SNM149: Breaking Through Writer's Block

speaker 0: 0:00 breaking through the writer's block on today's episode. Today's episode is brought to you by digit save money without thinking about it. Get paid $5 just for signing up at serve. No master dot com Backslash digit today Are you tired of dealing with your boss? Do you feel underpaid and underappreciated? If you want to make it online, fire your boss and start living your retirement dreams now then you've come to the right place.

Welcome to serve no master podcast where you'll learn how to open new revenue streams and make money while you sleep. Presented live from a tropical island in the South Pacific by best selling author Jonathan Green. Now here's your host. You're sitting your death. You finally have some quiet time away from your family or your kids. Your job. The neighbors have stopped making noise, and it's your one chance to start writing. But the words won't flow.

It's one of the worst feeling in the world for me, one of the challenges that I've been dealing with lately, and it's really effected. This podcast is you know, if you follow my emails, we've had a lot of medical problems in the family had to travel, help take care of my wife and my kids and all of these things have happened, and the podcast is the first. It's falling off. I've still been recording episodes, actually, so I'm not as far behind of the recordings.

But the challenge for me is finding time where it's quite enough to court. I live on Paradise Beach, and yet there's pretty much construction. 24 7 Last night, after went to bed, I woke up a few hours later, walk outside. There were still 20 guys doing construction next door with the Giants and Met Mixer. And here, for some reason, they love the circular saw. So there's a circular saw running around 22 hours a day.

The only time that I can record where there's not a saw running near me is at five in the morning. But over the past few weeks, because of what's going on, my wife started putting our son to bed earlier. He's just a little over a year old. He normally wakes up at 6 a.m. Lately, he's been waking up at 4:35 a.m. and that's my recording window.

And so getting a precious opportunity recorders can rare a rare Finally, last night I made him watch a movie with me. It's a little 45 of about 20 minutes early recording today I'm hoping to record two or three episodes to kind of catch up. But this means there's all the more pressure on these few moments where I get a bit of quiet because in addition to everything else, half the time when I come outside, it's pouring rain.

I record these episodes on my porch, but if it's raining, the rain is so loud on the tin roofs near me in a real storm, and you've heard it a few past episodes that I can't record anything if it's a full on storm before I start recording, I can't do a full episode of the rain. It's too much. So all of these logistical challenges have kind of really made this time valuable, precious and increase the pressure.

I mean, there've been a few mornings where I've woken up, and there's a message of work, emergency or something else that distracts me, or I can't think of what I want to do an episode about. I have about 50 ideas written down. Sometimes I look at that list. I go, I hate all of these. I don't like any of them. And I don't want to write about in those topics or Thomas topics that day.

So I know the experience of writer's block in this way because my time is to the limited for podcasting. And when you have that moment of writer's block, there's two ways to deal with it. You could deal with it in the moment, and you could deal with it through preparation. But let's imagine you're in the moment right now. Let's deal with it in the moment. First, I'm a big, big believer in writing Scripture.

I wish I was describing our affiliate with The program is so cheap they don't pay anyone to recommend it. I probably convinced hundreds of people by the software I would say I use it not seven days a week, but very close to that. Out of the entire year of the 365 days a year, I use it more than 320 for sure, just occasionally there days where I'm not doing any writing or I take the occasional day off otherwise out.

Say that every day of my life, descriptor Yesterday I worked on multiple different projects. Yes, I love it because it divides up my documents into small sections. So when you get stuck in Section five when you're writing in word or church, a word processor and it's just a flow, well, there's nothing you could d'oh, you have this just empty space in front of you. Otherwise, you just have to write, skip section and then start the next section below and it looks on wielding. It feels uncomfortable.

It feels unnatural. Both Scriven and there's plenty of other writing doctor programs into the same thing. It just happened to be the one that I was training, haven't you? The one that I used? Other people swear by other software. You can just jump to that section. It's not a big deal. You could write out of order all the time and it becomes natural.

