No Payne No Gain

I was attending my first Natural Golf Clinic in New Orleans. It was a beautiful day. The air smelled crisp and clean, and the temperature was perfect. I was waiting with three other students outside the clubhouse. The Master Instructor, Tom Sanders, was a protégé of Moe Norman and had an excellent reputation of being a lot like his mentor. Moe Norman was a golf savant, and his unusual mannerisms were legendary. I will never forget meeting Tom for the first time. He came around the corner of the clubhouse dragging his bag of clubs. He was sort of pear-shaped, his cap was on crooked and his shirt tail was out of his pants on the left-hand side. He introduced himself and promptly led us to the driving range where there were four piles of balls. I’d never seen so many balls in one place. He teed up two balls, pointed to the 200-yard sign and announced he was going to hit the sign. He addressed the ball and, without any hesitation, swung. The ball bounced off the metal sign with a loud bang. Before anything could be said, he struck the second ball and it hit the sign with a “ker-thunk.” The four of us, speechless, looked at each other in awe. Tom looked up at us and realized something was going on and asked, “Is there something wrong?” One of the students spoke out, “We’ve never seen that done before.” Tom, the Master Instructor, looked at us matter-of-factly and uttered, “Well, it’s a pretty big sign.” The sign was, at best, three feet high and four feet wide.

Next, Tom showed us the Natural Golf grip, stance and swing. For the next three hours, non-stop, we hit balls. Tom moved from student to student, saying the some thing over and over. We took thirty minutes for lunch and returned to hit balls for three more hours without breaking. Two of the four participants gave up and quit after the first hour after lunch. Two of us remained, and at the end of the six hour lesson, Tom started picking up his things to leave. He thanked us for coming and half heartedly asked, “Do you have any questions?” Although exhausted, my co-participant explained the brochure indicated that there was a lesson on how to get out of a sand trap. Tom looked stunned and replied, “You want a lesson about sand?” My partner nodded. Tom quickly retorted, “Stay out of it.” He turned on his heels and left.

You want a lesson on writer’s block? Stay out of pressure situations. Authors that write for the enjoyment of it, the fun, the excitement, never ever come close to getting writer’s block because there is no pressure. Don’t get into a position where you have to write something. It is that simple.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

In Writer’s Block I we learned that tension causes writer’s block and the more one tries to consciously force oneself to write the greater the resistance because writing is a subconscious endeavor. In Writer’s Block II we learned the subconscious can be programmed to build confidence and focus. Confidence is knowing you are going to be successful before you act and focus is that single mindedness that drives us toward a target or goal. Confidence and focus can be programmed through the subconscious via pre-living. Pre-living is actually living the success before it happens. In Writer’s Block III we learned the creative subconscious drives us toward our picture. We can not change the creative subconscious but we can change our picture. We can trick our brain into believing we are something we are not.

To activate our brain into realizing a new picture, that is, a picture of us writing, thinking and creating we follow 6 basic steps to programming the mind.

1. Get a Picture of What You Want. Here you see yourself as a creative productive author.

2. Clarify the Desire in Time and Effort. Programming the mind takes time and a commitment. You must be willing to pay the price. In other words, you must spend time programming the mind just as you used to spend time honing your writing and thinking skills.

3. Put it in Perspective. We are talking writing here, not life or death. There are lots of things out there that are more important than writing. List all the things you are thankful for and put writing in its proper place.

4. Engage in Self-talk. Self-talk is to be first person, present tense, positive and action or emotionally oriented. It must be in your own words. Examples like, “I like myself as I write” “ I see myself as a creative author” “I am thrilled to see others reading and enjoying my work” You engage in self-talk as you write letters to loved ones, draw pictures or write notes of places you want to go, doodle aimlessly, etc.

5. Read Self-authored Affirmations. Write six affirmations, put them on cards and repeat them over and over for ten seconds twice a day. Ten seconds in the morning and ten seconds at night. The affirmations need to be profound and come from deep within. Make the affirmations generate pre-living experiences. Something like, “I take great pride in my writing and have a positive expectancy of the future” “I respect myself and know I am a worthy, capable and valuable author” “I know ideas will flow from within and I take all setbacks as temporary”

6. Measure the Outcome. Make copies of every letter you write or picture you draw and tabulate your productivity. Display letters you get from persons writing you in return. As you see actual progress this reinforces the creative subconscious to activate the homing device that drives your behavior toward success.

