We each need to be mindful of supporting our engagement in the writer’s life, of creating the atmosphere and the structure that will maximize our writing’s output and quality.
If you are writing—and I presume you would not be reading this if you were not, you must be mindful that, as a writer, you can make the process easier or more difficult.
I now that most people reading this do not aspire to become full-time writers—”Writers” with a capital “W”—but, even so, the same rules apply to you, if on a smaller scale.
What does “a writer’s life” mean?
By writer’s life I mean personal culture that supports your writing in the context of the goal you have for yourself.
If your goal is to write 10 five-page lifestories of childhood memories, that is a significantly different goal than writing a socio-economic history of your ethnic community roots in this country using your life as a focus.
Nonetheless, both writers can benefit from observing ways to live and enhance their different versions of the writer’s life.
It begins with habits.
There are many habits you can develop and maintain to enhance your writer’s life.
- your schedule of writing. In many case, the more you write the easier writing becomes—but, of course, not always. Writing more usually depends on—well, writing more! A regular schedule is very useful here!
- Your reading. Read memoirs, read how-to-write books, read writing blogs, subscribe to writing magazines to grow your writer’s life. Yes, it’s ok to actually spend money for your learning just as one day someone will pay for your memoir. One way to estimate how much you value your memoir, is to calculate your spend on developing your writing skills. You spend money on what you value.
- Your writing community. Writers spend time with other writers. This can be in a community-based writing group, in an online community, at workshops and academic programs.
A comparison in case you don’t “get it.”
Perhaps this will help you understand the writer’s life even more.
If you were an athlete, you would be mindful of nurturing the athlete’s life.
This might that consist of:
- a diet with requisite protein and calories,
- regular, sustained and coached training,
- rest in between training sessions and competitions,
- deepening knowledge of the sport, and
- frequenting other athletes for support and motivation.
Why is it that the need to support the athlete’s life is evident if one wants to be a successful athlete, but not so the writer’s life if one wants to be a successful writer?
In conclusion
We hear writers say they don’t read memoirs, they’ve never spent money on buying how-to material, and they can’t stand being around other writers.
It’s as if there have not been writers around who have created a writer’s culture that supports productivity and quality. It is in emulating their writer’s life that you can thrive as a memoir writer.
The following posts will be helpful to you in living the writer’s life.
Monday Focus: “Trying to Write” Your Memoir
People tell me all the time that they are going “trying to write” their memoir. But “trying” to write doesn’t get a memoir written.
How Long Does It Take to Write a Memoir?
Sometimes, years after I’ve heard from someone that he is writing a memoir, I will connect with the writer again. Perhaps it’s three or four or five years later, but the writer is working on the same memoir. I don’t get it. So I ask politely, “What has snagged the memoir?”
Write a memoir: practical how-to information to ace it.
As you write a memoir, you will find that you need much more information about technique or about style or about research or any number of other topics. Unless you have been writing much over the years, this is likely to be you. Going to the library for information is a necessary next step for […]
A Room of One’s Own to Write Memoir In
An outside writing space sounds great to me—and a luxury I am not willing to wait for. In fact, I have never used outside writing rooms—except for once when I borrowed a summer home for week and finished a book there as I wrote ALL day. Being there was very productive as I had nothing […]
Stay in the Memoir Conversation: Be Part of a Writing Community
It is important to stay in the memoir conversation. You can implicate yourself more deeply in your writing by participating inThe Memoir Network’s Write Your First Memoir Draft Tele-class.
Writing As Soul Work
You can approach writing a memoir as soul work or you can approach writing as a depressing, meaningless struggle. Like many readers of this blog, I myself struggle with the concept of what it means to me to be a writer. Notice I have written “what it means to me.” I am not much concerned […]
Scope: What’s Right for You?
In this video, Scope: What’s Right for You?, I ask how much time and energy are you willing to give to writing your memoir?
Writing Your Memoir Regularly is Key to Success
Success is built on daily writing habits. As has been bandied about and attributed to many different speakers, it is said that “you go to the office every day for 20 years, and before you know it, you are an overnight success.” Well, we can apply that bit of humor as an insight on writing […]
Showing up for writing—regularly
In the first days of creating a manuscript when we writers sit down to write—or rededicate ourselves to writing—it is often a struggle to find the energy to show up for the task. So many things seems to compete for our attention. We ask ourselves about “the point of all of this” and “who will […]