I have 7 strategies to combat writer’s block.
“Don’t waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Whenever I really feel writer’s block setting in, this is how I end up feeling like something is out of balance in my head. It feels like my ability to string words together in coherent sentences or stanzas has fled out the window.
Writer’s block often ends up relating to procrastinating in some capacity. One of the wisest things I’ve ever read is that procrastination usually isn’t done because a person is lazy—it’s because they feel blocked up or a strong urge to…
You have to dig deep in the details of your own story
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ― Stephen King
Reading just as much as you write, if not a lot more, is essential to your growth as a writer. It doesn’t matter what kind of writer you are; playwrights need to practice as much as poets and web content writers.
The more you read, the more you can understand the nuance of writing your genre well. You can also get a better understanding of what your prospective genre’s market is looking for.
As a writer, you…
As a child, I sat down in front of PrintShop and decided I was going to make logos for my novels.
Going way back to the early 2000s, computers actually weren’t in every household where I grew up. It’s hard to imagine that today. I grew up in a small town with a population of less than 2000 people. My little home in the flood zones of southern New Jersey met the criteria for every interpretation of “backwater town.”
My family purchased their first computer when I was eight. I was already a fledgling nerd at that point, obsessed with video games and anime. Since that wasn’t exactly the norm and there wasn’t a single child in my hometown within five…
I’m eager to follow the proper process and see what I can create.
As a writer and editor, I’ve been observing a lot of issues in the traditional publishing industry for quite a few years. It’s hard for fiction authors to query agents, but it’s equally hard to self-publish a book and market it effectively. On the reader side, avid bookworms have a hard time finding enough time to read. On top of that, extremely voracious readers, who read 5 to 10 books a month, have a hard time sticking to their personal book budgets.
These are just a few of the issues that inspired me to try and fix them. Back in…
I’ve always been a little too afraid to dip my toe into the world of 3D modeling.
Behold; I’d like to introduce you to Sparky, my very blocky cat modeled in Maya.
My first impression upon opening Maya was that the amount of toolbars makes it look like roughly six programs cozied up together into one.
Maya has an incredible amount of features, but it does have a steep learning curve.
I felt strangely powerful when creating shapes in Maya. However, I also found myself a bit haunted by how much simpler it is to draw things.
After struggling a bit to get the hang of navigating the menus and things like object mode, I figured out…
This past week, I had a delightful evening on Zoom.
Like many people, having been in this pandemic for nearly a year, I’ve been reaching the point of noteworthy Zoom fatigue. I’ll typically spend anywhere from three to eight hours on Zoom per day between my job and grad school.
Even though I’ve gotten a little more selective about optional Zoom engagements, I had a happy hour with two previous coworkers of mine on Friday. It was an ordinary enough evening of catching up over wine, but I had a moment of feeling particularly grateful when I thought about what we were doing.
People often say that facing opposition together makes people bond the most strongly.
I’ve had a surprising amount of different…
In many ways, social VR blurs the lines between being in-person and being in VR.
Reading formal research on avatars and self-presentation online is a little mindblowing for me. Growing up in the 90s in a town with a population of around 1,600 at the time, I found it hard to find common ground with anyone in my area. I was a nerd through and through — I loved anime, manga, Japanese video games, writing, and art. My library did have an anime club that met once a month, but most of the attendees were a fair bit older than I was.
That led me to the internet of the early 2000s to make friends…
My old neighbors made Ned Flanders seem like the perfect neighbor.
“Beginning and committing to a dream interpretation practice is one of the best gifts anyone can give themselves. This is truly the greatest guidance anyone could ask for.”
― Teresa Decicco
There are a lot of different theories about why we dream and what’s happening on the subconscious level. I put a lot of faith in the information-processing theory, which is one of the big theories in psychology that tries to explain why we dream.
This theory states that one of the main explanations for why we sleep is that “slumber allows us to consolidate and process all of the…
I created a retelling of “The Rose” by the Brothers Grimm with just simple shapes and three colors.
As a designer, it’s vital to know how shape and color impact the things we create. It’s so easy to use something that isn’t suitable just because of a misinterpretation of a certain color, shape, or composition.
I was excited by the prospect of bringing a fairytale to life with simple shapes since it feels like the perfect way to apply something simple to much more complicated ideas. I’m fascinated by visual and interactive storytelling. …
As I’m embarking on a calendar of social VR events, I’m discovering a significant limitation.
Once upon a time in a small town far away, I balked in movies when normal people said they had calendars. Now that I work and attend grad school in NYC, I can safely say my life would fall to pieces if it wasn’t for my calendar.
As a part of learning about social VR, firsthand engagement in social VR situations is undoubtedly important. Subsequently, I’ve set up a calendar to document all of my social VR interactions. I’ve nicknamed it my Social Calendar of Nerdery.
Leigh Fisher
Writer and poet from Neptune. Instructional designer in NYC. Grad student at @NYUTandon studying Integrated Digital Media.
