Guys, How Do You Overcome a Writer’s Block Depression?

Quite often I hear academic writers grumbling at writer’s block telling they need a break. As you can guess, the next problem, they complain about, is a low financial position. So, today I want to share with you some hints on how to subdue such an ‘illness’ without discounting your work.

As for me, the most effective way is to entertain yourself. Watch a film, for example. Each movie is a short story that isn’t taken off the mark. All films are based on people's experience. Consequently, they can come in handy to overcome any troubles.

Here is a list of my suggestions for you.

1. Central Intelligence, 2016


Remember that nothing in this world is impossible! If you like comedy films, you will enjoy this picture for sure. Do you remember your school time? Was there a person you have been scoffing at? Be cagy; they might knock your door right now. To put bluntly, see how a whipping boy has become a stand-up guy.

‘I worked out six hours a day, every day, for last twenty years straight!’ - this was his peg to hang success on, so why not make it your own motto, huh?

2. Dallas Buyers Club, 2013

Some people face problems that are more complicated than a writer’s block. This film isn’t funny, but it will make you muse on other issues to realize that lack of inspiration is not, actually, an issue!

A man was an AIDS sufferer, but he has made the call not to give up and stand up for his life. Having found some medicines for AIDS, he starts surreptitious sale to help other people who suffer from such a malady.

3. War Dogs, 2016

It is always useful to mull over the real-life problems, but at times, we want to watch something relaxing as well as fun. In this case, I recommend you come down to this movie. This picture, based on real life events, shows how two simple mates have reached their dream, having inked a $300-million deal.

The main slogan of the film is “An American dream”, so bear in mind, if you desire, you will hit the target for sure! 

4. Hacksaw Ridge, 2016


If you are a drama fan, you will find this picture quite impressive as well as inspiring. It dwells upon the story of a man who was proclaimed objector during the World War II due to his unwillingness to kill people.

This film will help you realize that nothing should make you give up your views of life as well as your personal goals.

5. The Founder, 2016


Do you like McDonald’s? Sure, yes! At times, we all want to do or eat something we know won’t do any good for our health. Here is a movie that will tell you the full story of such a household name.

The slogan sounds as follows ‘He took someone else's idea and America ate it up!’ Keep in mind that it is not always needed to make up topics that are created from scratch; look through the other’s work and specify their subject to make up your own mustard.

Ray Kroc says that only one thing has helped him – persistence! So, show your perseverance at writing, and craft this all-fired piece!

Most people consider films, books, songs and other kinds of entertainment as tools to relax and abstract themselves from the daily grind. Of course, they help us have some rest, but it is not the only benefit that we can gobble up.

If you dig a bit deeper, you will see that films have many beneficial sides. The only thing I want to add is:

“Stop pitying yourself! Man up and show your best self! In case, you haven't enough motivation, choose a film from this list and let it charge you with motivation!” Enjoy, my dear. Hope to hear about your success soon :)

5 Ways to Capture Readers within First 10 Seconds

It is said that people are met due to their clothes, consequently, it can be said that writers are met by their value. But at times, it happens that even useful writing does not impress the reader. In this case, there are some hints on how to outfox your audience and make them read your paper till the very last word.

The best place to hook a prey is an introduction. If you do not do this here, they won't be motivated to continue reading as there is nothing ‘special’. Get rid of such denials using these simple hints. As a result, you will gain not just tens of followers, but will stand out from others for your mojo.

1. Warning

Nowadays, there are so many factors that influence people’s lives. Searching for the most valuable ways to solve these problems, people would be pleased to hear some additional reasonable advice from you. Are you, actually, afraid of anything? Choose an issue that currently harasses you not to sound workshopped.

Fears are the most effective tools that make people rethink their lives. We always try to do our best to avoid things that may hurt us or our families. Using a warning in the introduction you make people think about a particular issue, perhaps even familiar with them.

As a result, the trick is done, you have hooked the reader, and they will read your work till the end to find some more information as well as ways on how to resolve the problem.

2. Recent News

Modern people are quite busy. They work hard, take care of their families having even no time to meet friends once a week or to read news. So, why not provide these busy bees with some breaking news that would save their time searching the web, or thumbing public prints.

If you mention something hot in your introduction, it will help you involve the readers in your paper. But in this particular place, to hit the target, you have to do a profound research beforehand and study your audience well to dwell upon the news that is on point for these people.

