Ten Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

with Erica Vetsch and friends!

Happy, happy birthday, SEEKERVILLE! There are so many things that make this place special, and I have to give a shout out to the original Seekers. You ladies are the epitome of what it means to be godly women. The love you have for one another, the way you support, pray for, encourage, exhort, and hold one another accountable, that’s true Christian love in action. And that you carry that out in discipling others in not just writing, but in Christian faith, shows your hearts. Ten years is something wonderful to celebrate, and I hope I’m around when you celebrate TWENTY!  

And now on to our topic for the day. 

Writer’s Block. 

UGH. Dreaded, obstinate, soul-sucking writer’s block. That wall you hit when you sit down to write and realize… “I got nothin’.” How do you break through it? Do you just wait? Is there a formula to follow, a button to push or key to turn?

I wish. 

There are, however, some things you can do to help alleviate the problem of Writer’s Block, and in keeping with the “TEN” theme of the month here on Seekerville, here are ten ways to beat the Keyboard Paralysis that comes with Writer’s Block. 

(Also, in keeping with spirit of #2 on the list, I consulted some of my favorite writer peeps who have lent their expertise to this thorny issue. At the end of the post, you will find their smiling faces and links to find them online. Seriously, check them out. They’re AMAZING authors and even better people!) 

Ten Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

1) Do Something Else/Walk Away

“When I’m stuck on a plot, I go do something else, something completely different from writing. Stroll the farmer’s market, watch birds, bake a pie, do a little cross stitching, pick some wildflowers, solve a logic problem—and let your mind wander.”  Susan Page Davis
“Quit writing. I know. Sounds stupid, but seriously, sometimes you need to take a break. I'm talking short break here, not years. Take a day or two off to regroup and put your mind on something else. Visit a museum. Bury your face in a book. Get outside and go hiking. Sometimes all it takes is a little space.” Michelle Griep 


“Practically speaking, if I need to write and the words seem to be stuck, I try to shake them loose with a little activity. Maybe it’s a walk (I’ve heard that green and blue are creative colors) or just dancing around my house or even doing the dishes. A change of location and some motion can get the creative juices flowing.”  Liz Johnson


“The first thing is to "step away from the computer/laptop/tablet." Just walk away. Even if you're on deadline and the book is due in two hours!  Go for a walk, put on some music that inspires you, and get outside. There's something about the out of doors that sweeps away all those cobwebs in my brain. While I'm walking, I pray for God's help, and then listen to music and think about my storyline and characters. Usually, somewhere after the first mile, I get the inspiration I need.” MaryLu Tyndall

As you can see from the number of replies on this one, it’s a very popular method. Sometimes we need to let our story breathe, let our brains percolate on the problem, and ‘turn the channel’ for a while in our heads without stressing. 

2) Brainstorm with Someone 

“I like to brainstorm one-on-one with another family member. My grandson Caleb is high on my list, along with son Jim, daughter Megan, and husband Jim. I tell them where my plot is bogged down, and they usually have some ideas on how to get things rolling again. I don’t always use their ideas, but it gets the juice flowing again.” Susan Page Davis

“Talk it out--One of the best ways I've found to clear plot hurdles is to leave my own personal brainstorming session and get others involved. It can be your critique partner, your writing mentor, even a supportive family member or friend. Share your story problem and listen to their suggestions, even if they're different than the direction you intended to take. Sometimes, non-writers come up the best ideas!” Amanda Barratt

I love to brainstorm. My daughter is usually my sounding-board in this, as well as a couple of writing friends. Face-to-face brainstorming is always best for me, but in a pinch, email/messaging/face-timing works, too. There’s something about tapping into another person’s creativity that helps release my own.

3) Focus on the Emotions, yours and your characters’

“Focus entirely on emotions, my own and the characters. Nothing about plot, only how I feel, and lay that on top of my character. This usually gets the creativity juices flowing.”
 Peter Leavell 

Even though Peter is the only one to voice this particular method in my entirely unscientific and random-ish poll, I think he’s hit on something vital here. Readers read fiction in order to have a powerful emotional experience. Often when we face writer’s block, it’s because we have either sucked all the emotion out of a scene or story, or we’re too scared to write the emotions we know the scene needs. Either way, examine the emotions in the scene. Tap into the emotion, and the words will come.

