Writing and Creativity Camps with Julie Jordan Scott

14 Keys to Jump StartYour Writing When Your Word Flow is Being Stubborn

I was excited to sit at my desk and write this morning, but when I logged on and puttered around a bit, I lost all interest in writing. It was as if my desire to write a blog post was like a balloon with a slow leak.

 “I have to write something!” I lamented. I had the Ultimate Blog Challenge to consider.

I poked around my “unpolished gem” file, otherwise known as place I put writing I think I may use someday but have not quite finished yet, and found the makings of an article rich in images and ripe with one of my favorite topics.

I did some editing and adding of photos and instantly, I had a new blog post.

I still thought, though, I should write about how I dealt with the slow leaking balloon, though.

1. Move away from the keyboard. DO NOT putter on twitter or pinterest or facebook or linked in or your email. Your intention is to get words on the page, not gush over other pages. REMEMBER THIS first and foremost.
2. 

   Getting a break from the keyboard ALWAYS helps!
   Do something other than writing but still creative. I worked on very simple collages of old dictionary pages and vintage illustrations from a children’s book. Along the way I learned Thalia is “The Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry” which intrigues me and may become another blog post or I may name a future character Thalia.
3. Move. If you are able, walk around the block. Do the twist, wildly, up and down the hallways of your house or apartment. If you don’t end up laughing (naturally) do it again and laugh unnaturally until you get to laughing naturally.
4. Use free flow writing (on a paper with pencil and pen) as your dearest friend. One way to use it is to put a paper and pencil at your kitchen table. Get up and do the twist around your house, wildly, until you are laughing and then start to write from the simplest and most effective prompt in the world, “I remember….”
5. Take photos with your phone or camera, inside or outside your home. Experiment with taking photos of things you don’t normally photograph. Take some macro shots. Take some shots of the ceiling or the sky. Stack up your favorite books (or current reads) and take shots of them.

Once you patch the slow leaking balloon of writing situation, take steps to help you the next time this comes up.

1. Keep an “Unpolished Gem” file.
2. Keep a notebook of random thoughts and ideas.
3. Revisit your “Unpolished Gem” file and your notebook regularly.
4. Pull images and stories from the newspaper as prompts and put them into your notebook for future use.
5. When you watch your favorite television show, notice what topics are being discussed. Pay attention to how the actors, the director, the writer and all the other crew members are telling the story. Write your observations in your notebook.
6. While waiting in line at the check out, scan the sometimes ridiculous magazines that are lined up in all their colorful glory in hopes you will buy them. What headlines either draw you or repulse you? What images work the best. Since you will be carrying your notebook with you always, scribble in your notebook or use your cell phone to take notes and then email the notes to yourself to put into your unpolished gem file when you get home.
7. 

   Go on a Writing Playdate (like at Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott, seen here.)
   Collect quotes as a hobby. I am a new GoodReads member. I was shocked at how few quotes they had for one of my favorite women writers, so part of my fun in reading women writers is to add the quotes I find in their collection on GoodReads. I tend to make activities like this just for fun and for me? It works. Collect from your reading or search for quotes along the line of what you are writing, say “inspirational quotes” or “Virginia Woolf” quotes. You name it, you’ll find it.
8. Give yourself a limited time on Pinterest – no more than five minutes. Find a couple images to repin and then use those images to prompt some free writing. If you don’t know where to start, start with a visual description. What do you see in
   

   Remember Why You Write....
   the images.
9. Remember WHY you write. I write because I am deeply in love with words and believe the world will experience positive transformation via writing and other arts. My contribution to this change is to use my writing (and my ability to write) to make the world a better place. If you need to write your “WHY” on a notecard or poster and pin it beside your monitor, do it. Your writing will be rejuvenated.

 

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© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

Top 7 Ways to Create a Never Ending Flow of Blog Posts, Essays, How-to Articles, etc etc etc

I am not sure how I got started promoting the concept of maintaining an “Unpolished Gem” file. I can’t even remember when I started one myself. I do know it pops up when I teach bloggers and writers how to keep an unending flow of content coming into their blogs, guest posts, essays, articles and poetry.

I do remember when I started writing as a way to make a living: I built my life coaching business by writing articles and having them republished (back then primarily in ezines) so since that time I have had essays, how-to’s, top tens and almost anything else you can imaging published both on the internet and also in magazines, compilations, ebooks and ecourses.

The blood flowing through all of this is… The Unpolished Gem: little snips and nuggets of writing I started and didn’t necessarily use right away but I knew it was worth returning to – maybe – someday. Sometimes people hesitate to start a file, thinking it will be too overwhelming but part of the point of an Unpolished Gem file is it takes pressure off.

