Write With RCS: You can get value from this video

Who you are writing to is important. Writing develops your thought, but you are writing for your readers. Your readers want your writing to be valuable, you benefit by wanting it to be valuable too.

rcs

Write RCS: We get stuck. I get stuck. Writers get stuck. Writers get unstuck.

Writers get unstuck! We can get unstuck with better feedback. An excellent source of good feedback is a writing group. Your own writing group like the ones I've written of in other posts, is more helpful than most casual conversations and usually less threatening. A search for "writing" and "groups" and "writing groups" may come up with something interesting.

If you have writers block right now, try :

thinking about the meaning, not the words, of what you are about to write helps. Think about your meaning, then find the best words.
taking some time to consider what is going on with you
just resting a bit.
completing some business.

Doing the following has gotten writers unstuck:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or about to write.

You can interact with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of one such element and naming it can help.

~ Try just babbling on in you writing. You may find yourself being not so nice or less agreeable than usual. You might even begin talking back to yourself. Try not to shut yourself down too fast. Let each voice say what it has to say in your writing. Let each argument build a bit. Don't stop yet. Let each voice make it's point.

~ I get frustrated and imagine that you do too. Let their movement, some movement. Again let let each and every voice have it's say before you shut it down. No one is looking. Some writing may occur.

~ Try more meaning before words. Develop the meaning of the words you are using. Clarify those meanings. Fit word to meaning.

~ Keep writing even if you only write why your writing doesn't make sense. Keep writing for 10 or 20 minutes. Then try to get yourself to step back and look at what you have written with some perspective. You may discover that you have written verbless phrases or that nothing you asserts anything. A few verbs and a couple of assertions may improve your writing.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to see what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in your writing and then sitting back to gain perspective is writing. As Mr. Elbow says, "You are cooking."

~ At times it is good to let yourself get a bit extreme, to be emotional. Let each impulse have its day. Sometimes it seems that one has a cycle to go through before you get down to better writing. Such a time may well be the time to take to extremes for a while. Take it to the limit one more time. Later you can be the ruthless editor with a sharp knife.

I get stuck less these days. When I do get stuck, I know what I can do to get unstuck pronto.

Write us a comment below. Bye for now.

by R. Carroll Sheehan

crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

A Writing Center of Gravity

Write With RCS: An Approach to a Center of Gravity.

The list below includes many of the ways I have gathered for getting a center of gravity or unifying theme to emerge in one's writing. The ways I included below were inspired by Peter Elbow's book, Writing Without Teachers.

Toward identifying your unifying theme:

Start writing X because it seems more believable than Y. Note as you write X what you begin to understand about Y.
Continue your struggle with X and Y and see Z come up.
As you write along you may honestly say, "Ah, now I see what I have been getting at."
Finish what you are writing. Put it aside for a time. See useful implications as you look it over again.

5. See that your good idea is crap. Then see that some part of the crap looks a lot less crappy. You sort out good part from the bad. You don't have to throw it away. In fact, some of it is better than your favorite idea.

6. See your first writing providing a good scaffolding for your next writing. Consider the function of scaffolding.

7. You find a powerful spark in a tiny digression. You keep the same elements but change the whole orientation for the better.

8.As you progress in your writing be alert to emerging focus of theme.

9. If nothing emerges, sum up what you have written, then sum it up again.

10. Push yourself a bit to keep getting a center of gravity or summing-up to occur. Reconsider the nature of a center of gravity.

11. Work gradually toward moderation from extreme positions.

And like that.

Keep writing.

Richard

Writing With or Without Your Group

Write With RCS: We get unstuck and we write

We get unstuck. An aid for getting unstuck is feedback. An excellent source of feedback is a writing group. Your own writing group, like ones I've written of in other posts on this blog, is more helpful than most casual conversation and often less of a threat. Taking some time to consider what is going on with you is also a help and so is just some rest. Taking care of some personal business may free up your writing. Often thinking about the meaning, not the words, of what you are about to write helps.

You can also try the following to get your writing to flow:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or are about to write. You can interact with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of just one such element and naming it can help.

