Thinking Like a Writer: Positive Thinking

How mental attitudes might reverse the effects of old age: A conversation with Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer about her latest research on how positive thinking can improve your health.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-12-01/ellen_langer_mindfulness_and_the_power_of_thought

Website: http://www.ellenlanger.com/art/

Writing a Story

Saw this advice and really liked it. This is simple straightforward and doable.

• Give the character a problem, no matter how small. 
• When the character tries to solve the problem, make the attempt fail. 
• Make it fail in such a way that things get worse.
• Now the character has a bigger problem. 
• When the character tries to solve that one...
• ...add another try/fail cycle.
• To end the story, have your character put everything on the line in one last big try, which either succeeds or fails.

Irony Builds Character

Recently heard, Matt Bird on the Narrative Breakdown talk about how irony is central to character and storytelling. He writes, "When stories seem meaningless, it is usually because they lack irony. When stories are especially powerful, you can be certain the author has packed it full of many different types of irony. "

Morning Pages

Oliver Burkeman recently wrote in The Guardian about how he was won over to the practice of Morning Pages.

Ten Reasons to Write Short Stories Even Though the Pay is Peanuts

New article:
Ten Reasons to Write Short Stories Even Though the Pay is Peanuts

5 Alternative Sites to Visit After Triggerstreet

The great site, Triggerstreet, is being shut down. Triggerstreet has been a great place for sharing creative works (stories, screenplays, films) and getting feedback. It was set up well to make sure you had to put in an effort to provide accurate feedback, and if you wanted feedback on your stuff then you had to help others first. Sadly I learned today that it will be going off-line.

Here are some alternatives to go to:

• Zoetrope Virtual Studio Home
• Scribophile
• Critique Circle
• Script Frenzy
• SimplyScripts

7 Tools to Help Keep You Writing

Cory Mandell, who teaches screenwriting at the UCLA extension Writer's program, sent out a newsletter update with a great list of ways to charge up creativity and dive into writing.

1. Make your goals public. Set a writing schedule and send it to some friends and/or fellow writers. Promise to check in with them on a weekly basis to update them on how you're doing. Being accountable to others can go a long way in helping us stay on track.
2. Consider employing the Kurosawa Method, especially for those of you with particularly hectic schedules.
3. Try using the Breaking the Glass Exercise, it's an effective weapon in the fight against resistance and fear.
4. The Jerry Seinfeld Chain has helped many of my students stay on track.
5. If Facebook, email or some other internet siren-song is your procrastination drug of choice, you might want to try a program that limits access during scheduled writing times. I know several working writers who use the app Selfcontrol.
   
6. If you haven't read The War of Art, I'd highly recommend doing so. 
    
7. This might be a bit extreme, but I know writers who put some money on the line at stickK in order to have a tangible incentive to get those pages done.