The Writing Life

Often we don’t do something because we don’t know how to choose or what to write. We either have too many ideas or don’t think we have any.

But I assert that we DO know what to write or create. We might just be afraid of it. Sometimes we let all of our ideas confuse us. With so many choices, we are often immobilized. We surrender our power to create when we let creative abundance stop us.

What I have seen for myself and my clients is that writing doesn’t happen in the mind beforehand. Writing happens in the process of putting words on the page. We begin with a seed and let the ink grow our idea into a fully formed piece.

This is why free-writing is such a powerful tool for all and any kinds of writing. Using your idea as a prompt, you can write freely all the thoughts that you both knew and didn’t know were inside you.
If you’re in the position these days of not knowing what to write, or which idea to choose from, try this. Set the timer for 10 minutes and free-write using this prompt: Now, I want to write….

Here’s to your writing flowing freely! There’s still time to join us today in The Devoted Writer classroom. It’s such a joy to write this way in community and we’d love to have you. Find out more here.

How to stick with a practice – a writing practice, an art practice, a meditation practice – this is the recurring challenge for all of us, isn’t it.

I got this question the other day and wrote out my answer here. I hope this helps you and would love to hear what this sparks in you. Feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Q: What is the best way to cultivate a true practice? I really want to do 2 hours a day 5 days a week. I do 15 minutes most days now but sometimes I don’t. I found this very easy in the past when I had so many free days, but now i’m running a business and life gets in the way. How do I build up and make this regular? does it have to do with regularity of time spent or a particular place to write or what?
This is a great question, and one many of us have. With many activities and priorities competing for our time, how do we prioritize our creativity?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a silver bullet or simple practice that allowed it to be easier? A set and forget it approach where we simply make a plan and stick to it, like a…robot.

Well, we’re not robots and I’ve learned that our practice must be as fluid as life itself. We crave routine but our lives don’t always bend to the structures we devise. Again and again, we fall short of our plans to commit to something regular. [Read more…] about A deep way to commit to your writing practice

There’s a lot inside you. Books. Blog posts. Essays, and then there’s that class you want to teach. Oh, and poetry, too.

Ring true? If you’ve been bitten by the writing bug, chances are there is a never-ending stream of ideas you want to write.

One of the biggest challenges we face is knowing what to write, and when. How to prioritize all of our great ideas? It’s going to be different for everyone, but as a seasoned writer’s coach, I have some ways to help focus enough so we can write what we want.

First you want to get clear on why you are writing and what you want for your writing. Is it for yourself only? For your loved ones? Or do you have publishing goals you want to meet?

Get clear on what you want for your writing. Now, check out this handy exercise from my book Create Your Writer’s Life.

1) Make a list of ten things you want to write.
These could be specific (an article about ADD) or broad (honest journal pages every day). They can be short term (a birthday letter to Vicki) or long term (a novel about real people).

2) Assess your list.
Decide which items you want to focus on. Go through the list. Make a check next to the projects you will work on in the next year.

Repeat this process, using the following units of time. What will you work on in the next:

• six months
• three months
• next month

Example of a list of writing projects:

• Yoga article √√
  • Artist profile article √√
  • Artist technique article √√
  • NPR piece √√
  • Letter to Sara √√√
  • Daily journal entries √√√√
  • Novel √√
  • Nonfiction book √√√√
  • Essay about ex √√√

By looking at the number of checks next to each item, you can easily see which projects have the highest priority. The more checks, the higher the priority. The nonfiction book has four checks, which indicates that I want to work on it this month. Journaling also has four checks, indicating that that is also a priority now.

The yoga article and artist profile article, with two checks each, are not as important now, but I would like to get to them in the next six months. Now I have a clear sense of what I will work on now, and what will come afterward. The list propels me from ideas into action.
The items that have the most checks carry the most juice and energy for you now. Begin today.

