10 Posts to Help with Getting Started
The blogosphere has been awash with helpful posts this week on getting started with goals, plans, intentions and new ways of doing things in 2010.
Here are ten that I enjoyed and might help with the starts you’re looking for or working on for your own writing projects:
1. Don’t Forget to Write!
The idea is simply to give you a reminder of your writing commitment each Monday morning together with a little new inspiration so that this really does become the year when you produce your best work ever.
A new weekly writing prompt from writing coach Jacqui Lofthouse: Don’t forget to write – a Monday morning writing prompt
2. Ask: What are you taking with you?
So today I’d like you to join me for a little decision making. It’s time to choose what we put on the pages of our year.
Intention: Without intention, the winds of change and strife can toss us around and blow us completely off course. What do you intend to do with this year?
Karen Wallace at the Calm Space asks you to think about what you’re going to bring with you into 2010.
3. Take small steps and enjoy the process
I have decided this year that one of the most wonderful gifts we can give ourselves is to enjoy the work WHILE we are doing it.
Some epiphanies from Janice Cartier: Epiphany, Small Steps
4.Start as You Mean to Go On
Live with intention, Walk to the edge…
Mary Anne Radmacher uote shared by Hilda Carroll, Living Out Loud
5. Smash Through Your Creative Blocks
One of our goals of this series is to take the lid off the creative process, examine the challenges together, and for everyone involved to realise that being blocked or stuck doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you personally – this kind of thing is just an occupational hazard for those of us who live to create remarkable things.
A new series at Lateral Action to identify and break through common blocks to creativity: Tell Us Your Creative Blocks and We’ll Help You Smash Through Them!
6. Identify Your Most Important Writing Goal
Will it be the year you finally write that short story you’ve been thinking about? The year you get around to submitting those magazine articles you’ve been working on? The year you get stuck into the novel you’ve been intending to write for the last decade?
Suzannah at Write It Sideways asks if identifying one shimmering goal will help you realise it: The Most Important Thing You’ll Write This Year
7. Try a Zen Approach to Writing
It’s uncomfortable, because when we don’t know, there is nothing to hold on to. There is no knowledge to support us, and no known outcome of our work. It’s like a mute having a dream – but not able to express it. Isadora Duncan said, “If I could say it I wouldn’t have to dance it.” It’s uncomfortable. But it’s also pure adventure. It’s a path into the Unknown. As medieval mapmakers said about terra incognita, unexplored areas: ‘There be dragons here’.
Mary Jaksch at Write to Done: How to Touch Your Creative Soul: A Zen View
8. Let Go of What Holds You Back
Let go of attachments to what you’ve been doing for the past year, or years. Let go of failures. Let go of fears you’ve built up. Let go of reluctance. Let go of your ideas about what your life has to be like, because that’s the way it’s evolved so far. Let go of long-held beliefs and habits.
You have a fresh start. Let go of last year, and start anew.
Leo Babauta at Zen Habits: How to Make the Most of the Fresh Start of a New Year
9. Enjoy Clearing Up
apres le marche by Bob Leckridge
A photo challenge to help you see the decluttering and chucking out process in a new light: Bob Leckridge at Heroes Not Zombies, Clearing Up
10. Write every day
There is a simple formula for writing every day. It goes like this:
1. Put ass (A) in chair (B).
2. Write.
3. Do not separate A and B for at least 60 minutes. 90 is better. I try for at least 120 if not more.
Jamie Grove at How Not to Write: How to Write Every Day
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What have you been reading this week that’s helping you get started? Or are you too busy getting started to have noticed?! 
Great list! Thank you for post this. This list, especially “Don’t forget to write!” should help me start the New Year off to a productive start.
.-= Carla´s last blog ..The Greatest Gift =-.
Thanks Joanna, great list to start the year with! Hope 2010 is a great one for you and your readers.
I’m no fan of New Year’s resolutions, but there’s a lot of sound advice in these, Joanna. Thanks for putting this list together.
.-= Alexandra´s last blog ..Oliebollen und Appelflappen =-.
Hey Joanna,
Thanks for including my post on this list! I’m looking forward to checking out the others.
.-= Suzannah-Write It Sideways´s last blog ..25 Reasons Your Query Letter Sucks =-.
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Great pithy advice. Love especially these three: “apply ass (a) to chair (b)”, there be dragons here, and enjoy WHILE you are writing.
My biggest goal this year is summed up in the word FINISH! That’s why, instead of not writing my New Year’s intentions post because I didn’t have it ready on the 1st, I went ahead and finished it (and I enjoyed WHILE I was writing!) and posted it on the 7th. Late, but more importantly finished!
Joanna,
I am so appreciative. Thanks so very much for all of this. Hope you are out with your camera this weekend if it is not too too cold.
I have thoroughly enjoyed taking a look through those posts and I am equally honored to be in such good company. Wow. Nice reads for this Friday morning. What was going to be a quick look, turned into something more lovely with depth and, hm…that ahhh of connectivity and bright spots. We are all feeling this freshness, this start and wanting to take it to heart. Not a bad thing that. Not a bad start to our art.
