School are wonderful places… and for writers, too often the scene of crimes against creativity. I don’t know how many people I’ve seen in my coaching practice who have been unable to write or to enjoy it when they do because of something that happened to them in school. (And yes, schools also are places that can inspire writers as well).

Usually it goes along these lines: An enthusiastic writer turns something in to the teacher, whether a creative piece or an essay on the History of Western Civilization. The teacher, probably tired and cranky after a long day, is sitting at home grading papers when her own teen storms out the door to smoke cigarettes. Angrily, the teacher picks up the paper… and vents. She doesn’t just grade it, she adds a comment like “Whatever you do, make sure you don’t take up writing as a profession,” or “I’ve seen chimpanzees write better papers than this.”

Not helpful.

The student reads the paper, takes the comment personally, and that’s it. They have just enough doubt in their own ability (who doesn’t in school?) to believe the comment. Then they continue through the years finding “evidence” to back up the belief that they can’t write, which is just how the mind does things. We like to prove ourselves right, even if it’s painful and untrue.

Then, they show up at my door X number of years later because, despite that blow, an inner writing voice has been quietly trying to get their attention. And it’s been knocking at the door a long, long time.

Another version of this is the budding writer who turns in something highly creative… and it’s strangulated by grammar rules. So they start learning to jump through grammar hoops rather than creative hoola hoops.

Then there’s the academic who has gone on for advanced degrees and was taught a rigorous, stylized method of writing. Rather than learning to open and write from their passion, they make each word work. Hard. Each sentence has to stand at fancy angles to look smart, and be obtuse enough to impress. Their inner editor rides them with a whip the whole way.

Usually it doesn’t take long much coaching for a client to get beyond these wounds and start writing in a way that feels more natural and fun. But if you’re looking for a few tricks to try on your own, try:

• Take the thought, such as “Mrs. Blarneybum said my writing was worse than chicken scratch,” and imagine what her life might have been like. Instead of seeing her as the all knowing God she obviously wasn’t, humanize her. Imagine her getting home after a long day. Taking off her shoes and massaging her bunions. Eating cold Chinese food leftovers. And then sitting in her threadbare recliner to grade papers… and not seeing past her own pain or arrogance as she graded your writing. Just as you couldn’t see your writing objectively, neither could she.
• Don’t see writing as black or white, good or bad, acceptable or not. See it as shades of gray, and then get a paint brush, a dollop of yellow and red, and jump in and play. Do some word cartwheels. Don’t let your editor in, just have fun and don’t judge. Isn’t that why you want to write anyway, to perhaps get a message out WHILE you’re frolicking?
• Keep in mind that if you can talk, you can write. Period.

As adults, away from the grades and criticism, it’s our time to dip into the joyful, creative part of the writing process. If you’ve been waiting to write, don’t wait any longer – take the leap and see if you don’t just fly…

As founder of Backyard Pearls, LLC, Carolyn Scarborough helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. As a Writing Wisdom Coach, she supports you through the journey from inspiring idea to published piece in a way that’s joyful, effortless and profitable.

She’s done almost every kind of writing imaginable, including magazine features, newspaper columns, books, journaling — even ghostwriting for Donald Trump! Her favorite sort of writing is the kind where she has to be really present to find the story, so her life and writing are both a constant awakening to a deeper, richer way to live in the world.

To subscribe to Backyard Pearls Newsletter, visit the site here.

Request your complimentary “Getting to Know You” session to start turning your inner whisperings into a published book, blog or article.

You may reprint the featured article, in its entirety, by including a byline and the following information: “Carolyn Scarborough, The Book Whisperer, helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. You can get a free audio on overcoming writers block by clicking HERE.”

This week I was interviewed by author Abhijit Bhaduri on what exactly a Book Whisperer is, and how I work with writers. One of the questions he asked me was how to find your voice as a writer, and part of my answer is below. For the full interview, go to http://bit.ly/meet-book-whisperer-interview.

Abhijit: How does a writer find his/her voice? How does one know that they have succeeded?

