The Corner Booth

#3 The Hump & The Slump: #How2PressOn

High Five: Meet the panel

Sarah Benson: @SarahBensonBooks

Michelle Hayes: @Michelle007

Mary L. Tabor: @maryltabor

Brittanie Charmintine: @BrittanieCharmintine

And our show runner:

Nathaniel Bradford: @natsaninja

Three sentences to describe yourself, you cannot use adjectives

Nat Bradford: I am Nat. I love to laugh. I write to connect.

Sarah Benson: I am a Jane Austen fangirl. I am a geek at heart. I want to travel the world.

Michelle Hayes: I am a mother of four, writer, word enthusiast, dreamer, lover or romance and paranormal, advocate for what is right. My favorite things to do are being with my family and friends, writing, riding horses, having gatherings with those that I love. asdf

Mary L Tabor: I believe all prose writers should read poetry and a lot of it. Reading has saved my life since I was a child. I love romantic comedies.

Brittanie Charmintine: I come from Hollywood. I've always loved to laugh and to read, especially fantasy and science fiction.I live in the Northern California Red Woods, and once I found three Black Angus cows in my yard.

Cream or Sugar: To see the shoutouts, look at Two-Week Notice #2.

The Entrée: Questions and discussion from week three

1. How do you deal with the bully known as "Writer's Block"? Tell us about a time when the bully almost won.

Mary: Think of a graph or the humps and slumps in a bio rhythm chart. Instead of thinking of the slump as a block, I want you to begin to think about it as giving birth. See those humps and slumps? I'm not saying you don't feel pretty crummy in the bottom of it and pretty good at the top of it, but I am saying that the baby has to rest inside the womb. The invention is happening and you got to trust it guys.

Michelle: What I do, is I simply take a break. I don't think about my storyline or characters and grant myself a brief reprieve. I took some advice once from something I learned in an English Lit class in college; we were discussing Hemingway and I remember reading one of his tips for good writing and it was to "never think about the story when you're not working on it". The bully almost won when I was writing my first novel, Invoke. I just took a month off and went back when my nerves were more stable and when my brain was actually fresh.

Brittanie: I think I learned this trick many, many years ago when I took a class from an author named Jonis Agee. She said to basically do a free write. What that means is it's sort of just out of your brain, just writing whatever comes out. Don't judge it, don't even think about it, just let it come out of you. This is how it normally starts for me, "What am I thinking? They have no idea what I'm doing. Everything I write is terrible." I berate myself for a while and then when I get past that, I write the problem I'm having with the plot. I find that for me, when I have writer's block it's because of a problem with the plot. I don't know what I'm doing and it's hard and I don't want to do it. With the free write I write out ways like "Well I could do this... and I could do that." and all of a sudden something will come out of me where I say, "Oh my God, that's the answer! I can make it happen now." and I've gotten past my writer's block.

Sarah: My personal opinion, writer's block has less to do with the story and plots, but it's more of a psychological block. It comes from when you start to lose sight of the story. Often times writers block is a psychological block, and a lot of times it has to do with motivation. You will find out what motivates you and that will help. With Born of Shadow, when I finished it, it was like me reaching the top of the mountain. Then I realized there was another cliff in front of me. I focused on my weaknesses, did some free writes. You just have to believe you're going to see it through.

There were some shoutouts with responses from others who were using the thread. Watch the video to see responses from other fellow Wattpadders.

2. What do you do when your creativity takes you to something so abstract that you can't untangle it into a discernible idea?

Mary: I'd like to talk first about the nature of invention. This is a David Jauss exercise I read about. 1) in a piece of paper in long hand, write your name 2) write and alias. In the beat, that moment of dropping away to write that alias, after all, you know your name, you just found the place where the invention happens. Never mess with that place, it's where your voice, your story, your inspiration comes from. It's where no workshop, no mentor, and no reader should ever mess with. There's a difference between the invention and the editing. You need to kick the inner critic out while you're inventing.

Michelle: I just write it anyway. I go back and revise the hell out of it so that people can read it. That's all I do.

Brittanie: I think I am a very literal person, and I assumed that if I came up with an idea that in no way can be communicated with anyone but me, what would I do with it. What I would try to do is find the essence that means something to me personally. Then I would try to communicate that with someone else, just write it and rewrite it until it becomes something. If all else fails-to me writing is like communicating-it's ended right there because writing is communicating.

Sarah: I would have to say the biggest thing that I've found that helps, is to be patient. As it unfolds for you, just take in notes and eventually you'll have something that you can piece together and you'll probably end up with something that's even cooler than the original though.

Pass the Salt: Honest criticism of Wattpad in 140 characters or less.

Brittanie: A comment tells us much about the person who's written it. Be thoughtful courteous and helpful.

Mary: Don't be safe. "If there is no risk, there is no writing."

Michelle: Pay little attention to the ranking, because when you do, your focus will be on that and not the true reason you're writing.

Sarah: If you write it, own it.

Check Please: Signing off and mailbag

Would people be interested in a Hindu love story, where a young woman must confront and rebel against the requirement for an arranged marriage?

Sarah: Absolutely! I personally love reading other culture stories and I love to PM them and find out about their experiences.

#justwriteit try to write 10,000 words in 30 days. Take the challenge. For the month of May, the topic is Leading Ladies. Write about a mother you know or any other leading lady in your life.

Remember, this covers the main portions of what is in the video. In order to get everything, please watch the video. Also, please feel free to leave comments and start discussions below. We love hearing(reading) what you have to say!!