Writing Tip: Refilling the Well

Happy New Year! It’s January 2016, and the year is overflowing with opportunities. We’re hunting for jobs, joining gyms, and learning new languages. Everyone seems to have a long list of New Year’s Resolutions, and everyone is ready to capitalize on the unlimited potential that a new year inevitably brings.

I have my own list of things that I want to accomplish in 2016, and, so far, I’ve been doing pretty well. My progress on most of my goals is exactly where it should be for the end of the first month.

Unfortunately, my writing goals are the exception to this rule. Particularly my goal to write 1,000 words per day. I think I’ve stuck to that once or twice in all of January.

It’s not that I’m not trying, because I am. But, aside from the challenge of making time to write each day, I often feel powerless to turn a blinking caret into literature the way Rumpelstiltskin turned straw into gold.

Each of us has a well of inspiration that we draw from. And the water levels in these wells are usually well-maintained by those very special springs unique to the mind of a creative writer, the springs that turn everyday people and events into fiction fodder.

Yet sometimes the springs fail us. Sometimes, when we come to draw water, we find a vast, echoing emptiness.

What’s a writer to do when their well’s run dry?

I think that the answer depends on what’s causing your writers’ block.

Your writing couldn’t possibly be good enough. At least, that’s what you tell yourself at times. And, during those times, you revise your work to death, uprooting the good along with the bad.

Sometimes you’re bogged down by a single routine, a single mindset, or a single writing method. Trapped in tunnel vision, you become incapable of seeing things creatively and you kill new ideas before they’ve even taken shape.

Or sometimes the problem is simply a lack of inspiration. The laws of physics tell us that energy can’t be destroyed or created. It just changes form. And the same goes for your creative energy. You can’t create something out of nothing. Of course, you can’t just sit around waiting for your muse to show up—muses are notoriously fickle—but you also can’t expect fantastic output when there hasn’t been any input. Creating anything worth your time will become exponentially harder if you’ve failed to nourish your imagination.

So, now that you’ve identified the cause of your empty well, what do you do about it? Curing writers’ block is like curing hiccups—all your friends may swear by a remedy that just doesn’t work for you, and it can be difficult to find what does. Based on what I’ve learned from experience and from other writers, there’s no one-size-fits-all advice, especially in the world of creative writing. But here are several methods that have often gotten me through creative dry spells.

Believe in yourself. I’m aware of how cliché that sounds, but confidence in yourself and your work is crucial to producing quality content. One thing that boosts my confidence is going back through old pieces that I’ve written that I’m proud of, especially ones that other people have enjoyed as well. This reminds me of the things that I’ve done right, which I’m fully capable of doing again.

It also helps to remember that each of us has doubts. We’ll all have moments when we don’t believe in our own abilities.

Vary your routine. Take a different route to work, eat lunch with someone other than your usual crew, or take a class on something you know absolutely nothing about. Breaking from your everyday traditions can free your mind and get you thinking creatively again.

Vary your thought process. Approach the familiar as though seeing it for the first time. Try to observe your world through someone else’s eyes. I use my fictional characters’. You’ll be surprised by how a small shift of perspective will transform the mundane into a wealth of inspiration.

Vary your writing process. If you’ve outlined each of your recent projects, do a couple of writing exercises that require spur-of-the-moment creation. Or, if you’ve been revising on a computer, print your next draft and mark up the hard copy before typing the corrections.

Store up input. Consistently churning out original content without taking any in, you’ll eventually run out of ideas. So read books, watch movies, and listen to music. Absorbing the stories around us keeps ideas forming and flowing.

Writers’ block is practically a rite of passage for us; it just comes with the territory. Luckily, restoring your well can be as simple as reminding yourself how amazing you are, breaking free of routines you’ve been stuck in, or spending an afternoon curled up with a cup of tea and a library book.

Book Review: A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Book Title: A Walk To Remember

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Britni’s Blog Score: 10 miracles out of 10

Britni’s Blog Rating: Recommended for teenage readers.

I thought that it was only fitting that I review a romance for Valentine’s Day. A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks is one of the more recent classics and also one of the best romances that I’ve read.

The Plot. Landon Carter looks back to forty years ago, to the time when he fell in love with the last girl in the world he thought he’d ever fall for—Jamie Sullivan, the minister’s daughter.

The Cast. Seventeen-year-old Landon is a senior at Beaufort High. He’s seen as a good student by his teachers and a fairly responsible kid by his mother, but he doesn’t have any real aspirations for himself. Landon puts in the minimum amount of energy in life, doing only what he has to do to get through, and he cares too much about what is high school friends think about him.

Jamie is quite the opposite of him. The daughter of the preacher, she wears unflattering clothes with no makeup, she carries a Bible with her school books, and she doesn’t take part in the social drama of high school. She’s an outcast with no friends and she’s made fun of by her schoolmates, including Landon at first.

When Jamie and Landon begin spending time together, she changes him. She sees more in him than he sees in himself. Her faith in him, coupled with the fact that she holds him to a higher standard than anyone else in his life does, pushes him to become a better person. He finds himself secretly adding money to her fundraising efforts and caring about people that he felt immature apathy towards.