In fact, I was writing out like a book yesterday, and I had an idea when I was writing like Chapter seven, and I thought, Oh, I should skip this earlier. See, because my eyes I now outlined my books in the handwritten notebook. I do a lot of my outline in my hand. I want to spend a little time on the computer is possible to protect my eyes, my eyes from getting tired or sore strained.

So I was writing down everything in the notebook, and you can't just move things around. Normally, when I move a chapter around, I've drawn arrow from it and put it between the two chapters and move it into. And I thought as I was about to draw there I go. I don't need Thio because once I record once they dictate these sections and put them in Scripture, I just drag and drop. If I really still want to have a chapter on later, it's not a big deal.

So when you're in that section and you can't think of what to write and you can't think of how to break through the writer's block, there are a couple of exercises that you could do. The first is to skip to another section in your document. You can jump to the next chapter. You could jump later in the book, you could jump into entirely different. I do this all the time, he was working on a book.

I got to a section where I realized I didn't have the notes on it prepared for this particular project. I'd started it before my eye problems began. So the notes are actually in my iPad? Yes, I use an iPad. I've been using the same I've had first, long as you've been following me because I believe my ipad's five years old. At least I've had it since before I met my wife. So that means at least five years old. But it might be six.

I was recently trying to figure out which version is that came and figure out which version is You have to look up the serial number or something. So I was trying to figure out Is it worth updating? And then I realized the only thing I use it for I don't play games on to any other APS on own thing I use it for is my mapping and outlining, and so far it's working like a champion of those.

It works great with the new iPad version of Scripture. That's all I need. Import all of my books and I could jump any empty sections dictate them out on the beach but assumes I hit that section. I go, Oh, I don't know what I'm supposed to talk about. Next, I need more detailed notes. This is a technical section, and I arrived. The notes are actually Google docks are having with me, huh? Just record the section leader. I jumped to recording.

Never section I do something else so sometimes Writer's block could be caused by I have information. Looks not having the idea. I'll re record that section today. I'll go find those particular notes. Adam, too. That's driven her doc. And then when I go outside to dictate everything will be all good. It can seem overwhelming, and you get stuck in this moment saying no problem is broken. I have to fix it right now.

And when trying to fix a broken sexually try and break through your writers block, you end up writing slower, you know, writing that great and you end up spending a lot of time writing small amount of information. Suki the right 200 words about the section you got writer's block on or 2000 words and some other sections. So the first thing I recommend is jumping another section. The second thing you could do is to block out what you want to cover in this section.

So sometimes I'll just write three or four bullet points and then I move on. So here's the three or 45 things I want to happen in this scene. Sam and Jessica talk Sam and just get into a catfight, Jessica says. You know what? I never loved you anyways, just grabs her bag and storms out four bullet points. Okay, we covered the movement of the scene. You could almost think of it in the way that they write scripts.

I listened to actually a lot of script writing podcasts because they approach seems different, and you could get away with less information to describe what happens. You could just write down the rough idea. Four sentences more than enough information for you to write the rest of the book, and you can go back and tighten up and rewrite that scene. Or, if you don't know what happens, you can just dio a general idea.

Increase the conflict that way when you come back later, you know what you're looking for. In addition, I'm always working on multiple project this month. I have three books coming out 20 K Day. It's done. It's edited. I finished formatting yesterday for Kindle. Now I need to format it for paperback, which will be done this week as well.

The only thing holding back that releases that I need to finish the 20 k page on my website and the 20 k cheat sheet that comes with download as a free gift from the book. So the book is 9% done now. The stuff in the book it's finished. It's just the two accessories, the two extra things that just have to complete.

That'll bring it across the finish line, control your fate, fully dictated fully transcribed minute transcriptions, finished everything and send it to me, and I finished dictating influence of persuasion yesterday. So I have to go through and do a little editing by hand with those to see when it finally looks like in the book for both of those books, and they should both be done in the next 2 to 3 weeks, and I'm probably gonna release two of the same time. But I've already started.

