I haven't been writing my blogs lately. Twitter seems to be taking over the need to do a lot of blog posts for me. But recently Suzanne Gundersen, an inner story coach and founder of Screenwritetnow.com, interviewed me for her youtube posts on screenwriting. I was so impressed with how she helped writers, I knew I had to do a blog post on her. So here's who she is and how she may be just what you need to become a better writer.
How she helps writers
Suzanne helps writers destress and naturally get focused, build confidence, and deepen their world view into wisdom and truth. That way they can be in alignment with who they are to hook their audience. The three areas she helps:
1. Helps them to get focused, to get into alignment with inspiration, so they can access creativity. She helps them clear distractions so they can get into their own natural rhythm and flow.
2. Helps them to build their own worthiness. For a lot of writers they are actually writing themselves through their own stories. So she helps them build confidence so they can share their writing with other people, be true to themselves, and know their value so they can express it out into the world.
3. Helps writers deepen their emotional goal post. A lot of writers submit a script to many contests and can't understand why it's not advancing. Or they can't narrow down how many characters they have in a script. She helps writers go through life experiences in their past, or the symptom of their limitations in their writing, and clear unresolved memories, to connect with their own vulnerabilities. Once they do that and process them using her techniques, the emotional traumas are dealt with much more peacefully. This helps their writing deepen because they've done the emotional work, so they can really grab their audience.
What kind of distractions are there that she works through with writers?
- Personal
- Professional
- Creative
Symptoms of distactions can turn into feeling like:
- You can't write
- The writing is flat
- You have many projects and don't know which one is most important
- And many others!
Sloppy thinking and how that affects writers
We sometimes allow the world to influence us and that puts us in reactive mode instead of getting ahead of that so that we can respond with the choice to say on a busy day, today isn't the day I'm going to write, but tomorrow I will. Maybe today is a chore day and by doing that, we don't feel guilty when we have a non-writing day on purpose. That gives us peace of mind so we're not distracted by the pressure we put on ourselves. Then when we sit down to write, we're more present in our body then we can push noise out that would keep us from not being our most focused selves to get the best pages out.
What is the disciplined writer?
It's a writer who knows how to get focused, clear out the distractions, so even if there are any, they don't stop your writing. This writer is connected with their creativity. But without the right tools, most writers sit down and then can't focus and don't know why they can't write. Many writers sit down to write, but the writing doesn't flow and that causes more panic, which keeps the writing from flowing even more. It can be a vicious cycle.
Being an in alignment writer
What does it mean to be in alignment? Being able to clear out distractions and be focused with creativity. These writers are able to connect with inspiration on command and the voice with which they want to write in.
A sloppy thinker writer
This writer can maybe write one sentence at a time, or one scene, then stops after that because they don't have the discipline of being able to keep in alignment with themselves. They allow external forces to break their focus. So if you are this kind of writer, what are you to do to become a writer in alignment?
Energy tapping technique
This is a self-used acupressure technique that shifts your experience of stress in your body, your emotions and your thoughts. When you tap on certain points it sends a calming message to your brain, that it's okay to calm down, and relaxes the body. It harmonizes the brain and body so they are more integrated. Because when we're stressed, our mind is not focused. Tapping allows whatever you are stressed about, maybe blank screen syndrome, or "I don't believe in my work", "I can't write", whatever it is, then you can take that information and tap on those exact words you're thinking, (using your fingertips to tap on specific energy points of the body) and the tapping releases that fear. It sends a message to the brain that you're really safe, conscious or unconscious. In those calm moments, we can connect with the higher levels of the brain which stores the creative, imaginative thinking.
How our energy affects writing
Think of our energy flowing in a figure eight. If we as writers have any stress, anything that feels stuck, it's like a clog in the pipe that won't let our creativity flow. When you're tapping, you're opening that clog. It calms the mind and the body, and you can get out of the tornado of your own stress, so you can get to the peace and connect with your creativity.
How Suzanne began helping writers
Suzanne worked in NY in a corporate job during 9/11 and because of the stress, she needed to get out of the city and moved to Florida to emotionally heal. She found hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, energy methods, neuroscience, and spiritual practices, which helped her get back to herself, and actually even stronger. Because she was able to enjoy a slower paced life in Florida, she was able to emobdy the tools she now had. She began all of this over 15 years ago, she didn't know anyone else using these tools, so she created a website to let people know about them, starting meetup groups, then eventually through word of mouth she started to help people. It began with women transforming themselves, helping them through mid-life crises, divorce, etc., anything that was self-empowerment. Then about 5 years ago, a published author approached Suzanne because she was under contract to write her second book. Her daughter had died, and she came to her saying she had writer's block. Working with Suzanne worked out so well not only did the author finish one book, but finished a second book right after. So then that writer referred her to another writer. And that writer introduced her to an executive in a writer's room. They brought Suzanne into help a writer's room that was having too much conflict. It worked so well that she kept being referred to writers. That's when she quit her full-time corporate job and helping writers became a full-time job. The rest is history.
If you are interested in finding out more about Suzanne here is her website again Screenwritetnow.com and you can follow her on twitter @screenwritenow1
