What I Learned From My Daily Writing Challenge
One year ago in January, 2014 I joined a writing group, challenging us to write 500 words daily. Jeff Goins who started the group asked us today, what we’ve learned as a result of the writing challenge.
Here’s some of the many things I’ve learned.
- I can reign in my creative self to be disciplined enough to write consistently on a daily basis.
- I need to know someone cares what I have to say and is listening, caring and following even if it’s few. Encouragement, support and accountability is vital.
- Writing daily is a whole lot harder than I ever thought and a whole lot easier once I’ve got the momentum going.
- I have more stories, lessons learned, wisdom nuggets to write and share than I ever dreamed.
- I feel relieved when I write because the weight of what’s in my heart is now out of me and recorded.
- Writing improves with the sheer practice of doing it.
- I still make many mistakes and it’s okay because the most important thing is to get it written and out there.
When you stretch yourself to exercise a new discipline, if you’ll stay with it, the discipline will reward you. You will experience the rewards of your diligence in many ways both subtle and obvious.
Go write NOW.
Enjoy the Gift of Writing!
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How to Write: Have Fun Creating Word Pictures
Do you enjoy word pictures? Does it stimulate your creativity to create them with your writing?
I love to read good word pictures and I enjoy crafting them. Here’s one I created the other day. I had fun with it so I thought I’d share it with you and see if it would inspire you to create your own.
My sister and I sat in the lovely outdoor setting of the Carlsbad Inn in southern California gazing at the flowers and enjoying lively music from the sixties.
Suddenly, a woman with grey hair who looked to be about seventy-five, rounded the corner. Her bright pink shirt covered her protruding tummy as she swayed from side to side to the music. She walked/danced in rhythm with the beat as she made her way to her family gathered on the lawn under the umbrella. The look of joy on her face captivated me and drew me to her charm.
Age gave her freedom. She no longer felt she had to had to hold in her stomach in or worry about six pack abs. She was free to move, free to express and share the joy of life in a charming dance.
Could you see the woman and get the sense of freedom and energy here? How much more interesting than saying, “We enjoyed watching a seventy-five year old woman dancing.”
She taught my sister and I a lesson that day as well. Continue with the joy of living into old age.
As you read this, think about what can you do to create word pictures? If you want to learn how, study the craft of creative writing and learn the insider writing strategies. As always, you can learn how to do this when you sign up for “How to Write for Fun and Profit” writing course.
If you implement this writing tip, you will capture your readers attention and keep them engaged with your writing and your message.
Take some time now if you can. Pull out your paintbrush (pen) and paint a word picture. If you do, share it with us in the comments below so we can enjoy it too!
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Creative Writing: Learn How to Write by Watching Kids Play
Would you like some new ideas on how to nurture your creative writing? Ask around and see what other people do to nurture their creativity. Watch kids when they play and observe what they do.
“What do you do to nurture your creative self?” I asked a friend of mine who I know has a creative bent.
We stood outside the building waiting for her husband to bring the car. “Hmmm, let me think about that.” She looked down at the pavement for a moment. “I go to a craft store, and look around. I might buy some new paints and take them home to play with them.
I work with kids so I watch them and the way they play. They don’t start out intentionally to create something. They just start playing. I find inspiration in that so I’ll start out just playing with the paints and see where it goes. If it develops into something I go with it. If not I simply enjoy the play and creative wandering.”
She wrinkled her nose, put her hands out and wiggled her fingers, “I like to get messy when I paint, and when I do crafts. I like the feel of the paint on my hands. I like paper mache and getting the glue all over me. Not everyone is like that but I enjoy the mess.” She grinned.
“I like to write too and sometimes rather than have a plan, I will tune into that creative stream of writing and let it take me where it wants to go. Sometimes it turns out to be something and sometimes not, but I enjoy that process of letting the writing flow.”
She paused and thought for a moment, “You know I’ve been doing a lot of administrative stuff lately, things that are not fun but have to be done. I’m missing that creative connection. I think this week, I will actually go to the craft store, get some paints and do what I just said.” She smiled at me, “Thanks for asking!”