4) Kill Your Inner Editor

“Kill your inner editor. Go ahead. It's not a felony. Most often when I can't seem to put a word down on the screen it's because I'm afraid to. I want to put out genius prose and words that make people weep. I expect perfection out of myself. But doggone it, no one is perfect and neither are our words. Just getting something down is better than nothing because you can't edit a blank page. Use your editing time for polishing up those sentences.”  Michelle Griep


Oddly enough, I blogged about this very topic once here on Seekerville here.  

 Years ago, when I first attended a local NaNoWriMo group, the leader had us do the most ridiculous exercise that I felt at the time was an awkward waste…and yet, it turned out to be awesome. We were told to draw a picture of our inner editor on a 3x5 card, then seal it into an envelope (duct tape works great!) with instructions to not let that little monster out until after NaNo was over! As goofy as this sounds, it works! Try it! You have my permission to put your inner editor into a soundproof jail until you have that first draft done.

5) Recognize Your Writer’s Block as Writer’s Fear

“Fear of failure. Anyone who’s ever done something creative has hoped it would be well-received and feared it wouldn’t. And sometimes that fear becomes so overwhelming that the words stop coming altogether. When fear blocks my creativity, I remember one crucial truth. No failure is final. Max Lucado wrote about that, and he would know. Just ask him about the 14 publishers who turned down his first book. But he didn’t give up. He kept trying. And the 15th publisher offered him a contract and changed the landscape of Christian publishing forever. He kept trying, and I will too.” Liz Johnson

This is HUGE! So often, when I face writer’s block, it’s because I am afraid. Afraid that I have written myself into a corner I can’t escape. Fear that people will finally realize I’m a fraud who can’t write her way out of a wet tissue paper bag. Fear that the story is too big, the emotions too grand, for my abilities. Fear that I can’t meet deadlines or reader expectations…fear, fear, fear.  That will stifle your writing quicker than Sugar won the Derby! And most of our fears are lies anyway. Stop listening to lies. Preach the truth to yourself. You are a writer. You are creative. You are able to produce excellent fiction. There. Now go do it!

6) Stop Comparing your work/results negatively with others’

“Sometimes writer’s block comes from comparison, especially when I compare my writing process with how my friends craft their books. Somehow my methods always seem to fall short, and I worry that I’m doing this whole writing thing wrong. And that’s when the words seem to stop. And when that happens, I try to focus on the parable of the talents. Jesus told the story of a master, who gave each of his three servants a different gift. And he expected each servant to use the talent given him. So I remember that my job isn’t to use my friend’s gift. It’s to use mine.” Liz Johnson

Or you could take a totally different spin on comparison… (Trust Peter to do it backwards!)
“I pick up a book I know I’m going to hate. The writing is terrible. The plot is horrid. The characters are insipid. And I read until I fling it against the wall, knowing I can do better. Then I write.” Peter Leavell

Negative comparison will create a desert in your creative soul. You will become a dry, barren, thirsty land, craving what you don’t have. Stop. It. Right. Now. The way God deals with someone else’s words and writing career are HIS business. Carping and whining about it won’t help you. Root out envy. Celebrate with your fellow authors…put yourself in their place only long enough to ask yourself what would you like to hear from others if that writing success milestone was yours? Then go do that thing. Send the congratulatory email, put that ‘props-to-you’ post on Facebook, then get your little hiney back to work on your own project, knowing that God can do great things. Even for you!

7) Quit Stalling

"I don’t believe in writer’s block. To me, calling a problem “writer’s block” is another excuse for stalling—for not writing. I find that putting my butt in the chair, opening the file, and placing my fingers on the keyboard, makes the words come. They don’t always flow like sparkling gems, but words come, and words written are words that can be edited. Coming to a snag in a scene is like finding an unexpected detour while driving. You’re forced to take an unplanned turn, which makes your navigation system recalculate. A technique I use when I’m stuck in a scene is to type a couple of asterisks and move on to a place where I know what’s going to happen. Forward motion is the key. Later, after I’ve had time to think (and I’ve put some space between myself and the page), I come back and reevaluate it. Usually by then I’m ready to move forward." - Cheryl St. John, Write Smart, Write Happy, Writers Digest Books 2/17

