My Complicated Relationship with Writing Prompts

"I don't give prompts. The world is your prompt!"

So said the accomplished poet leading a writing workshop I was in several years ago.

And I thought, "Yes, yes! Real writers don't need to be told what to write. I am an artiste! The world is my prompt!"

And then I realized that I've routinely found myself wondering what to write about, worrying that I'm not a real writer after all. Phooey.

Whatever shall I do if the world is not enough?

** ** **

I have writer friends who love prompts with pure, unadulterated hearts. They have always nudged me toward them, gently but firmly, trying to convince me that a good prompt is better than the whole wide world, because a good prompt gives you a focus and a way in.

But I thought that I hated prompts.

** ** **

You know what I really hate? The blank page. The blank, ever-so-white, mocking-me-with-its-clean-emptiness, no-words page.

When I was a teenager I wrote a poem called "A Bright White Room is Hell." I didn't intend it as a metaphor for the blank page, but I think I'd like to intend that now.

But give me a page with my own messy thoughts and I can breathe a little more easily. I have something to hang on to, something to swing around my head. Most days, words—any words—are better than a blank page.

** ** **

That same workshop leader who insisted that the world is our prompt eventually conceded and gave us just one little bit of direction. She told us we could choose a color and write about whatever came to mind when we thought of that color.

I chose brown.

I wrote about the first day of first grade when the tip of my big, fat Crayola snapped off and left with me a pointless tree stump of a crayon. My teacher was a kind lady, but she wouldn't give me a new one. I cried during the walk home with my mother, grieving my broken crayon, trying to make sense of this introduction to loss. Years later, that teacher, still a youngish woman, died of cancer. I began to think (while writing about "brown") how little things and big things can go wrong unexpectedly, and how there's not always a do-over or a replacement waiting in the wings, even if someone is kind.

All of that from brown.

Brown was my way in.

** ** **

So here's the thing: The world is enough. But the world is overwhelming. And sometimes we're tired. Sometimes our creative mojonators slow down and we need help to crank things back up.

I think of prompts this way: I know how to cook without a recipe. But sometimes I run out of ideas or get bored, and then I like to read cookbooks and websites for yummy ideas that I can follow verbatim or tweak to my liking.

There is no shame in wanting, needing, using creative prompts. I still resist them, but that's because

I'm stubborn and silly. Even so, I am now a prompt convert. I believe in them. If nothing else, they can get us unstuck, get us writing, get some messy words on that blank page so we can swing them around later. If nothing else, prompts can be practice. And when I say practice, I mean as a musician practices scales and as a Buddhist practices meditation.

** ** **

Some days the world is enough. Other days, I need a little help finding the right piece of the world to write about. And I'm cool with that.

I've discovered that I like a certain kind of prompt. I like ones that are open-ended enough to let me jump from the color brown to first grade to death (so to speak). I don't love the ones that are overly prescriptive and tell me to write a sci-fi story about robot toasters that come to life (for example). That's a bit too much of a way in, and I don't really want to go there anyway.

So I created a batch of writing prompts that I'd actually want to do, and packaged them up for you, in case you'd like to do them, too.

The Alchemy Daily ebook contains 30 days of  writing prompts, inspiration, and magic, available for immediate download.  The prompts are fun and accessible, with room for you to go as deep as you want. And there are no robot toasters, I promise. (Unless that's your thing, and then you can write all about them!)

(Why "alchemy"? Alchemy is the "power or process of transforming something common into something special." Something common = words. 
Something special = the way you put those words together.  stories
Alchemy Daily is about the magical transformations that happen within us and on the page when we allow ourselves to start stringing words together, delighting in language, and giving form to our stories)

** ** **

What about you? How do you feel about writing prompts?

Thoughts on Creativity & Time

Doing stuff takes time. Doing creative stuff can take a lot of time. It can also make time go all wonky, contracting and expanding it, making it refuse to play by the normal hourly rules.

Scenario #1: You sit down to write and the words won't come. You tell yourself: I'll sit here for one hour and do nothing else but focus on writing. Time limps, drags, scrapes by until you're begging for mercy, aching to stand up and do something more pleasurable, like wash dishes. 

Scenario #2: You set out to write (or paint or dance or take photos) and you shimmy into a sweet groove. You are in the zone. You look up and zip! You've "lost" an hour or two or five.

