08.08.08
“And now, I’m glad I didn’t know…”
And now, I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end
the way it all would go.
And our lives are better left to chance.
I could have missed the pain, but I’d've had to miss the dance.
-Song lyrics from Garth Brooks’ “The Dance”
When people are asked if they could go back in time – and know “then” what they know now – would they make the same choices in their lives, would they do it all over again, I am always really interested to hear the responses!
I think that it is important to live without regrets and to live each day to the fullest, learning from our past, but never letting the past take away from the present or what the future can bring. Life is just not long enough to spend time wishing that the past could have been different or that you could change it.
I think that I like these lyrics specifically because even though there may have been certain choices or events in our lives that have at some point brought us pain, they may have also brought tremendous amounts of joy and happiness…and without that choice, without the pain, how do we know that we would necessarily have had the joy and happiness, too?
~Melissa 
There is no such thing as writer’s block!
My students hear me say all the time that, “There is no such thing as writer’s block!” There is no excuse for not having something written after a period of freewriting or when a writing assignment is due. It may not be your best work, you may not want to share it, you may not love it or even like it at all, but if you let yourself freeze when you try to write, then you let yourself become an old car that no one drives anymore, or an athlete that forgets to stretch before a big game. The best way to get good at something is to practice and keep yourself in shape, and writing is no exception. If you don’t get into the habit of writing something down, you won’t give yourself the chance to revise it into a brilliant piece later on.
This post was originally posted on the blog I started last year to use with my students, www.missmorrisblog.wordpress.com. The link to the blog is in my blogroll on this page now too. If you are interested, please feel free to visit that blog and see the original post as well as some of their comments. I posted this advice, and as a homework assignment, and my students’ job was to respond with a way that they get around “writer’s block” both as a reminder that they already have at least one good trick of their own, and as a way to share strategies with each other. I have actually incorporated some of their ideas into this post.
Tips that will help you get “unstuck” when writing:
Be organic!
- Your best writing is what comes most naturally to you…if you are stuck for a topic or don’t like what you are writing…change it. You may come back to your original idea anyway.
- If you don’t know what to write at all…then write that! It is okay to get started with a list, or other brainstorming activities. Sometimes those things turn in to the best pieces.
- Draw or doodle for a few minutes – you can always write about your drawing if you still can’t think of anything else.
Use your resources:
- “Interview” friends and family about your topic – react in your writing to what they said or run with the new ideas and see where they take you.
- Search your subject, genre, or idea online – see what others have already written about it.
- Look up words you have already written in the dictionary and discuss their meanings.
- Pick up the novel you are currently reading, listen your iPod, and if you positively, absolutely think that you must, turn on the TV for inspiration (just don’t watch for too long).
Go back to previous writing-
-Use your seed entries in your writer’s notebook or other pieces that you wrote, finished or not.
-Re-examine lists and topics that you have worked on before and see if they inspire new ideas.
-Revise something – you may change it so radically that it becomes an entirely new piece.
-Change your angle – write about a subject you have written on before and look at it a different way.
- Lift a line from what you just wrote and make it the first line on a new page and see where it takes you!
- Don’t get rid of anything. If you don’t like something you have written, just put a line through it and move on. You may change your mind later and find it useful.
Change your state or your scenery.
-Been sitting a while? Stand up!
-Inside all day? Go out for a walk!
-In front of a blank computer screen? Pick up your pencil and notebook…
-Tired? Take a nap.
Any other ideas? Please share a comment! ~Melissa
