{"id":234,"date":"2013-10-22T21:44:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T03:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/?p=234"},"modified":"2013-10-22T21:44:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T03:44:43","slug":"patchwork-prompt-book-review-self-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/?p=234","title":{"rendered":"Patchwork prompt, book review, self-care"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Tuesday, which means a writing prompt! And today, some “writing guidelines” from one of my favourite books, and a self-care exercise.<\/p>\n

Your prompt for today is this:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most perfect writing spot imaginable\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are continuing to work on autobiographical writing, you could use this prompt to write about where you\u2019ve written in the past, or where you hope to write. If you are writing fiction, you could put a character in a favourite writing spot and have them write something important (a letter, a declaration, a journal entry). If you\u2019re having trouble getting started, pay attention to the details of the writing spot. What does it look like? Smell like? What writing surface is available? Is it isolated or near other people? Indoors or outdoors? What is the time of day?<\/p>\n

Part of the reason for this specific prompt is because one goal of Patchwork is to help support you in creating a sustainable writing practice. There’s a lot of good (and bad, and mediocre) advice out there about how to be a writer, how to do writing, and it can be really helpful to pay attention to the bits of advice that work.<\/p>\n

In the 2010 revised edition of her book\u00a0A Writer\u2019s Book of Days<\/em><\/a>, Judy Reeves gives the following \u201cGuidelines for Writing Practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep writing.<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t stop to edit, to rephrase, to think. Don\u2019t go back and read what you\u2019ve written until you\u2019ve finished.<\/li>\n
  2. Trust your pen.<\/strong>\u00a0Go with the first image that appears.<\/li>\n
  3. Don\u2019t judge your writing.<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t compare, analyze, criticize.<\/li>\n
  4. Let your writing find its own form.\u00a0<\/strong>Allow it to organically take shape into a story, an essay, a poem, dialogue, an incomplete meander.<\/li>\n
  5. Don\u2019t worry about the rules.<\/strong>\u00a0Don\u2019t worry about grammar, syntax, punctuation, or sentence structure.<\/li>\n
  6. Let go of expectations.<\/strong>\u00a0Let your writing surprise you.<\/li>\n
  7. Kiss your frogs.<\/strong>\u00a0Remember, this is just practice. Not every session will be magic. The point is to just suit up and show up at the page, no matter what.<\/li>\n
  8. Tell the truth.<\/strong>\u00a0Be willing to go to the scary places that make your hand tremble and your handwriting get a little out of control. Be willing to tell your secrets.<\/li>\n
  9. Write specific details.<\/strong>\u00a0Your writing doesn\u2019t have to be factual, but the specificity of the details brings it alive. The truth isn\u2019t in the facts; it\u2019s in the details.<\/li>\n
  10. Write what matters.<\/strong>\u00a0If you don\u2019t care about what you\u2019re writing, neither will your readers. Be a passionate writer.<\/li>\n
  11. Read your writing aloud\u00a0<\/strong>after you\u2019ve completed your practice session. You\u2019ll find out what you\u2019ve written, what you care about, when you\u2019re writing the truth, and when the writing is \u201cworking.\u201d<\/li>\n
  12. Date your page and write the topic at the top.\u00a0<\/strong>This will keep you grounded in the present and help you reference pieces you might want to use in something else.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This list of guidelines can be found, with some variation, in any number of writing books, and there is good reason for that. Writing, like any other skill, takes practice and practice involves showing up at the page (or the violin, or the running path, or the canvas, or the camera, or the cookbook\u2026 the list is endless!) and, as Reeves calls it, \u201cpracticing the drills.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The thing that I particularly like about Reeves\u2019 book is that she provides writers with a year of prompts, and focuses on one of the listed guidelines per month, so that new (or old) writers aren\u2019t overwhelmed by the entire list of guidelines all at once. The book can be used in multiple ways, either as a \u201cbook of days\u201d as it\u2019s been designed \u2013 starting on January first and writing through the calendar year, or as a book that you step in and out of as you need. Because the writing prompts are so open-ended, you could use this same book of days for years at a time and not run out of inspiration. You can also read the inspirational chapters, or the information about how to apply the guidelines in your writing life, separate from the prompts. It is a book with many layers, and one that I have found helpful in my own writing practice.<\/p>\n

    And your self-care for today is this (give yourself at least a few minutes for this exercise):<\/p>\n

    Take a deep breath. As you inhale, note where the breath goes \u2013 do you breathe into your shoulders? Your ribcage? Your belly? Take a few breaths, drawing the breath into different parts of your torso. Pay attention to what feels best for you.<\/p>\n

    Once you have found a comfortable space for your breath, shift your attention to your shoulders. Are they pulled up towards your ears? Are they rolled forward? Sit up a little straighter, and pull your shoulders back and down.\u00a0Does this change your breath?<\/p>\n

    Keeping your shoulders down and back, and your breath intentional, close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting in your perfect writing spot. Picture yourself comfortable, calm, confident. Imagine your hand moving across the page or the keyboard comfortably, imagine yourself sitting upright and breathing deeply as you write.<\/p>\n

    Open your eyes, shake out your shoulders, and stretch your neck. Lace your fingers together and stretch your arms above your head, and tilt to either side. If you (like me!) tend to sit slouched, this exercise may have felt uncomfortable, and your upper back may feel tense after holding your shoulders back and down for longer than a couple breaths. Give yourself permission to go back into whatever position feels natural for you!<\/p>\n

    For the rest of this week, try to take a few seconds or minutes every day to pull your breath deeply in, straighten your spine, pull your shoulders down and back, and imagine yourself writing with calm, comfortable confidence.<\/p>\n

    Happy writing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It’s Tuesday, which means a writing prompt! And today, some “writing guidelines” from one of my favourite books, and a self-care exercise.<\/p>\n

    Your prompt for today is this:<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt was the most perfect writing spot imaginable\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

    If you are continuing to work on autobiographical writing, you could use this prompt to write about where you\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patchwork","category-writing-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinginthemargins.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}