The 6 steps are simple to understand but hard to do. You can beat writer’s block but truthfully it is better not to get it in the first place. Writer’s Block V explains how to avoid this dreaded condition.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

One approach to resolving writer’s block is to program the brain for success through building confidence and focus. Confidence is knowing you are going to be successful before you do something.

Focus is that single-mindedness that drives you toward a target or goal while simultaneously screening out the extraneous, irrelevant stuff.

We have a picture of who we are and that is who we are going to be. If we believe we can’t remember names, no matter how hard we try, the subconscious will not allow us to remember names. If we believe we can’t write, the subconscious will not allow us to write. This picture has been called the comfort zone, and we spend every second of every minute, of every hour, of every day striving to stay in our comfort zone.

The part of the subconscious that drives us into our picture and makes us act in accordance to who we believe ourselves to be has been referred to as the servo mechanism, automatic mechanism, creative mechanism and most often the creative subconscious. The reason it is referred to as the creative subconscious is because when we believe we can’t do something, the subconscious creatively makes us mess up or shuts our thinking down.

The creative subconscious has been compared to a homing device found in a missile, rocket or torpedo. The homing device is set to drive the missile toward the target. The creative subconscious drives us toward our picture, and if we see ourselves as nonproductive, a failure, or unable to write, then it is the creative subconscious to make sure our picture is realized.
We cannot control the job of the creative subconscious; it is our motivator. But we can control our picture, we can change the target. In other words we can trick ourselves into believing we are something we are not. The reason we can do this is because the creative subconscious cannot tell fact from fiction or imagination from reality.

So to change our target, we can imagine a different picture and begin to pre-live the picture (see Writer’s Block II). To pre-live the picture, we must imagine it to such a degree that the mind believes it. A person experiencing writer’s block actually believes they can’t write. That is their picture. One way to resolve writer’s block is to imagine oneself as a productive, creative, free-thinking author to such a degree that the mind believes it. This type of thinking must be so focused and so real it will activate the creative subconscious’ homing device and drive the author toward success. As one sees themselves successful, their confidence is restored and they begin to write and think freely.

One way to construct a new picture of success through building confidence and focus is to follow a few simple mental programming steps. Writer’s Block IV walks you through the steps to rekindle your writing talent that is buried within.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

During brain surgery, studies report that patients whose brain cells are stimulated with thin electrodes describe reliving scenes from the past. Keep in mind that they are not remembering; they are reliving the experiences. When you control the firing of the brain, you experience sensations that allow you to “pre-live,” in the same way the brain is stimulated with thin electrodes, allowing you to relive the experience. In other words, you can create the future just as you can relive the past. When you “pre-live,” you experience wholeheartedly life before it happens: You “will” it to happen. People that get into the “zone” are actually pre-living; that is, they are seeing, feeling and experiencing future events before it happens. The brain fires in a similar fashion, if not identical, to the way a person imagines something as compared to when it actually happens. The brain cannot tell fact from fiction or imagination from reality. The more the brain fires, the greater its memory and retention. The harder it fires, the greater the memory and retention. Emotion, real or fantasized, causes the brain to fire harder. When an individual gets into the zone, the activation is localized in the brain about the size of a dime. Persons can fire their own brain by imagining success. By imagining success they are pre-living it before it happens.

When an author experiences writers block, he or she is imagining failure. The more one imagines failure, the greater the anxiety. When anxiety reaches a high pitch, the brain shuts down. The brain can shut down so tight it physically will cause paralysis. During writers block, the individual is pre-living failure to such a degree that failure is inevitable.

