January 2007 e-class
Begin somewhere: You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.- Liz Smith
In our e-class for January 2007 We will:
Engage in a 20 minute writing Practice using the theme of ‘Beginning’s’
Define our writing goals for 2007
Explore the challenges and solutions to setting up and maintaining a writing practice
Make a start on clearing your writing clutter
SESSION 1
Opening Practice
10 minutes
It is custom at the beginning of each Moon wRites class to begin with a writing/creative practice or a ritual to centre and ground ourselves for the next two hours.
Our opening practice for our January e-class invites you to spend 7 minutes in silence at the start of your e-class. Use the time to go within, allow the silence to slowly dissolve away some of the charge and debris from your day. Don’t resist your racing thoughts. It’s ok. The seven minutes will allow your mind to settle in its own graceful and organic way. After seven minute you may begin.
SESSION 2
Writing Practice
20 minutes
Our writing practice comes right at the start of our e-class so that you can get to the writing very quickly. In class because we are physically together for two hours there is more room because of the structure to get stuck into a longer writing practice a bit later on in the programme. Our writing practice at the start of our e-class focuses on the theme of ‘Beginning’. ‘There’s a difference between a work’s beginning and starting to work,’ writes Twyla Tharp in her book, The Creative Habit. For 20 minutes write about Beginnings: Use any of the following prompts to get you startedJourneys you have began.
The beginning of a new relationship General thoughts and feelings about Beginning’sMake up a story about an unusual beginning to a New YearStarting a new jobWrite a description for a non driver the early stages of learning to drive Start the beginnings of a short story, poem or essayBegin a conversation between two strangersWrite about the beginning of the New
Moon Begin to write about anything, anything at all.If you feel blocked write down I don’t know what I want to write about beginnings. Repeat the sentence over and over again until something comesRead back through your writing and make a note of sentences, themes and phrases that stand out. Doesn’t matter if there is only one theme that strikes you, make a note of it. We will return to these notes in our closing writing practice.‘The birth of all things are weak and tender, and therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginning.’
SESSION 3
Putting Your Writing Goals Down On The Page
30 minutes.
At the end of Decembers Moon wRites class we spent some time talking through a writing goal we wanted to work on in the New year. Through our discussions we made our goals specific, practical and doable. We broke them down into manageable steps and agreed our level of commitment to making the goal happen. After class a few of us stood chatting and laughing as we packed away.
In our goodbyes I mentioned a very generous offer I had received last year from writer Elizabeth Lesser to be her guest at the Omega Institute in New York (www.eomega.org). Encouraged by our conversation I decided to email her again to see if I could make this happen. I desperately needed to take time out from my schedule here in London to write and replenish my creative self in 2007.
Two days later I found myself sending an email to Elizabeth. I received the following prompt response:‘ Hi Jackee,Good to hear from you. Omega runs its programs May-October on our campus in upstate NY. It is a beautiful place, with about 300 paid participants on campus (and 200 staff) at all times taking workshops. One of our buildings is called the Sanctuary, a place where we hold meditation twice a day, and offer silence to anyone at all other times of day.
Above the Sanctuary is what we call the Hermitage, a beautiful little house with a bedroom, a study, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. We offer teachers and writers and artists the chance to be at the Hermitage as our guest for a week or two, in exchange for teaching or speaking to our staff (about 200 young college people and other people of all ages in transition so that they have the summer off and can work at Omega) once or twice during that time.
The rest of the time you are free to work on your writing, or be in nature, swim at the lake, take long walks, eat in our wonderful dining hall, and be in an exciting community. If this sounds interesting to you, let me know. I will put you in touch with our Hermitage director and he can work out dates.Love, ElizabethWonder and magic reside side by side in a world full of violence and pain. We have such awesome powers to manifest what we desire and we have such awesome power to self-sabotage.
It is so easy to invest so much of our time and energy and misdirect it into self- sabotage rather than in manifestation. On the other side of self-sabotage lies possibilities (the field of plenty).What will you invest in manifesting this year in your writing life?Why write your writing goals down?Tonight is the evening of the New’s Year’s first Full Moon. It’s an ideal time to start off new projects and an ideal date, to kick start your writing projects and goals.
