Writing Around the Block

Getting a book ready for press can turn into a family affair. My daughter Susan has been proof reading the manuscript for The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. Like her father, she’s especially good at finding tiny inconsistencies, and I appreciate her sharp eye. As writers, we grow so accustomed to our own words that it’s quite difficult to them freshly. Our mind tends to replay the words we recall writing rather than read the specific contents of the page.

Susan is a talented and experienced writer in her own right, specializing in marketing and public relations pieces. When she got to the section of the manuscript on overcoming writer’s block, she commented on her own methods of dealing with this challenge:

I used to get terrible writer’s block when trying to do brochures or press releases. I found that the more frequently I wrote, the less often I’d have writer’s block.

But, when facing a deadline and facing writer’s block – one thing I did to get around my block is, literally, to write around the block. Instead of trying to write the first sentence or headline, I’d write my conclusions. I’d write my quotes. I’d write something that made fun of my topic. I’d write anything just in order to start the flow of words on paper. It’s close to your recommendation to write a letter, or write about why you’re having a hard time writing… but instead it was just another way of moving around the block. So, I’d start writing backwards, with the ending first.

Susan’s technique would work well for writing our kind of story. If you can’t figure out how to begin, where to begin, or what order to tell your story, start with the ending. For example, I’m thinking right now of writing the story of learning to drive. It’s a complex story, with memories of my mother telling how she learned to drive, my own early driving experiences, and surviving the ordeal of teaching our children to drive.

That’s a lot of story to weave together. I’m not sure exactly where to begin, but I know how I want it to end.

“I glanced over at Susan sitting in the passenger seat of her ancient Volvo station wagon as I ground the gears and stalled it out. She wanted me to have a chance to get used to the car’s quirks under her guidance before I set off on the drive from Seattle to Gig Harbor on my own. Her skin was ashen, her eyes wide. She braced her hands against the dashboard as she glanced wildly around at the approaching traffic. I chuckled inwardly, feeling ironically vindicated as I recalled the sheer terror of sitting in the passenger seat as she learned how to drive. It isn’t often that you have the chance to get even with your children, and I savored every second.”

From this ending I can build my beginning. The ending may change somewhat in wording as the story gels, but the form is set, and I've written around my block.

Will you join me in writing around a block of your own? I also hope you'll join me in making your editing projects a family affair.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Writer's Block Busters

So now you are sitting at your desk, or the kitchen table, or in the bookstore coffee shop, you have a pad of paper and a couple of pens, and you know what story you want to write. You pick up that pen, and place it on the line at the top of the paper, but that’s as far as you get. Your fingers freeze. They simply won’t move. Just to make sure, you scribble a tiny spot at the bottom of the page, and verify that there is ink in the pen. You scratch your head, yawn, stretch, and try again. Still nothing. You get up and fetch a fresh cup of coffee. That’s it. Coffee, strong and black. That’s what fuels writers, right? That or whisky, ala Hemingway. Wrong. Neither coffee nor whiskey help at all. Coffee makes you feel more nervous about being stuck, whiskey makes you quit caring. The words are still stuck.

Suddenly doubt sets in. What was it that made you think you could write? Just why is it that writing these stories seemed so all-fired important? I’m not a writer, you tell yourself. This is nuts! Then it dawns on you. This is the fabled writer’s block. You have the dread disease before you’ve even begun writing.

Writer’s block can occur at any point in a project from the very beginning to the last phases of editing. Fortunately the affliction is not fatal. Some suggestions for overcoming writers block follow. Think of the items on the list as if they are written on folded scraps of paper inside a jar, rather than a ladder to be climbed. There is no order to the list, so use whichever one seems right for your situation.

• Write a letter


• Scribble on scrap paper


• Doodle


• Get up and move around


• Turn on music and dance if you feel like it


• Take a shower


• Write about your writer’s block


• Have a chat with your inner critic


• Go back to your resource material


• Write about what you would write if your words weren’t stuck


• Wrote about why it’s hard for you to write this story

What are your favorite writer’s block busters? All comments are welcome!

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

What Keeps You From Writing?

It seems like ages since I’ve written a blog post. Life has intervened with a great big virtual brick wall. I’ve been busy writing workshop proposals, workshop handouts, urgent e-mails, Life Writers Forum postings, Morning Pages — everything but a blog post.

Other things have also gotten in the way. I urgently needed to clean my desk off and that led to rearranging my office, trashing some files, that sort of thing. Plus, there’s yard work to be done, preparation for a visit from a grandson, you know how all that goes.

You may think it odd that I let other writing get in the way of writing for my blog. Yes, that does seem strange. But it would be no different for someone who wrote reports at work all day to have trouble getting around to writing a lifestory in the evening.

So, what does a person do when it’s been longer than intended between writing sessions? I could wallow in guilt, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I don't believe I have any readers who feel cheated or resentful if I take a couple of extra days off. I do have a personal commitment to maintaining this blog for some time to come, but I’m flexible enough to realize that sometimes a break allows me to return refreshed, and that sometimes life intervenes.

So, what I do is simply sit down and start moving my fingers again. Let the words flow and a blog will take shape, as it’s doing now. If you have been away from your writing, don’t waste time feeling guilty, berating yourself, or moaning. Pick up that pen or get those fingers on the keyboard! Do some free writing to get the pump primed, check your story idea list for a starting point, and get those fingers moving. Words and stories will happen.

