Don't Call it Writer's Block

 

No matter how hard I try to stay on schedule and write everyday, sometimes days, weeks, even months pass by without having written a single word, or edited a single page of my work in progress.

Sometimes I've just run out of ideas . Other times my method doesn't seem to be working anymore . And of course there are times when more pressing things take precedence . However, I refuse to call this pause a writer's block. Instead, I call it, 'simmering on the back burner.'

Recently this happened. I had finished the first draft of my latest book and was going through the word document top to bottom. This was very painful because I had to move blocks of text as well as chapters around. Normally I enjoy editing, but this time I just had no energy for it.

One day, I received a newsletter from Scrivener, the writing program I had used in the past and a light bulb went on in my brain. Of course! Scrivener makes it so much easier to move blocks of text and chapters around. So I imported my manuscript into the program and I'm now happily editing once again.

I highly recommend Scrivener for a book length project whether fiction, memoir, or nonfiction or even a long article or thesis.

Writer's Workshop

 Join me this summer on board my magic carpet in Greece for a personalized Writer's Workshop. Limited spaces are available.

https://barbaramolin.blogspot.com/p/writers-retreat.html?m=1

Public Presentation

Yesterday, I had the privilege of sharing my passion for writing with other creatives at a meeting of Poros Island Writers. I spoke about my book, How to Write Your Book One Simple Step at a Time. 

More Salt Water In My Veins, Kindle edition, is now available

 

Great news! At last, I managed to organize the Kindle version of my newest book. It is now available. You can read a sample from my print version until then. Enjoy!

Note: If you click on the photo, you will be taken to my listing on Amazon.com.

What I Wish I Knew at 18 - work in progress

 

I am in the middle of writing my newest book about what I wish I had learned when I was young and stupid and what I had to learn the hard way on my won over the years. Here is the introduction.

Introduction

Oh, if I only knew at 18 what I know now, my life would have been so much better! This is what many of us, older people wish for. We would trade in an instant everything we have, to be young once again, but with the wisdom we've gathered over a lifetime.

Yet, when we try to advise our children and grandchildren, so that they don't make the same mistakes, they don't want to listen. "Stop giving advice," they say. "Our world is so much different from yours."

Poros Island Writers

 We now have a group of 18 international writers, some of whom meet on the island of Poros in Greece. If you are ever here on a visit, feel free to join us. We also post on Facebook and meet every Friday from 11:00 to 13:00 at the Katheti Culture centre. We welcome all writers and want to be writers. Come and check us out.

Good morning

There's a full moon called The Wolf Moon outside in the clear sky and 10°C inside my boat this morning. But only for a moment. The heater is on now, a hot water bottle against my back and a mug of hot ginger tea in my hands. It's not even 4am, but I am wide awake.  🥱 I should stop going to bed at 8:00.🙂

It's time to get back to my work in progress after a break for the holidays.

Happy New Year!

So how was your 2025? Good, I hope. And I hope that you have accomplished most of your goals, had a few lovely surprises, and a year full of adventure. Are you making New Year's resolutions for 2026? 

My father was always asking me what my goals were and so for a few years now, I have been doing just that. Making plans for the next five years, the next year, the next month,  and then writing down the milestones for each week.

I don't always reach my goals, but it's like going on a hike. It's good to have a map and the destination circled, but you don't always have to follow the trail and sometimes you even have to adjust your destination. 

For several years, I wanted to buy a house and have a garden. But I've now changed my mind. I love living on my boat and being able to move whenever I wish. And so I've adapted my long-term goal and the steps along the way. I'll be staying on board Eidos for the forseeable future. I will continue to write, and I am happy to report that I published two books last year. 

So what are your dreams, plans, and goals for the next few years?

Happy Holidays

 

Legacy

Recently, as I was listening to a beautiful piano concerto by Mozart, I looked up the biography of the performer and learned that he had died recently. Yet, the musician's  rendition, lives on as his legacy, giving me pleasure and calming my mind. His name is Alfred Brendel, and he has  over 800,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Further more, Mozart also lives on as one of the greatest composers. As I get older the thought of legacy arises. What am I going to be remembered for? So here are some examples of professions and possible legacy: 

• actors, writers, dancers, musicians, comedians, movie directors, video game programmers, and similar people - for entertaining us and perhaps teaching us something.

• doctors, nurses, first responders, pharmacists, mental health professionals - for keeping us alive and healthy mentally and physically.

• farmers, gardeners, butchers, beverage producers, clothing manufacturers, truck drivers, shopkeepers - for providing us with healthy food, drink and clothes to keep our bodies strong and healthy.

• builders of all sorts - engineers, architects, brick layers, concrete pourers, for providing us with shelter, transportation and communication.

• family and friends, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and sometimes even strangers - for loving us as best as they could, being kind and understanding, giving us hope when we are down.

• teachers, writers, philosophers, journalists, photographers - for keeping our minds active and teaching us new things about the world.

• politicians, activists, protesters, religious leaders - giving us a purpose, organizing our society, looking after the poor, providing us with something to struggle for or against, and thus giving us meaning for our lives.

Everyone has some sort of a purpose in life and leaves a legacy behind whether they like it or not, whether they are even aware of it or not. You will be remembered as someone to emulate, or someone to avoid becoming.

If you want to leave something lasting, perhaps plant a tree and place a bench underneath with a plaque in your name, write a book, paint a picture, compose a song, knit a sweater, sew a dress, hug a child, build a birdhouse. I'm sure, someone will remember you for it.

More Salt Water In my Veins is now in print!