At our New Years party at home two days ago after we had witnessed in the New Year I invited each of our guests into the library room. On the large table sat a pack of hand painted cards by moi and a pack of envelopes which they self addressed. I explained to each person that they could select as many cards as they wished to make a list of their goals and intentions for 2007 and then pop these into the self addressed envelope, which I would mail to everyone by the 28th January 2007.
Everyone took to the writing with such enthusiasm. With room for four at a time around the table our guests admired the cards, said what a great idea this was, and took several cards to write down their intentions for the coming year. The next day I replayed the ritual to my daughter Aida who had celebrated New Year out with her friends and had missed all the fun back at home. After hearing what we did she said, ‘ But I never write my goals down and they happen.
So what’s the point of writing them down?’ Good question I thought even though my response at first was quite woolly. But over the day I hashed over in my mind the further benefits for writing down our goals and came up with the following that I would like to offer you.
1) Writing down your goals sends signal’s out to your subconscious to get to work on helping you realise your goals as practical possibilities. When you stop writing your subconscious continues processing your words. It carries on working behind the scenes on your behalf. By the end of this year when you look back you may not have achieved everything on your list but I bet you at the end of the year you will be closer to at least one or two things on that list.
2) I noticed that as our guest sat down writing they were taking themselves seriously. There was compassionate respect for themselves as they pondered on what they wanted to work on and achieve throughout the coming year. Treating our writing selves with respect and aware attention and focus can be a remarkable motivator in realising our writing goals and making them happen.
3) Writing down your goals is in effect the first step to making a map, a blue print for your writing life for the next 362 days. You are providing details to the subconscious about where you want to go. Next step after writing down your goals is to work how you are gong to get there.
4) Many ideas are great but they simply stay in our heads. Writing down your goals can be the first step in making it concrete and giving it a practical form. Most of us need to make our goals concrete and practical in order for us to get moving on making them happen.Reflecting throughout the day I thought about how much more Aida might have achieved had she written down her goals.
I wondered if in her strategy of not thinking about her goals too much she defended herself from being disappointed, just in case they didn’t happen. And whether the other side of this meant that she denied herself going for things she really, really wanted simply because the disappointment would be too great?Following up our conversation latter in the day I shared the following piece of research that I know would help her rational mind gain clarity and bring validity for her as to the benefits of writing down her goals.
I went back to the most common research often used to reinforce the benefits of writing down goals. In the 1950’s a Yale University study did some research on the results of goal setting.
The results they discovered over a 20 year period were astounding. 20 years later when they investigated the success of the graduates they found that the 3% of graduates with clearly written goals in the 1950’s were worth more in terms of wealth than the other 97% put together.
Set aside 15 minutes and brainstorm a list of your writing goals for 2007
Once you have finished identify the goals that are practical and doable. For example, completing five pages for a personal essay is achievable and within your control. Completing your first Memoir is an aspiration. You have greater personal control over completing the five pages. Make note of where you have the greatest personal control over a goal or whether the goal comes under the category of an aspiration (usually a Big Goal) which means the goal is much more dependent on others than yourself. Make a note of what steps will give you greater control of the goal.
Take out your diary and make appointments with your goal.
Recording your goals as appointments in your diary will help you keep on track.
Take 5 minutes to reflect in writing on this exercise and make note of any observations and insights Insights and Observations
SESSION 4
Setting Up And Maintaining
A Writing Practice
30 minutes
Next step is to create the how of making these writing goals happen. I asked several members of Moon wRites to email me and tell me what difficulties they were having setting up and maintaining a writing practice. As a result of their responses the section of our e-class will focus on setting up and maintaining a writing practice.
First take a few minutes and record in the space below the main challenges you experience with setting up and maintaining a writing practice.
Next write down how you visualise yourself running your writing practice. When will your practice be open? (When will you write?) Where will it be located? (Several locations will be fine. Turning up to a computer can be a real turn off for some writers.
