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Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Writer’s Affirmation in Practice – “My Writing Flows Easily”…..

July 13, 2017 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

This is an example of what happens using the #5for5braindump method of writing. I needed to write and it wasn’t flowing so I borrowed an earlier affirmation and instantly the words flowed and had a new insight right at the end. Fantastic!

“My writing flows easily. I deserve to feel excellent about what I create now and always.”

I know there is a disconnect between my satisfaction and my completion of my creative projects. I know it is garbled and jagged and twisted where it used to be easier to sort through and act like the Nike Slogan, “Just do it” and I also know – with absolutely clarity – my creative production and satisfaction was much higher when I took moments in time to create with laser-beam intensity.

“My writing flows easily. I deserve to feel excellent about what I create now and always.”

I allow myself that intensity when I let go completely of other people’s needs and allow the deep contentment of focused writing (conversation, love-making, sketching) even if it is only for a five-minute time segment, my whole being perks up when I say “YES! Take five and create, do, make something now, with love passion and focus.”

What throws me off is my cluttered workspace and I can’t find THE exact pencil or the notebook that has that just right quote or…. For my daughter it is when her absolute right outfit is in the laundry basket rather than hanging up in her closet, ready to be worn.

I almost stopped to “think” when actually I think what I was doing was critiquing myself either for not being a better laundress or a better daughter-laundress trainer. Literally that thought has made my stomach gurgle.

See how easy it is to get caught up in self-recrimination?

My five minutes are up.

Even though my stomach hurts now and it didn’t before, I feel better.

“My writing flows easily. I deserve to feel excellent about what I create now and always.”

 

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Filed Under: #5for5BrainDump, Writing Challenges & Play, Writing Tips Tagged With: free flow writing, writer's affirmations, writing tips

How to End Writer’s Block with Another Episode of… the 5 Minute Miracle

April 26, 2017 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

I oftentimes make comments like “I don’t believe in blocks” and “blocks are a mindset thing, switch your mind, block evaporates” and yet here I sit, today, troubled and uncomfortable and squirmy and wishing I could be doing anything in the world EXCEPT writing about blocks but the little inner creativity coach who lives in my chest beside my heart says “Write for five minutes, just the magical five and you will feel better when it’s over than you do right now.”

I set my timer and wrote…

I will feel better, I will feel better I will feel better.

A few minutes ago I was in my backyard, sweeping my driveway. Haven’t done that in much longer than I should have. I swept my walk way yesterday and asked the question, “What would it take to make this a daily practice so that I could see it as a creative endeavor, like writing, which I do almost every day without fail because I enjoy it and it helps me feel better and every once in a while people say I am good at it and…”

WRITING INTERRUPTED BY PHONE AND RETURNED, 30 or so minutes later…

I swept my mulberry trees profuse berries from my neighbor’s driveway because my neighbors are bothered by purple splotches on their driveway and perhaps, the residue on their shoes as a result which brings resultant purple blue into their home.

I did it out of care, this time, not anger as I had in the past.

I had a quick and strong impulse to ask forgiveness from my neighbors and not to make an excuse but to open the conversation to some of the struggles I’ve experienced over the past few years.

Would this help in understanding?

So here’s how it went – My phone went off so my five minutes was interrupted quite suddenly, and now, about forty minutes later I am back and thinking how these interruptions are one of the building materials blocks are made up of – the mortar, the stone work, the inner cords of steel and beams framing it all.

I was anxious when I started and now I feel calmer and the idea I have an option to be vulnerable and speak up to my neighbors is a big one. Also, coming with an energy of seeking forgiveness rather than being angry at them is huge.

The magical five minutes of writing, even broken in two, works miracles again.

 

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Filed Under: #5for5BrainDump, Business Artistry, Creative Process Tagged With: . Julie Jordan Scott, end writer's block, free flow writing, writing tips

Top 5 Methods to End Writer’s Block & Make #5for5BrainDump Work to Create More Content

December 27, 2016 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment


People get stuck on words everyday: can you relate to what I’m saying?

Sometimes people get stuck before they even start, the writer’s block happens before the thought of the pencil is put into the hand, before the computer is turned on, before the assignment of the term paper is given by the professor to the class.

My own daughter got writer’s block this Fall semester in college and I did what I do every day with people who come to me needing a breakthrough: I gave her some prompts without explaining why. I told her “Five minutes, just write for five minutes without worrying what your words say. Just trust me, just write.”

And she did just that. She wrote, without editing or thinking or planning or editing on each and every seemingly ridiculous prompt I offered her.

Guess what?

Her paper got done and she managed to get an A in a class she thought she was going to fail because she continued to write. She didn’t allow her negative thoughts or fear get in the way of the words that were waiting to be written.

The thing is, we need to let our words out.

We need to give space for those words to be “heard” by our fingers and translated into essays or instruction manuals or chapters of books or dialogue in the screenplay.

Are you with me?

Chances are you are here because you need to write something and you hit that wall we sometimes call “writer’s block” or sometimes we just call it “block”.

No matter what we call it, it has the same impact: we are unable to take our vision for what we want to say into a coherent written document.

This translates into an angry boss or a bad grade, perhaps, or at best not being able to express ourselves turns into an argument or a growing mountain of disagreement.

