And the Little Blue Engine smiled
and seemed to say as she puffed steadily
down the mountain, “I thought I could.
I thought I could. I thought I could. I
thought I could.
I thought I could.
I thought I could.
Watty Piper’s 1930 “The Little Engine That Could”.
My favourite music when writing is classical music. It’s a nice backdrop that doesn’t overshadow my thinking. It’s not as distracting as listening to music with lyrics.
Try it!
There’s a lot to be said about play. It relaxes the brain and personally I’ve found that the less stressed I am, the more creative ideas I have. When I take my laptop or notebook to work outside in the garden, I come up with the most incredible stories and my writing resonates the calm that I feel.
I’ve said before, do a crossword or a sudoku every morning. But how about looking up different word games to play whenever you need a bit of a break from your writing. There’s so many to choose from. Do a Google search and you’ll see.
It’s great to be inspired by great minds who think like you. As a writer, you may tend to read books that are within your realm of interest.
But the fact is that by sticking to a particular area of comfort, you are pigeonholing yourself into a limited area of creativity. Break free, and look at writers who are experts in their own genre. If you prefer reading can-lit novels all the time, consider picking up a book of poetry for inspiration once in a while. Recently I was at an ECW Press party and picked up two wonderful books of inspiration. One was a poetry book called Happyland by Kevin Connolly; the other was Joni Mitchell, In Her Own Words: By Malka Marom.
Both these books were great in helping me gather inspiration for one of my retail clients.
As a general rule, I love to surround myself with books. All kinds of books, from opposite ends of the genre spectrum, to a variety of age groups. This way, I never have an excuse to blame anything on writer’s block. And, with my line of work, I can never afford to be weighed down by such frivolous musings.
Learn from your mistakes but don’t dwell on them.
Even the most successful people have made mistakes. It’s part of the process of moving forward, successfully.
Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that they have failed countless times before they finally landed on a great idea that made them who they are.
So stop harping about that bad apple you were dealt. Keep moving forward or you may miss the next great idea just around the corner.
Richard Branson said,
“You need fewer of those people who zap energy and you need more of the kind who help you stay on track–true friends who help you find joy and meaning.”
When you surround yourself with people better than you, they inspire you to do better yourself.
As a writer, it is critical to have a network of people that you can draw on. A friend who’s always asking you about your writing progress. Or, a writing pal that you call rely on to buckle down and spend an afternoon writing at a coffee shop.
Inspirations are spontaneous. They don’t strike when you want them to. But you have to be open to letting them in.
And when they do, you have to have some way of jotting them down. If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your day trying desperately not to forget that one insight. Imagine the amount of brain cells used to do that! This also means that you potential block off any opportunity for any other creative insights to come into your life.
Think of it as Feng Shui. Clearing your mind to allow more creative inspiration in.
From the book 712 More Things To Write About:
Write a party scene from the perspective of the caterer who walks the floor with a tray of hors d’oeuvres.
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712 MORE THINGS TO WRITE ABOUT, is published by Chronicle Books, and distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books.
PURCHASE THE BOOK
Sometimes the only way to approach a problem is to look at it from an entirely different perspective.
Which means, you have to go back to square one.
Are you a good time manager? Are you utilizing your day to its maximum potential?
Write down how you manage a typical day! Here’s an example of one….
[YOUR NAME], NaNoWriMo Novelist
6:40 Alarm goes off. No snooze. Get up. Shower.
6:50 Make coffee; grab a bowl of cereal and banana.
6:55-7:15 Check email, and other social networks.
7:14 Shut off from the world.
7:15-7:45 Make breakfast for family.
7:45 Spouse takes kids to school. Clean up breakfast dishes.
7:50 Log back on computer. Research tweets, get daily news.
8:15- 9:15 Workout at the home/condo gym. Watch fun TV show while exercising.
9:15-9:30 Shower, dress, skip the blow dry.
9:30 – ? Write, write, write. Take a break for a snack and meal.
5:00 – Prepare dinner for the family.
8:00 – 9:30 – Write.
9:30 – Start getting ready for bed. Read in bed.
10:15-10:30 – Lights off. (If not earlier)
Happy Day 21 of NaNoWriMo!
Today’s word count: 35,007 words
ThinkBLink by Shilpa Raikar.