Whist the idea of sitting in a bed, with a pot of tea and notebook is much more appealing) What are your opening hours? How many minutes/hours a week will you be open? How often will you write? What will you be writing about? (What services will your writing practice offer – themes of your writing?)
Now you have a blueprint for your writing practice. What is the quickest and easiest way to get your practice up and running?In the following extract below I reply to a selection of the challenges Moon wRiters identified in setting up and maintaining a writing practice.
As you read through make note of what specific sections relate to you and your practice. The extract is full of examples of solutions and strategies for you to put into practice straight away.
1). What Is A Writing Practice?A writing practice is an active ongoing practice where you turn up to write on a regular, consistent basis. Being regular and consistent can mean as little as twice a week or as much as five, or six times a week. A minimum of at least once a week is advised. The amount of time you spend writing is not of that great importance. The key strength is that you turn up to the practice regularly, even if you don’t feel like it, when you say you will.
2). Get Your Thinking To Its Appointment On The PageMuch of our writing is done off the page. The preparation, the connections, the knitting together happens in our minds. Sometimes I find I am literally bursting with words and need to get to the page. Getting to the page and laying down my thinking is literally the way in which I take my thinking to its appointment.
Many of us have an internal teacher who feels secure and cared for when we make appointments with ourselves to write. Neglected the teacher can become bossy, tyrannical and even punitive in her words and cajoling. The idea of a schedule is really appealing to our writing Muse.
As writer Somerset Maughaun is famously quoted as saying, ‘ I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at 9 o’clock sharp.’You will be surprised at what gets emptied onto the page regularly when you turn up. Much of it will be words and stories formed in your subconscious and unconscious, ideas and themes that don’t easily reveal themselves to the conscious mind. Now I see myself writing both when I am off the page as much as when I am on it. But in order for my writing practice to be effective I have to bring both together on a regular basis.
3). Write Even When You Don’t Feel Like ItWriting even when you don’t feel like it is a requirement of your practice. The practice happens when you write whether you are in the mood or not. It’s not about the quality or the quantity. All that is important is that the practice happens.A Dr’s surgery opens every day. Not just some days on the whim of how the Dr is feeling. The Dr. practices’ everyday. The practice becomes a habit, second nature, unconscious incompetence.
4). Blocks And Distractions Are Part Of The Process.I am writing this first draft on New Years Eve. It is 4pm on a Saturday. For the last three hours I have distracted myself by going out for breakfast, popping into the post office, buying a pair of boots I thought I must have and then just as I thought I would make it to the library I received a call from my partner requesting my urgent help in carrying out an urgent errand I had not planned into my days schedule.
I finally arrived at the library three hours later than planned. But when I did I knocked out the first draft’s of this e-class and my end of year newsletter. Sitting my bum on the seat and not moving worked. Blocks and distractions are inevitable. Be gentle when you are aware of what is happening. Is there a way in which you can naturally sneak your writing in despite the blocks or distractions putting in an appearance? Habit’s are often foolproof and they happen no matter what.
Blocks show up strong and potent when they get a whiff of you making a commitment, intention or action you are determined to go through with. Smile, you’re on track. The block is trying to stay in employment. Your job is write and see your block off into safe retirement.
5). Can I Work On Different Pieces Of writing At The Same Time?Oh Yes you can. When I had finished working on the e-class and the newsletter I moved straight onto another writing project. I didn’t limit myself to working on just one. Today I am completing this e-class in between writing first drafts for a writing commission due in 10 days time.
Even though there are times when the only way to get an article or piece of writing finished is to make it the priority. But in most cases I allow my Muse to move from one piece of writing to another, side by side. It feels organic. In my experience working in this way is not a distraction. Instead I see it as when I feel I have said enough in one area I simply refresh and stimulate myself by moving onto another.
