Sharpening the Pencil: Essays on Writing, Motivation and Enjoying Your Life

By Bryan Cohen

Sharpening the Pencil: Essays on Writing, Motivation and Enjoying Your Life is a collection of essays on the subjects of time management, optimism, getting things done, long-term goals, creating your destiny, healthy living, inspiration, personal effectiveness and success in the areas of writing and creativity. The theory of the book in general is that to truly cultivate creativity, imagination and motivation, a writer needs to take control of his or her life. Author Bryan Cohen focuses on many offbeat writing-related subjects such as how to write without being inspired, being optimistic when things suck, defeating writing distractions and excuses, long-term goal setting and how to actually become creative if you're feeling drained. There are 30 essays in total that are bent on helping you to create your writing destiny through an increase in productivity, positive thinking, self-help and stress management. The book includes several writing exercises and an essay on the basics of a sense of humor in writing and life.

Author Bryan Cohen's self-help and personal development writing books have sold over 5,000 copies and his inspirational website has had over 100,000 visitors. Cohen's goal is to inspire you into action with his words so that you can be the writer you have always dreamed of. In addition, he wants you to have a fulfilling and joyful life and he hopes Sharpening the Pencil can be the first step in a lifelong, positive direction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryan Cohen
• Release date: Mar 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458040442

Bryan Cohen

Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor, director and producer who enjoys dabbling in both theatre and film. Bryan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art with a minor in Creative Writing. He has written or co-written the plays Chekhov Kegstand, Something from Nothing, Kerpow! and The Morning After. He founded the website Build Creative Writing Ideas in late 2008 and he currently serves over ten thousand users a month. Bryan is a full-time freelance writer and he currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Book preview

SHARPENING THE PENCIL:

ESSAYS ON WRITING, MOTIVATION AND ENJOYING YOUR LIFE

by

Bryan Cohen

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Bryan Cohen on Smashwords

Sharpening the Pencil:

Essays on Writing, Motivation and Enjoying Your Life

Copyright 2011 by Bryan Cohen

Discover other books by Bryan Cohen:

1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34347

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Cover image is provided courtesy of iStockPhoto.com user Alex Elman. Book cover designed by Amy Dombrower.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Writing, Life and Fear

Chapter 2: Inspiration, Motivation and Distraction

Chapter 3: The Healthy Writer

Chapter 4: Life Goals, Writing Goals

Chapter 5: Optimism, Happiness and Faith

Appendix 1: Writing Exercises

Appendix 2: For Kicks

About the Author

Introduction

If there were a simple cure for all forms of writer's block, there would be a heck of a lot more people who call themselves authors, playwrights, screenwriters and poets in this world.

Since there is no such thing as a global panacea for this condition that keeps the words from flowing out onto the page as they should, I wrote this book in an effort to address the many different causes and cures of writer's block.

In December of 2008, I officially became a blogger during a Christmas week temp assignment. While playing secretary to a large software company, I began my website, Build Creative Writing Ideas. The site was meant to be a haven for creative folk who were (like me) stifled in their writing or other creative pursuits. I had heard from brilliant happiness author Marci Shimoff that you learn 90% of what you teach, so I started reading, learning and spouting back everything I could learn about motivation, writing, happiness, health, love and anything else that could hold a creative person back from inspiration.

After two and a half years and more than 100 articles, I thought it would be fun to put some of my favorite essays into an easy to follow collection that would help struggling writers to push past fear, low energy and a lack of creativity and become what all writers strive to be...legitimate.

These essays were not written to be cohesive in any way, shape, or form, and while you can read the book straight through (bless your heart), I see it more as a buffet-style reading experience. Take a tip from the Pushing through the Fear essay and pair it with a few of the 10 Things You Can Do to Become Creative. Maybe you want to give back a bit and so you read The Power of Good and you take a point or two from the Choose Your Eulogy essay.

However you choose to experience this book, know that you aren't alone. I have helped thousands of people through my site and my classes to get their minds right and get inspired to write again. Usually, it just takes a simple tweak. There are hundreds of tweaks from cover to cover in this book, so feel free to try one or more on for size and keep adjusting until you've become the next J.K. Rowling (don't I wish :)).

Reading about writing is easy. Writing is tough. If anything in here inspires you to sharpen that pencil and start putting tip to loose leaf, use a digital dog-ear and make it happen!

Thank you so much for buying this book and I hope that it helps you out thoroughly. If you have any questions or comments about it, please visit me at the Build Creative Writing Ideas site. Happy writing!

