Michael D. Pollock

Writing

Brené Brown’s Inspiring Message to Writers, Designers and Creatives Around the World

in Inspiring Videos, Inspiration, Writing - 0 Comments

If you ever struggle with the fear of putting yourself or your work out there in the world, you’d be well-served to invest 22 minutes watching this video. It’s a keynote address from Dr. Brené Brown speaking to creative professional at a 99U conference.

In this video, she offers several gems of wisdom for folks like us, including my favorite Theodore Roosevelt quote about critics, courage and perseverance. If you don’t have 22 minutes to spare, here’s her message in a nutshell:

“If you’re going to show up and be seen, there is only one guarantee, and that is, you will get your ass kicked … That’s the only certainty you have. If you’re going to go in the arena and spend any time in there whatsoever, especially if you’ve committed to creating in your life, you will get your ass kicked …

“Yea, it’s so scary to show up. It feels dangerous to be seen. It’s terrifying. But it’s not as scary, dangerous or terrifying as getting to the end of our lives and thinking, what if I would’ve shown up? What would’ve been different?”

10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

in Blogging, Writing - 139 Comments

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t induce him to continue to the third sentence, it’s equally dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until … safely hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit: the lead.”

— William Zinsser, On Writing Well

With respect, I must disagree with Mr. Zinsser. We all know the most important part of any article is the title. Without a compelling title, your reader won’t even get to the first sentence. After the title, however, the first few sentences of your article are certainly the most important part.

Journalists call this critical, introductory section the “lede,” and when properly executed, it’s the bridge that carries your reader from an attention-grabbing headline to the body of your blog post. If you want to get it right, try one of these 10 clever ways to open your next blog post with a bang.

10 Inspirational Quotes About Writing and Living a Creative Life

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From Writing FAST by Jeff Bollow

“And the reason you hate writing so much is because you start analyzing your work before you’re done pouring it onto the page. Your Left-brain won’t let your Right-brain do it’s job … Your Right-brain gets the words on the page. The Left-brain makes them sing.”

From Escaping Into the Open by Elizabeth Berg:

“There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I’d taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts … Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.”

How 750Words.com Reinvigorated My Morning Pages Writing Practice

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For nearly a year, I’ve been doing Morning Pages, the daily writing practice originated by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way.

Basically, your task with Morning Pages is to write 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing each day, first thing in the morning. If you’d like more info about the how’s and why’s of Morning Pages, download Julia’s PDF here.

Until recently, I wrote my Morning Pages longhand. You know, with pen and paper. I’d pour myself a hot cup of coffee or tea, sit down at the dining room table, and write in the early-morning silence. It was a sweet little morning ritual that I enjoyed for most of 2010.

About two months ago, my enjoyment started to fade. Mainly because the light over my dining room table casts the shadow of my hand onto the paper as I write, and it bothers my eyes. I didn’t notice the shadow initially, but lately, it’s become a huge distraction. So much so that it’s turned my sweet little morning ritual into a frustrating chore.

Fortunately, I discovered 750 Words, billed as “the online, future-ified, fun-ified translation of Morning Pages.” Why 750 words? Because in the writing world, 250 words is the standard number of words per page (multiplied by 3 pages equals 750).

12 Tips on How to Become a Faster Writer

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“Writing, therefore, is also an act of courage. How much easier is it to lead an unexamined life than to confront yourself on the page? How much easier is it to surrender to materialism or cynicism or to a hundred other ways of life that are, in fact, ways to hide from life and from our fears. When we write, we resist the facile seduction of these simpler roads. We insist on finding out and declaring the truths that we find, and we dare to out those truths on the page.”

— From The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron

1. Get Your Mind Right

Much has been written about the power of your mind to inspire or dis-empower you. I won’t say much more about it here other than to say your mind can be your biggest obstacle or your greatest ally as a writer.

Holding onto thoughts like “writing is a necessary evil” or “I’m just not a writer” don’t serve you. Release those beliefs, and adopt some new ones.

My core limiting belief was “I’m not creative.” It was based on my misunderstanding of what creativity really is and the creative process. So I let it go and adopted some new beliefs. First, I now energize the belief that “writing is my path to freedom.” Second, I believe “each day, I’m becoming a better, faster writer.”

Pick some new beliefs, and write them down somewhere you’ll see them often. Choose beliefs that are empowering, inspiring and believable. It does no good to try to convince yourself of something when you know deep down you don’t believe it.

Morning Pages: 8 Lessons Learned

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Today is day four of the morning pages exercise. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

1. Make Morning Pages a Priority

I almost skipped morning pages today. It wasn’t something I consciously chose to do. I just let myself get side-tracked. I started surfing around reading other peoples’ stuff, looking for inspiration, and before I knew it, an hour had passed, and I’d still not started writing.

I may have to change my morning routine, which typically looks like this. I roll out of bed and hit the bathroom. Then I grab a coffee. Next, I turn on my computer and check a few things. Then I finally sit down to write my morning pages. I think tomorrow I won’t turn on my computer until my morning pages are done.

If You Want to Make Writing Easier, Try Morning Pages.

in Writing - 5 Comments

Writing is often a chore for me. With that in mind, I’ve undertaken a new morning ritual called “morning pages.” Morning pages is a writing exercise devised by Julia Cameron and popularized in her book, The Artist’s Way.

The morning pages exercise is designed to help you recover (or discover) your creativity, and silence what Julia refers to as the Censor. The Censor is that critical inner voice that criticizes each and every word you write and makes it brutally painful for you to write anything.