7 Tips To Get Unstuck from Writer’s Block (Day 5 #yourturnchallenge)
My students always want to know what to do about writers block: that deep dark dreadful painful place.
That constipated place. That prison block. That place in the shadows.
How do I get my bowels moving? Where’s my get out of jail free card? How do I find the light in the shadow?
“Ever see a plumber who has plumber’s block?” asked blogger, marketer, and author Seth Godin in 2010 in Boston on his book tour for Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? “Or a talker who has talker block? No! So? No writer’s block. It’s part of who you are.” (Here’s the rest of my blog post where this quote comes from).
Sorry Seth, most of my students don’t find this too helpful. I thought it was insightful, and it’s inspiring to me, but for my students? No.
Because they don’t see themselves as writers yet. They don’t know they are writers. They don’t know the power of their own minds.
They don’t know that “to think is to practice brain chemistry” in the words of Deepak Chopra.
What follows are some ideas that my students do find help them get unstuck. And these ideas help me too, as a student, a poet, an academic, and an essayist. Read more…
Slow Down for Slow Wine and Slow Food #YourTurnChallenge
What do you do well?
In addition to being a reasonably good writer and poet and teacher of writing, I am passionate and knowledgeable about the environment, and about food and wine, and about the relationship between how we eat and drink and the land. Read more…
Needs Improvement: #yourturnchallenge
A little perspective…
I feel like drinking whiskey and watching tv but because I don’t have tv and I do want to keep my commitment to the #yourturnchallenge, I am drinking whiskey and writing. Single malt Irish whiskey from Trader Joe’s if you’re curious.And it’s excellent.
Because it’s been that kind of day and it is easier to pour some whiskey into a beautiful cut glass than it is to choose a wine tonight. Read more…
What’s Important: Rule Out The Big Things #yourturnchallenge
On Day 2, today, Tues. Jan. 20, the #yourturnchallenge prompts participants to share something that’s important.
Audre Lorde, in the Cancer Journals, writes that: “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Right now, I’m thinking about health. Good health. The kind of good health that allows us to enjoy time in nature with family and friends, free to hike, camp, ski, soak in hot springs, backpack, rock climb, jump, dance.
This morning I took my son to the doctor to get his stitches taken out. While I was there, the doctor took a look at my knees. And then I got my first EKG. Read more…
Remembering Michele Serros, MLK, and Why the #YourTurnChallenge
In 1964 when Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, in his speech he said”I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice.” http://nbcnews.to/1BdllKU (“dreams don’t die” 2012 cardboard retablo by Dianne Bennett).
53 Interesting Facts About the Number 53: #2 Ramones Song 53rd & 3rd
Time We Have in Jelly Beans: #YourTurnChallenge
Donald Murray is a famous teacher of writing. He said “Never a day without a line.” By this, he means that every day we should write something, at least a line.
On average, we each have less than 30,000 days in our lives.
Of course, most of us couldn’t write for the first few thousand. Read more…
“Foxcatcher” Gets 5 Oscar Nods: Review
Yoda: Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Do you have any dreams that you hope to fulfill this year?
(Speaking of dreams, here’s a link to the text of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream.” And speaking of MLK who has a birthday coming up and a holiday in his honor on Monday, here’s a blog post in recognition of his service from last year.)
Did you make any New Year’s resolutions or set some goals for 2015? And did you put any of these dreams, goals or resolutions into writing? Read more…
Cesar Reyes Reads 1/15/15
In the video above, Cesar Reyes reads his poem “Vegan” during a “young poets reading” that is an initiative by Ventura County Arts Council and the Ventura County Poet Laureateship, under Ventura County poet laureate Mary Kay Rummel and Marsha de la O. The event was held at the 643 Project Space as part of the Ventura Artist Union exhibit, “This is the Time” on October 19, 2014 in Ventura, California.
Here’s another sample poem by Cesar Reyes. Read more…
art predator 