~ Try just babbling in you writing. You may find yourself being not so nice or less agreeable than usual. You might even begin talking back to yourself. Try not to shut yourself down too fast. Let each voice say what it has to say in your writing. Let each argument build a bit. Don't stop yet. Again, let each voice have it's say.

~ Of course you get frustrated; me too. Let there be some movement. Again, let each and every voice have it's say before you shut it down. No one is looking. Some writing may occur.

~ Try more meaning before words. Develop the meaning of the words you are using. Clarify those meanings. Fit word to meaning.

~ Keep writing even if you only write why your writing doesn't make sense. Keep writing for 10 or 20 minutes. Then try to get yourself to step back and look at what you have written with some perspective. You may discover that you have verbless phases, or that nothing you have written asserts anything. A few verbs and a couple of assertions may improve you writing.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to see what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in writing to gain some perspective is writing. As Mr. Elbow says, "You are cooking."

~ At times it helps to let yourself get a bit extreme. Be emotional. Let each impulse have it's day. Sometimes it seems that one has a cycle to go through before you can get down to better writing. Such a time may well be the time to take to extremes for awhile. Take it to the limit one more time. Later you can be a ruthless editor with a sharp knife.

By reading, even rereading essays on this blog you can find some help for you and your writing.

by Richard Sheehan

Writing Can be Story Telling

Write With RCS: Good Stories are Best

You can not tell every story. You can't tell every kind of story. You do have a story to tell. You have your story and perhaps may stories. This video can help you to tell your story in a way to make us care.

rcs

We Get Unstuck

Write With RCS: We get stuck and we have our ways of getting unstuck.

We get unstuck. An aid for getting unstuck is feedback. An excellent source of feedback is a writing group. Your own writing group, like ones I've written of in other posts on this blog, is more helpful than most casual conversation and often less of a threat. Taking some time to consider what is going on with you is also a help and so is just some rest. Taking care of some personal business may free up your writing. Often thinking about the meaning, not the words, of what you are about to write helps.

Try the following to get your writing to flow:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or are about to write. You can interact with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of just one such element and naming it can help.

~ Of course you get frustrated; me too. Let there be some movement. Again, let each and every voice have it's say before you shut it down. No one is looking. Some writing may occur.

~ Try more meaning before words. Develop the meaning of the words you are using. Clarify those meanings. Fit word to meaning.

~ Keep writing even if you only write why your writing doesn't make sense. Keep writing for 10 or 20 minutes. Then try to get yourself to step back and look at what you have written with some perspective. You may discover that you have verbless phrases, or that nothing you have written asserts anything. A few verbs and a couple of assertions may improve you writing.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to see what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in writing to gain some perspective is writing. As Mr. Elbow says, "You are cooking."

Reading, and even rereading, essays on this blog can be a help.

Writing, Growing, Oganizing

Writing With RCS: Don't let a wag dog your tale. Some of your best writing may go a bit like the example below:

You start writing about a dog you had. Then you are writing about sadness. Then you are writing about personalities of dogs. You keep writing. You find that you are writing about the effects of the past. Then you write a poem about names. You are thinking. You are cooking. Then you write an autobiographical self-analysis. Then you write a story about your family. You are bringing out different aspects of your material. You are preparing for some very good writing. Hang onto this work for awhile.

Reread it. You are likely to find both useful material and useful inspiration in the words, sentences, or a paragraph you have written.

I remember an English teacher of mine , an ex-bosun's mate of the U.S Navy. The dog example above reminds me of his frustration with me. "Damn it, Richard," he once said, "Try this: write "I like dogs because they have four legs, wag their tails, and bark." Then write a paragraph each, about what you like about legs, tails, and barks Finish it with "That's what I like about dogs." Hand it in and forget about it."

He may have been trying to tell me something about simple organization and completing assignments. By having a bit of your previous writing in mind you could have material well worth organizing and "handing in."

Keep Writing. It doesn't all have to start the same..... or end that way.

by Richard

Preparing to Write

Write With RCS:

Start writing now and prepare later.

Don't spend a lot of time preparing to write. The important things happen during your writing. Allow yourself to proceed without a full plan and allow yourself to depart from whatever plan you have.

