By Michael Alperstein

Writing gives you the opportunity to feel the rush of creative juices flowing, enables you to be heard, to be of service to your readership, and to clear your mind of extraneous thoughts and hone in on what really matters. But even on a good day, writing is challenging. Here are seven ways to help you access more creativity and increase enthusiasm for the writer’s journey.

1. Write in Different Mediums.

Although your writing will most likely end up in your word processor, be open to writing at least a percentage of the time in a different medium. Sit in a park and write in a notebook, try speaking into a recorder, or use an old typewriter. Even while using a computer, it is a great idea to stir things up sometimes: Try an unusual font or color, type with your non-dominant hand (some say this fuels creativity because it stimulates your right brain thinking), type super fast, or type very slowly, or experiment with different kinds of music while writing. It is also a good idea to print often and make notes in the margins. This gives you the bigger picture you need for clear and powerful writing.

2. Intertwine Reading with Writing.

If you feel blocked with your writing, go to the bookstore or library and read topics similar to the one you are working on. This is not so much an exercise in ‘comparing’ in order to feel that you can ‘do it better than them.’ The deeper benefit to gain from more reading is to realize the interconnectedness between writing and reading. School teachers often make reading and writing sound as if they are two totally different activities, but they are intrinsically connected. When you read, you open up and make space for new ideas to come into your mind. Writing is fundamentally no different.

One way to see the connection between the two is to practice active reading. Active reading is reading the text as text, not being fully absorbed in its meaning, and instead having a small amount of attention on learning new techniques and styles.

Use the connection between reading and writing to your advantage by dancing between them until you can sense their relationship. This short circuits writer’s block faster than anything I know.

3. Focus on Solutions.

Remember to bring your attention back to the solutions to the “problems” you see with your writing. Powerful writing is about turning attention inward to find new ideas amongst a field of infinite ideas. There is great benefit to re-focusing your attention in a surprising and positive new direction. This is done by putting attention on your inner data bank of writing tips: Show don’t tell, say more with less, keep the tension high for your main character, highlight the benefits to your reader, and so forth.

The primary consideration for editing your work should be: “What can I add or delete that will create a stronger next draft?” This question takes you out of self-judgment and into a solution mind frame.

4. Use Emotions to Fuel Creativity

Be it calmness, fear, or passion, any emotion can stir the creative pot and help you be a better writer. Realize there is a connection between your emotions and your future readers. Consider this: The quality of your emotional state while writing will impact the quality of the emotional state of your future readers. When your writing is flowing, direct your attention inward on the feeling of the creative flow and the emotions along with it. Bask in the flow. All your emotions will help.

For example, if you are writing a piece you hope will uplift readers, be as conscious and calm as possible while writing. See if you can tap into the feeling you want your readers to feel. Breathe. Stretch every now and then. The clearer and more at peace you are while you write, the clearer and more at peace your readers will feel down the line.

Similarly, if you are writing a thriller, do all you can to get your adrenaline rushing while you write. You might do some push ups, play loud music or write in candle light. Notice your body and posture. If you want future readers to be afraid, you might purposely breathe shallowly for a while or literally sit on the edge of your seat. Your body posture is important. It helps you transmute whatever you are feeling into creative inspiration.

5. Give Help to Another Writer.

Helping someone else is a great way to help yourself. There is an art to giving useful feedback. Here are some tips:

a. Help the other writer brainstorm new options. Suggest a different metaphor, another example, a new direction, or another word. Endeavor to open doors.

b. Ask questions: What is the significance of this paragraph? Could you explain this idea better? Who is your target audience? How do you want your audience to react to this?

c. Again, focus on solutions not on problems or personal reactions. For instance, if you are critiquing someone’s crime thriller and you start to lose interest, say “How about more danger here?” instead of just saying “I got bored.”

No matter what it is you do not like about the writing, know there is always a fix.

d. Keep it real. Express the negative in a way that encourages the writer to improve.

Distinguish your reaction from the writing itself. See your opinions as opinions, not external facts.

