Do you have a writing project you want to begin?

Join Our Writer’s Community

Whatever your project—a book, essays, a memoir, short story, novel, nonfiction or creative nonfiction—joining a community of committed writers is “brilliant,” to quote one of my writing teachers.

Please join our community in order to get started, propel ideas out of your head and onto paper (or the computer), fuel the fires of creativity, create momentum, stick with it, get and give feedback and encouragement, be part of a creative community, handle the internal demons and find your voice. A support group will provide a safe place, a structure for fulfilling your goals, accountability, inspiration.

Chase the winter blahs away. Hot coffee/tea. Hot writing. Cozy up with us this winter and before you know it Spring will be here and your writing will be blossoming.

Facilitated by Robin A. Sheerer

Robin is an award-winning author (No More Blue Mondays), career and professional coach since 1981, and fellow writer. Her first published short story appeared in ChickLit Review, an online journal at www.chicklitreview.org.

Dates & Details

Dates:

Jan. 23, Feb. 13, March 5, March26, April 16, May 7, June 4

Times:

Monday evenings 6:30 to 9:30pm

Location:

300 Maple, #3, Oak Park, IL

Fee:

$300. Full payment or deposit required by Jan. 10 to reserve. Full balance due on Feb. 10.

To register:

Call 708-524-4850 or send email careereneterprises@gmail.com

Related posts:

1. We write for love…
2. About writing, Part I.
3. Part II. More about writing…

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make our end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”
-T.S. Eliot

Here we are again, ending another year. A perfect time to put closure to the past. A perfect time to dream and a perfect time to create an inspiring future. Please join me in January, 2012 for the annual Endings and Beginnings workshop.

Put 2011 into the past—let go of disappointments, tie up loose ends, and celebrate accomplishments. Then, with newly created physical and emotional space, move freely into the future, filled with energy and enthusiasm and open to exciting new challenges.

Over two sessions early in the New Year, you will:
• Clear your mind, not just your desk
• Learn techniques to simplify your life
• Complete unfinished business
• Create space for new projects
• Add zest to your life
• Focus on the future rather than the past
• Set heart-based goals that inspire you
• Create a visual reminder of your dreams
• Generate ideas, contacts and resources
• Line up the support you need to follow through
—Robin Sheerer

Don’t miss this powerful and fun workshop—a great way
to start the New Year!

Facilitated by:
Robin A. Sheerer. A Career and Professional Development Coach, for over thirty years, Robin has worked with thousands of clients supporting them to thrive in their work and personal lives. She is an ardent devotee of this practice and does it herself every year.

Time & Place:
Dates: Two Saturday mornings, January 7th and January 28th, 2012
Time: 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Location: 300 North Maple, #3, Oak Park, Illinois
Fee: $190.00
Phone: 708-524-4850
Small group—space is limited. Register ASAP to make sure you have a space.
Call or send e-mail to: careerenterprises@gmail.com

Career Enterprises, Incorporated?300 North Maple, #3, Oak Park, Illinois
708-524-4850
www.CareerEnterprises.com

No related posts.

And then, a thoughtful client wrote that someone else had already published a book with the title I planned to use. Bummer. It felt like a major setback. For several weeks I whined and complained that I would never find another great name.

And then, rejections started coming from publishers, all of whom commented, “She doesn’t have a big enough platform.” Major, major setback. My agent finally suggested that I publish the book myself.

Talk about setbacks. I was really disappointed and close to giving up. Then, I had several great things happen. A young client whose entrepreneurial venture had failed came for coaching. He announced that he was a failure. I recognized a powerful distinction – his venture had failed, but he hadn’t. I listened to myself and realized that I had not failed, nor had my book, regardless of how the publishing industry viewed it.

The second thing that happened was that a friend read part of what I had written and gave me wonderful feedback on how to strengthen it. The last good event was that my writing buddy encouraged me to use a name I had thought about in the past and that led to my new title: Thrive! with a Vibrant Small Business and a Life You Love.

I was on fire again. I felt liberated. I threw out everything I had written in order to please the agent and/or the publishing company. My passion was unleashed and I’ve found my voice. For the first time in this whole process, I’m confident now that it will be a good book because I’m writing from a powerful place, my heart. And, I’m even excited about self-publishing.

Setbacks are often gifts in disguise, aren’t they?

No related posts.

13. People work in different ways. Some work in spurts. Some work every day. Trust your own rhythm. Just do what works for you, but have a structure in place with deadlines so that you continue moving forward.

