5 Suggestions to Help You Swerve around Writer’s Block

Blank page. Blank screen. Blank mind. Writer’s block has tormented just about every writer who attempted the craft. The most prolific of writers will bump against the edge of their imaginations and will be left not knowing where to go next. If all writers encounter the inability to write the next sentence, why do we writers find it so terrifying? Peeking over the shoulder of writer’s block is the fear that there are no more words, no more images, no more metaphors. There is not another story, poem, essay, or article anywhere inside the brain. Originality is gone. The rest of life will be Lifetime movie writing. But writer’s block does not have to be a force that tears you down and destroys. If you can accept that the dry spell is only temporary, and approach it is an opportunity and not a reason to crawl into a paper bag and never crawl back out, then your brain will be more willing to snap out of its doldrums and jump back in or start a new project.

If your case of writer’s block feels especially painful or has been going on for some time, consider giving yourself a set amount of time to remain in your fallow period. Just as a field needs to rest or it will lose all its ability to produce, your creativity needs a chance to wander, consider, and conserve some energy. A fallow period may only mean that you are just resting up for the next big thing. So give yourself permission to take one more day, week, or even a month. The cessation of pressure may allow you to come back in full-force when you are ready. Anxiety can be deadly to the imagination. So, try to distract and inspire yourself.

• Take a walk. Literally. Get outside. If you live near a park, woods, or any other expression of nature, go there and meander. Be as aware of your surroundings as possible and try to step outside of yourself, Emerson style. If you don’t live near nature, just be outside and observe buildings, traffic, and people. Try to see the things you’ve seen before not as daily sights, but look with fresh eyes. Or, explore a part of your town or city you are unfamiliar with. The idea is to help you slip outside of yourself, spark your senses, and hopefully come up with some new ideas.

• Exercise. Preferably something you enjoy, like yoga, zumba, or basketball. But anything will do: jog, lift weights, run after a dog or child. Get your heart beating and strain your muscles. Changing your breathing and heart rate can not only distract you, but helps to change your thought patterns. It also releases stress. If you can, build exercise into your weekly schedule. You’ll find that these times will help you work out concepts so that when you are in front of your laptop again, you already know how you’re going to start.

• Look to another art. Go to a museum, gallery, concert, or Color Me Mine. Listen to music you would not usually listen to or pick up your forgotten trumpet. See a movie in the theater. Cut up some magazines and make a collage. There is no need to indulge in high art, but if you wish to go to an opera or ballet, enjoy. Soak it in. See how someone else does it, or try something new. A caution--now is probably not the time to turn to TV. The addictive quality and general lack of mental stimulation is probably not the best to help you snap out of mental inactivity. TV has its purposes and value, but is not generally an inspiration for writers.

• Reread something that inspired you way back when. Sometimes going back to the books that made you want to be a writer can help you start up again because you remember what it was you loved about reading and writing to start with. Many times I’ve reread Anne Sexton’s Transformations and it still gives me the shivers and makes me want to set my pen to paper. I first read the poems in high school, and I remember when I could depend upon spontaneity and had the flexibility to start scribbling as soon as I had an idea. If nothing else, returning to well-loved works should relax you as you enjoy the often-trod words.

• Try your hand at a different genre. If poetry is not bubbling up from your font of creativity, try some journal or essay writing. Help another writer by reading a recently released book and reviewing it. You might even attempt graphic novels, lyrics, or concrete poetry. Maybe you want to combine visual art with writing, or take a whirl at playwriting. Allowing yourself to shift into a different genre can help you shift your thinking and encourage you to tap into ideas that might not work in your primary genre. It helps to be versatile, and you might find something that you love as much (or almost as much) as your primary genre.

Whatever you do, don’t despair. Your brain needs a rest from time to time, just like everyone else’s. This does not mean that you are not a phenomenal writer or committed to your craft. It does not mean that you have written your last story or that you will never have an idea worth pursuing again. Writer’s block is an opportunity to explore your world in a way you had never before. It is a chance to bring play back to your practice. Accept the frustration with the potential gifts, and you might well begin your next and best piece soon.

Working Pregnant: How to Survive Your First Trimester

When my husband and I found out we were pregnant, I was excited and felt enormously blessed. I was not, however, ready to make a huge Facebook announcement. For many reasons, including the fact that most people wait until eleven or twelve weeks in to tell people, when the first trimester is over and there is significantly less risk of losing the baby, I was not ready to make any revelations to the general public. We did not tell anyone until we heard the heartbeat and had an ultrasound picture of our little blob before we even shared with immediate family.

