The Book | 10K Day for Writers

. . . or you feel you’ve lost your spontaneity in an effort to fit into the publishing system . . . or you just want to put some fun back into your creativity . . .

. . . then find out how writers and “closet writers” have ignited (or re-ignited) their passion for creativity using this little-known method.

Milli Thornton

From the Desk of Milli Thornton

Dear Writer or Closet Writer,

Since you’ve ended up here, chances are, you’ve searched the Internet for something a little different. Maybe you weren’t even really sure what that “something different” was.

As one visitor put it:

I found the information on your site quite intriguing and I began to wonder if I qualified as someone who actually had a ‘Fear Of Writing.’ Even now, I am not sure. In fact, I’ve been trying to determine if I have a Fear of Writing, or if I actually have a Greater Fear of Not Writing.

Regardless of how my current blocked situation is viewed, I know for a fact that I am tired of NOT being a writer. I am frustrated with my reluctance to pick up pen and paper or sit down at my keyboard. I am angry with myself for finding that I currently prefer to ‘have written’ than ‘to write.’

Can you help free me from these demons? Can your book and course unlock these chains?

It turns out this visitor, Walt Nickell, does feel that Fear of Writing has helped him. You can use the 60-second survey below to find out if it might also help you.

Sandy Fleming

Milli, you cannot imagine how much positive impact you have had on me, my writing, and I’m sure, tons of other people!

—Sandy Fleming, Pipe Creek, Texas

60 SECONDS TO FIND OUT IF THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU

My goal in this letter is to let you know how my book can help you. You can know right away whether you’re in the right place by using these questions.

Have you ever . . .

longed to write a story but felt you had nothing to write about?

heard a voice inside your head telling you your writing sucks?
felt your creative writing was a chore (“I’d rather clean the oven or mow the lawn”) instead of fun?
had your writing painfully critiqued by a well-meaning person and felt the passion go out of your creativity?
studied lots of books on writing and publishing—but the more you do, the more the fun goes out of it?
felt overshadowed by the achievements of other writers?
felt haunted by this question: “There are millions of short stories and books in the world—who cares if I write anything”?Or, if you’re out searching on behalf of a loved one . . .
Do you know someone who would dearly love to take up writing but has been too intimidated to try?

If even a single question on the above list speaks to you, then my book can help you.

The name of the book is Fear of Writing: for writers & closet writers.

BUT THE PROMISE IS NOT WHAT YOU’D NORMALLY EXPECT

Fear of Writing: for writers & closet writers

Fear of Writing does not promise to show you how to write a novel, find an agent or get published. The Fear of Writing method is designed to take you back to something more primal . . . joy in your creativity.

We all secretly wish we hadn’t forgotten how to play. We watch kids playing and wonder how we ever got so far from something that real. Fear of Writing DOES PROMISE to show you how to recapture that kind of joy and fun.

This method is active, not passive—and that makes all the difference to you.

Wait. To be more specific, part of it IS passive, because you get to relax and read entertaining and emotionally liberating stuff (more on that in a moment).

But this wouldn’t be a helpful book for your creativity unless you actually write something yourself. This book provides 112 ways for you to quickly, easily and painlessly start writing—and you can also use these 112 ways more than once for different results.

So, the sky’s the limit! Now you can use that enticing new notebook you’ve been too busy (or too nervous) to crack open.

112 easy ways to start writing . . . and that can easily translate into a year’s worth of material for your creativity. A group in Santa Fe has used this method on a weekly basis for almost three years and still never exhausted the possibilities.

Or the fun.

Sandy Schairer

I’m still so amazed at how the Fear of Writing method WORKS for me. I can write creatively and leave my stuffy old left brain out of it!

—Sandy Schairer, Tijeras, New Mexico,

author of Extremely Short Stories for Busy People

Jenn Martin Ilo

Just read your first chapter last night, and you were speaking directly to me! If my fiancee hadn’t been sleeping I would have shouted, “That is SO me!” I’m sure that is SO a lot of people, and I’m not the first to tell you that, but I just had to say thanks!

—Jenn Martin Ilo, O’ahu, Hawai’i

“WELL, I’M A TOUGH CASE. HOW DO I KNOW THE FEAR OF WRITING METHOD WILL WORK FOR ME?”

In almost eight years of running writing workshops, weekly writing circles and online forums, I’ve never seen this method not work. Recently, a 79-year-old man came to the Fear of Writing Clinic with no previous creative writing experience. All he’d ever written since his school days amounted to some office memos.