I'm already halfway through dictating a ghost written book for another client, and I've got several more books outlined there coming out next. I don't do projects in Siri's. I don't start research for a book and stick with that book until it's completely done, edited and published and then start on the next one. That's not how I approach books because of writer's block, because sometimes I get bored. Sometimes I run out of ideas.

I like to run products in tandem, so I always have five or six books that are open right now because I closed multiple books yesterday. Actually, a little bit of alerts. I'm gonna start recording a new book, probably tomorrow, once I finish the one I'm working on today. There's only few chapters left, the ghost written books almost done. But when I get caught up in a frozen in a scene, are running out of ideas, going work on a complete different projects.

So if you're feeling stuck in Book A, this is why you should always have book be on the go Now you might not be. It's similar faces in both books. For example, in one book, you might be in the creative process. Another book you being the researcher analytical process you're sitting down to write, you realize, Hey, book A. It's just kicking me in the pants today. I'm not feeling it. I'm stuck doing frozen, jumped to book B and start working on your outlining.

We're going your research, working on your idea as an independent author, especially if you're in the fictions face. And I know that writer's block is a fiction writer could be tougher. Working on a series is very, very valuable.

The best way to achieve big financial success is to have a serious of books so that when people finish Book one, they read book, too, and then book three and then look for You'll find that the majority of authors making big money as fiction authors having big successes, authors on Amazon, there, Siri's authors and that's a big, big heat. A success.

And I could tell you that when I find an independent author, I read my way through their Siri's and getting me to jump from one series to the next by the same author. Sometimes I hesitate. So I go do I want to read another serious by this guy. But the same author could have 20 books in this series, and I read the whole series without even a thought about. I'll jump from book to book to Book and Kendall Limited and even before can unlimited existed.

I'll just go book to book the book in the series. This is very powerful, and this is a key to success. So planning your next book is worth it, because that's when you start to achieve that financial success. Having Books 2345 So even as a fiction off the outline in the next book, and I recommend staying within the serious rather than jumping going to holding topic when you're facing writer's block, most of my tactics are about avoidance.

This is because I've never experienced anyone hurt anyone ever overcome writer's block directly by just attacking. And I certainly never have. Now this is if you have the hard version of Writer's block, we can't think of a single word to right. There's a lesser version that I'm all too familiar with where you're writing stinks, and that is happening me quite a few times when I'm writing and I'm not feelings now again. There a couple years of doing it.

Depending upon what I'm writing, sometimes I'll write it out and I'll mark it. I'll sing and I'll put in Asterix next to the chapter title in Scripture so that I know the content is there. But I'm not happy with it. And sometimes this will happen on the move. Go this chapters in the wrong place and I'll move it around this happen to me. Recently I moved a book, moved a chapter in the book 20 K Day earlier in the book From the Indigo.

This is in the wrong section moves the beginning and I never rewrote it. I never re edited it, and they only noticed in the final at it. The day before I started formatting and because someone pointed out the sections weird and I looked and I realized it was half of a section that I moved. It was an orphan section that was no longer the right area, moving sections around, marking when something is broken.

These help you too, overcome the softer version of writer's block, where you're just not happy with C. Not happy with the section, and also I have this belief that if your 50 50 if you're kind of in the middle of the road on a section, and I'm not really sure I like this ever will hate it. So you definitely want thrown ab stress. You can just again just right up the idea or just write up some bullet points.

And I'm gonna come back and review this later because I know it's not right well beyond of Wooden, sometimes the promise. My state I'm a method writer. There are a lot of people who are method actors, and I'm a method writer. So when I'm writing for specific audience, I get into a specific emotional state. If you happen to read my book. Year old gets ring. The book is very emotional, and I got into a deep emotional state.

