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I know there is abook in you!

ByDaniel Sonkin, Ph.D.

www.danielsonkin.comcontact@danielsonkin.com

(415) 332-6703

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Why Me?

Author of 8 non-fiction booksCurrently completing another

non-fiction bookCurrently completing first novelAuthor of numerous articles and

book chapters. Last minute cancellation! I have trouble saying no to new

opportunities.

My day job! Licensed MFT since 1981 Individuals and couples

Forensic consultantDeath PenaltyDomestic Violence

Organizational consultantCatholic Church

Clinical SupervisorVarious Agencies

Faculty and SpeakerSSU - 1994-2004

My Night Job

Husband FatherSonBrother FriendPatientPet ownerWriter

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My Path to Writing

Under-achiever in high-schoolArtist in collegePre-med to psychologyNot a reader, but loved movies,

music, photography.Started to read before I wrote.My first book was not intended

to be a book.

What Can You Write?

Non-fiction tradeNon-fiction academicNovelMemoir / autobiographyBook chapterArticleJournal

What do you want to write?

What’s your passion,inspiration?

What’s your mission - whatdo you want to say?

What do you know? Writewhat you know!

Hero’s/Heroine’s Journey

The callingFrom within or without

The leavingSpirit guide

The courageous actFaced with challenge of enormous

proportionsThe returnTransformation / change

Leaving and Returning

Obstacles to Writing

AnxietyInsecurityDepressionTimeEncouragementGetting publishedOther ideas?

Overcoming Anxiety

Write early and often Imagine a sympathetic audience Love yourself and your work Nothing is junk or a wasteWrite what you know Become a more whole personWrite in small pieces Organize and outline Capture ideas - observe your world Get help

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What is Your Block?

Groups of 4-6One note-takerWhat are your personal

obstacles to writing?What has helped you in the

past either to write oraccomplish other difficulttasks?

Anna Quindlin

“People have writer’s block notbecause they can’t write, butbecause they despair of writingeloquently.”

Stephen King

If we think of ourselves as laborers,as craftsmen, itﾕs easier to sit downand write. We’re just putting wordson the page, after all, one besideanother, as a bricklayer puts downbricks. At the end of the day, weﾕrejust creating things -- stories, poems,or plays -- only we use vocabularyand grammar instead of bricks andmortar.”

Take Your Time

Writer's block could be a signthat your ideas need time togestate. Idleness can be a keypart of the creative process.Give yourself time to gathernew experiences and new ideas,from life, reading, or otherforms of art, before you startagain.

Set and Keep Deadlines

Many writers, understandably,have trouble doing this on theirown. You might find a writingpartner and agree to hold eachother to deadlines in anencouraging, non-critical way.Knowing that someone else isexpecting results helps manywriters produce material.Writing groups or classes areanother good way to jump-starta writing routine.

What’s behind theBlock?

Write about your anxietiesregarding writing or creativity.Talk to a friend, preferably onewho writes. A number of books,such as The Artistﾕs Way, aredesigned to help creative peopleexplore the root causes of theirblocks.

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Brenda Ueland

“It is so conceited and timidto be ashamed of one'smistakes. Of course theyare mistakes. Go on to thenext.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The reason one writes isn't thefact he wants to say something.He writes because he hassomething to say.”

Anne Lamott

“We are a species that needsand wants to understand whowe are. Sheep lice do not seemto share this longing, which isone reason why they write solittle.”

Susan Sontag

“Reading usually precedeswriting and the impulse to writeis almost always fired byreading. Reading, the love ofreading, is what makes youdream of becoming a writer.”

Brenda Ueland

“I learned that you should feelwhen writing, not like Lord Byronon a mountain top, but like achild stringing beads inkindergarten - happy, absorbedand quietly putting one bead onafter another.”

Writing is Hell!

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George Orwell

“All writers are vain, selfish and lazy,and at the very bottom of theirmotives lies a mystery. Writing abook is a long, exhausting struggle,like a long bout of some painfulillness. One would never undertakesuch a thing if one were not drivenby some demon whom one canneither resist nor understand.”

Hunter S. Thompson

“Writing is the flip side ofsex - it's good only when it'sover.”

Writing is Work!Ursula K. LeGuin

It is good to have an end to journeytowards; but it is the journey thatmatters in the end.

Hardly anybody ever writes anythingnice about introverts. Extroverts rule.This is rather odd when you realizethat about nineteen writers out oftwenty are introverts. We are beentaught to be ashamed of not being'outgoing'. But a writer's job isingoing.

Jane Yolen

Exercise the writing muscleevery day, even if it is only aletter, notes, a title list, acharacter sketch, a journalentry. Writers are like dancers,like athletes. Without thatexercise, the muscles seize up.

Writing & Rejection

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J.K. Rowling

“This is really where I turned my lifearound completely. My life changedso much in this flat. I feel I reallybecame myself here. Everything wasstripped away. I’d made such a messof things. I just thought I want towrite so I wrote the book. What wasthe worst that could happen? It couldget turned down by every publisher inBritain. Big deal.”

Writing & Money

Melissa Scott Writing isn't generally a lucrative source of

income; only a few, exceptional writers reachthe income levels associated with the best-sellers. Rather, most of us write because wecan make a modest living, or even supplementour day jobs, doing something about which wefeel passionately. Even at the worst of times,when nothing goes right, when the prose isclumsy and the ideas feel stale, at least we'redoing something that we genuinely love.There's no other reason to work this hard,except that love.

Final Thoughts

Raymond Chandler: When in doubt,have a man come through the doorwith a gun in his hand.

Ellen Datlow: Never throw up on aneditor.

If you think that something smallcannot make a difference, try goingto sleep with a mosquito in the room.

Lillian Hellman

They're fancy talkers aboutthemselves, writers. If I had togive young writers advice, Iwould say don't listen to writerstalk about writing or themselves.

Your Ideas / Questions

Ideas you want to put outfor support.

Problems you might beexperiencing on a currentproject.

What would the first stepsbe to starting your project?

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My Favorite Books on Writing

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions onWriting and Life by Anne Lamott

On Writing by Stephen King If You Want to Write: A Book about

Art, Independence and Spirit byBrenda Ueland

The Writer's Way by Jack Rawlins andStephen Metzger

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing theWriter Within by Natalie Goldberg.

Favorite Books

Writers Dreaming by Naomi EpelThe Art of Fiction by Any RandStory-crafting by Paul BolesWhat if? Writing Exercises for

Fiction Writers by AnnerBernays.

Bluebook of Grammar by JaneStraus.

Elements of Style by WilliamStrunk.