I have often thought that what really stands between me and serious writing is time and the self-discipline to write whether I feel like it or not. Or maybe those are just my excuses because I’m a wee bit afraid of rejection, too, but that is neither here nor there.
I think my two week experimentation with Julia Cameron’s web based subscription service, The Artist’s Toolkit, may have confirmed that. But it may have taught me a few other things as well.
1. Writing every day is hard. Wrting three pages long hand every morning is almost impossible.
Cattle don’t care about creativity when it is time to move them out to pasture. My children don’t particularly care about it unless it involves little fruit smiley faces on morning pancakes. And apparently I don’t care enough about it to set my alarm a little earlier.
2. Getting away by myself is hard.
As fun as it sounds to go explore a new part of town, I am a mother of many young children who cannot be left alone for long. And when my husband gets home after working on the railroad for three days, the last thing he wants to do is watch the children while I go buy myself some candies I loved as a child.
3. Stillness is hard to find.
Even out here, my mind is almost always occupied with what I need to do next.
4. If the goal is nurturing creativity, maybe I shouldn’t worry so much about following what works for someone else.
Morning pages sounds like a great idea. I can see the value. But if all they are for me is one more obligation I stress over but never get to, perhaps I should rethink its value. Afternoons while Mookie naps are nice. And evenings when everyone is asleep are when I normally write.
5. If I need a little inspiration, why can’t I bring my children along?
Cameron warns that bringing others along changes your focus outward, but is there no compromise between bringing my children and not going at all? My children enjoyed the stories I told them along the way. Like how my brother and I walked a mile to the shops to buy Nestle Crunch bars because they only cost a quarter (everything else was thirty three cents) and one in five wrappers had a coupon for a free bar. Plus we were trying to save all the letters to win a trip to Hawaii. Or some place. And watching them reminded me of other stories.
Creativity is not always a personal journey. Sometimes inspiration comes from those we are with.
6. There are different kinds of noise, but it is the internal noise that drowns everything else out.
I have been trying a little every day to just sit and watch the children play without thinking about everything I could be doing. To listen to their noise and watch their games and simply be present. As I do chores, I have been trying to think about the chore that I am doing rather than everything else I need to get done for the day.
What do you do to nurture your writing?
__________________________
This is a paid review for BlogHer but all opinions expressed are my own.
I homeschool my children on a small hobby farm in rural Nebraska and write about life more abundantly, from the joy of a baby's smile to the almost unbearable grief of losing a son while seeking beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3)
I read great posts like this really late at night when everyone else is long asleep
I do understand both sides though. I loooooong to have dependably uninterrupted quiet to write, but I’m not sure that’s what I really need.
I wrote a super satisfying post yesterday in the middle of the mall while my teen and her friend shopped.
Nighttime, when everyone is in bed, the plot bunnies run amok after a day of common events and great ideas. I guess I usually write at night too.
You are too kind, Mrs. B.
I have sketched out posts while in the midst of the chaos. Sometimes because of the chaos. Sometimes, writing helps me deal with the chaos and keep some perspective as well.
Having a notebook and pen with me all the time helps. I haven’t done that since Mattias died, but I guess I haven’t been as intentional about anything for a long time now.
Hi! I’m also a BlogHer reviewer and really enjoyed this review. I completely agree that there has to be some kind of compromise between finding ways to be completely alone and recognizing that–as parents–that’s not always possible. I felt the same way about the morning pages; sure, taking time to write out three pages longhand would be nice sometimes, but that’s just not the reality I’m working with. Mornings are hectic. I truly believe that writing can be fit into our lives without giving up the other parts of ourselves that are so important, and some of the focus on alone-ness and extreme focus were frustrating to me because it didn’t seem to account for the complexities of real lives.
BalancingJane, that bothered me, too. And I think partially because I would love to have some quiet, uninterrupted time on a regular basis. but it isn’t reality, and when my husband does take everyone to run some errands, I miss them and the quiet isn’t always that conducive to writing anyway.
I like your reflections, Dana … I have read and enjoyed The Artist’s Way, though haven’t seen the web services you mentioned. What you said rang true for me, too. I found it brought out the selfish, introverted side of me, which really doesn’t have a place in the life I have now, with husband and children, home ed., following the Lord etc.
I nurture my writing by:
- keeping notepads of many kinds handy in all my bags and rooms.
- reading articles about writing and writers, and reading inside and beyond the genres I enjoy writing.
- talking with my children and learning alongside them. Teaching them about EXCITING writing and enjoying their discovery of words is an excellent way to continue learning.
- sometimes, actually writing. No rules. Just strike when the iron is hot. Whether it be a list, mind map, plot outline or polished chapter … writing ANYTHING feels like a step forward.
Late at night when the house is quiet seems to be my best writing time too. Probably because the chance of being interrupted is so greatly reduced.
Ms. B. … I have bookmarked your site to look at again, and think I will learn some needed skills from you. Right now though, I feel self-conscious of my less than perfect grammar and punctuation
I am not very good at writing just for “me.” I suppose that’s what this blog is about, but I do have at least a small awareness that there is an audience out there reading it, even if it seems my blog is a bit random at times.
When I used to carry a notebook, I did get a lot of ideas and sometimes if I looked at when feeling unispired, I would catch that vision from earlier in the day and be able to write. I sort of forgot about that because it has been so long. Maybe I will start carrying it around again.
