Meditation teachers often speak of the importance to bring your practice into your daily life. For example, finding stillness and spaciousness during daily tasks and observing your emotions and thoughts throughout the day and especially during turbulent moments.
Continue reading “Writing is a spiritual practice”Writing is an exercise in trust.
To hear the voice of a character you have to be receptive and calm. You have to sit at your desk, stare out of the window for a while, and trust that something will come to you. You don’t yet know if it will be a good writing day or a bad writing day but you’re showing up to find out. You’re sitting in silence, thinking about things.
Continue reading “Writing is an exercise in trust”Productivity books and blogs will often point to the Pomodoro Technique as an effective way to get things done. The method involves working (or studying) for say 25 minutes, taking a short five minute break and repeating this process three or four times. After three or four intervals of this, one can take a longer break of say 30 minutes. There are many reasons why people like this method, but I’ve found that there are two reasons in particular that make it effective for difficult work, especially writing.
Continue reading “Two reasons why the Pomodoro Technique is effective for difficult work (especially writing)”I never walk away from a running session feeling that I’ve failed.
Continue reading “Why running is easier than writing”Sometimes when I’m in the outline phase of a story, I get bogged down with this idea of writing something truly original. But no story is truly original. Especially when you zoom out far enough to take just the bare essentials into account.
Continue reading “Writing something truly original”When writing first drafts, don’t try. This is a counter-intuitive idea, no doubt. But here’s the thing: trying is often outcome focused whereas flowing is less conditional and more in the moment.
Continue reading “When writing the dreaded first draft, don’t try”I’ve often noticed that when I write a first draft of something, good days are followed by bad days. I’ve noticed this countless times, especially at the start of a novel or short story. It’s almost like I need those days of stuckness and stagnation to get to the good days. But it’s easy to get discouraged on those days where nothing flows, not the story, not the dialogue, nothing—everything you write seems like garbage.
Continue reading “When writing the dreaded first draft, be glad for the bad days”Here’s how first drafts usually go for me: There is a voice in my head that has a lot of things to say about what I’m writing. The criticisms can be endless: this is not original enough; this doesn’t make sense scientifically; this is just plain lame; this is okay—but where’s the story going really, and on and on it goes.
Continue reading “When writing the dreaded first draft, listen to the right voice”
We love stories that portray the hero’s journey. What’s a fantasy novel without the hero mastering magic, overcoming impossible odds, facing their own inadequacies, and fighting a few dragons? These are all things that make fantasy fiction great.
Continue reading “Does the Hero’s Journey suck?”