What I’m referring to here is not writer’s block, though writer’s block may be a cause. I’m referring to loss of momentum. If it’s that simple, then simply starting to write again will probably be enough to get you back up to speed. If not, check this list of posts about writer’s block, or take a look at these five exercises.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by a stressful schedule that leaves no room for indulging passions like writing, perhaps you need to find ten minutes a day, perhaps in the bathroom, on the bus to work, or some other “sandwich time” and journal some thoughts about your lifestyle and priorities. The thing you are avoiding may be the very thing that can help fit the pieces of your life puzzle together.

Write now: about an experience you have had with blocks to writing and how you overcame them. Or write about the blocks that are keeping you from writing and explore ways of working around them. You are bound to find this experience enlightening and rewarding.

Mother Lode of Writer's Block Busters

It’s been over a couple of months since I posted anything about Writer’s Block. Since returning from my most recent Big Adventure, I’ve so energized I haven’t even thought about this topic, but I just came across a web page that brought it to mind. That web page is a mother lode of Writer's Block Busters and I immediately recognized it as material you may benefit from reading yourself.

I’m a firm believer that there is no point in re-inventing a wheel. Joyce Boatright has done a splendid job on that list, so I’ll simply send you over to her website to read it rather than creating a new one. When you finish reading her list, you may want to click over to the Wake Up Writing site she links to and sign up for daily writing warm-ups or energizers to enhance your Personal Writing Fitness.

I’m even more pleased to send you there, because I’ve personally met Joyce. I shared a meal with her during the fantastic LifeWriting workshop sponsored by Story Circle Network that I attended in March. Joyce was one of the assistant facilitators and is a sincerely helpful person.

So read this list and if the shoe fits ...

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 68 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Writing On

More than ten years have flown by since I first set fingers to keyboard to write stories about my life. Those who follow this blog know how I started by writing about my preschool years. In the interim, in addition to a how-to-book, I’ve written more than 700 stories, personal essays, blog posts and articles, many of which are now published. I’ve always known that the time would come when I’d feel the urge to knit many of the scrapbook stories together into an integrated fabric — a Crazy Quilt of my life, so to speak. That time has come.

With The Albuquerque Years now finalized, I’m moving on to The Los Alamos Years. Writing this volume is quite different from my earlier experience. The Albuquerque Years was all freshly written. Nothing in that volume previously existed as free-standing stories. In contrast, I have already written several folders of vingette stories about my school years, and I have way more memories of that time that have yet to be written.

The Los Alamos Years is also different, because by the time I started school, I’d begun viewing my life through a lens of understanding, forming judgments and interpreting events to conform to my evolving view of life. My account of the very early years included only a couple of concluding paragraphs of retrospective interpretation, but documenting my understanding of events and my changing perspective is becoming a key element as I move forward.

To my delight, I’m finding that writing along, year-by-year, works quite well, and it’s easy to slip in an existing story where it fits. I may make minor adjustments to blend the independent story into the flow of the larger one. For example, when I pasted The Easter Bunny Discovered into my First Grade chapter, I changed it from present tense to past. It works well in present tense when it stands alone. Told in isolation, it’s a story, and stories are often more compelling when told or written in present tense. Ongoing life stories and memoirs obviously focus on the past and require the use of past tense.

You’d think that after all this practice, I’d know what I’m doing; that I could just sit down, let my fingers rip and have a completed draft in a month.

I’m as surprised as anyone to discover this is not happening. It’s easy enough to write isolated stories, but when I tie them together, other thoughts emerge. I see things in new ways. I discover relationships I was previously unaware of. I find new meanings in small things. I’m not yet at the point where I must make decisions about what to reveal and what to conceal. Those decisions will further complicate the process. Meanwhile, I’m exploring one-hundred-thirty-nine flavors of Writer’s Block and procrastination.

Please don’t let that confession alarm or deter you. Writer’s Block is another way of learning more about myself. I’m choosing to experience it as a challenge and learning opportunity, and savoring it. But I’m not letting it keep me from writing. I finish at least a paragraph every day. Otherwise, I might put this project away for five or ten years, and still be blocked when I pick it back up.

Writing about the past is a way of reliving it and healing it, and I’m reassured at the certainty that such wisdom and insight as I’ve acquired over the past fifty and some years will add value as I revisit those old scenes.

Write now: about your experience with and feelings about Writer's Block. Tell how you handle it. How have you overcome it? What is it keeping you from doing? Write it a letter and tell it off!

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

The Ripeness of a Peach

My heart is full of words and stories and pictures and aches to spill them forth. Yet, nothing emerges from my fingertips. The stories refuse to take form, insisting on remaining hidden for the time being, not ready to face the light of day. Here I sit, staring at the screen, realizing I can’t force these words forth before their time.

I recall a day last summer when I ate a peach, resplendent with stunning reddish gold undertones and strong red highlights. However, as picture perfect as it looked, it was not a perfect peach. The fragrance was faint, and although it was no longer hard, it didn’t feel juicy to my questioning finger. The flesh inside was pale and dull. When I bit into it, it tasted like a peach with half the flavor bleached out. The texture was mushy and slightly grainy, not dripping with juice as a perfect peach should be.

Appearances can be deceiving, I reminded myself. There is no way of knowing for sure at the grocery store just how a slightly under-ripe peach will ripen. This one had looked promising, but in the final analysis, it had been plucked from the tree too early. It hadn’t gotten the full benefit of nurturing sap and other fluids provided by the mother tree. The components that would mature into sugar hadn’t been fully formed and the cells hadn’t been fully plumped with water. Peaches can be picked a few days early, but if they come off the tree too soon, they will never ripen properly. The one I ate was of the latter sort.