Before you plunge in with your project, take some time to get familiar with it. Brainstorm it. Mind map it. Draw it in colors. Feel free to outline it. Know that it will change as you work on it, but this is the initial getting-to-know you phase.

Warning! Don’t get stuck in the planning process. Often we don’t have the whole thing mapped out and need to plunge into the writing even when we don’t have everything figured out. I’ve seen clients drain their enthusiasm for a project by outlining it to death.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s important about this project?
2. What will be different for me when I am done with it?

I’d love to know how this process worked for you. Feel free to share your experience below.

Now that you are clear about what to write, let’s get that in ink! Join us to write every day in February, May or October and by the end of the month you will be glowing and gloating about all the process you’ve made.
Join us to write every day.

A perfect cappuccino has an equal proportion of espresso, milk and foam. Some American coffee shops don’t understand the importance of this ratio and they serve cappuccino in larger sizes. Once you add more milk, it’s no longer a cappuccino. It’s a latte. Not. The. Same.

Our creative work can get out of proportion, too. Some of us love to plan and we can spend too much time (over)thinking our project. We outline, we flesh out the outline, we research. We think we can ‘think’ our way to the writing. Our big, beautiful minds trick us into thinking that the writing is happening in the planning.

The problem with over-planning: it can rob the joy of our writing and when we go to draft the book or the blog post, we have lost interest. We’ve spent all our creative energy in the planning phase and feel done with it. Writing becomes a real drag and we resist it and procrastinate and end up miserable.

On the flip side, sometimes we don’t plan enough. We sit down to write and….nothing. We haven’t thought through our idea enough, so we’re faced with the blank page and its attendant insecurities and fears. We may get out a few meandering lines, but we quickly forget what inspired us to write in the first place.

Like the cappuccino, it’s all about proportion. I love planning and I love flowing. In my 22 years of writing, I have figured out the perfect blend so that I can get my books, proposals and articles done with a sense of focus and ease.
What about you? Do you feel a good blend of planning and flow? If so, hooray! If not, read on for a few suggestions on how to perfect the plan/flow balance.

Plan

You can plan along any number of structures. Types of writing and deadlines are two common ways we plan.
Types of writing could include:

• blog posts
• newsletter articles
• book chapters
• short stories
• poems

Deadlines could include:

• your publishing schedule
• a challenge series (writing daily for 30 days)

When I plan my newsletter articles (which also serve as blog posts), here’s how I plan:

I know when I need to send out my newsletters. By using the calendar to lay out several months’ worth of articles, I am able to see how the pieces I write align with the season and with what I want to share with you.

Having these rough ideas planned out gives me a sense of ease and trust. I know what I want to write, I know when I need to write it, and I feel a sense of focus.

Does your current planning model work for you? Do you plan your writing by deadline, by subject or type of writing?

Flow 

Once the planning is done, it’s time to actually get the writing down.

When I have my ideas in a list, the seeds are germinating. The initial idea is there, and in the back of my mind, I massage the seed. I think about specific stories I can tell to illustrate my point. I look for usefulness, to make sure the ideas are relevant to you. I dig deep to make sure the pieces are meaningful to me.

I call this time ‘off keyboard time’. We’re gently considering what we will write when we’re away from the keyboard.

It’s very organic and as you have probably experienced, doesn’t require much focused thought.
Then comes the real flow.

I use the free-writing method to get into the flow of writing my ideas down. I set a timer for 15 minutes, grab one of my ideas as a prompt, and let rip.

You’ve heard me talk about free-writing before, but to remind you, at this point, it’s about getting your words out on the page. No worries about orderliness, correctness or even if the writing is good.

If you do this consistently, say, every day, you will have accrued a good amount of writing. You will have mastered your perfect blend of planning and flowing.

And that feels as good as the perfect cappuccino with the right blend of milk and coffee. I think I’ll go have one right now….

