Critique Survivor

 

October, 2022: I [Barbara McKay] attended my first Omega Writers Conference at Kingscliffe, NSW as a CALEB finalist. At 78 years of age, I was probably the oldest participant, but with 2 Tim. 1:7 ‘God has not given us a spirit of timidity, or cowardice or fear’ uppermost in my mind, I head-butted my fears.

Nola Passmore from the Toowoomba Chapter of Omega Writers (Quirky Quills) drove me to the resort. I pretended to be intelligent in my conversation. After that weekend, I joined the Toowoomba group.

On the 4th Feb, 2023: came the directive: ‘Bring two pages of writing, double-spaced, for those who will critique your work.’

My children’s story (about 500 words) was about rescuing an injured koala. We broke out into small groups, landing me with fellow Chapter members, Adele and Pamela, who took time to read my story. I felt as if I were in a court of law: The judgement of my writing began—with both written and verbal words.  

In feedback, I received comments such as:

‘Show [do] not tell’ 

‘POV – whose point of view?’  

‘Clearer story progression needed’

‘Use strong verbs’ 

I was in a daze as I walked away and spoke to another new writer to the group, about our ‘Crit Session’. For me, writer’s block set in. For two weeks I contemplated ‘Point of View’ when writing. ‘How do I re-write this story?’ I asked myself.

The 17th Feb (two weeks later): Pamela sent a message on the Writing Messenger thread.

‘How are you going with your story, Barb? I can see the picture you painted with you writing. Look forward to reading it again.’ 

Shock set in as I read her words. I responded. 

‘O dear, Pamela, a writer who is taking me seriously! [I feel like] I’m sitting in the Year 6 classroom listening to the teacher explaining “Point of View”. How do I write from the perspective of an 8-year-old? And you, the teacher, will not let me out of the classroom till I do this task?’

Pamela responded:

‘Oh Barbara. I don’t want to see you give up! [A]bsolutely—you can write from an 8-year-old point of view. It could be fun!’  

She added:

‘I rather think we who have been writing a while have developed a kind of rhino hide. And have forgotten how very hard it is to be in the early days, feeling so vulnerable at sharing your work.  You and Donna are so brave.’

Pamela’s words were the stimulus I needed. ‘I’m not scared of these authors,’ I told myself.

I sent a text asking a question about a suitable thesaurus and ‘Point of View’.

Dear Mazzy, who was on Day 1, Post Surgery, responded from her hospital bed with very encouraging words, and personal exhortation.  

In tears, before tackling the re-working of my koala story, I wrote:

Those Omega writers in Toowoomba … giving us a critique of our work, and then having the audacity /courage to check up on me to see if I have rewritten it. 

Maybe, the Holy Spirit is giving me a gift revealing to me that, ‘Yes, I can write’, but also saying, ‘You can improve, and [those] girls are here to help you.  You go girl!’

Maybe, God is saying [to me and all of us who write], ‘Release your uncomfortable, uneasy thoughts to Me, for I am a God full of compassion and love.  Yes, you are overwhelmed and refuse to write, but hey, people say, “you have a gift”, so keep writing.’

Thanks, Omega Writers from Toowoomba.  You are the best!

Barabara McKay is a new student to the classroom of writing (year 6, that is 😉) and determined to leave a written legacy of her life for her family and the generations to come. A minister's wife for forty-one years, she now resides in the peaceful town of Crows Nest, Queensland, writing adventures of the highs and lows of her life and God's faithfulness in every circumstance.

Writing the ‘Feels’: Creating stories that readers love—by Susan J Bruce

Photo by Eleonora Albasi on Unsplash

I recently took myself off to my mother-in-law’s small seaside shack for a writing retreat. Problem was, when I took time out of my busy life I realised how tired I was. It wasn’t just weariness from my day job. A lot has been happening in the Jeffrey/ Bruce household lately and I found it hard to push myself. I needed long walks and relaxation as well as quality writing time. 

 

I still got about 10K good words written, which is okay, but we always want more, don’t we?

 

One evening when I needed some TV downtime, I flicked through the different TV streaming services and saw that Timeless was available on 7plus. 

I first watched Timeless in the middle of lockdown in 2020 and I wonder if that’s why I liked it so much. Things were tough in my life then, too, and it gave light to my shade. Not only were we shut in at home, but I was in the middle of a long, difficult freelance writing job. Each evening for a couple of weeks, Marc and I would sit and watch Lucy, Wyatt and Rufus jump through time to save history and battle with conspiracies that were more than just a theory. It’s a crime the show was cancelled after two seasons and a TV movie.

