If you find you have a hard time feeling energized at the start of
your writing session, it can be useful to consider some natural stimulants.
Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) is better for this purpose than American ginseng. Studies have shown it increases cognitive
performance and lowers blood sugar. Experiments are going on now using it as
a treatment for ADD.
Naturally
you shouldn’t make any stimulant a substitute for getting enough sleep and
rest, and this is not medical advice—if in doubt, consult your doctor,
especially if you have high blood pressure.
(Need to focus? Get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
The inner critic is the part of you that can be harshly
critical when you start something new or when you get stuck. In my book, “Your
Writing Coach,” I suggest some
ways to get rid of it, and right now I have an additional one. I call this one
THE BLOW-UP METHOD.
It’s really simple: Just listen to the negative statements
or thoughts and exaggerate each one, step by step, with each step being worse
than the last.
Example: You’re about to start writing or maybe about to
start sending you your manuscript. Your Inner Critic tells you, “You’re wasting
your time. Nobody will like it or want it.”
Now start exaggerating possible responses:
“Not only will nobody want it, their rejection letters will
insult you.”
“Not only will they insult you, they will hire a billboard
to tell the world how bad a
writer you are.”
“Not only will they hire a billboard, they’ll take out prime
time television ads to humiliate you.”
“Not only will you be humiliated on prime-time television,
you will be deported and never allowed to return.”
“Not only will you be deported, no country will take you in
and you’ll spend the rest of your life on a small island in the middle of the
ocean.”
“Even a small island in the middle of the ocean won’t want
you; you and your manuscript will be shot into outer space.”
I know that’s silly, but the point is that it’s easy to lose
our sense of humor when we really want something to succeed. This little
exercise brings back some perspective and some humour to help you avoid being
dominated by the inner critic. It’s fast and it’s fun, so if and when your
inner critic shows up, give it a try.
***
You'll find lots of additional innovative ways to overcome blocks, be more productive, and write well in my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It features writing advice from some of the greatest writers of all time. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.
The writer and
artist Sark revealed in the introduction to her book, "Make Your Creative
Dreams Real," what first inspired her to follow her creative path:
When I was ten my best friend was 80 years old. His
name was Mr Boggs. His house was my refuge. He and I discussed my creative
dreams and he inspired me to tell stories about what I saw in the world.
Mr Boggs became very ill and went into the
hospital. My mother explained that because of his age and health, he probably
wouldn’t be coming home. I vowed to create something for him every day that he
was in the hospital, and I sent him handmade books, cards and posters.
He did get out of the hospital and when he did, he
said to me, “I think you saved my life. No one else called or wrote, and I had
to get out to see you.”
I immediately started writing my first book,
because I thought that if my art and words could affect one person that much,
what might happen if I could share them with the world?”
However, her
path was neither quick nor smooth:
From ages 14 to
26 I put my creative dreams on hold as I attended school and experimented with
hundreds of part-time jobs…[at the age of 26] I began creating art and
writing to share with the world. For years, my art and writing was rejected by
magazines, newspapers, and publishing companies. Although it must be said that I
didn’t send it out very often, because I was too busy surviving and crafting
new work.
In 1988 she
finally decided to throw herself whole-heartedly into her work, and to be led
by the answers to two questions:
WHAT DID I HAVE
TO OFFER?
HOW COULD I BE
OF USE?
That led to a
best-selling poster and then her first book, "A Creative Companion."
But that was not without its challenges, either:
I finally dared to create the kind of book I’d
dreamed of making so many times. I faced massive self-doubt, ruthless inner
critics, and nearly paralyzing fear, but I did it anyway.
She's gone on
to huge success; it's reassuring that even the most successful
people had doubts along the way.
It might be
useful to think about how you'd answer her two questions and how the answers
relate to your work...and what you could do (even if just part-time) if they
don't.
(My book can't make you creative, but it can liberate the creativity you already have and show you how to get into a creative state of mind, give you specific ways to generate ideas, provide tools that will help you turn those ideas into real projects, and introduce you to inspirational stories of how others have done it. It's all in the book Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
This is the story of a kind of unconventional collaboration. It also illustrates the principle, "when you can't beat them, join them"...sort of.
