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

A Writing Group

Write With RCS: One of the top values of a writing group is the variety of great feedback it often provides.

The developing, growing, maturing writer learns to value the feedback of one's peers. Such feedback is precious and very often rare. Your writing group will be made up of fellow writers. In such a group you can have several knowledgeable readers telling you about the feelings and thoughts your writing stirred in them. They can tell you what they felt as they read a specific piece of your work. You can get regular feedback of several kinds from the members of your group.

I hope to post more about feedback and other benefits of a writing group in future posts. This particular post is a short wide-ranging introduction to the subject.

A writing group is usually about writing better without the use of a teacher. However, a writing group may attract more than one teacher, including teachers of writing. Don't be surprised if that happens, teachers are often learners who want to learn more about their subject.

They might, however, need to be reminded that they are not there to teach. They are there as a learning reader and writer. They are there to be good readers ready to provide their honest reactions to that which they read. Each of your group members focus on telling you how she experiences the work you submit. Just as you will tell her how you experience your careful reading of her work.

Quickly moving forward, I here add actions you may consider taking before you choose a writing group or before making one of your own.You can:

~ Start writing and keep writing.

~ Find a writing group in action close to you and check it our.

~ Sit in a a couple of meetings to see how it may benefit or suit you.

~ Check out online posts here and elsewhere about writing and writing groups.

~ Talk with a writing friend about forming a group.

~ Consider that most better writers have been good readers.

Once you better know your options and better know the kind of group you want, you might consider thoughts you would like potential members of your group to consider.Here are some sample points of the sort:

~ Find a time for your meeting and stick to it. Its fair to have have two writing groups each meeting at a different time.

~ Help one another to become better listeners and better readers as well as better writers.

~ Help each other to better know the kinds of feedback most needed and most wanted.

~ Decide on whether you want to handout your work to be read at home, to read your work aloud at meetings, or both, or what.

~ When you read a piece in group, read it twice. You will find that two readings are much better than one.

~ Show up at meetings.

I enjoy and appreciate your comments about specific parts of the content of my posts. There is, I hope, a "comment" window just below. It may sometimes be marked with the words "no comments!"

RCS

Writing About Another Blogger's Work

Write With RCS: Posting to, on, and about another blogger's posts. It's the Bloggers' Code.

In posting about another blogger's post I hope to do most of the following so as to look good and to have a positive effect on post readers, blogs, blogging, writing and humanity:

1. Provide a bit more evidence and documentation for my assertions than I have in the past.

2.List important references and bibliographic items.

3. Name my post or response in a way useful to the reader.

4. Name the author I am responding to.

5. Name the particular Writing of that author to which I am responding.

6. Give my response to the bloggers actual presentation.

7. Consider and evaluate the bloggers evidence.

8. Make my response appropriately clear and brief.

9. Quote the bloggers words in a way which captures the essences of her post.

10. Helpfully identify that to which I reply.

11. Help my readers to understand what I am writing about by identifying the essay, the happening, the question, the experience, the philosophy to which I an responding.

12. Provide information about the writer, translator, editor, compiler, witness.

13. Place my response and that which I am responding in historical context.

14. Provide some background for the main writer of the post.

15. Provide enough detail and example.

16. Make use of fair and useful quotes of the other blogger.

17. Make an estimate of the level of fact or truth of assertions I mention.

18. In making an argument provide convincing evidence.

19. Give the other blogger's evidence.

20. Evaluate how consistent the other blogger's evidence is with other sources l know.

RCS

Growing, Organizing, and Writing

Write With RCS: You grow as you write. You organize your writing for your readers.

Some of your best writing may go a bit like this:

       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 a English teacher, an ex-bosun's mate. The dog example above reminds me of his frustration with me. "Damn it, Richard," he once said, "Try something like this: I like dogs because they have four legs, wag their tails, and bark. Then write a paragraph each 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. Write in "comments" just below this post.

by Richard

You Can Express That Meaning

Write With RCS: Your purpose can be to express your true meaning so that your readers can really understand it.

           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.

           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

Writing Feedback Two

Write With RCS: This is a bit more about readers in writing groups. There is also info that can be of interest to other writers.

Feedback can be the most important activity of your writing group. You can get precious feedback when members of your group read a given piece of your work in preparation for giving you the feedback you are looking for. You may want praise, but you benefit by knowing what your writing does to others.