 

Incidentally, if you like trivia, the showrunners gave Lucy and Wyatt the surnames Preston and Logan, respectively. If you’ve ever watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, all those names, including Rufus, will be familiar to you 😀. 

 

Timeless is fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It gives lots of delicious fan service, with characters caught in difficult spots often calling themselves by the names of pop culture heroes, as they try and survive and bring down the bad guys and gals. 

 

But it takes more than in-jokes to make me like a story. As I rewatched the episodes I found myself reflecting on why I’d chosen this show. What made me want to binge it again? 

 

In addition to the fun, Timeless has lots of poignant moments and more than a touch of romantic adventure, which is probably my favourite genre. But still, why was I so invested?

 

There have been other stories…

 

Many years ago, before my husband and I got together, my go-to ‘comfort film’ was Sabrina—the Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford remake of the 1954 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.

 

This version never rated as highly as the original, but for some reason I loved it. I’d sit back on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a hot chocolate or a glass of wine and watch this hilarious romantic comedy play out. 

I knew the ending and I knew the characters back to front, but I still loved watching it. I’d feel with Sabrina, trapped in unrequited love, sitting up in the tree gazing from ‘outside’ at the opulent Larrabee family party lights (Sabrina’s dad was the Larrabee family chauffeur). Then I’d revel in how her ugly-duckling-to-beautiful-swan transformation led her to find real love, not the faux infatuation kind.

 

There have been other movies and TV shows I’ve watched again and again. Some of my faves include: The Princess Bride, Regarding Henry, and Star Wars episodes 4,5 and 6. Throw in certain episodes of Doctor Who and Star Trek, too.  

LOL! I've just realised how often Harrison Ford features in my list 😎. 

There are many, many more, but these are the stories I go to when my heart needs cheering up. I think The Princess Bride is one of the most quoted movies of all time. It’s hilarious, profound, and more than a little prophetic. 

 

When it comes to books, my comfort reads when I was growing up included anything by Mary Stewart (Moon Spinners, My Brother Michael, etc). I still have these books and read them occasionally, although it’s hard to find time as my current to-read list is of Mount Everest proportions. I also read and reread The Narnia Chronicles and the Outlander books.

 

My taste is eclectic, as you can see—and Outlander isn't PG rated, so I hesitate to mention it here—but it's a powerful story that draws me back again and again. Why?

 

You will have your own list of stories you read or watch on repeat. What is it about those stories that you love? 

 

It strikes me that if we could work out the ‘why’, we could imbibe that essence into our own writing. I’d love to write the kind of book or screenplay a reader/ viewer devours again and again. 

 

I recently read a book on fiction writing that asks these kinds of questions.

 

In  7 Figure Fiction, Theodora Taylor says there are elements at the base of the stories we love that trigger something deep inside us. Taylor calls these elements 'Universal Fantasy' or UF. 

 

Taylor calls UFs the ‘butter’ that gives a story flavour. The more butter you can fold into a story, the more flavour you have, and the more people will want to feast on those tales. 

She uses several fairy tales to highlight this. One of her favourites, Beauty and the Beast, has an abundance of UFs. The list is long, but here are some examples: 

• Provincial life call. Belle is pulled from provincial life into another life full of discovery and adventure. This is a favourite of mine and I see it with Lucy in Timeless, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Claire in Outlander, Peter, Lucy and Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Provincial life call is the basis of a lot of Hero’s Journey  stories.

• Fixer-upperer: The Beast needs transforming but only Belle’s love can make him human again. Lots of stories I like have this idea. In Timeless, Lucy transforms not just Wyatt but Flynn (a complex antagonist initially). In Sabrina, Linus Larrabee (the beast), is transformed by Sabrina’s love.

• Servants who love to serve: In the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, the cup and saucer delight in serving and dance around while doing so. Think R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars movies, or Alfred in Batman.

My first thought with some of these examples was: Aren’t these just tropes? Common types of story ideas that can be overused? But Taylor is saying that the buttery goodness is the feeling behind the trope.

 

Most of us write books rather than screenplays, but that just means we have more responsibility to help readers ‘feel’ these aspects of the story. We don’t have actors, directors, video editors and music maestros to help us build the mood. 