6. Get Help from Another Writer.

Hiring a writing coach or getting feedback from other writers will improve your writing better than anything I know. Or start or join a writing group. But you still need to stay true to yourself and write what is in your heart. There is an art to benefiting from other people’s feedback. Here is what I suggest:

a. Ask for the specific help you want. Do you want the other person to help you with character development? Organization? Grammar? Or perhaps you are ‘wide open’ to all input, which is fine, but it’s good to say this out in the open.

b. The sting! How do you handle it if the feedback you receive is negative? You dig deeper and rewrite! When someone points something out about your writing that you couldn’t see, it is a gift to you no matter how much it may sting at first. But you still need to stay true to your own message. Maybe you keep your writing the way it is and calmly reject the feedback. Be grateful to the other person for reassuring you that you are already on the right track with your writing. You know what you want to say. Stay true to your craft.

7. Put Your Writing Out There.

Be willing to say goodbye to perfectionism and share your writing with others. Share it for the joy of being seen or the joy of being of service to others. It’s not easy to go public, but it can get easier. One way I have found to make it easier is to reflect upon the following idea: To share writing with a small number of people is not fundamentally different than sharing it with a large number of people. For example, suppose I share a writing piece with three other people: One person dislikes it; one thinks it’s okay; and one loves it. The feelings I experience when I hear their responses can be just as intense as if I shared my writing with thousands of people! Suppose ten thousand people disliked it, ten thousand thought it was okay, and ten thousand loved it. I am not necessarily going to feel different than I did with three people.

Explore this yourself. Above all, trust your own perceptions and instincts as you go public with your writing and you will successfully navigate outer opinions.


- Michael Alperstein

I am a pre-med student, and this Summer I would like to read some fictions and non-fictions with themes that are related to medicine. I just bought two books at the bookstore. One is called Better by Atul Gawande and the other one is Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. I wanna read more books like those. What books do y’all recommend?
- klax a

I know it has something to do with kids who play in a vat of mercury and something happens- I’m a little fuzzy on all the details. I was going to buy it or recommend it to my library, but the bookstore I was at doesn’t have a web page, and Google hasn’t been helpful. It’s a teen book, so if you’ve maybe read it or know one like it (subject matter) you’re answer will help. Thanks!
- jane d

I have a friend who is polish but now living in Canada, she likes to read mystery fiction novels. However she is not totally fluent in english yet. Does anyone know a bookstore or a website where I could order these types of books in polish such as Patricia Cornwell fiction novels?
- NoEqual

I need a list of some common, non-fiction books about the Great Depression or the Civil War. You know like one you can pick up at the local bookstore or something.
Thanks.
- Tili L

Say you’d like to start freelance writing, to stop dreaming about it and just do it. You head for bookstore and sit down with a pile of books about freelance writing. Pretty soon, you’re overwhelmed. Query letters, mastheads, SASEs? The list of things you’re told you need to learn about before you start freelance writing grows with every page you turn. You begin to wonder, “Isn’t there an easier way to start freelance writing?” The books in your lap don’t suggest an easier way.

I’m going to tell you how to start freelance writing today. I’m going to suggest things that many of those intimidating books say you should never do if you’re “serious” about wanting to start writing. I won’t promise that you’ll make a fortune, or even a modest living, anytime soon. But you can start freelance writing in virtually risk-free ways that allow you to test the waters without investing huge amounts of time or money. And you can start writing sooner if you skip those lengthy advice books (you can read them later if you need to).

1) Start Freelance Writing: Clarify Your Goals

Why do you want to start writing? Are you hoping to make some extra money? Are you simply looking for appreciative readers? Are you considering freelance writing as a potential career that will eventually replace your current job?

If you want to start writing, you’ll need to be honest with yourself about what you hope freelance writing can do for you. Identifying your motivations as you start freelance writing will help lead you in the right direction.

2) Start Freelance Writing: Keep It Simple

Books, websites, articles?the amount of information about getting your start in writing is staggering. With your goal in mind, you can start freelance writing without wading through all of that material. Make the process easy at first, and you’ll be less likely to get discouraged.

Say your goal is to make extra money. Start writing by submitting articles to content websites, such as AssociatedContent.com and Helium.com. Content sites provide buyers with articles which draw Internet visitors. The articles generally need to be “keyword dense,” which means that you’ll need to repeat the same word or phrase frequently throughout the article. Most people who start writing learn about keyword density quickly by viewing other articles and observing how keywords are woven into the text without weighing it down.