Perhaps the thoughts spinning in my heart are like that peach, or like a baby, not ready to leave the womb. Neither can realize its full potential to nourish or serve others without the proper preliminary formation. If I force these thoughts into stories too soon, they will be dry and anemic, and they won’t convey the ripeness of the message they are intended to carry. Perhaps I still have a few things to learn and understand. Perhaps the juice and sweetness of love is not developed as far as these stories require to fulfill their ultimate destiny, whatever that may be, or perhaps the readers for whom they are intended aren’t ready to hear them.

I remind myself that these stories are not something I contrive. They are placed in my mind and heart by God herself. I can poke them, prod them, sense their presence and meaning, but I can’t know their final form or intent. That is the gift, not just to me, but to those for whom they are intended. Today I must be content to allow the stories to continue to grow and ripen, eager for the day when they are ready to gush freely from my fingers into the keyboard and out the printer.

This is an example of how writer’s block can turn into a story.

Write now: about your random thoughts when you are experiencing writer's block. Better yet, file this prompt away for that eventual day when you experience writer's block, because I hope that today your muse is generously blessing you with a plethora of great ideas that you are adding to your story idea list.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Seven Tips for Relaxing into the Story

We all know the feeling: sitting at the computer, arm wrestling words, hammering away at drafts that aren’t working, feeling stuck, threatening to throw our computers off the nearest bridge.

This is the stuff of WRITER’S BLOCK.

Two metaphors come to mind when I think of writer’s block. One is the legend of Michelangelo, chipping away at a block of marble, removing all the marble that isn’t part of the image he perceives to be hiding within the larger block.

The other is of pregnancy. Stories are initially conceived within the womb of memory and mind. The initial draft of a story is akin to a newborn babe, requiring lots of tending and shaping before the child emerges as a self-sufficient individual.

Here’s some good news. While as with chipping away marble or birthing a child, a certain amount of energy and toil is required, you can keep it to a minimum. How?

RELAX INTO THE STORY.

You may have heard of the concept of writing in a state of flow, where your creative powers are at peak potential. Relaxing into the story is one way to achieve a flow state. The decision is yours, and with practice, it gets easier. Use the following tips to thaw the line when your creative flow freezes up.

Take a relaxation break. It doesn’t have to be long. Get up and stretch. Move around the room, or better yet, go for a walk. Take several slow, deep breaths, focusing and your breathing and feeling your body relax as you release them. Relaxing your body and distracting your mind, even for a few minutes, can loosen the flow of new ideas.

Take a shower. Dozens of writers confirm that the flow of warm water over bare skin turns on a fire hose of creative insights and solutions.

Switch writing modes. Take a section that baffles you and draft three or more questions about it, for example

• What am I trying to say here?
• What really matters in this section?
• Why am I feeling so stuck about this?

Write the question at the top of a sheet of blank paper or journal page, and write the first thing that comes to mind. You may be surprised at the answers that pour out of your fingers.

Switch to free writing about your draft. Before you begin, take five or ten minutes to sit quietly with a simple meditation exercise of your choice to clear your mind. If you don’t have a favorite, try focusing on your breathing. Then start writing with your story in mind but no agenda and see where the story goes.

Take Anne Lamott’s advice and “write a shitty first draft.” This is a great way to start, because you’ll know it can only get better.

Play with the story. Revert to childhood and play “Pretend I’m a writer.” Since you are “only pretending”, you aren’t accountable for results, so you can really let ‘er rip. Write wild and crazy, even if your story is real, and even if it’s as serious as a funeral. You may end up tossing it all out, but more likely, you’ll find most of the material is good. You may toss of a great fiction story as a by-product.

Put your feet up. Take a tip from the picture above. If you don’t have a laptop to work on with your feet up, try writing by hand on a clipboard.

You may have observed from the tips above that relaxation is a key component in each. If stressing isn’t working for you, just quit stressing. If you can’t quit stressing, maybe you need to quit writing for the moment. When you feel more relaxed, have another go at it.

Write now: find a draft you’ve abandoned because you got stuck. Pull it out and use the tips above to get it out of the mud pit. Or start a new story about a challenging topic and use the tips to get it rolling.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Stories

What story does this picture tell? I was intrigued when I noticed it on A Writer’s Right to Keep Writing and followed the trail to bingobongo’s source image. I challenge each viewer to add a comment with a couple of sentences answering that question, and to do it before reading any of the other comments. I guarantee you that no two stories will be quite the same. Themes may emerge, but each story will have a unique twist. This illustrates that no two people see or understand the same way, and pictures require clear verbal communication to ensure that everybody is on the same page.

Now and then when we have a little extra time in a writing group, I pull out my folio of a few hundred pictures I’ve clipped to use as prompts for a freewriting exercise. Some are as simple as a single flower blossom. Others are complex scenes. Many feature people doing things or interacting with other people. The instructions are simple:

“Look through the pictures and select one that calls to you. Take a couple if you wish. Look at the picture for a minute or two, then start writing whatever story comes to mind.”

If we have lots of time, we may write for fifteen or twenty minutes, but more likely it will be five or six. No two people write about the same picture, so no two stories are the same. It wouldn’t matter if everyone wrote about the same picture. (No two stories would be the same.) People are always amazed at the depth and quality of the stories that emerge from this exercise. They tend to be rich in detail and highly personal. They always go home with dozens of new entries on their story idea lists.

Sometimes I use these pictures to start a story myself. They are great for smashing through a crusty case of Writer’s Block and they always result in stories I would not have thought to write on my own. Family photos are also a great source of story prompts.