The Message. Sparks shows in this well-crafted romance the difference that one person can make to another. Landon never saw himself becoming such a caring young man. He never thought he’d be setting high standards and goals for himself. But the role that Jamie plays in his life helps him to become better in so many ways. Love can change a person in miraculous ways.

My Recommendation. This is a very clean romance story. There’s no sex in it and almost no swearing, so I think that it’s suitable for younger readers as well as older ones. This was the first Nicholas Sparks book that I’d read; I must have been about seven or eight the first time I read it.

My Notes. This book is one of my favorites not only for the characters, but for the emotions that leap off of the page to touch your heart. When I was reading this book, I felt all kinds of emotional ups and downs with each turn of the page and each new revelation.

In Conclusion. A Walk To Remember was a beautifully written romance novel that puts a twist on typical expectations. Written from the male perspective and playing with the stereotype of a good girl falling for a bad boy, this book is one of my favorites.

And what better time to read this novel than during the Valentine’s season?

Movie Review: Here Comes the Boom

Movie Title: Here Comes the Boom
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Director: Frank Coraci
Writers: Allan Loeb, Kevin James
Cast: Kevin James, Henry Winkler, Salma Hayek, Bas Rutten, Charice
Britni's Blog Score: 9 MMA fighters out of 10
Britni's Blog Rating: Recommended for families

When I saw the trailer for Here Comes the Boom, I expected to be amused and entertained as I watched the film. What I didn't realize was how strong the story was going to be, though, and how many powerful messages would be hidden between scenes of physical comedy. I'd underestimated just how moving this movie would be.

The Plot. High school teacher Scott Voss (James) isn't great at his job. He's not even good at his job. And he hasn't been for a very long time. Worse yet, he hardly cares that he's so bad at his job. The man who was named teacher of the year a decade ago now shows up late to class and then refuses to answer the questions of any students who actually care about their education. When one Malia (Charice) tries to get a straight answer on information contained in her textbook, Scott shuts her down. He tells her that the chances of her using anything she learns in his class are probably zero, anyway.

But Scott's co-worker Marty Streb (Winkler) does care. He cares about his under-funded music class and he teaches it with a passion that's contagious. But when the school is forced to scale back their budget, cutting the music program and putting Marty out of a job, Scott stands up and says something, knowing that he can't let his friend, who's about to have a new addition to his family, lose his job.

But when a citizenship class taught by Scott, private music lessons given by Marty, and bake sales held by school nurse Bella (Hayek) aren't getting them anywhere near the fifty grand needed to keep the program open, Scott hatches an insane plan. He's gonna fight in the MMA--and he's gonna lose.

The Characters. Each of the characters in this movie carries his or her own charm. They're all quirky and funny and they contribute so much to the viewing pleasure of this movie.

The Message. As Voss teaches a biology class, he talks about microbiology and stagnant cells, paraphrasing Sir Isaac Newton's laws. The way he puts it, "A cell that is not in motion is not a productive member of the system." And the other cells will then copy that stagnant cell. Before you know what's happening, the system starts to die.

Well, this is what's happened to the system of Voss's school. Teachers who don't care have just been pushing students along through school like they're herding cattle. But all that decays, says Voss, can be restored.

He teaches his students that even a system that seems to be dead will be healed when the cells start to work together again. And then he sets out to prove this principle by doing everything in his power to save the school's music program. He shows that one person can make a difference by being the change that he wants to see in the school system. And through self-sacrifice, he does indeed heal the system.

The movie is also very pro-arts. The movie supports the need for these extra-curriculars in education with the repeated quote "Without music, life would be a mistake."

The Team. The stars of this movie are hilarious and moving. We get to watch Scott and Marty as they train to lose the MMA championship. We get to see Bella tackle Scott on what he calls "the weirdest date ever". We get to see Niko (Rutten) and his quirky friends have an all-out food fight. Every one of this movies leads are so full of humor and heart that they bring their characters to life for us to laugh at and learn from.

James did an excellent job in writing this movie, and his co-stars shined as they helped him portray in on-screen.

My Recommendation. Here Comes the Boom was such a fun movie to watch and it's perfectly suited to families. It's message is inspiring and shows us all that we can make a difference.

I suggest that parents of young children allow this movie at their own discretion. As its plot hinges around the UFC and MMA in general, there's a lot of on-screen violence. Scott is pummeled beyond his senses during fights, and we see some of his post-fight injuries, including a dislocated shoulder that Bella has to pull back into place. Scott's training sessions can be a bit brutal at times, too.

My Notes. I personally loved this movie. It was funny, inspiring, and entertaining. I love the positive messages affirmed in it, and I enjoyed the sense of humor carried throughout.

In Conclusion. This movie was brilliantly written so that there was never a dull moment. The talented cast, writers, and production team created a movie featuring a hilarious journey and an inspiring message told through the vehicle of altogether lovable characters. The feats performed are incredible and the adventure was memorable, and there were plenty of laughs along the way. Inspirational and funny, this comedy definitely brings the boom.