writing Archives | A Thought and a Half | Southern Food & Lifestyle Blog

How to Conquer Writer’s Block as a Blogger

November 9, 2015 By Kate 13 Comments

As bloggers and writers, we are responsible for producing quality content as often as we can (or have to). When the creative juices are running, content seems to flow from our fingers like magic. The perfect words form the perfect thoughts, thus creating the perfect posts that our readers are bound to love and share all over the Internet.

But sometimes, the magic just doesn’t happen. Writer’s block is the bane of our existences, and it always seems to strike at the worst possible times. Nothing comes out. The fingers don’t move, or if they do, you delete whatever you just wrote because it sounded awful. The brain brakes screech to a stop and it’s over.

Real talk, though: writer’s block is the worst. If only there were things we could do to combat the plague of writer’s block… oh wait, there ARE ways to get past it and get the creativity flowing again!

On Writing Creative Nonfiction

November 11, 2014 By Kate Leave a Comment

When I first declared that I would be a famous writer one
day, I said that I’d write the next great young-adult novel.
I had it all planned out: it’d be a psychological drama-romance blend that
focused more on the characters’ personalities and ticks rather than the story
itself, and it’d be far better written than anything Stephenie Meyer has ever produced.
Surely I could manage that. I’d started other projects and gotten pretty far,
but nothing ever became a full, finished draft. But that one felt different.

Then I took a fiction writing class in undergrad, and my
mind changed quickly. I realized I didn’t have the patience for fiction, and there was much more involved than I imagined. I shifted my focus shortly thereafter.

Writing creative nonfiction is more comfortable for me. I’m better at
telling my own stories in fresh ways than fabricating some adventure or
situation and making it sound realistic. It’s easier, somehow. I know, I’m
weird.

Talking about nonfiction with other people—writers or
not—always garners some peculiar and sometimes even mind-boggling responses.

“So you write…biographies? And historical stuff?” Well, I could if I wanted to.

“You’re telling me you take other people’s stories and call
them your own?” Only with their
permission and review. And they’re not “my” stories. I’m just telling other
stories for the people who can’t.

“Doesn’t writing about yourself get old after a while?” Seriously? It’s just like talking about
yourself. Who doesn’t like that?

What appeals to me most about creative nonfiction is its
creative freedom, especially in form. Who knew I could write an essay as a glossary, with each “term” being its own story? Or write an essay like an epitaph, or a how-to about falling in love with someone? Memoirs were my go-to style, but now I know there are so many more options and possibilities out there, and so many I have yet to explore. And with a thousand and one things I want to write about, I know I’ll have no trouble finding the right way to tell each one.

Above all, writing is cathartic. Writing heals. A bit cliche, sure, but it’s true. Every writer can speak to this to some degree. While a blank page–physical or electronic–can be intimidating at first, it eventually becomes a comfort, because it presents a space on which we can spill our thoughts, fears, dreams and emotions. If there’s nothing there to begin with, then there’s nothing we can’t put there ourselves.

And that’s why I write creative nonfiction. I hope that my stories and experiences, dreams and fears can serve as some comfort or inspiration to someone else as much as they do for me. If they do, then I’ve done my job as a writer.

Why do you write?

“The desire to write grows with writing.”

Erasmus

Happy 3rd Birthday, Blog!

August 25, 2014 By Kate Leave a Comment

Today marks the third anniversary of my very first blog post, and thus the birth of this space I call “A Thought and a Half.” Three years…that’s just crazy to me. A good kind of crazy, though!

I started the blog on a whim, just a random idea I got walking to class one day in the fall of my sophomore year. I wanted to write more, but not just for myself. What better way to do this, I asked myself, than a blog?

This space didn’t start as “A Thought and a Half.” If you’ve followed me from the very beginning, you’ll remember that my blog started as “On a Lighter Note.” My original intention was to write about the little things that made each day great, or one thing that made me smile each day, no matter how big or how small. If you go back to my earlier posts like this one, you’ll see that. But eventually the theme started to evolve into me just writing about my life or whatever else I felt like writing about. Thus, “A Thought and a Half.”

Sometimes it’s hard to remind myself that it’s been three years since I started this, three years that I’ve spent writing on it. But I’m proud of that. I could have devoted those three years to anything, and I chose to devote them to this.

I would be remiss if I did not give a shoutout to my readers. Whether you’re a fellow blogger who stumbled upon my blog on your own, or one of my real-life friends or family members who I’ve somehow convinced to read my ramblings, my sincerest thank-you to all y’all. Y’all keep this space alive and your comments and encouragement keep me coming back here. So seriously, thank you.

Happy Birthday to my blog, and here’s to many more thoughts, many more posts, and many more years sharing them with y’all!

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