14. The rewards of writing are primarily in the doing. Of course, it’s deeply gratifying if your work is published and you get positive feedback from your readers. Most likely your rewards will never be financial. A business book can definitely act as a great calling card or “bio,” and you may be able to increase your fees, land paid speaking engagements, or win work you wouldn’t otherwise, but the vast majority of authors rarely, I mean rarely, earn beyond a bare minimum. If we ever counted up the hours we’ve put into our writing, we would realize we’ve been paid pennies, so we don’t do it. We write for love – love of words, love of writing, love of self-expression, love of sharing and communicating, love of creating, and love of contributing. So should you.

Related posts:

1. About writing, Part I.
2. Part II. More about writing…

8. You need to read (a lot) in order to learn how to write. Books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs provide insights into structure, cadence, language, and dialogue. You’ll get ideas, inspiration, and courage.

9. Weave writing into your life. Take a notebook or journal with you everywhere. Use it standing in lines, stopped at streetlights, drinking coffee in cafes, sitting in waiting rooms, etc. And block out time in your appointment system to write or it won’t happen. Time will not just open up – you have to carve it out, dedicate it, and then keep your word and do it.

10. Have a project in front of you, instead of just writing. It’s okay if the project morphs as you go. You may end up with something entirely different when you’re done, but it gives you a goal to work towards.

11. You have to be willing to be vulnerable to write powerfully. Writing is a vulnerable act in and of itself. Putting it out into the world takes it to a whole new level. When you think about the writing that has had the most impact on you, I bet it’s been open, honest, and personally revealing. You’ll probably want yours to be too.

More about writing in Part III.

Related posts:

1. About writing, Part I.
2. We write for love…

I hired several people to help so I wouldn’t get bogged down in memories or decide I’m too tired to finish. I decided that everything I don’t need is going, going, gone. I’ve had a new insight about the importance of doing all this.

It must be because we’d been talking about integrity in my entrepreneurs’ groups that I suddenly saw there’s a connection between getting rid of stuff and having integrity in my work. I realized my basement has been a repository of the past – file cabinets with over twenty years of paper related to my business, shelves stacked with old training materials, office supplies, boxes of tax records, etc. None of it relevant to today or the future. And then, there are the things from the rest of my life – dusty decorations, bowling balls and skis, camping equipment, baking pans. I rarely change my decorations, we stopped bowling twenty years ago, and we sold our truck and trailer three years ago.

There’s a lack of authenticity about holding on to all this stuff. The truth is I’m not going to do many of the things I did in the past again, at least not in the same way. And if I do, I’ll want things to look fresh and new, not old and tired.

Because the basement is the foundation of our house, I like the thought that after The Big Clean Out, it will support the future, not the past.

“Oh my gosh, I forgot I did that,” I thought as memories rose up from the typed pages. It’s good I had someone helping or I would have been stalled by reveries. I entered a list of the companies I’ve worked with into the computer so I have a record. It helped in letting go.

I discovered that I had things in different files under different names but related to the same topic. After getting started, the project seemed to take on a life of its own. I raided closets, unearthed tons of family and vacation pictures. I dug into the basement. It was like an archeological dig. Here were my college grades, (not nearly as good as I had remembered them) along with pictures and memorabilia I thought I had lost. I carted fifty long-playing vinyl records (Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, Neil Diamond, Dionne Warwick, Jerry Butler, Isaac Hayes – a whole era” worth from my youth) to Val’s Halla and got $3.50 in return for those cherished memories. I turned ruthless and put a ton of stuff out for a patio sale and priced everything to go, making enough money for one dinner out. I donated what was left.

Out. Out. Out.

Everything feels lighter now. I can literally breathe better and have room in my mind for dreaming and creating. I have my work now instead of my work having me. There’s mental and physical space for new things to show up. It forced me to make decisions and set priorities.

Now on to cleaning out old relationships and commitments that are no longer rewarding or nurturing. Life is too short to be cowed by our stuff.

Related posts:

1. All That Stuff

2. No one cares whether you write, except you. Period. To stay with it, you have to be passionate – about the writing itself or the project you’re working on.

3. Writing is basically a solitary endeavor. Ultimately, you have to sit down and do it, alone. But, having a group of dedicated writers to meet with or a writing partner can make all the difference in sticking with it. And it probably will keep you sane and sober too, unlike all those famous writers who did themselves in.

4. The biggest problems you’ll confront as a writer are your own self-doubts, resistance, and internal criticism. Far bigger than writing itself.