 

I’ve read books with favourite tropes, but they’ve left me flat as there has been very little butter. If we can write in a way that’s rich and fresh, that brings out the story goodness, then people will want to devour our books. As with a deliciously warmed croissant, the more butter our books have, the more readers will want to devour them.

 

It seems to have worked for Theodora Taylor. She’s pretty successful.

Could it work for you and me?

 

I hope I haven’t confused you—I’ve just touched on this topic. There are many more examples in Taylor’s book and you probably need to read 7 Figure Fiction to truly understand this concept. She can explain it much better than I can. 

 

One caveat. Some Christians have avoided 7 Figure Fiction, because later in the book Taylor uses examples from her own secular romance books to illustrate her UFs. But I’m a big believer in taking the best ideas from ‘the world’ and throwing out what doesn’t fit with my faith.

 

Whether you read Taylor’s book or not, if you want to discover some excellent butter, I suggest you: 

• Write down the stories that comfort and inspire you—the ones you read or watch again and again 
• Pinpoint the key elements and themes that draw you and consider how the story magnifies the ‘feels’ behind these elements and themes
• Apply this rich butter to your own writing!

And please let me know some of your favourite stories, elements and themes in the comments below. I’d love to find some new favourites.

 

 

Susan J Bruce is an author, artist and animal addict who writes mystery and suspense books—with heart. Susan is a former veterinarian and animals often run, jump, fly or crawl through her tales. Susan's writing group once challenged her to write a story without mentioning any animals—she failed! Susan currently lives in sunny South Australia with her husband and her always-present menagerie. Susan’s first novel, Running Scared, was awarded the 2018 Caleb Prize for an unpublished manuscript.

Visit Susan at www.susanjbruce.com.

 

 

Highlight on Writing Craft

 by Jeanette O'Hagan

Writing aphorisms abound and like most aphorisms you can usually find one to suit your purpose.

W. Somerset Maugham  — 'There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.'

Mark Twain  — There are but three rules for writing, namely, first, write, second, write, third, write.

James Scott Bell - The three rules for writing, Don't Bore the Reader, Put the character in crisis. Write from the Heart.

James goes on to say in his blogpost 'The Three Rules for Writing a Novel' "These, then, are the three rules for writing a novel. You can break them if you like, but do so and they will break your chances of success."

And that's the thing.  In one sense, there are no rules to writing. Writing, especially as personal expression, can be what we want it to be. We can write for healing or for entertaining ourselves or perhaps our close and willing friends and family. There is nothing wrong with that. 

But, and this is a big but, IF we want to get out writing out into the wild, for others to read then we need to be aware of the expectations of those others - of editors, publishers and, most of all, of our readers.  And in that sense, there are indeed rules - probably more than three. And those rules can change - what worked for most readers two hundred years ago - or even twenty years ago - may not appeal to the modern reader. 

I should say, the rules are more guidelines. And the more you know what they are, the more you know when you can break them. And the more you write, the more you learn, the more you develop your own voice and style. A journey that is never really finished. In the end, it's your story, your book, your choice.

Rather than tell you want the rules are, I thought I'd share things that have shaped my own development of the craft.  

Be a Reader. 

One of Stephen King's ten top rules for writing is "Read, read and read some more!"  Certainly, for me, one of the major influences has been a voracious reading habit since I was seven years old. Reading has gives an intuitive knowledge of story - the rhythms, the notes, the themes, the grace notes. Clinging to clichés can become a problem. Other's superb prose can be daunting. But overall, reading widely can give us a good feel for what works and what doesn't. 

Be a Writer

As Mark Twain's rules suggest - to be a writer you need to write. Just as the best way to learn to swim is to get into the pool (under supervision), the best way to learn to write is to write, and write some more. And as you write, think about what you doing - what works and what doesn't. 

For me, my first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) transformed my writing habits. The goal is to write a novel (specifically 50,000) words in a month.  

What this taught me is to give space to my writing brain while my editing brain takes a short break. In other words, allow the words to flow, don't worry too much have good they are, just keep going - and come back and edit them later. (The only downside to this is now I have nine almost complete novels that need editing, lol). 

The other thing it taught me is, don't wait for inspiration before starting to write. If I make a habit of writing regularly, the inspiration finds me - and the more regularly I write (or edit) the more I find myself in the 'flow' or the 'zone', the more inspired and creative I am. 

