Historical and speculative novelist K.M. Weiland's newest release is the CD Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration. This hour-long recording, gathered from her most popular posts from her blog, Wordplay: Helping Writers become Authors and her contributions to AuthorCulture contains her thoughts on the writing process and what she has learned as she has travelled down her writing road.
The CD is composed of 14 different tracks. only two of which are more than five minutes in length, making it easy to listen to and absorb without feeling overwhelmed or swamped with new concepts.
The first half of the CD exhorts writers to celebrate their innate creativity and gives tips on how to access that creativity rather than waiting for it to come to you. K.M. gives easily understood ideas and peppers her own experience with quotes from well-known authors talking about similar issues.
I particularly enjoyed her practical approach to combating writer's block with several sure-to-work tips to get the writing reflowing. Although she admits she sees writer's block as more of a mythical bogey man than a true phenomena, she does concede every writer comes up against a wall somewhere during the writing process. K.M. explores the roles self-doubt and procrastination have in writer's block materializing and offers ideas on how to avoid these pitfalls.
K.M. spends the last few tracks giving suggestions on how to improve your writing life; whether it be by playing music, writing longhand or paying attention to your non-writing life. The last track,"Writing with Joy" is her synopsis of the writing life and her belief that writers must cherish the joys of writing as a way of combating the inevitable lows.
I enjoyed listening to K.M.'s practical approach to writing and its stumbling-blocks. Her delivery is smooth and easily understood and her use of different pitches and pace fluctuation is laudable. This is a CD I would recommend for any writer who is stuck in the middle of a project; I feel sure one of K.M.'s ideas will get them back on the road.
Thanks for the review and information about this CD. Very helpful.
ReplyDeleteCarol; I'm glad you found it helpful. I found it full of very common sense ideas.
ReplyDeleteElspeth - Thank you for this!!!!!! This is a resource I hadn't heard of before, but it sounds really interesting and for me - quite timely :-)
ReplyDeleteI tweet a lot of posts from her blog--she's got a lot of good ideas. I didn't know about her CD...thanks for posting on it!
ReplyDeleteWow, I need to check that out. I've been feeling a little blocked lately.
ReplyDeleteMargot; Check it out! I found it very interesting.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth; She does have great ideas, doesn't she?
Stephanie; I'd recommend it.
Thanks for the review! Her blog is very easy to read as well.
ReplyDeleteLaura; Isn't it? I enjoy reading it. It's a great resource.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the introduction to KM and the review. I need to start following her blog.
ReplyDelete