One way to get the author back on track is to reprogram the brain for success. Programming the brain for success requires the development of confidence and focus. Confidence and focus can be pre-lived. How to build confidence and focus will be covered in Writers Block III.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

When you allow tension to get to you, your fingers and your arms stiffen and finally the brain tightens. You now have a case of nerves and, in extreme cases, writer’s block. Writer’s blocks are mind spasms that impair thinking and the actual physical movement of moving a pencil or typing. Writer’s block is an occupational cramp experienced by musicians, surgeons, actors, and golfers as well as authors.

Writer’s block commonly occurs when an author believes they should and must write something. Cigarettes, aspirin, Alka Seltzer, and whiskey are of no benefit. The great entertainer W.C. Fields once said, “I took a cup of booze to quiet my nerves. I repeated the treatment until my nerves got so quiet I couldn’t move.”

Desperate writers seeking advice on what to do when suffering writer’s block are often told to do “nothing”. The response of “nothing” is a little tongue-in-cheek humor sprinkled with a bit of wisdom, because what is implied is that the nervousness and writer’s block are in the head. It is all psychological.

The simplest solution is to clear the blockage out of the head by not thinking at all. However, the brain is a workaholic. It works day and night, when awake and asleep. One solution is to take control of the subconscious by programming the brain into seeing and feeling success.

Authors experiencing writers block try to consciously write, and the more one tries to consciously free one’s the greater the blockage. Writing is a subconscious activity. Ideas come without conscious thought.

Olympian athletes program their subconscious mind through words, pictures, and emotions. Before skill execution, Olympians talk out loud to themselves, explaining their success as if it is happening at that very moment. Next they visualize, in high definition, what they are telling themselves, but the key is emotion. They feel the success prior to the execution of the skill at the same intensity they will feel after the skill has been successfully executed.

Programming the subconscious to overcome writer’s block is identical to programming the subconscious of the Olympian for superior performance. In Writers Block II, the vital role of emotion is explained so you can begin to program your own subconscious and athletes get back to being the productive, creative author you really are.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

Photo courtesy: Michelle Kwajafa

The creative person is not just creative in their vocation or avocation. They are not just a creative writer, creative artist, or creative musician; they are a creative being. Creative people think creatively and most dress creatively and behave creatively. Creativity is expressed on a continuum from mild to moderate to profound. In other words, some people are more creative than others and some are far more creative than others.

When an individual goes beyond profound creativity, they become abnormal and are identified as crazy or way too weird. Crossing the abnormal, crazy line is identified when the creative person can’t shut off their creativity or are so reinforced by their creativity they refuse to shut it off. Normal people are able to respond appropriately to environmental situations. Normal people dress and behave one way at church and a different way at a Friday night beer blast. Normal people pick up environmental cues and respond accordingly.

The reason normal people are able to adapt is because they learn incidentally and subsequently function within an external locus of control. As a creative person advances along the creativity continuum, they move toward an internal locus of control. When crossing the line to craziness, the locus of control is so internalized the individual loses contact with reality or doesn’t care about reality.

What is confusing to psychologists and sociologists is when the creativity goes beyond bizarre craziness and turns into ingeniousness. As an individual moves into the category of genius, the abnormal, crazy line begins to blur. At this point the normal general population begins to accept the person as a creative genius. When anointed at this highest level of creativity the individual is given a license to do just about anything they so desire; any time, any where, any when, any what.

Oftentimes a normal creative person gets so wrapped up in their creative world they lose contact with reality. When this happens, reality tries its darnedest to pound them back into conformity, but a few resist and cross the abnormal, crazy line only to be faced with:

You ain’t no Ernest Hemingway.
You ain’t no Pablo Picasso.
You ain’t no Wolfgang Mozart.

Now take a close look at yourself. Do you dress a little unusually? Do you act a little strange at times? Do you surround yourself with unusual things, very unusual things? Well, maybe you are a genius like Hemingway, Picasso, or Mozart, but nobody recognizes you for what you are. Or maybe you are just plain crazy like the rest of us want-to-be writers, artists or musicians whose work remain unrecognized and unappreciated.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

Some people are creative, some are not. Some people are more creative than others, some less. Maybe it is more accurate to think that some people are able to retain and express their creativity while the creativity in others remains dormant. Creativity may not be in the genes, but instead, it may be in everyone’s DNA.