Taking Time to Study

Writing courses can give a deeper and more profound knowledge of the writing craft. It broadens our horizons at the same time as giving a better understanding of how story works and how to bring all the elements such as narrative, characters, setting, plot, writing style together successfully.

I certainly have found this to be so. First, with a study of literary theory and communication in an Arts degree, following by a Masters of Arts (Creative Writing). What I liked about this was it didn't just give rules but ways of understanding the why and the how.

Courses don't need to be academic. They can be as simple as a workshop or short course. One of the most transformative and empowering classes I did on writing style was Margie Lawson's Immersion Class.  And many of the workshops and presentations at the Omega Writers Conferences over the years have also been a great help in understanding a wide range of issues. 

In addition, several websites have also been of a great help.  Both Christian Writers Downunder and the Australasian Christian Writers have a wealth of information on almost any area you could imagine about the writing craft.  Katy Weiland's Helping Authors Become Writers is a great resource, particularly in understanding structure and character development.

Be Brave. Get Feedback

Another resource is feedback from beta-readers, critique groups, fellow authors and editors. I've learned to love feedback, even negative feedback. Some of the most devastating feedback I've received has been, in the end the most helpful (once I've picked myself up from the floor, bandaged my ego and talked myself out of giving up writing forever and a day). Of course, feedback doesn't have to be devastating - hopefully, it is kind and constructive. And we don't need to accept all of it - trust your own judgement as well. Feedback is pure gold.

Back to Books.

Books on writing have also been a great help to me - both in understanding the writing journey and in understanding the writing craft.  Here are a few I've particularly loved.

The Word Loss Diet by Rayne Hall

Rayne Hall has a series of small books focused on various aspects on writing. Her book on Writing Vivid Descriptions is also brilliant as are others. But The Word Loss Diet helped me tighten my prose - and it gives helpful and practical examples. 

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

A great introduction to some modern expectations in writing style. 

On Writing by Stephen King

This book h as three parts - the first and last are autobiographical and personal, while the middle a clearly written, practical look at a writer's journey from starting out, craft issues, publishing and more. In my book, well worth the read.

Story Trumps Structure by Breaking the Rules by Steven James

Stephen James proposes an alternative approach to detailed planning based on a precise formulaic three-act plot structure. He is a pantser and his organic approach draws on the unfolding of the story based on certain story dynamics or principles and reader expectations.  I loved the books - and by the way, Stephen James will be at the Omega Writers Conference this year.

Story Genius by Lisa Cron

A look at how the emotional inner journey of the character drives the story. To be honest, this isn't my favourite book. I personally found K M Weiland's work (webpage and book) on the character's narrative arch and emotional journey more helpful but I know many have loved this book. 

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

Actually written for screen writers, it's a succinct explanation of story structure and many practical tips. 

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Another autobiographical book on the writing journey will some great insight and helpful hints.

Other books have also been insightful on different areas such as point of view, making the first page sing, writing blurbs and pitches, mistakes to avoid in writing fight scenes, or about horses etc.  

So where are you at on the writing journey - and what resources have you found helpful, insightful or inspiration in developing your skills as an writer? Drop a comment below - or on the CWD facebook page. It will be great to hear from you :)

Jeanette O'Hagan has spun tales in the world of Nardva from the age of eight. She enjoys writing fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, millennia and cultures. Some involve shapeshifters and magic. Others include space stations and cyborgs.

She has published over forty stories and poems, including the Under the Mountain Series (5 books), Ruhanna's Flight and Other Stories, Akrad's Children and Rasel's Song, the first two books in the Akrad's Legacy series - and new short story in the Starlit Realms: Fantasy anthology.

Jeanette has practised medicine, studied communication, history, theology and a Master of Arts (Writing). She loves reading, painting, travel, catching up for coffee with friends, pondering the meaning of life.

Facebook |Jeanette O'Hagan Writes | Twitter | Instagram

Author and Perfecter

Marc Jeffrey

Paul the apostle, described Jesus as the author and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2, NASB). When I first read that, I got the impression that Jesus had ‘written’ the perfect draft in heaven, which he published as perfect faith into people when they believed. But, of course, life is not like that, and writing is rarely perfect on first draft.

Faith builds and strengthens as we make attempts and learn from our mistakes, talk to others and read how others dealt with situations. Sometimes we learn by putting a difficult situation aside for a while, then re-engage with new perspective. I use that one a lot, usually after I say that I have no intention of ever going back to it.

