now I’m taking a more high-tech approach. Of course, you could use an app like Evernote: which I do…but not for ideas. Evernote has a few too many bells and whistles for me to use it for something like a quick note. I do keep all of my recipes there (handy when in the grocery store and trying to remember ingredients), the best writing articles that I want to refer back to, and even records of the Christmas or birthday gifts I’ve given family members in a particular year (and their sizes, etc.)

But for ideas I want something a bit more basic. And you really can’t get much more basic than Google Keep. It’s a free app for your phone and it’s, to me at least, very intuitive.

I have a shortcut for the app saved to my phone’s home page and when I have an idea, I click to open. Then I click the microphone icon and speak into it since I’m very slow when I type on my phone (I’m very speedy on a laptop keyboard, but have never mastered the tiny “keys” on the phone).

After you’ve created your note, you can share it, either with someone else or even with yourself, if you want it emailed as a reminder. You can also get a reminder that your note exists by clicking the ‘reminder’ icon (which is a finger with a string tied around it). When you click the reminder icon, you can choose the day and time to remind yourself. You can even collaborate with someone else on the note.

If it’s more important than your other ideas, you can click the tack icon to pin it to the top of your notes.

And really…that’s basically all it does. No bells and whistles on this model, but clean functionality from Google.

How do you record ideas that you have on the go?

How to Use Google Keep to Record Ideas: Click To Tweet

Tips for Better To-Do Lists

December 4, 2017October 19, 2017Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I have become something of a to-do list aficionado. I’ve been religiously using lists since having children. That’s over 20 years of list making.

I’ve changed the way I’ve handled lists over the years and have adapted other people’s methods into my own process. I frequently return to an article written by Eric Barker for Time Magazine: “The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity.” It makes a lot of sense to me, from the ‘magic hours’ to the ‘starting ritual,’ to the ‘3 things that matter today.’

The low-tech list: For a while I was using an app to help me prioritize (135 List, which is free and works well for anyone trying to get in a habit of prioritizing). Now I’ve made the process even simpler. I have a Notepad (digital…comes with PCs) text file saved for every day of the week: Monday To-Do, Tuesday To-Do, etc. I put the three big things I most want to accomplish at the top. Then I put the things that could be shifted to another day’s list at the bottom. If errands are on my list, I copy-paste the list to my online calendar. At the end of the day, whatever didn’t get accomplished is portioned out to the following day (or other days, if the next day is too busy).

Reevaluate the list in the afternoon: I realized 4 years ago that one list per day wasn’t really going to cut it for me anymore. I needed to reevaluate in the early afternoon because some things became less-important and some things became more pressing. This way, I’m still being thoughtful about my list and my tasks and not simply reacting to things that pop up. But I’m also incorporating things that pop up (sometimes they are important and need immediate attention).

Set timers to avoid a time-suck…or procrastination: I use timers a lot: both for writing and promo. I just type ‘set timer for 7 minutes’ into Google and let my computer keep track. Timers work well for me for two reasons: one, it helps me avoid procrastination. If I know I need to update my website, seeing that I’ve allotted ten minutes for the task makes it a lot less-daunting. Another reason timers work well for me is that they help keep me on task and focused.

Don’t turn your list into a braindump: There is definitely a place for an all-inclusive list…a braindump of a list that includes writing, promo, blogging, the dog’s vet checkup, Christmas shopping, etc. But my advice is to have that master list separate from your to-do list. The whole idea is to make the daily list manageable and approachable. Then work in tasks from the master list to the daily list (breaking them down into bite-sized bits, if needed).

Are you a list person? How do you set up your lists?

Tips for a better to-do list: Click To Tweet

Photo credit: john.schultz via Visualhunt / CC BY-SA