If you are now in a writing group you ought to soon have your turn as one of the readers providing valuable feedback. You may be an excellent reader and have read much as a writer learning your craft. However so, you will become a better reader yet, as you read to provide feedback to your fellow writers.

Use your reading skills to be a better provider of useful feedback.

Here is a miscellany of suggestions for becoming a reader better able to serve your writers:

~ Be willing to become more aware and more conscious.

~ Be willing to become a better perceiver .

~ Be willing to be even more honest than usual.

~ Note that as you perceive more consciously you perception becomes more accurate.

~ Be more attentive to your feelings as you read.

~ Be ready to tell the writer how you understood his writing.

~ Be ready to tell him how you perceive and experience his words.

~ Be ready to replay your experience of her writing as a kind of movie.

~ Remember that you are not a teacher here.

~ You are a reporter of experience, yours.

~ Remember that you are in a teacher-less writing group.

~ Be ready to give your writer a brief summary of what you think she has written. What does it add up to.

~ What is its center of gravity? What sticks out. Tell us.

~ If you can, summarize this particular pies of writing in a single sentence.

~ Choose a word which most summarizes the piece. Choose a word from his writing. Choose a word not from his writing.

~ Don't plan or think too much about this first summary.

~ Tell the writer what happenings or doings she made stand out most at your first reading.

~ Tell her what you remember from last week's piece.

~ Simply tell the writer everything that happened to you as you carefully read her work. Tell how you felt as you read. Were you surprised? Happy? Tell if or when you began to like it.

~ Advice offering or giving is usually avoided. However, if your interaction with the writer indicates a real desire for advice and you feel you have good advice to offer, an exception may be made.

~ Be aware that this is not a story. Its about how you carry our your part in this section of your group.

~ Your feedback comes directly from your experience of the specific piece.

~ You might tell what specific voices are like at various points.

~ Describe what you think the writer's intentions were with this specific piece. Think of some crazy intention he might have had.

~ You might swallow it whole and give the result.

~ Just tell how you experienced work through imagination and feeling.

rcs

A Writing Group

Write With RCS: Writing Group Feedback from your group.

Giving and receiving feedback may be the top purpose of a writing group. Here I will emphasize the job of receiving feedback. It need not be a job; we could call it the process of receiving feedback, but "job'" is shorter. Your job as a receiver is listening. Not volunteering comments or asking questions. You are the receiver of greater benefits than you may fully grasp just now.

In your group you practice listening. This is not a law but rather a suggestion and what I know of how to benefit from such groups. Listen with great attention to how your words affect others. You do what to have your words to have an effect, right? You may have bee trying for a specific effect. You want to know how this group of fellow writers are responding to that which you have written. You want to know what each felt or thought as they read your work. This process is not deadly; it will help you to grow and develop as a writer.

You are learning to be quiet and listen. So, be quiet. Do not tell those who read your work anything until much later. let them be uncertain of what of what you wanted your work to convey or at whom it was aimed. Let them suffer. Maybe they will notice more and be able to give you a more full and honest response. It is your task to become a better listener, and not to be a teacher or a question asker. Try changing the word "task" in the previous sentence to "pleasure." You want to know how your words in a specific piece of your writing led them to feel or think.

Neither giving nor receiving feedback is easy. In both it is possible to come to feel, for a time, that you are always right or always wrong. An important activity of the imparter of reaction is is to become as honest as possible. A bit of a job. The task of you the listener/writer, is to attentive and quiet. Telling nothing and saying nothing may not come easily to you, the receiver of this treasure of feedback. But you can remember that you best teacher could probably not have given you the feedback treasure you receive from the members of your writing group. That treasure helps you to be a better and better writer. This group response of fellow writers can better inform you of how the world will receive your writing than can many an excellent teacher.

Some readers of your writing may be good at tricking you into telling them more about the intentions you have for the piece in question than you intended. But you, as its writer, want only to know what your writing did to them, with no ''helpful'' hints. When you tell the readers in your group what you wanted your writing to do to them, you hinder their fresh and honest response.

You, as the writer, want to know how the reader perceives and experiences your words. You want to know what it was what it was like to be him reading your words. Never stop a reader from from giving you her reactions. You very much need her feedback and she is will to give it. Let her.

You can look to members of your writing group to find out what your words caused to happen in their consciousness. The better you get at the uncovering of feelings in your group and how your words effected consciousness, the better you will be at deciding for yourself when your words are most likely to be doing what you want them to. or not.