Are you paying attention here? Because this is a shaft that drives straight to the heart of a lot of ‘Writer’s Block’ issues. It’s called stalling. Because we don’t want to do the hard work. Because writing is supposed to be FUN, right? And it is. It’s fun, and it’s pea-pickin’ hard work. A lot of people I encounter love being part of the writing world, but they don’t actually write. They talk about writing, they spend money on writing-related things, but they don’t write. They want to ‘have written’ more than they want to write. And they often claim they’ve hit a patch of ‘writer’s block’ because that sounds so bohemian and artsy and writer-ish…but it’s really just another excuse. Don’t be that person. Put your tookis in the chair and put some words on the page!

8) Go Back to the Beginning and Work the Plot

 "There might be a hundred different reasons the words don’t flow. Maybe you didn’t plan the story well enough, so you don’t know where you’re going. Maybe you failed to create enough inherent conflict to sustain the plot. If the story isn’t working for you, take it apart, analyze it, and put it back together. See it as a challenge, a place to improve the story. It’s not time to stop simply because it’s hard. Writing is always hard." - Cheryl St. John, Write Smart, Write Happy, Writers Digest Books 2/17

Often when I hit a sticky patch when words aren’t flowing, it’s because I have sucked all the tension out of my plot. There’s nothing driving the story forward. That’s when I go back to the last place in the story that made sense, that felt right, that had me on the edge of my seat, and I search for where I got off track. This is hard work, because sometimes I have to axe a TON of words, but it is worth it. Once I stop dodging the tension, stop coddling my characters, and really put them through the wringer, the words flow!

9) Do Something Else Creative

“Give yourself a creative boost- When the deadline approaches and you're pushing to get words in, sometimes it's easy to let the creative well run dry. Pick up that new novel by an author that inspires you (extra points if it's in a different genre than what you write in.) Watch a movie or TV show that you wouldn't usually pick. The relaxation of focusing on another person's creative output instead of your own, plus immersing yourself in a different media experience, can get those creative wheels rolling smoothly again.” Amanda Barratt 
“I read or watch an entirely different genre than I write, and stumble across a plot line I’d like to incorporate into my work.” Peter Leavell

“Try listening to an audio book. Not just any audio book, but a book you love, a well-written story that moved you.” MaryLu Tyndall

I employ this one, too. In my case, I crochet, sew, cross-stitch, scrapbook, or quilt. I do something creative that is not writing related, and that often triggers a fix to a plot problem or refills my creative reserves. Sometimes I read history books. (Yeah, I know, but for me history books are exciting idea factories.) If you’re feeling creatively exhausted in the word department, get out some colored pencils and a coloring book. Dig out that needlepoint project you buried in the closet. Watch that movie that always makes you cry or laugh. Fill up the tank again.

10) Pray for Inspiration

As mentioned in MaryLu’s advice under point one…prayer. Praying for inspiration and help is never wrong. There are a lot of things that contribute to writer’s block, and some of it has nothing to do with writing at all. Real life can intrude. Family tragedies, natural disasters, financial struggles. And we pray about those things, naturally and with regularity. But God doesn’t want to be God of only part of your life. He wants it all, including the writing. And not just control of the results, but also of the process. That means He wants to hear from us when we’re struggling. Pour out your heart, your desires, your willingness to be led to God. He will hear. You will cast those cares upon Him, knowing He cares for you. Ask Him for fresh words, and then sit down and do the work.

 So, there you have it. Ten ways to beat the dreaded Writer’s Block.  I encourage you to click on the links below and visit the fine authors who helped with the information of this post, and I’d love it if you’d visit www.ericavetsch.com and sign up for my quarterly-ish newsletter! 

Visit Susan here.

   

Visit Michelle here.

  

Visit Liz here.

Visit Cheryl here.

  

Visit Amanda Here

Visit MaryLu here.

Visit Peter here.

I would love to hear from you on how YOU conquer this awful beast called Writer’s Block. 

And I’d love to give away a “Hot off the Presses-Not-Yet-Available-to-the-General-Public” copy of A Child’s Christmas Wish to one commenter! (Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.)

Seekerville wants to thank Erica and friends for joining us today and we'll be giving away an additional copy of A Child's Christmas Wish (when it becomes available) to a second commenter because it's our birthday and we can!

