Just do it!
---Nike
Most writers, at some point, find themselves wondering, Is this worth it? Anyone who's ever practiced a sport or an instrument and ran into that nagging voice that wonders about effort expended versus value gained knows exactly what I'm talking about.
More times than I can count I've been confronted with writers' doubts about what they're doing, what they're producing, whether they're good enough, and whether their efforts are ever going to pay off. These are the nagging voices of our saboteurs, whether they're telling us that we could be doing something more fun, something more worthwhile, or perhaps just that we don't have what it takes, and that the people who are getting what we want---getting published, recognition, kudos---are just better than we are.
Writing talent is not something to be underestimated. I know writers who have very little discipline who have gone pretty far in their careers because of their talent. But there are far more writers who struggle to produce every day, who treat their writing as a discpline and find pleasure in the results, and more seldomly in the process. For writers who have "always written," the flow of good writing can be a little bit like chasing the dragon. It can be that elusive space that you strive to get back to, and yet the very fact that you've been there makes the day-to-day that much harder.
Writing is hard. It is a passion and a hobby and a beautiful expression of self. But anyone who thinks you don't have to work your butt off to create, especially something as massive as a book (or a screenplay---to honor my script-writing client) is operating under an illusion that stems from some romanticism about how writing is supposed to be. Writing is not supposed to be easy or seamless or always a pouring forth from our souls. Sometimes that happens. And those of us who know that zone may think that it's the norm. I liken this to my yoga practice, though. There are probably one day in twenty or even thirty when it's amazing, when I leave thinking, That was an awesome class. More often I feel like it was the hardest class I ever had and I don't know how or why I keep on doing it. But I go back, time after time, because I love the way it makes me feel.
I told one of my writers recently that tenacity was more important than talent. I think this is true in life. There are those lucky few whose talent propels them along, but for most of us the desire to create and achieve and give birth to our dreams is the foundation upon which those very dreams are manifested. The dictionary defines tenacity as "seeking something valued or desired." I wish for myself and for all of us that we be the type of people who seek out what we value or desire rather than the type of people for whom everything we desire comes easily. It's the truism that nothing worth fighting for ever comes easily. And when it comes to builidng and manifesting your dreams, persistence is the thing that's going to serve you above all else.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
January 27, 2009
December 21, 2008
Join me for my January workshop
Start Close In
A Workshop by Brooke Warner
Sponsored by: Fremont Area Writers Club
When: Saturday, January 24, 2009
What: All Day workshop from 10 am-4pm
Where: The home of Evelyn La Torre, 45 Dolerita Court, Fremont, CA 94539
Cost: $65 includes materials
Bring: Comfortable clothes and your lunch
Register: Email fremontareawritersclub@yahoo.com to register, and an invoice will be sent to you from Paypal.
This workshop will work with writers around the power of starting with what you know. As all writers know, writing is a layered process that includes powerful self-discoveries. Too often we want to skip ahead to the next thing. We want to be farther along than we are. We want to have our story flow exactly as it should and we want our reader to have the perfect experience of our work. The hard part—and yet so often the most rewarding—is slowing down and enjoying the process.
Start Close In is taken from David Whyte’s poem by the same name. It encourages writers to start with what they know. Don’t take the second step, or the third, he writes, start with the first. The Start Close In workshop will encourage readers to explore what they already know, and Brooke Warner will lead the group in uncovering those nuggets of truth and insight that are just below the surface, waiting to become that first step. Often these insights and truths are things we have at our ready disposal, and yet we overlook them—perhaps they seem too obvious, or perhaps we’re sick of this story and have judgments about writing about the same old thing.
All of this and more will be explored through a profound and intuitive process called SoulCollage. Brooke will guide you through the process of creating small collage cards that are like windows into your psyche and soul. With these cards, you will discover those insights that are already right there, ready to be plucked. You will leave this workshop armed with what you need to take that first step.
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
A Workshop by Brooke Warner
Sponsored by: Fremont Area Writers Club
When: Saturday, January 24, 2009
What: All Day workshop from 10 am-4pm
Where: The home of Evelyn La Torre, 45 Dolerita Court, Fremont, CA 94539
Cost: $65 includes materials
Bring: Comfortable clothes and your lunch
Register: Email fremontareawritersclub@yahoo.com to register, and an invoice will be sent to you from Paypal.