Try not to let whatever you have learned about control to interfere with your writing. Thinking about control leads to stuckness. Try to do as the psychologists say and let go a bit. Being free to choose does not mean making a single choice, the right one. It means being you; choosing and re-choosing.

Digress and wander until your mind atrophies and falls off. Let yourself forget being discriminating and sharp. Let yourself be open and accepting.

A good practice may be to choose a topic you truly enjoy and beginning to write out all you know about that subject. You may find yourself writing quiet a lot; perhaps some that even seems worth re-writing.

Even if you have a topic that has little fascination for you, you may make a productive beginning by writing all you know about the subject and then beginning to write out all you don't know about it.

Start writing, then you can keep writing.

by Richard Sheehan

Writing: You and Yours

Writing With RCS: An organic development, a freeing activity, and more efficient,

               You can think of your writing as an organic developmental process of small steps rather than as a two step transaction of meaning to language. Start at a point you may call the very beginning with no expected end point. Think of your writing as a way to cook and grow a message. So that you engage in a process of freeing yourself from what you presently think, feel, and perceive. It is a way to move closer to what you really want to say.

               Your writing is not graduate school where many students decide to try very hard and plan to write carefully. Your writing can be a more freeing activity.

               Your writing process can be more efficient. The cost per word can be less. A good start may be made by collecting evidence, by babbling all you feel, telling your mood, and talking about the weather.

Start writing and keep writing.

RCS

Editing With Peter

Write With RCS: Peter Elbow and editing. We'll say good bye to Peter soon.

From some old notes of mine from a book by Peter Elbow about learning to write without teachers I am rediscovering that he seems to be a very good teacher and writer. I am learning from these old notes. Maybe you can learn from them too. I intend to publish some posts dealing with them. This particular post is about editing one's writing.

               Mr. Elbow's book was published by Oxford University Press in the early 1970s. It is entitled: Writing Without Teachers. You may want to find a copy for yourself.

               From my earlier reading and from my present notes I have come so familiar with Peter Elbow I feel I can call him Peter.

                   According to Peter, you may come to a point when you say, "I see what I have been driving at; I see what I have been stumbling around trying to say."

               When you agree with Elbow, ah, Peter, that editing means figuring out what you really want to say, getting it clear in your head, getting it unified into an organized structure, and then getting it into your best words, and throwing away the rest; at that point you are ready for some editing That seems a bit much and not completely clear. Maybe you ought to read Peter's book.

               Time to struggle for the exact phrase, cut out he dead wood. If you find yourself in trouble, it may finally be time to write out an outline.

               A useful outline is a list of full assertions - one for each paragraph. Assertions are complete sentences pointing to a real configuration. The list of assertions logically progress to a single assertion. Having done this you have worked your way up to a point at which you can work down through your editing

              I intend that there be more coming.

Here it is:

More About Editing Your Writing

               You can't edit your writing, says Peter, until you you can say, " What the hell, there is more where that comes from. Easy come, easy go." "Be a big spender not a tight-ass."

               You might find yourself regressing. Enjoy it and learn. You may have to revisit earlier difficulties. You may have yet to really inhibit fully your difficulties of producing. You may be doing things like trying to recombine words so as not to have to throw them away.

               Throw them away ruthlessly; you will learn to generate more prolifically.

If you find yourself spending a lot of time on introductions and transitions you had best reexamine relationships.

               Cut a word and keep a reader. Peter suggests that you play sculpture pulling off layers with chisel to reveal a figure beneath. Leaving things out can make the backbone or structure show better.

               Editing is being tough enough to make sure that someone actually reads your work.

               In Peter's own words, "To write ten pages and throw them away, but end up with one paragraph that someone actually reads---one paragraph that is actually worth sixty seconds of read time---is huge, magical, and efficient process.

Let me know if you find Peter's book available.

by Richard Sheehan

Keep Writing: You can find seeds and gems.

Write With RCS: great writing, good practice. Short, but worth reading again.

Your most embarrassing paragraph or sentences may contain gems and seeds for great writing.

Write what you have to say about the subject, all of it. Rest, Read it over and make few changes. Rest and read again. Find your best sentence and write it again.