Observe children in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade and you’ll see that oodles of creativity abound. Every child explores, creates, and imagines. But beginning around second grade, creativity flourishes in some and diminishes in others.

As an individual grows and matures, a perception of who the person is solidifies. As relationships are formed, skills mastered, and interests pursued, personalities are developed. Although people are complex, personality instruments indicate most people tend to see themselves and behave within three basic patterns: (a) traditional, (b) competitive, and (c) empathic.

The traditionalist tends to be hardworking, conforming, and loyal. The competitor likes to win, will take risks and is confident with his or her self. The empathic person places a high value on personal relationships, is sensitive and people oriented. Most adults are a combination of the three patterns but have a tendency to prefer one. Over time the adult forms a picture of who they are. This self perception forms a comfort zone. The comfort zone is an individual’s perceived personality. When a person is forced to perform outside the comfort zone, they become uncomfortable and in extreme cases anxious. As a person becomes uncomfortable or anxious, there is a natural tendency to get back into the comfort zone, that is, get back to who they believe themselves to be.

Of the three predominant personality types, none exclude creativity. Creativity transcends personality types. As a person forms their perceived picture of their selves, some leave room for creativity while others snuff it out. Persons wanting to revitalize their suppressed creativity need to reconnect with their childhood and explore new horizons. It can be done, it is easy but it takes some effort and at times it may become uncomfortable.

Here are a few ideas for those who want to ignite their suppressed creativeness:

• Play house or dolls with a young child or better yet, children. You cannot play the game without imagination, and imagination is the foundation of creativity.

• Using miniature action figures, soldiers, and/or cowboys, play with the young. This will solidify your personality while forcing you to make room for creativity.

• Play alone with Tinker Toys, Legos, Lincoln Logs and throw away the instructions and printed models. The purpose is to have fun.

• Get dirty with clay or Play Dough. You may want to get a lot of it. The purpose is to get at one with the dough.

• Try finger painting or if you are slanted toward being a traditionalist cheat, and use a brush.

• Write notes and/or letters to loved ones and make your writing come from your heart.

• Write to yourself and make your writing come from the depths of your soul.

• Take a different route to work; begin to explore geographic areas you are unfamiliar with.

• Try different foods. Expand your tastes, some pleasant, some not so pleasant.

As you experiment, explore, and expand your world, tell yourself, “I love playing, I am curious, I see myself exploring, I see others watching me, smiling with joy and approval as I create. I feel a fulfillment that overwhelms my very being.” This self talk coupled with creative playing experiences will open a place in your perceived comfort zone, and at that point in time you will be the creative person you once were.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

University textbooks are far from interesting because their purpose is to inform and communicate a body of knowledge rather than entertain or inspire. Not only is the purpose different from writing for the general public the procedure for getting published is different.

Many students, after completing a course at a college or university, believe they could write a better text than the one assigned, and they probably could. But the text wasn’t written for the student; it was written for the professor to use as an aid to their instruction. The first and major difference in writing a university text is determining the audience. No student buys a text unless it is required. When writing a text, the author must please the instructor. Here is the rub: If the text is too good, the professor isn’t needed, and if it is too weak, the professor has to work too hard. The secret is for the author to find that delicate balance.

Assuming the author can find that delicate balance, how does one get published? To begin, the textbook author does not need a literary agent. The initial contact is best made with a representative of a publisher that visits colleges and universities to persuade professors to select their products. Another avenue is to submit a proposal directly to the publishing editor assigned to the desired discipline. The advantages of dealing with the publisher’s rep are eye-to-eye contact and give-and-take discussion. Reps can become an advocate, and they are direct conduits to the publisher. They can and will tell you what the publisher is looking for and what the publisher will invest in.

