Recently I spoke to a group of writers about coming back to writing. Even the title of that discussion invokes a sense of grace and calm, I think. That place in our hearts where we know we must finally sit down and make the space for our writing seems sacred and precious. But it’s not a place where I go as frequently as I know I should.
I think that’s why I focused my talk on how to get from here — this crazy, busy, loud and frenetic world we live in — to there — the place where our minds go quiet and slow, that place where we can reach what’s really in our hearts and thoughts.
1) So the first step in coming back to writing is to Calm Down. Think about what you want – to write, to figure out your world. Do you hope to say something or to ask something?
2) Next – Believe.
Believe you have the ability to do this and that you can make the time. Believe that the discovery of what ends up on the page is worth the time.
3) Practice. This is the time you begin to put words on a page without fear of criticism or judgment. I often refer back to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way or Finding Water to help me get started. Or I use simple story starters. For my classes, I often begin with a simple memory — Saturday morning and I am nine years old. Or I’ll ask them to write, “I will never forgive………” or “I forgave….”
4) Begin. Put pen or pencil to paper. We writers all need that tactile moment when the scratch of our writing tools against paper draws us into the act of writing. So don’t rely upon a keyboard at this stage. Rely upon the physicality of the action and let yourself become completely immersed in the writing.
5) Begin again. If you really wish to come back to writing, you need to make it a habit, something that moves you forward day, after day, even if you’re only giving yourself 15 minutes or three morning pages.
First time novelist Anne Bustard tells of finishing her novel in an MFA writing program and receiving a note from her advisor. It said, “You need to begin again.” So she did. Again, and again, and again. “Then it happened. It happened on my 10,000th try. That manuscript and I connected with my dream agent and dream editor. And I cried oceans of happy tears. Some days I still do. Anywhere But Paradise will be published in April 2015.”
If you’re struggling with beginning again and again, take a class or join a writer’s group. Commit to writing
as the very worthwhile creative thing that you do. Creativity is a gift we receive and simply must grow in order to return that gift to God, or our higher power, or the universe. If drawing and painting is our creative talent, or if writing is our creative talent, it’s the thing we can do to explore and examine the world and hopefully to leave the world a better place than we found it.
Happy writing!