After three or so of these attempts to write, you'll have a pile of rubble. Among that rubble you will find words, phrases, and sentences that seem important.

Use some careful thought and editorial discrimination to see what those important words add up to. Decide how much you believe them. Arrange them somehow so that they make sense. Write some new and connecting parts if you wish.

Congratulations, you practiced writer.

Keep writing.

rcs

You Get Unstuck

Write With RCS: Get unstuck. Write out everything you know about the subject. What a good writer.

Writing problems? Take a break. Do not throw away what you have written, yet. When you feel rested and calm or just really curious about that which you have written, go ahead and read it all the way through without correcting or adding anything. Take another brief break and read it again when you feel like it. As you read start making any additions and changes that feel right. Doesn't this seem like writing? Congratulations, writer!

Keep writing. Set your timer for more than 10 minutes and less than half an hour. Timer or not, begin to write all you have to say on or about your subject or topic. Check your clock and do something else for five or ten minutes. No clock? Stop anyway.

Now go back and read that which you have written. Make a few brief corrections and additions of use or interest. What a good writer you are!

Get set to write for 20 minutes, and then take a short break. Now write. You may have already written about the nature of your task. So, now it may be time to reconsider and clarify subject or subjects. Write more about your subject as you have your task in mind. At the end of your 29 minutes, stop for a short break and then read what you have written and make some brief corrections and additions.

Set up for another 20 minutes of writing. If you are tired, take the rest you need. Now, what has gotten you writing today or whenever? Let some of the thoughts or doings that have helped you get writing, move around a bit in your mind. you can consider beginning a list of your motivating thoughts and doings.

Now start writing all you can say about your subject, your topic or even your task. Keep writing until you have no more to say. Just keep writing for a while. Write until you have nothing more to say. do not over tire yourself. You have done good work.

Persistence is a way to get unstuck. It can be productive, but when it is not, it can be painful. There are many kinds of persistence and it makes sense to try those most likely to work. In posts on this blog, I am am attempting to put some which have worked, at your service. You and I can know anxiety. We can feel anxious. We can act. You can act effectively.

You have acted to get yourself writing in a satisfyingly productive way. You act and produce satisfying writing and you can attend to how you do that. You can observe that which you do to produce which you are pleased to accept. You can remember a time you have produced creatively. Not only that; it is also possible for you to remember much of how you have done so. You can do well, feel well, and be grateful. Feeling relieved can be good.

Go with what you have. If you don't have the inspiration, go ahead and write some uninspired sentences. A couple could turn out to be okay, or even pretty good. One could even be darn good. Keep writing for a while. Write something about the nature of your task or something very honest about what you are feeling at the moment. After writing for a while, stop for a while and then go ahead and read what you have written. Find what is worst in that writing. Then check to see anything that could be used sooner or later. Then write about all that was wrong, bad, useless, and uninspired. yes, all. You don't have to do this every day.

You are learning, growing and developing. writing is like that.

Now get a little drink of whiskey and water, just plain water, some aromatic tea, or whatever you have. Sit down with your drink and think a bit about why you were interested in writing your recent effort. Do not get another drink, yet. Think, a bit, about why you did not feel like writing. Why did you want to write? What about?

It is often a good plan to go ahead and write, to just keep writing. We often stop to correct and and to edit too soon and too frequently. I remind myself of this often. Its usually best to keep writing. The time to edit comes. Too keep writing when it feels impossible, you can write about that feeling. It can be useful to write about what is was that you didn't have anything to write about, and even to add the reasons you had nothing to say about it.

You can write several pages before you correct anything or make any changes. Never stop before you complete a paragraph, can be a good rule. I use it daily.

If you ever find yourself writing one word again and again be it a good word or a bad one you are stuck. So, try this. Start writing the word in complete sentences even if those sentences are not true. If you find yourself writing the same sentence over and over again, stop and consider why. Then you can write about not knowing why, you don't know why. Keep writing.

Ah, your task. Do you have an incomplete writing task? Write about your task, in complete sentences. Try to pick out your three truest sentences. Try to improve those sentences..

What is your task? Write out the nature of your task. Write out what you think you are supposed to be doing. You could go ahead and write out what you know about the subject of your task, but it might be worth while to return to the beginning of this piece and review it.