This workshop will work with writers around the power of starting with what you know. As all writers know, writing is a layered process that includes powerful self-discoveries. Too often we want to skip ahead to the next thing. We want to be farther along than we are. We want to have our story flow exactly as it should and we want our reader to have the perfect experience of our work. The hard part—and yet so often the most rewarding—is slowing down and enjoying the process.
Start Close In is taken from David Whyte’s poem by the same name. It encourages writers to start with what they know. Don’t take the second step, or the third, he writes, start with the first. The Start Close In workshop will encourage readers to explore what they already know, and Brooke Warner will lead the group in uncovering those nuggets of truth and insight that are just below the surface, waiting to become that first step. Often these insights and truths are things we have at our ready disposal, and yet we overlook them—perhaps they seem too obvious, or perhaps we’re sick of this story and have judgments about writing about the same old thing.
All of this and more will be explored through a profound and intuitive process called SoulCollage. Brooke will guide you through the process of creating small collage cards that are like windows into your psyche and soul. With these cards, you will discover those insights that are already right there, ready to be plucked. You will leave this workshop armed with what you need to take that first step.
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
December 6, 2008
great gifts for writers---or for yourself
This year I'm encouraging everyone I know to buy books for the people on their gift list. The book industry is in a scary place right now, and so for all of us who love books, and especially those of us who want to get published, what better way to show support than to use your purchasing dollars to boost up the publishers you love.
I have a couple suggestions to run your way:
The first is that you check out the WOW! Holiday Gift Guide.
WOW! Women on Writing is a great resource for women writers, and their holiday gift guide is full of cool gift ideas.
The second is that you consider sharing with your loved ones the fact that you might love to have a book to help you with your writing. If you don't have any of the following books, I highly recommend you ask for one, or put yourself on your gift list this year:
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
Ready, Aim, Specialize! by Kelly James-Enger
Bird by Bird, by Annie Lamott
On Writing, by Stephen King
How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead, by Ariel Gore
This is just a short list to get you started, and inspired to start thinking about how writing might fit into your New Year's Resolution.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
I have a couple suggestions to run your way:
The first is that you check out the WOW! Holiday Gift Guide.
WOW! Women on Writing is a great resource for women writers, and their holiday gift guide is full of cool gift ideas.
The second is that you consider sharing with your loved ones the fact that you might love to have a book to help you with your writing. If you don't have any of the following books, I highly recommend you ask for one, or put yourself on your gift list this year:
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
Ready, Aim, Specialize! by Kelly James-Enger
Bird by Bird, by Annie Lamott
On Writing, by Stephen King
How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead, by Ariel Gore
This is just a short list to get you started, and inspired to start thinking about how writing might fit into your New Year's Resolution.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
November 12, 2008
live your creativity
Earlier this month we witnessed history. Worldwide, people have been calling Barack Obama’s election to the presidency an historic event. What Obama has done, really, is harness the energy of the people. He has a deep capacity to inspire confidence and hope. He’s dared people to dream.
How is it that some people have this capacity to inspire us to dare to dream? And how can we get some of that for ourselves? How do we harness our own energy and momentum when we’re feeling stuck in a rut? How does each of us find our own Obama energy to pull us out of the holes we dig for ourselves?
Most of us are completely unfamiliar with the depth of our own inner resources or our capacity to inspire ourselves. We’re too consumed with our to-do list, the priorities of others, the shaming voice that tells us that dedicating time to our creative pursuits is selfish, the all-consuming power of what you “should” or “could” be doing instead of writing or creating.
If you’ve been inspired this month, if you were moved on election night, if you have found yourself pinning your hopes on the possibility of change, consider how you have the power to inspire, move, and change yourself. It’s not out there. It’s in there. In you. Step into your greatness. Take a deep breath. Challenge yourself to believe, Yes You Can. You are your creativity. But living it takes more than just doing it. And doing it takes believing you can be it.
A simple request: Think about one thing you can do this week that would challenge you to live your writing. Perhaps carry an eraser in your pocket, or wear a rubber band around your wrist. Or tell three people that you’re a writer or an artist. Start to be what you’re doing. See how and if choosing to do one small action like this allows you to live your creativity. And if that doesn’t work, perhaps you need to challenge yourself to something bigger: get a tattoo, send out ten query letters, send an email to everyone in your address book that you are a writer and see what the responses are like. Brainstorm. Have fun. But live it.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
How is it that some people have this capacity to inspire us to dare to dream? And how can we get some of that for ourselves? How do we harness our own energy and momentum when we’re feeling stuck in a rut? How does each of us find our own Obama energy to pull us out of the holes we dig for ourselves?