Scenario #3: This is the in-between scenario: You write something, say, a blog post. You think it will take about an hour to write it, edit it, proofread it, add a photo to it, and hit "publish." Sometimes it takes an hour. Sometimes it takes three. It's not that time zipped or dragged, it's just that the process was more involved and consuming than you thought it would be.

I was talking about creativity and time with one of my students who is frustrated because Scenario #3 happens to her a lot. It happens to me a lot, too. Things often take much longer than I think they will. (Except when they don't, of course. Sometimes I put off doing something because I'm sure it will be difficult and a major time-suck. And then it ends up being easy-peasy and taking five minutes, and I feel like a schmuck, albeit a productive schmuck.)

I've been thinking about the nature of creative work, and how it forces us to play by different rules than if we were just making widgets on an assembly line. Creative work isn't so regulated, so orderly, so perfectly timed.

Ideas don't come down the conveyor belt in perfect succession, spaced apart just so. 

Developing an idea doesn't happen in an orderly, assembly line fashion. It's messy. Things do not always proceed in a linear direction. There is much doubling back, doubling up, rearranging, redoing. I have to remember this every time I start writing a new essay or developing curriculum for a new course. Each time I do it I learn something new, but the learning never stops.

If I sit down to write, I want to be writing -- actively. I want to see words filling up the blank page. Letter after letter, word after word, line after line, punctuation mark after punctuation mark. Progress! I worry that if I'm not typing, I'm not doing anything. And if I'm not doing anything, then I must be lazy or stupid or creatively blocked. But no, this is not so. Idling is a good and necessary part of the creative process. Let your mind wander. Daydream. Doodle. Give yourself -- and your work -- time and space to breathe. I mean this literally (meditation, yoga, deep breathing, taking walks -- all good things), and more metaphorically. Let things steep and simmer for awhile. It adds flavor and depth, like a good soup.

(Not everything needs -- or can wait for -- a lot of marinating, of course. This blog post, for example, won't get a lot of breathing room. It's a bit more slapdash than that. But the essay I'm working on this week is getting a lot of breathing room. I've been noodling with it for months. This frustrates me, but I also know that it needed this long to come into being and to come into its own.)

This is what I know: Creative work needs time and space to breathe.

{click to Tweet}

What about you? How does time fit into your creative process?

(This post was originally published in a slightly different form in January 2012.)

The Writing Life (online class starts June 30)

I'm creating a writing life that I love. I want you to do the same!

Join me for the next online session of The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices (June 30 - July 25).

After too many years of struggling to create a vibrant and sustainable writing practice, I'm finally zeroing in on what works for me, how to overcome my sticking points, and how to love writing as much as I love having written.

I created this class because the process and practice of writing comes up all the time with writers at all levels of experience. I've had similar conversations with brand new writers and with published authors. All of us writerly types are looking for ways to make our writing lives easier and more prolific.

Here are some of the things we'll explore in The Writing Life class:

• Do you think before you write, or do you write in order to think?
• Do you write best to music or in silence?
• Are you a linear or an associative thinker? And what does that mean for how you write?
• Do you write best with pen and paper or on a keyboard?
• Can you sit and write for hours on end, or do you work better in shorter bursts?
• Do you really have to write every day in order to be a writer?
• How can outlines, index cards, and mindmaps support (or hinder) your writing?
• Which of these words motivates you more: discipline or enthusiasm?
• How can the physical objects around you make you feel more inspired and focused?
• How can you stoke your creativity when you're not writing?

I taught this class last April, and I loved it. This time around should be even more fun now that I'm beginning to get my own rhythm down. Plus, I've added an ebook of the content so you'll have all the lessons in one handy file at the end of the course!

By taking this class, you will...

...unravel the misconceptions and myths of what being a "Real Writer" looks like. (That pesky myth of the real writer is a persistent little guy!) and embrace the true writer that YOU are.

...tap into your creative energy and unleash it in a sustainable way.

...learn techniques for transforming your perceived weaknesses into the strengths of your writing life.

...figure out what it will take for you to write more.

...start to have a lot more fun while writing! 