Street artist Mobstr is used to having his graffiti painted over. He decided to tell a story one line at a time, with the next one appearing when the previous one had been painted over.
Writing if you’re feeling sluggish isn’t fun or productive. I’ve
always found it difficult to get going in the mornings, which is why I’ve
looked into natural stimulants that help us to wake up our brains.
Guarana comes from the roasted seeds of flowering Brazilian plants. It
contains a bit more caffeine than coffee, but many people find it easier on
their digestion (if I drink coffee on an empty stomach I tend to
get a stomach ache).
It doesn’t cause the jitters some people get from coffee,
and its stimulating effects last longer.
You can get guarana supplements at any health food store. As with
coffee, it’s not a good idea to take them too close to your bedtime.
Naturally you shouldn’t make any stimulant a substitute for getting
enough sleep and rest, and this is not medical advice—if in doubt, consult your
doctor, especially if you have high blood pressure.
(Need to focus? Get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
Readers and movie-goers like big stories. That
doesn’t mean only stories in which the world is going to be destroyed by aliens
or international terrorist rings try to bring down the Western world.
It can be a story about the
effect of a divorce on a child but even when the event is small we want to see
the big impact. In one case it’s the impact on the planet, in the other it’s
the impact on a child.
If you tend to make your stories too small, or in the case
of screenplays not visual enough, you can use the BLOW-UP METHOD (blow-up as in inflate, not explode).
It means pushing a particular incident as far as you can,
far beyond what is sensible. By expanding the boundaries that far, you can then
cut back and still end up with a choice that has more impact than the one you started with.
I’ll give you an example. In a script I’m working on, I have a father who owns a company, and his grown son, his second-in-command. The son expects the father to retire and then the son will finally run the company. In the first draft I have a scene in
their boardroom where the father announces he’s changed his mind. He’s not going
to retire any time soon.
This is a feature film, and the scene seemed too
small. The problem was mainly the setting—it’s hard to make a scene in a board
room very visually interesting. I also wanted to make the son’s humiliation
bigger.
I blew it up to the biggest example I could think of: the father
pushes aside the Pope on the balcony of the Vatican and announces it to a crowd
of half a million people. Or he
goes on a national television show and announces it.
Of course those are not workable, but it got me to thinking:
where could he logically announce it, where there are lots of people?
The idea
that came up was a big trade show for their industry, which happens to be
greeting cards. The father is speaking to a big crowd of people, everybody knows
it’s supposed to be his fond farewell, and instead he announces he isn’t
handing the company over to his son. Bigger, more humiliating, and visually
more interesting.
The key with this method is not to be afraid to expand your
mind by taking the situation to ridiculous extremes before you cut back to
something that actually works.
In the previous post we looked at how to gain momentum when doing a big writing project. This time let's see how you can get off to a great, fast start for each of your writing sessions and keep up your momentum.
There tends to be resistance at three points:
1: Getting started
For many peope this is the toughest one.
Schedule a time and make sure your
resources are there at the start.
Use a mood board or folder of images to stimulate your thinking
Use an app that gives you an
uncluttered blank screen so you're not distracted by your desktop.
Train people in your environment that certain
days and hours are your writing time
Find the location that works best – if necessary,
go to a café, library, etc.
Find a scent that energizes you (peppermint is
good) and sniff it at the start (you can get little bottles of essential oils
for this at many health food stores)
Have tools you enjoy using – notebooks, pens,
folders, etc.
Before you start, decide on a small reward
you’ll give yourself at the end of the session
Use a timer so you don’t have to think about the
time. I suggest sessions lasting 45 minutes, then a fifteen minute break (also timed), then repeat.
if you’re tempted to do something else that is
more immediately rewarding, imagine with all your senses how good it will feel,
look, sound, smell when you have achieved your writing goal (the feel of your
book in your hands, the smell of the new pages, the sound of people
complimenting the book, the look of a stack of the books in the book store, the spreadsheet with the sales figures for your ebook, etc.
