Resetting a Writing Project
At some point during every writing project I undertake, I hit a wall. Sometimes, hitting a wall causes me to give up. Other times, I fight through it and get it done. I have recently hit a wall with a project on which I am working and cannot give up on.
It’s time for a RESET
The Wall
For my final project in the last class I am taking for my coaching training, I am writing about how what I learned by doing improv in college is helping me as a coach and how improv could potentially help other coaches. For a while, I had been collecting notes on this topic, intending to turn it into a book someday. However, when this project was assigned to me, I figured this would be a good opportunity to write a mini-version of this book. I have finished working through my notes on the topic. Now, I need to press forward with new ideas. WHAM! I have hit a wall. I need to be able to move forward. To move forward, I am going to hit RESET.
My Why
One of the things I want to accomplish through this writing project is to explore my profession and my particular philosophy towards it. In doing so, I hope to improve myself as a coach.
Who I Want to Be
I want to be a good coach, and I want to write something useful for coaches. I want to be someone who uses improv to influence my life in a positive way. I believe in the benefits of improvisation, and it needs to shine through the way I live and coach.
Strengths-Based Strategies
One of the struggles I am having with this project is moving forward now that all of my ideas are already on the page. I told this to my coach, and he noted that I was trying to have a grand master plan for a project about improv. This was a wake up moment. This is an improv project. I should be willing to improvise. Do I need to have a plan when I sit down to write? No. This is improv! Planning will only get in my way.
Lastly, I want to start watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? on a regular basis again. When it first occurred to me that improv and coaching are related, I watched it a lot, and I read some improv books. I could do that again to help get my creative juices flowing.