Do you avoid your writing? Maybe you have a long-standing project that’s been sitting on your shelf, making you feel stuck and frightened. Or perhaps you don’t have a project in mind but know you want to write…but you’re scared.

I get it! There are certain kinds of writing – proposals, requests, deeply honest personal writing – that are tough.

These days, there’s a lot of tough stuff on my writing plate. Sponsorship proposals. A book proposal for my illustrated book, Capture the WOW. This is scary stuff.

When I look at these to-write items, I tend to freeze up. I’ve seen this in my clients and students. We try too hard to look ‘professional’. We get all jargon-y and stiff. We lose the very vibrancy and authenticity that makes us and our ideas so compelling when we speak them.

This happened to me the other day. I was trying to incorporate the feedback my coach had given me on one of my proposals. Reading her words, my body drooped in despair and my stomach clenched with fear. My mind began doing mental flips as it sought escape…any escape. It was clearly time to check email and Facebook. Get another snack. Randomly re-pot a plant in the kitchen.

It sounds laughable but I suspect you have been there too! We often put this in the category of ‘lack of focus’ but it’s not really focus that’s the issue. It’s fear. We’re afraid, so we let our focus and commitment dissipate in the fog of insecurity and anxiety.

Luckily, I have an ally at the ready for when I get into this fear fog. My inner wise writer came to my rescue and set me straight.

“Just free-write it,” she said. “You know what to do.”

What a relief! I do know how to drive past these fears. I opened up a new document and just let my thoughts flow freely about the topic. It didn’t take long before I got the raw essence out onto the page and was able to sculpt it into something meaningful and good.

I took all the feedback she and my mastermind partners had given me and put it through this free-writing process. A few more design touches and I had sent the proposal out before 9 am Monday morning. What a relief!

For years, I have sworn by this free-writing process because I use it for every single thing I write. It saves my bacon when I am afraid, confused or simply unsure of what I really want to say.
I have been teaching this method since the mid-nineties and love how it helps people get into their writing groove. The students in my The Devoted Writer class experience so much freedom. When they write every day for 15 minutes, they learn a solid approach to overcome fear and. It’s a real joy to see them triumph over their inner critic in this way.

If you’re still held captive by your fear, I say it’s time to set yourself free and finally write what you want.
We’re gathering in The Devoted Writer classroom in May. We won’t be doing this again until later in the year, so if you want to experience the freedom of free-writing in a group, consider joining us. This class makes the difficult – and the fun – writing much easier.

“I had been unable to write consistently in the past. In your writing class, I felt supported in a way that allowed me to tap into the creativity and clarity within that was waiting to be released! Now I look forward to writing every day as a reward. I recommend The Devoted Writer to anyone longing to explore their untapped potential.” – Lorna

Check out The Devoted Writer here.

An Impulses subscriber wrote to me with the question:

“My creative life has been on the back burner due to day job and health work, family stuff. In addition to the day job stuff, I have 3 personal areas to keep going…yet I know that my artist work is the soul work (music and performance writing). How to manage my creative side when the “work” side takes so much time?”

This is a great question and is one we all face – how to manage our time and energy and attention?

We all have our valuable and precious resources – our time and energy. We are extremely privileged to be able to make decisions about how we spend these resources.

Yes, a certain amount is allocated to survival, i.e. making money to pay our bills. And if for some reason you do not have to work to pay your bills, my guess is there are plenty of other things that take up your time and energy.

But beyond our working hours, we do have time and energy and we are responsible for making the kind of choices that foster our happiness.

My question is this: What are you choosing over your Soul work? How can you afford to not do your Soul work?
If we set our Soul aside, what’s left? What is the lived and felt experience on a daily basis of not devoting at least some of your time to Soul work?
[Read more…] about How to make room for making

February somehow became my month of anniversaries. This month I am celebrating:

• 22 years of dedicated writing
• 20 years of practicing yoga (holy moly! Immmmmm)
• 15 years completely self-employed at Original Impulse
• 15 years of publishing Impulses (Have you been on this list since February 2001? Contact me with your postal address and I will send you a treat in the mail!)
• 3 years of non-drinking (alcohol, that is. I still drink a lot of liquids!)