He came to the clinic because he was bored with retirement. After trying the Fertile Material writing prompts and sharing his newly-written stories with the group, the other workshop participants LOVED his writing. The feedback ranged from “Was that a true story?” (. . . it wasn’t, he was just using the vivid imagination we were all born with . . . ) to “Jim, if you don’t keep writing, you’re crazy!”

But you don’t need the Fear of Writing Clinic to show you how to use this method. The book gives all the ground support you’ll need to unleash yourself into the stratosphere. One woman from Texas described it this way:

Marlena Dammé

The Fertile Material exercises motivated a creative area in my brain that was lying dormant. One minute I was staring at the title of the exercise—the next thing I know I was shaking the pain out of my hand from writing five pages.

—Marlena Dammé, San Antonio, Texas

Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Everyone suffers from the occasional onset of fear if not full blown writers’ block. I offer FEAR OF WRITING as a remedy every time.

—Carolyn Howard-Johnson, instructor for UCLA Extension’s renowned Writers’ Program and founder of Authors’ Coalition

THE ACTIVE ZONE AND THE PASSIVE ZONE

The book is designed to deliver both active fun (112 irresistible writing prompts) and invisible emotional healing—for any writing scars you may have accumulated along the way. You’ll find that a certain rhythm comes with it. This is to strike a balance between absorbing the “good medicine” (without having to do anything but read), and actually getting some writing done yourself so the healing is complete.

Part of the “Passive Zone” includes four short stories that have been known to subconsciously work healing magic on the reader.

Based on my own intimate knowledge of fear of writing, I cooked up four memorable characters and threw them in the fear of writing cauldron. These characters first suffer deeply in rather creative ways, and then—just when you think they’re completely doomed—they burn through to writing freedom.

The story “Worm Medicine,” with images I will never forget, made the point real—personal—alive and breathing. Afterwards, I went through and in a few hours fixed the corner I’d painted myself into with my novel. Woohoo!

—BJ Apostol, Santee, Californi

Jennifer Turner

I’d been battling a case of writer’s block ever since the terrorist attack on September 11. Each word needed to be squeezed out of me like lemon juice, and when it hit the page it was just as sour. And then I read “Jack’s House.” Every obstacle Helen encountered, every fear she had, every thought she had, paralleled my own troubles so completely I was stunned. I’d been terrified that my fiction was trivial, meaningless, and without purpose, but when I finished reading “Jack’s House” I understood what I needed to do. This was the miracle I’d been searching for. Thank you!

—Jennifer Turner, Stevens Pt., Wisconsin, author of Stark Knight, Silent Knight, My Biker Bodyguard, and other titles, published after Fear of Writing helped Jenny understand that she already had what it takes to succeed

JUMP IN AND TASTE THE ADVENTURE!

Many of the writers and closet writers I’ve worked with over the years have felt slowed down by one kind of fear or another about their writing: fear of getting started, fear of finishing, fear of failure, even fear of success—the list goes on.

That’s why the Fear of Writing method uses a completely “irrational” approach (fun and spontaneity) that works on you before your logical mind has a chance to ruin things. And then, with this new energy injected into your creativity, you can go on to learn (or continue) the kind of writing you most want to do.

But that will never happen unless you get started. Every one of the people who’ve used this method—including the ones who’ve gone on to get published—took the plunge, read the book, and used the exercises. And they found it so much fun that it took the boogey-man out of writing and made it something attainable.

That can be true for you also, but only if you act on your creative desires.
So, what are you waiting for? Jump in and taste the adventure!

Sincerely,

Milli-Signature-sm

P.S. Using this method, you don’t need any previous experience as a writer to get started. The emphasis is on fun and creativity—not good grammar or literary plums-in-the-mouth.

P.P.S. On the other hand, if you’re an experienced writer you can still gain all the benefits of the freshness and fun of this approach. As J.R. Turner, author of Stark Knight, said: “One great thing about the Fertile Material is that I can take a break from a longer piece (such as one of my novels) and have some real fun! But the best part about the exercises is that each story can be saved and worked on again later—either as a novel or as a story that might be worth submitting to a magazine or writing contest.”

D'Arcy Mayo

I’ve studied hundreds of books on writing. This book has proven to be the best investment ever.

—D’Arcy Mayo, professional writer, Sydney, Australia

Susan Smith

Milli’s techniques are so friendly and non-frightening. . . . The book is very laid-back, conversational, and downright funny! Even the cover picture of the dog holding a match to his manuscript makes me laugh every time I look at it. The exercises are fantastic—they wind up your imagination and let it go and then wonderful things happen.

—Susan Smith, San Antonio, Texas