3. Striking Facts

People are very curious creatures, so anything that seems interesting will capture them for sure. Knowing that can help you impress such a great number of readers you have not even dreamt about.

Find something ‘spicy’ for the particular audience and put it into your introduction. Again, you have to study your audience well in order not to bomb out.

4. Personal Experience

Even more than often, people ask their closest friends and relatives for help if they can’t resolve a problem on their own. It’s time to snatch at a chance and creep into your audience’s favor!

If you start your paper telling about the problem that you have recently faced, those people who are fighting the same issue, willing to tackle it ASAP, will be involved in reading the paper till the very end to learn how you have handled the particular issue on your own. Even those who are not in a tight corner would be glad to get armed to prevent the trouble - we always want to be ahead of the curve.

5. Interesting Observations

People like learning something new, but nowadays most of them do not have enough time to surf the web searching for some new inventions. Consequently, it would be a great idea to dwell upon the novelty that you have recently faced. Get up to speed on this item in your introduction and be sure that all the curious readers will be caught.

As you can see there is nothing impossible if you want to capture as many readers as possible. Do your best to present a great introduction involving your audience in the whole text. Use these ideas to create truly impressing pieces that will easily gain you a thousand of readers.

Under the Dome or What the Hell?

You know I like the word geek because you can fit it to any other word and make it sound cool. It doesn’t mean that “I love reading” sounds lame. But when you present yourself as a reading geek it certainly takes you to another level.

So, as you’ve already got it, I am a true reading geek. And I have all the necessary things to hold that title: clear book weight, a waterproof book cover bath bag and a handmade reading nook. And also I’m a Stephen King’s fan.

To tell the truth, when I heard that there would be a TV show “Under the Dome”, I hadn’t covered the book yet and that wasn’t my priority. First, I decided to watch the series and understand all the fuss around it. And I did.

After the first season, I wasn’t impressed and all this egg thing kind of perplexed me. That was the time when I started a book. As a result, the novel was fabulous as always and the TV show made me quite angry. Finally, my next step was watching the second season of the series. And it went totally wrong. I mean guys, have you opened the book? I’ve got the feeling that the directors only took the names of the characters and the motive of the dome.

The whole deep point of this novel is the power that drives people towards committing horrible things. However, the directors of the TV show considered that the pink stars falling nonsense and the four hands security that must kill Big Jim would be much more interesting. But that’s their call.

The first difference between the book and the show that has struck me much is “Big Jim” Rennie. In the novel it is the most vicious character that wants to transform the dome appearance into his benefit. He encourages the panic, makes people scared and arranges riots and clashes to sabotage the order in the city and all this is done to turn people into the flock of sheep. He doesn’t care about anything (even about his son), he sees only the perspective of taking over the power and ruling. The perfect villain. But what do we see in the show? Although Big Jim is a bad guy, has a meth laboratory, tries to kill Barbie, he also worries about Junior, suffers when his wife dies (who is killed, by the way, by Rennie in the book) and, most importantly, has guilty consciousness. I know that it may draw more attention to the character and people will feel with him maintaining hope that Big Jim will change. But it rarely happens in real life.

The next thing that is greatly different in the book is Junior. The novel says that Junior is a crazy sociopath with a brain tumor who kills two girls and keeps their corpses in the basement. He hates Barbie and by all means tries to mess with him. But in the show he has a kind of relationship with Angie (one of the killed girls in the book) and is very jealous. In due course he changes and has a noble will to help people affected by the dome. Oh, really?

Dale 'Barbie' Barbara is also one of the protagonists that has a controversial character. On the screen he is depicted as a forced-by-the-consequences “criminal” who killed Julia Shumway’s husband and is involved in some shady affairs with debt collection. He is one of the good guys in Chester’s Mill and tries to help the citizens to cope with the dome issues. Well, the book tells us more about his military past, says that he lives in Chester’s Mill for a while and works as a cook in the Sweetbriar Rose. It doesn’t mention anything about his criminal involvement. And I truly don’t understand the reason why this has been added to the show. Maybe to tag more sympathy to the “bad” boy who returns to the good side or more drama to the relationships with Julia, who knows.

