Most people like to know where they are going, have a route, a map, when travelling or heading into the wilderness, and it is the same with storytelling. Yet, like travelling, sometimes the magic only happens when you deviate a little from the plan, let go, loosen up and allow yourself to write untethered by a […]
How to Beat Writer’s Block: 5 Ways to Face the Blank Page
Just as an artist wouldn’t be able to rework a blank canvas, a writer cannot edit a blank page. Making mistakes is part of the process; don’t smother your creativity out of fear and doubt. Everyone has ebbs and flows in their creativity. Just as bamboo is strong but bends and sways in the breeze, be flexible […]
Margaret Atwood’s Ten Tips for Writers
Margaret Atwood is widely known for her award-winning book, The Handmaid’s Tale. While she is mostly known as a novelist, she has also published many volumes of poetry, including poems inspired by myths and fairytales. Here she offers writers some practical [and perhaps not-so-practical] writing tips: 1. Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the […]
8 Tips on Finding [and Enhancing] the Optimum Space for Your Creativity
Although the ritual of always working in the same place can provide fertile ground for your routine, when you need to shake-up your inspiration, add a little pep to your process and creative offerings too, shutting yourself away like an author in his garret or artist in her studio isn’t always the ideal thing for your creativity. Where we […]
8 Ways to Reignite Your Passion for Writing and Write [Even If You Don’t Feel Like It]
In a brilliant interview in The Paris Review, E. B. White said, “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” To allow the seeds of inspiration grow into tiny shoots and push through the soil, like the magnificent miracles they are, you need to metaphorically water them […]
Alan Watts on How to Be a Writer
“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, […]
The Tao of Creativity: Taoist Techniques to Help Your Writing and Art
Taoism at its core is about living life with harmony and ease, and with as much joy in the process as possible. Most people have heard of Tai Chi and Chi Kung but there are numerous techniques within the Taoist system that can help both you and your creativity to flourish. The following extended offering […]
How Tai Chi Can Improve Your Writing
Mobilizing and maintaining energy plays a vital part in a writer’s success. The process of writing takes tremendous concentration and perseverance. I have found that Tai Chi exercises can enhance my energy while inducing a pleasant state of relaxation, and help me develop my ability to let my thoughts flow naturally. Relaxation means slowing down […]
Natalie Goldberg on How a Writer Must Say Yes to Life
Writing, Wit and Wisdom from Mark Twain
Needing no introduction (but having one anyway), Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a novelist, literary critic, short story writer, essayist, lecturer, joker, pontificator and all round commenter on the great theatre that is life. Growing up with 19 cats can do that to you. Both his birth and death coincided with a passing […]