You are writing. Good. Keep writing. If you have begun to write on task. Good for you. If you have clarified your subject, better yet. When you are satisfied that you have clarified the subject so well that your writing will clarify the subject for your readers it may be time to clean up and edit.

Thank you for reading.

RCS

Writing: A developmental Process

Write With RCS: learning, cooking, and maturing, one draft at a time.

It may be useful to consider the growing of your writing as a developmental process. Your writing could suddenly get better, or even great, but neither is a good bet. However, when you keep writing and pay some attention to the quality of that writing, you will begin to note changes occurring, some for the better. You can congratulate yourself, consider the nature of the changes for the better, and aim to accentuate the positive.

You can be relaxed enough. You can be abundantly relaxed. If you are not procrastinating, you may be relaxing just enough. If you are writing, you may be doing relaxed writing. There is no law against being a kicked back writer. Relaxed writing can be very good writing.

Writing can be very much a natural process. Your writing doesn't just grow by itself, it also changes you, mostly for the better. As you practice your writing, as you write, you come to think differently, behave differently, and to see happenings differently. To ripen and mature your writing, you can cultivate it. Cultivating is less like high culture and more like caring for one's garden. Relaxed persistence and attention does the trick.

Do avoid wasting time. You can sketch in a draft roughly; you can move fast when doing so feels okay. Let your commitment and investment be light. Doing so does take some commitment. It can pay to spend enough time and effort to make this draft a kind of complete version of what you want to express. It could turn out to be a mess, but it is your mess and you could find some good stuff in it. Don't threw it away yet.

Treat your words as though they are able to grow. Let them grow, allow them the energy they need. Send energy through your words. Relaxed is good, but you want to do. Give your words life energy to continue. You are cooking. You may already know that with attention you come to see growth and development.

If you come to see your words come into a small pile and interact, you may be mad. Most probably you are not. It is likely that you are becoming conscious of the process of writing. Attend, and you may see those words separate and form new little piles according to some energizing pattern. The small piles consolidate and shake down into their best organization. They move together together again into a big pile and work until a different pattern emerges. This may repeat 4 or 5 times until you are satisfied or until it feels right.

Your writing has undergone changes; so have you. Some of those changes will will help some of your future writing to be better then ever!

Onward. Let the new idea or perception finally take shape. Let go of the old perception and let your writing grow. Some of your writing will seem bad this month and this year; accept that and see also that much of your writing shows improvement. As you grow, it grows; and as it grows, so do you.

Start writing and keep writing through great disorientation and chaos and on to an organizing center of gravity; and then go on to wrapping up and editing. Remember to complete a paragraph or more before considering the rewriting of anything. Take time to reread your writing when you are rested, calm, and relaxed. You will find stinking poop. You will also find some writing of which you can be proud. Pay attention to it. For my part, I then try ro destroy the stinking part before anyone else can see it.

You have begun that which may become an ongoing process of learning, cooking, and maturing, one draft at a time.

Thanks for reading.

rcs

Feedback for Writers

Write With RCS: Find out more about a writing Group and feedback. We may not need it but, it sure can help.

You can see that I have posted often about writing, writers and writing groups when you review the labels list in the column to the right of this post.

You may have already come to see that I believe that a teacherless writing group is a great way to great writing.

A main purpose of such groups is the providing of appropriate feedback to writers about how their writing effects readers of their work.

           I intend to write more about developing and providing useful feedback to writers in the future.
               However, while I'm here I'll try to write something about better reading and more useful feedback.

               In your writing group you can become a better reader and perceiver. No one is truly able to tell you that your perceptions are right or wrong. However, as a reader in a writing group you can be honest, can practice, and can learn.

By using your perception, your perception can become more accurate and more useful.

               Your job as a reader of the works of others in your writing group is, to tell the writer what you really see and how you really react to his writing(I could say "her"rather "his," for a writing group may include female writers or may be made up entirely of female writers, but I will not). You as a good reader will know that you can learn to see better and to experience more fully.

               As you help the writer become a better writer, you become a better reader. As you become more of an expert you may begin to feel that you are always right. I my experience, that is never true. What seems true to me is that as you continue to practice you can become a more agile, flexible, refined reader, and a more honest one.

