Pitfalls -- Choking

Hi folks, I'm continuing my series on pitfalls. This week I'm going to talk about a real pitfall for writers with a term that is generally associated with sports.  You know, choking, a team is ahead and the star player just seems to fall apart on the field for no apparent reason and the game is lost. Writers have a similar problem. Choking is collapsing to the pressure of writing. It's hard to put yourself out there. It exposes your inner most self.  A big pitfall for writers is to squander your talent and hard work on a "choke."

To me, choking is all about a "paralysis of analysis." A writer becomes wrapped up in an unreasonable quantity of analysis that overwhelms them.  She find herself incapable of making the necessary cuts and revisions to make her work shine. All the writing is good, she thinks. She can't take any of this out. She can't move any of this around. She can't add that big new part.  Moreover, she goes over and over her first chapter, countless times paralyzed by the need to make that chapter perfect and somehow always coming up short. She reads writing books adding even more advice to the mix. She seeks the feedback of dozens and dozens of colleagues but never fully taking any of the advice, unsure because all the advice contradicts and she is unsure who has offered the best advice. Or she might try to implement all the advice and find that her purpose of writing the piece has become muddy and finds  the work is a train wreck. The writer may become anxious and depressed.  She begins to think of her lost writing dreams and how she is forever barred from success. It's self-fulfilling though, because she has "over thought" and "over complicated" what writing a book is all about. 

Oh, yeah, folks, I have been here. Thankfully the fix is easy. One, kick back one day and reread a favorite book. You see, people can write books. You can do this too. Next, you have to really cut back the amount of information used to help you make revision decisions. You pick the three best colleagues advice and you don't listen to advice from anyone else. This will help stop the choking. Now, stop micro-managing yourself. I mean it. Loosen up and trust your GIFT. The love of writing, your love of story, your love of words, I mean this has been going on for a long while, trust that you were born to do this. Monitoring your every move in writing is making your work ponderous, choppy and uninspired. Finally, consider putting away all your work and start something from scratch, to alleviate the emotional baggage. Deliever a NEW product -- yes, books are products shot through a delivery pipe line with defined actionable steps like a set number of drafts with deadlines, limited expert feedback,  and a definite cut-off for completion. (You wonder why NANOWRIMO is popular -- it's freeing up choking authors by giving them a deadline that doesn't allow for too much analysis.) After you find some success with the new product, return to choked work and move it through the delivery pipeline to readers

I hope this helps you with your work. I hope that you find great success.

Here is the doodle: "The very big array."

Here is this week's  quote. A good one to help move forward.
 
Be unselfish. That is the first and final commandment for those who would be useful and happy in their usefulness. If you think of yourself only, you cannot develop because you are choking the source of development, which is spiritual expansion through thought for others. Charles William Eliot

Golden Advice -- Avoid Stumbling

Hi, folks, this week the golden advice is all about avoiding stumbling. This is my version of the story of the Cult of the Golden Cow.

Once, way back, there was this nation, and they knew the heart of the Universe, the living God, had a plan for them. But it was taking God a long time to get back to them. The messenger who was going to bring the good news was up on some mountain doing his thing and wasn't giving this poor nation the time of day. This messenger was gone for 40 days. Ugh.

So with no immediate direction, someone in this nation got the big idea to pour a bunch of gold into a mold, and make it into a big golden cow. Making the shape wasn't the bad thing, but when it was put out for all to see and everyone began calling it God. That was a problem.

Right then the God messenger showed up, and he had a serious to-do-list from the heart of the universe that included a "No Golden Cow" clause or the "Do not make stuff and then worship it" clause. Yeah, that sucked for them. If they only could have waited.

This story resonates with me. The whole Golden Cow thing, I mean you get this vision from the heart of the Universe of what you are supposed to do. Perhaps, you are supposed to write a book that is important. Maybe, you've even written it. And here's the rub, the messengers are not getting back to you.

In the words of Douglas Adams, "DON'T PANIC!"

Just chill. Don't go do other stuff because you are afraid it will not work out. Fear is the enemy. You can't control when the good news will come. All you can do is remember what the vision is, and do that. Don't waver. Don't give up. Avoid golden cows. Avoid stumbling. Doing something else and ditching your true purpose is not going to help you. It will just be a time suck and keep you from doing useful things.

This is what you have to do: Wait.

I know how hard that is. I have been waiting so long that sometimes it feels like my heart will break from the weight (hahaha) of it. Hope deferred does make the heart sick. But hope is something you need to cling to, because of this, hope is not going to disappoint you. Hope is the anchor of your soul.

Whatever you are waiting for, keep in there. I will be back next week with more inspiration.

This week, I offer a photo instead of a doodle, "The Signs Are Everywhere."




Quote of the week:

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Friedrich Nietzsche

Fierce

Here are a few of the ideas that I gleaned from a commencement speech by Mr. Jobs. In three short stories, Mr. Jobs hits some deep truth.

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, keep moving on. To do great work, love what you do. Good advice. I hope you work hard to redeem your days this week. Life is, oh, so short.

After that Mr. Jobs talks about cancer his fight with cancer. I'm so close to that, living that moment when you are wondering if you are going to have any more life to live. This experience makes you understand how precious life is. I've been there and it has made me fierce to seize each day.

Don't waste your life. Follow your heart and intuition.

Here is a link to the entire speech from Mr. Jobs.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc.

This week, I hope you thank God that you're here and you have yet more opportunity to follow your dreams.

No doodle this week, instead a photo. I call this "Wild World." I took this pic of the Pacific south of Monterey, CA, last February.



Here is the quote for the week: Follow your heart even when it leads you off the the well worn path. Steve Jobs

Keep the creativity fire burning

For the first time since June, I had a paying gig this week! Yay! This week's post will have to be short because my brain is sort of fried from work and birthday mayhem. Yep, I'm a year older.

One of the most difficult things I have to face as a creative person is the never ending journey of keeping the creativity fire burning. I will be honest. I usually feel overwhelmed, half-baked, and in treading water mode. Writing is difficult, time-consuming work and for me not exactly lucrative. Let's just say the minions of McDonalds receive pay that I only dream of and they get benefits, too.

This season of life has been particularly tough. The recession is steaming rolling over us here in little Woodinville, and many of my friends are in the same boat --unemployed and trying to survive on a teacup worth of life savings. I'm trying to keep breathing and creating.

In general, my success is so-so. I keep the fire burning by surrounding myself with the best and brightest talent on the planet. I try to have fun every day. I take a moment each day and let the beauty of the world soak into me. I hug my cat, my kids, and my sweetheart everyday. I keep breathing.

I send a hug to everyone out there. Times are hard, but keep your creative fire burning!


Hey, I got my scanner working so doodles are back. For my birthday, I'm posting one of the Js drawings. The Js are my kids. From J2: "Girl". I pulled this out of the trash. I really have to monitor our trash.



Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!


My playlist hit is the number one song on my birthday and one of my fav feel good songs, too: "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles.



My quote for the day:

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt