The Rules for Writing Practice introduction to the writing workshop, part 2

For Mothers Who Write —
Welcome to The Other Mother
Writing Workshop for Moms

Introduction to The Other Mother
Writing Workshop for Moms
Part 2 of 4
Rules for Writing Practice

I'm going to post our first writing practice topic shortly, but I thought I'd put the rules for writing practice here, in case you want to refer to them. You can also get to them from the yellow sticky in the sidebar that says "writing practice, getting started."

Anyway, use these whenever you practice writing -- that is, make a first draft, respond to a topic, write about whatever it is you've been trying to write about. I find it very freeing to think through all of them, and then do the not-thinking work of drafting, giving myself permission just to go, go, go.

Your kids get to practice: violin, soccer, speaking, dancing, dress-up, crawling, SATs (ugh), flute, math, reading, monkey bars--why not you, too?

The rules for writing practice are inspired by and adapted from Natalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life.

wild mind: living the writers life
by Natalie Goldberg

1. Keep your fingers moving. Just start. Don’t edit, that comes later.
2. Let go of the wheel. Don’t worry about being polite; don’t worry about what people will think. Forget about punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Just write.
3. Use your senses. The more specific your description, the more real your invented world becomes.
4. Don't stop to think. Let it happen as you go. Don’t worry whether it will be good; if you don’t write anything, the quality won’t matter. Write now, worry later.
5. Go for the marrow. If you don’t write the real stuff (not the facts, but the truths) you won’t believe what you’ve written and neither will your reader.
6. No crossing out. It slows you down.

These are the rules for writing practice — you should feel free to edit before you post in the blog. But if you can stick to these rules (or read Wild Mind if you want Natalie Goldberg’s original version), you can just get it out there, get going, start your engine.

Read more ...
Come write! Creating an inventory.
introduction to the writing workshop, part 3 »

Comments

[Masters Dissertation]

Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!