Often, selling articles to a content site means giving up all rights to the material?that is, handing over the copyright. How does this help you start freelance writing as a career? It probably won’t, but it’ll provide you with a small, steady stream of income. Many sites such as GotWebMojo.com allow you to start writing as soon as you complete a brief online sign-up form. Be sure to read the terms carefully, so that you understand how and when you’ll be paid, what rights (if any) you’ll retain, and other important information.

3) Start Freelance Writing: Look Locally

If your goal is to make a career of freelance writing, you have a longer road ahead of you. But you can still start writing now by building a portfolio of work samples. Some books will warn you never to write for free when you start writing. However, submitting work to small, nonpaying publications is a great way to get the work samples you’ll need to impress paying publications down the line.

Start writing by examining local publications, including mainstream and alternative newspapers and freebie magazines. Many small newspapers and magazines are hungry for copy, but can’t afford to pay for it. Try e-mailing the features editor or an associate editor and pitch some ideas for articles. Don’t emphasize that you’re angling to get your start in writing?let your well-written, friendly, professional message win them over.

4) Start Freelance Writing: Submit Work to Literary Magazines

If you write short stories, poetry, or essays, start writing by sending your work?your very best work?to literary magazines. Grab a copy of Poets and Writers or a similar publication and look in the classifieds. You’ll find dozens of print and online magazines looking for submissions; many are willing to give you your start in freelance writing. Most pay little or nothing, but the exposure can lead to paying markets down the road.

Start writing for literary magazines by reading the submission guidelines carefully?and following them exactly. Most lit mags have websites with links to guidelines as well as samples of the kind of work they publish. Read these samples to get a sense of what they’re looking for. A brief cover letter with full contact info, your work’s title and genre, and a short bio should suffice. This is not the fastest way to start freelance writing, since literary magazines can take six months or longer to respond. However, keep in mind that just beginning the process of submitting your work to literary magazines means you’ll start writing.


- J.D. Carr

You want to write that novel. For years you’ve dream of taking time off to transcribe the idea you’ve nurtured for years. You can see the action taking place and you know every detail you want to convey, right down to your heroine’s eye color and her favorite foods. Maybe now you do have the time, you’re on sabbatical from work, or you’re retired altogether. You have the time, the paper, the workspace, but when it comes down to getting the story on paper, nothing. No ‘Once Upon a Time,’ no ‘It was the best of times.’ You’re blocked, and you haven’t even started!

You go to the bookstore for inspiration and see all the titles on the shelves. Some authors can crank out a novel a year, and you know your writing is just as good, if not better. How do these people become so prolific, and why can’t the magic rub off on you?

Actually, it’s not magic that can help you get motivated to write. Just good old fashioned common sense.

I’d like to share some great writing advice with you that has helped me thus far to complete thirteen novels in five years, two of which are available on the Internet and one on the shelves of Borders! It didn’t come instantly, however. Ten years ago, I couldn’t finish a chapter, much less an entire work of fifty thousand or more words. These days, it’s nothing to generate twenty thousand words in two weeks.

You say you have a great idea for a book and are going to pursue writing it? That’s great. Now, shut up.

That’s right, that the advice. It may seem a tad too contradictory to the position of a writer. You want your stories to be heard, and it would make sense to want to talk about what we are writing. Yet, talking in this case can be risky.

This advice comes from Harriette Austin, a teacher of creative writing at the University of Georgia for whom their annual mystery writer’s conference is named. When taking a class with her one semester, I noted how difficult I time I was having in writing just the first few pages of a mystery novel. The idea had been brewing inside me for years, so much that I had the entire story acted out in my mind, yet I could not transfer it to paper.

Harriette asked me if I had told anyone else about this story. I had told my husband and family. She told me that was the problem—I had talked about the story out loud to somebody else, and in all likelihood I talked the story to its end…literally talking myself out of writing it!

It may seem difficult to not talk about what you are writing, especially when you are excited about the story, as I hope many of you are when you write! However, since I wanted badly to write a novel, I took this advice to heart and kept mum about future projects. When people inquired about my writing, I gave them only a sage smile and ‘It’s a work in progress.’ Since receiving that advice, I’ve managed to quietly finish drafts of five mystery novels and eight romances!

Give it a try. Keep a pencil to the paper and a pin to the lip. Watch the words funnel through onto the page instead of out in the air where they may be lost.


- Kathryn Lively