The Writing Life

Do you ever feel like you’re not always telling or writing your true truth? That you censor yourself in order to seek approval or look a certain way?

I’ve seen a miraculous release of our truths when we use free-writing. Writing with a prompt, using a timer and without stopping has a potent truth-releasing effect. People in my writing classes have gotten in touch with their deep truth about their lives, their writing and their direction. It’s not necessarily journaling, but a way to access what you really want to say.

Prompt: What I really want to say…

This is part of a 30-day series focused on how free-writing can change your life. Start from the beginning here.

Some people think that free-writing is a waste of time, because it might not be publishable or useful. I can assure you that this method does yield work that is ready for the world. Frankly, I don’t know any writer that doesn’t need some editing. Of course your free-writing will need revising.

For me, free-writing lets me get a start. It gives me a method to get my words out so I can sculpt them later. ALL the things I have written – books, course materials, articles and my novel all started with free-writes. And I have been told that the best, freshest writing in my novel were the parts that were barely edited free-writes.

So the idea that free-writing is just journaling and a potential waste of time – not always true.

Prompt: Writing freely allows me to…

This is part of a 30-day series focused on how free-writing can change your life. Start at the beginning here.

If we’re honest with ourselves, the only thing in the way of our writing dreams is ourselves. We are afraid we’re not good enough. Or we worry that what we have to say is unimportant.

I believe that if you have the desire or urge to write, you must follow it. Who knows where it will lead you?
Get out of your own way with free-writing. It’s a great way to shed the BS and the inhibitions and to release your words freely.

Prompt: When I get out of my own way, I…

This is part of a 30-day series focused on how free-writing can change your life. Start from the beginning here.

Most of us feel the time squeeze – we don’t have enough time in the day to do all the things we have to do, let alone the things we want to do.

But I’ve coached all kinds of people, from moms to executives to entrepreneurs, and the lack of time excuse isn’t really valid. We make time for what we care about.

You would be surprised at how much you can get out in just 15 minutes a day.  Free-writing is a great way to get your words out on the page. In just 15 minutes, you can start something you can easily return to later.

Prompt: With 15 minutes, I could…

This is part of a 30-day series focused on how free-writing can change your life. Start at the beginning here.

One of the biggest blocks we face is fear of what others will think of us and our writing. This concern for staying safe and looking good is normal – we all have this to some degree, right?

But in order to get our words out in our authentic voice, we need to shut ourselves off from the world temporarily. Free-writing is a great way to shut out the world and immerse ourselves in our words. Write like no one is reading, even if it’s just to get yourself started.

Prompt: If I didn’t worry about what others think, I would write…

This is part of a 30-day series focused on how free-writing can change your life. Start at the beginning here.

Are you waiting for permission to start writing what you want? Wait no longer.

In April, I’m going to post a daily writing inspiration to coax all and any wannabe writers to get started (or resume!). I will share the benefits of free-writing, a method I have been teaching since 1996. Free-writing is a powerful tool for writers of all levels and genres to get their words out easily. 

Each day will include a writing prompt that you can use to practice free-writing and to get to know your writer self. The guidelines for free-writing are:

1. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
2. Use the prompt, and don’t think about it; just plunge in.
3. Don‘t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar or correctness. True freedom!
4. Don’t stop writing for the entire 15 minutes. Don’t worry about it going anywhere, just let your pen lead the way.
5. At the end of each writing session, jot down three words that describe how it went for you. Don’t overthink it. This reflection process will help you see the benefits that your writing gives you.

Have fun and enjoy the freedom! At the end of the month, if you have written every day you will have written for almost 8 hours. 

Sometimes it’s good to have privacy around your writing, so no need to share your writing here on the Original Impulse blog. But if you’d like to share your three words or any insights you are gleaning from this process, feel free to leave a comment! I’d love to hear how this affects you.

You’ve probably heard about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic – coming from an internal force and extrinsic – coming from an external force. Everyone has her or his own drive for doing something.

When it comes to our creative projects, I’ve always asked my clients to connect with their intrinsic motivation. We may not know the outcome of writing a book or producing a body of art. The payoff for that may be a long way down the road. So it makes sense to me that we need an inner flame, a deep and true spark that aligns with our values and what we love.

When something is this meaningful to us, we care. We care a lot. We want our book or our work to be good. We want big things for the work and for ourselves.

Unfortunately, sometimes this deep meaning can tip over into too much caring! The stake that we are a stand for becomes stakes that are too high. Our ‘why’ becomes too big and our dreams for our writing tip us into fear mode. Next thing you know, we’re immobilized and the thing that was once so dear to our heart becomes a fear in the gut.

As I prepare to publish my book, I’ve noticed how I tip toward caring too much. Fear creeps in when I think of the publication date. Even though I have written and published many books, each time I am called to bolster my courage. I’m asked to keep the focus on what I want for the book and the world, not on me and my ego.

We all have fears about whether our projects will be good and whether the world will receive it. We put so much into our work, and we want it to succeed. Yet the true work of creating and sharing our work is to not fall prey to our fears. To keep meaning solidly in place and fear in its place.

My clients have found it helpful to hold the vision intact for the project, and also to release expectation. Once we put the work into the world, it’s out of our hands. The world will rise up to meet it in whatever way it does.

