How to Establish a Regular Writing Practice
So here we go with some advice on how to establish a regular writing practice.
Tolerance for Dry Spells?
The impetus for this is an article by Antonya Nelson about her tips rules for writing that a friend sent. The rule I keep pondering is this one, #8:
Be tolerant of dry spells. Understand that being a writer is not illustrated solely by the act of typing. Mulling, reading, meditating, lollygagging, cooking, joking, traveling, watching television — all activity, as pursued by a writing sensibility, is potentially the stuff of writing.
I am the first to acknowledge that creativity comes in cycles, and sometimes you just have to wait it out until it comes back again. But I also know, and have observed in myself and others, that “being tolerant of dry spells” too often turns into Not Writing. Period. And that those dry spells you are so happily tolerating can stretch for months and then years and then a lifetime and then there you are — you’ve become that person who put her unfinished novel in the drawer and there it…
