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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
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Dear Reader,
One day each week I'm answering questions about writing. I won't be able to send everyone a personal reply, but you may see your question answered in my column. Many of you emailed with a great idea, "Suzanne, can you put all of the writing questions and answers on a web page?"
Yes, indeed! Below is the link to a webpage that includes all of the questions and answers so far, and I'll update it every week.
The writing question and answer webpage is at:
http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/writer-questions.html
When you submit your question to: [email protected] I'll enter your name in this week's drawing for a cute writing journal.
Today's question and reply:
"Dear Suzanne, I am writing a novel (hopefully my first trilogy) and am having a writers block. How do you overcome this?"--Laryssa
(Suzanne replies:) When the writing isn't flowing and I've convinced myself, "I can't write today," since I write a daily column "not" writing isn't an option for me. But the discipline and experience of writing every day, for the past 13 years, gives me the confidence that if I keep my fingers moving over the keyboard, even if I'm typing junk, eventually a column will appear.
So my first suggestion would be to make sure you write every day, even if it's only for 15 minutes. Your body's a quick study. When you sit down in front of your computer and put your fingers on the keys, your mind knows what it's supposed to do, because it's been in training every single day. "Hey, this feels familiar, Laryssa's ready to write, so I better do my part."
Listening to loud music is relaxing and makes me forget that writing is hard work. But loud music doesn't work for everyone. My friend, author Blaize Clement, couldn't understand how I could possibly get any work done while listening to Christopher Cross, or the Indigo Girls, because she had to have complete silence when she was writing.
Take a walk, do some gardening, sit in a coffee house and people watch--sometimes a change of scenery helps. But my all-time, never fail, way to jump start my writing is to answer a simple question. Because if I can trick myself into thinking I'm not really writing, then I can write. Sometimes I answer a friend's email, "How's it been going lately?" When I'm writing a reply, my brain thinks I'm simply answering a question, not "really" writing. And when I'm finished, I can't explain it, but my brain never catches on to the ruse, and my writing is flowing again.
Or sometimes I simply ask myself the question, "What is it that I'm trying to write about today?" and in the process of answering the question, I get back in the writing groove.
I hope this helps. Let me know if any of my tricks work for you.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Happy Writing,
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.MuffinsandMayhem.com
AUTHORBUZZ: Cynthia Ellingsen, today's featured author, writes...
When life doesn't go according to plan, three best friends put their heads together and come up with an ingenious idea. Jackie, Doris and Cheryl open The Whole Package, the world's first restaurant staffed exclusively by scantily clad men.
To read more about The Whole Package goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
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