Most of my writing up until about ten years ago, was in the context of work or University studies. Like most students, I started a writing task an insufficient length of time before the deadline. My record for a term paper at Uni, was submitting with four seconds to spare. I don’t recommend that!

Photo by Anton Malanin on Unsplash

Much of my longer form creative writing has stayed in the form of first draft. It is only as I have sought to beat some of my stories into something a little more reader-friendly, that I’ve realised the benefit of a time gap between the first draft and final product. That, and good advice. The gap allows me the distance to recognise where the imperfections are in my stories, so I can address them. That distance allows me to see my draft more as a target reader would.

However, the gap is only useful to me if I use it wisely, otherwise I may end up with an over-edited, disassociated mess. Usually, I need a complete break from that work. I could take on the overgrown garden, reinvigorate my secret bird-watching hobby (oh-oh – the secret’s out), or learn more about word-craft. The choices extend these, of course! When the time comes, I am better equipped to recognise and address the deficiencies in my writing.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Let’s digress to music. I’ve been in a few bands. Of the hundreds of songs I started writing, only three or four were ever finished to the place where I could perform them without cringing. Songs need words that grow an idea or tell a story, but they also must fit seamlessly within the beat and timbre of the music, so it ‘gets you’. The listener no longer hears the components—the huskily breathed words, the synchronised strings, the gentle counterpoint of the piano keys—but is taken on an emotional journey as they respond to the whole song.

I am aiming to engage my readers with longer form writing as well. It is not just words, but how I craft them. It’s also understanding what my target readers expect. For me, that means researching what people expect to see in the thriller genre. Whether I write to a market, or for specific readers, I do not want to lose them looking around for the next literary bus when they are halfway through my story. 

For instance, I do not want to create an expectation that all stories in that genre have, then fail to deliver on it. I want my readers to travel with me through the bends of the story and see the signposts they expect and love the ride. And to do that well, I need space from my created work before I re-engage with a critical mind. A few beta readers will help me to see what I’ve missed.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

So, the authoring has happened. The ‘perfecting’ may involve reforming the structure and story beats to meet the target readers’ expectation. The learning, I think, is to not shirk the gap between authoring and the version you unleash. Space between first and final drafts is good for your writing. Your thoughts?

                                                     

Marc Z Jeffrey works for the Australian public service, but loves to write

suspense and thrillers and the occasional whimsical dragon story. He loves

editing fiction and can an spot an errant apostrophe at a thousand paces.

Resistance is Futile!

This is my Star Trek avatar created on Trekkietar

When I was about fourteen, I discovered Star Trek. I loved it. We only had the original series back then—on rerun, by the way. I’m not that old. I remember going with friends to mini conventions which basically involved dressing up (you didn’t call it cosplay back then) and binge-watching series episodes on the big screen. I was in true geek heaven. When other kids had posters of KISS, ABBA, or The Bay City Rollers (yes, really) on their wall, I had pictures of Kirk, Spock and the starship Enterprise.  

Yep. Geek. How amazing is it that William Shatner recently travelled to space at 90-years-old? 

There have been several iterations of the Star Trek universe since then and while I’ll always love Shatner, Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, in the original series, my favourite Star Trek series is The Next Generation (TNG). Set a hundred years after the original series, Sir Patrick Stewart, as Jean-Luc Picard, gave a new dignity, and eloquence, to the role of Starfleet Captain. 

The TNG crew also featured in my all-time favourite Trek movie, Star Trek: First Contact. This movie was a lot of fun and it showcased one of the most sinister villains of the Star Trek Universe, The Borg. The Borg are black-leather-clad cyborgs. Their starship is a huge cube with weaponry that can overpower almost all other ships. They operate as a hive mind—The Collective—and are controlled by the Borg Queen. Their goal is perfection, and they operate by assimilating other races into their own by injecting nano-bots into their victims. 

They are a powerful enemy of all civilisations and their demoralising warning to all is: Resistance is futile. The Borg are too strong. Give up now.

By IMPAwards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54488873

I won’t spoil First Contact for you (but if you haven’t seen it, where have you been?) but those words, resistance is futile, are used to great effect in the climax of the film.

By now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with writing. 

Well, this week I’ve had the Borg catch-cry in my head as I’ve pondered a different, but very futile kind of resistance: resistance to writing.

I suffer from this resistance a lot—even though I love writing. Do you? I know I’m not alone.