I was only watching lifetime movies and listening to love song, music and sad music at the time that I wrote that book, I wrote that book over the course of a week, and at the time, whenever people talk to me, I would snap them and be very emotional, be almost overly emotional. But this is how I would right in a way that my female audience responded to obviously work because the book's been most successful book I've ever worked on.

I knew that my audience a female audience in reading a book about relationships, doesn't want a series of steps. Doesn't want analytical, rejected story. They want on emotional journey. They can follow with men. Think about relationships, often in the more analytical way or more. I don't want to scientific Whitmore. Step a two step two step See, whereas women, especially in relationships, the journey is very important and understand my audience. Understand the language they speak.

I modified my language and I had to get into that emotional state. And of course, it was very difficult for me to get out of it. But whenever I've worked on follow projects, that's what I d'oh. Whenever I need to write a sad scene or I need to write something sad and one of my stories or talk about something painful. And as you know, there's been some sad experiences. My life. Do something Well, I listen to the same song over and over again.

There's this country music song. It's came. I can't think of the name of it right now, but it's from this movie that came out recently, it's Ah will be about Jeff Daniels, and he's a country music singer. He's got big drinking problem in his life has fallen apart, and he writes this song that becomes a hit from the country music. So that's a really good song. That's the only son in my country music mix.

I have a country music folder, my Spotify, and it's Got One song, and I think it's called the Lonely kind. Something like that. Ah posted a link to the song below six Saturdays in the show notes. But it makes me so sad, you know, dealing with alcoholism and problems with kids. It's a problem in my family that I deal with us well, so it very much effects might not affect you at all. You might hear the song Go man. That's the point.

You find the song that makes you sad, I recommend begin to build out whether using iTunes or Spotify are the envy of classic Zoon playlists. Based on emotion, be songs, make the sad. I have a friend who died when I was young. He died at 17 in a car accident, and I have a very specific song that I play to remember him in my heart. It's Michael Song. It's a song to you that may or may not be sad May or may not mean anything.

The song might be a bit of a love song. I think it's a bit of a break up, but the main line and the song is every time I close my eyes to see your face. So when I left that song, close my eyes and I can see Michael's face now.

Michael's been gone for 20 years now, and I try to remember him every day because as long as I can remember him, then a part of them is still alive in the same way that I hope that these podcasts in my log and my experiences my Children, my books will help me achieve a similar form of immortality through memory, Probably not forever, but hopefully for at least a few years after I've gone. So I have songs that can bring out that emotion.

When I'm writing a song about your section about grief, then I listen to that, so sometimes our problem is not that we can't come with words and promise that we can't get into the correct emotional state, and that's a method writer. I do that sometimes I need happy music, and sometimes I need Bonnie music, and so I use music as a tool. I'm a big fan of Bob Ross.

I know that some people don't take him seriously as a painter, but I actually think that he was a genius who found a way to bring painting as an art form as the act of painting as a craft to the masses. In the same way that most writers hated Hemingway for writing books that regular people could read, Bob Ross made paintings that regular people that no, that's all right. I could do that. I followed along and he would take you on the journey.

And if you don't know, is he was the guy of PBS who had a show called The Joy of Painting. I have a few links to a show throughout the website. There's tons of his videos on YouTube, but even order everything. Actually, Amazon. His show was on the air for 33 years. That's why everyone knows who he had to have one my age and older probably know. So yes, how many TV shows last night walking besides Mister Rogers? Not many.

So maybe it's just the fact that PBS shows last forever, but he would be painting. Who would say, Oh, this is a happy cloud. These are so secretive trees, So he would add emotion and adjectives to each thing he was drawing. And in the same way he would pull colors from pallet and they wouldn't speak to him. I used music in the same way I pull music for my palate to put me in the correct emotional state to help me paint my picture.