A Child's Christmas Wish

A Baby for Christmas 

The only Christmas gift Oscar Rabb's four-year-old daughter prays for is one the widower can't provide: a baby sibling. And when his neighbor's house burns down, he's willing to open his home to pregnant and widowed Kate Amaker and her in-laws—but not his heart. Even if his little girl's convinced Kate's unborn child is the answer to her wish. 

Kate quickly sees the generous but aloof Oscar has little interest in growing closer to his houseguests. Still, she intends to make the coming Christmas a season to remember for his daughter. And as Oscar starts to open up to her, Kate can't help picturing just how wonderful the holidays—and a future together—might be.

Best-selling, award-winning author Erica Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. She’s a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota, and she married her total opposite and soul mate! When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks. You can connect with her at her website, www.ericavetsch.com where you can read about her books and sign up for her newsletter, and you can find her online at https://www.facebook.com/EricaVetschAuthor/ where she spends way too much time!

Cooperative Working: Writing a Continuity With Other Authors

Ruthy here, introducing an author who needs no introduction! Cheryl St. John is the author of many books in multiple genres, and one of the ladies I run to when I want to hear advice and hear it straight! Cheryl is working with two other amazing authors on a historical continuity for Love Inspired Historicals, and with all the fun going on at Love Inspired Historicals right now, I knew you'd love to hear more about this! 

Take it away, Cheryl!

Cowboy Creek is Love Inspired Historical’s Spring continuity series set in a Kansas boomtown and featuring brides who come west to marry following the Civil War.

April: Want Ad Wedding, Cheryl St.John

May: Special Delivery Baby, Sherri Shackelford

June: Bride By Arrangement, by Karen Kirst

I truly enjoy writing these series books, working with other fabulous authors and following guidelines set up by the editors.

When the author is given a brief synopsis and character outlines to work from, their job entails making the story their own, through characterization, backstory and internal conflict, while staying on track with the outline and working with the other authors’ characters and ideas. It’s a challenge. There are hundreds of details to work out as well as facts, names, places, dates to stay accountable to, and all the stories must flow together.

I might seem pretty seat-of-the-pants, but I’m truly a detail person in this regard, so having the first deadline in the series, I drew a map of Cowboy Creek and enlisted Sherri and Karen’s help in placing businesses and homes. We shared a Pinterest board, so we could easily describe and identify characters we were sharing. You can see our board here.

https://www.pinterest.com/cheryl_stjohn/cowboy-creek-love-inspired-historial-trilogy/

There were so many characters to keep track of that this definitely helped our process.

For each story I write, I create a Pinterest board, which is handy for several reasons. It’s great reference when you want to remember what a character looks like or describe their clothing. As a group, we added to this board, so we had each other’s characters to reference as well. As soon as the book is finished (and often before the book is finished if it’s scheduled) the author is asked to fill out Art Fact Sheets. Having all of these character photos, plus scenery and cover ideas in one place is extremely helpful at this stage. LIH asks for the photos in a Word document, so you can gather them all on your board, then download and insert them in Word docs to send the art department. The better photos you send, the better cover you’re likely to get. It’s a good idea to find other comparable covers or photos you like to assure the cover you’d like to see.

To stay coordinated on a project like this, the authors must constantly update secondary character information, names, traits, businesses, jobs, etc.. This can be done with file sharing, like yahoo groups or google docs. We had a yahoogroup, where we asked questions of each other and kept track. A google calendar can also be valuable for keeping track of the months your story takes place. The key to a multi-author project is communication.

Like planning any other book, the author finds something that excites her within the period in history, has in mind the tone she wants to set, creates backstory and builds conflict and emotion to sustain the book to its end. I kept in mind the emotional wounds of the people and our country during this time. I wanted to show the bravery of the women who traveled to an unknown land in hope of a new and better life—sometimes out of sheer desperation. To keep a historical authentic it’s important to know and understand the political and social climates of our setting and time period. There are so many resources to help with this. We can read journals, diaries, cookbooks, travel logs, find photographs, study the politics, art and music of not only the year the story happens, but the formative years of our characters’ lives. People are a result of their history and upbringings. Events change people. War changes people and countries.

