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38 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2019 Writers' Club How do you perceive this fast-changing world? Describe how you keep up. What's the importance and relevance of being contemporary and relevant? These questions are a prompt to a writing exercise. How did you answer the first questions? How passionate or disinterested did you feel about your response? Notice that these questions cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no" response. The answers to the questions require more words than yes or no. Responses using more words (than not) is beneficial to a writer. Oversimplification of the obvious? Not if you're experiencing writer's block. Writer's block is a big deal to an author. Another oversimplification? Not really. Authors have so many excuses for not writing: hungry, tired, cold, hot, too busy, bored, laundry, grocery shopping, reading a really intriguing book, grandkids, kids, summer, winter, fall, spring weather… Here are a few suggestions to tear down the block: 1. Create a comfortable and personal writing space. 2. Write at the same time every day. 3. Read something daily. 4. Listen to people talk. HEAR their words. Remember the words or word combinations that attract you. Never, ever plagiarize! There is plagiarism software that is available to publishers, professors, teachers, editors, and general folks that identifies plagiarism. It's a crime. Don't, under any circumstances, plagiarize. Write them down in a journal or notepad. 5. Jot down your own inspirational words, phrasing and paragraphs when they occur to you, even in the middle of the night. They will be useful later. 6. Don't stress about writer's block. Stress is the antithesis of creativity. Every writer gets "the block" every now and then. It's normal and natural. 7. Sing, play a musical instrument, draw and dance even if you can't! These kinds of activities trigger creativity. 8. Doodle with your nondominant hand. This changes brain chemistry. Don't worry what it looks like. 9. Watch a movie and write a critique using only adverbs and adjectives. 10. Develop your own method of overcoming writer's block and share at the next Writers' Group meeting. Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 1:30 and 6:30 pm at The Lodge. Join us. ~ Karla Noonan, (951) 902-5407, knoonan1973@ gmail.com