As you learn how to write, here are some tips for exploring creative writing.
7 Tips to unleash your creative writing:
- Plan a time where you will not be interrupted.
- Create the environment. Get some tools you enjoy using, maybe a new journal or pen or open a fresh page on your computer. Brew your favorite cup of tea or coffee.
- Start writing about something that is going on in your life, a recent fun activity or a sad time, a special gift that someone gave you. Look at a photo and write about it.
- Use your imagination. Let your mind wander like Sarah did with the paints and like kids do when they play.
- Enjoy the journey. Let your inner child out to play. Allow yourself to be childlike without knowing where you are going with this activity.
- Relax and let it be what it is. If it turns into something, go with it. If not, set it down like kids do with toys and pick up another idea.
- Have fun with it. Don’t judge yourself. Kids don’t get dissatisfied with the results of their play. Let yourself be a child and explore.
How about you? Have you ever done anything like this? How do you stimulate and nurture your creativity?
How to Write: How Can You Profit From the Problems in Your Life?
Do you ever get discouraged with your writing or writing business? Do you get down? Frustrated? What do you do?
I’ve written about the fun and creative part of writing, but there is often another part that goes with the writing journey.
Today, I am in a funk. I didn’t sleep enough hours last night. I got discouraged because of some technical problems with my website and email program. I have some ergonomic problems that cause my hands to hurt and backaches etc from sitting too long at the computer in an inadequate chair. In fact, I’ve been in kind of a funk for the last week for these and various other life challenges.
Why am I writing about this? Why am I sharing my “negative” feelings? Well, because I want to help you. I want you to know that it’s okay to be down sometimes. It is part of a normal life experience. Like everyone else, for various reasons, you can end up in a pit of negative feelings. You can run into a wall of discouragement especially when you learn a new skill such as how to write, or when you write a book, learn to develop in a new area of creative writing, deal with the grammar gremlin or do the obligatory writing needed for your work.
Compost Bin
We live in a culture that doesn’t like to admit their struggles, and so people have a tendency to feel isolated and believe they are the only ones who have difficulties. This is not good or helpful for you. One time I saw a quote that said, “We learn how to suffer by watching others suffer.” How in the world are we going to learn how to deal with the negative in our lives if we don’t know how others struggle and watch how they overcome the various obstacles they encounter?
What do you do with your negative feelings and problems in life? My friends have a garbage compost for the garden. They throw out all the garbage on the compost pile and then use it to nurture growth in the garden. Then they harvest beautiful, nutritious veggies. Take your depressing life experiences and put the garbage on the compost pile. Recycle it! Use them in a positive way to support life and nurture growth.
5 Writing Tips to Turn Your Problems into Profit
First of all realize that profit is not only about money but about personal growth and helping others as well. If you keep this perspective, you can profit from whatever comes your way.
- Write about it. Journal your negative feelings while you feel them. Acknowledge rather than deny your feelings. Let yourself have them. This is wonderful therapy. If you don’t know why you feel funky or how to get through it, many times answers will come as you write. This can also be great material because as you find your way through the dark tunnel, you can help others find the light too.
- Look for the opportunity in the adversity. If you are a person of faith, pray and ask for help in solving the problems and wisdom on how to use the negative in a positive way. Anyone who asks God in faith for wisdom receives it.
- Persist despite the discouragement in moving forward toward your goals. Use the things coming against you to actually propel you forward toward a solution instead of hindering you. “The pressure you feel will drive you to find the solutions you need.” Curt Brown
- Allow the experiences to carve a compassion in your soul for fellow travelers so you can help them along their life journey. There is nothing like a struggle to break down the walls of pride that often separate us. When you can share your life experiences with others, they profit and you profit. Our shared suffering connects us.
- Use the lessons learned in some way in a positive way. Learn how to add creativity to your blog writing and write a blog post about challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Learn how to write and write a story using the complexity of your feelings for a character to make your story or novel richer. Write a how-to article or book on how to overcome some of the issues you face.
Turn Garbage into Dollars
There are numerous ways to turn your trash into treasure. People will pay you big bucks if you can offer them solutions to their problems. Now I am feeling good about feeling bad. LOL!