               Learning to be a better reader is a process of character building. You may find yourself becoming both more sure of yourself and more humble.

               I have a lot to learn about my writing. I can benefit from good feedback. You can offer me some in the "comments' section below.

                                                       by Richard Sheehan

You Don't Have to Fight

Write With RCS: More about getting unstuck. Write right now.

           Our writing gets so stuck that it doesn't seem worth fighting that stuckness. When that happens talk out-loud. Keep talking out-loud as though someone were listening. Talk about comparing words to meaning, about "cooking" and "growing." If that doesn't work quit.

           I don't mean we should quit forever; I mean just lay your work aside for a time. You want to write and there are actions you can take to start you writing and keep you writing until you write something good. You might take some time to consider what is going on with you. Are you hungry? Is there something in your life that needs doing?

           Do you have notes? Look them over calmly. Keep your notebook and a writing implement at hand. You can review some of the other writing posts on Mago Bill. Sit down and complete a writing cycle. In ten minutes of focused and involved writing, then by stopping to see what it all ads up to or is trying to add up to. Your focus might be your topic or your theme. Your involvement might be to sincerely write what you feel. For example, "I'm suck, stuck, stuck. It sucks. sucks, sucks. It might not be very deeply sincere, but it might be a approach to your feeling.

           Start putting words and sentences on paper and keep writing for ten minutes without stopping. Use a timer, but do not be much concerned about quality. Try to include something that you know about what you wanted to write about. When you complete your full ten minutes stop for a minute and then look back over that which you have written. Then try to write a sentence or two or even a short paragraph of what it seems to be trying to add up to. So you are reviewing what you have written. When you come to a thought, feeling, perception, or image you can gather up into one sentence or assertion, do so. Write it down.

           You wrote. You are writing. Don't be squeamish about letting yourself write badly. You are a writing writer!

           In your next writing project you might let your purpose be to cook and grow and not take your work as a disaster to be stamped out. Keep Writing.

           You may try to see cooking and growing a a global task: seeing all your writing as inter- dependent; seeing that no parts are done until all parts are done; seeing that you want to get your material to interact; seeing that the important interaction is writing and summing up; and in seeing what it means to alternately work in words and meanings. Let me repeat that.
           Its about the cooking and growing expressed in other of our posts on writing. Understanding all your writing as interdependent is worth cooking and growing in your mind. Understanding that no part of your writing is done no part is done is worth cooking and growing. Understanding that you want to get your material to interact is worth trying. Understanding that the important interaction is between writing and summing is important. Understanding what it means to alternately work in words and meanings may make you a great writer. No need to do it all today. Cooking and growing usually takes some time and are best done with your cooperation.

           You can let your goal be good writing. Your best writing is probably mixed up with your worst writing. You can find some excellent parts in what you have written. Some of your best sounds, rhythms, and textures, and even some of your best insights may come from  your most careless writing.

           Your purpose on a final draft and editing might be to get your meaning straight and to use the best words you can to express that meaning.

           Keep writing.

                                                           by Richard Sheehan with help from Mr. Elbow

Stuck

Write With RCS: Writers get stuck. Writers get unstuck.

If you have writers block right now try:

~ taking some time to consider what is going on with you.

~ just resting a bit.

~ completing some business.

~ thinking about the meaning of the words you are about to write.

Doing one or more of the following has helped a writer to move forward:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or are about to write. You can inter act with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of one such element and naming it can help.

~ Try just babbling on in your writing. You may find yourself not being so nice or less agreeable than usual. You might even begin talking back to yourself. Try not to shut yourself down too fast. Don't stop yet. Let each voice make it's point.

~ When you get frustrated let their be movement. Again, let each and every voice have its say before you shut it down. No one is looking. Some writing may occur.

~ Try more meaning before words. Develop the meaning of the words you are using. Clarify those meanings. Fit word to meaning.

~ Keep writing. Keep writing even if you only write why your writing doesn't make sense. Keep writing for 10 or 20 minutes. Then try to get yourself to step back and look at what you have written with some perspective. You may discover that you have written verbless phrases or that nothing you write asserts anything. A few verbs and and a couple of assertions may improve your writing.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to s what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in your writing and then sitting back to gain perspective - is writing.

