Ban All Writing Exercises and Prompts. Now.
NO MORE WRITING EXERCISES. I mean it. from this day forward you are to ban all writing prompts. If you are going to learn how 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 begin teaching a new series of online memoir writing classes every month. Please join me. Can’t do that? You can do this: You can chuck your bad habits. In fact, do that whether or not we work together. 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 classes I’ve taught for more than 20 years are filled with people recovering from those very exercises, people whose sole relationship to writing was practicing, not writing for real. Along with my regular Writing What You Know weekly workshops, and one-shot Memoirama sessions, I’m half way through two sections of Master Classes of seven people, each whom made the commitment to finish their books by the end of the year. They are writing for real.
Want to join the wave of success? Please start by having a look at what memoir writing resources I offer. Let’s get you writing instead of practicing, ok? Let’s teach you how to write memoir. Let’s get you writing with intent.
- Memoirama: The everything-you-need-to-get-started-writing-memoir class. Live, online memoir class with Q&A. 90 minutes. This is the class to get you started writing what you know.
- Memoirama 2: Book structure. Period. No one is born knowing how to structure a book and no book can exist without structure. Book structure was taught to me by four of the best editors in NY publishing for my four published books. This course gets your structure up and supporting your story. Two hours. Live. You and six other writers.
- How to Write Op-eds, Radio Essays and Digital Commentary: Live. Ninety minutes. Co-taught with a former Pulitzer Prize juror, newspaper editor, weekly newspaper columnist and host of a nationally syndicated public radio show. Get your voice our into the world.
- The Master Class: Open to those who are writing book-length memoir. Seven writers. Six months. Once a month. All live. Get your first draft written.
And don’t forget to listen to my podcast. It’s called QWERTY, and it’s by, for and about writers.
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.
Not everyone would agree with you, and that makes it a matter of opinion. You can’t act like you know more than others and that your opinion about writing practice/exercises is the only valid one.
Hi, Holly.
Thanks for stopping by.
I always welcome other points of view.
Thanks for adding yours.
Best,
Marion
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.
To hone attention skills, I’d notice all I could through the senses–start with sounds with your eyes closed and go on to what you see, smell, touch, etc. That usually lets you get deeply into paying attention to things for talking or writing,.
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.
b
I actually really need the prompts, because I have a head injury and sometimes my memory is a bit faulty. Although, I have found that just about anything that reminds me of something I want to remember works as a “prompt”. I find music, photographs, and home videos (the few I have) especially helpful. One of the best “memory prompts” I’ve found? Oddly enough, watching “The Wonder Years”. I always watch it when I’m wanting to get some ideas, and keep my iPhone handy to make notes about things I want to write about. My best tools have been my iPhone, my Facebook Timeline, and my blogs.
Hi, Janette: Welcome to the blog. I’m glad the prompts help you, though I think of music, TV shows, photographs and the like as research, so we’re kind of close on this one, yes? Anything that gets you writing makes me happy, so write on. And do come back soon.
I’ve gotten several short stories and essays published that originated with writing prompts and exercises as have my writers group members. I value them and think they are one of the most important writing tools available. I think the idea is not to give them up, but to actually do something with them once you’ve used them. Also, I’ve learned quite a bit about the craft of writing through writing exercises and I’ve taught quite a bit of people about different aspects of the craft through them. Practice is essential to becoming a good writer. The problem comes in when people only practice and never use the material they create to finish a project or start new ones that they see though to conclusion or when they do writing exercises in lieu of finishing any project.
Love the blog.
Hi, Nicole.
And welcome. I am delighted to see this defense of the prompt and the exercise, and even more delighted to know that they helped someone. Of course it’s possible. You are right on to say that writing begets writing. You say it’s practice, I say it’s writing with intent that does it, but we agree that practice alone will not get most people where they want to be. Thank you for bringing this here, as well as for the kind words about the blog. My next stop is LAwriters. Sounds great. Please come back soon.
I want to write a memoir and feel like I have a compelling story. How much of the truth involving other people should I include and what is allowed by law? What if its phrased in the form of an opinion. What if something was told in confidence but I cannot prove it? Should the memoir be in chronological order? I listen to you on the podcast with the man that used yo be your student.