Sincerely,

Bryan Cohen

Author of Sharpening the Pencil

LEGAL PAGE

This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to give or sell this book to anyone else.

All contents Copyright © 2011 by Bryan Cohen. All rights reserved. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Limit of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher has used its best efforts in preparing this book, and the information provided herein is provided as is. Bryan Cohen and Build Creative Writing Ideas make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. They are used throughout this book in an editorial fashion only. In addition, terms suspected of being trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks have been appropriately capitalized, although Bryan Cohen and Build Creative Writing Ideas cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark, registered trademark, or service mark. Bryan Cohen and Build Creative Writing Ideas are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Finally, use your head. Nothing in this book is intended to replace common sense, legal, medical or other professional advice, and is meant to inform and entertain the reader. So have fun with the book and happy writing!

Chapter One: Writing, Life and Fear

What is Creative Writing?

I can tell you the definition of creative writing, but it’s going to hurt. If you want to settle for the book definition, I’ll tell you where to stop.

What is creative writing?

The academic definition (to be said with a snooty British accent):

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include most novels and epics, as well as many short stories and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well. - Wikipedia

Alright, if you have gotten what you came for, feel free to exit stage right. If you are interested in getting the definition with balls, continue.

What is creative writing to me?

Creative writing is writing from the heart. It’s the real stuff that doesn’t rely on college tricks and complex sentence structure; it relies on you!

I have a Creative Writing Minor from college, so that means I must have improved my capacity for creative writing throughout my four years there. Right? Wrong.

I started out with my strongest story: a dystopia centered on malfunctioning cell phones called Hellular. It was my most ambitious work of my entire college career and it was out of my system by my freshman year. What happened then? Why didn’t I grow? I got self-conscious about how creative writing was supposed to be. It was all downhill from there.

Consciously or unconsciously, my stories began to resemble the other students’ in the class. The stories had lost their uniqueness. Or perhaps, I was dragged down by the constant rush of my normal academic life. Either way, my stories had lost their flavor. What was I missing?

I wasn’t listening to myself. I wasn’t expressing my feelings. I was writing to impress or to improve my style or to get an A. But I should have been writing to let my soul breathe a little bit.

Creative writing is an expression of who you are. If you are closed off from yourself, if you hide the person that you are for fifteen to twenty four hours per day, and if you have locked yourself in to a dream that is no longer yours, you will be hard pressed to write creatively.

My philosophy about creative writing is that in order to truly do it justice, you must become a more open person who is really able to get in touch with the raw parts of yourself. You need to remove from your life all of the things that are clogging you up emotionally, physically, and spiritually. It is only then that you can express what you are meant to.

And if you aren’t bogged down by the outside world, what should you write about? If you are oppressed, you need to write about your tyrant. If you are in pain, you need to put your pain on the page. If you are in love with all of your heart and soul, then put all of that into a poem that can be used for all of eternity. Or at least, put most of it in there. Save a little for yourself :).

So, what is creative writing? Creative writing is in you. Are you going to let it out?

Give Yourself the Gift

One of my favorite movie conceits is the concept of the Chosen One. The average regular guy or gal finding out that he or she is meant to be a hero. The problem with those movies, however, is that they can sometimes trick us into believing that we are without a life-altering gift ourselves. They world around us may make every effort to make us feel mediocre, but I’m here to tell you that it’s wrong.

In Western society, as you grow up you are trained to repress your feelings. If you cry when you skin your knee, the other kids will laugh at you. If you are excited to enter womanhood with your first period, you’re a weirdo. If you help a member of the opposite sex because you feel like it’s the right thing to do, you must like that person. The taunts and name-calling begin and never seem to go away. No wonder our adulthoods are so filled with repression and restraint.

The only way to be judged as a cool and attractive member of society is if it seems like nothing gets to you. Emotional men are labeled gay or sensitive and emotional women are labeled bitchy or hormonal. We are afraid that if we share our feelings that we will be ostracized from the herd. Our loved ones may abandon us and our co-workers and friends will avoid us. We are trained to bottle it all up, all of our heavy feelings, until they fade out of existence.

But that way is being constantly tested. So many emotional moments happen in our lives. From first kisses to horrible betrayals. Deaths, births, successes and failures. Our lives, our memories are full of these feelings. And yet, society often deems the sharing of these emotions as inappropriate.

I have found that learning to embrace these emotions, also known as giving yourself the gift to feel something, can be your power that makes you a hero.

I was a