As I work….
I notice my space to write is constituted by how I define, secure and use it. I’m calling these three activities protecting.
The questions below occur to me as useful prompts:
Defining your space to write
Where is your space to write?
What do you love already about the space?
What can you add into the space, so that the space is even better for your writing?
What will you remove, making the space even better for you now?
When you picture yourself writing well in your space, what do you see?
Securing your space to write
Does your calendar show you when you are in your space?
How do you recognise in your calendar that you are in your writing space?
What do you leave outside your writing space?
How fully do you commit to leaving outside your writing space what you know doesn’t belong inside?
What do you allow into your writing space?
How can you change the filter so that what enters your writing space is exactly what you need to do your best writing?
What community of writers can you draw upon for support in the making-space for writing?
Using your space to write
What tools help you write well? How easy are they to access when you are inside your space? What can you do to make your writing tools even easier to use?
What habits help you write well? How easy are they to tap into when you are inside your space? What can you do to embed your writing habits more fully?
What habits and tools are no longer serving you? When you let them go, what happens?
Is your definition of what Neil Gaiman calls “writing or doing nothing” the right width for your work at hand? What activities nourish your writing that you may be discounting? What activities distract you from this writing that you can, for now, eliminate?
Which inner voices interrupt your writing? What seats can you assign them, where they sit with you, silent?
When you are generating, how can you track what you notice, so that editing doesn’t slow you down?
When you edit, how can you track progress so that it is tangible even if word count is decreasing?
Who can celebrate your daily achievements? How do you want them to know? What form would you like their support for your writing to take?
Know someone who needs these questions?
Seeking a place to write during Lockdown2? Join me (and hundreds of others) at London Writers’ Hour. It is what it says: an hour to write, that happens to come along three times in a British weekday. It’s free and open to all who can access Zoom.
Writers’ Hour is a portal to London Writers Salon, a community that pre-dates the pandemic which digital technology has enabled to grow globally. I’m a Silver Patron, and participate in the Slack community and many of the events.
Through LWS, I found the Stoic Salon run by Kathryn Koromilas. Her 28-day challenge began yesterday. I’m slow, so I used yesterday’s prompt this morning. It led me to write:
Your faculties, while full, invite you to live fully: without hesitating, apologising or god-forbid, waiting. Precious time will not wait.
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Thank you in advance for sharing this email. Thank you too, to Julia Morozova for the photograph of me, pen in hand, in Clementi House.