So when morning sickness kicked me squarely in the gut, I was still not ready to tell close friends, and certainly not prepared to write an office-wide memo. In addition to trying to make it through the work day with my dignity, I was also trying to make it until 5:00 PM without revealing the pregnancy. Not so easy, and I am not sure how successful I was. But I did learn a few tricks, both by experience and through friends and family. If you have been pregnant before, you probably have your own tricks. If you have not, my first tip is: realize that you have no idea. I thought I was prepared, but the nausea, exhaustion, and mood swings were more intense than my imagination could conjure. If there is one person who has already had a baby to whom you can speak early on, it will save you a lot of Googling and “Is this normal?” anxiety.

1, Find something that calms your stomach, and bring it with you everywhere. My coworker recommended Preggie Pops, which helped, but I found that I needed something stronger, and Ginger Extreme hard candies worked (for a few minutes). For other people, it’s peppermint or ginger tea. Whatever alleviates the nausea or vomiting, carry it with you, in your pocket, preferably, because you might not be at your desk when the feeling that your stomach is going to explode out of your mouth hits. During more than one team meeting, I was relieved to pull out a hard candy rather than sprinting to the garbage can.

2. Understand that you are not going to have any energy, and compensate. You can fight the exhaustion as hard as you’d like, and I tried. In college, I pulled all-nighters regularly, and when not pregnant, I sleep an average of five hours a night. During my first trimester, five hours easily became twelve hours whenever I could make it home by 6:00 PM. Knowing that your brain and body are going to move more slowly, try to plan for this. If your mornings tend to be most productive, work on your important projects then, and save email or other tasks that require less energy and concentration for the afternoon. If your job is flexible, come in earlier and leave earlier, if mornings are better, and the opposite if later in the day you feel more human.

3. If there is any food you can eat, eat it. I felt guilty for a little bit because the only thing that I could keep in my belly was carbs: potato chips, french fries, and if I was feeling really good, pizza. I wanted to want to eat vegetables, proteins, and fruit, but I could not stomach it. Before the pregnancy, I had been eating plain yogurt with frozen fruit for breakfast, and during my first trimester, just the sight of the plain yogurt made my stomach rebel. As my midwife told me, the first trimester is survival. So, if crackers make you feel better, keep them at your desk, and eat them. The first trimester (and morning sickness) only lasts a few weeks, so do what you can to make it through the work day and get your work done with the contents of your stomach still inside your stomach.

4. Be prepared for co-workers’ comments. Most of us know that you never ask if a woman is pregnant, or comment on her pregnancy unless she says something first. Those of us who did not have parents who taught us this very important social lesson probably learned on our own--by asking someone who had put on a bit of weight if she was pregnant. Mortifying, for both people involved. For some reason, this still does not stop people from commenting. So, when you are not yet ready to tell people, have something prepared to say to these well-meaning co-workers. Here are some suggestions of what to say if a co-worker asks if you’re pregnant:

No.

Not that I know of.

No, why do you ask?

Just a few too many tacos.

Are you suggesting that I need to go to the gym?

Are these pants too tight? They looked fine this morning.

You are under no obligation to tell the truth, nor are you required to smile or be completely polite. The person asking, though well-meaning, is not being polite. Your first responsibility is to you and your baby, and if you are not ready to tell people, certainly don’t tell the nosy ones.

5. Take frequent walks away from your desk. If the beginning of your pregnancy is anything like mine, you will experience unnerving, barely controllable mood swings that range from desperate weeping to screaming rage. Neither of these is appropriate for work. Do yoga at home, sleep as much as you can, and practice calming breathing exercises. Once you are at work, if you feel your mood crashing one way or another, get up out of your seat, and go for a walk. I took many trips to the restroom before I actually needed to go every twenty minutes. Go to the mailroom or the supply closet or the vending machine, if it helps you to relax. If the weather’s nice, take a lap around the building, or just walk to your car and back. It is better to step away for a second than to burst into tears or scream at your boss or an employee. Of course, if someone sees a few tears, it’s not the end of the world, but if you can save yourself, get up and walk away for a minute.

Remember: it’s all for a good purpose. If you are pregnant, you are a lucky woman. It will not mean the end of your career. When you are ready to tell people, the chances are that your work peeps will be very happy for you. Until then, give yourself the ease and comfort that you can.

Why Every Writer Needs a Professional Association

My day job as the Membership Engagement Manager for a national professional association has given me an even greater appreciation for my own professional association, AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), and it has also taught me to take better advantage of member benefits. Standing on the other side of the association, I see the how the Board of Directors, the HQ team, and the volunteer leaders seek to not just further the mission, but to serve the members. Similar to writers, the members I serve tend to work independently instead of for companies, which makes their challenges similar to writers. Responding to the challenges of our members is not always an easy task, but I have learned a good deal about how a benefit can fulfill certain needs, which has made me see just how much I depend on my AWP membership, and how much more I can get out of my membership.

