It’s 2am. In a little over 16 hours I will be presenting my first Ignite Portland Talk, How to Hit Writer’s Block in the Face with a Shovel. I love the Ignite format – 20 slides, 15 seconds a slide. It’s really challenging and it has been an interesting process winnowing my profusion of thoughts down into such a concise format.

Given the restrictions here’s some further reading. Some of these I encountered while I was preparing my talk and was sad not to be able to include them.

Creative Process

• The Artists Way – will get a brief mention in the talk.
• How to Get Things Done, by Robert Benchley – oh it is a delight, thank you Sara Ryan for introducing me to him.

Streams of Information

There is so much cool stuff out there. I find most of my new distractions I mean interesting links to articles and creative fuel via interesting twitter people, especially:

• Jason Thibault – a really interesting mix of writing, freelancing, comics and art process. The interstitial space is most satisfying.
• Meanjin – literary fuel and keeps me appraised of creative goings on in Australia
• SFWA – Science Fiction Writers of America. Interesting from links around the place and publishes a lot of free to all blog posts, touching on all aspects of the creative process. A SF and American bent to nicely round things out.

There’s a multitude of other fine people who post links to interesting places, but these three manage to syndicate a lot of interesting stuff on a regular basis.

Inspiring sources – eating good food

Nutrition for brain as well as body. I love my local library. Wandering the aisles, checking out books recommended by friends and slowly getting through my Clarion reading list. Reading good, better yet great, prose is important. Go for the good stuff, the stuff that inspires you and reminds you of why words are important.

Getting Stuff Done

I love these two tools to bits… though I am tempted to move my to do list into Basecamp, as I’ve been using Basecamp a lot with clients recently and I like things living together.

• Joe’s Goals – love it love it love it. Free habit development (or habit breaking) software, get a smiley face every time you do something. Easy and fast to tailor to whatever regular stuff you’re trying to do. Common goals I use, phasing in and out depending on my focus, create, creator logistics/paperwork, go to gym, read, eat regularly, drink water. I also use sad red faces to track my menstrual cycle! And a log book to note all sorts of variables.
• OnLine CEO – simple to do list with the added bonus you have to note how important each to do is and it provides a handy chart to make the decision making easy. To do lists free and having a clear sense of priorities clears up so much head-space.
• 750 words – I’ve just heard about it, an online journaling space and challenge. Looks pretty nifty if pen and paper do not appeal and you want that peer support. Thanks Mike for telling me about this one.

So that’s me, did I miss anything fantabulous? What are the tools and spaces you use?

It’s now 3am. Oh sleep, you mock me. May the words flow free and easy.

Liz