It’s an odd blend of hope and non-attachment. This is something we have to practice every day.

What works for you to hold a clear sense of meaning and also release fears and expectations? Share your thoughts below.

You know that book idea that’s been simmering in the back of your mind forever? It’s time to bring it off the back burner and into your life now!

Get Started Writing Your Book takes place at Two Hands Paperie in Boulder on Sunday, April 14th. Only a few spots left! Register here.

In this fun and fresh workshop, you will:

• clarify your book’s focus,
• define the target readers,
• develop simple practices to get into the writing groove, and
• identify strategies to write even when there doesn’t seem to be time.

From the many workshops I have taught and the coaching I have done with authors over the last twenty years, I know there are women out there with powerful stories to tell. My mission is to inspire and empower women to share their wisdom. Getting their books out provides a path to the kind of change needed in the world, and I view helping them as part of my contribution to peace and healing.

You’ll leave this class with a 30-day, quick start plan and practices that will get you started – and keep you writing! The class is geared toward non-fiction books, but fiction writers can benefit too. I have written and published both.

Get ready to get your book out of your head and onto the page! Register here. Only a few spots left.

In The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book, I talk about how to commit to a monogamous relationship with your book while writing it. Framing it as a relationship seems to help my clients.

We all know how exciting and fun the initial phases of a project is. Early ideation is thrilling. There’s often such a sense of rightness, of things clicking into place in our minds. It’s almost like we can see and feel the whole thing. Like the book already exists and our job is to pull it into form, one word, one sentence at a time.

These early days are heady, and the sense of possibility is intoxicating. This thrill is something we come to expect as the norm. But like any relationship, the honeymoon phase does end.

Drafting the book turns into revising the book. And here’s where it gets a little less fun. Editing is a different process than drafting. We confront our limitations as writers. We bump into confusion, and feel awkward as we wend our way toward clarity. Doubt seeps into the process, turning something we loved into something we may dread.

I remember this roller coaster of love for every book I have written. I remember being in the tub at the time I was writing my first book, thinking, oh, I need to put that thing in the book. But when I went to the manuscript, I had already put that in there. All the ideas I wanted to share felt like a swirly, jumbled mess.

Writing my novel took twelve years and seventeen drafts. It wasn’t all love and roses. It was humbling as I learned how to write a novel by actually doing it.

What I have learned, and what I teach my clients, is to look for the love in all the phases of the process. What’s to love about getting feedback and realizing there’s more work to do than you anticipated? Where’s the love in revising something so it truly speaks to what and how you want to communicate?

These phases of the process call us forth. They challenge is. It might not feel as thrilling as the initial idea, but there’s plenty to love there. When you find yourself bumping up against your limitations, ask yourself this: What’s to love here?

What helps you keep the love alive throughout all the phases of a project?  Share your thoughts below. 

We’ve heard the usual advice: write a certain amount of words daily. Keep a notebook to capture your ideas in one place. Write what you know. But what if some of the simplest things made for the best writing practice?

All this is good advice. And over time, I’ve seen that it’s the simplest practices that help make writing easy. I have used these myself and have witness students in my classes feel great success with these simple approaches.

Always apply my Adopt/Adapt approach. Adopt my suggestions and adapt them to suit you. If it’s not working, drop it and try something else.

Set a timer. You have probably sat down to write and found yourself bopping all around your email and the internet. A timer is the simplest thing of all but the best way to hold your focus. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes to get focused bursts of writing in.

Use a reflection process. At the end of each writing session, jot three words to describe your experience of writing. Don’t overthink it; just free-associate your experience quickly and briefly. Keep a list of these to see what your writing gives to you.

Give your words critical distance. After you’ve written something, set it aside for a day or so. Give it space to breathe and for you to step out of writing mode and into reader mode. You will see much more with space between you and the writing.

Write early. We all have our biorhythms that work for us. Knowing when to do things is key, as Dan Pink describes in his book When. No matter what your preferred time of day, I suggest getting your writing in as early as possible. Most of the people I work with report that they have more focus and energy earlier in the day. The later in the day the writing happens, the more it feels like a chore. Do your writing early in the day and enjoy the victorious feeling that gives you all day long.

Keep it together. If you haven’t already, create a container for your writing. It could be a notebook or a digital file. Gather notes, drafts, ideas and images in one place for easy reference. It doesn’t matter how messy the contents are, just that you have one container for your work. Ideally, it will be portable so you can access it everywhere.

You can also use the notebook as a progress log or way to capture your process. Sometimes we need to hash out our thoughts about our process or record information about our writing sessions—yay, gold star! Or add up our word count. We can log our ups and downs and have a record of what works and what doesn’t for the next book we write.

I prefer to use a notebook, and one of my favorites is the Diary Flex by Hahnemühle, which is refillable. There is also the cool Make My Notebook, which allows you to customize your cover and interior pages, seen above.

This is excerpted from my  book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. Subscribe to Impulses for sneak peeks and insider insights. 

Want to write but have a hard time capturing your ideas and knowing where to start? Make it easy peasy to free-write from your own prompts with a mind map.

Here’s a mini workshop on how to design your own writing practice so you can write what you want, when you want.