SOL Tuesday: Writing Funk

Lately, I have been feeling in a bit of a funk, especially in my writing through a professional lens. I have not been able to silence my inner critic. This is poison, ruminating through my veins.

I recently finished reading Jane Yolen's Take Joy: A Book for Writers. Although this book focuses a lot about writing stories, I still loved the wisdom from Jane Yolen. This passage really resonated with me:

"P IS FOR PROCESS

For several years now I have a handwritten sign over my desk that reads: "Value the process, not the product." I put it up there one New Year's to remind myself that books are not products, that what I enjoy and do in joy is the writing. If a book is a result, good on me. 

I offer that sign to anyone who needs it.
Write out your own.
Pin it where where you can see it when you lift your eyes from the keyboard.
Read it once a week. More often if the week is a bad one."

Thanks, Jane Yolen. Most of my writing is done in my notebook, so I wrote this on a post-it note and slapped it on the cover:

A much needed reminder from Jane Yolen

I am not out of my funk, but I am grateful for this reminder. 

What do you do to get out of your writing funk? 

SOL Tuesday: Writers Living in the Real World

I have been relishing reading Jane Yolen's words from Take Joy: A Book for Writers (The Writer Books, 2003). Recently I came across this passage: 

"I realize writers must live in the real world. That means cakes, letters, bills, clogged toilets. That means reading other people's books, watching TV, doing crossword puzzles, chatting on the phone. That means taking children to school, to the orthodontist, to choir practice, to basketball games. That means working till 3, till 5, till 8, till midnight. That means vacuuming the living room of cat hairs, dog hairs, husband's hairs. That means running to the grocery store, the paint store, the shoe store. That means going to the doctor, the hair salon.
That means...life.
Besides, without life, what is there to write about?" 

I often think about this. That is, how do I lead a writerly life when there is always so much life going on? I don't have the luxury of spending hours working on writing-at least not the kind of time that I would like to devote to writing. Yet Jane Yolen reminds me that most writers "must live in the real world," just like me...driving my children to music lessons, checking assignment notebooks, making dinner, walking dogs, co-leading Girl Scouts, unending laundry...my to-do list is endless. 

For me, my most productive writing time is early in the morning, well before anyone else in my house is awake. My goal is always to write three pages a day, using Morning Pages. As I have written about before, my writer's notebook is filled with lists of gratitude, Heart Maps, and Haiku - mostly about the most mundane parts of my daily life. 

Writing helps me appreciate life around me. It helps me change my perspective. 

Poetry Everywhere (T&W Books, 2005) describes a Lune as a poem that includes three words in the first line, five words in the second line, and three lines in the last line. It is similar to Haiku poem except it is simply counting words instead of syllables. I wrote a Lune poem about my writing routine:  

Before sunlight streams-

Pen to paper. My daily routine:

Uninterrupted writing time.