We'll explore every aspect of the writing process, inside and out:

• Writing as a Process of Discovery: Cultivating a writer's mindset, clearing the mental clutter, and practicing the practice
  
  
• The Inner World of Your Writing Life: Understanding the different phases of your process, knowing how your mind works, and embracing your natural writing "breath"
  
  
• The Outer World of Your Writing Life: Understanding how your surroundings impact your work, finding inspiration in tangible objects, creating rituals and routines, and leveraging your natural rhythms and schedules
  
  
• Living the Writing Life: Setting livable writing goals and dreams, discovering what motivates you, and choosing to live the writing life

The course details: 

• Dates: June 30 - July 25, 2014
• Content: The content for this course is a mixture of stories & lessons, tips & techniques, exercises & prompts, and resources & inspiration.
• Email: Course content will be delivered on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays during the course. Each email will explores a particular aspect of the writing process.
• Ebook: At the end of the course, you'll receive an ebook (.pdf) of the full course content to keep.
• Community: Join your fellow writers in an optional, private community group on Facebook where you can support each other, ask questions, and swap stories. We'll celebrate the ups (and commiserate about the downs!) of the writing life. 
• Support: During our month together, I will be available by email and in the community group to answer your questions about writing and the writing life, to practice alongside you, to offer additional resources, and to cheer you on!
• Price: $62 (This is a great way to get access to me for a whole month for less than the price of one individual mentoring session!)
  

 Sign up below, or click on over to the course details page.

$62.00
The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices
(online course, community, & ebook)
June 30 - July 25, 2014

I hope you'll join me for The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or contact me. I'm happy to help. 

 p.s. If you're interested in reading more about my own writing process, I've written about it here, here, and here.

Writing Process Redux

A process is a fluid thing, ebbing and flowing like a tide, changing course like a river.

A few months ago, I wrote at length about my writing process as part of a "writing process blog tour" that's been making it's way around the internet. I was originally invited to participate by a friend from grad school. Last week, Meredith Winn, a blogging friend and colleague, invited me again.

Process is a fluid thing, and mine has changed somewhat in the last six months. So I'm answering the same four questions again. Some of the answers are different, some are the same as before. All of them are true — and subject to change.

{psst...If you're interested in exploring and shaping your own writing process, registration for a new session of The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices has just opened!}

1) What are you working on?

I have several books in various stages of undress in my mind:

• a collection of linked essays called For All We Learned, The Sea, which explores spirituality, landscape, and the longing for home in all its many forms;
• a novel about genetics, geography, and why we love what we love;
• a memoir about the year I lived and worked in a London YMCA;
• a memoir about falling in love with (and having my heart broken by) two men—one who was five years my senior, and one who lived 2,000 years ago;
• a novel about an American named Anna and a Scotsman named Ian (who comes from a sheep farm and is a puppeteer); and
• a middle grade or young adult story about a girl with an English mother, a Japanese father, and bucket loads of moxie, hijinks, and adventures. 

I'm always working on other random essays, as well. And if the weather is right, I might write a poem or work on a story to tell on-stage.

I used to suffer from having too few ideas. Having a multitude of options feels like gorgeous creative opulence, but I often get stuck in indecision about what to focus on. Right now, I'm focusing on writing essays (that may or may not be part of For All We Learned, The Sea), plus early research for one of the novels. I'm also looking for and working on freelance writing assignments for magazines and publications. (Being both a freelancer and a creative writer requires some shuffling and hustling.)

2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?

To answer this question, I'll stick with how I approach writing essays and literary nonfiction.

My writing style is different than a lot of personal writing (essays, memoir, etc.). Most of the essays in my collection are not straight narrative. I joke that I write essays in which nothing happens. These pieces are often non-chronological and non-narrative. I think of them as the written equivalents of Polaroids, snippets or vignettes that capture a moment in time, a mood, a thought, a feeling, a question. I also love to braid together disparate elements, to play with structure and form, and to make unexpected connections.

I think my attention to language is a bit unusual compared to some other literary nonfiction writers. Since I often write in a more meditative or lyric style, I'm more concerned with the rhythm and sound of the language than some (though not all) narrative nonfiction writers are. Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually a poet who writes paragraphs. I'm as interested in how words sound and taste as I am in what they mean.

 3) Why do you write what you do?

The existential answer:

I write what I write because that's what comes to me. What else can I do?

The practical answer:

I write what I write because that's what comes to me. What else can I do?

4) What is your writing process?

I have traditionally had terrible writing habits: scattershot and inconsistent. Within the last month, I've begun to try out a new rhythm: two-hour writing sessions, three times per week. These sessions are reserved for my creative writing projects. Any writing that I need to do for articles or blog posts aren't part of that time. The aim is to be more prolific and to make steady progress toward at least one finished manuscript.