To create a world and immerse yourself in the lives of your characters is a thing of joy. You get to know these make-believe people, torture them in some diabolically cathartic way, then cheer them on as they overcome the obstacles you throw before them. What’s not to like? Writing can be so much fun, so why do we resist sitting down and filling empty pages with our words. 

Resistance is weird. Why will we do almost anything other than write our first draft of a fiction novel? I’ll work on my website, write a blog post, take the dog for a walk. Anything. I have a friend who says her cupboards are never cleaner than when she’s drafting a novel.

I’m convinced resistance is different from writer’s block. While these two problems can be related, in my experience writer’s block is usually caused by a problem within our stories. If our plot isn’t working or if the goals, motivations and conflicts of our characters aren’t sound, we can easily stop writing and feel blocked. Resistance, on the other hand, is often experienced even before we sit down to type.

The resistance I’m talking about is also different from the inability to write that comes from serious life situations. I couldn’t write for six months after my brother died. That wasn’t resistance, it was grief.

Resistance to writing is the psychological force that pushes back against us when we try to create. 

In the realm of physics, resistance reduces to the ability of a wire to conduct electricity. The larger the resistance, the less electricity passes. In the same way, resistance to writing holds back the creative flow. 

Inertia is another physics term that says a mass will stay still or keep moving in a uniform way unless it’s acted upon by an opposing force. If you have a large SUV broken down in front of your driveway, it will stay there unless you are strong enough to push it out of the way. The good news is that once you get the SUV moving, inertia helps to keep it moving. The harder you push, the more the vehicle gathers momentum. But if you stop pushing, it will stop moving because of gravity and friction. Now if you are trying to push it uphill and you stop pushing...

Image by Schäferle from Pixabay 

Writing resistance is like that inertia. If we can overcome it, we gain momentum that keeps us moving forward, but if we don’t maintain our force and intention, our stories grind to a halt. 

Resistance to writing can lead to futility. It can stop us in our tracks, take us captive and rob us of the satisfaction of creating a body of work we are proud of. It can cripple our self-esteem, assimilate us into the mundane and crucify our joy.

But fighting resistance is not futile. It can be beaten even if, like me, you have a bad case of this malady.

Here are some things that can help:

• Start. It sounds simple but the best way to overcome resistance is to begin. Determine that you will write some part of your novel, however miniscule, each day.

• Make your goal doable. If resistance is a strong force in your writing life, then start with a tiny goal. Forget NaNoWriMo with its 50K words in a month. Begin with 300 words a day. Or say you will spend half an hour a day writing new story. 

• Give yourself permission for those 300 words to be the worst writing ever. Because words, even badly composed words, can be edited and built upon.

• Experiment. Try a different approach. I recently discovered the dictation function in the Office 365 version of Word. I am woeful at dictation, but when I use it to get a distracted rabble of words down onto the page, I don’t have a blank page anymore. And the fear goes away.

• Use a pen name. Sarah Painter in her book, Stop Worrying, Start Writing, suggests if fear of failure is holding you back, tell yourself you are going to publish your book under a secret pen name. Whether you use that name or your real name at the time of publication, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you trick your brain into thinking no one important to you need know these words are yours.
• Believe in God? Then pray. After all, one of his titles is Creator!

When we start, even with tiny goals, and give ourselves permission to write badly, a strange thing happens. The forces of inertia are overcome, and we begin to move forward. Our 300 words build momentum and become 500 words or 1000, until the story takes a life of its own.

I began this post by talking about Star Trek and the Borg. In this case the Borg were the opposing force speaking words designed to demoralise their victims. Resistance is futile. But resisting the Borg (sorry, spoiler after all 😆) wasn’t futile. 

Nor is resisting resistance. With writing, the power of resistance is itself futile. It can be beaten. 

And no alien cyborg is gonna stop us!

Have you wrestled with resistance? What tactics do you use to beat it? Let me know in the comments below.

Susan J Bruce, aka Sue Jeffrey, spent her childhood reading, drawing, and collecting stray animals. Now she’s grown up, she does the same kinds of things. Susan worked for many years as a veterinarian, and now writes stories filled with mystery, suspense, heart and hope. Susan also loves to paint animals. Susan won the ‘Short’ section of the inaugural Stories of Life writing competition and won the 'Unpublished Manuscript' section of the 2018 Caleb prize. Susan is the editor of 'If They Could Talk: Bible Stories Told By the Animals' (Morning Star Publishing) and her stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies. Click here to check out Susan’s writing and artwork on her website.