Writing

20 TIPS TO OVERCOME YOUR WRITER CUM BLOGGERS’ BLOCK

March 23, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha

Argh! The Writers’ Block

There are days that you would find yourself scribbling and tapping away with much zeal and then the following day you wake up to a blank mind that stretches from one day to the other, then weeks…months…and you are waiting for the inspiration to ignite. You’ve just been visited by the gremlin that blocks creativity aka writers’ block.

Writers Block, Writing, Tips, Solutions, Writers, Avoid Editing

Writers’ block can last for as long as it chooses if you let it. It’s a common malaise that every writer struggles with now and again, but the most important thing is what you do when faced with it.

Writing is an art that takes a lot of brain power, creative energy, focus and mental acuity each time. It’s not a science that has a ‘Eureka formula fix’ as such, we have to approach its solution with that in mind.

Igniting that inspiration is not going to happen unless you take it in hand and having been writing for a while, here are some of the prescribed methods I use to doctor my creative constipation to enable easier passage of inspiration. Read More…

Blogging

Things that make blogging dreary. Yeah! I said that

January 31, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha8 Comments

To Blog or To Wash

There are day’s that I equate blogging with the boring class of washing dishes or clothes. These two are not my favourite house chores and I am yet to meet anyone who’s ecstatic about them.

Why no good fellow has thought it wise to create an elegant and smart gadget that removes the clothes after a wash, irons, folds them and puts them away nicely is a question that I ask from time to time. Now that’s a good manufacturing idea for someone to tinker around with.

You might wonder why I put blogging in the same group with housework. Okay, it’s not every day that blogging falls into that status, there are days that I do find it exciting, especially when I feel my brain cells swell with knowledge, however, here are my reasons.

Writing

I write therefore I am

October 27, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

I write, therefore I am

Identify with the craft and think like a writer. A lot of beginner writers and even some who have crafted words for some time are always reluctant to introduce themselves as a writer. Read more

Featured Blogs

Tuesday Trickles – My thinking corner.

September 7, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple. You can check this link for more details.

Think of those things that are currently troubling you and write them down.

Don’t try to focus on immediate solutions; just focus on getting those thoughts out of your mind and onto a paper.

Close your writing, go and do something rejuvenating, like taking a walk, calling a friend and having a bit of laughter, whatever works for you.

Give it a day or two, then pick up what you wrote and read it.

You will observe that writing it down helped to declutter your mind.

Secondly, putting it in writing brings clarity and possibly simplifies the matter and finally reading it gives your mind an opportunity to look at possible solutions from a more mind-liberated position.

Some short words of wisdom are sent in by Deb. Do take a peek. You learn something new every day.

Be happy.

Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 95

June 3, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

A lot of us are used to setting off with a task at hand and never completing them. We start all out with zeal, taking leaps, and bounds in days and by the end of the week, month or set time, we’ve backslid so far we can’t even see the frontline where we started from.

Note to self: Try to stay on track by, setting reasonable goals and timelines, setting anticipated steps to get to goals, make a plan for drawbacks and strategy to get back on track when and if we do backslide…like I have a thousand times and make yourself accountable.

Learn to forgive yourself when you fall off, pick up lessons on how and why you fell off the wagon and also take into account making time for rest, recuperation, revving your engine and rebounding back. It’s better to be consistent than bursts of starts and stops that get nowhere.

Sometimes, working with a team of others helps to keep us on track, helps to sharpen our skills and also helps to uplift us when we experience a glitch. Consider team building with others as a way of strengthening your base.

Shalom!

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Writer's Quote Wednesday · Writing

Feeding The Inspiration…The Writer’s Quote Wednesday Challenge

June 1, 2016August 11, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

This week’s prompt for Writers Quote Wednesday Challenge is ‘inspiration’ and I found an interesting quote below. The poem following the quote is my thought on how I feel sometimes about inspiration.

“The Page awaits the inspiration even as inspiration roams the world of man, seeking a page upon which to unfurl itself, body and soul, bare yet clothed in immortality if not immediacy. And the gods said, “Let there be a Page and many a Page,” and there was a Book. And we saw that the Book was good.” ― Chila Woychik

Like delicate butterflies darting around
inspirations float quickly past
that to catch and keep it
my pen has to be
as swift as a hawk.

They are like shiny dew drops
that evaporate in the morning sun
Therefore, I catch them
and store in my bottle of thoughts
to imbibe at my pleasure.

Surrounding us at every turn
some inspirations are little buds
that blossoms into full-fledged ideas
gathering momentum as it opens up
or shriveling to death from lack of nourishment.

What inspires one to write? I’m yet to find the answer. I just know that there are driving forces inside my head that makes me write what I write and I follow the voices.

Some ideas I bank for use at some point in time and some dance around in my head until they either go to sleep or I do something about them.

What I’ve also come to realise is that though sometimes we may lack the perfect inspiring moments to write, we should write nonetheless. Even if it’s fodder for our waste basket 🙂

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

My Thinking Corner

Tuesdays Trickles…My thinking corner 24

May 31, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

Every Tuesday, I share snippets of thoughts that I call ‘My Thinking Corner.’

