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The Writing Life
By Carol Grannick on January 7, 2010
I have a choice to think one way or the other. The positive choice energizes me to blog, write and enjoy the day inside.
That choice – and learning how to make and benefit from that choice in an ongoing way – is what The Irrepressible Writer is all about.
Posted in Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, Positivity for Writers, Resilient Writers, The Writing Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Learned Optimism, positive emotions, positivity, writers' obstacles, writers' resilience
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 Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, Positivity for Writers, The Writing Life | Tagged Learned Optimism, Martin Seligman, positive attitude, writer's block
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 Emotional Life Of Writers, rejection, Resilient Writers, The Writing Life | Tagged resilience, 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 Emotional Life Of Writers, Resilient Writers, The Writing Life | Tagged Time to write
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 Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, Positivity for Writers, Resilient Writers, The Writing Life | Tagged Barbara Fredrickson, writer's 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 Emotional Life Of Writers, Loss of parent, revision, The Writing Life | Tagged Loss of parent, 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 Gratitude, The Writing Life, Uncategorized | 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 Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, The Writing Life | Tagged adversity, disputing thoughts, Learned Optimism
By Carol Grannick on November 12, 2009
Any journey towards change is also a journey away from where you’ve been, whether it’s a decision to work towards more positivity in your responses to the ups and downs of the writing life, or sit down with a work-in-progress to revise or do necessary research.
Every time you begin to work at something, you begin again. There are first [...]
Posted in Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, The Writing Life | Tagged change
By Carol Grannick on November 11, 2009
One thing I know: making deliberate changes in yourself in a profound and permanent way can feel unnatural, fraudulent or strange.
The process of change is erratic, and requires tremendous compassion and patience.
I believe deeply in the capacity for change. We know now that the human brain is capable of constant growth. And alongside it, the human spirit.
I’m invested in helping writers [...]
Posted in Emotional Life Of Writers, Learned Optimism, The Writing Life | Tagged process of change, writers' lives
