Module 1: Your Book Launch - Designing and Delivering
Week 3: Developing your Personal Writing Practice
Lynn Serafinn
Guest faculty - Shannon Jefferson Arnold
Good evening or good day spirit authors this is LS
I want to introduce a special guest faculty who’s sharing the line with us tonight - Shannon Jefferson
Arnold
“Hey Lynn thanks for having me, I love this topic”
I am really glad that you asked to come along it was just serendipitous, because I was preparing this lesson and you said you wanted to write a blog piece on developing a writing practice. So before I launch into my topic, I would love to hear what you would like to bring to this before we start, what was it that you were thinking about when you were talking about that…
SJA
What’s interesting is that you actually shared some of the points that you were going to talk about and agreed with so many of them. I think that often times that there is this mystique particularly with writers that we are just supposed to be inspired and the words flow, it does happen that way sometimes. I do think that grounding yourself in some practice and some ritual really makes the process of getting the words onto the page flow easier. its almost like a trained response in some way, its like meditating at the same time every day too, it teaches you how to be with yourself and allow the words to flow. So my intention in being here is to support whatever else you share and offer some different things that have worked for me if they are different from what worked for you . its just so that people have some more ideas on finding a way to create the ritual of what works for them and allow them to really flow with the work.
LS
I love the idea of ritual and that’s a word that you’ve brought in later I would like you to talk about what that is because the name is developing your writing practice… I think the word ritual has a very interesting ring to it, I think that it is something worth looking into more later on the call.
INITIAL SUMMARY
What you should have already covered
Week 1
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We looked at things that might stand in the way of your progress
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We looked at developing a purpose
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We looked at the reasons you made up not write your book
Week 2
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We looked at creating an outline for your book:
This was an extensive approach to an outline, looking at the different aspects of structure from many different angles: two dimensional, three dimensional, four dimensional, and even a five dimensional angle, of how to create an outline for your book. I hope that this

was creative and inventive for you because all of those things go into the structure of a book. Believe me, I have read many books that are lacking in some of those. You may not think that this is part of your outline but it really is.
Week 3
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Getting to write on a regular basis
Its not just that you know why you are going to write the book or the idea and the outline, hopefully you have committed yourself to one idea; if not well its time to start in this weeks lesson, because its time to get down to writing on a regular basis so that you get your book written.
Many new authors feel frustrated because they just don’t seem to be able to make progress with their book project. They imagine that writing can only be done, when inspiration hits therefore because they have that myth created they feel powerless rather than empowered by their talents. Because of this, many new authors may write in spurts and there may not be any real continuity in the way that they write. Therefore, their project might take years to complete, or they might have many micro ideas many ideas for projects all going on at once like spinning plates in a Chinese circus. Its not a very relaxed place to be its very skilful but not always very fulfilling. So what these authors do not realise if you are in this state is that writing is a practice. It’s a practice like any other art but for some reason a lot of us have myths about writing.
What I am going to be covering in today’s lesson and with Shannon’s help, to reinforce this are five objectives’
1.
To learn the importance of developing a regular writing practice.
2.
To learn what Beliefs about creativity you might have that are limiting your productivity
3.
To discover how and when you work best as a writer
4.
To learn how to manage your time, so that you don’t burn out
5.
To create a practice plan for you project and that’s going to be the major challenge for the week
To learn the importance of developing a regular writing practice
Myths v truths
Myth 1- Some people are just good writers and some are not.
Truth - Good writers are the product of diligent practice.
Yes, there are many people who have lots of talent but if they dov n’t practice, and you can think of the same as a musician or any other artist if they don’t practice they don’t get good at it.
“I remember I had a musician friend in college, who was a violinist she was not the best violinist when she came in and she had a lot of insecurities about her violin playing. That girl practiced and practiced and practiced and when she did, her senior recital she performed something called the
‘Bach Ciccone. I do not know if you “know” violin but, its one of the hardest things you can play. She was a real testament to the idea that some musicians are good and others are not, it is the result of diligent practice and the same is good for writers.” So that myth I don’t believe.