Well, I can chew over all the mismatches for a long time. You know, these changes in the TV show really disappoint me. Phil Bushey, the meth cook by the book, is a popular radio DJ? Are you kidding me? And according to the novel the dome doesn’t contract or cause the North Pole. I’ll just stop before I start boiling over the egg thing and the crazy attempts to breed a virus. From pigs. By the school teacher. Genius.

All I want to say is that the TV show has missed all the main points of the novel: bad people very seldom become better; important facts, that can save everybody, don’t always appear on time and the evil triumphs over the good much more often than vice versa. The dome is created to show how people change when they are boxed in. Stephen King wrote a letter to his fans saying that “If the solution to the mystery were the same on TV as in the book, everyone would know it in short order, which would spoil a lot of the fun (besides, plenty of readers didn’t like my solution, anyway). By the same token, it would spoil things if you guys knew the arcs of the characters in advance.” I agree with him at some point but the fact that he was forced to write this letter says it all. Apparently, I’m not the only one who doesn’t like the pink stars falling thing.

I didn’t keep on watching the series because I’m not ready for the new “Easter eggs” the directors have prepared for us. I know that the TV show is not the book but Stephen King’s fans put it on the first place in their watching list simply because it’s done on the motives of their favorite author’s book. And what do they eventually get?

But it’s only my opinion.

And what is yours?

Have a Writer's Block? Take a Light White Noise Pill

Writers are special people not because they create something beautiful or can draw clear images in your mind with just words. They are special because they need particular conditions to successfully produce their share of writing. They are special because they can’t sit from 9 to 5 in the office, make quarterly reports for the boss and talk about baseball with colleagues. Every writer needs their personal space with their own flexible “decor” that changes very often due to the weather, taste of morning breakfast or mood.

There have been lots of talking about writer’s block and creativity. There are many ways that can improve your productivity and help overcome this barrier that sometimes makes you stuck in one place. However, they are very individual and what greatly boosts one writer’s work can disturb the concentration of the other. But I bet it’s always good to try new things and then share your experience with others.

Well, recently I’ve made a discovery that really surprised me. You know when you need to write something deep and thought-provoking you always search for silence. You think that a quiet place will definitely let you focus on this difficult stuff. But I’ve started to notice that I work better when there is some white noise on the background and I’ve tried to analyze why’s that so.

When you face with something unknown what do you usually do? That’s right. You google it. And that’s what I did. It appears that, in general, noise is considered to be stressful and causes problems with concentration. But there has been one research that has shown the opposite results. It says that light white noise can boost your creativity only if you are a highly original individual because it encourages abstract thinking and, thus, pushes mind to generate ideas. The findings are quite interesting but they lack enough proofs to be claimed as solid statistical data. I also found some people with ADHD who say they are more productive in noisy coffee shops and sometimes they sneak out from quiet offices to work in the environment of people ordering lattes and music playing in the background.

So, quite curious about that, hah? I suppose it never hurts anybody to try something new and I will definitely take a shot and visit cafés or parks to work on my writing projects.

And, will you?

After-Birthday Talks or What You Need to Do to Be a Happy Writer

I bet you know the feeling when you enjoy everything that surrounds you: morning coffee (even if it’s without milk), your old but dear laptop (even when it doesn’t want to collaborate) and your neighbor’s golden retriever Bumblebee (even if it sometimes wakes you up in the middle of the night). So, that’s the feeling I have now and that inspires me to write. Thus, I’ve decided to make an after-birthday blog post, analyze my previous year and think what I should or shouldn’t do.

First of all, I clearly decided to avoid a few things: leaving for the airport without plane tickets, following all tips from LifeHack.org and adding too much baking soda to the pizza dough. But these are little things. The most incredible discovery I made last year is free writing. Seriously, it’s one of the best things I’ve learned during my writing career. I’m sure that every writer eventually faces that unfortunate block and I’m not an exception. In fact, it was a real problem for me to overcome and I tried a lot of things: changing environment, listening to music or drawing mind maps. But there were times when even those pills didn’t work. Finally, I came across free writing and understood that when you have a writer’s block and nothing works out, you just write continuously for a certain period of time about anything that comes to your mind. And it fades away. And then even your Transformers-loving neighbor’s dog can distract you from the creative process. 

