Steven Barnes

Can you tell us a story about a time your sense of humor turned the tide in a situation?

Here’s a quick breakdown of a classic film: Casablanca

Challenge: For the hero, Rick, to awaken to the fact that he is morally dead
Rejection: his heart has been broken, and he cannot deal with the pain.
Acceptance: His former sweetheart Ilsa comes to Casablanca, setting in motion actions that force him to awaken.
Road of Trials: the Letters of…[Read more]

“What a woman”–you could look at a woman of sexual experience as someone to teach you, help you open up. The choice is yours.

I’m not really feeling the specific idea of “developing” your inner feminine side…but I do think you need to get in touch with it, let it nurture you so that you aren’t so desperately hungry for that nurturance from…[Read more]

When you really love yourself, you don’t much care what other people think about you. If you NEED them to approve of you, you are behaving like a dependent child.

Your first goal should be to double your energy. That will impact EVERYTHING else you do. Look into the following arenas:
1) Exercise. Are you moving your body? Sweating 3-6 times a week for 20-30 minutes?
2) Rest. Getting enough sleep? Most people need 7-8 hours a night for full recovery.
3) Food. What is the quality of the food you’re…[Read more]

How many stories have you written since joining Lifewriting, Tom?

Wonderful. Gratitude is a wonderful cure for fear. Filling your heart with it reminds us that the universe can be a nurturing place, and that our dreams can come true. EMOTION IS THE FUEL OF SUCCESS. If you will take time every day to fill yourself with love, and hope, and gratitude, your writing will flow from your deepest wells, and you’ll…[Read more]

How is that story going?

Here’s a good “bottom line”–one sentence per day. EVERY DAY. NO EXCEPTIONS. Do this, and you’ll open the “circuitry” that connects emotions, intellect and physical action. It is this combination that will take you to your goal. Cut any ONE of those threads, and your entire venture fails. Work consciously to strengthen all three, and you are a…[Read more]

that is precisely true: there IS no single path. But the “Machine” is a clear high-level view of the process:
1) Write 1-4 stories a month
2) Finish what you write
3) Submit
4) Read 10 X as much as you write
5) Don’t rewrite except to editorial request
6) Repeat for 100 stories.

Your position on this road seems pretty clear. Congratulations!

Making a mean pie is a strength! Bringing joy to yourself or your loved ones with that? Yum!

That sounds interesting, Tom! Hmmm…

I think my strongest capacity is regulating my emotions. The ability to remain positive in adversity.

I used to lie a lot as a kid, and got punished for it. But when I spun those same lies into “stories” people liked them. I made friends. Part of it was an attempt to imitate what I saw in books and television and film. But another part was trying to fill in the gaps, as I didn’t see black people in so many of those stories. So…I wrote.…[Read more]

I think that what “A New Hope” did that was new was an A-level presentation of B-movie tropes, combined with stunning special effects and a very simple mythological storyline. Amazingly powerful, really. A LOT of people complained about the visual familiarity of TFA, and I can’t blame them.

“The Force Awakens” is a perfectly fine example. Lucasfilm had multiple tasks to accomplish: setting up the next trilogy, providing a satisfying film experience, reinvigorating a franchise they’d paid over a billion dollars to acquire, and so forth. Their decision, and it seems to have been a good one, was to recapitulate the experience of the…[Read more]

My greatest weakness is that I was clever enough to be lazy about developing my “business mind”–the little kid inside me was able to spin elaborate lies and make a ton of money. Now, I need to learn to be more “adult” in the world of money and business, and realize there are entire arenas where I am so ignorant I don’t even know what I don’t know!

Tom–can you be specific about how “Glitch” did this? And for fun, how about choosing a movie we’d all be likely to know, and give us your take on how the HJ breaks it down?

The most important thing you can do is have a Morning Ritual that anchors your emotions, focuses your mind and awakens your body EVERY MORNING. The closer to awakening the better. You will actually be able to measure the difference in terms of depression, actions, results by how faithful you are with this single 10-20 minute practice.…[Read more]

Your fear of being inadequate causes you pain. You could reframe this and think of it as the learning experience of a lifetime! Wow! What a woman!

What you need is that inner connection. The outer work is healing your finances.

Mind = Finances
Emotions = Relationship/sex
Body = Physical exercise, health, fitness
Finances = Income and…[Read more]