Myth 2 - If you are not feeling inspired you shouldn’t sit down to write.
Truth – That you should indeed sit down and that you should sit down regardless of how you feel and open up, learn the skill of opening up and believe it or not inspiration happens. Its not that you wait for inspiration to happen to sit down it will happen that way but to develop a regular writing practice you open up and allow inspiration to fill you it happens that way
Myth 3 - To be a writer, you need skill first and foremost.
Truth – No, you need discipline, no you need determination first and foremost. You actually get better, writers get better the more they write. In addition, another truth grammar gets better the more you write. People say, “I don’t want to be a writer because my grammar is no good”. If you start writing and read a lot as well, grammar improves, the truth is ideas come faster the more you write inspiration comes more frequently the more you write. So writing is an art that needs practice like music and inspiration skill and ideas come faster and improve.
SJA – the myth is that the writing is always going to be the same all the time; and that the writing is always going to be good.
I think that that’s a set up for some people to get frustrated. I often liken discipline in a writing practice, you know in the US how we hold the postal service “that their going to come through rain through sleet through snow through any weather”… its like learning to show up even when you not sure that what your writing is brilliant. But you’re still showing up and getting the words down on the page and working though that. My metaphor has to do with exercise.
LS
You’ve used that metaphor before like building a muscle building your writers muscle or building your writing muscle. Would you like to talk about that?
SJA
I see writing a book is like running a marathon and if your not in the regular practice of running and you go out on a race day to run the marathon its going to be challenging you might make it thorough but its going to be hard. Now if you’re in practice, and you’ve learned how to get your muscles strong and limber and you push yourself and you learn how to run even when you don’t want to feel like running. You learn how to work though the days when running is great and the running is hard. I really think that it builds up the confidence in yourself to finish the marathon. I don’t mean to place a lot of these negative metaphors around writing like it has to be arduous marathon, but I do feel that writers can set themselves up to make it unnecessarily hard when they’re not in the practice of writing. I look at the practice of writing like doing push-ups every day you’re going to get stronger at it, you’re going to get better at it., you're going to learn how to flow through it easier and you're going to deal with the inevitable hiccups in the writing process. The moments of self doubt the moments where you're not sure what to write next. Because you have that inner strength that you’ve developed through your practice you are able to carry yourself through that.
LS
I totally agree with that…and that’s something that not understanding the metaphor that you’ve just explained. How may writers write to me and say before they start to write their book and they have all the reasons why they can’t get started and its like the same logic I cant run a marathon because
I've never run marathon before , it’s the same kind of logic. And it is a matter of once you start

you're training, you are training that muscle, believe it or not guys you are training your heart, you are training your mind, you are training you receptivity, you are actually training your creativity.
Some people think that they are naturally creative or they are not, that’s also a myth I think.
I hope you get why it’s important to develop a regular writing practice the importance is it gets easier you get faster better at it and you get more done. We will be talking more about that as we develop more of the class tonight.
Beliefs about creativity
What Beliefs do we have about creativity and the myths we have about creativity that limit our productivity when were writing. The myth about creativity- that creativity comes when it wants to and we don’t have any control over it, kind of like inspiration. But the truth is its your relationship with creativity its not a passive one you have to own your creativity if you really become aware ideas are coming to you, you may not just be paying attention to them. Or you maybe judging them thinking that’s not a good idea, that has already been done, that not important or its good enough.
Every thought that flickers through your mind everything that passes your eyes, through your ears, through your mind, through your heart everything that passes is a potentially rich subject for your writing every single thing. So if you are looking for creativity just open your eyes, its there.
One of the myths that people have is that some people, are more creative than others. And in truth and this is my truth all human beings are equally creative. (15m 52sec) to discover how and when you work best as a writer
Myths v truths
To learn how to manage your time, so that you don’t burn out
Myths v truths
To create a practice plan for you project and that’s going to be the major challenge for the week
Myths v truths