Many successful authors have abandoned writing one book to go of and complete writing another. This is what happened to Jean Shinoda Bolen when she was writing, Crossing To Avalon,“ I wrote the first draft of this book between December 1986 and April 1987, and then put it away until the beginning of 1990, when I thought I was ready to work on it again…………..Summer came and with it came time to write again, except in June I became enthralled by Richard Wagner’s opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung, which I saw as a commentary on patriarchy and dysfunctional relationships.
It took over my creative process as if it were an unplanned pregnancy and instead I wrote Ring Of Power: The Abandoned Child, The Authoritarian Father, and the Disempowered Feminine which was published in 1992.”Writer Louisa DeSalvo reminds us in her book, Writing As A Way Of Healing, that, ’ Stephen King works on one book in the morning and plays with a second in the afternoon. Virginia Woolf realised that she worked best if she alternated writing fiction with non-fiction. She exercised different parts of her brain.’
6). It is helpful to get clear about why you write?Is your writing purely recreational? A way for you to creatively express yourself? Is your writing for personal insight and development? This is legitimate. This is ok. Have fun with it. Value it. Do you have a particular objective or outcome for your writing? If yes you may need to be more focused about how you go about starting, revising and completing a writing piece.
Some writers find it much easier to focus on one stage and then move onto the next, rather than focus on the end product. For others need to see the end before they start. Neither way is wrong, both ways are right and in-between there are many variations. Work with the one that is most likely to get you onto the page and bring about the outcome you desire.
7). Break your writing down into categoriesWriting for pleasure – (letters, writing comments in cards etc, emails, speeches for family events and friends)Writing for completion – (personal essay, chapter for your novel, verses for your poems)Writing for publication – (1st draft of novel, memoir, non fiction book, poems, short stories, essays features, articles, e-books, e-courses, reports)Writing for self growth and personal reflection – (journaling, self help exercises, personal poems)
8). When’s The Best Time To Write?I write best in the morning around 5-6.30am. The house is quiet, my mind is less cluttered and distracted and I am less likely to be distracted away from my writing than at any other time in the day. However keeping up this writing schedule alongside many other commitments during the day has sometimes meant me tumbling through the day worst for wear.
So my practice naturally and instinctively led me to see that I can be a productive at 7pm in the evening for 30 minutes as I am at 5.30am in the morning. Writing in the morning is my comfort zone. My ideal preferred time to write. This is my ideal but does not mean that I cannot write at other times. Breaking this habit of my early morning writing comfort zone has been crucial in operating my writing practice and extending opening hours into other parts of the day.
It has meant a more flexible and fluid writing practice that responds to what’s happening in my life and the schedules I am up against. This is the next step to take once your writing practice has been firmly established.
9). There Is More Time Than You Can Ever ImagineZen teacher Norman Fisher wrote one 28 line poem every morning for a year and generated enough material for a book. Lets say that you decide that the novel you want to write is 362 pages long.Lets say that you decide that your schedule is to write a page a day for the next 362 days.In one years time you will have the draft for your novel. Right?But I bet you won’t!Why? Because if you kept up writing a page a day for six months I bet you will have the first draft done and dusted in six months rather than in twelve.Time is not the issue.
There is enough time if you really think about it. Turning up to write is the key issue. Walking past fears that tell you that you’re not good enough, have nothing to write about can only be beaten by telling the bully to push off as you write them out of your hearing zone by planting your words on the page. Most successful writers have written despite their fears.
10). I have written lots of pieces but nothing new.By now many of the suggestions outlined on this month’s e-class should have propelled you into action. But as I say to my students time and time again, ‘Lets keep it simple.’ Want to generate new material? Here’s a few tips to generate new writing material. Make a list of 20 things you want to write about that you haven’t written about. Stop. Take a look around you right now and make a list of twenty things you see, smell, hear, sense in your immediate environment. There’s your writing themes or writing prompts. Use them to get you started.
The chances are that you are not writing something new because you are not writing enough. When the writing is a habit you have less control over what comes out. Go back to the earlier suggestions and set up your writing practice and then move on from there.
11). Supporting BuddyWho Can Support Me And Keep Me AccountableThink of a friend or someone you know who will be supportive rather than critical and ask them if they would be willing to support you for the next 28 days as you set up and open your writing practice.
