On the US Coast Guard’s website, there’s a whole page dedicated to why and when to wear your life jacket.

(tl;dr: always wear a life jacket if you are on or around water.)

I think our writing is exactly like that life-jacket: something not to be ignored and neglected because when we need it, we NEED it.

How does a life jacket help?

• By providing buoyancy if you unexpectedly find yourself in the water.
• By providing buoyancy if you purposely jump into the water to save someone else.
• By providing buoyancy when you are no longer able to keep yourself afloat due to fatigue, injury, or cold.
• By providing buoyancy if you are a weak or non-swimmer.

–US Coast Guard

Why Wear Your Life Jacket?

No one on a boat hopes to need their life jacket, but the most experienced boaters will always put one on, just in case.

Writing is our life jacket on the rough seas of life.

Writing keeps us buoyant. It keeps our head above water. It keeps our hearts strong.

Public life is often — if you’re paying attention — choppy.

Private life goes through calm spells and then suddenly, out of nowhere: a giant wave threatens to capsize your vessel.

You want to have your life jacket on — your writing practice up and running and ready to sustain you — at all times.

Dealing with the Unexpected

If you find yourself dealing with an unexpectedly challenging moment in life having a writing practice can keep you afloat and steady while everything else is a mess.

It might be journal, or it might be taking some time out to visit your imaginary friends, but either way, it gives you a way to deal with the complexities of being human, and to exert a little control .

Your writing might help you get out of the situation

• by selling a piece of work that provides much-needed funds,
• or by helping you examine and analyze the facts that are driving your emotions about your situation. Writing balances heart and head.

Writing keeps your head above the water.

Jumping In To Help Others

If you intentionally wade in to a challenging situation, to advocate for others, or to right an injustice, having your writing skills in tip top shape gives you the tools you need.

When your writing is fluid, you can persuade people

When your writing flows, you can regulate your own responses.

Whether you are penning editorials, or creating fictional worlds that show a better way, you don’t want your writing to be rusty when your moment arrives.

Keeping your writing life jacket on, means you have the ability and confidence to jump in, if someone else needs you.

When You’re Tired

When you get tired or sick and feel you don’t know what to do, knowing that you can write about it (or about something that is absolutely not the ‘it’ that is dragging you down) is a healthy way to keep afloat.

Our writing life jackets keep our hearts strong.

When You’re Still Learning

If you’re not a great writer (yet), developing a consistent practice of playing with words will keep you bobbing along, as the current pulls you closer to your cherished dream of being a writer that you and others admire.

“Which Life Jacket Should I Wear?”

The Coast Guard site has a whole page of information and specs for different types of flotation devices for different people and purposes, with strong recommendations.

But before all of that they start with the simple line:

“The best lifejacket is the one you will wear.”

Likewise with your writing practice.

The best writing practice for you is not the one Stephen King has developed, or that I have developed, or that your favorite author talked about in that article you read, once.

The best writing practice is one you’ll a, do and b, enjoy.

And, like a kid growing out of their Type III PFD Life Vest, you’ll grow beyond whatever writing practice you start with, and that’s OK.

• There will be times when Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages work great for you and times when you don’t need that practice.
• There will be seasons where writing after everyone else has gone to bed works, and times when you only have that energy first thing in the day.
• There will be times when all you can do is journal, and times when fiction surges up powerfully, like a fair weather waterspout

But keep writing.

It’s your life jacket.

What practice will you begin to build, this week, to help your writing serve as your life jacket? Leave a comment and let us know!

No Matter What

A sensible sailor wouldn’t let their kids talk them out of insisting on life jackets, even if the weather looks fair.

Don’t let your inner critic talk you out of writing, even if you’re not sure what purpose this particular piece will serve.