Persist
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
2d ago
What My Heroes Taught Me about Writing: Wang Zhenyi by Rochelle Melander It’s made to believe, Women are the same as Men; Are you not convinced, Daughters can also be heroic? — Wang Zhenyi Wang Zhenyi (1768-1797), a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, textbook writer, and poet, lived at a time when women had no legal rights and were rarely educated. Largely self-taught, Zhenyi took complicated mathematical and astronomical events and wrote books that students could understand, opening up new worlds for ordinary people. She was prolific writer, writing at least 12 books as well as academic art ..read more
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How to Overcome the Fear of Failure
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
1w ago
by Rochelle Melander I’m teaching art and writing at a local school. When I present an assignment, one of my second-grade students always says, “I can’t.” It doesn’t matter what we’re doing. Draw a circle. “I can’t.” Give that circle a face. “I can’t.” How about drawing hair on that head? “I can’t.” To encourage him, I said, “There is no can’t. There’s only try.” He looked at me, puzzled. I used different words. “Try drawing hair. If it doesn’t work the first time, you can try again.” He tried. It worked. Whew. The artist Corita Kent said, “Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fa ..read more
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Navigating Fallow Time
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
2w ago
by Rochelle Melander It’s important to stand still sometimes. Think of it as a little rest in the long journey of your life. This is your harbor. And your boat is just dropping anchor here for a little while. And after you’re well rested, you can set sail again. –Satoshi Yagisawa, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop We all need fallow time: the space between projects when we search for a new idea. But sometimes we don’t choose the idle periods. Instead, something happens to us—and we can’t write. We get sick. We experience a life crisis or transition. We get busy with work or volunteer duties ..read more
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What My Heroes Taught Me about Writing: Florence Nightingale
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
3w ago
by Rochelle Melander “I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.” ~ Florence Nightingale Happy Women’s History Month! To celebrate, I’ll be writing about some of my favorite heroes and how they can teach you about writing. Today’s tip features Florence Nightingale. I’m so impressed by her innovative ways of sharing information—she inspires me to try new things. Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. In her book, Notes on Nursing, she presente ..read more
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Boost Your Creativity
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
1M ago
by Rochelle Melander Creativity is just connecting things. -Steve Jobs I’m taking a Poetry class this winter with Pomelo books. Our task: to take a subject we know a lot about and write a funny poem using a skill like alliteration, idioms, or synonyms. The challenge has been great fun. It also provided me with an idea to spice up my regular writing. I’m hoping it will help you, too. It’s easy to get bored when writing about the same thing repeatedly. To make it interesting, try this writing exercise. Step One. Make a list of three to five of your most common topics. My list includes produc ..read more
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What My Heroes Taught Me about Writing: Sojourner Truth
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
1M ago
by Rochelle Melander Ninety years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, Sojourner Truth refused to get off a streetcar in Washington, D.C. In 1865, a conductor dislocated Truth’s arm when he tried to toss her off. Truth sued the District of Columbia and won. The conductor lost his job, and the company had to enforce DC’s desegregation law. Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write. In defiance of the popular anti-slavery narratives that equated literacy with freedom, Truth refused to learn. She preferred the spoken word. Still, Truth could not escape the popularity of ..read more
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The 100-Day Project
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
1M ago
by Rochelle Melander I’m always looking for something to spark my creativity and help me think differently about writing. When I happened across the 100-day project this past week, I felt that little zing: perhaps this could be it. Perhaps this could be the thing that helps writers get out of a slump. Read on to learn what it is and how to make it work for you. What it is Starting February 18, 2024, artists commit to doing something daily for 100 consecutive days. The creative task should take 5 to 15 minutes. Many participants share their work on Instagram with the hashtag #the100dayProjec ..read more
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Conquer the Fear of Failure
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
1M ago
by Rochelle Melander “Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.” —Corita Kent On NPR’s Morning Edition, A Martínez interviewed members of The Groundlings, a Los Angeles-based improv and sketch comedy troupe. Michael Churven said this about the process, “You bomb so much, and your best teacher is your last bomb. I’ve never learned so much as when I failed miserably on the stage, ’cause you learn firstly to just let it go, which I think is a key ingredient. And secondly, it forces you to think, OK, what was missing in that sketch?” Wow. Instead of fearing failure ..read more
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Take Smaller Steps
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
2M ago
by Rochelle Melander Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. – Vincent VanGogh I’ve got a house full of stuff. Some I collected, some I inherited, some my children left behind. It overwhelms me. When I think about decluttering, and I think about that a lot, I feel overwhelmed. This year a friend recommended I download the decluttering calendar created by Taylor Flanery of Home Storage Solutions. Each day, the author recommends a different decluttering project. We start the year in the kitchen, tossing outdated food and organizing pots and pan ..read more
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How to Write When You’re Scared
Write Now Coach!
by Rochelle Melander
2M ago
by Rochelle Melander How do you write when you’re scared? You want to write, but you’re scared it won’t be good enough. Maybe examining your own thoughts seems like too much. Or your project is new and big and feels overwhelming. So you avoid writing. You get busy with other things. A week goes by. Then two. And you don’t write. The longer you avoid it, the harder it gets. I see this with the young people I teach. When a project seems hard or scary, they freeze. They look at the paper but won’t draw a thing. When I can get them to tell me what’s up, I hear things like, “I don’t know how. I ..read more
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