process Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Jamie Morris Writing Coach

A Writing Chair for Your Butt

February 23, 2015

BUTT IN CHAIR: THAT’S THE CURE FOR THE writer’s most common ailment. Join the Monthly Write-In at Writer’s Atelier this Saturday, February 28th, from 12-2 pm. There’s no charge, but do RSVP Racquel at racquel@racquelhenry.com (so she knows how many cookies to bake). Then drive your writer self to 336 Grove Ave., Suite B, Winter Park, FL 32789, ring the bell, pour yourself a cup of coffee, put your butt in one of the Atelier’s comfortable chairs, and hit the keys for thirty minutes. A moderator will signal a ten-minute social (cookie!) break—then you’ll write again. Because that’s the way we get writing done.

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Top Writing Coach Tip #40: Sleep, Dream, Wake, Write

January 24, 2015

A VAST, VITAL ANIMAL SWIMS BENEATH THE SURFACE OF OUR DAILY LIVES. Half-remembered childhood dramas and complex events we are unable to fully digest—all this, and more, slips into the great ocean of our unconscious and makes its home there.

In INNER WORK, Jungian Robert A. Johnson says, We believe ourselves to be in conscious control of our actions, relationships, decisions. But . . . these aspects of our lives are actually determined from a far deeper place. It is in the world of dreaming that their root sources are revealed.

In the murky waters of dreams, filled with unlikely collisions and overlaps, with things melting into other things, we attempt to communicate with ourselves. And so do our characters. As writers, a dive into a character’s dream life can yield insights into her unconscious, shine a light on her motivations, and reveal hidden aspects of her history—adding depth to her tale.

Unlike the Push-Me-Pull-You we engage trying to decipher our own dreams, when we enter our fictional character’s world, we may have the distance we need to crack the code and hear what she is whispering in her own dreaming ear.

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Top Writing Coach Tip #72: Crossfit

January 18, 2015

MY ARTERIES, BUSTLING HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS DELIVERING urgent messages—OXYGEN! ADRENALINE! ESTROGEN!—are set to full dilation! Why? Because I’m cross-training my creativity.

When I realized my daily walk wasn’t exercising all my muscles, I added yoga to my schedule. Voila! I was cross-training! When my daily journaling practice wasn’t exercising all my creative muscles, I added collage-making.

When you only do one fitness activity . . . you may discover you are far less fit than you think,” says Todd Schlifstein, DO, in a WebMD article. Writer Colette Bouchez adds, “Implementing a variety of activity into your routines almost certainly guarantees you will be much more functionally active.”

For me, this holds true for creativity, too: Yoga + walking = increased stamina and agility. Collage-making + journaling = increased creativity! For you, it might be painting-by-numbers or urban orienteering. Just change it up. Cross-train your creativity, and see what you make of it!

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Top Writing Coach Tip #18: Rest, Reset, Recommit

January 18, 2015

I GOT A LOT OF REST OVER THE HOLIDAYS and came back reset. I also recommitted to a daily journaling practice—three long-hand pages per day, as prescribed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, and it’s really made a difference. I’m both surer-footed in my interactions with others and more personally creative. And that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Now, I’ve accepted a challenge set by Seth Godin’s colleague Winnie Kao. The idea is to “ship” one blog post every day. In her short, inspirational video, Winnie says when she shipped daily throughout the month of December, she was more productive and confident all around. And that’s nothing to sneeze at, either!

Stay tuned.

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

The Hourglass Project

January 10, 2015

MY FRIEND JESS HAS JUST LAUNCHED HER OH-SO-THOUGHTFUL HOURGLASS PROJECT. As she says in her introduction: The Hourglass Project is a personal venture to create balance and flexibility in [her] life as well as an increase in overall happiness. With it, Jess hopes to encourage others to make changes in their own lives.

A mental health counselor, Jess knows the importance of balancing nutrition, sleep, and activity. When we nourish our minds and souls as well, we’re able to reach our full potential. With her new site, Jess aims to help others feed their minds, love their bodies, and nourish their souls, ultimately creating a balanced, harmonious life.

What’s not to love? Visit Jess and The Hourglass Project.

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Top Writing Coach Tip #16: Holidaze vs. Words on the Page

October 13, 2014

THE HOLIDAYS ARE ALMOST UPON US! SOON, IT WILL BE impossible to make plans to do anything less holiday-esque than create papier mache T’day decorations or go Hanukkah shopping. And before we know it, our writing practices will have drowned in just a few feet of seasonal, social obligations.

Top Writing Coach Tip

To avoid a mid-January, got-no-writing-to-show-for-it hangover, we might commit to a practice that doesn’t require much time, but does offer the immense satisfaction of Having Written Something when all that tinsel and tissue paper has been tossed away.

The 99u article How I Kept a 373-Day Productivity Streak Unbroken, by Jamie Todd Rubin, sci-fi writer and columnist for THE DAILY BEAST, gives great advice on exactly how to do it!

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Top Writing Coach Tip #34: Walk to Unblock!

September 20, 2014

THE NEW YORKER RECENTLY PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE titled, “Why Walking Helps Us Think.” Writer Ferris Jabr includes lots of historical evidence and fascinating facts to support this premise. I bet you could add your own empirical corroboration; I know I could. Time and again, when my writing gets stalled or my thinking gets stuck, my best solution is to don a pair of walking shoes and hit the trail. It’s almost crazy how reliable this method of unknotting mental knots has proven—for me, and for many, many others. In fact, a daily walk—on one’s own—is part of Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way prescription for enhancing personal creativity.

Solvitur ambulando, St. Augustine said. “It is solved by walking.”

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

“You’ve Got a Book in You,” a Slam Dunk for Elizabeth Sims

August 23, 2014

RAISING ALL SORTS OF WOO-HOO! Congratulate ELIZABETH SIMS! Her fantastic Writer’s Digest Books title, YOU’VE GOT A BOOK IN YOU: A Stress-Free Guide to Writing the Book of Your Dreams, has entered its third printing since its publication in May, 2013. And Elizabeth, a Contributing Editor for WRITER’S DIGEST magazine, was named June’s Instructor of the Month at WD online!

Elizabeth writes the Lambda Award-winning Lillian Byrd Crime Series, as well as the Rita Farmer Mysteries. Check out her blog, Zestful Writing, or visit ElizabethSims.com .

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Writing Prompts: Responding to Abstract Art!

August 23, 2014

AUTHOR KRIS WALDHERR POSTED A LINK to a wonderfully fresh Ploughshares article titled “Writing with Abstract Art.” In the article, writer Anca Szilagyi discusses approaches to ekphrastic writing, or, writing about art, emphasizing writing to evidently non-narrative abstract art and offering four get-your-motor-running writing prompts that are a sure bet to spark some surprising work!

EKPHRASIS: a Poetry Journal, is “looking for well-crafted poems, the main content of which addresses individual works from any artistic genre.” Further, they explain, “Ekphrastic verse transcends mere description: it stands as a transformative critical statement, an original gloss on the individual art piece it addresses.”

Check it out! Give it a go! Might be a market for your mini-masterpiece!

* * *

Writing coach

Need help with your book? I’m available for book coaching and manuscript review!
Click to read Should I Hire a Writing Coach in THE WRITER magazine.

* * *

Posts Tagged ‘process’

Writing coach

Writing coach

Writing coach

Writing coach

Writing coach

Top Writing Coach Tip

Writing coach

Writing coach

Writing coach

Writing coach