Agree a time to discuss and agree how you will work together using the following guide. Have your discussion either by email, telephone or in person if possible within the next 48 hours.
Give them a brief background to what your intended writing practice will look like, (opening times, locations, extended opening hours, what you will be writing about) Ask them to write down five ways in which you will reward yourself every time you complete your practice each week.
Five small ways I will reward myselfAgree on a time each week that they will check in with you about how your writing practice has gone and whether you have earned a reward.Tell them what would be helpful for them to say when your writing practice has gone well and when it hasn’t. Request that they more or less stick to the agreed script. If I Miss My Practice I will make it up byLet your friend know what your intention is when or if you miss your practice so they can remind you of what action you agreed to take to catch up.
Also request that they check in with you on whether you have given yourself your reward.Knowing that there is someone out there other than yourself to whom you are accountable too can be really motivating for many of us. Writing can be very isolating and checking in with someone in this way can break through feelings of isolation and enhance the feeling of belonging and support. All writers need their tribe.
Notice how you are being asked to set up your support in a way that works for you. Right now you need a nurturing environment that will get you started and support your practice in staying open rather than operating from an environment that is critical and punitive.
SESSION 5
Writing Clutter
20 minutes and after the class
We can and do accumulate clutter in our writing lives as we do in any other areas of our lives. So just what does the clutter in your writing life look like? It’s different for everyone. But some common examples might be:
Writing that you will never get back to.
A book that you started but just isn’t going anywhere.
Writing books that intimidate your writing rather than fuel it.Fiction and Non Fiction books that stop you in your track as you believe you will never reach this standard of writing
Writing beliefs and aspirations that are not realistic and grandiose
What steps can you take to remove some of these physical and psychological obstacles from your writing life?How about setting aside 30 minutes to clear some of your writing clutter at the end of our e-class?
Things to be physically thrown awayPaper, books and articles I will get rid of in the next 24 hours
Psychological Changes and Shifts
Write down your spontaneous responses to the following questions as rapidly as possible to determine which beliefs are holding you back.
My father thought writers were
My mother thought writers were
At school
I learned that writing was
At secondary school writing seemed
At college writing seemed
As a rule writers are
The problem with writers is
The reason I don’t write more is
My fear about writing is
My hopes for my writing are
My plan about being a writer is
Once completed return to your responses and generate new beliefs even if you don’t fully believe them and write them out in the space below.
To start working on a belief you don’t have to believe it.
The first step is in acknowledging it.
We will close the e-class in acknowledgement of your new expanded writing beliefs.
My new expanded writing beliefs are:I am consciously not giving you examples of how to complete this exercise as I want you to trust your responses and trust your new self inspired beliefs.
SESSION 6
Closing writing practice
10 minutes
Choose one of the sentences or themes from your writing practice at the start of class and write for 10 minutes. Or simply write about what comes to you for 10 minutes.E-Class ReviewAfter the class take a few minutes to write down yourReflections, thoughts, observations and ideas from Moon wRites January e-class‰
Thank you for joining us for the January Moon wRites 2007 e-class.
We have worked through: 30 minutes of writing practiceSetting up, opening your writing practice
Solutions and strategies to maintaining your writing practice
(Setting up and opening your practice, how much time, when’s the best time to write, working on different pieces in the same day, how to manage writing blocks, writing even if your not in the mood, how to generate new material and getting clear about why you want to write)
Establishing new writing beliefs
Clearing writing clutter
Reflected and reviewed your learning, insights and observations from the class.
See you next month on the next Full Moon class on Thursday 1st February 2007“ A year from now you may have wished you had started today.” – Karen LambBonusMy friend and fellow Coach Jacquie Moses has created a fantastic website
www.onemillioninspiredwomen.com.
Go to Jacquie’s site and register any or all of your writing goals for 2007.
If you can’t identify a writing buddy let the site be the place you go public with your goals and hold you accountable in the spirit of a community of inspired women globally.