Also get a copy of my book, Creativity Now. The first section suggests 25 ways to get into a creative state of mind, the second section offers 25 ways to generate new ideas, the third section reveals 25 ways to go from idea to real project and the final section includes 25 inspiring examples of others who have built impressive businesses or careers using their creativity. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.
2: The middle
This is where distractions will intrude if
you let them.
Turn off the phones
Put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the
door
Don't stop to check email or Facebook or Twitter, etc.
Consider getting or making a stand-up desk so you can spend part of the session standing up. If making phone calls is part of that session's tasks, stand or walk around while you do it.
Wear noise-cancelling headphones or have white noise playing in the
background—whatever you need in order to stay focused. Listen to music if that doesn't distract you.
3: The end
At the end of a working session you may face two problems.
One: your Inner
Critic rushes in and tells you that you didn’t get enough done.
Use the Inner Critic visualisation to
send it away (you can find this as a bonus on the website for my book, "Your Writing Coach").
Two: you are tempted to keep writing until you get to the
end of a chapter or section— if you don’t know what you’ll write after that bit, this can be
stressful.
Follow
Ernest Hemingway’s advice and stop mid-sentence so you’ll always know what
you’ll be writing the next day.
RECORD YOUR PROGRESS
You'll feel more motivated during all three of these phases if you record your progress every day—the number of words or whatever
measure makes sense at that point. Keep in view not only how much is left to do
but also how much you have done already. Checking off squares or filling in a
chart makes this a physical thing, which is very satisfying.
(For innovative time management strategies for creative people, see my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done", published by Pearson.)
If you have a big writing (or other) project, one great way to build momentum is to spend a full day working on it with support from your peers.
IT'S GOOD TO GO MAD
That's what we do on my monthly MADs--Massive Action Days. It's all online. You sign in to our exclusive website, declare your goal for the day there, and get to work. Every hour I do a brief live video broadcast to answer questions and offer tips. You update us on your progress and everybody supports each other.
The people already doing the MADs find it incredibly productive and it's inexpensive--only £5 each when you sign up for ten. You can find our more at www.MassiveActionDay.com.
What else can you do to build momentum? Let's start with the basics:
The formula is Velocity x Mass = Momentum
The more you apply effort, the more momentum you get, unless
you encounter another important aspect of momentum, Resistance. Resistance can increase the mass of a molehill to that of a mountain.
FOUR POINTS OF RESISTANCE
In writing there are four points at which you
tend to have resistance:
1: Getting started. The best solution is chunking down the goal into manageable chunks, scheduling
regular time to work, and getting support.
2: The middle. You’ve done a lot but there’s a lot yet to do
and the initial excitement has worn off. The best tools are: knowing this is
normal, using a variety of brainstorming techniques (like the ones in my
writing books) to get a fresh perspective, and making sure your Inner Critic
doesn’t talk you into quitting.
3: After the first draft. The first step when you're ready to critique your first draft is to use methods for getting a more objective view of your own writing
(wait a week, change location and posture, print it out on different colour
paper and/or a different typeface, read once for general reactions and don’t
try to fix it as you go—note the necessary changes, then go back into creative
mode, at your usual writing location).
When it’s as good as you can make it, show to someone you trust to be constructive. Tell them you want them to jot down any problems
they discern—where it’s boring, where it’s confusing, where they think what’s
happening isn’t plausible, etc. Tell them you don’t want them to suggest
solutions, only problems.
Fix the problems and repeat, but stop rewriting when the new version isn’t getting better, just different.
4: When you send it out into the world. Put on your business hat, not your
sensitive artist hat, and make a plan. Let your sensitive artist get busy
on a new creative project so it doesn’t hang around getting tense.
>> In the next post we'll see how you can also build momentum for every working session.
(Want to get more things done, more easily? Using creative methods rather than more hard work? You'll find the ansswers in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)
(click for Amazon.co.uk)