NO MORE WRITING EXERCISES. I mean it. If you are going to learn to write memoir, you need to learn to write with intent. That’s my phrase — writing with intent — and I’m sticking to it, since I know how well it has worked for others. Ready to come along?
I began a new series of classes this month. Maybe you can’t get to one, but you can do this: You can chuck your bad habits. At the top of all bad habits lists I place the writing exercise and all prompts. Why?
Ask yourself this: Have any of those writing prompts, books of exercises, or morning pages ever gotten you published? Has writing from the right side of your brain, or getting in touch with your angel’s feather, or scribbling pages put you where you want to be as a writer? I doubt it. I suspect that those manners of nonsense have instead stolen what little time you had for writing.
How do I know?
Because the memoir class I’ve taught for more than a decade is filled with people recovering from those very exercises, people whose sole relationship to writing was practicing, not writing for real. Along with my regular Wednesday night class, and one-shot Memoirama sessions, I’m half way through a Master Classes of eight people who made the commitment to finish their books by the end of June 2012. They are writing for real.
Want to join the wave of success? I’d be delighted to help you. Beginning this week, every Thursday I will run a column called Class Notes, where I’ll rehash some of the topics covered in the class the night before. Also, if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get a once-a-week recap of my daily posts delivered to you regularly. Or, of course, you can read my new book. Either way, let’s get you writing instead of practicing, ok? Let’s get you writing with intent.
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Great advice. After reading your book, I put a post-it on my computer — Write With Purpose. It’s something I’m constantly going back to and evaluating. Thank you!
Hi, Aileen: I am delighted to meet you here. Many thanks for the kind words. Write with intent, Aileen. It will get you where you want to go. Please come back soon for more.
Interesting point. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I like to use prompts/exercises when I’m feeling blocked. They’ve loosened me up. Then again, I’m still working on my first novel and haven’t been published yet so maybe I ought to chuck the prompts. Some of the prompts have inspired stories that I do plan to clean up and publish though.
Chuck the prompts, Sonia. Write for real. On my worst days, I think that writing prompts and exercises are promoted by those writers who are trying to keep you from publishing. But that’s only when I’m over-caffeinated. I think. Mostly, I see those fruitless exercises as useless wastes of your good time. Thanks for stopping in. I hope you will keep coming back. Lovely to meet you here.
I thank my editors in story structure and now in copy/line editing for all their help. Their help has been amazing. Thanks for reinforcing the “writing with intent” part.
HI, Sonia.
I’m delighted you’ve had such good editors. You are most welcome for the encouragement to write with intent. Please come back soon.
Those writing prompts always scared the bejeezus out of me. They confused me more than inspired me and probably caused the knot in my chest that I feel whenever I sit down to write.
Question (not really related to this, but I thought I’d sneak it in): In “The Memoir Project” you speak in the very first chapter about being observant, about “paying a particular kind of attention”. I’m not looking for prompts or exercises here, I swear, but do you have any advice for honing one’s “attention-paying skills”…geared toward someone who spends most of her time in her own head?
Hi, Karen. It’s such a good question. It’s about slowing down and looking at the small. If you go to this postyou’ll see a comment there by Rose, who suggests a tried and true method for slowing down. Check it out. It’s all about expectation. People expect so much from the big events. I expect a great deal from the small. Think of a woman fumbling with the clasp of her bracelet for the first time after the death of her partner, or trying to zip up her dress, unaided for the first time in many years. That’s what grief looks like. Small details. Get a jeweler’s loupe on your eye and look at your life.
I’ve been following your advice. No prompts. I get up five days a week and hit the computer. I have written 100 pages this month. Sure, there are some of my TK notes — to add something or research a specific point — but I count it as 100 pages. I look forward to your class notes. I receive the email digest, but I’m not sure if I get the newsletter. I tried the link above, but it didn’t work.
Hi, Stacy. I’m delighted for you. So sorry a link did not work. Are you referring to the email link?
The newsletter link in this post. Of course, I get an email digest of your posts, so I think I’ll see the class notes posts.
Funny, when I see writing prompts I always give them a moment… see if a story pops into my head… then dismiss them. It’s possible there could be a nugget in the next thing I write that came from a prompt, but it won’t be a story centered on it.
I love your posts and advice. Wish I lived close enough to take your classes!
Thanks.
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