I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is N is for Nap Like Salvador Dali. Take a Nap to Wake Up your Creativity If you think that Dali’s famous melting clocks look like something out of a strange dream, you might be Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is M is for Morning Pages. Julia Cameron introduced Morning pages to the world in her book, The Artist’s Way. At the time The Artist’s Way was published, the ideas in it were revolutionary. The Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is L is for Learn Something New. The one thing that frustrates me in life (okay…one of the many things that frustrate me) is how many awesome things there are to learn, and how little Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is K is for Kids’ Creative Perspectives. Single, Double, or King? Our daughter, Emily, was a quiet, highly intelligent child. When she played, it was very grounded in reality. However, it was imaginative. For example, Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is J is for Jar of Ideas. As a teenager, I attended The Perpich Center for Art Education as a Literary Art student. Nearly every day in our Literary Arts classes, the teacher would pull Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is I is for Investigate your Character My 16-year-old daughter, Samantha Erickson, wrote a list of questions that she asks about the characters she creates. I was impressed when I read it and I’m grateful Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is H is for History. History can be a wonderful source of inspiration. Who hasn’t dreamed of going back to another place and time in history? Reading and writing about it is the next best Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is G is for, Give Your Character a Flaw or Two. One of the things that can sink an otherwise good story is a perfect character. It’s just not realistic. Even a hero needs a Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is F is for Friends & Creativity. Friends & Writer’s Block In the last couple of days, I’ve felt blocked. Although I have a lot to get done, the words just don’t seem to want Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, I will share ways to increase your creativity. Today’s post is for the letter D. D is for Dictation. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I will be doing the challenge here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, where I will share ways to increase your creativity. Today’s post is C for Cartography. Map your world. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Cartography Cartography is the study of maps. If you’ve ever read an epic fantasy with a map (even a crude one) Read more…
I’m doing double duty this month during the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I will be doing the challenge here at Heather Erickson Author/Writer/Speaker, where I will share ways to increase your creativity. I’ll also be doing the challenge at Facing Cancer with Grace, where I will share posts that focus on caregiving. I hope you’ll visit me at both sites. While you’re here, sign up for my email list. Today’s post is A is for Art History Inspires Creativity. Visiting a gallery, perusing a coffee table book filled with prints of paintings, or noticing a child’s drawing on the Read more…
This is the last post in my series of posts on digital minimalism. I will share the key things I’ve learned from my digital detox. One of the things I’ve learned from my digital detox is that… Multitasking doesn’t work When you multitask, you are actually rapidly interrupting one task with another. Your brain then has to recall what you are trying to do and how to do it. In the example of watching an adventure film, baking cookies and working on your novel, you aren’t actually doing these things at the same time (no matter how coordinated you are). Your Read more…
This April I will be participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Every day (except the 2nd -5th Sundays) bloggers post to their blogs something that pertains to a specific theme (usually) as well as the letter of the alphabet assigned to that day. Today is the day when participants reveal their chosen theme, or if they are going to go themeless. As a writer, I depend on creativity, but often feel like I’m low on creative juices. Here’s one recent example of this: “My creativity has forsaken me!” I called out as I collapsed on the bed. My Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I will reminisce about the day I published my first book and what I do after accomplishing a writing goal, as I answer this month’s IWSG Day question: March 7 question – How do you celebrate after accomplishing a writing goal? My entire life I dreamed of being a writer. Unfortunately, when it came time to decide what I would do with my life, Read more…
This post is the second in a series I am writing about digital minimalism. You can check out my post on why doing a digital detox is something you should consider, HERE. To get started, you will need to set some guidelines for your digital detox, digital declutter, technology fast, or any other term you want to use to describe it. These are the parameters you will use to reign in your use of gadgets and digital technology. There are some questions you need to answer to determine your own guidelines for your digital detox. I’ve included my own answers, Read more…
It’s the 1st Wednesday of the month again. That’s when I take part in Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I encourage you to check out their website and even sign up for the IWSG Newsletter. Today I will explore putting a schedule in place for writing. I’ll focus on the genre of self-help as it relates to writing about cancer, as I answer this month’s IWSG Day question: February 7 question – What do you love about the genre you write in most often? If you want to have some fun, take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Read more…
How do you know when your story is ready? I know that my story is ready when I’ve gone through my writing process. It’s really like what your teacher taught you in English class. What’s my process? Let’s take a look at the writing process I used when I wrote Facing Cancer as a Friend. While I’m using the example of a nonfiction book for this writing process, it works as well for fiction. Kick off the writing process with a brainstorm No matter what you’re writing, whether fiction, non-fiction, or a blog, always begin by brainstorming. This is also Read more…
Most (if not all) people who become writers do so because they were first avid readers. How do the things you read affect and shape your writing? How does your writing affect what, why and how you read? Today we’ll look at reading as a writer. Reading the Classics as Inspiration When I was a literary arts student at the Minnesota Center for Arts Education (now known as the Perpich Center for Arts Education) we read all the “greats.” This was reading as a writer for inspiration. It was meant to give us a well-rounded view of literature that’s stood Read more…
When I first decided to pursue my dream of writing, I struggled with impostor syndrome. This was made worse by people’s perceptions of the worthiness of writing—and the viability of pursuing it long-term. Writing isn’t thought of as a secure way to make money. Even worse, it can be difficult for people to take you seriously when you tell them that you’re a writer. If you see enough raised eyebrows and hear enough doubting remarks, you begin to believe them. After decades of letting that lie keep me from being a writer, I decided to really go after my dream. Read more…
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