Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 7

Nurture your inner child

Or outer. Or through-er. Wherever your child resides, remember to nurture it.

We’re all still children. And most of the time we conveniently forget about it and try living like adults, forgetting to enjoy life in the moment, to wonder, to stare at the clouds.

To simply be.

If you structure your life to death—and if you structure your writing to death—the child within you will rebel. 

You’ll wonder why your creativity has dried up. 

You’ll wonder why you’re blocked. 

You’ll wonder what you need to...

How coachable are you?

The more writers I meet, and the more patrons join us, the more I see how some writers are coachable, and other aren't. No amount of trying hard to teach them all I know results in any kind of progress, and only recently did I understand that it's not my fault. 

There are people who are willing to change. And there are people who are not.

There are people who have been through hard times in their lives and who have matured enough to see that it's not the world that's been mean to them, and tha...

You don’t need a path to follow your path

You're so afraid you're somehow doing it wrong—when you first set out to write.

You make sure you read all the books on writing you can possibly read.

You make sure you emulate as many of your favorite writers as possible.

You make sure you talk to all the people who have writing experience.

You make sure to prepare before you start writing anything.

You make sure you make sure you make sure...

You want to make sure you follow the right path.

But you don't need a path to follow your path. You simpl...

Take a leap

It's the hardest thing to do: to begin.

TAKE A LEAP.

Take a leap of faith and start writing.

There are all of us waiting to catch you, in case you fall down awkwardly. We won't let you get hurt. We've been through this—we've taken the leap—and just like we'll do for you now, other writers supported us back when we dared to do it.

Because we're all in it together.

So take a leap.

Begin.

We're waiting for your book. We can't wait to read it.

Illustration by Laura Stoddart 

It doesn’t get easier, you just get better at it

In case you thought you're alone struggling with the whole writing process getting easier. I've got news for you. It doesn't. 

Every book is different. And every year your life is different. Hell, every month even. Every week. Every day. You forget things. Your attention shifts to something else. Your goals get a makeover.

However, there is hope for you (just as there is hope for all of us).

By consistently practicing your craft you get better at it. 

It's just as hard to write your 7th books as...

Take a day to do things twice as slow

I call it "My Mindfulness Day" and for me it's every Sunday. This is pretty recent, and it's coinciding with my daily meditation practice.

You can call it whatever you want, maybe a "Slow Day," but you absolutely MUST start having one once a week NOW.

I don't mean some day, when you think you'll have time.

YOU DON'T HAVE TIME. ALL YOU HAVE IS NOW.

We rush and run like crazy through our lives, without realizing that life is happening right now, not in some distant future and not in some distant p...

Imagine yourself dead often

Every day, if you can stomach it. 

Why?

Because it will remind you that you are all of us, and all of us are you. 

There was a time before you existed, and there will be a time after you existed. Life will continue without you as it was happening before you. You’re nothing and everything at the same time.

So is your writing. 

It’ll happen or it won’t happen, and the choice is yours. The world will continue with it or without it.

The question is: what do you want to do with your time in between you...

College education is dead

You're better off educating yourself with the help of books and YouTube videos of folks who have done it and done it well, as opposed to spending your money on going to college and studying how to write.

I get asked this question quite often: “Did you study how to write?”

Nope.

I also get asked this question quite often: ‘Do you think I should go study how to write?”

Nope.

I think you should learn how to write by writing.

End of story.

Illustration by Musketon 

Commit to life-long learning

It's the only way to get better. THE ONLY WAY. As the great Lenin said, "Learn, learn, and learn." 

I know, I know! Couldn't help it...

But seriously. Think about the time you spend every day on your craft. There goes your life, day by day, and what you do every day accumulates into years and decades.

Malcolm Gladwell calculated that to get good at anything takes about 10,000 hours. 

And I'm telling you, that in addition to that, to continue getting good at anything, including writing, is to not...

Instead of isolation seek cooperation

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm the one who always tells you, "Be alone to create!" This is different, however. This is something about debunking the myth that it takes one person to write a book.

It takes a village.

Yes, you'll need a lot of "alone" time to write it, but you can't write it in isolation. You'll be talking to people about it, you'll need an editor, a proofreader, you'll reach out to friends and family for beta reading, to give you feedback. And so on.

Above all, you'll need to build you...