If you want to start a collection of writing prompt pictures to use on your own or share with a group, assemble a selection of magazines, ideally with a wide variety of content and heavily illustrated. The pictures may be photos or any other art. I trim all the words. Other people leave words and sometimes incorporate them into the stories. I’ve used pictures from travel magazines and brochures, sports , history/culture (i.e. Smithsonian, Nat’l Geographic), home décor, cooking, parenting, news, and general interest magazines. Any size will do – half a page is ideal.

Another approach is to hit the web and search for pictures on sites like Flickr, Picasa, or Webshots. Select a topic and use Google’s Images tab to find pictures about it. Unless you plan to publish the picture, copyright doesn’t matter.

Write now:  just for fun or two overcome writer’s block, find one or more pictures and write about them. Begin a collection to share with a writing group, or invite a group f friends and neighbors to join you for an evening of writing fun.

Picture credit: bongobingo

Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper

SARK, poster child for Coloring Outside the Lines and Succulence, has scored another hit, and this time she is squirting her juiciness directly into the souls of life story writers. The lengthy subtitle of her fifteenth volume, Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper, is Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. In her inimical style, words flow in every color of the rainbow, enhanced with her trademark doodles and fillips, fulfilling the promise of the title.

Her Writer’s Manifesto appears on the very first page, showcasing her spirit and serving as an example for writing our own:

May words and letters assemble themselves and collect without effort on pages and screens.

May I live my life joy-fully and in between and during these times, learning to dance with distractions, being conscious of the ways my writing practice fills my soul.

May my writing teach me to leap forth and lead my words to be read when this serves me and others.

May my writer’s heart be free of competition, comparison or questing for money or recognition, and remember that we all write for everyone.

May I write my truth and write authentically even after times that I might write falsely, timidly or with ulterior motives. May I embrace the challenges as well as the joys of writing.

Throughout the book, words tumble forth like frolicking children, That’s how SARK is. Bubbly, Exuberant. Colorful and juicy. She makes readers believe anything is possible, because she has done the seemingly impossible herself. Like her other books, this one sounds like it’s written by the nicest, most lovable cheerleader you could ever hope to meet. I felt like a kindergarten kid standing at a painting easel as I read, and although I’ve already written stacks and piles of stories and a growing list of books, she inspires me to write more, to keep “moving my tools” and trying new ways of writing.

Despite her sometimes simplistic approach, the book contains solid, useful advice, helping the timid get those tools moving through first drafts. She gives instructions for teaching friends and family how to be helpful. She explains how to fit writing into over-crowded schedules. She convinces us we do dare write about that! and how to manage our inner censor and writer's block. She explores ways of making our writing real and going deeper. She includes project management tips and oodles of writing prompts.

Although this is not specifically a workbook, she includes space to do some of the exercises she recommends, and peppers the pages with inspirational quotes. At the end of the book she includes interviews with five other writers, explains how she produces her own books (writing/drawing each page by hand at least four times) and fills eight pages with resources for writers that include self-publishing sites, writing tips, inspiration, and supplies. She includes lists of writers’ organizations, retreats, music for writers, and thirty-three recommended books.

It is worth noting that while SARK’s wildly colorful, handwritten pages excite and inspire most people, some find their busy-ness overstimulating, even hard to read. If you want to take a look at SARK’s style before ordering, check out her monthly eletter or take a look inside the book on the Amazon site (this Amazon feature is not yet active on August 5, but should be soon).

Write now: with a juicy pen or several, on thirsty paper, about something dashing and daring that you have done. Let your inner child out to play. Scribble, doodle, make a mess. You can edit and clean it up later. It’s play time! Or, get out your crayons and draw a picture of a childhood memory. Check out my example of such a picture.

A Visit from Sarabelle

Earlier this month I posted two messages (Some Pictures are Best Painted with Words, and Transition Generation) about my trip last month across western Texas along I-10. Those posts were transcriptions from pages of the yellow pad I carried along. I did little editing — they gushed forth fully formed. Following is the third and last of the inspirations I had that day:

Few outside Texas would ever think to seek creative inspiration in West Texas. I certainly wouldn't. Today, after the blessing of spring rains, this basically barren landscape is as green as it ever gets, but it still looks eerily god-forsaken.

Obviously this is not so. As I look with my heart, I see there is something ethereal and mystical about this place. Blog ideas are gushing forth at fire hose velocity. Perhaps Sarabelle, my lifestory writing muse, headquarters here. I know better than to spurn Sarabelle's offering, and I know better than to leave home without paper and pencil. Right now, if I were a poet, I'd write An Ode to Sarabelle, but alas, a poet I am not.

I'll simply honor her gifts by writing them down and urge you to do likewise when she leaves memory morsels in unexpected places. She doesn't require that you write a whole, finished story on the spot. She's happy if you simply jot a few words or a couple of sentences — enough to lock the idea in your mind.

Thank you, Sarabelle

I don't know if it was the landscape that unleashed that flow of creativity. Perhaps the low-grade fever I was running slipped my brainwaves into another gear. Whatever it was, I was grateful for this phenomenon I call Writer's Rush, the opposite of Writer's Block.

You needn't travel to west Texas or run a low-grade fever to experience Writer's Rush yourself. Spending time with other lifestory writers in a writing group, reading lists of prompts, or simply talking with friends and family about "the good old days" is generally enough to get most people spinning out story ideas. Just don't forget to jot down a few notes about each one to keep Sarabelle feeling appreciated.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 60 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Writing on a Hamster Wheel

I’m working on a complicated story right now. It’s total fiction, with no basis in my experience, and I’ve fallen into a trap common to writers of any genre, the hamster wheel syndrome. I know better than to do this, but I’ve been editing the heck out of what I’ve already written rather than forging boldly ahead to write the story. I know where it’s going – I’m just having trouble reading the markers along the path.

