So, you had trouble falling asleep. Again. Or, you woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Or both. Why does this happen and what to do about it? The following is excepted from “Up at 4 A.M.?” by Amy Spencer, in the magazine, Dr. Oz The Good Life, Jan-Feb 2015 (an oldie, and hopefully a goodie). What happens If we’re not sure how something will play out, our primitive mind prepares us for the worst possible outcome. Survival Back in our cave days, our ancestors needed to be prepared to fight or flee to survive. Key The primitive part of the brain—the amygdala—thinks our idle ruminations are urgent matters that need to be dealt with right away, as if they are real emergencies. Wide Awake And there we are, wide awake, ready and alert, to battle the catastrophe that we have imagined. What To Do Take some deep, relaxing…
Category: Just Write
Strenghten Your Writing
Ideas for strong writing. Use active voice rather than passive voice. ~From www.dailywritingtips.com – sign up to receive free daily emails with writing tips: English verbs are said to have two voices: active and passive. Active Voice: the subject of the sentence performs the action: His son catches fly balls. Creative children often dream in class. Passive Voice: the subject receives the action: The ball was caught by the first baseman.The duty is performed by the new recruits.The dough was beaten by the mixer.The mailman was bitten by the dog. ~From Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon Adjectives: Use sparingly and consciously. Overuse indicates a need to find more precise nouns and to show rather than tell. Adverbs: Too often, writers use these to beef up weak verbs. Your goal should be to make verbs strong enough to do the work themselves and kill off your adverbs. You won’t be able…
The Freedom of Freewrites
The freedom to write whatever you want. Writing freely is like soaring with no limitations. Freewrites can lead to: ~ Ruminating, resulting in new thoughts. ~ Discovery, leading to innovative realizations ~ Revelations, finding the “aha” ~ Exciting, uncover fresh ideas ~ Jubilations, the joy of making connections Writing prompts can help generate writing. There are over 600 writing prompts on The Write Spot Blog, as well as a list of places where you can submit your writing. Just Write! #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Write to exorcize what’s haunting you.
“Write to exorcize what’s haunting you. Write about whatever it is you can’t get out of your head—a person, a place, a fear, a fictional scene, a memory from your past, a fantasy for your future. Allow yourself to think obsessively and shamelessly about only that one thing for as long as it takes to get it down on paper.” —Puloma Ghosh, The Isolation Journals, created by Suleika Joauad. This type of writing is like unpeeling layers of emotions. Just Write. The Isolation Journals is Suleika Joauad’s newsletter for people seeking to transform life’s interruptions into creative grist. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. Memory Lane offers ideas to spark writing about what a memory from your past, or a fantasy for your future. #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter
Writing is magical
Writing is magical. Take some blank pages, write or type on them, and as if by magic, a story appears. It may be an incomplete story and it may feel fragmented, but it’s the beginning of Your story. Writing can be healing, especially when you write what you really want to say, rather than listing what you did that day, journal style. The most magical writing is when you get so involved in your writing that you lose track of time, you lose track of where you are and even, who you are! The process of writing can be therapeutic. With this deep writing, you may experience a release of emotions, clearing the air, and seeing old things in a new way. — “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections.” Personal Essay as Therapy Join Writers Forum on Saturday, March 12, 2022, 1-3 pm PST to experience the magic…
Writing is intimate . . .
Excerpt from The Sun November 2003, “Keep The Hand Moving,” Natalie Goldberg interviewed by Genie Zeiger: Zeiger asked Natalie, “What is the difference between speaking our stories and writing them down?” Natalie: Writing it down is more intimate because, first of all, you are developing a relationship among your hand, your arm, your shoulder, your heart, and your mind. Then, because the story is recorded, you have a chance to read it later, so you can see who you are and come home to yourself. I tell students to read deeply—which doesn’t mean reading all the great literature but just reading carefully, studying the mind of the author rather than whipping through the book. Reading is important because when you read, you enter the mind of the author, and so you get to study a practiced mind. Notice: How do writers create structure in a book? How do they turn…
Inspiration to “Just Write”
Thank you for visiting The Write Spot Blog. I hope you find motivation to Just Write from these blog posts. I feel like I’ve been hibernating. I guess I needed a rest. You might be feeling that way, too. In these difficult times, it’s hard for some to be motivated. After the glitter of December, I enjoyed being quiet in January. February 1st seems like a good time to start a new writing year! My flexible blog post schedule: Monday: Inspiration to write Tuesday: Quotes about writers/writing Wednesday: Writing Prompt Thursday: Guest Blogger Friday: Writing Prompt Saturday: Places to submit your writing Sunday: Book Reviews Memorable writing posted randomly on the Sparks page I don’t post every day. I don’t want to overwhelm anyone, including myself! If you want to contribute to The Write Spot Blog: ~ Send your inspirational thoughts about writing, or the writing life ~ Email writerly…
Get past ego to connect
“I think American society alienates us from ourselves, and we have a great need to reconnect. Human beings yearn to connect and to tell our stories before we die. Sometimes we want to write, but when we get down to it, there’s resistance, because the ego gets scared.” — Natalie Goldberg in an interview with Genie Zeiger, “Keep The Hand Moving,” The Sun November 2003. Ideas on how to get past ego and Just Write The Inner Critic Tar Pit of Doom and Despair Is “Go Big or Go Home” Right for You? Rachel Macy Stafford: Live Love Now #amwriting #creativewriting #justwrite #freewrites
“Tis the season . . . NaNoWriMo
‘Tis the season for NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month is held during the month of November. Have you ever done it? Have you thought about it and wondered if you could or should do it? I say: Go for it! What do you have to lose? And, you might gain some excellent writing. “National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days.” Sharon Oard Warner says “A work of fiction that logs in at 50,000 words is actually a novella . . .” So, if the idea of writing a novel is overwhelming, consider writing a novella. Prepare for NaNoWriMo Julie Artz writes about her NaNoWriMo experience on Jane Friedman’s blog, “Want to Win NaNoWriMo? The Secret is Preparation.” Learn from her mistakes to get “that coveted NaNoWriMo win.” Prolific author Bella Andre wrote about her struggles…
I knew I wanted to write . . .
Natalie Goldberg The Art Of Writing Practice: “By my early twenties, I knew I wanted to write and I knew I couldn’t learn to do it through traditional writing classes. I had to begin with what I knew, something no one could tell me I was wrong about. And so, I studied my mind. As I wrote, I would discover things about my mind, how it would move, wander, settle. I began teaching writing from the inside out. Usually, writing teachers tell us what good writing is, but not how to get to it . . . in 1986 [when “Writing Down The Bones” was published] people were starving to write, but they didn’t know how, because the way writing was taught didn’t work for them. I think the idea of writing as a practice freed them up. It meant that they could trust their minds, that they were allowed…