Well, this is what I did in the midst of my problems in life. I wrote anyway. Did you get that? Wrote anyway! I had a deadline on a blog post I needed to write so I wrote this.
Go Write Now!
What about you? How do you profit from the problems in your life? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Rubbish Bin Image Grant Cochrane/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Dollars out of Trash Image Scottchan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Sleeping Woman at Computer Image: Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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How to Write: Write and Bring Money to Your Bucket
People will give you money
What if a unique expression of your creativity in your writing could result in people handing you money with a smile on their face?
I enjoyed an extended visit with my sister who lives in San Diego last summer. One night I took a walk for exercise. As I walked down the streets of San Diego, I happened to wander into the Gas Lamp district where there are alot of restaurants and partying going on. It is a historic district and entertainment center. People crowded the sidewalks as the energy and excitement lured them. Since I’m not from around this area I got a little lost and ended up in front of an Irish Pub. There a large black man caught my eye.
He had on a huge mad hatter type hat, dreadlocks, layers of beads around his neck on top of an African print type loose shirt. He carried an orange bucket with decoys on it and a black boom box with a mike. He’d ask people their name and then sang a rap style song with their name in it. In this particular situation, he sang Irish songs, rap style. How unusual! He totally delighted me with his creativity so I put $1 in his bucket. I noticed it was full.
He turned to me and asked my name and then began to sing to me using my name and rhyming rap. Joy filled my heart as I stood there and enjoyed the gift of his talent. As other people passed by, charmed by his ability to use words to create rhymes on the spot, they also dropped money in his bucket.
I later learned from the one of the restaurants hosts that the rapper uses no curse words and encourages kids in his songs to obey their parents. He also supports a group who encourage young people in the arts. Everywhere he goes, he creates an environment of fun and positive vibes with his creative rap. He personalized his songs. Everyone loves individual attention and their faces light up with joy.
What can you learn from this relating your creative writing?
When you create a positive fun environment in your creative writing, people are drawn to you. There is so much focus on the negativity in the world that it’s important to find ways to engage people in positive ways. When you learn how to do creative writing, you will refresh them and lift them up. You can draw people to you by letting your light shine in how you write. As you write, you sing your song. Personalize it and people will feel loved, cared for and delighted in. They will reward you for your creative writing efforts.
Be Unique
Express your uniqueness as you learn how to write and increase your creative writing in your chosen area. Find your voice and sing it. Be your positive self. As you learn creative writing you will find ways to reach people with the skillful use of words. You can grab people’s attention with personalized attention. Then people will flock to you and put money in your bucket. Soon it will overflow like the man whose main skill was his knowledge and use of words.
If you’ve always wanted to write but lacked the skills, I can help you make that dream come true. If you’ve always wanted to write but lacked the skills or you want to improve your writing skills, go to a writer’s conference or take an online writing course. You can learn “How to Write for Fun and Profit” and enjoy the positive energy and rewards our friend with the top hat did.
How about you? What can you do to create a positive environment through your creative writing and draw people to you?
Go write now.
Share the Gift of Writing!
photo from FreeDigitalPhotos.net by anankkml
How to Write: Write to Change the World
What do you do when the power goes out? Our whole lives and of those around us revolve around power that comes from electricity. We enjoy a multitude of benefits and power is essential to our modern-day lives, so it’s serious when we lose it. At the same time, if you look, there can be some hidden benefits.
Recently, I visited my sister who lives in a high-rise condo in downtown San Diego. Suddenly our computers went on battery power. My sister came into the room where I worked. “Did you just plug something in? Our power shut off.”
We soon found out that it was not just us. We couldn’t turn on the TV or radio but when a friend called, she told us that an unexpected power outage left approximately 4 million people in San Diego and Mexico and other parts of Southern California without power.
My sister has a habit of saying in adversity, “What is good about this?” She’s an artist and she had been teaching me how to draw flowers. So she said, “Well, we’ve wanted to get some time to draw. Would you like for me to show you how to correct the shading on the tulip you’ve been drawing?”