And because I write romance, I wanted to give my characters a new beginning and a second chance at happiness. Themes of forgiveness and second chances consistently run through my stories, because that’s what life is all about. That’s what Jesus is all about. I’ve had the pleasure of reading them all, and I believe you’re going to thoroughly enjoy these three stories.

I’ll draw from the comments for three copies of Want Ad Wedding. Mention whether you’d like a print copy or if you’d prefer a .mobi mailed to your Kindle address. 

NEWSFLASH VIA SHERRI SHACKELFORD! Sherri is also offering three copies of Special Delivery Baby either print (when they arrive) or a .mobi file mailed to your Kindle! Thank you, ladies!

And exciting news: Sherri and I are currently writing yet another Cowboy Creek installment, Christmas in Cowboy Creek for the Love Inspired Historical western Christmas anthology. Two more stories set in Cowboy Creek!

 Ruthy again! Cheryl, I'm so glad you were here, thank you!!!

I've got flapjacks on the griddle and a pot of fresh, strong coffee, some sweet tea, and some of my cousin's maple syrup from back East! Come on in, let's chat writing historicals and writing together... What do you think the toughest aspect of writing with a group would be?

I can't wait to hear what you say!

Creating Characters by Cheryl St.John

Cheryl St.John

Writers Digest recently released a book titled Creating Characters. It’s a compilation of chapters from various authors, all on the subject of character, and the editor has grouped them into nine sections by topic. My RWA chapter Romance Authors of the Heartland is going through this book one section per month this year. The book lends itself beautifully to any type of study like this, because each chapter is a nugget of good info on its own.

After opening this book and glancing through, I made up my mind this would be my study book in 2015. I cracked the spine (which I never do) so it lies flat and have written up and down the margins, underlined and circled. If I wear it out, I’ll buy another one.

It’s not that there’s an earth-shattering new concept between the pages. I like this book because it makes me look at developing characters with fresh eyes and a new perspective, as well as reminding me why the basics still work.

Part One is Getting Started, and Chuck Wendig kicks it off with 25 Things You Should Know About Your Character. I camped out on #6 for a while: Not Likeability, but Rather Livability. “It doesn’t matter if we “like” your character…it only matters that we want to live with him. We must see something that makes us want to keep on keeping on…” I’ve long believed this about characters in the state of development: We can’t make real people do what we think they should do. We’re not them. We don’t think like them.

Characters are more realistic if they do things we would never do or behave in ways we don’t approve of. They are not all “us.” The most extreme example of this I can think of is Dexter. The writer developed a character completely outside our stratosphere of acceptable behavior, but he also gave him profound motivation, and through internal narration made him sympathetic. We knew why Dexter behaved the way he did and we cared enough about him that we didn’t want him to get caught.

In #19 Chuck adds to my thought: You Are Not Your Character, Except When You Are. “You take the things that have happened to you and you bring them to the character…Pull out the feelings.” Which is what I went into depth about in Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict. Learn the things that create emotion in you and use them to advantage in your story. This section also goes into choosing names and introducing your character for the first time.

Part Two is on point of view and Part Three dialogue. Part Four protagonists and Part Five antagonists. I have reread this section a couple of times. I enjoyed chapter 17 on antiheroes by Jessica Page Morrell . Examples are Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry and John McClane in Die Hard. Readers root for this character despite his flaws or the things he might have done. Ms. Morrell created roles for anti-heroes: Everyman, vigilante or tarnished knight, charming criminal (Ocean’s Eleven, To Catch a Thief), dark hero (Aliens), reluctant hero (Hans Solo), loser, outcast, screwball (Romancing the Stone), disgraced hero, oddball, rebel (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). There are a couple of good chapters on villains too.

Part Six is about supporting characters, Part Seven: conflict, Part Eight: motivation and relationships (Yours Truly has a chapter here titled Motivation and Realism, imagine that?) and Part Nine: character arcs. I’ve read the entire book through and have gone back to study different sections at a time. If you’re like me and always up for another book on the writing craft, this one is different enough and diverse enough to give you food for thought. If I whetted your appetite for The Complete Guide to Populating Your Fiction, leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a copy of CreatingCharacters-The Complete Guide to Populating Your Fiction.
Or grab a copy here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599638762

Follow my Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/CherylStJ

Cheryl's got another great craft book available, too.

