timer – Someday Box

Timer (#3 of 6 Tools to Write)

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Joel D Canfield

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/429177 by scott craig http://www.cancerbox.com/” width=”200″ height=”139″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-2479]Being passionate souls, writers have a tendency to over promise, over commit and just plain try too hard.

When facing a challenging task, it’s human nature to try to swallow the elephant in one gulp. Every “getting things done” specialist in the world tells us that’s wrong — and yet we persist. If you want a jump start on eating the elephant, start with one tiny bite.

If you’re 12 years behind on your book, it’s easy to assume that it will take four hours a day for the next 10 years to catch up. And what happens is you spend four hours a day worrying about writing and zero hours a day doing it. If you missed yesterday’s post on habits and rituals, go back and read it. Then we’ll talk about why a 5-minute timer is such a great habit-building tool.

This all-or-nothing perspective makes habit-building a real challenge. … more … “Timer (#3 of 6 Tools to Write)”

Your Writing Environment (#1 of 6 Tools to Write)

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Joel D Canfield

Revisiting this list of 6 tools to get you writing instead of whimpering in the fetal position on the closet floor.

The first, because it is largest, most evident, and the most mechanical (which means the easiest to think about and implement) is your environment.

The pervasive image of the starving artist huddled, shivering in their garret leads us, perhaps unconsciously, to believe that art is immune to environment, or even that art is created by pain and suffering.

Your rational brain knows that this is nonsense.

“Even the most abstract mind is affected by the surroundings of the body. No one is immune to the impressions that impinge on the senses from the outside. Creative individuals may seem to disregard their environment and work happily in even the most dismal surroundings . . . in reality, the spatiotemporal context in which creative persons live has consequences that often go unnoticed. The right milieu is important in more ways than one.”—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, p. 126

A proper environment, as Csikszentmihalyi points out, adds enormously to our ability to create.

[image: photo http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1354904 by kslyesmith http://www.sxc.hu/profile/kslyesmith” width=”444″ height=”165″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-2417]

Here are a few things you should carefully inspect to ensure that they are the best you can arrange for your writing environment. Some will have a large effect. Some will have a small effect. But all will affect the comfort and ease of your creative abilities.

… more … “Your Writing Environment (#1 of 6 Tools to Write)”

6 Tools to Get You Writing (Instead of Whimpering in the Fetal Position on the Closet Floor)

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Joel D Canfield

Here are six tools my clients and friends have found effective in combating writer’s block, fear, Resistance, the lizard brain; whatever you like to call it.
… more … “6 Tools to Get You Writing (Instead of Whimpering in the Fetal Position on the Closet Floor)”