It may be helpful to remember that members of your group are neither gods nor teachers, telling you how other words will work better if either this or that were changed in thus and such a way. What they can tell you very well is how they experienced a specific work of yours; how they experienced your words there, how they reacted to them.

Your readers job is to provide you with a kind of movie of his mind as he read your work, and it is not your job to tell him how to do so. And it is certainly no one's job to quarrel with another's experience.

You do not need writing group to write well, but one can truly help. When you would be a writer write.

More to come.

RCS

Toward Better Writing

Write With RCS: Writing about writing seems to be improving my writing. Our writing does improve when we engage in certain activities.

We learn to write by:

~ beginning to write and continuing to write.

~ reading for pleasure and reading about writing.

~ trying to see how your favorite writer does it.

~ studying with a good teacher.

~ forming or joining a writing group.

~ reading certain posts about writing.

On this blog I will write about writing groups; more specifically, teacherless writing groups. I also write about better writing in general. I believe that a teacherless writing group can be a very agreeable and productive way to improve our writing. My problem is that I am living the life of a hermit in a land where my language is limited. Still, I have been reading about and thing about such a group for some time and believe that I can pass on some knowledge to you about how to benefit from such a group.

Participating in a writing group provides the writer with a precious commodity called feedback. A writing group is a pack of individuals wanting to better their writing and have decide to cooperate to do so. I have already begun to post on this blog about the nature of and the practices of such a group. Here I can say that members of the pack quickly learn to tell one another how they felt a bout a particular pies of writing, what they thought it was about, what they thought the writer was getting at and a great deal more

Speaking about writing in general: When you are a writer who feels stuck to often, you are not alone. Many a good writer has felt stuck and has been stuck. Many writers consciously learn and use methods to get unstuck. One really good way is to keep writing. Another is to see your writing as a learning, growing, and maturing process. I suggest three more below in bit more detail

For your consideration, here are three ways others have used to free themselves from being stuck:

1. Digress and wander until your mind atrophies and falls off. Let yourself be open and accepting of that which you write. Every little bit of digression, wandering and acceptance counts.

2.Don't spend a lot of time preparing to write just now. Often the most important things happen during your writing. You grow and develop as a writer as you write. You discover that you have something to say. Allow yourself to proceed without a full plan and allow yourself to depart from any plan you have.

3. Try not to let whatever you have learned about control to interfere with your writing. Freedom! You are the boss. Thinking about control can lead to stuckness. Try to do as the psychologist says, "Let go a bit." Being free to choose does not mean making a single choice, the right one. I means being you, choosing, re-choosing and choosing again.

These methods most be adapted to who you are. Without some care, you could find yourself looking for a way to mend an atrophied mine.

I choose to consider writing an important personal growth process. Growth and maturation are highly pertinent to writing. One changes as on writes. One's writing changes as one one changes.

I am finding that if I keep alert to finding "an emergent center of gravity" as I write, I often find it. That emergent center helps me to more clearly see what I am writing about. Clarifying that which I am writing about is a big help.

Consider the following as aids to finding that center of gravity:

~ As you write along, you may come to honestly say, "Ah," now I see what I have been getting at." Pay attention.

~ Finish what you are writing about. Put it aside for a time. See useful implications as yo look it over again,

~ See that your good idea is crap. Then see that part of the crap looks less crappy. Sort out good parts from the bad. You don't have to throw the away. In fact some of it might be better than your favorite idea.

~ Your first writing may prove to be a good scaffolding for your next writing.

~ You find a powerful spark in a tiny digression. You keep the same elements of your work, but change the whole orientation for the better.

~ As you progress in your writing be alert to an emerging focus or theme.

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

~ Push yourself a bit to keep getting some center of gravity or summing up to occur.

~ Work gradually toward moderation from extreme positions.

~ You could be holding an extreme position.

~ It is fair to explain your position and its source,

~ Keep writing.

When you care to share an experience, information, or understanding related to writing, you are welcome to pass it on here. Use the "comments' section below. It often says 'no comments.' Click on it anyway.

RCS

You Can Write: Stuck? You don't have to fight to get unstuck

Write With RCS: It Seems we can all feel stuck. It can feel so bad that one may feel like giving up. When it gets that bad you can do this:

Talk out loud. keep talking out-loud as though some one were listening. Talk about comparing words to meanings. Talk about cooking and growing. If that doesn't work or you can't do it. quit.