Most of us are completely unfamiliar with the depth of our own inner resources or our capacity to inspire ourselves. We’re too consumed with our to-do list, the priorities of others, the shaming voice that tells us that dedicating time to our creative pursuits is selfish, the all-consuming power of what you “should” or “could” be doing instead of writing or creating.
If you’ve been inspired this month, if you were moved on election night, if you have found yourself pinning your hopes on the possibility of change, consider how you have the power to inspire, move, and change yourself. It’s not out there. It’s in there. In you. Step into your greatness. Take a deep breath. Challenge yourself to believe, Yes You Can. You are your creativity. But living it takes more than just doing it. And doing it takes believing you can be it.
A simple request: Think about one thing you can do this week that would challenge you to live your writing. Perhaps carry an eraser in your pocket, or wear a rubber band around your wrist. Or tell three people that you’re a writer or an artist. Start to be what you’re doing. See how and if choosing to do one small action like this allows you to live your creativity. And if that doesn’t work, perhaps you need to challenge yourself to something bigger: get a tattoo, send out ten query letters, send an email to everyone in your address book that you are a writer and see what the responses are like. Brainstorm. Have fun. But live it.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
October 13, 2008
the power of voice
Lately a lot of my writers have been talking about their voice. What is it? How do they find it? How much does it matter? Do they have one even?
It's interesting that the question of voice should come up so much now, during a time of chaos and unease in the economy, with the election around the corner and with so many doubts about where we're going as we stare into an uncertain future.
Why?
Because voice is authenticity. When writers question their voice, they're often asking, Am I being me? or Am I being true to me? A particularly resonant question during times when we're confronted with so much inauthenticity. People who write and talk about writing often tell writers to write what they know. And there's a reason for that. There's truth and authenticity in what you know, after all. And those writers who feel at ease with voice are usually writing from a place of truth.
So how do you find your truth, or your voice, if you're looking for it? The answer to this question lies in feeling into your writing and paying attention to when you're in the groove. Do you recognize the difference between writing that feels effortless and writing that feels forced? Do you sometimes get lost in the flow of your writing and experience a connection to what you're doing that feels like faith or grace or even just spaciousness?
Writing is in fact a sacred act, one that requires much more giving over of yourself to your prospective reader than most people imagine when they decide they want to write. It requires presence. It requires authenticity and integrity and desire. Whether you're writing memoir or self-help or fiction, writing with authenticity is a discipline that can be elusive, perhaps only attainable in certain moments on certain days for certain little periods of time.
Practice becoming aware of it and see if you can start to gauge the factors that cultivate truth in your writing practice: morning versus evening? state of mind you're in when you sit down to write? ability to clear the clutter of your mind or your to-do list and be present with the task at hand? writing in the living room in the middle of family conversation versus at your dedicated writing space?
Consider it. It's elusive, but you have the ability to harness it.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
It's interesting that the question of voice should come up so much now, during a time of chaos and unease in the economy, with the election around the corner and with so many doubts about where we're going as we stare into an uncertain future.
Why?
Because voice is authenticity. When writers question their voice, they're often asking, Am I being me? or Am I being true to me? A particularly resonant question during times when we're confronted with so much inauthenticity. People who write and talk about writing often tell writers to write what they know. And there's a reason for that. There's truth and authenticity in what you know, after all. And those writers who feel at ease with voice are usually writing from a place of truth.
So how do you find your truth, or your voice, if you're looking for it? The answer to this question lies in feeling into your writing and paying attention to when you're in the groove. Do you recognize the difference between writing that feels effortless and writing that feels forced? Do you sometimes get lost in the flow of your writing and experience a connection to what you're doing that feels like faith or grace or even just spaciousness?
Writing is in fact a sacred act, one that requires much more giving over of yourself to your prospective reader than most people imagine when they decide they want to write. It requires presence. It requires authenticity and integrity and desire. Whether you're writing memoir or self-help or fiction, writing with authenticity is a discipline that can be elusive, perhaps only attainable in certain moments on certain days for certain little periods of time.
Practice becoming aware of it and see if you can start to gauge the factors that cultivate truth in your writing practice: morning versus evening? state of mind you're in when you sit down to write? ability to clear the clutter of your mind or your to-do list and be present with the task at hand? writing in the living room in the middle of family conversation versus at your dedicated writing space?
Consider it. It's elusive, but you have the ability to harness it.
Until next month,
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
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