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“Writing Rituals”by Waverly Fitzgerald I’m a big fan of rituals (as you know if you’ve visited my School of the Seasons web site). And the end of the year is my favorite time for taking time off to reflect on the events of the past year and dream about what I can accomplish in the new one. I often read through my journals and make lists of my accomplishments, classes I’ve taken, writing I’ve published, books I’ve read and new ideas for writing classes and projects. Early in 2003, I spent time talking with local writer Priscilla Long, who told me a startling fact she discovered while doing research for a book on female artists. The artists who were most successful were the artists who actually had lists of their work. Spouses, mentors, financial support — none of these factors was as crucial as the artist taking her work seriously. This comment made a big impression on me. I could see how my abandoned projects, unfiled papers, and good ideas buried in unread journals represented a lack of respect for my own work. Priscilla said she categorizes her writing projects under three headings: In Progress, Completed and Circulating, and Published. I made a vow to establish a similar system for dealing with my own writing. Keeping a writing log is another great way to keep track of your progress, especially if you get to the end of the year and can’t remember doing any writing. A few years ago everyone in my Friday afternoon writing group adopted this tool. Some still make entries every day in an engagement calendar; others wait until our weekly meeting and then make a list of accomplishments for the week. It’s always surprising to see how much you’ve done even if it’s just recognizing one of your characters at your local coffee shop or reading a good novel that sparks an idea. We also have a traditional end-of-the-year ritual which I believe I learned from Brenda Peterson when I was in her writing group. At the end of each year we make a list of our accomplishments for the past year, then make a list of what we hope to achieve in the next year, and write a letter to ourselves (supposedly looking back on the coming year) describing what has happened. Janis always writes to her imaginary friend, Isabella, in Tuscany, which makes her letter much more sensual than the rest of ours. I noticed both Martha and I (who’ve suffered from a year of rejections and revisions) were not quite so sanguine about getting published but concentrated on the things we could do: writing, revising and submitting. Still the point is to envision the future you want, so it’s OK to be unrealistic. You’re creating a vision of what it feels like to succeed at your writing goals, not a checklist to cross off at the end of the year. For that reason, make sure you write about how easy it is to write and how much you enjoy the process, for its own sake. May the new year bring you more of everything you enjoyed in the past year and less of the things you didn't enjoy.
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More articles on writing by Waverly Fitzgerald: Getting the Most Out of Summer Writing Conferences Imitation: Conscious and Unconscious |
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