5. A few great writers are born. Most are developed, through hours and hours of hard work. You need to put in your 10,000 hours as Malcolm Boyd describes in his book Outliars.

6. Thinking, musing, and talking about your writing are important parts of the writing process. Still, when it gets down to it, you have to write.

7. It’s extremely helpful to read about writing. Authors are usually generous in sharing insights and suggestions. Here are my favorites: On Writing by Steven King, Bird by Bird by Annie LaMott, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. You can improve your writing by attending classes, conferences, and workshops led by writing teachers, but if you don’t feel safe, get out of there, fast.

There’s more.

Part II next time.

Related posts:

1. We write for love…

After thirty years of coaching people on finding or creating work they love, I’m convinced that the key to happiness at work is a good fit – a good fit with the work you love, a good fit with the company, a good fit with your colleagues, and a good fit with your talents and values. Barbara has been looking for that fit for a long time.

She’s trained as a lawyer and discovered pretty quickly that a traditional job was not a good fit for her, although she did it for many years. She branched out at one point and held a marketing position in a financial corporation but still felt something was missing. For a while she worked happily for a small company that placed lawyers in temporary and nontraditional jobs and out of everything she did, she loved best helping lawyers find their right work, knowing firsthand that they can do a variety of things with a legal background.

After being riffed from this job in the wake of the recession, she’s been looking for a job for the last two years. When she heard about a job with a university helping law school graduates find work, she thought it would be a perfect fit for her. She interviewed at the school, loved the atmosphere, the job description, and the people who would be her colleagues but did not get an offer because they felt she was overqualified for the position. Instead, the Dean met with her afterwards and promised to help in any way he could and encouraged her to apply within the university for other jobs. He also said he would get back to her if anything changed.

It hasn’t been easy to keep her spirits up in the meantime and she’s been tempted to take a job, any job. That’s when I reminded her to hold out until she found what she wanted. She wrote a job description for herself to clarify exactly what she wanted. Finally, out of the blue, she got a call from the university asking her to come in to talk again. They had created a brand new position and she was the first person they thought about. They offered her the job and she accepted.

I think it was good that she kept in touch with the Dean all along the way and used his offer of help when she explored other positions. It kept her on his mind. The job is not perfect because it’s a one-year project but it’s definitely where she wants to be and it’s the work she wants to do. It will put her in the right arena and give her the experience to move on if she has to, but I’m betting she’ll make herself indispensable. It’s worth waiting for a great fit.

No related posts.

I’m doing it. I mean it. I’m getting rid of stuff. I’m on a campaign to simplify my life. I’ve promised myself I’m going to be ruthless.

I began a major clean out in spring, 2009. Because I have my business in my home I had filled three file cabinets with paper, including one in the basement, and the floor next to my desk was piled with files. Thirty years worth of business documents I thought I should keep. I got tired just thinking about it. After a while, it became oppressive and I walked around the house muttering that paper would be the death of me.

I started going through file drawers, throwing my past life into recycle bins. I let go and let go. I was fiercely determined not to use so much paper from now on. I vowed to use the Internet to find what I need. Then I got busy. Now almost two years later, I still have too much stuff. It threatens to inundate me.

This Saturday I’m taking on the dreaded basement. It’s a nightmare. I shudder every time I walk through it to get to my car. I’m going to clear things out, box things up, throw things away, shred, and donate.

I’ll keep you posted.

No related posts.

Okay, who am I to argue with fate? Or the gods? Even the muses? So I started. If anyone had said that I’d get up at 6:00 AM on Sunday mornings to write, I wouldn’t have believed it. An interest in writing had clearly slipped over the line into a passion.

After giving birth to my first book five years later in 1999 – No More Blue Mondays/ Four Keys to Finding Fulfillment at Work – I fueled my passion by taking seven trips to the Southwest. I studied with Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones (and many other books), and attended the Taos Writers’ Conference. Sagebrush, Taos Mountain, endless vistas, cottonwoods, and swooping magpies. Sigh. My urge to write expanded to include poetry, essays, and fiction. Even Haiku.

For over fifteen years I’ve immersed myself in writing through attending writing classes and workshops, reading like crazy, and participating in a writing group. A year ago I started facilitating support groups for writers as part of my coaching business. On June 12th, I’m sponsoring a Sunday Salon in Oak Park for writers to read and raving fans to listen.  A friend suggested I put on paper what I’ve learned from these experiences about being a writer, not about how to write. I took his challenge.

Next time:  14 thoughts about writing.

No related posts.