I don't mean that you 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 other than your writing.

By the way, "talking out-loud" and the rest of that little paragraph above could prove helpful.

Do you have notes? Keep your notebook and a writing implement handy. You notes can help your writing. The little essays I've posted about writing here are not much more than my good notes. Check out the other pieces available on this blog. They are intended to be helpful.

Right now you might try sitting Comfortably and completing a writing cycle. What's a writing cycle? Its easy if you have a timer, watch, or clock. I have a little timer I like. If you have one, set it for ten minutes. You are about to do ten minutes of focused involved writing and then stopping to see what it adds up to, or what it is trying to add up to. Your focus might b your topic or theme. Your involvement might be sincerely writing that which you feel. For perhaps a worst case example, you might have written, "I'm stuck, stuck stuck and it sucks, sucks, sucks!" It might not be deeply sincere, but it could be an approach to your feelings.

To complete a writing cycle start putting words and sentences on paper and keep doing that for ten minutes. A timer is useful. No need to be much concerned about quality yet. Try to include include something that you know 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 your cycle seems to be trying to add up to. So, you are reviewing what you have written. Good for you. When you come to a thought, feeling, perception, image you can gather up into one sentence or assertion, do so. Write it down.

You wrote. You are writing. You are a writer. Do not be squeamish about letting yourself write badly. You are writing. You are a writer.

In your next writing project your purpose could be to cook and grow and not take your work as a disaster to be stamped out. Keep writing. Self-development and growth are occurring as you write. Such personal growth and development is not a waste of time. It is a big deal, an important happening. When you cooperate with the process it is a great doing. Keep writing and keep growing.

You might at some point try to see cooking and growing as a sort of global task; seeing all your writing as interdependent, seeing that no parts are complete 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 seeing what it means to alternately work in words and work in meanings.

little warning; I can imagine one of us trying to do all of the above at once and so doing experience a sudden and extended case of crossed eyes. There are some valuable suggestions above that which may best be considered one at a time, beginning, say, tomorrow.

Understanding what it means to see your writing as interdependent can better your writing. No need to do it all today. Cooking and growing take time and can be better done with your conscious cooperation.

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

There is a reason for the "comment" page below. I love to read comments on specific posts. I read them and try to answer each one.

Keep writing.

RCS

Writing Group: First Notes

Write With RCS: One of the top values of a writing group is the variety of great feedback it often provides.

The developing, growing, maturing writer learns to value the feedback of one's peers. Such feedback is precious and very often rare. Your writing group will be made up of fellow writers. In such a group you can have several knowledgeable readers telling you about the feelings and thoughts your writing stirred in them. They can tell you what they felt as they read a specific piece of your work. You can get regular feedback of several kinds from the members of your group.

I hope to post more about feedback and other benefits of a writing group in future posts. This particular post is a short wide-ranging introduction to the subject.

A writing group is usually about writing better without the use of a teacher. However, a writing group may attract more than one teacher, including teachers of writing. Don't be surprised if that happens, teachers are often learners who want to learn more about their subject.

They might, however, need to be reminded that they are not there to teach. They are there as a learning reader and writer. They are there to be good readers ready to provide their honest reactions to that which they read. Each of your group members focus on telling you how she experiences the work you submit. Just as you will tell her how you experience your careful reading of her work.

Quickly moving forward, I here additional actions you may consider taking before you choose a writing group or before making one of your own.

You can:

~ Start writing and keep writing.

~ Find a writing group in action close to you and check it our.

~ Sit in a a couple of meetings to see how it may benefit or suit you.

~ Check out online posts here and elsewhere about writing and writing groups.

~ Talk with a writing friend about forming a group.

~ Consider that most better writers have been good readers.

Once you better know your options and better know the kind of group you want, you might consider thoughts you would like potential members of your group to consider. Here are some sample points of the sort:

~ Find a time for your meeting and stick to it. Its fair to have have two writing groups each meeting at a different time.

~ Help one another to become better listeners and better readers as well as better writers.

~ Help each other to better know the kinds of feedback most needed and most wanted.

~ Decide on whether you want to handout your work to be read at home, to read your work aloud at meetings, or both, or what.

~ When you read a piece in group, read it twice. You will find that two readings are much better than one.

~ Show up at meetings.

I enjoy and appreciate your comments about specific parts of the content of my posts. There is, I hope, a "comment" window just below. It may sometimes be marked with the words "no comments!"