{"id":227,"date":"2013-11-04T13:38:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T20:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=227"},"modified":"2013-11-04T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T20:38:16","slug":"guest-blogger-jordan-e-rosenfeld-how-to-stay-on-the-writing-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/guest-blogger-jordan-e-rosenfeld-how-to-stay-on-the-writing-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger Jordan E. Rosenfeld – How to Stay on the Writing Path"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.\u201d \u00a0—<\/b><\/em>Wally Lamb,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>The Hour I First Believed<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

“Not all who wander are lost.”<\/em>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>J.R.R. Tolkien,\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

How to Stay on the Writing Path<\/strong> by Jordan E. Rosenfeld<\/strong><\/p>\n

I believe that most writers are also seekers. While we may have a larger-reaching goal to find an audience and be published, ultimately, the writers who stick out the hard times do so because there is gold to be found along the journey. Sometimes it\u2019s the kind of gold that requires mining and panning and sweat and agony. Other times it comes silently, a gift in the night from a willing muse. But one thing is for sure: writing gives as much as it takes\u2014and it takes a lot.<\/p>\n

So how do you stay on the path of writing without falling off? How do you overcome the critical voices (internal and external) without giving up? Every writer soothes themselves differently, but sometimes soothing is in short supply, and it\u2019s then you have to turn to other resources beyond yourself to find that boosting. And if you\u2019re letting despair or discouragement drag you down, remember you don\u2019t have to. You\u2019re not alone! There are as many allies on the path as there are villains. It\u2019s my goal to be one of your allies.<\/p>\n

For this month, remind yourself that a writer\u2019s life is a worthy endeavor, a high calling, an important purpose. For this month I ask you to put in place one new support for yourself, be it a quote of kind words over your desk, or a buddy who will hold you accountable.<\/p>\n

Starting in the New Year I will be blogging the topics of my book in the works:\u00a0A Writer\u2019s Guide to Surrende<\/em>r. I chose the word surrender<\/em>\u00a0<\/i>not to imply giving up, but instead, a settling in to what matters most. It\u2019s also a concept I find immensely helpful when things are not going as we hope; when rejections roll in, when the writing isn\u2019t flowing, when criticism stings. Surrender is, at root, a state of accepting your vulnerability and not letting anything harden you.<\/p>\n

Let’s stay flexible and gentle with ourselves. But don’t get off the path. It’s your right to walk it!<\/p>\n

Jordan E.\u00a0 Rosenfeld is author of the novel Forged in Grace<\/i>, the writing guides\u00a0Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time<\/i>, Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life<\/i> (with Rebecca Lawton) and the forthcoming: A Writer\u2019s Guide to Surrender: A Tool-kit to Build and Bolster a Lasting Writing Practice.<\/i> Jordan\u2019s essays and articles have appeared in such publications as\u00a0AlterNet.org, Marin <\/i>Magazine, Publisher\u2019s Weekly, \u00a0San Francisco Chronicle, The St. Petersburg Times, Whole Life Times, The Writer\u00a0and\u00a0Writer\u2019s Digest<\/i>\u00a0magazine. Her book commentaries have appeared on\u00a0The California Report, a news-magazine produced by NPR-affiliate KQED radio.
\nLearn more about Jordan and her writing wisdom at: www.jordanrosenfeld.net<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.\u201d \u00a0—Wally Lamb,\u00a0The Hour I First Believed “Not all who wander are lost.”\u00a0J.R.R. Tolkien,\u00a0The Fellowship of the Ring How to Stay on the Writing Path by Jordan E. Rosenfeld I believe that most writers are also seekers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[136,140,134,54,141,139,138,137,135],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers","tag-forged-in-grace","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-jordan-e-rosenfeld","tag-make-a-scene","tag-the-fellowship-of-the-ring","tag-the-hour-i-first-believed","tag-wally-lamb","tag-write-free","tag-writing-path"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-3F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}