Here’s the thing: together we may prevent your writer’s block so easily. Ask this: “If you could discover how to overcome writer’s block in 5 different ways, would you be willing to try one (or more) to eliminate the possibility of pain writer’s block inevitably brings?”

Mark Twain wrote, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

These simple techniques will do exactly that: start you on your way to never having writer’s block again in 5 minute chunks of time. Just like that, you’re writing will start and continue over and over again in mini-writing-miracles so eventually your worry will be wiped clean. Any time you get stuck for words again, just do the practice again.

Magically – your words flow – just like that.

1. Word-Chant: Write the topic word or phrase repeatedly on the page. If you are alone, you may even say it aloud as you write. As you get into a rhythm, other words will begin to flow. Follow those words wherever they take you. Repeat as necessary within your 5 minute brain dump session.

2. Doodle on the page. Instead of trying for simply words, make shapes and squiggles while thinking of the word or phrase that is the subject of your writing. In the image below you will see the doodles for a brain dumper who was writing about “How to Create a Believable Character.” You may also find moving outside “conventional language” in this way helps a lot.

Doodling before you write helps a lot, especially if you have experienced any writing blocks at all.

3. Collapse the Inner Editor with Emily’s Method. Some writer’s get stuck with their brain dumps because they allow their inner editor or perfectionist (some call this “voice” the inner critic or for me, Miss Pizarro, my third grade teacher) space rather than fully turning the words over to flow. Emily Dickinson had a brilliant solution to this problem. She added plus signs as she wrote instead of searching for the “perfect” word, she jotted any word that might be a possibility onto the page beside or above the original word. See some examples of how that might look below.

4. Give yourself permission to write as horribly as possible for five minutes. This may be my favorite technique at all. It is so fun to be horrible with a flourish. Yes, my friend, you may be an awful writer. How exciting to think of it!                                                                                                                                                                                                       

5. Borrow from a favorite “Amygdala Hijacking Technique.” Gleaned Daniel Goleman’s work with emotional intelligence. Your amygdala is the part of your brain that is responsible for your emotional responses and has the capacity to shut off your neocortex (where your logical thinking lives) instantaneously. In my creative life coaching practice, I train people to stop the hijack by turning their amygdala inside out. It is stopped by switching the brain to any other thought. I like to do so in fives so I suggest when folks start feeling that wild fear to name five things of any category – five types of green vegetables, five girls names that start with A, five cities in Europe, five favorite musicals – it can be anything at all. Just start making lists and watch where your interest goes. Write according to that interest which leads us to a bonus tip.If you aren’t having fun with your #5for5BrainDump process, walk away for 5 minutes and come back to your writing after you have had a drink of water, a bit of a stretch and if possible, watch an under three minute video that makes you laugh.

BONUS TIP: Try to write again, using one of these five techniques without pausing after the video. You’ll still be laughing. The writing will be fun. You will have switched from writer’s block to writing beneficially.

Instant miracles, infinite breakthroughs and more insights you ever imagined.

To participate in #5for5BrainDump, visit our sister site at 5For5BrainDump.com now.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

 To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    and on Periscope 

Be sure to “Like” WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram   And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2016

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    and on Periscope 

Be sure to “Like” WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram   And naturally, on Pinterest, too!      © 2016

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Filed Under: #5for5BrainDump, Business Artistry, Creative Process, Writing Challenges & Play, Writing Tips Tagged With: braindump, brainstorm, Emily Dickinson, end writer's block, flow, free flow writing, lists, write, write chant, writing block, writing improvement, writing tips

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth. Remembering Passionate Purpose

May 25, 2015 by jjscreativelifemidwife Leave a Comment

Writing at Gertrude Stein's House

Writing at Gertrude Stein’s House

King Arthur’s knights quested after the Holy Grail. I, however, perpetually quest for ways to make writing fun. I even posted a request for “writing fun suggestions” at the Writing Camp with JJS Facebook page recently.

In a few spare moments on a Saturday night I decided to visit twitter’s #amwriting feed. I came upon a post with a headline very hype-y but obviously it made me click.Hyperbole is much alive in this title “This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your Life”.

Seriously? One writing exercise will change my life?

I can’t support that wildly reaching proclamation but the article did, help me give birth to a poem draft. I haven’t written as much poetry lately and it made me sad. Writing a quick draft – badly on purpose – felt exceptional.

Does this change my life?

Maybe.

This creative writing exercise is most of all enjoyable and yes, it does get one’s pencil moving. Here is what I quickly wrote, attempting to write poorly as my theme:

 Bad Poem: Take First

Sisyphus expels fiction

Portable headstones rumbling nowhere

Fused opinions laugh at sweat

Mangle Josephine and Scarlet and Rastafarian hats

(Not even sure if that is a word, I continue)

Rain doesn’t come here

Snow doesn’t come here

Pacifists don’t come here

Snaggletooth and mulberries are frowned upon

over there though their new wall and

attempt at visibility works

Voo doo doll paves the way

So this is how this works?

First shots. Not a dunk or  lay up

Hula hoop falls down the hips

Too many EL Fudge cookies

leave her belly trapezoidal

Try again

later

===

Your turn!

==========

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond.

Poppy and bloom photoTo contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

Be sure to “Like” WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

© 2015

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Filed Under: Creative Process, Writing Tips Tagged With: Writing, Writing Exercises, Writing play, writing tips

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