Topics on this page:
Be protective of your writing time and space
Writing about anniversaries
Where do I begin?
What's your writing process?
Looking at the world through innocent eyes.
Be protective of your writing time and space
Writing about anniversaries
Where do I begin?
What's your writing process?
Looking at the world through innocent eyes.
Be protective of your writing time and space - like Pooh Bear
"Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you."
-- Zadie Smith
Early on, I had a writing mentor who said, 'If your writing is important to you, you will make time and space for it.' I was reminded of these words when I read the quote above from Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and her latest Swingtime.
Our writing is often something we do when we have a spare moment here and there. When I worked full time at a business career, as hard as I tried, writing was always the very last thing on an agenda that was rarely completed. I didn't honour my writing in the way that my mentor hoped I would.
If you're serious about writing, you'll make time and a physical place for it.
As Zadie says, protect this time and space with vigour, even from partners, children, dear friends and domestic animals. Your writing place may be the spare room, a caravan out in the back yard, or even the dining table if there is a time during the day when it is yours exclusively. Make it clear to everyone that this is your writing place.
Choose a time and frequency that you can defend: after the kids have gone to school, at night when everyone is in bed, a weekend afternoon when the house is empty because everyone is at sports games or band practice, or early in the morning before everyone, including the sun, is up. Do it daily, every other day, once or twice a week.
And it doesn't have to be heaps of time either. 10 minutes, 15, 30 minutes - whatever you can manage. But stay with it, defend it, protect it, be territorial and you'll be rewarded with something fabulous: words.
"Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you."
-- Zadie Smith
Early on, I had a writing mentor who said, 'If your writing is important to you, you will make time and space for it.' I was reminded of these words when I read the quote above from Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and her latest Swingtime.
Our writing is often something we do when we have a spare moment here and there. When I worked full time at a business career, as hard as I tried, writing was always the very last thing on an agenda that was rarely completed. I didn't honour my writing in the way that my mentor hoped I would.
If you're serious about writing, you'll make time and a physical place for it.
As Zadie says, protect this time and space with vigour, even from partners, children, dear friends and domestic animals. Your writing place may be the spare room, a caravan out in the back yard, or even the dining table if there is a time during the day when it is yours exclusively. Make it clear to everyone that this is your writing place.
Choose a time and frequency that you can defend: after the kids have gone to school, at night when everyone is in bed, a weekend afternoon when the house is empty because everyone is at sports games or band practice, or early in the morning before everyone, including the sun, is up. Do it daily, every other day, once or twice a week.
And it doesn't have to be heaps of time either. 10 minutes, 15, 30 minutes - whatever you can manage. But stay with it, defend it, protect it, be territorial and you'll be rewarded with something fabulous: words.
Writing about anniversaries
When October rolls around, I'm reminded of an important anniversary.
On 13th October 2001 I was told I had breast cancer. For me, every year past that date has been celebrated in a joyous way, whilst taking time also to reflect on how grateful I am to still be here.
Another anniversary is the death of my Mom on 26th November 2010. That date is marked more by an honouring of the memory, a ritual almost, to remember her and her life.
Some anniversaries are harder to write about than others, but they are great topics to explore with your life writing. Here's some tips for getting started.
1. Choose the anniversary you want to write about - doesn't matter if it's happy, sad, or bad - as long as it has a significance for you.
2. Think about why you chose it - why is it important for you, what meaning does it have in your life?
3. Most anniversaries are associated with gaining or losing: perhaps you gained a wife! Or you made a good friend, or you still mourn the loss of a beloved family pet. Tell me about that.
4. Think about how your life was changed by the event that you acknowledge - was it a turning point, as my breast cancer was for me. Did it put you onto a new pathway, or return you to an old one? Has the change had a positive or negative outcome for you?
5. Let the feelings and emotions associated with that anniversary float up. Don't be afraid to let them surface and do your best to put them into words. This adds so much to your writing. Take your time, you'll be surprised by all that will come to you.
6. Tell me what you saw/heard/smelled/tasted/touched on that day. On the day of I was diagnosed with cancer, I remember the smell of flowers in my doctor's exam room, sweet and heavy, the ice cold water she gave me after giving me the news, the feel of my friend's hand on my back, reassuring and kind.
OK - so get scribbling! I know you can do it!
When October rolls around, I'm reminded of an important anniversary.
On 13th October 2001 I was told I had breast cancer. For me, every year past that date has been celebrated in a joyous way, whilst taking time also to reflect on how grateful I am to still be here.
Another anniversary is the death of my Mom on 26th November 2010. That date is marked more by an honouring of the memory, a ritual almost, to remember her and her life.
Some anniversaries are harder to write about than others, but they are great topics to explore with your life writing. Here's some tips for getting started.
1. Choose the anniversary you want to write about - doesn't matter if it's happy, sad, or bad - as long as it has a significance for you.