 

Here it is, my latest book with more sailing stories is now finished in time for Christmas. Check it out!

It is a sequel to my first book, Salt Water In My Veins, and a collection of more stories of sailing and living aboard. Follow my adventures as I face challenges of purchasing a sailboat, maintenance issues, sailing solo, and onboard relationships. Read about a typical day on board and how a simple sail can sometimes turn into an adventure. No boat? No problem: There is a chapter on searching for a crew or a skipper. Written in light hearted tongue-in-cheek style, the stories highlight my love of the sea and boats.

Work In Progress nearly completed.

 

It is October now and fall has arrived in Greece with shorter days, strong winds, and thunderstorms. Soon it will be time for me to move from my safe moorage to the town  quay where I can plug into electricity for the winter. I have a new solar panel, thanks to Tom and Marta, my good friends, and a new regulator, thanks to Thorsten,  a neighbour in the anchorage. However, the solar panel cannot provide enough power for an electric heater which I will soon need.

But I haven't been idle. The solar panel provides me with enough power to charge my laptop. And so, my latest book is nearly finished. More stories of sailing. These are a few chapters to whet your appetite: How I happened to find and buy Eidos, what can go wrong when trying to get boat insurance, and a story of some problems faced as an older sailor.

I  just sent the final draft to Lizzie Bolan, my editor. Meanwhile, I'm searching for a photo for the cover. Keeping my fingers crossed to have it published in time for Christmas. 

Self discipline

I discovered a system of self-discipline that has worked for me every day for the past three months. 

Noticing how important it has become for me to play a Sudoku game each day, I realized that the game includes a calendar where I get a star for each day I play. Over time, I have become reluctant to miss a day, and if I do, I end up playing two games the next day to make up for the missing one. This way, the calendar becomes filled with stars. That is my only reward, yet very compelling. The game takes 5 or 10 minutes, and it varies in difficulty. I justify playing because it improves my brain skills. 

And so I decided to try to use the same system for my writing.

I now have a wall calendar, and every day that I write, even if it is only for 5 minutes, I give myself a star for that day. At the end of a week, I get a small reward - for example coffee out and a desert, and at the end of a month full of stars a bigger one, perhaps a lunch out. 

What I found is that I am now 'addicted' to getting those stars. They are very visible on the calendar, that I pass by all the time, and I would not want to miss a day and see a blank spot. If, for some reason, I do miss a day, I make it up with two separate sessions the next day.

So, after three months of successfully following this system, I hope to continue, while my next book grows a page or two at a time.

Happy New Year! Don't make resolutions, make plans!

Most of us know that making New Year's resolutions doesn't work. Over the years we vow to exercise, eat better, save more money, work harder, quit smoking. But life happens, holidays end and soon other things take away our attention. I believe that we resist making positive changes because it all sounds so negative and a lot like drudgery: diet, exercise, quit smoking. Who wants drudgery? Life is too short for drudgery. 

So, why not make New Year's promises that are fun, easy to keep and good for us instead? Here is how: First, take five minutes to write down a Bucket List of all the things you would like to experience, buy and accomplish. 

For example: 

Fall in love 

Write a book 

Buy a home 

Retire and Travel 

Sail around the world 

Write everything that comes to mind. Keep adding ideas to this list no matter how unrealistic or crazy. Next, go through your list and at the end of each line add the year in which you want to accomplish that goal.

Like this: 

Fall in love - 2025 

Write a best selling book - 2026 

Buy a home - 2027 

Retire and Travel – 2030 

Sail around the world – 2035 

Soon, you'll realize three things. The first one is that you are having fun. The second one is that you want everything now, this year if not this month. And the third is that you'll start sorting out your priorities. For example if you have a good job now, you might focus on making lots of money first and retire in five/ten/twenty years. Or if you don't have a good job and you love to travel more than anything, you decide to take a year off to CouchSurf and do Workaways. Hey, you might even crew on a sail boat in Greece and meet your soul mate while traveling. Finally, post your list where you can see it every day. 

Your assignment for today: Take five minutes and make your list now. Post it where you can see it.

Memoir of a Teenage Immigrant just published!

When I was almost 14, in November of 1964, my family emigrated from Cieszyn, a small town, in at that time Communist Poland, and moved to the big city of Toronto in Canada. Everyone I knew in Poland spoke of America where money grew on trees and anyone could become a president. It was the land of unlimited opportunities and freedom. In Canada, you could criticize the government and wouldn't be sent to a gulag in Siberia. Your neighbours wouldn’t report you to the authorities for listening to the “wrong” radio station. You could travel abroad without going through the third degree with some bureaucrats and then having to leave your family behind so that you wouldn't try to defect. The stores were full of things to buy. You didn't have to wait in line for several hours to purchase toothpaste or toilet paper. You just went to the store and bought them.

Immigrants were welcomed and the majority came from war-torn Europe. After they arrived, they joined communities where they could communicate in their own language. The sixties was the time of great social upheaval. John Kennedy, the president of the United States, had been assassinated the year before we arrived. The Beatles gave their first concert in Washington. It was also the beginning of the second wave of feminism with Gloria Steinem its leader and the birth control pill was becoming widely available. It was the time of the flower children and the sit-ins of anti-Vietnam war protests. It was the time of, ‘Make Love, not War.’ Hippies, rock and roll, and marijuana arrived in downtown Toronto’s Yorkville Village. It was the age of Aquarius and the Baby Boomers - children born after the war. I was one of them.

This memoir describes my life as a new Canadian, the homesickness I felt after leaving the only home I had ever known, and how I adapted to my new life.

Check it out on Amazon.