Writing with Emotion, Tension and Conflict:

Today's highly competitive fiction market requires writers to imbue their novels with that special something - an element that captures readers' hearts and minds. In Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict, writers will learn vital techniques for writing emotion into their characters, plots and dialogue in order to instill that special something into every page.

Keep Your Story Moving Forward by Guest Cheryl St.John

 

Cheryl St.John

A lot of writers have had trouble reading Dwight Swain’s book. I did for a while, too. It kept putting me to sleep. But as a new writer, I was hungry for the principles it held, hungry for the education, and so I persevered. Finally, after many tries, a light bulb went off over my head and I understood what his teaching was telling me. I got it! I saw the techniques in every book I had ever loved. And my writing changed forever.

 

Everything that happens in your story, every piece of information learned, every obstacle faced, every conversation, should propel the story toward the conclusion—something I learned and took to heart from Techniques of the Selling Writer. Keep your character's goal in mind. Everything should impact the main character and his goal. Make things worse for him. Make sure that all the changes that happen complicate things. Box him in. Impede his goal. Each obstacle should change things for the character

 

> Change forces your character to adjust. Change won’t let him stand still. Your character must react to what is happening. Your character needs a reason why he can’t simply quit. At each disaster ask, "Why doesn't the character quit?" and you should have a powerful reason why. The reader will lose interest in a character that is fighting without good cause. Your hero is only as strong as the villain or the force opposing his goals.

 

> Make the stakes high enough to fight for. Each person in the story should have something at stake that makes him willing to fight. Increase intensity. Drag your character further and further from his goal.

 

> Make sure the conflicts are important—life threatening or life changing to your character. Remember anything can be important. We’ve all seen entire movies based on saving a single tree or a coffee shop or an animal. Your job is to use the focal character to show the reader why he should care and make him believe. If it’s important to your story person and the reader cares about that person, then the outcome is important to the reader. Show the reader why he should care. Never forget for a minute that your story is about feelings.

 

> Box in your character. Keep whittling away until you take away his choices. Take away the heroine's options, run down the clock, increase the degree of the threat, make each action result in a dead end. This forces your story person to make a choice between two specific courses of action. Keep the reader guessing. Turn an assumption on its head. Slam the hero with a disastrous surprise. Kill off someone. Crush a dream. Do anything to keep the reader turning pages and wondering what will happen next.

 

> Balance peaks of action with valleys of introspection or humor. Hook the reader with action, but allow him to catch his breath before you drag him back into the dilemma. You want a peak and valley pace that will keep the tension from exhausting your reader. At the same time, never end a scene or a chapter without a hook or a dilemma so that your header is forced to keep going.

 

> In action scenes use short sentences and vivid words. Use longer sentences and a gentler story rhythm to slow the pace. Choose your words carefully, and contrast them with the tension of the peak that happened just before. Give the character something to ponder. After the action of the previous scene, make the character figure out what to do next. This is a good time to show who your story person really is because of his thinking process and his courageous or wise or heart-felt decisions. Change of viewpoint dissolves tension, so explore another person’s reactions.

 

> Don't use trivial scenes or conversations just to impart information. Too often I see new writers having their character tell another character something that they both already know, just to get the info into the story. Fill your scenes with true conflict and action, and end them with a disaster or dilemma.

Click to Buy on Amazon

 

> Don’t rehash. And I know we hear repetition in classes and we often repeat things in real conversation, but don’t repeat yourself. Remember readers aren’t dummies. They got it the first time. You’ll insult your reader, or at the very least, irritate him with repetition. If there’s a television show you’re invested in, take note of how quickly events happen and how you can miss something important if you miss an episode or a scene. Yes, some things are repeated for effect, but that is mostly for the sake of characterization. For example, I think Meredith Gray and Christina Yang, started the whole “Seriously? Seriously,” thing when the show premiered ten seasons ago. And several times Meredith herself says she’s all “dark and twisty.” But for the most part, don’t have your character thinking the same thing in chapter six that she thought in chapter three. If it’s something important that characterizes and makes a point, show the dilemma or personality trait in a different way to emphasize.

 

Seriously, if you don’t have a copy of Techniques of the Selling Writer, do yourself a favor and order one now. It’s a training manual for writers.

