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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
The very first workshop I ran as a Lifestyle Coach caught me completely off guard. I had a small group of writers for the afternoon, and explained we were going to warm up with a series of questions they could journal on. I kicked off with: 'What do you truly want?' Some people started writing, others stared into space, and one writer began to cry... 'I'm SO sorry,' she managed. 'It's just I don't think I've ever been asked that question before by someone who's genuinely interested in the answer.' When I asked her what the answer was, more tears fell. She shook her head, saying, 'I really don't know.' I understood. Both the tears, AND the not knowing. I had felt the same, at one time in my life. What does your heart desire? Is there one thing - more than anything - you'd love to achieve? Here's the thing about what we want: we may not actually know what it is yet. In fact, we might be more clear about what we DON'T want. Perhaps we've spent so long providing for others' needs that it feels impossible to focus on our own. Maybe we think our heart's desire isn't possible. I want to change that! Come find me in my Facebook Community - link in bio. 😊 Gabriela x Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Mindset and Performance Coaching for Professional Writers and Artists! Get the words on the page, Get in that window display! #writingprize #writingcharacters #writerslift # #writingproblem #writingadventures #essaywritinghelponline #amwritingabook #writersblogs #writersnetworking #writersdreams #writerslift #writemoreletter #entrepreneurwriter #writingsupport #writinggoal #writeabook #writinglife #writemybook #writersoflondon #copywritingskills #mywrittenword #mindsetsmart #goldmedalmindset #mindproWe might be nervous of what people will think of our writing, or keen to live up to a certain standard. Here, is where we are allowing our ‘survival instincts’ to define our creativity. It’s not much fun in this place! There is another way. 🌟 Writing that says, ‘look beyond me’ is where we write the way we truly want, say it the way we want to say. We take our reader beyond the words and into ourselves! 😊 Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Mindset and Performance Coaching for Professional Writers and Artists! Get the words on the page, Get in that window display! #writingprize #writingcharacters #writerslift # #writingproblem #writingadventures #essaywritinghelponline #amwritingabook #writersblogs #writersnetworking #writersdreams #writerslift #writemoreletter #entrepreneurwriter #writingsupport #writinggoal #writeabook #writinglife #writemybook #writersoflondon #copywritingskills #mywrittenword #mindsetsmart #goldmedalmindset #mindprocessFuture-oriented thinking is vital for success in reaching your dream, but only if you do it the right way. The problem is that this can be hard to do sometimes. Oftentimes when we're sure that we're thinking about the future, our minds are getting caught in the past. This can be a hard mistake to recognize, but if you don't catch it, you'll become your own biggest obstacle. Whenever you catch yourself worrying about what success will look like, you're getting caught in the past. 😊💕 I hope you find this video useful. The full version is on my YouTube channel and you can find my Facebook link in my bio. Gabriela x #WriteNoMatterWhat Mindset and Performance Coaching for Professional Writers and Artists! Get the words on the page, Get in that window display! #writingprize #writingcharacters #writerslift # #writingproblem #writingadventures #essaywritinghelponline #amwritingabook #writersblogs #writersnetworking #writersdreams #writerslift #writemoreletter #entrepreneurwriter #writingsupport #writinggoal #writeabook #writinglife #writemybook #writersoflondon #copywritingskills #mywrittenword #mindsetsmart #goldmedalmindset #mindproCategories
Older posts for the really keen
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Tag Archives: Writing
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