We all do things for a reason. There is always a driving factor to our actions, whether or not we are aware of it. Consciously, I speed because I’m running late, and I feel embarrassed when attending an event that I consider important, or where I’ll miss part of it–I hate the feeling that I’ve missed out on something. I suspect it’s due to the inherently competitive culture of Asian society. In Singapore, there’s even a common word to describe people who are scared to lose. (“Kiasu”, for those who are curious.)
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Motivated to Show
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Angry Writing
Today, I’m angry.
I’m not going to say why, because any explanation I could give would be far too tedious and unnecessary. But rest assured, I’m angry. Blindingly, burningly so.
I don’t like to face down a deadline when I’m angry, upset, or stressed about some real life problem. I much prefer to write while calm and collected, with gobs of of empty hours at my disposal.
But that’s the thing about deadlines. They care not a whit about one’s real life circumstances.
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Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Still Feeling the Fear…
I’ve been thinking a lot about fear lately. As often as I’ve already written on the importance of facing our fears, I’m starting to wonder if I’m particularly good at it myself.
Last week, a select group of seniors at our school competed for the chance to deliver original speeches during graduation, and I was asked to sit in as one of the judges. I sat and watched these seven or eight honors students shakily read through speeches they had written themselves, each hoping for the chance to share his or her speech with an even larger, more intimidating audience. I couldn’t help but feel awed by their bravery. Could I have done the same thing at their age? Not likely. Hell, I doubt I could do the same thing now.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Doing, Doing…Done!
Nobody likes to revise written work. No, not even we English teachers enjoy that process, even though we regularly go out of our way to teach the art of revision.
“The kids should learn how to do it,” we think to ourselves, year after year. “We don’t have to, of course, because we know better. But let the kids suffer through it–it’ll make them stronger!”
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Build an Inspiration Wall
Looking at that title, I realize that it doesn’t feel like something I’d write. It sounds more like a suggestion out of a SARK book (e.g. “Take lots of naps”, “Swing as high as you can on a swingset, by moonlight”, et cetera). Fun, sure, but not really my thing since I’ve become a writing adult.
The Inspiration Wall, on the other hand, has helped me out of a bind numerous times.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
“I Don’t Have Time” is No Excuse
There can be no honest discussion on the fear of writing that doesn’t, somewhere, include this line:
Fear is the issue. “I don’t have time,” is just an excuse.
I have been dancing around this statement on this blog since August. In hindsight I should have just come out and said it sooner, but a writer is nothing if not willing to revise, so I’ll take this chance to make sure the following is clear (just in case it wasn’t already):
If you want to be a serious writer, you must stop using the false excuse of time.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
“Action conquers fear (for now)”
Since I’ve begun writing for this blog, many people have confessed to me that they, too, harbor a fear of writing.
But how (readers will ask, time and time again) does one move past that fear?
“Even though my former professor highly recommends it, I am hesitant to pursue the MFA in creative writing,” one young woman told me, upon reading my blog. “I would like to have read [in your article] some solutions about how to overcome the fear demon.”
Yes, and I would like to have written that. Because if I actually knew some concrete ways of overcoming our fears, my writing life would be much easier.
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Monday, January 2, 2012
I Don’t Have Time to Believe in Writer’s Block
Last night, I finished writing a draft of a chapter that had tormented me for weeks. It’s one of only a handful of chapters I have left to write (in what I like to call the Adequate American Novel, which I’ve been writing on and off for almost 20 years) for which I had no rough drafts, or even scribbled notes. I needed certain things to happen in the plot, in the development of one character, and in the relationship between the two main characters, so I sent them on a hike to a waterfall. They fought me every step of the way, up the trail and back down again. By the end, though, sorry to have put me through so much trouble, they presented me with three peace offerings: a baptism, a sandwich, and a lie, all of which I can certainly use.
I complained about this recalcitrant chapter to my friends and my husband, and if they weren’t bored and annoyed, then they are much nobler people than I am. My Facebook writing group (consisting of several Nosy Authors and a few others) offered great suggestions, including having the characters jump on a trampoline while I moved on to work on other chapters.
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
“A Good Way to Start is to Stand”
“I know what I want to say in my essay,” my students tell me, over and over again. “The problem is, I don’t know how to start.”
“Start with what you know you want to say,” I’ll tell them. “You can always work backwards later.”
“Uh huh,” they’ll say, still eyeing their keyboards nervously. The middle of the essay didn’t seem so intimidating a minute ago—but if they’re going to write the middle first, the middle becomes the beginning. And beginnings are scary.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Have You Earned the Privilege to Write?
This is not the post I intended to write this week. I’ll soon be getting up at 5am every morning both to write and to teach, and I had planned to cover the topic of how getting up early can make one more successful. But a good writer is nothing if not flexible, so I decided to let Hurricane Irene shift my focus a bit. Getting up early will have to wait. (How I wish I could say that in real life!)
Earlier today, I sat down to write a post on my own blog about Irene. My husband and I were lucky that our house was largely unaffected by the storm, but we had spent most of yesterday watching the small town of Pompton Lakes flooding around us. Police were stationed on either side of our street and many of our neighbors had to be rescued from their homes by boat.
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