Yesterday I had a Skype visit with Ian Mathie, a prolific cross-genre author who pops out stories like a cat birthing a litter. Already this year Mosaique Press has released two new titles by him, making a total of six book-length volumes published over the last three years. This year’s first, Sorcerers and Orange Peels, is his fifth book-length memoir covering grippingly arcane experiences in a remote African village while working as a water engineer. The second, Chinese Take-Out, is a fictitious spy thriller based on valid history. 

As we chatted, I learned that he is nearing completion on two more novels and another memoir. When I mentioned my dilemma, he confirmed what I suspected: “... I just write the story and edit later.”

As much as I value Ian’s advice, this particular bit was old news. Who hasn’t heard some version before? For example,

• Write with your display off to avoid distraction.
• Write by hand.
• Set a time limit for cranking out XXXX number of words.

None of this advice addresses my specific version of the challenge. I do a lot of my writing when not at the keyboard. I think about this story constantly. What would I really do if I were in this situation? Or, How can I get them out of the campground at 4:30 a.m. without waking other campers? Or, Should they eat breakfast or fast? What are the forest service regulations about dogs in the national forest? Does El Sabio need to be on a leash?

This type of question is specific to fiction. If this were memoir, I’d know the answers. But even memoir writers have dilemmas about what to include and how to frame it.

A fresh start

This morning I sat down to write, determined to tackle new content, but wrestling with a few changes needed in earlier material that had become clear. Determined to capture them without spending another morning rewriting, I tried a new trick, writing the edit concepts down, like story ideas. I wanted them in the story near the relevant points. I could have used Comments in Word, but I hate the clunky way Word handles comments.

Instead, I inserted virtual sticky notes. These small text boxes have a pale yellow background, no border and a 2 point shadow on the bottom to make them look real – you know how sticky notes tend to bend upward just a smidge as you apply them. Right-clicking on the box border gave me the option of making this first one the text-box default for this document. To make them feel even more “real,” I created a style to make the text look hand-written. As a final touch, I changed the document layout from even 1.25 side margins to .75 and 1.75, making side margin room for these stickies.

After adding a few notes in the margin and using strike-out to indicate which paragraphs need to be deleted or revised, I forged strongly ahead with the story.

Who knew one little confession to a writing buddy could bear such powerful fruit? That rope he tossed lured me off the hamster wheel. Yes, I knew this stuff before, but sometimes we need a helping hand from a friend to use what we already know.

Write now: Seek advice from writing friends for dealing with your particular form of writer’s block. If the advice doesn’t fit, thank them anyway, and keep looking for a solution. Before you know it, words will be gushing again. Post a comment about your experience with writers block of various sorts, or send me an email. We need to pull together to beat this writing dis-ease.

Desiderata

A yellowed poster adorned, only by the words of Max Ehrmann’s poem “Desiderata” penned in brown calligraphy, has hung on my  various office walls for nearly forty years. I first became acquainted with this poem when I came across the recording by Les Crane, and I still thrill to the sound of that sweeping line, “You are a child of the universe…”

This poem and song stirred my soul when I first heard it, and it has remained an inspiration through the years. I stop to read it now and then, and consider how closely I’m applying its wisdom. There is always room for improvement. It has calmed my fevered spirit on more than one occasion, and kept me looking for the good in situations when life seemed dark and restored my sense of purpose.

Just now, as the world seems to be whirling in chaos with earthquakes, threatened nuclear disasters, changes of regimes, and potential cosmic events,  this poem seems more relevant than ever. I’m using the poem as a journal prompt for a few days, and offer it to you for the comfort, hope and inspiration it may bring. It’s also full of tips for writing if you read between the lines.

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

                                              — Max Ehrmann

One line pertaining to writing life story and memoir is “… speak your truth quietly and clearly …” Without Truth, memoir is fiction.

The passage about comparing yourself with others — this is a guaranteed invitation to severe writer’s block and other afflictions of the writer’s soul. Breaking free of these comparisons is key to achieving health benefits from writing.

Keep interested in your own career; enjoy your achievements — this advice can apply to the process of writing as well as the content.

As you peruse the poem, you’ll surely find more great advice.

Write now: Write an essay or story about a time when life seemed dark and you found inspiration in a poem (perhaps the Desiderata), a scripture, or other writing. Tell about any writings you turn to for comfort, wisdom and strength. Share this story with your family or friends if it seems appropriate.

Recipe for Story Writing

For several years before Yahoo! abruptly pulled its plug, I contributed to the Yahoo! Lifestory group almost daily. Every time I'd post something about a personal memory, I pasted the email body into a continuing WordPerfect document, together with the date. As a result, I have over one hundred pages of prime memory scraps recorded in a sort of album of random stories, all written in short periods of time.

In reading through this collection, I noticed one that I wrote in response to a member who mentioned that she was striving for balance. My reply was a form of freewriting, a technique often recommended for overcoming writer's block. If you have ever experienced this affliction, perhaps you'll appreciate these recycled thoughts:

What is this balance you are looking for? Time for writing about life and time for living it? The pain preventing balance of body in chair? The delicate balance between gushy detail and rich description? Balancing an egg on a pole on the tip of your little finger? Or walking a tight wire across Grand Canyon?

Balance. I imagine that if I ever find perfect balance, I shall levitate into the next dimension, freed at last of gravity and fumbles.

