Breaking Writer's BlockWritten by Lisa Hood
Breaking Writer's BlockThe most fearsome enemy to any writer, attacking without warning, without predjudice and without compassion, is (gasp, dare I say it?) WRITER’s BLOCK. I feel a bit like Harry Potter speaking Voldermort’s name aloud to horror of his fellow witches and wizards. Writer’s Block is a curse to creativity. It’s as if all characters and situations and what if scenarios, which normally ricochet around your brain have been sucked into a worm hole leaving only a void behind. It’s painful, it’s frightening and it’s self inflicted! Writer’s Block is residue of fear. For me, it is fear of not being good enough. For you it may be fear of exposing yourself to criticism, fear of rejection, fear of humiliation, fear of failure, fear of success, list could go on and on. Regardless of fear that keeps you its prisoner, Writer’s Block is your prison. It’s time to conquer your fear and get back to business of writing. Begin by identifying what is holding you back. As I said, I’m afraid of not being good enough. To counter this, I use a technique called free writing. I think about a situation and then write continuously for ten minutes, without stopping, without censoring any word or phrase or thought. Knowing that mistakes are acceptable, that objective of this exercise is quantity not quality frees me from my prison.
| | Swimming with SharksWritten by Lisa Hood
Swimming with SharksI just finished my first novel, “Shades of Betrayal”, and felt a rush of giddy excitement at prospect of being a REAL writer. I had a vague idea that I would need an agent, so I went to a search engine and typed: “Literary Agents”. My search returned thousands upon thousands of results, and as I surfed from page to page, I quickly realized getting an agent was not going to be an easy undertaking. Most would not accept unsolicited queries, or queries from previously unpublished authors. I wondered if it would just be easier to contact publishers directly, in essence acting as my own agent. My bubble quickly burst when I found very few publishers willing to accept unagented queries. I was disappointed but not deterred. In retrospect, I wish I had begun my search for information with these words: “Writer Beware”. These words would have saved me from surfing in shark infested waters. The sharks got me, but thankfully it was just a little nibble, they didn’t tear off my entire leg. Here are just a few tips to keep you safe from sharks posing as agents and/or publishers: Regardless of what they call them: Reading Fees, Evaluation Fees, Handling Fees, Sliding Fees, Publishing Fees, Marketing Fees, or Adjunct Services, FEES = money leaving your pocket and going into theirs. I paid an agent to set up a web site where my book would be promoted in junction with submissions to various publishers. I wanted to believe my dream was coming true, so I gagged my inner critic and stuck her in a dark corner. Paying up front fees just doesn’t pass common sense test. “Fee-charging violates basic premise of author-agent relationship: a shared financial interest in sale of author's manuscript.” (Writers Beware, p.2)
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