When I thought about writing to tell you about this, I asked myself, So what? What’s the point of sharing all this? How does trumpeting my anniversaries serve you?

This forced me to look at what fuels my consistency. These are some pretty long-term investments. These commitments completely govern my days.

Why am I able to sustain these practices and this business of serving creative people? Because I’m so disciplined?

No. I hate the concept of discipline. The stern nuns at Catholic school only fueled my rebellious streak with their disciplinary tactics.

Because I’m from Ohio and we relish the value of good hard work? That’s true, but I also love loafing around reading and watching movies.

Finally, last week during a yoga class, it came to me. I am able to sustain these practices because my life purpose fuels me. My life purpose is this:

Love.
Love what I love.
Show that love.
Inspire you to love what you love.

I love these commitments. I love writing. I love how yoga makes me feel strong and open. I love being my own boss and serving your creative dreams. I love the clarity and energy I feel without alcohol in my life.

This love imbues the deepest essence of my work. While I know that a certain amount of discipline is necessary to make our creative work, I also know that we tend to respond more consistently to things we are devoted to.

Here’s how I experience it:

Discipline pushes us from behind to do the work.
Devotion pulls us from the heart to do what we love.

Without love, creating will be a battle you fight against yourself. In my writing class and year-long mastermind group, I train people to look for their love. I ask questions like:

• What do you love about writing?
• What time of day feels like a natural flow for doing your creative projects?
• What do you love in the world and what materials help you show that love in your journal?

On our group call last week, I shared my theory about why we get creatively blocked:

Our ability to create is directly proportionate to our ability to love, respect and honor ourselves.

No amount of time management, classes or discipline will work if you don’t feel you are worthy of taking time to write, doodle or dance. I hate to say it, but without love, it’s going to be very, very hard to make your creative dreams real.

Take that in and see if it’s true for you. If you feel stuck, could it be that you could use a bit more self-honoring?

Listen. There is nothing wrong with you. Seeking solutions to ‘fix’ or ‘force’ you to do the work never last. Instead, look for love. Look at your creative impulses as an invitation to love yourself, to love your life and to let what you love lead you to creative expression.

join me for more love

Join us to love writing in The Devoted Writer. 

If you’re like me, sometimes it’s a struggle to stay on track with your creative projects. We make public commitments and big resolutions to stick to our plans.

But that doesn’t work. Sticking to a plan like a militant writer or artist isn’t how life works for us. In all of my years as a coach, I know that life will always interrupt our routine. Vacations. Illnesses. Visitors or even just our own creative slump can derail us. Then we feel bad and this guilt contributes to inertia that prevents us from getting our groove back.

That’s okay! It’s normal! Life is rarely under our control. What I’ve found helps most is to devise a simple approach to get back on track easily.

It is much easier to develop a very simple ritual or micro-action for returning back to your writing than to be rigid. Here are some suggestions for writers that apply to creatives in any medium.

• Sit with an open notebook and brush your hand across the page.
• Open the last page you wrote and read it with a curious eye.
• Make a 2-minute date to write gibberish, literally words that have no meaning.
• Have a 5-minute date describing the space around you in sensual detail.
• Use this prompt to begin a free-write: What now, my dear writer?

Notice how simple they are? Don’t be fooled; these micro-actions can be powerful. They’re meant to lure you into your creative zone where you will be tempted to fall back in love with your medium of choice.

Too often, we punish ourselves with high expectations. We go gangbusters, thinking we are going to do a three-hour stint. This is WAY more harmful than we think. Setting ourselves up to have a long writing session
Try ONE of these, or a similarly simple action, for slipping back easily into your writing practice.

What micro-actions help you get back on track with your creative practice?  Leave a comment!