.-= Janice Cartier´s last blog ..Anemones, Nudibranchs, Pink and Flow =-.
Love the list. One can never have too many blogs to read!
.-= Cat Woods´s last blog ..Trendy Titles and Novel Ideas =-.
I love this post…especially #10. I think if I can always manage to keep up with that one, the rest of my writing will fall into place.
.-= Jen Whitten´s last blog ..Top 101 Paranormal Facts =-.
hey, my name is Logan and i’m 11. I would like to become an author, but don’t know if I know enough to begin the process, can someone help me?
This is a great post, so many other blogs to check out… love all this advice! I have been going through some refocusing to get back on track with my writing, too. Thanks for the links!
Hi Joanna;
Thanks for this post, but I have been reading your blog for some time.
It has been an excellent experience: your tips are thoughtful, sincere.
I would like to join this conversation and add my perspective. It is not always possible to come up with new or original ideas through writing every day. Writing as a habit or discipline can work for some people. Other artists, however, have reported the “stream of consciousness” method of writing, where an unknown power seems to take over the self: words and ideas seem to march to the beat of their own drummer. For example, William Wordsworth made it a habit to break away from daily routine and the discipline of writing to take a stroll in the Lake District of England. Sometimes, Wordsworth used to “receive” his best idea when he was not consciously thinking about writing poems.
Other creative people have reported similar (though not necessarily the same) experiences. As a writer, I have received some of my best ideas while playing sports. For others, it can be gardening or yoga.
My point is, sometimes we tend to underestimate the power of our subconscious mind. Peaceful non-doing can also lead to creativity. Albert Einstein was also famous for strolling gently through the pretty town of Princeton, where he used to work at the ivy league school.
Time and again creative people have reported that nature inspires acts of imagination. For others like Charles Pierre Baudelaire, participating in the street scenes or public life of Paris may have led to new ideas. Hence, taking breaks can sometimes be an antidote to habit.
@Archan-I love your comment. Huge and vital concept IMHO. I call it necessary down time myself. Kind of the yin to the creative yang. Einstein was very adamant about the power of naps too.
.-= Janice Cartier´s last blog ..Anemones, Nudibranchs, Pink and Flow =-.
Liz and I look forward to putting our asses (albeit in different parts of the world) in our chairs and writing.
Your site is a lovely discovery.
I love the simplicity yet honesty of #10…if you’re a writer/author/blogger, then write, damn it!
Off to read #8 in search of some nuggets on how to free myself from what’s holding me back…
Thanks Joanna!
.-= Glenda Watson Hyatt´s last blog ..How Blogging Increases My Confidence =-.
Neat post, Joanna.
I like the format and the info . Sometimes when folks post lists with links, you never really know what you’re going to get when you click. Not the case here.
Have a great year!
George
.-= George Angus´s last blog ..Ebooks VS Paper: It’s Not All Or Nothing, Folks =-.
[...] I see the New Year, every Monday and the first of every month as opportunities for fresh starts. This year, though, is extra special for making a start. The whole of January feels like a good time for new starts, inspired by the wonderful Joanna Young at Confident Writing. [...]
@ Carla, I loved that reminder too! Everything else seems to go better when I’m in the writing flow, so it’s worth remembering for sure
@ Mark, thanks for the good wishes and organising such a useful series on blocks
@ Alexendra me too, I’ve resolved not to set resolutions any more… but there’s still an inexorable human impulse to start afresh at this time of year don’t you think?
@ Suzannah – my pleasure.
@ Bo, it sounds like you’re enjoying the writing because you’re keeping your inner critic quiet… the time doesn’t matter, it’s the writing of it that matters, the getting it done, the getting it written, it’s letting the words sing and flow. Interesting that you noticed the dragons too… where the most important stuff lies maybe?
@ Janice, I was – in Orkney, stunning, just stunning. Waiting to find the time to edit & post the pics. You write so much good stuff that helps us to start but more importantly to *enjoy*… of course I was going to include you
@ Cat I’m not sure about that! Sometimes I’ve felt overloaded… in need of a clear out – but yes, there’s always room for more *good* blogs. Hope you found stuff you enjoyed here.
@ Jen, it’s so simple the way Jamie put is, isn’t it? Now to apply the rules
@ Logan I’d say… just get started anyway and learn as you go. Good luck
@ Julie – glad you enjoyed it – from the tweeting it seems to have hit a writing nerve
@ Archan, thank you so much for adding in that perspective. I love this line in particular:
Peaceful non-doing can also lead to creativity.
I agree very much with what you say – in fact that’s one of the reasons I’m running writing retreats, to give people the space for non-doing, and also to walk (and eat, and sleep) and let nature work her magic. Might just have to quote you on this in a post later in the month… thank you.
@ Janice, oh yes – let us not forget the power of naps
@ Michelle & Elizabeth must be fun to write together – and great for accountability!
@ Glenda, hope you find some nuggets there… will probably blog a bit about that next week too
@ George, thank you – I do always try and share links that point to quality stuff and thread them together in some way too. Well it is people’s time and attention you’re playing with, so it makes sense really…
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