writing

How to Avoid Blank Screen Paralysis Using Content Creation Templates with guest Tim Maudlin

When your work requires you to write and the reality of facing that blank monitor screen or sheet of paper turns your mind to mush, what do you do?

Some wanna-bee (or need to be) writers find the paralysis so debilitating they resort to food or alcohol or something … anything … in hopes of greasing the mental gears.

And some find that a day or two of melancholy procrastination stretches out across weeks, months, and years until the project dies, stuck in the recesses of a creative mind attached to fingers unwilling to put out a wrong word.

There’s a solution for that

Templates. “Never underestimate the power of a template,” says my guest Tim Maudlin. Discover just how much he loves templates and what they bring to the writing process in today’s Fast Action Fridays interview below. Scroll further for access to Tim’s free template resource.

Click the image to watch our interview

More about Tim

Something else Tim loves is T-shirts, not just wearing them (which he frequently does) or hanging them (see the quilt displayed behind him in the video). He loves them because T-shirts can encourage and inspire others.

Says Tim, “I love to encourage and inspire people with my T-Shirts. (T-Shirts are wearable content.) I love to write and create content that inspires.

I’ve gone from T-Shirts that Inspire to Content that Inspires. I call my content Inspire Points. As I created my Inspire Points, I have discovered how much I LOVE templates and what they bring to the writing process.”

Help One = Help Many = Help Many More!

“With my Inspire Points, I try to focus on helping ONE person. I believe helping one person is actually the recipe to helping many,” says Tim.

His love of T-Shirts was inspired by one particular incident involving his two boys and a tornado that swept savagely through his neighborhood. You’ll hear him relay the harrowing story in our interview. But if you’re impatient, head on over to Amazon and check out his book.

Click here to check out T-Shirts That Inspire: The $89,000 T-Shirt.
(yep my aff link 🙂 )

Tim’s mantra is simple:
Do what you can, Where you are, With what you have

Unusual Facts about Tim:

When Tim was in elementary school, he and a friend performed a saxophone duet at the Indiana State Fair. On the way to the performance, he met Lawrence Welk in the restaurant of the hotel. Mr. Welk and his orchestra were performing at the fair too. He told Tim to look him up one day.
After a tornado destroyed part of his hometown, Tim designed a t-shirt to help raise money for the victims. That one t-shirt raised $89,000.
Tim is an architectural Illustrator. He draws buildings before they are built. He has worked on projects all over the world. You might have heard of one his projects, The Mall of America. Tim drew it but has NEVER visited it in person.

“Never Underestimate the Power of a T-Shirt” – Fred Lebow

Get Tim’s Free Resource

Click here to access Tim’s free resource:
3 reasons Why I Love Templates (eBook that includes 9 free templates) Also included in the e-book is the template I used to create all 9 reasons.
Other ways to connect with Tim:
Join his Facebook group by clicking here.

Your Turn

Even the best, most prolific writers occasionally fight bouts of the Blank Screen Paralysis or its predecessor, the dreaded white sheet of paper.

Do you ever suffer from these frustrating conditions? What’s your go-to solution? Have you ever used a template to help you jumpstart the project?

Please share your comments and questions below.

Come join the Rocking Your Path Community on Facebook. Click here.

Make writing your signature speech fast and easy

By Kat Sturtz Leave a Comment

Wish there was a magic wand to have your speech or webinar basically written for you?

There is! Check out the Signature Speech Wizard. And don’t miss the special Coupon Code below.

UPDATE: Please note links to Signature Speech Wizard still active. But as I write this update April 25, 2016, the discount mentioned in this post is no longer valid. However, I still highly recommend SSW. I continue to use it with great success, as well as the many other Wizards that I’ve purchased from Jim Edwards.
• To see what other programs, including many freebiews Felicia Slattery has available, visit her site here.
• Visit Jim Edwards site here to see all that he has to offer. Did I mention I own a lot of Jim’s Wizards? Yep, I do. And have been worth every penny.

It was created by the combined brilliance of Jim Edwards, known for his easy to follow instructional webinars and courses, and Felicia Slattery, who I refer to as the Queen of Signature Speeches. Now I could gush more about this software … that downloads to your system and can be used over and over … but you can check out all the details yourself here. There’s even a special coupon to save $100. Who doesn’t love to save money on a terrific bargain! Just enter the special coupon code to save you $100: COUPON CODE: SSW100JanDisc

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Here’s the deal… after you download and fire up the software this is what happens: – You answer 43 questions (with prompts and examples to make it super easy). – Save your work. – Choose your output (anything from PowerPoint slides of a finished speech, your speech outline, customer order forms, social media posts, questions for creating content marketing materials, and so much more.) – Make your small tweaks for capitalization, adding minor subpoints, etc. – Start using the material to make you money and bring you clients from speaking and webinars. Go see the demo now at https://rockingyourpath.com/make-writing-signature-speech-fast-easy

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Yesterday, I couldn’t spell author. Today, I are one.

