Wanna Be a Writer? Then Get Real, Get Out of Your Head and Discover How People Really Think

GEELONG, Australia - Feb. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- Discovering Truth Can Be Disarming:
I was a 'naff' writer

Seems obvious now looking back on earlier work, but I didn’t know I was 'naff' until the pile of reject letters convinced me otherwise. What a clutter of passive language and winceful metaphors.

So I studied, which really meant wrestling over-written sentences into simply expressed notions.

At the time, I wanted the ultimate career. I'm sure you know it – living life on your terms, working flexibly to be around for children, writing anywhere at any time – from local coffee shops to 2am can’t-sleep moments propped up in bed.

A few breadcrumbs came my way – as a finalist in the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Frustrated Writers’ Competition – and a couple of personally written reject letters, (aka gold for unpublished writers), but I found the loneliness and frustration of creating characters and scenes that weren’t real enough to go anywhere self-defeating. I felt like one of the flat, boring (and bored) characters in my stories who were going nowhere because their creator couldn’t see beyond the next plot point.

Waiting for an editor to approve or (as was the case) decline my work, felt like watching grass grow in a drought.

Understand People

I’m writing this piece, because as any good writer knows – the more you understand people, the more you understand your characters and why they do what they do. Published writers usually have plots with twists and turns for their characters to get involved with – a place where something happens – not an illogical arrangement of CSI scenes – which I seemed to create – and as one editor accurately described my work as.

She was right. Late night television had became my muse. And between us both, we decided it was time to find story arcs elsewhere. And possibly to stop living as a recluse in a perpetual state of introspection.

What I needed was to understand people more – what really made them tick, how their emotions triggered memories – or was it vice-versa? Why their decisions often made situations lead from bad to worse.

Discovering Modern Psychology

So I searched.

Not once did I think this search would personally benefit me (or the unfulfilling marriage I was in at the time). That would be admitting that I had some sort of imperfection. Nopety, no – not me. I wanted to find out more about ‘other’ people – how ‘they’ solved problems. (My own problems I’d swept under the carpet, wedged into cracks between the floorboards or believed that if I didn’t see them they weren’t real.)

The search led me to NLP – that’s Neuro Linguistic Programming – a program originally devised in the 70s. Don’t get bogged down with the term – all it means is that you can learn to understand how someone thinks by listening to their language, watching how they use their body and finding what triggers their emotions.

(You can find out more about how people think at www.schoolofmodernpsychology.com.au)

It was interesting. Not so much for plot development or story arcs but as a deep and revealing look into why I’d made so many stuffed-up decisions in my own life. Yes, all those ones that had led me to choose a career where I could isolate myself further to find my ‘inner voice’.

Studying what is basically human psychology did help my writing (which by then had morphed into the more lucrative fields of public relations, press releases and corporate writing).

It also helped me understand why I personally did what I did and what ultimately was holding me back from being the person I thought I wanted to be – and from having the success I wanted to have.

Note to self: it’s got nothing to do with being a better writer.

Seeing the Gap

Like any form of personal reflection, the act of observing behaviour, emotions and decisions was extremely helpful.

In the process I confronted the gap between who I wanted to appear as, and the naked reality of who I was – warts, freckles and all.

It was an ouchey, emotional period that led me to accept myself, see the imperfect human being I was and choose a pathway that could draw from all the skills I’d been accumulating over the years - writing being one of them.

The more I learnt about NLP and hypnotherapy as tools of change, the more I wanted to know. So I peeked behind the Wizard’s curtain and found what I now collectively call: Modern Psychology.

While psychology is theory; modern psychology puts practical application in place, making it more real.

The more I learned, the more I grew. The more I grew, the more I had to give.

I began loving this cycle of growth and giving – so much that corporate work began flowing into the individual work I was doing with clients and as a result things began evolving – in a big way.

Which leads me to my point: the School of Modern Psychology

(www.schoolofmodernpsychology.com.au)

It's my birth child (if a child can be anything but a birth child) - see? More evidence of a poor attempt at story writing through over-worked metaphors.

Anyway, a place where people could discover themselves (and others) in a safe environment – regardless of whether they were writers, artists, teachers, coaches, consultants, parents, employees, young people finding their way or business people.

Not one of us is immune from seeing ourselves stripped bare.

The School has became a place to help people smooth out the rough bumps of life by sharing skills that could help them make a difference in their world.

Yet it’s so much more than that.

The School guides people to get in touch with a side of themselves that may have been shut down for a while, and in the process assists them to emerge with a greater focus, more clarity in their direction and a stronger and more aligned inspiration to achieve what they want in their life.

When I look back at those years in my study-come-spare-room and hear the voice of my son mature from a 9-year-old boy in Year 4 to a near-21-year-old man, I realise how far we’ve both come – and yet how far there is to go.

Self-discovery is never an end. It’s always the beginning of a relationship with the most important person in your world. You. It's a relationship that involves growth – for if it doesn't, then you are withering.

And if you feel you're just 'stagnating' –  think again –  as this is just a slower and more painful form of withering – you just haven't realised how much you've already lost.

Regardless of whether you're a parent, a partner, an employee, a colleague, a boss, a business owner, an entrepreneur, an artist or a hopeful writer – you have a responsibility to bring 'all of you' to the table.

So, if you’re wanting more from your life, wherever you currently are and are looking for inspiration – come along and join us on one of our online courses – you never know who you may discover.

Visit www.schoolofmodernpsychology.com.au to download some free ideas and videos to get you thinking. I'd love for you to visit. Barbara Grace.