Thoughts on writing and life for October
Last month in my writing newsletter, I wrote about a variety of things:
• My disappointment with my garden (Probably my fault for not giving it enough water)
• My problems with technology (Resolved, but not without a lot of words my mother wouldn’t have approved of!)
• My struggles with finding an agent (Sadly, no good news on that point, although the feedback I’ve been getting from beta readers has reinforced my belief that the book has potential—Yay!)
I also wrote about my feelings after reading Alice Koller’s An Unknown Woman and my plan to incorporate some “Nantucket Time” into each day.
And I’m proud to say that, with a few exceptions, I followed my plan. I sat with my coffee and journal and did some writing each morning during my “Nantucket Time” and while not every day provided me with earth-shattering revelations, it did allow me to explore my thoughts and hopes, my goals and objectives.
It also pushed me to examine my regrettable tendency to believe that at my age (never mind what age that is!), it’s too late to achieve my writing goals.
The last was further reinforced by reading the New York Times’ obituary for the artist Luchita Hurtado at 99. Although she had been painting for years, Hurtado’s work was rarely exhibited until the 1970s, and she didn’t start to gain major recognition until 2016 at age 96.
The point I took away from her obituary was that she never gave up. It was the art that drove her, not the hope of fame or fortune.
Message for me? That my focus should be on writing. If my work gets published, that’s a bonus—the icing on the cake. But my first priority should be on doing the work itself, and not letting the rejections stop me from the act of creating new pieces.
As for my “Nantucket Time” strategy, while I intend to continue it, I am also expanding it to explore mindfulness—something I learned about when talking with author Camilla Downs for this month’s Living the Writing Life podcast episode.
Mindfulness isn’t meditation, but awareness: in essence, paying attention to where you are. Engaging all your sense in that awareness. Not multi-tasking—something I do almost automatically—but single-tasking.
By involving all your senses in the activity, you can’t help but improve your ability to be a more creative writer. I think of it like filling your mental pantry with experiences that you can draw on when it comes time to describe a scene or a character’s actions.
But it also is about paying attention to your own reactions: what emotions are sparked by those sensory experiences. The feelings come up, you allow them to be part of the experience and you not only perhaps gain a better understanding of events from your past but also, as a writer, incorporate that understanding when describing a character’s reactions or thought processes.
So I have started a list of what mindfulness activities I can engage in despite any COVID-19 restrictions. I’ll let you know next month how it goes, and if I have tried any others as part of my mindfulness moments.
And if this has encouraged you to try mindfulness, let me know what you did and how it turned out.
Did you enjoy this excerpt? Sign up for my
newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!
• My disappointment with my garden (Probably my fault for not giving it enough water)
• My problems with technology (Resolved, but not without a lot of words my mother wouldn’t have approved of!)
• My struggles with finding an agent (Sadly, no good news on that point, although the feedback I’ve been getting from beta readers has reinforced my belief that the book has potential—Yay!)
I also wrote about my feelings after reading Alice Koller’s An Unknown Woman and my plan to incorporate some “Nantucket Time” into each day.
And I’m proud to say that, with a few exceptions, I followed my plan. I sat with my coffee and journal and did some writing each morning during my “Nantucket Time” and while not every day provided me with earth-shattering revelations, it did allow me to explore my thoughts and hopes, my goals and objectives.
It also pushed me to examine my regrettable tendency to believe that at my age (never mind what age that is!), it’s too late to achieve my writing goals.
The last was further reinforced by reading the New York Times’ obituary for the artist Luchita Hurtado at 99. Although she had been painting for years, Hurtado’s work was rarely exhibited until the 1970s, and she didn’t start to gain major recognition until 2016 at age 96.
The point I took away from her obituary was that she never gave up. It was the art that drove her, not the hope of fame or fortune.
Message for me? That my focus should be on writing. If my work gets published, that’s a bonus—the icing on the cake. But my first priority should be on doing the work itself, and not letting the rejections stop me from the act of creating new pieces.
As for my “Nantucket Time” strategy, while I intend to continue it, I am also expanding it to explore mindfulness—something I learned about when talking with author Camilla Downs for this month’s Living the Writing Life podcast episode.
Mindfulness isn’t meditation, but awareness: in essence, paying attention to where you are. Engaging all your sense in that awareness. Not multi-tasking—something I do almost automatically—but single-tasking.
By involving all your senses in the activity, you can’t help but improve your ability to be a more creative writer. I think of it like filling your mental pantry with experiences that you can draw on when it comes time to describe a scene or a character’s actions.
But it also is about paying attention to your own reactions: what emotions are sparked by those sensory experiences. The feelings come up, you allow them to be part of the experience and you not only perhaps gain a better understanding of events from your past but also, as a writer, incorporate that understanding when describing a character’s reactions or thought processes.
So I have started a list of what mindfulness activities I can engage in despite any COVID-19 restrictions. I’ll let you know next month how it goes, and if I have tried any others as part of my mindfulness moments.
And if this has encouraged you to try mindfulness, let me know what you did and how it turned out.
Did you enjoy this excerpt? Sign up for my
newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!
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