Gravity. Now there's another nice concept. Perhaps gravity of spirit is more cumbersome and oppressive than gravity binding feet to terra firma. So, there is yet another balance to strive for, between grumpy gus and airhead. But wait. Who needs balance? The next dimension sounds more appealing all the time!

Now look what happened: A blank email screen is a direct challenge. My fingers take over where my mind may falter. Mindless sounding or profound, I'm often as surprised as anyone at what pours forth. Here's my recipe:

Connect fingers with keys, engage heart, and let the words flow. Test with mind to see if the words are worth sharing, and/or need tweaking. Press save, send, or delete accordingly.

I've polluted your mind for writing about balance. Why don't you write a few lines about chaos, passion, iciness or a whip? Be bold and share your experiment as a comment to this post.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Ritergal's Horrible, Awful, Terribly Bad Day

Moan, groan, bitch and whine. I’m entitled to a pity party, and you are all invited. What?! You say you don’t want to come? That you have other more urgent plans, like watching the bread in your pantry grow mold? Can’t say as I blame you. Who wants to attend a pity party? Nobody, that’s who. Including me. I don’t even want to attend my own.

So, why do I write about it? Because it’s real. It’s true. It’s me, and it’s now. Yes, Accuweather.com assures me that tomorrow the sun will shine, but right now I’m feeling bogged down. Word is giving me fits (have I ever mentioned how much I hate Microsoft Word? And like OpenOffice?) as I work on my presentation for Story Circle Network’s Stories From the Heart conference that begins on February 1. I’m in over my head in trying to configure the wireless card for the laptop I converted to Ubuntu. I broke the rules on an Absolute Write Water Cooler forum game thread. I’m tired even thinking about figuring out how to put downloadable files on my website.

Enough of that. As I said, this is real. This day is my Truth. But, how many people are going to write for posterity about days like this? If you’re like me, you tend to paint your stories with a brush filled with sunshine, and paint out the storms and shadows. That’s okay. You may. But why not let your descendants see your back as well as your smile? Let them know that things weren’t perfect every day. After all, my current woes are hardly due to anything I’ve done. I’m simply overwhelmed by technology at the moment. They probably will be too. They may derive hope from evidence that they spring from resilient stock.

So, I choose to write about enough days like this to show them that “S(tuff) Happens,” and when it does, I deal with it. I’ll write about taking a break to read a few chapters of a mind candy novel to distract myself. About going to bed early for a few extra Zzzz’s so tomorrow I’ll wake refreshed and ready to tackle these puzzles anew. I’ll write about writer’s block and other barriers to writing.

In fact, just writing this blog about my horrible, awful, terribly bad day is making me feel better already. Should I delete the file now, or post this? Yes. I’ll post it. You may be having your own horrible, awful, terribly bad day. Yours may be way worse, like losing your job or something, and I wouldn’t want you to feel alone. Maybe readers who are feeling calm, joyful, or energetic will blow some virtual breaths of peace our way.

Write now: about a horrible, awful, terribly bad day, or even a whole season or year. List all the awful things about it, and how it came to and end. How the sun began to shine. If the sun hasn’t begun to shine yet, write about what the world will look like when it does.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Take Care of Your Heart First

To my own amazement, I just noticed that the first anniversary of this blog flew by unnoticed by Yours Truly a week ago today. In 53 weeks, I've produced 117 posts. When you consider that for various reasons, there were six weeks when I didn't post at all, that's an average of about two-and-a-half per week, which is right on target for the two-to-three per week I aimed for.

If you've been following the blog for awhile, you may have noticed gaps. There was a gap of nearly a month last summer while I was on vacation. A more recent gap and general slow down has been due to the event generating “The story that must not be written.” The unfolding story remains intense and stressful for all concerned.

In such stressful times, it's difficult to garner creative energies. It's not so much a matter of writer's block as preoccupation and lower energy levels. I can still sit down and write about other things, but it takes more energy, and my endurance is definitely affected. I can't concentrate for hours at a time as I generally do.

My situation is only unique in specific content. No matter how organized they are, anyone working on a longterm life story writing project is going to hit similar times. Perhaps it's a personal illness. Perhaps someone in the family has a health crisis requiring lots of time and attention. Perhaps things at work hit panic levels, or a love affair heads south.

During these times you are likely to have days when sitting down to write is simply more than you can face. What should you do? Back off! Be kind to yourself. Don't quit entirely, but keep your efforts simple. Jot a few notes. Go through your story ideas. Spend a few minutes editing an old story.

Make yourself a promise to get back to your schedule by a certain date. Write that date on your calendar. If the time comes and the situation hasn't eased, renegotiate. Yes, you'll lose momentum and fall behind schedule, but worse things have happened. Your stories come from your heart, and when your heart is elsewhere, your stories won't flow well. Take care of your heart first, and the stories will return.

Having written that, I've discovered anew that as long as I was thinking of you and writing this message for you, I have remained focused, and the words have flowed. Perhaps that's the key: My love and concern for you, my readers, is strong enough to overcome my preoccupation and restores my sense of joy in writing. My heart has reengaged with writing.

Give it a try. Think of those you love and focus on giving them the joy of reading your story. That joy will flow forth from some eternal well and uplift your spirit as well as theirs.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

The Sweet, Sweet Taste of Victory

It’s time to celebrate a new arrival. For weeks I’ve been working on building a website. These weeks follow a few months of avoidance, procrastination, and other forms of writer's block. Initially I thought I knew enough HTML and CSS (if you need to ask, you don’t want to know) to pull one together in a reasonably short period of time, say a couple of days.