Carolyn: The best way of finding your voice is to write without rules, which you can do in a journal that no one will read. What do I mean by this? Well, when I take my dog Ziggy for a walk, he really enjoys it, and he’s also very good at staying right by my side on the leash. Nothing wrong with that. Yet when I let him off the leash in the park, he looks completely different. He runs, he walks, he bounds, he rolls, he leaps. He has his “voice.” He also does things which are socially unacceptable, like eating from the garbage bin. That’s also his voice, but that part can always be edited out later. J

Voice is how we sound when we write without fear, without “shoulds,” without trying to look good. I had one client who was stuck on her book, but she could blog quite effortlessly. That’s because with her book she was so focused on trying to sound “impressive,” she couldn’t write at all! Her inner perfectionist got her.

Another client has a very warm, enthusiastic personality, yet her writing sounded stilted and formal. She had so many fears and so many rules she was trying to follow, that it didn’t come out naturally. Her own voice was choked out. But when she was able to see and let go some of her fears and break all the rules, something very different appeared.

If you’re feeling a little late winter/early spring writing fever, here are a few writing workshops I”ll be teaching to get you going. Enjoy!

Carolyn  

Finding Your Voice
February 22, 2011 (12-1 pm)
Soma Vida Work-Life Balance Center
1210 Rosewood Avenue, Austin, Texas
512-628-1580

Bring a brown bag lunch, your sense of adventure and $10 and join Carolyn Scarborough at Soma Vida for an hour’s exploration into “Finding your Voice.” Whether you’re writing a book, blog, newsletter or article, you know when you are coming across as vibrantly who you are… and when your writing plods along robotically. We will explore how to tap into your authentic voice when you write. The result will be writing that is more aligned, joyful to write … and read!

Unleash your Writing Mojo… And Actually Finish that Book or Blog

March 10, 2011 (10:00 a.m.)

The Long Center for the Performing Arts
701 West Riverside Drive Austin, TX 78704

https://www.riseglobal.org/sessions/day/2011/03/10

At the RISE “un-conference” for entrepreneurs, Carolyn Scarborough will have a small group session about how to move through your non-fiction book, memoir, blog or other writing project in a way that feels authentic and energizing. This “un-conference” is free and open to the public. Details will be posted starting Feb. 1 at www.riseglobal.org/about and on my blog  www.backyardpearls.com/blog

Backyard Pearls Spring Writing Telecourse

Thursdays from 12-1:30 CT, March 31-April 28, 2011

On the Telephone

If you are feeling the call to write — perhaps finally launching that newsletter, writing your memoir, or compiling your business wisdom in a book — I’d love for you to join me for a 5-week writing adventure! This journey takes place with an intimate group via telephone, so you can live anywhere in the world and still participate. By the end of the class, you’ll have a Writing Success Blueprint Journal that you can use over and over to glide over writing obstacles and actually finish your writing projects.

For more information,go to http://www.backyardpearls.com/WritingTelecourse.html  or email me at CoachCarolyn@backyardpearls.com,

by Carolyn Scarborough

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” – Mary Oliver

I can’t think of a quote that better sums up the way I love to write and live than these simple seven words by poet Mary Oliver.

Clients are always asking me how to find stories for their newsletters, their blogs, their books. These three lines are a prescription for how to do that – and for a life well lived. Let me give you an example of how this looks:

Pay attention.

Last week I went to a cooking class in a friend’s kitchen. I arrived late, flustered by the traffic and my own challenges with finding new places in the dark. But when I got there, the calming presence of instructor Kate Short brought me into the moment. She was paying attention, which called it forth in me as well. I noticed a group of aproned women all peering into a pot, and walked over to see what the fuss was about. Inside the boiling water, they were watching a handful of seaweed gracefully swaying and expanding in the soup.

Nearby, Kate sliced some gently wiggling tofu, and later showed us how, by dipping our hands into kale salad and crunching the leaves, they took on a brighter, almost florescent hue.

Her attentiveness and reverence for the food before us expanded my view. Never before had I really seen the wrinkly texture of kale, or the way fingers pinched and massaged spices before dropping them into the pot.

But the high point was the giant yellow daikon radish. Its size alone was worth a second look. Then Kate cut it and held a slice up to the light to show us the timorous, perfect sunburst pattern radiating from the middle. Six grown women in their fluffy aprons were elbowing each other for a closer look at this surprising example of natural beauty.

Or maybe it was just me? Did everyone gasp at this? Or only the women in the room who were truly paying attention and by deeply doing so, fell headlong into astonishment?

