Sunday, April 1, 2018

On Writing: Overcoming Obstacles One





There are various obstacles that may arise while writing. It doesn’t matter if your trying to write one paragraph or a full-length novel, we all have faced mountains while constructing our master pieces. What I’ve learned to make writing ideas flow from my mind to paper is to always keep writing tools (i.e. pen and paper) with me at all times. I literally purchased a half dozen small 5x7 60 sheet journals from Dollar Tree to help with this. I keep one journal in my purse and carry it with me everywhere.

Another thing I do is I keep word processing tools on all my devices. I have MS Word not only on my laptop but my Android phone and Kindle as well. This way, I can work on my projects any where no matter how small of a change or addition I need to make to one of my works. I do those updates in real time. MS Word is easy to download on most devices and sometimes for free, especially with the subscription to Office 365.

Writers block is a real problem for most writers. Still though, you cannot allow it to stop you from writing. My best advice is if you ae going through one of those times get up, walk away from the project and leave the premises. You could go for a walk, which is what I usually do. While you are on your walk pay attention to everything around you; the way the air smells, how the clouds form, what color the first person who passed you is wearing. You should try to formulate a story in you mind. When you get back to home write in your journal about what you witnessed on your walk. About a few hours later try to create a short scene about your walk. That little exercise should give you a break from the project and exercise not only, your body but your mind as well.

There are various writing obstacles that we all have faced at one time or other during our process. They include writing anxiety, procrastination, lack of confidence, lack of productivity, lack of motivation and even perfectionism. I will be looking at all these issues in future posts to try to give you some help along the way. We all have books to complete and get out in the world that could possibly help the next person.

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