by Joanne M. Lozar Glenn
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Here are five ounces of prevention to cure "falling off the wagon" of
a writing practice. Consider making one of them a habit--because meeting your
blank page or screen regularly (whatever "regularly" means to
you) is lots easier than trying to get reacquainted after a long absence.
- If
it's just you and a buddy, pledge to meet at a coffeehouse and write for
30 to 60 minutes every week. You don't even have to share what you write.
Just write, and go home. Mission accomplished.
- Or
make a pact with that buddy to write (on your own) for a specified amount
of time each week, using any old prompt to start you off--and agree on a
regular time and day, say Thursday at 3 pm, to report your progress.
Then call each other just to say you did it, or to read to each other what
you wrote. Alternatively, you can do this by email.
- If
it's you and a few others, decide together whether you want to have a writing group
(where you write together) or a critique group (where you respond
to each others' writing). Let the first meeting be a discussion of what
kind of group you'd like it to be; who will be responsible for keeping the
group on track; how the group will work; when, where, how long, and how
often you'll meet; and what ground rules you want everyone to follow.
- Or
if the writers you'd like to hang with are geographically scattered or
pressed for time, create an accountability group. Agree that you will each
set at least one writing goal a week, share it with the group, and report
(the following week) on what you accomplished. Then rinse and repeat. The
size of the goal is up to you. What's important is the regular checking
in, aspiring, accounting, and doing it all over again. You'd be surprised
how much you can accomplish with regular attention to this practice and
the group's support.
- If
you're overscheduled and "writing" is impossible for now, first
forgive yourself, then try to at least capture the ideas for "someday
writing" that flit through your brain. You could jot each idea in a
small spiral-bound "idea catcher" or use a manila folder to hold
the scraps of paper, one per idea, that you pile up. You could jot ideas
on index cards or post-it notes and file them in a zipped pouch for easy
retrieval and sorting. You can even use the "Notes" section of
your smartphone. What kinds of ideas, you ask? Ralph Fletcher,
author of A Writer's Notebook, suggests jotting down mind pictures,
snatches of conversation, memories, doodles, things you wonder about, and
even photographs you capture with the phone's camera.
No matter which of the above practices you try, doing it
consistently guarantees that you'll not only have "written" more than
if you'd done nothing at all--you'll also feel that, despite whatever else
fills your day, you're living more of a writing kind of life.
BIO
BIO
Joanne M. Lozar Glenn is an independent writer, editor, and
educator. She leads destination writing retreats that feature writing from
prompts as simple as a photograph and as shameless as eavesdropping on
strangers’ conversations. Her book Memoir
Your Way (co-authored with five other writers) is forthcoming from Skyhorse
Press. For more information: www.wtwpwn.com
Link for destination writing retreats: www.wtwpwn.com
Link for Memoir Your
Way: http://skyhorsepublishing.com/titles/538-9781510707511-memoir-your-way