Suffice it to say that as I began the journey through my out-dated web editing program, into some open-source freebies, and out the other end into a bare-bones text-editor with absolutely no frills, and concurrently through dozens of pages of on-line tutorials, CSS reference pages, and an actual printed-on-paper book of HTML instruction, I was certain I saw a white rabbit running before me. I lost sleep over links that wouldn’t work, bum style codes, and a host of other problems.

As recently as last night, I was ready to throw an ax through my computer tower. “I don’t need this grief! The world doesn’t need this page!” I wailed. In spite of my determination to remain calm and patient, the stress level soared.

Fortunately, a good night’s sleep worked wonders. Today I managed to get the errant codes calmed down, get the files moved from my hard drive onto the website that has been sitting empty for a couple of months, and you are invited to the unveiling of a major milestone in my recent life:

www.sharonlippincott.com

You’ll notice that the site name is The Heart and Craft of Life Writing. You may wonder where the story went. I went visionary and purposely left the S word out. As is the case with many types of projects, when you walk a few miles down the road, you round a bend or two and see new vistas. I see now that life writing is a more inclusive term than life story writing.

Life writing is any form of writing that springs from real experience, your own or others. It encompasses forms of writing that technically are not stories. For example, writing private pieces for healing, not sharing. Family histories are life writing. Personal essays are life writing, though technically, they are not stories. Life writing can even include fictionalized accounts drawn from your own experience or that of family members.

The Heart and Craft of Life Writing is built on a broad foundation to last for many years. I intend it to be a resource-rich site, where you can easily find links to helpful references, read stories and articles. I plan to have articles from a number of writers. I get enough writing practice with this blog! As time goes on, there should be some podcasts too.

Whether you’ve knitted an afghan, run a marathon, given birth, or finished a manuscript or website, the taste of victory is sweet. It makes the pain seem worthwhile when you've managed to overcome all the obstacles mankind, the universe and your own mind place in your path.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: Three more days until the official release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. But you don’t need to wait. Amazon has already begun shipping copies.

Where Do You Start?

“Where do you start?” “How do you start?”

These may be the two most common questions people ask, specifically about writing their life story, but the questions apply to any type of writing project.

You start by writing, and you start anywhere. Start with the first thought that comes to mind. Write about that and keep writing. If you can’t think of anything else to write about, write about not knowing where to start, and keep writing. Words will begin to flow, and a story will slowly take shape. One word, one thought, will lead to another.

I can’t credit a specific source for those words, they are universal, but Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg come to mind. Anne mentions this concept continually in her classic, Bird by Bird, and Natalie hits on it regularly as she develops the concept of Writing Practice in her best-selling series of books about writing: Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, and Old Friend from Far Away.

Last week I found this concept of just starting — anywhere at all — useful for cleaning the garage, a project I could easily put off for a decade, a situation quite similar to writer's block. Faced with an overwhelming task, I started quite simply, by consolidating flattened boxes previously set aside for recycling and adding more to the pile. That led to sweeping a tiny patch. Then I had room to rearrange the shelves behind the pile ... and so it went. Even without a project plan, each step led to another. I’m not done, but the the project has shape now, and momentum is building. I'm actually getting excited about it and look forward to going out there to work again.

The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing began the same way, but it didn’t begin as a book. It began with a single flier describing the first life story writing workshop I ever taught. I had no idea where to start when I wrote that flier. It grew from there, through many phases that included stacks and piles of handouts with overlapping material, and more stacks and piles of stories and essays.

That finished book barely scratches the surface of my reservoir. Several other projects are taking shape that will tap more of its contents. Since I don’t work on each project regularly, they get cold and I lose my sense of direction. When I go back to one, I must start fresh, but not from scratch. Each time I’m a little bewildered about where to start, but it’s getting easier. Soon I'll make a commitment to a single one and finish it.

No, it doesn’t matter where you start. Just get those fingers moving, over paper or the keyboard. Let the words flow. Stories, even finished projects, will happen.

Write now: about a time when you had trouble getting a project started and how you handled this. You might write about a writing project or another one. Every project is the same. It has to be started, and it’s not always easy to know how.

Photographic Memory Jolts

There’s nothing quite like a trip through a pile or album of old photos for bringing back memories. I recently ran across this shot of my own family, taken when I was about twelve. Oh, my, do the stories flood back! Here’s a list, in totally random order, of some (excluding the obvious stories describing individuals:

• The record player — a gift to my sister and me from Santa Claus when I was in first grade. That memory leads to Victor Borge’s recording, It’s In the Book, and the day my little sister repeated some words she had misunderstood from that story. Rather than “Of all the stupid audacity ...” she said, “Of all the stupid odd assy ...” Needless to say, that didn’t sit well with Mother. Which leads to stories of other things that didn’t sit well with Mother. And then there were the children’s records with stories and songs that we nearly wore clear through with repeated playing. Some of those records were plastic coated cardboard, others were Little Golden Records. The record player Christmas was in Cushing, OK, which is quite a story in and of itself ...
  

• The gray sectional couch with the black limed oak corner table — which sparks stories of furniture and room décor through the years.
  

• Tray on the mantle — Mother painted that tray, which reminds me of stories about her extensive skill in various craft mediums, and those stories could fill volumes.

• Hardwood floor — typical of all government housing in Los Alamos, which included all the housing in Los Alamos, which is another story.

• Mother’s jump suit — quite the fashion right then, and one of the very few clothing items she had in those years that she didn’t sew herself. Those who have read my books and follow this blog are aware that Mother and sewing are a hot topic in my writing.