I hesitated. I was in the middle of cleaning up my office desk. Noting my questioning, she implored, “A year from now we won’t remember cleaning, but we will remember that we took the time to do art.”
“Okay, you’re right, and besides that exploring creative expression as it relates to creative writing is on my list of things to do.” I laughed.
We sat down and enjoyed doing art until it got dark. Fortunately, we had a gas stove, so I lit a match to ignite the flames. I cooked something to eat and we sat on her deck. God provided us with natural light in a beautiful full moon, so we enjoyed eating dinner with the moon flickering on our faces and the dark buildings in the city.
Earlier, we also happened to be out in the hall when neighbors came home to the condo across the hall. We had never met and started talking about the blackout. They were the most delightful couple. He said, “Well, this is one good thing about the power outage. We met our neighbors!”
Stefanie, a friend on Facebook wrote, “It was an interesting day yesterday with no power. In our area, no one panicked. It seemed like everything just slowed down. There were BBQs going, children playing outside, neighbors talking to each other and people taking strolls around the area–back to the days of no TV, no Internet. It was so beautiful! This is what we have lost with technology.”
Sometimes we think writing means writing a novel or something more involved. In this post, with her simple observations expressed in creative writing, Stefanie called people back to the treasures we lost with the focus on technology; the treasures of having relationship; being creative and resourceful with what you have; the ability to find good in any situation.
We write for various reasons, but one form of writing is to provide perspective and encouragement on how to deal with the adversity in people’s lives. We all experience trouble in some form or another. When we find the good things and a purpose in those challenges, it gives us the strength to endure the suffering and any losses we may experience.
I saw a magnet recently that said, “If you can’t change the situation, change how you think about it.” As writers, we can learn how to write in such a way that we offer a positive perspective in adversity and strengthen people to go through it. When we see difficulties as opportunities to grow, we will be stronger as individuals, as a nation and as a world.
Make a difference in the world.
Go write now!
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How to Write: What Can Elephant Caregivers Teach You About Creative Writing?
“I really want to go to the Wild Animal Park right now. They have a lot of baby elephants and I want to photograph them before they get bigger. Then I will be able to draw them from my pictures,” my artist sister’s eyes danced and her voice filled with excitement in anticipation of gaining a treasured photo opportunity. So we packed a lunch and headed off for an adventurous day in the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. We timed our arrival at 11:30 a.m. when they let the elephants out to feed them.
Sure enough there were the mamas and babies in the enclosure. The crowd gathered and while my sister snapped away with her camera, the guide started to educate us about the elephants. He shared, “Elephants need to be happy or they won’t live. We do our best to enrich their environment with ponds, rocks, grass and sand. We choose things to resemble what they would have in the wild. We also vary their food and the way we give them their food. We don’t just put it out there in the middle of their pen every day because that would be boring, kind of like having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.
The keepers have the opportunity to think of creative ways to give them their food. They keep them entertained by creating puzzles for them to get their food. They will hide it in a hollow log or put it on top of the rocks. They’ll put it on a rope that the elephant has to step on and pull it to them.” The guide gestured over to the arena where the elephants stood.
He continued on, “We also vary what we give them like hay, alfalfa, or Bermuda grass. They’ll chop food and hide it in the hay. Sometimes they bring a watermelon or pumpkin and let them crush it and eat it for a treat.”
Suddenly my brain began to spin with the analogies to creative writing.
5 ideas to apply these techniques to creative writing:
- Keep your readers intrigued by varying the kind of information you give them.
- Change the way you give them the same information so they see and understand it in a new light.
- Hide treats of word pictures, analogies and metaphors in your writing to reward your readers for digging a little into your writing.
- Create puzzles. Walk them through a maze in a novel or story until they find the reward for reading what you wrote.
- Surprise them with a new twist in the way you say something.
Try these writing tips. You will increase your writing skills and help you learn how to write well.
Learn from the elephant caregivers and make this a fun creative writing challenge. Use these ideas as writing prompts. You will have more fun and your readers will too!
What do you think? What ideas do you have to make things interesting for your readers?