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    365 Affirmations for the Writer
    365 Affirmations for the Writer
    365 Affirmations for the Writer
    Ebook128 pages2 hours

    365 Affirmations for the Writer

    By Jane Hertenstein

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    About this ebook

    Writing is a journey. Every time we sit down to begin a piece or write the first chapter or the first line we are venturing into uncharted territory. 365 Affirmations for the Writer is about listening to those who have gone before us and letting them guide us with their insight, their own trials. By reading what others have said, we can survey the path before us, count the cost, and plunge ahead.

    Jane Hertenstein is the author of numerous short stories and flash. Her work has been included in Hunger Mountain, Word Riot, Flashquake, and Rosebud as well as earning an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train. Her literary interests are eclectic, evident in the titles she has published: Beyond Paradise (YA), Orphan Girl (non-fiction), Home Is Where We Live (children’s picture book), and a recent ebook Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir. Jane lives in Chicago where she blogs at Memoirous

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJane Hertenstein
    Release dateOct 27, 2015
    ISBN9781310120350
    365 Affirmations for the Writer
    Author

    Jane Hertenstein

    Jane Hertenstein is the author of over 70 published stories, a combination of fiction, creative non-fiction, and blurred genre both micro and macro. In addition she has published a YA novel, Beyond Paradise, and a non-fiction project, Orphan Girl: The Memoir of a Chicago Bag Lady, which garnered national reviews. She is a 2-time recipient of a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. She also is in demand as a seminar teacher for Flash Memoir. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in: Hunger Mountain, Rosebud, Word Riot, Flashquake, Fiction Fix, Frostwriting, and several themed anthologies. She can be found at http://memoirouswrite.blogspot.com/. Her latest eBook are Freeze Frame: How To Write Flash Memoir and 365 Affirmations for the Writer.

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      Book preview

      365 Affirmations for the Writer - Jane Hertenstein

      Introduction

      Writing is a journey. Every time we sit down to begin a piece or write the first chapter or the first line we are venturing into uncharted territory. We never know how it is going to turn out. Oh, we have a certain idea, like most pioneers or explorers. But, these journeys can take detours; we have to react to circumstances and often go with our gut.

      365 Affirmations for the Writer is about listening to those who have gone before us and letting them guide us with their insight, their own trials. They know the terrain, how harsh it can be; they know where we can find water, shade, and rest along the way. By reading what others have said, we can survey the path before us, count the cost, and plunge ahead.

      My motivation for compiling 365 Affirmations for the Writer is to offer light along the way. From day to day, week to week, we are getting further inside our writing, further down the path.

      Every effort has been made to track down the source of the quotes used in this eBook. If the source is not identified then perhaps the quote was taken from a public reading, Twitter, etc.

      I particularly want to acknowledge a few of my sources: Goodreads Quotes and the New York Times, Writers on Writing. Some of these quotes have been sourced from conferences I’ve attended such as the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and The Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. In addition I have attended workshops and critique groups where the feedback has been invaluable. These classes and meet-ups have been great for supplying me with quotes and writerly tips. (One beggar offering another bread.)

      The writer prompts are meant to help get the writer, started. Started thinking, imagining, and indwelling. Some of the prompts are meant to help the writer become unstuck—that awful place which many of these affirmations give credence to, yet we don’t have to live there. Sometimes all it takes is just being able to move the pen or the cursor, acknowledging that it is bad, but also that it will get better. Most importantly: Show up.

      Let these affirmations wash over you, give you strength, fortify you in your search for words, story, wholeness.

      JANUARY

      January 1

      You Determine Where You’ll Go

      You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go...

      ― Dr. Seuss, from Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

      January 2

      Books

      Books are the grail for what is deepest, more mysterious and least expressible within ourselves. They are our soul’s skeleton. If we were to forget that, it would prefigure how false and feelingless we could become.

      ― Edna O’Brien, from It’s a Bad Time Out There For Emotion

      January 3

      Books

      A room without books is like a body without a soul.

      ― Cicero

      Can you recall the first book you read? Right now write about that experience and what keeps you coming back to books?

      January 4

      Outlines—Yes or No

      I’m one of those writers who tends to be really good at making outlines and sticking to them. I’m very good at doing that, but I don’t like it. It sort of takes a lot of the fun out.

      ― Neil Gaiman, winner of both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many other awards too numerous to list, from and interview by Chris Bolton, Powells.com, August, 2005

      January 5

      Outlines—Yes or No

      A lot of new writers assume you have to know the where the story is going and that it flows out as molten gold. But really, sometimes you think you are going to one place, but then you decide that is dumb idea. Then you go somewhere else and it is a worse idea. But then you switch again and you might have a beautiful accident.

      ― Patrick Rothfuss, writer of epic fantasy, namely The Wise Man’s Fear

      Do you use an outline or go by instinct? Mindmapping is one such way to free associate. Rather than work consecutively or following a certain set of logic, mindmapping allows you to start with one idea and link it to another, even if there is no obvious connection. Some work with words and images, drawing pictures or icons or simply the use of color to describe their feelings. It is the same part of your mind that doodles during a lecture. There is the main idea, but the supporting material under the surface that you want to access. Allow yourself to explore what appears to be non-sense.

      January 6

      Rules

      There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.

      ― Doris Lessing, Nobel prize-winning novelist

      January 7

      Characters

      First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him.

      ― Ray Bradbury

      January 8

      The Writer as Witness

      When I think about writers who use fiction as social commentary and to raise social awareness but who are also very popular, I think of Dickens.

      ― Jodi Picoult, New York Times Best Seller author

      January 9

      The Writer as Witness

      As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

      ― Dani Shapiro, fiction writer and memoirist, from Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life

      January 10

      Writers in Action

      Mark Salzman ran into a bad case of writer’s block. He was desperate to break out and find his groove. He discovered that the only way to write was to sit with a towel wrapped around his head and headphones clamped onto his ears to block out all noise. In addition he fashioned a skirt of aluminum foil to keep his cat from continually jumping in his lap. Eventually he finished his third novel, Lying Awake.

      Analyze your writing process. Do you need a few minutes before diving in? Time to get set up? Some writers have a routine such as a cup of coffee or tea, lighting a candle, a writing playlist.

      January 11

      Keeping a Reader’s Attention

      The first 15 pages are critical—the reader demands a reason to keep reading.

      ― Jane Hertenstein

      Review your current writing project. Does it grab your attention from the first sentence or pique your curiosity? Start at the beginning, making the first sentence lead to the next.

      January 12

      Keeping a Reader’s Attention

      The prime function of the children’s book writer is to write a book that is so absorbing, exciting, funny, fast and beautiful that the child will fall in love with it. And that first love affair between the young child and the young book will lead hopefully to other loves for other books and when that happens the battle is probably won. The child will have found a crock of gold. He will also have gained something that will help to carry him most marvelously through the tangles of his later years.

      — Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) Matilda (1988), amongst others

      January 13

      Keeping a Reader’s Attention

      In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.

      — Stephen King, from On Writing

      Ask yourself—what is going to motivate a reader to spend a week reading this book?

      Hint: write one true sentence

      January 14

      Writing Tips

      Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of

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