And I think sharing anything with children can be so inspiring. They have such a different view of the world. And what goes through a baby’s head, anyway?
Dana,
I may just have a “trump card” for SOME of these issues concerning the frustrations of various writers. I suppose it’s fairly typical to read complaints of “writer’s block” along with all manner of remedies that focus on relieving the stress of the writer or on providing some manner of “inspiration” to prompt the writer forward. And another common theme in such self-help pieces is “discipline”, such as is suggested in the directive to “write something every day”.
I suppose I’ve proven to myself over and over by now that my typical thought patterns are quite unconventional, so maybe what I have to say won’t be very applicable to most other writers. Regardless, here’s what bugs me about these conventional approaches to writing success.
1. The ultimate drive/motive/inspiration for writing is neither discipline nor routine nor a set of arbitrary writing goals; it is having something compelling to say. Could it be that so many struggle with “writer’s block” not because something is amiss in their karma today, or in the alignment of the planets, but that they simply have nothing important to say at the moment? I can certainly imagine writers looking for the most trivial of “inspirations” while on a solitary quest to the local candy store, but I NEVER find myself needing to go hunting for inspiration. Instead, I have to fight it off! I have quite a backlog of book and post ideas simply waiting for the time to tackle them. To me, “discipline” in writing is not a matter of making myself write, but of making myself PRIORITIZE my writing.
2. I find artificial scheduling restraints to be counterproductive. If a new idea is so much on my mind that it’s begging for some writing time, I have found it helpful to write a brief post about the idea, even though I know full well that there’s probably a book waiting to be born from it someday. When I interrupt my normal schedule to write such a piece, it almost always proves to be a worthy investment of my time because it helps to test and to nail down the salient points I have in mind. Thus can I add a new idea to my overall paradigm set, making me a fuller and stronger person. It also helps me to learn and to experience the RELATIONSHIPS between the various things and issues. And what’s the value in that? Not only does it make me more mature, but it prompts even more writing!
3. There is no substitute for conversation. Kay and I started a conversation in 1998 and it continues today. We discuss everything, looking for the truth, testing our ideas, experimenting with answers. This conversation drives a great percentage of my writing. Because I can communicate with Kay about important issues, it makes it very easy to imagine communicating with my readers in similar fashion. Perhaps it’s different for other writers, but writing for me is not about being “a writer”; it’s about communicating with others. I do not pressure myself to act or to appear as “a writer”; my drive is wholly about the importance of the message itself.
4. I find that my personal paradigms provide plenty of inspiration for writing. Here are nine of them: http://www.jackpelham.com/2011/12/24/nine-paradigms/. It turns out that these paradigms are generally uncommon in the world, so there’s a constant state of tension and a steady flow of observations and comparisons to be made. This makes for a consistent flow of inspiration.
5. If the inspiration is there, the time can be found or made. It seems to me that a lot of writers may have this one on backwards. They block out the time and then find they have nothing to say at that allotted hour. Then they get frustrated with themselves and torture themselves as if they were somehow at fault in the mater. It is a kindness to the world for a writer to refrain from writing when he has nothing compelling to share! I would rather write one “killer” piece a year than 365 uninspired pieces.
6. Sadly, I witness too many writers who are not themselves learners. It’s the constant curiosity and examination and learning that drives me quite naturally, so I never fret over now knowing what to write about. If someone has labeled himself “a writer” simply because he fancies the idea of being read by others, that’s a vain endeavor, stemming from some of the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree of inspiration. No wonder he frequently finds himself wordless. Or worse, no wonder he finds himself publishing posts that don’t really say anything worthy of the reader’s time. If he himself is not intrigued, fascinated, and compelled by the subject matter, why should his readers be?
7. I mentioned “discipline” in my first point above. As I read back through this before posting, I note that the MAJOR practice of discipline in my writing is in the research required to vet any assertions of fact I want to make. Unfortunately, many writers consider this a killjoy and an impediment to the “creative” process. I, however, consider it the FOUNDATION of the process. Getting the facts straight is the BEGINNING of my writing. This makes it all very real to me, and I never get lost chasing the ether of pieces that stem wholly from “creativity”. Almost all my writing is about and because of the facts. I would not generally categorize mine as “creative writing”, but I do use a LOT of creativity in finding ways to communicate with the reader regarding the facts in question.
This reply is just a quick stab at the issue, and as always—to further affirm the points I’m making here—it’s got me thinking about developing MORE thoughts on the subject later. I’ll likely tuck these ideas away for a time, refining them and growing in my understanding as they pop into mind from time to time. And as I ponder the question at hand, and the value of having spent these few minutes getting some of my thoughts together, it highlights the importance of conversation all over again. Had you not raised the issue in your post, I’d not have thought through these things today. And having thought through them at least a bit now, I can see that there’s good reason to come back to them some day.
Jack
Very good thoughts, Jack! For me, discipline is really about going back and finishing. I write when the inspiration strikes, but going back and editing and pulling together the finished piece is difficult and I can always find a dozen other things pulling at my time.
And I do think the “process” can become a little too self-absorbed. Writing isn’t all about me, it is a mode of communication. It doesn’t have to be a solitary enterprise, but it does help if there isn’t quite so much screaming in the background.