What Are the Challenges of Being a Writer?

1. We Work Alone

Besides trying to build a whole wardrobe in varying shades of black, as writers, we encounter challenges that are both unique to writers and common to other professionals. Of course, all professionals can benefit from networking with other professionals, but writers, by trade necessity, spend the majority of their work time by themselves, shut off from the world. We do not often collaborate. Being a part of a professional association means being a part of a larger group. Annual conferences, online forums, and programs matching mentors and mentees are all opportunities to network, but also to not be alone. We no longer have to be in the lonely garret, we can share our writing lives with writers around the world, virtually and in person.

2. Our Writing Careers Alone Don’t Always Pay

Some of us will be able to make a living off our our books and articles, but many of us will continue writing not because it pays the bills, but because the possibility of not writing sounds suspiciously like living death. In this way, we are similar to other artists--while we hope that our efforts will pay off monetarily in addition to being personally fulfilling, we still need to eat. AWP compiles a job list of academic as well as writing positions, residency opportunities, and awards. Sure, you can research these things on your own (Google is helpful) but having everything in one place saves a good deal of time and energy, which can be reallocated to applying for these opportunities and also toward writing.

3. We Need to Keep Failing Better

One of the more standard needs of writers is professional development. We dedicate our lives to improving our craft. As Samuel Beckett observed, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Every new writing venture, every revision and edit is an effort at improving. Professional development does not happen without the influence of others, and writers don’t always have built in communities. We have to learn from others, whether as students, as mentors and mentees, or by studying others writing. Annual conference, publications like Writers Chronicle, and podcasts give writers several methods for professional development. For students looking for an MFA program (the terminal degree in creative writing) AWP has produced a guide to writing programs and a database to search by region and genre. This is an entirely different experience from when I was researching writing programs, and spent my time looking through the bios of my favorite writers to find out where they taught, and then find out if their university had an MFA program.

4. We Need to Know What’s Going on

Also like other professions, we need industry news. Unlike some professions, there is not a lot of coverage of literary news in national or local media. When was the last time you heard your local news station announce the National Book Award finalists? With AWP, you not only know about awards, publications, and new writers on the scene, but also about legislation that affects us. We read about journals, writers in the news, and trends. Not only is the news important to our careers, it also helps build a sense of larger community.

5. We Need Representation

AWP, perhaps most importantly, serves to represent the industry. With publication changing so quickly, and the threat of the printed medium becoming extinct always a dangling threat, we need advocates in the publishing world, we need to be discussing what is being published and what is not, and we need to be talk about how publishers are experimenting with media. It is no longer a matter of staying relevant, but a matter of staying alive. Personally, I do not think that the death of printed media is as close as some would have us think, but no one would question that the internet and electronic devices have changed the way that we publish and read.

You might argue that many of the services mentioned can be found elsewhere, and sometimes for free. Poets & Writers (of which I am a subscriber) also offers industry news, and even ranks MFA programs every year. The Poetry Foundation website offers professional development and produces some pretty killer podcasts. But neither of these give you everything that AWP offers. And neither offers you the chance to be part of something greater than yourself.

Independently, we are individuals scribbling in notebooks, writing in the margins of well-loved books, and typing away on computers and other devices. Together, we share a large part of our identities and lives. We have a bigger voice and can make a bigger difference. We can be united by our professional associations. We don’t have to struggle alone or fight some of the potentially frightening challenges of new technology alone. You can’t afford not to join a professional association.

5 Things to Consider before You Publish Non-Fiction

As writers, we steal liberally from life. Our best friend’s passion for ceramic ducks or the way that our high school principal had of clearing his throat and then hitching up his pants—these details, our experiences, our observations—like pollen, they settle into our work. Like pollen, they dust and germinate, but they are not the story. But other times, we are completely aware that a piece is not just true, but factual—experiences and characters ripped out from our lives, directly by the roots. Before publishing pieces rooted in fact, a responsible writer considers the possible results and consequences of publication.

