How to Write Without Writing Prompts

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. With more than forty books on my desk by clients, writers I’ve worked with appearing in the Modern Love column of The New York Times, and on the op-ed pages across the country, I’m quite sure of my position. Oh yeah: And I have never used a single one in my writing career. So: Ready to go cold turkey and have a writing life? Here is how to write without writing prompts. 

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 teach are filled with people recovering from those very exercises, people whose sole relationship to writing was practicing, not writing for real. Every six months, I commit to two sections of a Master Class with a total of 14 people who make the commitment to finish their books in six months. They are writing for real. They do so without using writing prompts. Want to join the wave of success?

Why I Hate Writing Prompts

“Why do you hate writing prompts so much?”

It’s a question I get all the time, and recently fielded in an interview with a large writing consortium.

“They help writers,” I will be told.

“They get me going,” others will say.

“And that’s the problem,” I will reply. They get you going on a topic that was tossed to you, like when a tennis pro hits it right to your sweet spot. And you will experience the illusion of writing, with all the feeling of wonder and delight that it brings; all the creativity will, indeed, be tapped into and things will definitely flow. But that’s it.

Write With Intent

Instead, if you write with intent and learn to write without writing prompts, you will learn to work off the calendar, select a deadline (Valentine’s Day, the advent of spring or Thanksgiving, for instance), match a story of yours to that deadline and learn to write on deadline and submit to an appropriate publication well in advance of that deadline. Then, you’ll be writing for real. That’s what writing with intent actually is and that is what it does: It produces writing that others want to read in season, to space and on deadline.

Here’s an example of the difference between the result of the prompt and the work of writing with intent.

Because of my wonky back, I’ve got an ergonomic desk chair, a standing desk, arm rests, and a tilting foot rest. I wear a phone head set, so I do not get a bend in my neck while speaking to clients. Oh, yeah, and I stretch for 30 minutes twice a day and ride a stationary bicycle for 30 minutes, along with the one-hour of other exercise I get. And if I don’t? I stop functioning, tighten up with muscle cramps and short hamstrings and all manners of nasty little and big physical changes that come on swiftly and take over my life. So, I know lot about stretching and its real value. In defense of writing prompts, many people compare them to stretching before work. I get that. I do. I see the metaphor, the comparison, the supposed value proposition.

But here’s my counter-offer: My stretching is only the start. It begets exercise, which prolongs my life. It’s not merely stretching for the sake of stretching. It’s the prelude to the big stuff of life, and if I merely stretch, I miss out on the hard work that begets that big stuff called life. Stretching is half the game; it’s insufficient to the task at hand. I can do more. I can live well.

Writing is not about just getting there (the prompts), it’s about staying there (the writing life). See the difference? Get there and stay there, that’s my best advice, and do so by shedding any habit that merely makes you feel good and does not fully take you into world of real, sustained creativity.

You want to live well with a writing life, not merely stretch.

How to Write Without Writing Prompts

How?

How to write without writing prompts involves ten simple steps. These are for short pieces like essays and op-eds, which is always a great place to start. Master these and you can master the book since books are made up of scenes.

1. Research and locate a publication that is right for your voice. (Use Google. Try something simple like “top blogs for women over forty,” or however you identify).
2. Read it.
3. Find the submissions guidelines for that publication and then locate those specific guidelines for the column you want to write.
4. Choose your topic.
5. Choose your deadline.
6. Write a vomit draft (that’s a first draft).
7. Rewrite it.
8. Rewrite it again.
9. Edit it.
10. Submit.

For longer pieces, come see me. I’d be delighted to help you further. If you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get all the upcoming memoir writing nudges delivered to you regularly. Or, of course, you can read my book. Even better, come take Memoirama, my entry-level memoir class taught twice each month, and let’s get you going toward your real writing life

Photo by Richard Dykes on Unsplash