~ At times it is good to let yourself be a bit extreme, to be emotional. Let impulse have its day. Sometimes it seems that one has a cycle to go through before you get down to better writing. Such a time may well be the time to take to extremes for a while. Take it to the limit one more time. Latter you can be the ruthless editor with a sharp knife.

Bye for now.

Keep writing.

Writers get stuck

Writers get unstuck

If you have writers block right now try:

~ taking some time to consider what is going on with you.

~ just resting a bit.

~ completing some business.

~ thinking about the meaning of the words you are about to write.

Doing one or more of the following has helped a writer to move forward:

~ When you get frustrated let their be movement. Again, let each and every voice have its say before you shut it down. No one is looking. Some writing may occur.

~ Try more meaning before words. Develop the meaning of the words you are using. Clarify those meanings. Fit word to meaning.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to s what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in your writing and then sitting back to gain perspective - is writing.

Keep writing.

Bye for now.

RCS

Write With RCS: You can get value from this video

Write RCS: We get stuck. I get stuck. Writers get stuck. Writers get unstuck.

If you have writers block right now, try :

thinking about the meaning, not the words, of what you are about to write helps. Think about your meaning, then find the best words.taking some time to consider what is going on with youjust resting a bit.completing some business.

Doing the following has gotten writers unstuck:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or about to write.

Write With RCS: An Approach to a Center of Gravity.

Toward identifying your unifying theme:

Write With RCS: We get unstuck and we write

You can also try the following to get your writing to flow:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or are about to write. You can interact with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of just one such element and naming it can help.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to see what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in writing to gain some perspective is writing. As Mr. Elbow says, "You are cooking."

Write With RCS: We get stuck and we have our ways of getting unstuck.

Try the following to get your writing to flow:

~ Look for contrasting or conflicting elements in what you have written or are about to write. You can interact with those elements when you find them. Just finding an example of just one such element and naming it can help.

~ Sit back. Look at your writing and try to see what it adds up to. Going back and forth between immersing yourself in writing to gain some perspective is writing. As Mr. Elbow says, "You are cooking."

Writing With RCS: Don't let a wag dog your tale. Some of your best writing may go a bit like the example below:

Write With RCS:

Start writing now and prepare later.

Don't spend a lot of time preparing to write. The important things happen during your writing. Allow yourself to proceed without a full plan and allow yourself to depart from whatever plan you have.

Writing With RCS: An organic development, a freeing activity, and more efficient,

Start writing and keep writing.

Write With RCS: Peter Elbow and editing. We'll say good bye to Peter soon.

More About Editing Your Writing

If you find yourself spending a lot of time on introductions and transitions you had best reexamine relationships.

Write With RCS: great writing, good practice. Short, but worth reading again.

Your most embarrassing paragraph or sentences may contain gems and seeds for great writing.

Write what you have to say about the subject, all of it. Rest, Read it over and make few changes. Rest and read again. Find your best sentence and write it again.

After three or so of these attempts to write, you'll have a pile of rubble. Among that rubble you will find words, phrases, and sentences that seem important.

Use some careful thought and editorial discrimination to see what those important words add up to. Decide how much you believe them. Arrange them somehow so that they make sense. Write some new and connecting parts if you wish.

Congratulations, you practiced writer.

Keep writing.

rcs

Write With RCS: Get unstuck. Write out everything you know about the subject. What a good writer.

Keep writing. Set your timer for more than 10 minutes and less than half an hour. Timer or not, begin to write all you have to say on or about your subject or topic. Check your clock and do something else for five or ten minutes. No clock? Stop anyway.

Write With RCS: Find out more about a writing Group and feedback. We may not need it but, it sure can help.

Write With RCS: More about getting unstuck. Write right now.

Write With RCS: Writers get stuck. Writers get unstuck.

If you have writers block right now try:

thinking about the meaning, not the words, of what you are about to write helps. Think about your meaning, then find the best words.
taking some time to consider what is going on with you
just resting a bit.
completing some business.