Now I don't do this with every single word I write. I don't always rely on music. It seems many of the sections I'm writing are just stories, or they're just part of my life where I'm just teaching something. Talking about how I write faster doesn't require me to get into an emotional state, so I don't use this all the time. But whenever hit writer's block around feel stuck in the scene, it's one of the best things. Aiken D'oh!

I've used this tool for seven years, and it's been very effective for me. Additionally, there are some exercises you can do to get warmed up. If writer's block, it's not based on the scene. It's not based on the emotion of seeing It's not hard. Writer's block can't dig him, too right? But it's more of a time based. You're sitting down because it's your one chance to write your kind of frozen. So I got to be effective.

And so the time the moment is for using you have another tragedy for you what you could d'oh! And this is a technique that requires a pen and a notebook and write by hand. And as you know, I have three notebooks I'm actually taking to bring in a forth into the mix of doing so much writing my hand. I separate different notebooks, have a notebook just for podcast stuff. I have a notebook for book outlines now have another notebook ride, just kind of right ideas.

And mostly that notebooks almost totally filled up. So I mostly keep that around cause that has the titles of a bunch of book ideas that I thought about doing still in it so that notebooks almost dead and I'm gonna bring in a new one, and I may be bringing my notebook is I'm doing more eye exercises to work on when I'm away from the computer. But have you more and more notebooks?

I'm a big believer in its Funny that as you become more, more technological, we begin to rely more and more classic tools. And there are some cool fancy notebooks out that there's a notebook out there. Now you can write in everything you write in, it appears on your computer, and then you can microwave it and use it again. You can use this notebook five times. That's kind of cool. I don't want my cliff, so I'm really limited.

I thought it was kind of interesting, but then you only get to do it five times. I'd rather have something like unlimited then I think amazing, but probably five times is a lot. Anyway. Five times is probably enough for me because that means it would last about a year to two years. But sit down with your notebook, put pen to paper, and then your job is to close your eyes and just write whatever comes into mind. Forget your project.

Forget the senior supposed to write about just right. Set a timer. You do? Five minutes. Great. If you could only do 30 seconds, that's acceptable. And just right. Don't worry about spelling punctuation. You can't. You're right in my hand. What you're doing is unlocking you created part of your mind when your eyes are closed and your hand is just riding. It doesn't matter what you write. You remove all of the pressure, see, when Doesn't matter what you write, you move the pressure from your mind.

Your hand could just write whatever comes into it. When you cover your eyes, you remove the second pressure. Checking for Miss Stakes are analyzing. Look, you're gonna fall off the line. The rights. You look ridiculous somewhere. Spellings gonna be wrong punctuation in the wrong place. But because you can't see it, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because that's not why we're writing. We're not writing for perfect punctuation. I don't use punctuation, grammar or spelling All in my initial writing. Total waste of time.

I'm in a creative space. I'm in the zone. I'm in the flow. I don't want things that slow me down. I don't have spell check activity on any of my programs. Grammar check acting if I want to do a grammar check, have to open up a separate piece of software, copy my work into it. It's only way to do it. Riding in this way. Your eyes closed my head. It would just release a bit of your creativity, and it can break that stopper.

It can break through that writer's block in an unexpected way. So whatever's distracting you, it's no longer extracting him. Sometimes I just I just need to get writing. I just need to get warmed up sometimes when I'm writing, I don't like what I'm working on on, so I just need to get that last block just get started. Get your words out of me now.

This happens to me more when I'm writing by hand when I'm dictating, usually dictating out how a problem in the same way with dictating because what they go through My Richard when I'm sitting out on the dock and I've got two steps in my process out there, then it's really just talking. So it's not as much of a barrier for me when I'm writing. So shouldn't working on the book. I'm not that excited about having outlined in enough detail. That's when these things start to happen.

So to prevent writer's block as a whole, I want to circle back to that core idea. Writer's block occurs when we haven't prepared enough hard writer's block where you can't think of anything that's a signing. Didn't outline a researcher. Prepare enough. If you have soft black, you can't come up with the right words. Well, that's the emotional stuff will help you get over and activities to help you get the right zone.