It is one thing to write poems into a notebook or type stories onto a laptop. It is quite another to make them available to everyone else. As writers, we are responsible for what we put out into the world, and we ought to be sensitive human beings, considering how our writing might help or hurt those who were involved in the real-life events. When considering whether or not to send an essay or poem out from your personal and singular possession, here are five questions to consider:

1. Who will this effect? Of course, there are the people you mention directly in your essay or poem, but what you write might also have consequences for relatives, business partners, clients, neighbors, or even other people within the same industry. This is not to say that the piece should not go out into the light of day just because a handful of people might feel a slight change in the wind because of it, but to think about who might be touched and how they might be touched. With writing, there is always the possibility that anyone implicated will never know you wrote about them, but at least consider, “What if?”

2. What are some of the potential consequences? Or, rather, damage control. What is the worst that could happen? What is the best that could come of your words? If you have witnessed the mismanagement of money at a school or hospital, it is important that people know about it, so that it can be corrected. But if you are employed by the agency you are exposing, are you prepared to lose your job? Are you prepared to have others lose their jobs? Alternatively, maybe you cannot, in good conscience, allow patients or students to lose out when they could be getting much better care.

Even if the stakes are not as high as someone else’s health and well-being, mentioning any job information that has not been expressly approved can create issues within a work place. Note that posting on social media and your blog are included under the umbrella of publication. Facebook friend or not, never assume that the boss is not going to see it, always assume that she is.

3. Could this piece be rewritten as fiction? Is there a reason that you have to cover these circumstances as fact? If there is not a solid reason for keeping identifying references to people and places in your piece, consider that fiction can have just as much impact on people as a non-fiction story. Sometimes, since you might feel more freedom to change details in fiction, you can create an even more powerful piece. As fiction, you can safely mask all involved and protect both those who do and do not deserve to be protected. The art that is created might have even more of an impact without the strictures of non-fiction.

4. Will your truth help others? All these considerations are not to scare you off from publishing non-fiction. Sometimes it is the appropriate medium. If what you have experienced will encourage others to seek help or receive help, your story might not be as effective if your personal testimony as a witness is removed. Or, perhaps, you are uncovering a terrible lie that has harmed many people. The good may easily overshadow the bad. If so, be confident that publication is worth the consequences.

5. Is now the best time to publish? It is not unheard of for people to wait until someone has died before publishing. Or, maybe until you have a new job or after your divorce proceedings are over. Maybe a few years will put everyone in a different position to hurt less. If so, waiting will not diminish the quality of your work, but might allow some distance and soften the response from the real people involved.

When you first begin writing, none of these questions should be in mind—or even any thoughts of publication. During the early drafts, the only thoughts you should allow to creep in are how to make the piece better. Thoughts of publication can stunt any writer by bringing out the inner critic. However, once the piece is completed, keep in mind that publication does not only include appearing in a book or journal. With social media being one of the most prevalent ways of communication and the internet being available to nearly all citizens, anything that is posted on Facebook, a blog, or even Pinterest is published. It is poor decision making to tweet or comment on a news article without considering the possible results of letting your words go live. You have the potential to change the way that people think and view the world—before publishing, consider how you want to use that potential.

Where Is Man?

Where Was Is Man?

Elie Wiesel died Saturday, July 2, 2016, leaving a space in both the American consciousness but also in the American conscience. Having made himself into a voice for Holocaust victims, both those who were lost and those who survived, Wiesel continued to speak out against genocide and to speak for Israel. Night, his most well-known work, is an account of living in the camps and watching the horrors which unfolded before him, and finally making it out alive.

In 2016, we watch and read about and tweet and share information from around the world—including terrorist events. During the week that Elie Wiesel died, Hallel Ariel, a thirteen-year-old girl in Israel, was stabbed to death as she slept; Rabbi Michael Mark, also in Israel, was shot and killed as he drove in a car with his children; 42 people died as a result of a terrorist attack in the Istanbul airport; twenty people were held hostage then hacked or stabbed to death in a café in Bangladesh; and 250 people murdered by a car bomb in Baghdad.  In a single week, we lost 314 people to horrific acts committed by terrorists, the majority of which were not directly instructed by ISIS, but have been claimed by ISIS.

When we think about those lives lost, as the numbers climb, the dead began to lose their identities and their individuality. The terrorists, representatives of hatred on earth, begin to rise to foreground. We hear about their social media accounts, what their family has to say about them, their religious and political beliefs, and we see their selfies on TV, in articles, and again on social media. Their names are repeated and reiterated as we wait to find out why they did it, what motives they had behind committing terrible atrocities and robbing the world of people going about their lives, as innocent as you or me. We post and repost their pictures, as the terrorist groups do to honor their martyrs. We give them lasting life on earth while the undeserving dead become statistics, their faces and names recounted only by those who still love and adore them.

