Writing Practice Prescription

Wanting to write, writing, and living a worthwhile life can prove to be a challenge. Grit, determination, and a strong will help.

At age 30, best-selling author Sue Monk Kidd decided to become a writer. “But Mama, you’re already a nurse,” responded her son. She assured him that she could do both things–plus all the other things she was doing in her quest to be a good mother, wife, Christian, community member, etc.

She laid out an organization chart and discovered no empty block of time presented itself to be filled with writing activity. No problem. She would just write 2 hours a day, here and there in small snatches of time.

As she relates in her first book, God’s Joyful Surprise, this decision proved to be an up and down experience:

“That first morning I sat down with pen and paper, wrote two sentences, got up and poured grape juice for Ann (her daughter), sat down and wrote one more, then got up to mop the juice she had spilled. Two years old at the time, Ann’s demands were constant. Absorbed momentarily in my writing, my mind drifted away. When I ‘came to,’ Ann had squeezed the toothpaste onto the bath mat and dunked the toilet paper roll in the toilet. By bedtime, I had seven sentences.”

Are you behind on your writing? If so, try these approaches:

• Write 30 minutes each morning, no matter what
• Follow the “small snatches of time” approach that Sue Monk Kidd used (You can call it the seven-sentence challenge”
• Go for a walk and talk into your tape recorder. (It works. Check out Joel Saltzman’s book, If You Can Talk You Can Write)

Try the sit, stare, and start routine if you can find the time but still have trouble getting started. Order some “butt glue” and spread it on your chair. Perhaps you have your own remedy to the Writing Blues. If so, please share them here by posting a comment to this entry.