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Having Trouble Writing? Work on Yourself First
By Deb Gallardo
You’ll find a number of articles on this site about writer’s block, as well as an offer for a free report on how to overcome it. (See the top of the sidebar on the right.)
I have come to learn, after lo, these many years of learning the writing craft — not to mention what I’ve gleaned from being alive for more than half a century (!) and reading voraciously — that everything starts with our own attitude. I wish I’d learned this from a young age. You’ve heard it said that attitude is everything. This is so, no matter what it is that we are trying to do. So when it comes to writing, what may seem to be writer’s block may, in fact, be an inner conflict of interest. Here’s what I mean:
Let’s say we have a woman who has decided to write a racy romance just because they are hot (pardon the pun) sellers and the market is huge, so that’s where she thinks the money is. She’s read them, but doesn’t really enjoy them that much. As a result she finds herself reluctant to begin writing or just plain blocked. What’s really going here?
She needs to get to the root of the problem.
If she is embarrassed at the idea of writing explicit love scenes that she wouldn’t want her child, her pastor or her parents to read, she will naturally be conflicted about what she has set out to do. Writing under a pseudonym wouldn’t change her inner turmoil if she has a well-developed conscience.
This is a classic example of trying to do something that is out of alignment with our core beliefs. The woman in this case doesn’t have writer’s block in the usual sense. Something within her is stopping her from proceeding because deep down she is conflicted.
Today I got even clearer about the importance of core beliefs during a webinar by one of my favorite online people, Paul Evans. In this presentation he gets right down to how our beliefs (right or wrong) determine our behavior. And our behavior is what determines — and even creates — the results we get in life.
So if we don’t like the results that we get, we each need to ask ourselves:
- “Where do I want to be?”
- “What will it take to get me there?”
It may take re-examining some of our beliefs. I’m not talking about philosophical or religious beliefs necessarily. Rather, this is about what we believe about ourselves and our situations.
Someone might say, “I’m not good at selling.” This may be true. But there are many aspects to selling, and chances are there is at least one function within a sales process that would be compatible with this person’s expertise. It is such “broad brush-stroke” beliefs that can lead to failure.
Paul Evans suggests making two lists, side-by-side. On one side, list the things that are hard to do, that are not fun and not “cool.” On the other side of the page, list things you do with ease, that you enjoy and that are your strengths.
There is a lot more to this than I can get into in the scope of this article. Paul advised us not to build a business around the side of our list that doesn’t list our strengths.
We can apply this to our writing example in this way. If our hypothetical aspiring writer were to list the things she excels in and those areas where she struggles, she might realize she prefers to edit and not write.
OR
She might list the kinds of books she loves to read and realize that what she really wants to do is write for children, not adults.
OR
She could do more soul-searching and determine that she would be better at editing books than at writing them.
Lynn Terry, my online mentor at clicknewz.com, is fond of saying, “Know your objective.” Whether it’s what to focus on with a web page, the content of a blog post, or who to “friend” on Twitter and Facebook — with all these things we should know what our objective is. Not, however, someone else’s opinion about what our objective should be.
So if you’re having trouble writing lately, ask yourself this question:
What is it that I want to accomplish?
- Make money?
- Become famous?
- Fulfill a life-long dream?
- Help people fulfill their dreams?
- Give hope to the hopeless?
- Make people forget their troubles for awhile?
The first three examples are more self-centered. That doesn’t make them less viable, but it’s interesting to note that the last three can accomplish the same thing as the first three. It’s all in our beliefs, which determine our behavior, which creates our results.
Head on over to Paul Evan’s site for more information on his free webinar: Academy60 and get clearer on your own CORE Strategies to help you accomplish what you want to do.
Related Posts
- Writers – Boost Your Creativity & Overcome Writer’s Block
- Psychology of Writing – Self-Limiting Beliefs
- Writer’s Block – 10 Tips to Combat It
- Writer’s Block – Cures for Writer’s Block-itis
- Writer’s Block – Immediately Combat It
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