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple. You can check this link for more details.

I realised that sharing so many snippets at once might actually not add as much value because the centre of focus oscillates between so many things, so I’m narrowing it down and dwelling on a snippet at a time to create better value.

Burden:

♦ Until we can truly lay down our burdens, our load will not be light.

♦ A load carried on the head, should not be carried in the heart.

When we learn to trust the Lord with our excess baggage, we are truly lightened of its nagging weight. It’s a process that might take the time to understand, but it’s a process worth applying to ones’ life.

Beautiful thoughts come your way from two awesome and inspiring blogger friends of mine:

Open your eyes and look: Dehan’s message is surely one to start the day with.

Follow the leader: Rosema knows how to deliver sweet and succinct messages. I like this.

I hope that you find these little drops useful now and again. Do check them out and please share snippets of your thoughts with us.

Thanks and blessed be.

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Hope · Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 90

May 26, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha23 Comments

Hurt! Are you hurting and have you let all the pain become defining factors in your life? How many of us have let hurt keep us down?

It’s natural for us to feel hurt or disappointed from failures and possibly withdraw into our shells, but the sad thing is that some take it that it’s the way their life is meant to be, thus they remain withdrawn or at best living their lives at half mast.

Remember that the entirety of your life is far bigger than one fall, so you must keep rising. Remember that odd circumstance could just be a detour that could always turn around.

Remember that those deliberate negative aims from others are just in a bid to keep you where they feel most comfortable ‘under their thumb.’

Ask yourself. Is that where you deserve to belong?

Next week, I’ll share a post on how to get past the pain and to live on purpose.

P.S. You are invited to our monthly blog party this weekend. It’s fun and you get to meet fantastic folks

Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.

When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.

Out of the silent breath

Never leave me lonely

haunted by the dreams and memories

of yesteryears

when our fathers walked before us.

Inspiration - Motivation · Social critic

Tips to avoid the pitfalls of Multilevel marketing business…

June 12, 2015June 13, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha1 Comment

Different marketing schemes sprout up everyday with their endless promises of bogus unverified gains to its prospective recruits.

Undisputed, some reputed multilevel marketing business models have been successful in sustaining their business as well as delivering on a percentage of promised gains to its recruits, but in a lot of instances, other marketing schemes adopting this method as well have turned out to be scams.

One major challenge is the fact that a pyramid scheme which is illegal and fraudulent can easily camouflage as a multilevel marketing business.

Pyramid schemes are defined as: An illegal investment scam based on a hierarchical setup. New recruits make up the base of the pyramid and provide the funding, or so-called returns, given to the earlier investors/recruits above.

A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment … Wikipedia

In quick pursuance of the ever elusive money, a lot of people fall prey to the scams of those who have perfected a system of depriving them of their hard earned funds.

No doubt, some people have made money through these schemes, but based on inquiries made, those who have walked away empty handed, out-number those who have made gains.

There are four main difference between a multilevel marketing company and a pyramid scheme:

Members at any level of a multilevel marketing model should theoretically be able to make income through the company’s products and/or services without having to sign up any new members.
Another difference is that members of any level in a multilevel can earn more than the people who signed them up depending on how much work they put in, which comes from sales of products or services.
You are not obligated to pay out a certain amount of money every month in order to keep your account with the company live, but in some cases, you are required to buy certain amount of inventory within the year.
There is little or no joining fee, and sometimes the fees represent the products that you purchase.

Before taking your decision, consider these tips:

Ask yourself if you are cut out for that particular type of business? Are you an extrovert/people person, willing to go and talk to people about the business if need be?
Are you prepared to work for that income? Like every other business, your income is dependent on your ability to sell or achieve results. Any smooth sales pitch promises made to you about making money for doing nothing is too good to be true.
Delve as much as possible into the history of the marketing scheme you are interested in. Check out the fine print/get as much information as you can. If your recruiter is unable to provide such vital factual information as maybe required, be skeptical. Do not rely only on the slippery talk of the representative; he is doing his job; do yours.
Always do a cost/benefit analysis. Take into cognizance all possible costs associated with signing up against all the potential benefits to you. If the benefits outweigh the costs, you may want to sign-up and try to make some money from the company, but if your potential loss outweighs the gain, then you might consider backing out.
Do you have the required funds to keep servicing the business even when you are not making money?
What is your exit strategy when you are no longer interested in pursuing that business?
How much have would you have lost in the venture if it fails to achieve your set objectives; can you afford to let go of said funds?
Pay particular attention over insistence for your immediate commitment with the concept that the rate you are offered is at a discounted/best rate and would change by the following day or week.
By applying these guidelines, you should be able to tell to differentiate between the two types of schemes. Some pyramid schemes are very cleverly modeled to cause misconception. If you discover that you cannot seem to make a conclusive decision as to what the company is all about, it is always best to exercise caution and avoid being a victim of scam.

In exercising your desire to own your own business or to be an independent consultant, remember the Caveat Emptor ”buyer beware”.

I hope this helps somebody. Thank you for reading and do pass it forward. Some information are meant to be shared.