CAN YOU HANDLE WRITING SUCCESS?

Here's what many writers have in common--they've learned to handle being aspiring writers, struggling writers, even failing writers.

But they need to take the next step and learn to handle being successful writers. To do this they (and you and I) need to do three things:

1/ Write. Write a lot, the actual putting-words-on-paper writing, not just the thinking-about-it writing.

2/ Improve and learn. Take active steps to make your writing better. This could be taking a good writing class, forming a supportive writing group, or hiring a writing coach.

3/ Submit your work. If you want to get published you have to make your work available to the editors who might buy it. Your great short story or essay in that desk drawer has zero chance of getting published.

4. And the extra, bonus, step. Don't give up. There's nothing easier than giving up, and few things more bitter than failure.

HOW MYTHOLOGY CAN ENRICH YOUR WRITING!

I'm reading Karen Armstrong's excellent book on mythology, A Short History of Myth. At only 149 pages it is a great introduction to how myths and the myth-making process can enrich our lives.

I strongly recommend it. If we look carefully at almost any powerful story, movie, or play we will see its roots (sometimes hidden) in the mythic concerns that have become important parts of our complexity as humans.

If you've read the book, email me with your impressions. I'd love to hear from you. www.RoySorrels2@aol.com

Inspiration? or Intimidation?

I lived, wrote, and led writing workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, all through the 1990s. Living in another country was a long-time goal of mine, and I loved it.

Towards the end of that time I started writing plays. I was the only playwright in San Miguel, and there was virtually no theatre.

I needed inspiration. I needed to go to lots of theatre, to see the work of other playwrights. I needed to go back to New York City to live.

That's what I did, but not without some trepidation. When you're the only playwright in town, that also means you're the best playwright in town. But back in New York, there are lots of talented playwrights, even some, uh oh, more talented than me!

So, I had to decide whether to be inspired, or intimidated. The good news is that I've been mostly inspired, with a few dark moments of feeling intimidated. The same applies to you, whatever kind of writing you do. Are you inspired by all the other talented writers? Or intimidated?

Email me at RoySorrels2@aol.com and let me know. Visit http://www.roysorrels.com/ to learn what a writing coach does!

WHY FIVE? by C.M. Mayo

Here is this week's appearance from a guest blogger!

Why Five?
by C.M. Mayo

C.M. Mayo http://www.cmmayo.com/ is the author of the widely-lauded travel memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions) and Sky Over El Nido (Univ Georgia Press) which won the Flannery O'Connor Award. She is founding editor of the bilingual chapbook press, Tameme http://www.tameme.org/ and editor of the anthology of Mexican fiction and literary prose, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press). She teaches at the Writers Center http://www.writer.org/ near Washington DC and via Dancing Chiva http://www.dancingchiva.com/in Mexico City. She blogs at Madam Mayo http://madammayo.blogspot.com/ .

No time to write? Ha. You've five mintes, I'll bet--- and if you really, truly do not, lock yourself in the bathroom, OK? You might be amazed at what you can come up with in five concentrated minutes. Need a nudge? Here www.cmmayo.com/d5mwe.html --- free--- are 365 five minute writing exercises.

Why five minutes? Five reasons:

#1. To Train the Brain to Get Into the Habit of Writing How do you write a 500 page book? Or, for that matter, a poem? A piddling 5 minutes at a time. When you're not feeling ready to commit to writing a short story, magazine article, or, (gulp) a novel, brief exercises (which of course, can expand to any length of time) can serve as a bit of track to run on, as it were. The more often you write, the easier it gets.

#2. To Train the Brain to Imagine More Vividly with Ease And how do you conjure a vivid world for readers? By use of vivid detail that appeals to the senses (smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch), by convincingly conveying other points of view and by playfully exploring that ever-strange energy of 'what if?' For the most part, these are the tasks of the 5 minute writing exercises.

#3. To Enhance the Flow Tomorrow Alas, there are days--- even for full-time writers--- when it is impossible to block out the ideal number of hours for writing. On such days, if you can write intensely for 5 minutes--- even just 5 minutes--- the writing "muscle" stays pumped so that the following day, the writing once again flows.

#4. To Bust a Block For those with writers block--- whose excuses usually include variations of "I don't have time" and/or "my writing must be super special & perfect or else why bother" --- five minutes is a low bar indeed. (By the way, if the block is bad, try setting an alarm clock or an egg timer, and promise yourself, when it rings in 5 minutes, you'll quit writing. A bit of reverse psychology.)

#5. To Seed Something Big & Wonderful Pourquoi pas?