Write fast and carelessly every day. Forget all the rules. Forget your fears. Forget what your English teacher told you about the right way to write. Get down your observations, feelings, and ideas. Don’t write about anything boring to you—that’s a sign that you are telling lies, writing to please others and not yourself. —Rochelle Melander
When I teach my Writing2transform journaling classes, I encourage students to start each day with “the daily dump.” The daily dump is my version of Julia Cameron’s morning pages. In the daily dump, the writer scribbles down three pages as fast as she can. When I tell classes about the exercise, someone always asks:
“But what do I write?”
And that’s the kicker: figuring out what to write day after day, month after month. Instead of worrying what to write about, just write anything that comes into your head, even if it is just a sort of whine to the world. If that does not work, try this. Use the saying on your daily calendar (see photo above) as a writing prompt. What you do with it is up to you. Turn it into a poem, a story, a rant or a thesis. Just write for 10 or 20 minutes.
Your turn: What is your favorite daily calendar? Leave your comment below.
You could win…your very own copy of Bylines, the calendar for writers (see photo above). I was delighted to discover that my submission had made it into this year’s edition of Bylines. If you’d like to win one of these wonderful tools for writers, do one of the following:
*Comment on this post.
*Tweet this post with my Twitter handle in it (@WriteNowCoach)
*Follow this blog.
When, you ask? You have through the weekend to post, tweet, and follow this blog. You will all be entered in a drawing, and TWO OF YOU will win calendars! I will be posting the winners NEXT WEDNESDAY, January 18.
