Magic bullets are still bullets
My good Twitter friend, Joe Cascio tweeted me a link the other day – asking me if I’d heard of OmmWriter or if I was using it. I’m not going to lie to you, but I had an instantly bitchy reaction before I even opened up the site.
This program promises a zen writing experience. With pretty backgrounds and cool fonts (all of which I can get from Pages which I use for word processing on my Mac). They say: “Ommwriter is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate.”
Interesting. Does this site miraculously turn off my email, Twitter, Facebook, phone, family and clients? ‘Cause if it doesn’t, then I don’t get it.
Many of you know that I’m in love with WordPress. After years of searching through typewriters, journals, Word docs and more, it was the day that I logged into this blog that my writing finally happened the way I’d always dreamed it would.
BUT and this is a HUGE but - none of this, and I mean none of this, means a thing if my mind and heart and creative juices are not aligned. All the fancy tools and tricks in the world can only take you so far. There is something indescribable (we – writers – have been trying to define it for years) that has to be turned on in order for the writing to work.
And there’s something that has to be turned OFF – the mind chatter, the self-doubt, the shoulds, coulds and woulds, the what ifs, the desire to eat or clean the toilet or make a phone call – or however you’re choosing to self-sabotage or procrastinate.
Once upon 10 years ago, I thought that if I got a laptop, I would be Carrie Bradshaw. Cut to today. I’m still not her – and know that I’m better off being myself. And it was the getting to know myself and practicing writing and making mistakes and getting things right and trying and failing and continuing to sit down here at my computer – that’s what gets my writing done everyday.
Can OmmWriter turn off the switches I need turned off and turn on the ones I need turned on? Nope. No software or equipment can do that. We’re the only ones that can do that.
I’m not trying to take OmmWriter down (apparently some people just love it), but I can’t just sit quietly while I watch writers get excited about finding the magic bullet. A bullet’s a bullet – they explode and destroy (good things and bad things, granted) – but they’re made to kill. Call me a cynic, but I think I’m being a realist.
Just don’t say anything bad about WordPress – it’s my unwashed uniform, my lucky bat, the 5 bowls of Wheaties I always eat on game day…and I’m keen not to break this writing streak.
Image credit: RazZziel
Filed under How To, Writing | Tags: copywriting, creative writing, ommwriter, wordpress, Writing, writing software, writing tools | Comments (9)Weeding out the closet
Late every August, just before school started, my mom would take me to the department store (Famous Barr, if you happen to be from St. Louis) to get my Back to School clothes. And I would pick the clothes that I thought I should wear. For some reason and year after year, I chose a wardrobe that really stretched so far away from who I was, that the fabric should have burst into flames ripped.
They looked like this picture. They were ‘outfits’ to the nth degree. They matched. They were ‘sets’. There was no flexibility, no room to move. I would try to wear these new clothes to school…and I would feel nothing but uncomfortable all day. Worse than that, though: I wouldn’t feel like me.
Before long, I was back in jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. And in these clothes, my clothes, I could relax, soften, feel the appropriate contours of my body. I could breathe, laugh, have room to grow the way I was intended to.
I understood on a deep level that I didn’t like the feeling of the prescribed clothes. And, as I got older, the ‘wrong’ clothes took up less and less space in my closet and the days that I didn’t feel ‘right’ got fewer and farther in between.
By my senior year, I’m proud to say, I did not have one uncomfortable day. It was purposeful, absolutely.
I feel like my writing is following this path. Fiction is the corduroy skirt from Esprit; writing for SEO is the loudly colored, cardigan with the random pockets from Benetton…I’m weeding them out. And they’re headed to the Goodwill.
Actually, I feel like my life is following this path.
Can you get rid of anything that doesn’t feel like you? Do it. And replace it with what feels good. Pick what fits.
This post is dedicated to the amazing women that attended the Type-A Mom Conference with me this weekend. Their energy and company inspired this post during my panel about writing with authenticity.
{And if you need music to go along with this post, I highly recommend this. Turned all the way UP.}
Filed under Blogging, How To, Writing | Tags: creative writing, type a mom, type a mom conference, Writing, writing skills, writing tools, writing with authencity | Comments (26)A Writing Exercise
I haven’t done one of these in a long time, so I’m making you do it with me…
I’m going to post a picture below, and we all have to write a few words, sentences, paragraphs, a poem or a story to go with it (you can do it in the comments, I’ll be putting mine directly under the picture). If this exercise strikes your mind like lightening and you end up writing the world’s greatest novel because of it, please mention me in the credits.
Ready? Here we go:
“If I just ignore him long enough, maybe he won’t see me,” thought the bunny.
“If I just stare at him hard enough, maybe he’ll jump into my mouth,” thought the dog.
And…your turn…GO!
Filed under Critical Copywriting | Tags: creative writing, Julie Roads, Writing, writing exercises, Writing Roads, writing tools | Comments (8)