Now, when I am surrounded by people I love, when I do what I really like and know how to overcome the obstacles and enjoy every bit of my life, I can surely say that I feel happy and delighted. That’s what the life must be for me. So, it means that I’m doing great J

Creativity: Talent or Just Experience

If you want to be successful, you need to be creative. A good motivational phrase that looks like it’s taken from some workshop held by I-did-it-myself manager of an art project. To tell the truth I totally agree that you need to be different, stand out from a crowd as we live in the era when typical things don’t put up with the competition and it definitely means that you need to be above the average. But what does it mean “to be creative”? Is it all about being unique and beautiful? Or just not similar to the precedent?

It’s a very interesting issue because there are loads of definitions that connect creativity with something new and valuable but it is not possible to produce something original without knowing what it was before. As a result, it is necessary to be intelligent and competent enough to produce something “fresh and juicy”. In other words, you need to have life experience because of two reasons: 1) history and knowledge background give you the opportunity to know what has been already created and what needs to be created; 2) everything is done for people, thus communication experience provides necessary information about the people’s needs. So, if you think that creativity is something people are born with, I suppose you should reconsider your views on that matter. And next time you brag about your inability to generate an original idea or plan your own project, try to expand your world outlook and enrich your knowledge about this or that sphere. I bet your brainstorming will be much more productive and who knows, maybe you’ll come up with a genius idea.

So, creativity – is it a talent? Or is it just experience plus good understanding of human needs? I think there’s really something to think about. What are your ideas on the matter?

Why Jack London Is My Favorite Writer and What We Can Learn from Him

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it.

(c) Jack London

You know, when you have favorite writers in childhood, growing up makes you re-evaluate the reasons which influenced your taste in reading. Going through the same books again and again doesn’t give you the same feelings as when you were 10 years old and your heart thumped and jumped out of chest while main characters were fighting for their lives. And it’s all the same with me. I can’t find that joy and happiness or fear and anxiety that I felt as a child living through the adventures from the printed pages, except for one writer who still instills those emotions with the only change – the deeper understanding of human nature. The first book by Jack London that I came across was “The White Fang” and, of course, I immediately fell in love with it. I won’t tell you about the excitement from his novels and stories because you all already know it and that’s not the point. As I was getting older I started to take interest not only in books but in authors as well and Jack London wasn’t an exception. So, you can imagine how impressed I was when I found out that he wasn’t born with such a talent. It was earned due to the hard and persistent work. To seek inspiration he hopped the trains, was an oyster pirate and worked like hell on ships. When he pursued the dream to create real fiction, Jack London barely slept and ate (simply because he either forgot or felt twinges of conscience “wasting” time for sleep). He wrote, wrote and wrote essays, short stories, verses, pamphlets and novels. At the same time he educated himself as much as possible to improve and develop.

Jack London made writing his work and his life. He devoted all his time and strength to become a decent writer and it is a good example of a struggle for a dream. This eminent personality and his not easy but noble path show us that talent can be acquired by hard work and patience. We can’t produce a masterpiece without the preceding tries and fails. So, if you want to write but don’t know where to start, look at your favorite writers. I bet they can teach you a lot of things.

Do you drink coffee when you write? No, I drink music

Writers with baggage of experience will definitely agree that it’s not all only about writing. Of course, there are times when you don’t notice anyone or anything, you plunge headlong into your thoughts and materialize them with words. But I bet it’s not always like this. Sometimes everything matters: light, colors, flavors and sounds.

I love listening to music while writing because it creates a kind of my own world where there is only me and my thoughts accompanied by my favorite tunes. I suppose there are a lot of people who feel the same way, so, I’ve decided to share some sources I use when I need the magical power of music.

• Youtube
  
  

That’s right. I use it not for watching videos. In fact, there are loads of musical channels that’ll fit any taste. Various genres, remixes, covers in indie, deep house or experimental styles. I think the idea of audiovisual music blogs is genius as it looks aesthetic and trendy at the same time.

• Stereomood 
  
  

This one is a true writing solution! The music always matches the mood I choose and the generated playlists are just fabulous. Sometimes there are songs you listen everyday, sometimes you come across new precious discoveries that will start your writing day!

• 8tracks
  
  

The last and my favourite one is a space where people make their own playlists and share their tastes, feelings and emotions. The most wonderful thing about it is that you can’t choose which song will be next because you don’t know. Every time it’s a pleasant surprise with new bands and singers unknown before.

These are my sources of inspiration and pleasure because music brings us sun in heavy rains, warmth in cold winters and silence in bustling noise. Click, listen and enjoy because that’s everything that matters.