The fact that Elie Wiesel died during one of the most violent weeks in the world since World War II should not pass by without note. Wiesel was one of the greatest witnesses of all time, speaking out for those who either no longer had a voice or who were never heard. Who will speak out for the families who have lost their loved ones to such horror? Who will protest on behalf of the innocent Syrian refugees fleeing for their lives who become equated with the terrorists who have no respect for human life? The same terrorist who celebrate a death of one of their own at the same time that they celebrate the death of the ones they call enemies? Who believe that they will only live once they have died? For whom death is not a problem but a solution? This is how the terrorist really win: they make us so afraid of the consequences of helping refugees that we allow them to continue to murder the innocent, sending those who have managed to escape to their deaths. How can we not be reminded of the boats of Jews who fled Europe and we turned away at dock after dock? At the Jews who survived the Holocaust only to return to their homes and be murdered by the new occupants?

We cannot allow our ability to speak and to witness and to have a world conscience to die with Wiesel. We cannot. But it is not easy to allow the atrocities to be real and to touch our lives. We have our own problems, valid problems, and jobs and beliefs and families for whom we care. Sometimes our hearts just don’t seem big enough to encompass people we never had the opportunity to meet in life, who seem to have so little to do with us, and to have such little effect on us. They are simply not part of our everyday lives, and therefore not quite real to us. They are not as sensational as the terrorists, who emote repulsion but also fascination from the depths of our souls.

Most of us are not going to join the army, and even those that do are not going to ask to be sent to fight in or above Syria. What can we do, then, to bear witness? How can we learn from Wiesel? Some simple changes of habit can make a difference, and it begins with each of us.

1.      Do not follow information about individual terrorists. Do not read articles or watch news spots which focus on them. Quit reading, close your browser, change the channel, when the story focuses on the life and motives of killers.

2.      Repeat the names of the victims. Post their pictures, look for their stories, seek out the remembrances of those who bury them. Pray for them, discuss them, tell tales of their heroism, sacrifice, and kindness. Keep them alive as long as you can. Do not allow them to melt into the past so quickly.

Wiesel once confronted President Reagan, asking him not to visit a German cemetery which held the bodies of known Nazis. “That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims,” he said. So it goes for us. Our place is not with the terrorists, giving them notoriety and gratifying them on Facebook and twitter. Our place is with the victims, remembering them, consoling the families, and preparing the world for a more peaceful existence.

I ask of you, at the very least, please read allowed the names of the people we have lost from the various attacks, if just to keep them along one moment longer.

In Istanbul:

Ferhat Akkaya, 42

Hüda Amiri, 8

Kerime Amiri, 24

Meryem Amiri, 14

Zehra Amiri, 16

Ertan An, 39

Gülşen Bahadır

Fathi Bayoudh, 58

Mustafa Bıyıklı, 51 

Abdülhekim Bugda, 24

Zeynep Çizmecioğlu,

Mahmut Çizmecioğlu

Çağlayan Çöl, 27

Muhammed Eymen Demirci, 25

Erol Eskisoy, 44

Murat Güllüce

Nısreen Hashem Hammad, 28

Yusuf Haznedaroğlu, 32

Özgül Ide, 21

Göksel Kurnaz, 38

Adem Kurt, 32

Nisreen Melhim, 28

Mahmut Mert

Yasin Ocal, 25

Sadık Petek, 47

Umut Sakaroğlu, 31

Ercan Sebat, 41

Habibullah Sefer, 24

Rayan Shraim, 3

Sondos Shraim, 25

Larisa Tsybakova, 46

Hüseyin Tunç, 28

Siddik Turgan, 67

Serkan Türk, 24

Abrorjon Ustabayev, 22

Ethem Uzunsoy, 53

Merve Yigit, 22

Ali Zülfikar Yorulmaz, 48

Separate attacks in Israel:

Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13

Rabbi Michael Mark, 48

Bangladesh attack in café:

Ishrat Akhond

Vincenzo D'Allestro, 46

Claudia Maria D'Antona, 56

Nadia Benedetti, 52

Claudio Cappelli, 45

Hideki Hashimoto

Faraaz Hossain

Tarishi Jain, 19

Abinta Kabir

Nobuhiro Kurosaki

Koyo Ogasawara

Makoto Okamura, 32

Simona Monti, 33

Adele Puglisi, 54

Maria Riboli, 34

Cristian Rossi

Yuko Sakai

Rui Shimodaira

Hiroshi Tanaka

Marco Tondat, 39

Baghdad (a few of the 250)

Mohammed Badri

Farid Bahnam

Ahmed Dia, 33

Adil Faraj, 23

Zulfikar Oraibi

Family: Ruqqaya, 4, Hadi, 15, Zaid, 17, Hassan