By Carol Grannick on December 30, 2009
As much as I love and devour fiction, particularly picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, the book that impacted my life and writing this year more than any other was Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s POSITIVITY (Crown, 2009).
I needed a post-it note on almost every page to keep track of all the salient points!
The most [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, positivity
By Carol Grannick on December 28, 2009
In the spirit of end-of-year reminiscence and thoughtful self-assessment, I realized yesterday that my closet held beautiful, exotic clothing that I’ve collected over several decades. Clothing that is lovely to look at, but clothing I don’t wear, or am uncomfortable in when I do.
The clothes don’t belong in my closet. Not because I don’t [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged writers' block
By Carol Grannick on December 25, 2009
One of the helpful aspects of The Irrepressible Writer workshops is the ability to see and hear other writers in the group learn to dispute their ‘pessimistic explanatory style‘. This post will bring part of that experience to you.
WARNING: It’s a long post (under 1000 words), but if I split it up into multiple posts, [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged learned optimism
By Carol Grannick on December 21, 2009
You don’t need me to tell you that as a writer, you’re not supposed to take rejections personally. You’re supposed to get past them and get back to writing. You’re supposed to…
You get the idea. And you know the idea.
Lots of fabulous writers’ sites provide encouragement to learn from rejections and move on – move [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged rejection, writers' rejection
By Carol Grannick on December 15, 2009
I work at home in both of my professions, clinical social work and writing, with a comfortable office in which I see clients and groups, and a desk adjacent to the kitchen where my computer sits, and where I enter handwritten work, edit, blog…and make lists.
Not electronic lists. Lists on index cards.
I love lists. They calm me. They give [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged making lists, overwhelmed
By Carol Grannick on December 10, 2009
You want to get to work. You think about getting to work. You’ve got one, two, seven projects on your mind.
But nothing happens. You walk past your writing space and imagine yourself writing. Your heart glides over and sits at the desk. But your body stays away.
Why can’t you work?
Maybe you get agitated. Then you get annoyed that [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged downward spiral, how to stop negativity spiral, writers' block
By Carol Grannick on December 7, 2009
I couldn’t wait to get back to novel writing this morning after a prolonged, chosen and necessary time away due to a family death. My middle grade novel in verse called to me, and I answered.
I’m going to get a bunch of writing done this morning!
But by the time I put my current partial draft in front [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged overwhelmed, writers' block
By Carol Grannick on December 2, 2009
In the past month, my sister and I have spent fifteen or twenty hours a week sorting through, packing up and donating the material things of our mother’s life. Things that surrounded her with some sweetness, comfort, and perhaps grace, nothing she’d had in childhood. Things she collected, admired and loved, all part of her [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged closing up parents' homes, revision
By Carol Grannick on November 27, 2009
When I entered social work school, I was a creative writing and literature major entering an unknown world. On my first day, the late Dean of my social work school, Dr. William Rosenthal, read to us from Keats.
He spoke about what Keats called “Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged gratitude, Martin Seligman
By Carol Grannick on November 23, 2009
Many years ago, the presenter in a workshop on human emotion asked us to close our eyes and imagine clouds in the sky moving with the wind, from one end of our mind’s vision to the other, then passing out of sight. As we did, he said, “Human emotion, feelings, are transient in this same way.”
If I [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk, negative thoughts
