Recently a writing friend reminded me of something I wrote long ago: “Looking at it physiologically, perhaps writer’s block is more akin to constipation–things get all backed up in your semi colon.”
Yep, I know a few delusional mugwumps believe writer’s block is a myth, but let’s “pretend” it does exist. Why not apply constipation remedies to get your semi colon unstuck?
Strive for a balanced diet. Read and write in equal proportion.
Increase your fiber intake. Read outside your genre-of-choice to challenge yourself.
Drink plenty of water. By which I mean, drink plenty of water. Dehydrated writers produce dry writing.
Elevate physical activity. Maybe you’ve been practicing Anne Lamott’s dictum too much. It’s time to get arse out of chair and move. Walking is a time-honored way for writers to get the creative wheels whirling.
Get into a routine. For the love of prunes, if we can train your bowels, can’t we train our brains too? Establishing a writing pattern–whatever that looks like for you–helps your noggin’ to shift gears and be productive more quickly.
Heed the call. If your body says you need to, you know, “go,” then go. If your brain gifts you with a cool story idea or a solution to a knotty plot issue, jot it down, text it to yourself or tell a friend, don’t assume you’ll remember later.
Try applying these tips for two weeks, and you too could become a Smooth Operator. (Thanks, Sade.)
I wish that being famous helped prevent me from being constipated. ~ Marvin Gaye
Ideas often percolate and simmer over time, but every once in a while lightning strikes—and a sudden flash of creativity can alter a writer’s career forever. Take, for example, these 10 famous works inspired by unexpected bolts of inspiration.
1. The Hobbit:
J.R.R. TOLKIEN was grading college exam papers, and midway through the stack he came across a gloriously blank sheet. Tolkien wrote down the first thing that randomly popped into his mind: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” He had no idea what a hobbit was or why it lived underground, and so he set out to solve the mystery.
2. Treasure Island:
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON painted a map to pass the time during a dreary vacation in the Scottish Highlands. When he stepped back to admire his handiwork, a cast of imaginary pirates appeared. Stevenson recalled, “They passed to and fro, fighting and hunting treasure, on these few square inches of a flat projection.” He promptly traded his paintbrush for a quill and began to write.
3. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
L. FRANK BAUM was telling his sons a story when he abruptly stopped. He’d been swept away to a land unlike any his imagination had ever conjured. Baum ushered the young audience into another room and, page by page, began to document Dorothy’s journey along the yellow brick road.
4. Charlotte’s Web:
E.B. WHITE had decided to write a novel about saving the life of a pig, but wasn’t sure who would be up to the heroic task. He was walking through an orchard, on his way to a pigpen, when inspiration hit. He thought back to a large gray spider that had woven an intricate web
in his house: She was perfect for the part.
5. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:
On an otherwise ordinary day, 16-year-old C.S. LEWIS was seized by a peculiar daydream. A frazzled creature, half-man and half-goat, hurried through snowy woods carrying an umbrella and a bundle of parcels. Lewis had no idea where the faun was heading, but the image was still with him when, at age 40, he finally put pen to paper to find out.
6. Around the World in Eighty Days:
JULES VERNE was flipping through a newspaper in a Parisian café when an advertisement caught his eye. It offered tourists the chance to travel the globe in just 80 days. This was an amazing feat at the time, and Verne’s imagination immediately began to fire.
7. “Rip Van Winkle”:
WASHINGTON IRVING had been suffering from writer’s block. His brother-in-law, Henry Van Wart, was trying to cheer him up by reminiscing about childhood adventures in the Hudson Highlands when, in the middle of the conversation, Irving dashed out of the room. The next morning, he emerged with a new story inspired by the talk.
8. Animal Farm:
GEORGE ORWELL watched as a young boy steered a massive cart horse along a narrow path, and he was struck by an unusual thought: What if animals realized their own strength? His hypothetical question evolved into a metaphorical novella about animals taking over a farm.
9. Anna Karenina:
As he lay on a sofa after dinner, LEO TOLSTOY had a vision of an elbow. The image expanded into a melancholy woman in a ball gown. The mysterious lady haunted Tolstoy and he eventually decided to write her story.
10. One Hundred Years of Solitude:
GABRIEL GARCÍA MARQUÉZ was driving his family to Acapulco for a vacation. As he gripped the steering wheel, the opening line to a novel popped into his head. García Marquéz threw his foot on the brake, turned the car around, and cut the trip short to work on the rest of the story.
—by Celia Johnson
Stuart Vyse is Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, in New London. In his new book, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money, he offers a unique psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of our wildly self-destructive spending habits. In the excerpt below Vyse looks at the psychology of credit limits. Check out the tips he provided us with this morning or his podcast.
The Magic of Credit Limits
It is a wonderful feeling. You apply for your first MasterCard, hoping to be accepted. Finally it arrives in the mail, and you feel like a million bucks. It is shiny and new, and it comes with a letter that tells you your credit limit. In most cases, this happy event occurs when you are quite young: just after graduation from high school or somewhere in your twenties. As a result, the credit limit often seems like an amazingly large figure. (more…)
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This is a rendering I just finished of a restaurant in Chicago.
(Polychromos on board and a little Photoshop)
I love the stonework on this building. It got me thinking about how much I love buildings like this, and how much I loathe suburban strip mall/shopping center kinds of architecture.
Take banks, for example. Remember when they looked like this?
The marble, the tall ceilings, the sound of your heels clicking on the tile floor and that kind of hollow echoey sound of everything bouncing off all that stonework.
Now, I do my banking in the little branch adjacent to Starbucks, or the one inside the supermarket. Don't get me wrong ~ I love the convenience. But on all other levels its a wholly unsatisfying experience. An example of the cheapening of everything in our society. The 'fast-fooding up' of everything.
I'm having a serious craving for some serious old fashioned quality. Brunch at the Palace Hotel. Shopping or banking someplace where they address you as "Miss" or "Ma'am", where you don't have to look at people in gym clothes or flip flops and people aren't shouting into cell phones. Oh, I could go on. And on. And on.
But I have some illustrations to draw and the clock is ticking so I will step down from my soap box and put a stopper in my little rant for now.
May I accompany you to the bank, please?
The sound of the beaded chains that held the pens...