Historical and speculative author KM Weiland is an enviably organised writer. Send her a guest post request and it hits your inbox the next morning. Her blog, Wordplay, can always be relied on for professional, useful posts. So it’s no surprise that she’s equally organised about being creative.
As writers have to be, of course. This is what sets creative professionals apart. They can’t afford to wait until an idea strikes. They often have day jobs as well as writing commitments, so writing time is tight. They have to train inspiration to come to them.

Now, Katie has shared her creativity routine in a useful audio CD, Conquering Writer’s Block, Summoning Inspiration. In a series of 14 tracks, she gives a concise but well-designed course to make yourself more creative and productive. Tracks include how to have ideas, the myth of the writing zone and how you can be productive every time you sit at your keyboard. How good old-fashioned handwriting can help your ideas flow better than typing on your shiny laptop. How to work through an idea when you’re stuck. How to be productive even if you have little writing time.

Many of these topics will be familiar to those of us who take no nonsense from our muses – although it’s always useful to see how someone else works. But writers who have not yet built their creative arsenal will find it very valuable. Katie describes her strategies with an easy, confessional style, and at 60 minutes long, it’s perfect to pop on your MP3 while out and about (thus leaving you more time to write!). Lastly, she reminds us that for all this discipline, writing should be joyful. Can’t argue with that – and she certainly sent me back to the keyboard with a buzz in my fingers.

Conquering Writer’s Block, Summoning Inspiration is available as an MP3 download or a CD Price: $13.79, $8.99

http://www.kmweiland.com/books_CWBASI.php