 

And guess who is speaking at the Writers Digest Conference in NYC this August? I am still incredulous over the invitation and will appreciate your prayers for the trip. Sherri Shackelford is joining me, and I am so thankful and excited. Neither of us have been to NYC, so we’re going to enjoy every minute. Thank you, friends, for helping to make Writing With Emotion Tension & Conflict a popular book among writers! So many of you have recommended it. It has an average 5 star rating on amazon. I am completely humbled and grateful.

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a Kindle copy of any book of your choice of Cheryl's.

xoxo

Cheryl's website

Cheryl's blog

Prepare Yourself for Success: Gaining Confidence

with guest Cheryl St. John.

Along their writing journeys it’s not uncommon for writers to struggle with confidence. We all wonder if we have the stuff it takes. As beginners we wonder if we have an inkling of talent. Once our talent is validated by other writers and readers, we still wonder if it’s good enough, if we have what it takes. It’s good to acknowledge that we don’t know it all and to have a desire to learn and grow, but doubt can hold us back. We shoot ourselves in the foot by creating and feeding feelings of inadequacy. One of the things we can do to build confidence is to recognize and overcome self-defeating behaviors, like negative self-talk. Negative thinking can be detrimental to our performance, make us doubt ourselves and inhibit our creativity. Don’t ever demean an accomplishment by saying or thinking, “I was just lucky" or "Anyone could have done it."

Confidence is often built by setting and achieving goals, so it’s pretty important how we choose to set goals and measure them. Short term and long terms goals should be realistic and achievable. Don’t set yourself up for failure by setting a goal like, “I will be published by this time next year.” Unless you’re independently publishing, a goal like that is out of your control, and the result will leave you feeling helpless or like a failure. Set goals with smaller measurable steps. A long term goal might be to produce a polished product for submission with the next ten months. Then set short term goals to make it happen: Two new pages a day or two hours of writing a day for example. Take an online class or find a critique partner.

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." – William Shakespeare

Most of us were raised in a competitive and comparative environment, where our achievements were profiled and graphed into percentiles, where we were matched against our peers as a gauge to see how we were doing. It’s no wonder so many of us have self-esteem issues and doubts about our abilities. Thank goodness teachers, counselors and parents have learned to work in teams to choose learning methods suitable for children of all capabilities. Now students are treated as individuals and encouraged to learn at their own speed and in the manner best suited for them. Comparing ourselves to others can lead to frustration and inferiority. Someone always appears to be doing better than we are, selling more books, getting more awards, earning more money. Admire them, congratulate them, but focus on your own achievements.

Sometimes we make mistakes. Occasionally a project crashes and burns. Sometimes we have to do something wrong before we figure out how to do it right. And that’s okay—as long as we’re moving forward.

Be willing to make mistakes. I’ve known writers who never got started because they’re always planning, plotting and talking about the book instead of putting words on pages. There are writing students who read every book on the craft and attend hundreds of workshops and conferences and ask questions and take notes and plan, plan, plan. A lot of people want to be writers. Fewer people actually put words on paper.

Being unprepared can leave us feeling inadequate, so reading, attending workshops and staying informed on the craft of writing and the market is another way to help us feel prepared, but a writer moves beyond study to doing.

It’s good to be teachable and eager to learn, but until there are words on paper, it’s impossible to truly learn the craft. The people who don’t get that far want everything to be perfect before it gets on the page—or they want it to come out perfect on the first try, so they wait until they’re good enough. But guess what? It ain‘t gonna happen. Learn from your mistakes. This might sound simple, but if one method didn’t work, try a different one. You can’t expect a different result from the same behavior.

We must be willing to write badly in order to learn to write well. I have a question I ask myself about everything I consider. When I had the inspiration and inclination to write a non-fiction book on writing, I asked the question: “What’s the worst that could happen?”

·        My agent could hate the idea. She loved it.

·        I could learn midway through that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I learned just the opposite.

·        I could get an impersonal rejection stamped NOT FOR US. I didn’t.

Even if our dream publisher hadn’t wanted to become involved with the project, my time would not have been wasted. I would have shown myself I could put together a professional package that reflected years of experience and I would have produced something upon which to improve. 