We can show up in our lives vulnerable and open to being touched by beauty at any moment, or we can walk mindlessly through thinking about how much we spent at the mall yesterday.

Just imagine if we lived more fully in gratitude for the small things around us, from the smell of dark chocolate to the beating of our hearts. Imagine if we were so awake that everything astonished us. And what if we took that and then spoke it, wrote it, sang it – shared the gift with others?

In the words of a wise, awake poet — “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

* * * *

You may reprint the featured article, in its entirety, by including a byline and the following information: “Carolyn Scarborough, The Book Whisperer, helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. You can get a free audio on overcoming writers block by clicking HERE.”

As founder of Backyard Pearls, LLC, Carolyn Scarborough helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. As a Writing Wisdom Coach, she supports you through the journey from inspiring idea to published piece in a way that’s joyful, effortless and profitable. Request your complimentary “Tapping into your Inner Writing Wisdom” session to start turning your inner whisperings into a published book, blog or article.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a client who said they had plenty of time to write. Instead, I hear all those phrases we’re familiar with – and use ourselves. I’m running out of time, I don’t know where the time flew, time is money.

Wouldn’t it be great if time was like… sugar cookies? You need more and you just make them! Well, in a sense time is like that – you just have to know the ingredients.

For instance, last month I was asked to do a presentation on Greece for an elementary school club. The first thing I did (after I enthusiastically said yes I’d do it, and then had a few days to wonder why in the world I had agreed to it) was procrastinate. I had so many other more important things to do, I reasoned, so instead I let that niggling task drain my energy in the background as I did everything BUT sit down and come up with the presentation.

Then, I thought of the quickest, most efficient way to do it so it would take as little “time” as possible out of my day. I’d skip the PowerPoint (I’ll admit, I’d never done one) and pictures, find an “easy fact” guide on the internet, and that would be that.

The day of the presentation, having effectively “run out of time,” I opened the computer and started looking at a few sites. As I did so, I saw a picture of bright red Easter eggs. It immediately took me back to Easters when my mother would die a big vat of red eggs, and we’d have a competition cracking them as we said Greek phrases. I remembered the sweet smell of Greek Easter bread, browned on the top and so soft in the middle. Then I saw a picture of olive trees in Crete, and I was back there riding a donkey through the hills to my relative’s house.

Within an hour the presentation was complete. My daughter showed me how to create a PowerPoint presentation, I plucked off some photos and facts, reeled in some stories from my childhood, and that was that. My young audience was wowed later that day and I had a blast.

So what, you ask, does this have to do with writing? And what are those danged ingredients for expanding time, anyway! There are lots of ways, but here are a few to get you started…

1. Watch the phrases you use. The more you talk about running out of time, the more you are subconsciously programming yourself to do that very thing, whether writing a book or doing a presentation.
2. Find the juice. If you’re plodding along in a novel, what could take 10 minutes will take 10 hours. Stop and find the part you are passionate about (the red eggs, so to speak). Write from there. Or, turn on some loud salsa music, make an enthusiastic fool of yourself in the privacy of your office, and once your energy is flowing channel it towards your writing.
3. Face fears or lack of information head on. When you push them out of view, they are still there and effectively lengthening the amount of time you are in contact with any given project. The more time you spend not dealing with the structural confusion in your memoir, (or learning how to do PowerPoint) the more your energy drains. Instead, list all your fears and information gaps. Be friendly with them. Then consciously choose when and what your next step is to move past them.

So, in the upcoming year, start noticing your relationship with time. Play with ways to expand it. If you want to look deeper into this subject, then join one of my January classes. Meanwhile, start your book or newsletter — remember, there’s no time like the present…

* * * *

You may reprint the featured article, in its entirety, by including a byline and the following information: “Carolyn Scarborough, The Book Whisperer, helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. You can get a free audio on overcoming writers block by clicking HERE.”

As founder of Backyard Pearls, LLC, Carolyn Scarborough helps people tap into their inner wisdom, then share it with the world through books, blogs and articles. As a Writing Wisdom Coach, she supports you through the journey from inspiring idea to published piece in a way that’s joyful, effortless and profitable. Request your complimentary “Tapping into your Inner Writing Wisdom” session to start turning your inner whisperings into a published book, blog or article.