• Saddle oxfords — worn by my sister, and nearly every girl in America at that time. Which leads to stories of polishing shoes in general, and the special challenges of polishing saddle oxfords and the pair of Ivy League saddle oxfords I had that sported tiny buckles in the back. And that reminds me of the orange shoes I had in sixth grade that looked like pumpkins and didn't quite match each other and ...
  

• My hair — I had just read an article in American Girl Magazine on how Natalie Wood used a hairnet to set her hair around cotton wads and Scotch Taped her bangs in shape as they dried. Which brings stories to mind about wanting to look like a movie star, and my adventures reading that magazine, and the modeling classes Mother arranged for my sister and me to take, and winning the scrapbook contest, and ...

• Glasses — I hated wearing glasses! And there are so many stories about them ...

• My bare feet — my preferred footwear in the house and outside in the summer. I often went barefoot in the snow to keep my good shoes dry, like the time ...

• Family dynamics — The way this picture (taken by my paternal grandfather who was a professional photographer) is posed, facial expressions, eye direction — all these cues and more tell volumes about the way our family related to each other.

• Fireplace — reminds me of trips to the mountains to cut wood and picnics, how pitchy pine burned, the fragrance of piñon pine smoke, learning to build a fire, Girl Scouts, and more ...

I could write for a whole week without running out of ideas, just from this one picture. As you can see, each item leads to other memory clusters, so I might keep going for a month or more. I strongly encourage anyone who suffers writer’s block to haul out some photos. You should experience relief within minutes!

Write now: about a picture from your past. Include the picture with your story, and explain details in it. Tell when it was taken, explain the occasion, and elaborate on details in the picture.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Thoughts on Perfection and Purpose

I’ve been thinking about perfection and how life is about growing and changing and learning. We can’t learn without experimenting and making mistakes, and in any event, perfection to one person may be an absolute disaster to another. Today I was reminded that mistakes are okay, that accumulated wisdom and compassion are more important to me than perfection. 

That ties in with writing. The need to be perfect may be the number one 

cause of writer’s block. As I ponder this reality, my mind drifts back sixty years. My mother was a seamstress par excellence, as was hers before her, and presumably sew on up the maternal line. That I would follow the same path was assumed. No early seam went uninspected, and no flaw was too small to ignore. I spent a major chunk of my girlhood using a double-edged razor blade to rip out flawed seams with slight puckers and uneven stitching. 

Before too many years, Inspector Mom had taken up residence in my head. A decade or so later, while ripping out stretch stitches (nothing is more challenging that ripping stretch stitches from knit fabric!) to remove a tiny pucker from the back of a sleeve seam in a pajama top for my toddler son, I had a epiphany. I realized this was not a good use of my time! I discovered the concept of “good enough,” a balance between perfection and purpose. 

Several decades have passed since that pajama top was outgrown, and I keep learning new angles about perfection, purpose and me. New challenges continue to emerge. Sometimes I laugh at myself for obsessing about reformatting e-mail forwards. I remind myself that posting a blog with an imperfect analogy is better than not posting the blog. Or is it…? Blogs are a serious business. 

Egad! I’m writing myself into a corner. How can I make this blog about perfection perfect? Obviously, I can’t. So I’ll quit trying and assume that you, Gentle Reader, will find your  way. I’ll assume that you are already discovering how to balance your skills with your purpose to convey your own message in your wonderful and unique style. I’ll assume that you’ll be gentle with yourself, give yourself permission to write scribbles for the fireplace for practice, and be happy with the stories that reflect your  best and special self, serving as your own best judge. 

I briefly pointed to my  early training in perfection at the point of my mother’s needle. I’ve already written several stories about this training and how it has shaped my life. What lessons did you learn about perfection and its significance? How has that shaped your life, and your writing? 

Write on (imperfectly if you will), 

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Writing Changes the Writer

Writing stories about your life is different from other forms of writing most people have done. Because it’s so different, when you first begin writing your stories, they may sound stiff and self-conscious as you struggle on many fronts. You have many story ideas, but you may be unsure of the details or the importance of a particular story, and you may not know quite how to put the story into words.

You may struggle with the act of writing, feeling words jammed in your mind, unwilling to flow forth onto paper — a sort of mental constipation. You may feel awkward about your writing, wanting it to be perfect, but afraid you’ll fall short. You may fear that your family now, and certainly future generations, will read what you’ve written and find you dull, boring, or worse. Perhaps they’ll read three sentences, then fling it all aside in disgust!

Take heart! It gets easier with time and practice. When you write regularly, whether hours a day, or a short session every week or two, you’ll fall into a rhythm, and find the words flow more easily, at least most of the time. You may still hit occasional patches of writer’s block, but they’ll seem shorter and easier, and you’ll have confidence that they’ll end.

After you’ve spent dozens of hours pondering alternate wordings, smoother word flow, sentence construction, and similar things, you’ll begin thinking and speaking more fluently, and have less need to edit your writing.

As you reach for crisp, colorful, evocative descriptions, you’ll begin to notice that you puzzle over descriptions for objects around you, even when you aren’t writing about them. You’ll begin thinking and speaking in more colorful terms.

Before long, you’ll think like a writer, and your stories will gain polish. Never fear that they’ll no longer sound like you. As your writing develops, so will your conversation. You’ll begin using more interesting descriptions of things all the time, and find yourself mentally rehearsing smoother ways to put things as you speak.

Writing stories about your life not only records the life you’ve already lived, it changes the way you look at life and talk about it. It may even change the way you live it.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal