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- About
- First drafts: allowing the worm to navigate the soils of your mind
- The boy whose butter I ate: writing from the inside out
- All a writer can ask
- Throwing away material without a sense of failure
- Playful child and iron teacher: the two halves of the writer
- What happens when a character’s skirt gets hitched in her knickers?
- It’s an anxious job, pulling out of the comfort zone
- Write of things you love
- Try to get ahead too fast and you might end up with your trousers round your ankles
what I've seen recently
"I'm not getting where I would like to be with the things i'm wanting to achieve..." Who can relate to this one? Such a great question to answer this week: Q: "I have all kinds of ideas about what i would like to write about, and then...I write an article and then I seem to go in slow motion backwards from continuing to write more." A: The mind works according to what we are telling it to do. Some of these instructions happen with our awareness - like when we decide to do something new - and some of these instructions happen without us knowing about them and form as habits. If you're finding yourself in a cycle of making progress, or having ideas, and then losing your momentum - either stopping, or even going in slow motion backwards, then this is an indication of an instruction that has become a habit. As long as you keep thinking, or telling yourself that you are not getting to where you want to be, the mind will continue to play out behaviour to fulfill that instruction. Here, is where we develop a habit of bursts of productivity that give brief moments of hope, followed by a ceremonious tumbling off the wagon! In order to create that fulfilling freelance career, we HAVE to remain consistent in terms of the actions we are taking. This is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Start small. Endeavor to work on your dream in some bite-sized way, EVERY DAY. Here, you will replace that old habit of stopping and starting with a more measured, trustworthy habit. When you see yourself showing up, every day, for your dream, that's when you will be able to start thinking, 'It's going to happen!' I hope this one was useful, amazing creatives. Please keep your questions coming! Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Lifestyle and Mindset Coaching for Creative Professionals and Writers! Grow your brand! Write a book! Scale your business! Plan and execute a creative project! #writerproducer #professionalwriters #writingsuccess #creativepro #creativeproblems #creativeprofessionals #creativeproductivity #creativeentrepreneurship #creativewritingworkshop #professionalwriters #lifestylecoaches #writingcontent #writinglifestories #writinggoal #writersdreams #entrepreneurwriter #writiHave you taken a creative vitamin recently? What if, the next time you were fishing around on the supermarket shelves for some cold and flu relief, you spotted something unusual in the vitamin section? We might know from a slight itch in the throat, or a sniffle in the nose that we’re coming down with something, but don’t wait for the symptoms before getting on top of your creative health. Here’s one thing you can do right now to bring down your stress temperature, that sneeze of wishing you were earning more, or the chesty cough of knowing you’ve not yet lived up to your potential. Take a pause and think about one thing you’d like to make happen in your career – a project you’d love to finally finish, the perfect job you’ve been thinking about for years. Now, ask yourself: Am I interested in this, or am I committed? You will either free yourself from a weight, or make a long needed gear shift in order to see that commitment through. For the vitamin to take effect you need to answer this question with your body. We don’t THINK to ourselves, ‘aha! I have a cold’ – we FEEL the symptoms and then do what needs to be done! For the full video, see the link in my bio. Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Lifestyle and Mindset Coaching for Creative Professionals and Writers! Grow your brand! Write a book! Scale your business! Plan and execute a creative project! #writerproducer #professionalwriters #writingsuccess #creativepro #creativeproblems #creativeprofessionals #creativeproductivity #creativeentrepreneurship #creativewritingworkshop #professionalwriters #lifestylecoaches #writingcontent #writinglifestories #writinggoal #writersdreams #entrepreneurwriter #writinglife #writemybook #writingsupport #mindsetsmart #goldmedalmindset #mindproWhen I ask a writer if they want to resolve their priorities and they say, 'yeah, but is it really that simple?' we don't then focus on whether it IS or not. We focus on the writer, and their question. 'Is it really that simple?' What does such a question suggest? Doubt, perhaps? Skepticism? We're not going to climb on board a boat we're doubtful about - even if it's the boat to our priorities. If we're skeptical about the boat's capacity to stay afloat, we just won't get on. You know what that means, right? The boat, and all your priorities sail off. Without you. I'll be talking more about this tonight at 6pm. I hope you'll join me in my Facebook Group (link in bio) and learn how to be MASTER OF YOUR PRIORITIES. And, yes, it can be 'that simple' with one easy, thirty day practice that I'm happy to share with you later. Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Lifestyle and Mindset Coaching for Creative Professionals and Writers! Grow your brand! Write a book! Scale your business! Plan and execute a creative project! #writerproducer #professionalwriters #writingsuccess #creativepro #creativeproblems #creativeprofessionals #creativeproductivity #creativeentrepreneurship #creativewritingworkshop #professionalwriters #lifestylecoaches #writingcontent #writinglifestories #writinggoal #writersdreams #entrepreneurwriter #writinglife #writemybook #writingsupport #mindsetsmart #goldmedalmindset #mindproCategories
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Tag Archives: Writing process
Isn’t it a little coarse to go and bang on the drums just because the doorbell is ringing?
I acted in a student film once and afterwards, at the wrap party in a fusty house at the top of town, I rode an office chair down the hill, flying across the junction at the bottom, ramming the pavement … Continue reading
Posted in Essay
Tagged advice, Alice Munro, Creative writing, editing, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, short story, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
7 Comments
Writing isn’t just about having an idea – you have to know what to do with it
I’m sitting at the bar of a coffeeshop in Amsterdam, scribbling away. A man, standing next to me, gestures at my notebook and says: what do you write? I’m actually writing about my notebook, I tell him. Some people who … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Fiction, Memoir, Travel
Tagged Creative writing, editing, Fiction, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Memoir, short story, travelling, Writer's block, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
18 Comments
Sometimes, you just have to get over yourself
There’s nothing like a high-five from a published poet, especially if it’s the gifted Clare Shaw, to help you get over yourself. So, I’ve written this poem, I tell Clare and Jim Friel and the other writers gathered in the … Continue reading
Posted in Essay, Poetry
Tagged A Posthumous Affair, Arvon, Clare Shaw, Creative writing, Gabriela, Gabriela Blandy, Head On, how to write, Jim Friel, Jonathan Lee, Poetry, The Hurst, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
19 Comments
What’s the one word that describes how you feel?
Nobody says anything at first. I look at the faces around the room – fifteen, sixteen year olds who are expecting to stand in front of an audience in a few days and read some of their writing. I wait. … Continue reading
Something to think about other than how crap you are
Jonathan Lee told me he can’t write in that beginning to end way we used to have to do in exams. He likes to cut and paste. I take a lot of guidance from those school essay writing days: sheets of … Continue reading
Posted in Essay
Tagged Creative writing, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Jonathan Lee, Writer's block, Writing, writing advice, Writing Practice, Writing process
17 Comments
Perhaps we touch, my muse and I
My first sexual fantasies, age thirteen, were set in a boys’ school. I was the housemaster’s daughter, visiting on a stormy weekend, where an overnight dump of snow had left us without telephone or roads. I had started a fever. … Continue reading
Posted in Essay
Tagged Creative writing, creativity, fear, Freud, Gabriela Blandy, how to write, Joyce Carol Oates, Love, muse, Relationships, Rousseau, Writer's block, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
15 Comments
The Dance of Avoidance
Go outside, find something – bring it back indoors, put it on your desk, write about it. I’ve done writing classes like this. Responses to this task rupture out of each other – each one, bringing two more, which in … Continue reading
Posted in Essay
Tagged Adam Phillips, editing, fear, Gabriela Blandy, George Saunders, how to write, obstacles, Writing, writing advice, Writing process
33 Comments