But if you're sitting there, you know, I don't even want to write in this section. Well, that's a problem. I don't know what to write or I don't know. It's just right. Next is a son. See the book? I'm ghost writing right now. I ran into that a little bit because of lack of preparation. I couldn't work on a section.

A part of it is that I was originally riding on the computer and I had one set of notes here, and I had this criminal over there and I had some recordings from the person I'm working with on another screen. But because I had to change, I have to dictate the books because of problems with my eyes because of my inability to spend as much time of the computers I used to. It's led to a series of little problems, and it's kind of built into something.

It's a huge problem. I'm gonna open up the two notes files and copy the notes into descriptor this morning and the promise lack of research leads to writer's block You should spend more time researching when you do writing for every minute riding. You should spend nine minutes researching my books, researchers everything. I have an assistant who works for me. All she does is research. I sent her videos, books, training courses and she sends you back notes on them.

I don't have time to research everything in the world that I want to. I wish I did. Sometimes I'll send her 30 or 40 hour video training course, and she sends you back a couple of PFC notes. That helps me to gather that information to find the best nuggets of wisdom. For example, if someone puts out, of course, about putting out books on Amazon, I'll have her take notes on everything I see really only take notes on stuff that I've never heard before.

So anything about different ways of getting reviews. That's the most important thing to me, finding new ways of getting abused. That's when I bring her in the picture, and that's for me. That's where the gold is. She could find something there, that little nugget that I haven't heard anywhere else that I added to my own repertoire and I tested. If it works, then I'd be in to share it with my audience. That always worked most of time. They don't Sometimes it's a cool idea.

A lot of times it's an idea her port tried, didn't try. So I'm always looking for that specific negative wisdom in the content. But research is that important that in addition to my own research of someone who works me full time just doing research and effect as I look at expanding the team, I, like, even bring in another researcher might become necessary to have Maur researchers that I can't Maur content prepared with how my life is changing.

I'm making a lot of adaptations now that I dictate everything. I'm not spending as much time on the computer. It's changing my output and changing the way I work, so I may need more research. I'm able to increase my output in my time I've spent outside dictating and I made you some changes of work for, but the research it's critical when you're writing fiction. If you don't know it's gonna happen in the scene. Don't right by the City of pants.

Of course, you're gonna get writer's block all the time. You read the Libby. How book? Right by the seat of your pants. Pants off outlining. I recommend that book all the time. I read it. I think it's really brilliant when I finished off my list of 150 nonfiction titles. I'm gonna jump into fiction. I've already kind of thought through some of the outline of the 1st 10 bucks in my series.

In my mind, I haven't spent a a SZ much time of like gold drove limos activities, but I found it very manageable. Very understandable. So this is what I recommend research. Prepare yourself, put everything together. It's not just about the time and getting ready to write. It's also about having information ready. So right now my son is asleep. You slept in late it's not raining out. There are some birds making noises. It's hard to get it perfect, isn't it?

Maybe there's an occasional boat, but least no one's blasted buying their motorcycle, which I consider a plea big win. So we got through this recording without a massive noise surprise in the background that will have to edit out later. But all that wouldn't be enough if I sat down and said, Well, I don't have an idea of what I want to write about But in fact, I thought, yesterday Writer's block is a good topic. That's what I want, right?

So prepare yourself in advance and used these techniques, and you'll never have to face Writer's block again. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Serve No Master. Make sure you subscribe, so you never miss another episode. We'll be back tomorrow with more tips and tactics on how to escape that rat race. Head over to serve no master dot com forward slash podcasts. Now for your chance to win a free copy of Jonathan's bestseller Serve No master.

All you have to do is leave a five star review of this podcast. See you tomorrow Thank you for Listen to this episode of the serve. No master podcast. Join me on my Facebook page at facebook dot com Backslash serve no master.