This new rhythm has me focusing on process goals rather than product goals. I'll have more to say about this — and how it might be a game changer for me — in an upcoming blog post.

I've written before about how I've had to learn to write badly and how writing is a process of discovery for me. Last January, I had some pretty major epiphanies about how I write the kinds of essays in For All We Learned, The Sea. It's a slow and languorous process that requires a lot of time and white space to let the essays' elements coalesce. This realization has helped me to see that I need to be working on several things in any given month, be that multiple essays, or essays plus something else entirely (such as a novel).

So while having a lot of writing projects going on at once could be distracting, I'm experimenting with whether it can help me to write with more consistency and ease.

What about you? 

How do you write? Do tell!

** ** **

I tagged these writers, who answered the questions for themselves:

Karen Dietrich is the author of a memoir, The Girl Factory (Globe Pequot, 2013), as well as three chapbooks: Understory (dancing girl press, 2013), Girl Years (Matter Press, 2012), and Anchor Glass (Finishing Line Press, 2011). Her writing has appeared in Specter, Bellingham Review, PANK, and elsewhere. Read about her writing process here.

Ross McMeekin's fiction appears in Shenandoah, Passages North, Folio, PANK, Hobart, Tin House Flash Fiction Fridays, and elsewhere. He edits the literary journal Spartan. He’' the recipient of a 2013-14 Made at Hugo House Fellowship and lives in Seattle. Read about his writing process here.

** ** **

If you're interested in exploring your creative process, please consider joining me for The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices, June 30 - July 25, 2014.

In this online class you'll unravel the misconceptions and myths of what being a "Real Writer" looks like. You'll tap into your creative energy and unleash it in a sustainable way. You'll learn techniques for transforming your perceived weaknesses into the strengths of your writing life. You'll figure out what it will take for you to write more. And you'll probably start to have a lot more fun while writing!

Full details and registration are available here. I hope you'll join me!

You Don't Have to Keep a Journal!

You don't have to keep a journal.

You don't have to write "morning pages."

You don't have to fill a notebook in a month.

If these things don't support your writing life, you don't have to do them.

How would it feel to let go of these things?

* * *

During a coaching call on Skype this week, a writer told me that after she finishes writing in her journal for the day, she often has little energy or interest left over to work on her fiction.

I asked her if she likes to write in her journal. I saw a look of puzzlement come over her face. "That's a good question," she said slowly. She thought about it for a moment and then admitted that no, she doesn't really love writing in her journal.

"So, what if you just stopped?" I asked her. "What if you just let that go?"

A different kind of puzzlement came over her face. This was the kind of puzzlement mixed with hope and possibility, the kind that says, Really? I could do that?!

Yes! You could do that.

When your creative practice becomes a prison, it's time to rethink your creative rhythms.

{click to Tweet}

You can let go of the "must-haves" and "should-dos" of being a writer if they don't support and nourish your writing life.

You can let go of the myth of the "real writer."

This is a theme that comes up again and again with my students and my coaching clients. Your writing life and practices don't have to look like anyone else's. Creating a vibrant writing life means figuring out what works and letting go of the rest.

Personally, writing in a journal is sometimes good for my writing life, and sometimes not. It often serves as a way for me to quiet my monkey mind, as a place to dump my fears and worries, or as a practice to check-in with myself and reconnect with what I want to create. But at other times, it ends up taking the place of the writing I really want to be doing that day, and I end up feeling just like my client does: too drained to write anything else. 

Sometimes journaling enables me to write more, and sometimes it gets in the way of my writing.

My responsibility is to figure out what I need on any given day to best support my writing life (and all the parts of my life). Maybe I need to journal. Maybe I need to work on my book. Maybe I need to blog. Maybe I need to do all of those. Or maybe I need to go for a walk and let my mind meander. 

No creative practice is necessarily good or bad on its own. There's not a right way and a wrong way to create. As writers and artists, we need to build lives that support and inspire our work.

Go ahead: Do what works. Let the rest go. Get out of jail free.

---

The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices
(online class, with ebook & community)
Next session: June 30 - July 25, 2014

In this online class you'll discover and embrace YOUR creative process. Find out what works for you and your writing. Unravel the misconceptions and myths of what being a "Real Writer" looks like. Figure out what it will take for you to write more. (And have a lot more fun while writing!) Registration is open.