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11 thoughts on “Your Writing Life Lesson 3”
My writing life is planned for the next twelve weeks because I doing the SmokeLong Summer Workshop. It’s for flash and micro fiction. I can and will put the I, WRITER framework to good, accelerated use. Instead of weeks, it’ll be days.
I did a week-by-week plan for 6 weeks beginning 6/1, with bullet points under each week. Then I went back and numbered the days, 1-7 under each week, expanding and contracting my bullet points, to make a seven day plan under each week. (The process made more sense, and worked better, than that probably sounds!) Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about that.
I had a skirmish with fear of commitment, and decided the best approach is to tiny-task myself. Sparks to continue–I love them so much! I will use four weeks to revise a chapter a week using the story framework (probably can do more, but better to plan less and celebrate additional success), plus spend about a week prepping and participating in my writing critique group, and take a week somewhere in there to draft another short story or picture book.
But I’m sure what you really want to know is what the mockingbirds will be doing for the next six weeks! They have a little more time remaining with the current brood–three scruffy pre-teens trying out barely-feathered wings and demanding more bugs every few minutes. Keeping the kids fed and the nest clean is a dawn-to-dusk job with survival of the species at stake! After these three fledge, the family will stick close together for a couple of weeks, honing their flying skills, practicing fast food snatches out of the air, singing…. And then it’s time to start over. Dad will lay some foundation twigs for few nest sites. Mom will pick her favorite and complete the interior decor. She’ll lay a new clutch and incubate the eggs while Dad brings home meals. When the eggs hatch, the pair will spend another couple of weeks nurturing the hatchlings. Proving that six weeks is a workable story cycle for songbirds and writers.
I know that I need to keep writing because it will be the way to move me forward in my life and jump start me into being able to be a more effective person. By making stories that hopefully can help those who need to hear that as you have said. I have been waiting because of other commitments to people, activities, etc. I realize that I have been overworking myself and that I would like to move forward. I see these days how I get bogged down in labels, but if I just show up I can move forward
May reasons that make me stop from writing , that no onw will read what i write , there no encourage me to complete , there are millions of thoughts in my head but can’t put them on paper , and if i constrate on writing i will not found a job . Also the place where i live ( Middle Est() nothing help you to write and the chances for writer job not good.
The story I tell myself about the perfect time: When my kids are out on their own. (My youngest left for college this past fall… but there are still the summer and winter breaks, and I get thrown off kilter for those substantial periods of time)
That’s a powerful one and I hear you as a first-time college mum this summer.
I tell myself we’ll both be much happier if I’m writing and waiting around to be needed by a 19 year old!
I’d like to add that I started from scratch, with a plan that made sense for me, while also being influenced by your WRITER framework, Julie.
My problem is that I have a million ideas bouncing around in my head, but I can’t seem to put them on paper. I have a lot of beginnings and bits and pieces, but I can’t seem to write more than a few paragraphs of any one story. I haven’t finished a story since I was about 12 years old. And that was a VERY long time ago.
I almost want to join your course, but even with other people waiting to read what I write, I’m not sure I can get past those first few paragraphs.
What stops me from writing is fear that I am an imposter and feel there is nothing else special about me so I write.
Oh, that Imposter Syndrome! Insidious and so frustrating. Because the fact is we all have unique perspectives to share. Our potential audience might be millions or a few readers who will be moved acutely…or even just ourselves. And all of that should be enough (but isn’t always)
Chin up, and keep that pen moving!