How? Well, it tells you “if you don’t have the juice, passion or desire to finish this right away, you don’t have to! If you are blocked half way through or even just have a title, you may tuck it into your unpolished gems file and move along to whatever else is on your agenda.

Your unpolished gem file also reminds you the truth of content: you will never run out of material. Certainly other people have written articles similar to this one. Maybe you have read a few. The difference is I have not yet squeezed out all the goodness from this topic. You reading this today is a fine example of that.

When you are blocked, you have multiple choices of where to go to write next. Just pick an unfinished one and write a sentence. If anything else comes, yes! If after one additional sentence you’re done, then you’re done for now. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Cliché and true.

How do you start an Unpolished Gem File? I am very simple with mine. I make a folder I call “UPGs”. Within my UPG folder are subfolders for both the month they were written and the topic it falls under. This particular essay (should it remain unfinished for a bit) will go in July2012 and Writing-Editing and maybe Writing-Inspiration.

Perhaps you are thinking, “This is all well and good, Julie, but I don’t have any writing I haven’t used on my blog.”

This makes me raise an eyebrow. Really?

Perhaps it is time to look at all the writing you do as possible future content. I am going to share seven places to look. Choose one place and glean – or collect – nuggets to write from later – every day this week. I guarantee if you try this, by the end of the week you will have more than enough content for your blog for a month or more.

1. Gold nugget paragraphs in emails, blog comments or facebook messages. When do people tell you, “Oh, that was so helpful!” or “Oh, please tell me more about…” these are hints that you should write that content. So do it. Copy, paste and just like that: an unpolished gem!

 

1. Tweets that get responses and interaction from people. Diamond Nugget: Anyone who has been using twitter for a while knows some tweets naturally attract conversation and questions. Look for patterns via your unpolished gems. Copy and paste the tweet that has garnished the most attention this week. Write an additional 140 characters. Tweet it and UPG it. This is repurposing at its finest.

 

 

1. Top 10 lists that seem to ask you for more details (especially if they have gotten lots of comments on your blog). Opal Nugget I started an ezine more than ten years ago based on this idea. At the time I thought I was writing a book. I still may be. But in the meantime, this fed my entire business! Look at any Top 10 lists you created (don’t have any? Create some! This right here is a Top 7 list: same concept, different number.)  Choose one (or more) of the tips and put it into an UPG…
2. If you keep a journal (a diary, a “notebook” as I call mine) I am willing to bet there are sections without that are pure Ruby Nuggets.  Take some time daily for a week to crack open journals from at least six months ago with a yellow highlighter and sticky notes in your hand. Highlight your best sentences, phrases and paragraphs. Mark the page with a sticky note. In the back of the journal, write a table of contents which may go something like this: “Item 1: Writing Gratitude Item 2: Forgiveness Item 3: Ending Procrastination Item 4: Befriending Block.” This is sooooo easy! Don’t make it harder than it is. Please.

 

1. Revisit Sections of earlier writings that call you “come back, come back!” Pluck, glean and write. You know that blog post from last September? The one about? Revisit it and just like with the journal, see what has stood the test of time. Revise the blog post accordingly. Maybe there is a Top 10 list waiting to be born or a poem or a How-to. You won’t know unless you glean, write and revise. Perfect Silver Nugget!
2. Emerald Nuggets from Stream of Consciousness Writing Exercises: This actually assumes you spend times when you write with NO purpose at all. Just to write. Well, if you don’t, I urge you to start. I write from quotes, from memes I find online and from images, works of art and even photos I take. Without thinking, just write and write and write. Time your writing and keep it to fifteen minutes at the maximum. What I find is I can get a lot written in 15 minutes and even though I originally sat down to write about Virginia Woolf’s Room of Her Own, I end up writing about an experience in a restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado that was waiting for me to listen. Take those “waiting” pieces of writing & morph into something publishable.

 

1. Finally, scoop up a handful of Garnet Nuggets from conversations that won’t stop replaying in your head. In my case, these conversations are sometimes actually overheard conversations I wrote into my cell phone note taker.  I have written a lot of “overheard poetry” but this also helps the fiction and memoir writer in creating and recreating dialogue. Because I did this yesterday, I can’t get the image of the two men at the table across from me at Jack in the Box out of my head. I know they are there to write about, so when I am done with this, I’m going to set my timer and just write… and see how the Garnet Nugget mixes with the Emerald Nugget so I can hit blogging and writing paydirt!

 

The bottom line is creating places where you have work-in-progress helps raise your confidence and simply enjoy your writing more. Isn’t that why you started to blog in the first place? Maybe it was to build your business, but I am willing to bet a big part of it was to find and stretch your voice more deeply and widely out into the world.

So today, start your Unpolished Gem file and put some writing nuggets inside.

 Follow me on Twitter: @juliejordanscot   

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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott

Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.

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