Strategy & Content Services with Sandra Lee Schubert

“I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.”  - Peter De Vries If you're looking to make writing a more consistent part of your daily routine, here are five ideas to get you started. Don’t try all at once. Test them out for a couple of weeks, a month, a year. Routines take time. I will confess up front that I am not a consistent writer. I write in bursts of creative inspiration, which is different from my writing for work which means deadlines. I am a poet and essayist, with some prose and fiction. I don’t carve out the time to yank the words out and toss them on paper to see what happens. I don’t give myself the deadlines I do for work. However, do what works for you. These ideas are suggestions to kickstart your routine. Write in the morning . Many writers find that starting their day with a bit of writing can set a productive tone for the rest of the day. Try setting aside dedicated writing time first thing in the morning, before you check your emails or s...

  I am excited about the upcoming launch of my new EBook, Explore Writing Through Your Senses: Tips from a Creative Vagabond .  Welcome to Explore Writing Through Your Senses. Enjoy the journey to becoming a more creative person.  You do not have to be a professional writer to write.  Writing is an activity anyone can do.  Your writer’s toolkit is always with you. Our own bodies are founts of creativity.  Suffering from writer’s block? Can’t come up with a line to start your story? Using your senses, inspiration is as close as your nose, eyes, or your ears.  Walk into any flower shop and colors, scents, and textures surround you. Feel the silkiness of a rose petal, the rough edge of an aloe plant, the prickliness of cactus.  Does sniffing eucalyptus make you sneeze? Do lilies remind you of funerals? Maybe Lily of the Valley forecasts the start of Spring. Your creative adventure can begin anywhere.  Become a careful observer. Watch how pe...

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar” ~Thich Nhat Hanh People stay in dead-end jobs, loveless marriages never leaving the boundaries of their hometowns. Why is it so hard to let go of things that no longer work? The devil you know is better than the one you don’t know. People are willing to live a mediocre life for the safety it provides. But what if you were guaranteed a positive outcome how would you live your life differently? What kind of choices would you make knowing each one would turn out OK? If you can imagine this different life then envision another life where you are still free to make choices but are unsure of the outcome. Except now you accept the consequences of your choices knowing they could be either bad or good. In this life, you feel fear but take chances anyway. Every day we make a choice. You want to lose weight but eat ice cream. You buy a new sweater knowing the money could...

We plan each day. We start with coffee, a shower, or maybe exercise. We go to work or school from Monday to Friday. Saturday is for shopping and errands. Sunday’s, we wake up late; go to brunch or a church service. Maybe you get up and create art or work nights. A routine affords us the comfort to stretch emotionally and physically without distraction. Routines fail us. Tragedy strikes. We go to work and lose our job. A serious illness strikes a relative. Or we look in the mirror and realize this is not the life we had planned on living. A Crucial Point Decisions are normal. We wear blue instead of red. We drop an umbrella in our bag at the last moment. Do you want paper or plastic? Others require more thought. What school we attend. Do we leave a marriage? Should I establish my career before having a child? Situations force us to decide. The longed-for dream house is no longer affordable. We have to decide about a loved one’s healthcare. At this crucial point in life’s journey, the ...

We talked about things, the book. I told you I could not understand what  the fuss was all about. I d i dn’t really like her writing anyway. How about the other one? The one who people think is so smart. I said she is nice and all. But I had a roommate who was getting her PhD who could not boil an egg or iron a shirt. I taught her all that. It’s not the PhD that impresses me, it is the ability to love. I said all these things, stupid things to keep talking, to keep my brain alive. I’ve got wild beasts caught in my throat you know. I have to keep talking to let them out. Ever wondered why all those old people talk all the time? Man, we must keep moving our mouths… move those beasties aside. I told you before when I go on and on about some petty thing the conversation I am having is not the conversation I am having. I am trying to get to something caught deep inside. If I told you all of it, I would have to start screaming. I would scream so loud and so long. I would throw my head ba...

I could leave this world behind. I would crash if I wanted. Spinning me out of time. Instead, I say, “You must write, girl.” Take your pencil. Scrape some lead across the paper. Lick the lead off the white. Lick between the lines. Oh, God. Tongues are so useful, sinewy, and primed for exploration. If one could prod between a verb and an adjective, lick the flavor from a word, would an orange taste the same as a word lobbed around the tongue? I don’t know. Can my tongue feel the delicate line words rest on? Does each greenish-blue line have a texture different from the stark white of the paper? Could I pluck them like a musical instrument? Or would the lines feel like the thread I run through my mouth when I prepare to thread a needle? If words were a meal. If novels were a banquet. If poetry were a dessert, both bitter and sweet. If I licked each word from the paper would they satisfy me? Or do I remain hungry? I want to lick the posters on the subway. Taste the salt of a thousand hand...