Análisis de los vínculos internos en los colectivos juveniles

ideally, you’ve deduced the cause of your writer’s block and are ready to choose your perfect prescription. Even if you’re on deadline and desperately looking for a quick fix, one of these cures just might do the trick. Experiment. What might seem gimmicky to you now will seem 100 percent godsend if it works for you right at the buzzer.

1. figHt negative WitH Positive

“the first thing you want to do is identify the inner voice who talks to you all the time—the voice that fills you with criticism, self-doubt, and negativity,” says rachel Ballon, PhD, the founder/director of the Writer’s Center in Los Angeles and a psychotherapist who has coached hundreds of writers on their personal and professional issues. “realize the voice isn’t telling the truth, and take away its power to block you when you start writing.”

Ballon suggests creating a list of positive statements about yourself as a writer and reading them until you memorize them. “Use these positive statements to silence the inner critic as soon as it starts. [it] really works if you read your positive affirmations for twenty-one days—every morning when you wake up and every evening before going to sleep.”

2. reLax

Clear your mind in six calming breaths, each consisting of five slow seconds in through your nose and five slow seconds out from your mouth. During each exhalation, gently place the tip of your tongue onto the roof of your mouth, right behind your front teeth.

Are you doing it right? Yes, because any way you do it that feels comfortable is right.

the main thing is to focus on nothing but your breathing. if your mind wanders, don’t worry. Just notice it, and bring yourself back to focusing on your breaths. it’s one min-ute of meditation to help silence those inner critics.

3. get gratified

instead of reaching for the pint of Vanilla Swiss Almond Häagen-Dazs, seek gratification from a market that publishes short, swift pieces to write—fillers, jokes, postcards, short-short stories, letters to the editor, etc. Online markets are particularly quick in their

turn-arounds, usually moving to “press” far faster than print publications, and they often run short pieces to spare readers from having to continuously scroll down the page.

to make your task less daunting still, you could even consider writing something for a publication that doesn’t pay. “real writers don’t write for free” is a limiting myth, according to Jenna glatzer, author of Outwitting Writer’s Block and Other Problems of the Pen. glatzer understands the logic of not devaluing the industry, but knows it’s not so black and white. “i’ve written for national magazines, books, and major anthologies, and i still write for free sometimes ... i do it when i particularly want to support a publi-cation that can’t afford to pay, or when i’ll get valuable publicity from my efforts.”

Writing for free could just be the trick you need to break into the industry and to break through any block you may be experiencing from those marketplace blues.

4. freeWrite

Whether it’s a grocery list or your favorite writing prompt, anything that gets you writ-ing is a good thwrit-ing. if you haven’t yet acquired a favorite writwrit-ing prompt, fear not. the editors of Writer’s Digest magazine have prepared 365 “idea joggers and brain starters to get your writing going.” Visit www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp for a new prompt every day, as well as access to all the previous prompts you may have missed.

5. start in tHe MiddLe

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick points out “writer’s block occurs most frequently at the very top of one’s work.” Mushnick goes on to say, “Lose that tortured lead you were labor-ing over—it probably wasn’t any good, anyway—and write it straight. Halfway through the piece it’ll come to you—and it’ll better rhyme with what you were after when you began.”

6. Write BadLy

i’m serious about this. Write badly, really badly—a first draft with run-on sentences, inco-herent dialogue, typos, and ludicrous plot twists. Let it be the worst first draft you’ve ever written because it doesn’t matter. According to Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, the only thing that matters about a first draft is that you finish it. She says, “All bad writing leads to good writing.” i know this advice sounds traumatic to perfectionists like me, but Lamott’s rationale is sound. no one ever sees this first draft, and it enables you to get your raw ideas down on paper where they can be tweaked. Plus, let’s be honest, it lets you actually finish something. it’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

7. aLLoW More tiMe

i know, easier said than done, but your schedule will even out. time allowed for pres-sure-free prewriting, brainstorming, bad drafts, and small goals will save you time previ-ously spent staring at the screen or otherwise fearfully procrastinating.

8. read

“One thing i do to get my creative juices flowing is to read,” says professional writer Bar-bra Annino. “i read a favorite book or something about the topic i plan to write about.”

there are also many self-help books dedicated to overcoming writer’s block. in ad-dition to the aforementioned resources, consider Heather Sellers’s Page After Page, which helps writers push through writer’s block for both the sake of the stymied composition at hand and for the potentially successful career at risk. “ninety percent of beginning writers stop practicing their craft before they have a chance to discover their talents,” says Sellers.

9. cHange suBjects or genres

“i don’t necessarily believe in writer’s block. However, subject block is another matter,”

says thomas nixon, a writer, academic counselor, and author of Bears’ Guide to Earning High School Diplomas Nontraditionally. “if i find i can’t write about what i’m writing about, i work on my next book for a while. Still writing, still making progress, but using differ-ent information from my brain. Often, giving the other writing time to germinate will result in progress on both my book and the article.” Working with multiple subjects and genres can help you find the writing that flows naturally from you.

10. exercise

Ernest Hemingway was an advocate of exercise. He’s quoted as saying, “it is better to pro-duce half as much, get plenty of exercise, and not go crazy than to speed up so that your head is hardly normal.” A ten-minute walk can get your blood flowing and, often, your ideas. Fol-lowing Hemingway’s advice, professional writer Amanda Castleman suggests taking a two-minute workout. “When fidgeting with a phrase, i sometimes crank out a few push-ups to get the blood flowing. Yoga postures also help, if i’m feeling less Hemingway-esque.”

11. Break froM forcing it

Castleman also says to give yourself as many breaks as you need until it’s absolutely neces-sary to work. “i once was pottering about, procrastinating on deadline, when i bumped into two architect friends. One ordered me to ‘stick my butt in a chair and produce.’ the other (more successful) architect said, ‘You’re a professional. You know you’ll get the work done, brilliantly, under last-minute pressure. So you might as well relax and enjoy yourself guilt-free, until the adrenaline kicks in. that’s what i do.’ the advice has proved invaluable.”

taking breaks is also a good way to treat yourself to nonwriting activities you enjoy, and to help you recognize yourself as a person as opposed to just a writer. this distinc-tion is vital to staving off those “marketplace blues” mendistinc-tioned earlier. Holl says, “re-member to keep your professional distance and separate yourself from your script, so when your writing is rejected, you just keep on writing no matter what happens.”

12. set a deadLine

Set a deadline, or have a stern friend set one, and stick to it. Finish. Put a period some-where, and call it the ending. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, says, “All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.” instead of being envious, be audacious. Be brave and be done with whatever piece is stressing you and then move on to your next piece. the more you write, the faster you’ll be at recognizing and remedying writer’s block.

whaT To know BEFORE