New year, new writing you?

Helen Jaeger shares her new year writing resolutions. How will you be rejuvenating your writing in the year to come?

It’s the New Year and I wonder if you’ve made any New Year’s resolutions – specifically new creative resolutions? I have. As a writer, I was woefully lax last year in keeping up any kind of writing discipline, which wasn’t either paid or public. For a fan of Dorothea Brande (more on her later), that’s not something to be proud of.

You see, I know, at heart, that my best writing (paid, public, just personally satisfying) comes when I nurture the hidden and secret art of writing. It’s like one of those Chelsea blooms or prize-winning marrows – grown in secret, away from the glare of public judgment and lavished with tender, loving care, my writing flourishes, finds new rhythm, colour and expansion.

Writers need this time away from the screen and audiences, away from blogs and tweets and the wonderful, new(ish) webby world of writers, with its glamorous press-the-button-and-publish-now enticements, just to sit and, well, write.

How do I know this? I wrote five books, fresh on the ideas that you have to:

1. feed the inner writer
2. be discplined about writing (no more waiting for Mr/Ms Unpredictable Muse to show up)
3. be kind to your writerly self and don’t let your inner editor jump too quickly.

These aren’t new ideas and I can’t really claim them for myself.

Feeding the inner writer is another way of treating him or her nicely – a concept Julia Cameron outlines in her seminal book, ‘The Artist’s Way‘. Here, Cameron states the necessity of setting aside a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, for an ‘artist’s date’ (and yes, writers are artists).

The rules of the artist’s date are clear – no taggers-on, playful, not necessarily expensive, ring-fenced time: a chance to listen to and nurture your creative self. Cameron suggests a long walk, an expedition to the beach or forest, a visit to an exhibition or gig, lunch at a new cafe, even going bowling! It doesn’t have to link explicitly with your art. The aim is to listen to your inner creative or, as a good friend once said, ‘do what gives you life’.

So, where would your writerly self like to go and what would he/she like to do? Why not try an artist’s date this week?

My second resolution is to be more disciplined in my writing. Not in terms of more blogs/books/tweets/interviews. I am going back to the simple art of keeping a journal. Cameron recommends for me the practice of so-called ‘Morning Pages’.

Essentially, these are three pages of whatever-you-like first thing in the morning. Cameron says: “Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid or too weird to be included.”

The great thing, in my experience, about ‘Morning Pages’ is that the pressure’s off – you can just write. No one else is going to see or comment, your grammar can be terrible, your handwriting appalling, your cartoon characters laughable – but, here’s the thing – it loosens you up.

Like muscles you use regularly, ‘Morning Pages’ stretch you, strengthen your creativity, make you supple. Whenever I’m in the throes of a serious commitment to ‘Morning Pages’, every other bit of writing flows more easily, as if my fingers and brain know what they need to do.

‘Morning Pages’ echo two truths other writers know. The first is discipline. We’re still attracted, as writers, to the Romantic myth of the Muse who Visits Us. But, whilst working as a journalist for an international charity, I was confronted by this question, ‘did I want to Muse to visit me or did I want to go home at 5pm?’.

Clearly I wanted to go home at a reasonable time having done my work – but, I also wanted inspirational copy. My great revelation was that the two are not exclusive.

“There is another element to the writer’s personality. It is adult, discriminating, temperate and just. It is the side of the artisan, the workman and the critic, rather than the artist. It must work continually with and through the emotional and childlike side, or we have no work of art.”

- Dorothea Brande, a New York writer and editor , author of cult classic ‘Becoming a Writer‘ (1934). Dorothea taught me that being disciplined is part of the writer’s personality, as is being artistic. It’s a matter of separating the two, so they can work in harmony.

This is an idea spelt out by the contemporary, Natalie Goldberg. Struggling to start my first book, a friend serendipitously handed me ‘Writing down the bones‘. Goldberg, like Cameron and Brande, identifies two parts of the brain – the creative and the editor. To work harmoniously, each must do their work for a time uninterrupted by the other.

I found this worked perfectly and raced through my first manuscript, writing three hours a day listening to trance dance. My inner editor was happy to come along later, fuelled by best Colombian coffee, to tweak, make suggestions and shape the words. ‘Morning Pages’, the artist’s date and a respect for discipline made it all possible.

So, what do you find useful for your writing? Resolutions? Tips in the comments, if you like.

And, P.S., eagle-eyed readers will realise I more often blog about libraries. Guess what? I broke my own rules and covered ‘The Creative Process’ in a library workshop. A great experience 

Supported by Writing East Midlands.

Helen Jaeger is a social marketing consultant based in the UK. She works with charitiable and arts clients. She is an internationally published author, journalist and photographer. Her books are: As Night Falls, Paths Through Grief, As Day Dawns and A Treasury of Wisdom.