By Carol Grannick on May 25, 2010
I invite you to enjoy this wonderful, immensely instructive interview with children’s author Kathi Baron, whose first novel, SHATTERED (Westside Books, 2009) has the concept of resilience at its core.
In addition, though, Kathi’s responses to my questions are superb examples of the creative brain’s response to negative and positive thinking and emotion. You’ll see [...]
Posted in Interviews: Resilience At Work | Tagged Kathi Baron, learned optimism, SHATTERED
By Carol Grannick on May 18, 2010
When I left my adopted hometown of New York City years ago, I flew back once a month for almost a year, weaning myself not only from friends, but from the city itself and the love-hate relationship I’d had with it for fourteen years.
In the years that passed, the mythic status of the city pulled [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged revision, separation
By Carol Grannick on May 11, 2010
I’m honored this week at The Irrepressible Writer to have a guest post by Meredith Resnick, whose blog at http://writersinnerjourney.com is a constant source of nourishment and inspiration. I am particularly fond of Meredith’s brilliant, concise interviews that explore the heart, mind and spirit of the writer’s creative process.
I hope you’ll enjoy her – here, [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged writing growth, writing stagnation
By Carol Grannick on May 5, 2010
It’s not just the negative self-talk that wastes your writing time. It’s the negative self-talk over and over. And over.
Ruminating is a common and unhappy, unproductive activity. And the desire to “just say no” and switch it off can be unsuccessful.
In fact, yelling at Rumination to stop often kicks in a bigger and “better” [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged rumination
By Carol Grannick on April 28, 2010
Here’s my office.
To me, it’s the best room in our home. Two windows looking out on an open street with trees bring in light from sunup to sundown, and many of my favorite office ‘mates’ line the shelves and walls – books, sculpture, prints and wall-hangings.
A perfect place to write…in my mind, a [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged writing dreams
By Carol Grannick on April 20, 2010
One day we feel fine, and then we don’t.
In part, that’s because we’re always changing, and our feelings come and go.
One of the ways to pull yourself back into a positive space is to reach out for help.
Recently, I began to sense my inner Medusa waking, but she wasn’t threatening writers’ block. No, it was [...]
Posted in Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged feeling overwhelmed
By Carol Grannick on April 13, 2010
If you want to stay in an upward spiral of positive emotion, or need to nip a negative spiral in the bud, it’s helpful to think of yourself as a hunter-gatherer, searching for and collecting events, experiences and mementos of positivity that you can pull out and use as you need them. It will create [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged creating positive emotions, Poetry
By Carol Grannick on April 6, 2010
When you welcome or tolerate them as natural responses, negative feelings pass. That’s the good news.
The bad news? Positive feelings pass, too! And since positive emotions are “lighter” than negative, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s research has shown, so far, that a 3:1 ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions is helpful in maintaining an Upward Spiral.
Which [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Barbara Fredrickson, feelings, Ph.D., Upward Spiral
By Carol Grannick on March 29, 2010
I was honored to guest post this week at Meredith Resnick’s Writers’ Inner Journey. If you mosey on over to check out the post on “Letting In The Light: Overcoming Negative Self-Talk”, I encourage you to dive into the site’s wonderful explorations of creativity. Meredith’s interviews are concise and perceptive, probing authors’ and writing professionals’ [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk
By Carol Grannick on March 23, 2010
When writers share their struggles with staying resilient and persevering on the writing journey, it helps us all. This is the first of The Irrepressible Writer interviews with writers published, unpublished, known and unknown.
Here, a Houston-based critique group, Will Write For Cake generously shares their thoughts, feelings, struggles and tools for maintaining resilience. First, meet [...]
Posted in Interviews: Resilience At Work | Tagged critique groups, writers' resilience