By Kat Sturtz 6 Comments

Today’s Guest Post, by Michigan author Tom Glide, is a witty, heart-felt account of one man’s transformation to becoming a writer and his journey to bring to life his father’s true story of survival as a WWII POW and the family waiting for him to come home. Tom’s first book, Fortresses: An Airman’s Story of Survival, was published spring 2012.

“Yesterday, I couldn’t spell author. Today, I are one.”

I said those words to my oldest sister in March of 2012, while I was holding an author’s proof of Fortresses, An Airman’s Story of Survival in my hands. It was a proud day for both of us, but even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined writing a book. My love of writing was something I found by accident, or an ironic twist of fate.

I was a car guy, through and through, and was going for a business degree so I could open my own shop, restore old cars, build hot rods, and live happily ever after. When my college advisor informed me that I would have to take English Comp I and II, I wasn’t happy. Visions of my old steel edged ruler totin’ Catholic school nuns just waiting to give me a good shot across the knuckles for violating the I before E, except after C rule ran through my mind. (I think I remember one of them having a holster.)

Question — Could you just poke me in the eye with a sharp stick instead?

“You’re really good at this. Just don’t try to make a living at it. There’s no money in it.”

— Diane Tompkins, English Comp I and II instructor,
Delta College, Michigan, circa 1993

It turned out my instructor was not a heavily armed nun, she was a young, vibrant teacher, who let her students write whatever they were passionate about. I actually liked the classes, and hated to see them end. When I completed them, she took me aside and gave me the above quote, which is actually an excerpt. The full quote was “Tom, I really enjoyed reading every assignment of yours. You have a wonderful way of letting the reader see what you are writing about.” While I beamed with pride, she then added the ‘don’t try to make a living’ part, bringing me back down to earth with a thump. Oh well, I hadn’t planned on it anyway. Too bad though. It sure was fun.

I learned a lot when I eventually opened that shop. First and foremost, if you want to make a little money running your own business, start with a LOT. Then be ready to devote a lot of hours to it. When a chance to get an extremely well-paying job with excellent benefits that my family needed came along, I jumped at it. Writing became the furthest thing from my mind.

Then on Christmas Day of 2001, my dad finally lost the battle he had been fighting with Alzheimer’s and passed away. It wasn’t the only battle dad faced in his lifetime. He had also been in the Army Air Corps in WWII, and a German POW for nine months. While cleaning out the family home and divvying up the contents, my siblings and I stumbled upon an old Army suitcase full of memoirs and journals he kept during that time, and read (for the first time) what part of hell he really went through. I was mesmerized by the story, and thought to myself that it would make an incredible book.

**“You have a wonderful way of letting the reader see what you are writing about.”**

The kind words from my instructor echoed through my mind. Should I write that book? Could I write that book? The only experience I had was a few 1500 word short stories from college, and a few of my own memoirs that I had begun. But a whole book? That seemed pretty overwhelming. I had no idea where to start, plus, I remembered my instructor saying there was no money in it. Where’s the reward in it? I decided to pass on the idea, and simply walk away with a whole new level of admiration for the hero that dad was.

A short while later I got the chance to get an up close and personal look at a restored B-17, just like the one dad used to fly in. It was every bit the magnificent aircraft I remembered him telling me about. It made me think about writing dad’s story again, then of how big a task that would be. Then I remembered something he used to tell me whenever I didn’t want to do something, which usually was preceded by me saying the words “Daaaad … I can’t.”

“Don’t gimme that I can’t bullshit! There’s no such word as can’t!”

After reading about the ordeal he went through, I understood why he felt there was no such word as can’t. It had been much tougher than raking leaves or eating canned peas that used to garner that wonderful bit of fatherly advise. I decided to give writing the book a shot. A book is made up of chapters. Chapters are sorta kinda short stories, right? I got this.

Tom Glide, Michigan author

By Kat Sturtz Leave a Comment

I’m so proud of Tom, a former writing student of mine.

It’s a delight to continue to mentor him.

His book is a dual journey of heroic proportions, heart-wrenching details, and passionate story-telling. First, in the journey Tom discovered his father and air crew buddies had experienced that was captured in detail within worn journals then hidden from the family for years.

Then, secondly, in Tom’s diligent, passionate, and years-long journey to bring it vividly to life within the pages of a book.

Kat,

Thank YOU for the insight and guidance you have given me over the years with this project. A lot of people have given me good advice and feedback, but I feel the best was your suggestion of writing it firsthand. That is what made it a great story.

Tom Glide
Author of Fortresses, an Airman’s Story of Survival
(published spring 2012)

NOTE: Tom’s nonfiction book is a fictionalized historical story based on journals his father kept during his time as a radio operator on The Purple Heart, a B-17 bomber in World War Two, and the resulting time he spent as a German POW.

To learn more about Tom’s book, and read sample chapters: Click here

Trudy in Michigan

By Kat Sturtz Leave a Comment

Dear Kathy,

I just wanted to let you know I enjoyed meeting you. You are a very interesting person! Thanks for allowing me to feel comfortable in a group of people perhaps much more advanced in their writing than I am. I had a lot of fun. Wish I were going to be in the last class. I hope you offer another class in the future. I will do my best to attend!

Thanks again,

Trudy