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    A Writer For All Seasons: Beat Blocks, Face Your Fears And Keep Writing
    A Writer For All Seasons: Beat Blocks, Face Your Fears And Keep Writing
    A Writer For All Seasons: Beat Blocks, Face Your Fears And Keep Writing
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    A Writer For All Seasons: Beat Blocks, Face Your Fears And Keep Writing

    By Frances Booth

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    About this ebook

    This is an essential handbook for every writer, covering the barriers and blocks writers face throughout their writing journey.

    If you’ve hit a block, it will help you get productive, recapture the joy of writing and get your story out to the world.

    If you’ve always wanted to write but keep putting it off, this book is also for you. It will help you banish resistance once and for all.

    You’ll discover:

    - Why more time is not what you need and how to make time for writing
    - How to keep writing when dark clouds loom or you lose your way
    - The major blocks that challenge every writer – and how to get over them
    - How to stop putting your writing off
    - How to deal with criticism, self-doubt and fear of the blank page
    - The power and value of your words

    This book will help you get productive and stay productive as you take major steps.

    Above all, it will help you feel good about your writing.

    Frances Booth is an experienced author and journalist who has worked in UK national newspapers for more than 10 years. Her first book, The Distraction Trap, was translated into six languages including Korean, Spanish and Italian. She has written for and been featured in many publications worldwide including Forbes and Vanity Fair.

    Her writing style is motivational and inspiring. In this book, she shares vital tips and her enthusiasm for words.

    Buy the book today to get inspired and get writing!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFrances Booth
    Release dateJan 4, 2017
    ISBN9780993482816
    A Writer For All Seasons: Beat Blocks, Face Your Fears And Keep Writing
    Author

    Frances Booth

    Frances Booth is an author and Guardian journalist who has worked in UK national newspapers for more than 10 years. Her first book, The Distraction Trap: How to Focus in a Digital World, was translated into six languages including Korean, Spanish and Italian. She has written for and been featured in many publications worldwide. Frances is the founder of Here Are Some Words. In A Writer for All Seasons she shares her enthusiasm for words and passes on tips to inspire and motivate other writers.

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      Book preview

      A Writer For All Seasons - Frances Booth

      Along the writing path

      This is about the journey of being a writer.

      As you set off down this path, you will probably, at times, feel unsure.

      How long will it take? Are you going the right way? Is this the right thing to write?

      Don’t worry about these hesitations.

      Sometimes, you’ll be running along freely, laughing, whooping, a breeze through your hair. But at other times you’ll be making your way through a swamp, feet heavy with mud, finding it a huge effort just to stay upright.

      Just keep going. Just keep writing.

      Things will change, and change again.

      In Part 1 we’ll look at getting started, face a few fears and tackle time management (because there’s never enough time). We’ll look at the pull of wanting to write.

      Part 2 deals with channelling your energy, ideas and creativity. How do you stay on track when you’re full of enthusiasm and have so many ideas you don’t know which to choose? We’ll look at establishing good writing habits, making space and keeping it fun. We’ll look at creating strong roots and at words bursting to life.

      In Part 3 we head into the wilderness to tackle those times when writing gets really tough. How do you keep believing once everyone else has given up? Can you face criticism and rejection? In the face of all that, do you dare to be vulnerable?

      Part 4 is about release. It’s about finishing, avoiding perfectionism and what happens after you let go. It’s about the highs, the unexpected and moving on.

      Most writing journeys don’t go in a straight line, following this path in this order. There are – broadly – seasons that writers go through. But it’s quite possible to face four seasons in one day. It’s also possible to zigzag from one stage to another, then back to the first.

      The trick is being ready for each challenge.

      You can use this book either by dipping in and out of it, depending on what’s happening for you at that moment, or by reading it straight through from start to finish (and turning back to sections as and when you need them).

      Being a writer for all seasons is about being on a journey, and making it a journey you enjoy. It won’t be easy – it takes courage, perseverance and resilience. But it will be fun, it will be challenging and it will take you to new heights.

      If you’re ready for that journey, then let’s begin.

      - PART ONE -

      PULL

      People talk about finding your voice as a writer – the one that sounds like authentic you. But there’s another voice that many writers squash for years.

      I want to write, says the voice.

      You pretend not to hear it and get on with other things. Silly voice. What does it know?

      I want to write, it insists, a bit louder. You make sure there’s a work crisis that’s all consuming, get busy with this, preoccupied by that.

      I want to write, the voice repeats, tearfully now, as you work ever harder to bury it. It whispers in your ear, catches you unaware, for months, for years, for decades.

      Finally, it screams, I want to write!

      You listen.

      Turn up

      The most important rule is to turn up.

      Turning up means turning up to write when you’re:

      Tired

      Really tired

      Uninspired

      Inspired

      Sad

      Bored

      Anxious

      Happy

      Scared

      Depressed

      Excited

      Motivated

      Not motivated

      Lost

      Unsure

      Sure

      Full of energy

      Have no energy

      Too busy

      In the mood to write

      Not in the mood to write

      Some days you’ll feel like writing; other days you won’t.

      You need to turn up through all of it.

      On the days that you feel great, well, that’s great. Write for as long as you can and enjoy it.

      But what about all the other days?

      If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll waste most of your time waiting. Instead, you need to write when the conditions are not perfect (most of the time) as well as when the mood strikes you.

      Turn up anyway. Cast your net. See if you can catch a few words.

      You need to be able to turn up whatever, because the only certainty is that, during your time as a writer, things will change.

      Your mood will change. Conditions will change. The weather will change. How much time you have for writing will change. How you feel will change. What your writing needs today will change.

      Some days there’ll be the unrelenting glare of the sun. On other days there’ll be wispy clouds and life will seem easy.

      You’ll need to keep writing through all of it.

      Don’t wait for inspiration or the right mood before you turn up. Do it the other way round. Turn up and start writing, and words and ideas will arrive.

      When you feel tired, for example, turn up, but alter your expectations. Give yourself some leeway. Do the easy bit. Be kind.

      What will you find?

      You might dig all day and find nothing. But when you come back the next day, you realise that you’ve prepared the ground for ideas to grow.

      Another day, you might write, uninspired, for an hour. Then … 63 minutes in … there it is … the glint of something promising.

      Scatter words. Plant ideas. Give it time.

      You don’t know what you will turn up until you turn up.

      It might seem like a tangled knot of weeds, but keep it for now. Writing takes time.

      "When the first tiny shoot comes up, you don’t stomp on it and say, ‘That’s not a tomato plant.’ Rather, you look at it and say, ‘Oh boy! Here it comes’, and you watch it grow with delight."

      Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life

      Exercise

      Turn up for 15 minutes. Write something.

      Uprooting

      There might be some uprooting to do.

      You might need to get rid of old ideas or unhelpful thoughts such as, You’re not good enough, or Who do you think you are?.

      Start by noticing if there is anything getting in the way. See if you can commit to writing anyway.

      Note down what is in your way:

      1)

      2)

      3)

      We’ll come back to these barriers later in more depth.

      To begin with, the best medicine is to write.

      "If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."

      Vincent Van Gogh

      It’s normal to feel resistance. Don’t worry if there

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