2. Think about why you chose it - why is it important for you, what meaning does it have in your life?
3. Most anniversaries are associated with gaining or losing: perhaps you gained a wife! Or you made a good friend, or you still mourn the loss of a beloved family pet. Tell me about that.
4. Think about how your life was changed by the event that you acknowledge - was it a turning point, as my breast cancer was for me. Did it put you onto a new pathway, or return you to an old one? Has the change had a positive or negative outcome for you?
5. Let the feelings and emotions associated with that anniversary float up. Don't be afraid to let them surface and do your best to put them into words. This adds so much to your writing. Take your time, you'll be surprised by all that will come to you.
6. Tell me what you saw/heard/smelled/tasted/touched on that day. On the day of I was diagnosed with cancer, I remember the smell of flowers in my doctor's exam room, sweet and heavy, the ice cold water she gave me after giving me the news, the feel of my friend's hand on my back, reassuring and kind.
OK - so get scribbling! I know you can do it!
Where do I begin?
When we're telling a story out loud, we usually begin at the beginning. 'Once upon a time there was a brave prince ...'
But when we begin writing our memoir or life story, trying to decide where to start can be daunting. Let's face it, our lives have plenty of material, so which bit do we tackle first?
There may be a part of your life story that you want to tell, perhaps a time when you lived in another country, or when you experienced something profound and life-changing, like a serious illness or accident.
OK - so you narrow it down but when you prepare to write, you're so overwhelmed by the enormity of time and material, you freeze. Yikes.
Try starting anywhere within your narrative. You don't have to start at the beginning and work through to the end. Maybe you are writing about the year you lived in Africa and the one image that keeps intruding into your thoughts is the time you looked out onto a broad savannah at daybreak and the sun came up while lions bellowed in the semi-darkness. Start there.
Make a start and the rest will follow. You can sort out the structure of your story later. The most important thing is to get writing. I believe in you.
What's your writing process?
We're all individuals with our own quirky habits and ways of doing things. The same goes for our writing.
Some of us like to sit before the computer screen and tap away. Others prefer to write longhand on legal notepads and some of us jot down ideas on our Smartphones.
It's the same for where we write. Because I write most days, I sit down at my work desk. Some writers perch at the kitchen table, or write in bed, some prefer to sit in cafes and others like to do it standing up. It doesn't matter where you do it, as long as you do it.
I was once told by a writing mentor, 'You should be able to write anywhere.' That meant on buses, airplanes, boats, in cafes, cars, ferries, other people's houses, house boats, long drops ... you get the idea.
That's fine, but I think finding the groove that works best for you is important to your process of writing. Famous writer Truman Capote once said "I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch, and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis."
Whatever works!
We're all individuals with our own quirky habits and ways of doing things. The same goes for our writing.
Some of us like to sit before the computer screen and tap away. Others prefer to write longhand on legal notepads and some of us jot down ideas on our Smartphones.
It's the same for where we write. Because I write most days, I sit down at my work desk. Some writers perch at the kitchen table, or write in bed, some prefer to sit in cafes and others like to do it standing up. It doesn't matter where you do it, as long as you do it.
I was once told by a writing mentor, 'You should be able to write anywhere.' That meant on buses, airplanes, boats, in cafes, cars, ferries, other people's houses, house boats, long drops ... you get the idea.
That's fine, but I think finding the groove that works best for you is important to your process of writing. Famous writer Truman Capote once said "I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch, and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis."
Whatever works!
Looking at the world through innocent eyes ...
Life is a busy racetrack these days. So much so that we rarely have time to just 'be' in a moment, to look up and look down, see what is actually going on around us. That is hard enough to do, and re-adjusting our view to one of a child's delightful innocence can be even tougher.
When was the last time you sat in the garden, or at the beach, and looked about through a child's eyes, seeing the world for the first time, discovering new sights, smells, sensations?
Our friend Dorothea Brande has this to say:" ... set yourself a short period each day when you will, by taking thought, recapture a childlike 'innocence of eye'. For half an hour each day transport yourself back to the state of wide-eyed interest that was yours at the age if five.Even though you feel a little self-conscious about doing something so deliberately that was once as unnoticed as breathing, you will still find that you are able to gather stores of new material in a short time."
Give it a go, see how you get on.
Life is a busy racetrack these days. So much so that we rarely have time to just 'be' in a moment, to look up and look down, see what is actually going on around us. That is hard enough to do, and re-adjusting our view to one of a child's delightful innocence can be even tougher.
When was the last time you sat in the garden, or at the beach, and looked about through a child's eyes, seeing the world for the first time, discovering new sights, smells, sensations?
Our friend Dorothea Brande has this to say:" ... set yourself a short period each day when you will, by taking thought, recapture a childlike 'innocence of eye'. For half an hour each day transport yourself back to the state of wide-eyed interest that was yours at the age if five.Even though you feel a little self-conscious about doing something so deliberately that was once as unnoticed as breathing, you will still find that you are able to gather stores of new material in a short time."
Give it a go, see how you get on.