Many of you read my last post about the importance of journaling and responded to me privately.  You want to keep a journal but do not know where to start, don’t see the value, don’t feel like you have anything interesting to say, feel too distracted, and don’t know how to persist with the process.  So you stopped.  Yet each one of you who has contacted me feels a craving to write out your thoughts.  The most common reason for not writing was that you don’t have the time to do so and want support.

I'm excited to start the series by featuring the amazing Vanessa Grillone. I discovered Vanessa's blog, My Pen, My Voice, this past January on the Canadian Weblog Awards  site where both our blogs were nominated. I had to connect with her as we share similar interests, live/lived in Toronto, and both have self-published books. Vanessa is a writer, blogger, and book-lover looking to find her place in the publishing world. She contributes to ChicDarling.com  and Workstory.net; she also writes for her own lifestyle blog on VanessaGrillone.com . Vanessa can’t stop writing and can be annoyingly optimistic, but she doesn’t care—she loves life.

I know many people who have said they want to write a book but don't know how to start or what to write about.

My advice: JUST START WRITING!  If you need help, you should read "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  She encourages people to get up every morning and write three pages by hand.  Even if you have nothing to say, just write out "I have nothing to say" for the three pages.

I know this challenge may be hard, and there will be days when you want to quit; but, keep writing! I would appreciate your comments and participation, as it is always easier to keep going when people are on the journey with you.   But this challenge is one with myself; I have a lot to say and want to get it down.

I have had this happen to me a couple times before, when I was starting to write large papers for some courses I took. However, I have never experienced such a large mental roadblock until recently. When I went to start writing my book, I had all these ideas running through my head; but when I went to type them out recently, I couldn’t.

I know from past experience that you don’t make any progress by doing nothing.  So I decided to try to overcome my writer’s block and found some successful ways to do that. The small changes I made and the strategies I learned (which I have shared below) made a world of difference!