“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.”          - Peter T. Mcintyre

I’ve been a worship leader for quite a few years, and I always say to my team of singers, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make it with confidence, and so one will know you didn’t intend it that way.” I have been known to sing the wrong notes or words, but I sing them with such authority that everyone follows along. Confidence grows with practice and with maturity.

So I have a how-to-write book being released next month. It’s a pretty big deal. It was a lofty goal to write an instructional book, but I’d been leading workshops and teaching online classes for years, and I had a lot of encouragement from other writers, which built my confidence in my ability. Writing this type of book was something I’d thought about for a long time. It was as big of a step as writing or submitting my first book. My long term goal was to submit it for publication. My short term goals involved gathering my notes and thoughts, preparing the proposal and getting feedback.

The editor of Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict, Rachel Randall, told me I should be proud of this project. And I am because I had the courage to follow through and the confidence to believe in its worth. In this business we don’t always receive recognition for intrinsic value. We should all believe that our value lies inside of us, not in our performance or the size of our royalty checks.  Some things can’t be measured. What makes one book better than the next or one writer better than another? Only perspective. Only the reader, when you get right down to it.

No one can tell you whether or not you’re going to sell a book, publish fifty more or have financial success. There are no guarantees when we start writing, and that lack of assurance can be frustrating. That’s why it’s imperative to grow our confidence in ourselves.

Submitting a book can test our vulnerabilities. A manuscript will be compared to all the others that cross an editor’s desk. It will be scrutinized for its ability to make the publishing house money in the marketplace—bottom line in this business. The only way we can have the confidence to know we’re submitting something with a chance of making it past that test is to learn our craft and practice, practice, practice. Work at writing and work at it until we get better, until we hit our personal stride.

Confidence is gained by successfully completing a task and recognizing the accomplishment—repeatedly. By acknowledging a success, your brain processes, "I can do this again." We can’t nurture confidence if we don’t recognize or even appreciate what we’ve done.

Don’t look at a project as too large. Break it down into steps and accomplish them one at a time. If it’s helpful, record your page/time goals and accomplishments in your planner. Check them off as you reach and overtake each one.

Celebrate every achievement along the way. Have a chapter one achievement award party or treat yourself to something special for milestones reached. Give yourself fun stickers or hearts on your daily planner—something visual to note progress.

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz

Confidence is conditioned behavior.  Many years ago a study was done at the University of Wisconsin. A scientist tied a mouse’s front feet together and placed the animal into the cage of another mouse. The mouse whose cage was being trespassed easily beat up the mouse with its feet tied.

After that happened several times, the scientist put mice without tied feet into the cage. The mouse who’d won repeatedly was so confident by then that it took on and defeated mice even larger than itself. Under ordinary circumstances, that mouse would have run when it saw a larger opponent, but it had been conditioned until it believed it couldn't lose.

Condition yourself. Speak about yourself in positive terms. Set achievable goals and visualize reaching them. Surround yourself with supportive, encouraging people. Embrace mistakes as learning curves. Congratulate yourself every step of the way and celebrate your successes. Acknowledge and appreciate the beauty and talent in you, and be thankful for what you have. A positive attitude is a powerful tool.

Writing with Emotion, Tension and Conflict releases the end of November so it is not available for a giveaway today so, for today, leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a kindle copy of Cheryl St.John's classic romance Land of Dreams.

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Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict:Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel

Today's highly competitive fiction market requires writers to imbue their novels with that special something - an element that captures readers' hearts and minds. In Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict, writers will learn vital techniques for writing emotion into their characters, plots and dialogue in order to instill that special something into every page.

"...essential knowledge and practical exercises which combined, create a tool-kit that no aspiring author can afford to be without. Everything you need to write your novel can be found in these pages." 
    - Kelly L. Stone, author of THINKING WRITE: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind

Wow! Where was this book when I started my writing career?

"A must-have compilation of rock-sound advice from a writer who knows what she's talking about. A book you'll want to inhale whole and then return to time and time again to improve your craft and go deeper in order to write YOUR story. Not only does this book embrace some of the most complex elements of story construction in a clear, easy to digest format, it acts as inspiration for the writer. Sentence upon sentence of outstanding advice!"

- Mary Buckham, author of the Amazon best-selling WRITING ACTIVE SETTINGS series for writers.