Writing Words of Inspiration

Out my office window the little lambs are frolicking over spring green hills this dewy morning. (That's February in California.) I've got a full day of writing ahead, so I thought I'd first share some quotes of inspiration to get motivated.

"I would rather be tortured by writing than be tortured by guilt... One of the things that makes me keep writing is the fear that one day I won't be a writer... And I know that the only way that good things continue to happen for me is to write, to get your butt in the chair and to write." --- novelist Harlan Coben, in a January, 2011 Writer's Digest interview

"You can do anything you want. It just has to work." --sports writer and professor Lowell Cohn,  teaching a USF writing workshop, regarding the 'rules' of writing

"When you sit down to write, remind yourself that, for the duration of your writing time, you are in charge of your life." -- writer and professor Jane Anne Staw, from her book Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working Through Writer's Block

"No matter what happens after this, I've made something, and it will always be mine. And now it's yours, whoever you are who will read my book..." --writer Jenny Shank, from her article "The Ham-and-Egger" in a Poets & Writers 'Why We Write' column, Feb. 2011 issue

Dear Reader:
What are you writing today? What words inspire you to continue?

Crossing That Bridge: Facing the Troll that Lurks Beneath -- Tribute to a New Year

I approach this New Year with a mix of excited anticipation and anxious trepidation about the writing process and all that I wish to accomplish.

I love new beginnings--taking stock and looking forward--and I have many writing goals for developing the craft and my writing life. But I've also noticed each day my mind loops through the same self-defeating cycle with something like this:


1. an insatiable longing and burning desire to create and 'go public' -->
2. an overwhelming foreboding for the task of sorting or starting -->
3. a critical self-doubt that suppresses all writing confidence & visionary insight -->
4. a self-defeating lack of follow-through that leads to writer's block and depression -->
5. a self-fulfilling prophesy that affirms the Inner Critic ("See, I knew you couldn't do it and shouldn't even try!") and her best pal, Paralysis ("You're right. Why bother?") -->
1. an insatiable longing...

The antidote? For a while I tried ignoring (i.e. suppressing) that critic and even supplanting it with a more encouraging voice. It isn't fair to focus only on the 'failures' or fear and not the successes--and there have been many! But no matter how many cheerleaders I have in my corner, that internalized voice of self-doubt continually tries to block my way of accepting the calling and challenge of being a writer. It's a mean and persistent little thing, like a troll that lives under the bridge I keep trying to cross.

So, just like the writing itself, I figure the best way over the bridge is to move across it, step by step. Rather than fight, cower or run away from that vindictive voice that lurks underneath, face it firmly and lovingly like you would a defiant adolescent. Find out what it needs, embrace it and move on. But don't let it stand in your way. As Jane Anne Staw suggests in her book Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working through Writer's Block, letting that voice speak out loud or on the page allows us to identify its source. Imagining it as an innocuous five-inch doll with fuzzy hair helps too.

photo credit: Nancy McCubbin

I realize that inner naysayer seeks my attention with its warnings ("This bridge could collapse--it may not hold the weight--you might not make it across--better to stay back!") in a misguided attempt to protect the frightened part of me that seeks comfort in security rather than risk. But nobody ever wrote or published anything without risking.

As Jessie Morrison wrote on the Writer's Digest blog, MFA Confidential:

"It’s that willingness to risk exposing our inner selves to strangers, with all the inevitable judgment that entails. When you’re writing something you care about... you’re acknowledging an essential truth about yourself. You’re revealing some of the deepest-down things within you, and exposing your own raw heart."

Dear Reader:
What critic lurks and holds you back from your pursuits? How can you address and move past it? What "deepest-down things within you" are worth risking exposure to express?


Look forward to the next Tribute to a New Year posting on celebrating success and outlining new goals!

Jane Anne Staw's book Unstuck

I recently read Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working Through Writer's Block, by USF adjunct professor Jane Anne Staw. Having worked with numerous 'stuck' writers, Staw draws from her own experiences and that of her clients to uncover the reasons behind our resistance.

As I mentioned in my post on The First Draft, my writing style is to edit as I go - so that churning out that first completed work is a meticulous process. So I took comfort in Staw's assertion that she used to get stuck there too: "reviewing over and over again those first words, rearranging them, substituting alternatives, striking them, rearranging them yet again and again..."

But Staw has come to terms with her perfectionist approach. She accepts her desire to revamp each sentence while moving through to completion. For me, staving off the need to revise before it's revision time is like resisting a bar of chocolate before dinner. You acknowledge the craving, and you keep cooking dinner.

In her "Try This" exercises that end each chapter, she offers the following advice [my abridged version] for combating those critical voices:

1. As you write... keep a record of what they say. (Quote in the body of the text or in a notebook.)
2. Try to identify each voice and the role he or she played in your life.
3. Ask yourself questions like, "Is the voice of my sixth-grade teacher relevant to me today?"
4. Respond to their criticisms with something like: "Mr. Diver, I really don't think I need your help anymore. You taught me a lot about history when I was eleven years old. But my dissertation has nothing to do with history or with me as an elementary school student."

To learn more about the author and the book, check out Christi Phillips's blog interview here.

Dear Reader:
Who do your critical voices belong to? How have you addressed them so you can continue on?