Publishers of texts are primarily interested in publishing books for existing courses. They are not interested in publishing a text for a non-existent course or for a course that is unique to an individual professor or an individual institution. So don’t get creative. Publishers of texts want texts that capture market share and turn a profit. The proposal should contain ideas that will penetrate the market, that is, get professors to adopt the text. Reasons for adopting a text might include: test banks, video clips, creative and useful teaching manuals, subject matter interfaced with an accrediting agency’s standards, and/or Power Point aids to lectures. Preparing the teaching manual and supporting teaching aids usually take as long if not longer to prepare than it does to write the text. Why would anyone go to the trouble to write a boring text with supplementary materials? There is money in it, that’s why. If you happen to penetrate the market, college texts are not sold one at a time like books for the general public. They are sold a class at a time and many classes have multiple sections.

So when writing a university text, contact the book rep personally and create ideas that will make the professor look good, smart and current. Keep in mind that a professor’s teaching evaluations are important for job security and merit pay. You can bank on it… and so can they.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

By James S. Payne

Literary agents are bombarded with requests for their services each and every day. To assure the cover letter gets read and not just skimmed, it is advisable to begin the letter with a hook. A hook is something that is exciting that grabs the reader by the throat. It may be a quote, an anecdote, a joke…something that compels the agent to take a nibble. The following are two examples. The first was used successfully with a self-help book and the second with a novel.

“A gentleman anxiously looked on as the fortune teller passed her hands over the crystal ball. She abruptly stopped, frowned, refocused, then again passed her hands over the magic sphere. Next, she scrutinized the message within the inner core of the crystal ball. Then, in a deep, husky voice she professed, ”I see in your future sadness, depression, unhappiness, discontent…but wait...don’t get alarmed…I see you getting used to it.”
People want to do more than just get used to it. They want more than to just cope. (The book) helps people.”
(The remaining portion of the cover letter lays the foundation for the self-help book and introduces the enclosed proposal.)

“As you have done every day, you retrieve the stack of junk mail crammed in you post office box, but today there is a seductively pink envelope sandwiched between the Wal Mart flyer and the L.L. Bean catalog. You hurriedly move to a nearby table and slip out the alluring envelope, raise it to your nose to savor the scent of lilacs. Pavlovian response-like, you open the envelope to find a card that reads:
I need you. I want you.
Lunch, Friday, Noon, Coffee Bistro.
Your heart flutters, you sigh, then you wonder who? There is no signature. Inquisitively you return to the outside of the envelope to find it addressed to Current Resident.
What a turn off. The proposed novel,(title here) turns on and engages the reader.”
(The remaining portion of the cover letter introduces the book and the enclosed proposal.)

Most beginning authors fail to craft their cover letter with the same talent, thought and skill that they use in writing their proposed book. Cover letters that begin, “I am seeking an agent to assist me in finding a publisher for…”attempts to inform or communicate rather than persuade or convince. A cover letter is the first thing the agent sees, and a good hook with the right bait has snagged many an agent. Preparing to fish is precursory to successful fishing.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.

By James S. Payne

When crafting a proposal to submit to a literary agent, the section on how the proposed book will be promoted by the author is the single most important section of the proposal. The promotion section explains how the author will help get the book marketed and sold. Examples include:

Pre-sold books: Purchase 500 books from the first printing at a reasonable discount.

Visit bookstores: visit (specify number) bookstores in (author’s) geographical area. All bookstores that are members of BookSense will be visited and given a complimentary copy of the book. The author will discuss, in person, possible future readings and book signings.

Send book reviews and excerpts: Send book reviews to specific magazines and excerpts to newspapers, to specifically stated sources.

Radio: Place an ad in Radio-TV Interview Report and conduct radio interviews as requested. This could generate a significant number of reviews.

Print media: Send news releases to local and regional newspapers.

Website: Establish a website and web page and an 800 number that will be used on all publicity connected with the book.

Blog: Establish a blog and respond in a timely manner.

This is not an exhaustive list but it is offered to help new, unknown authors get started. Most successful authors spend as much time promoting their work as they do writing it. They make a fundamental shift in their thinking from having something to say to having something to sell. For want-to-be authors this is not a pretty picture, but it is a realistic one.

Dr. James Payne, a nationally-recognized scholar, educator and speaker, is a professor of Special Education at the University of Mississippi and a Fulbright recipient. He is the developer of the PeopleWise Event Management System and the PeopleWise Profile System.