Writing Practice 1.15
January 15, 2024
Welcome to Writing Practice. The idea is simple: I send out a daily prompt to paid subscribers, often with links to related published pieces to help fuel creativity. Then you write.
Write as much or as little as you like. I would recommend not over-thinking this, and just using it as an opportunity to jot down some words. I would also recommend just writing through – don’t try to make it perfect (that’s for later).
Some of these prompts may resonate, and you’ll find yourself writing paragraph after paragraph. Others will fall flat, or you’ll roll your eyes, or come up empty and feel frustrated. This, too, is part of having a regular writing practice. On those days of frustration or blockage, try to write something down anyway – even just one sentence, even just one word. And then take heart in the reality that, if we are lucky, there is always tomorrow.
WRITING PRACTICE DAY FIFTEEN
Welcome to Week Three of writing practice. Congratulations: You are halfway through a month of writing every day! Or maybe you didn’t write every day, but you intended to, or tried to, or wanted to. Congratulations on that! Intention is the first step toward doing. And who cares if you didn’t write every day? You probably did some other fun / gratifying / useful / interesting things, right? Good job.
In week one, we examined the self: Who we are as writers, and how our backgrounds shape our creative work. In week two, we considered the balance of pleasure and power in our work. Now, in week three, we will explore tying the cerebral to the experiential in our writing; tapping into our emotional selves; imagining and connecting with our reader; taking risks; embracing vulnerability and honesty in what we write about and how we write it; and getting un-stuck so we can start to experience writing as a daily devotional practice.
That last bit might sound a bit silly, but take it in anyway. Can you devote yourself to writing every day this week? This third week of January is so often when our new year commitments start to flag. And that’s ok — it’s good, I think, to reconsider what we’ve committed ourselves to. But if writing is something you want to commit yourself to practicing, make this week a strong one. A disciplined one. A devotional one.
Your prompt today:
In her essay The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison writes, “…empathy might be, at root, a barter, a bid for others’ affection: I care about your pain is another way to say I care if you like me. We care in order to be cared for. We care because we are porous. The feelings of others matter, they are like matter: they carry weight, exert gravitational pull.”
Write about a time when you made an empathetic bid for another’s affection but were rejected — when someone did not show you the kind of care and empathy you showed them (or, if you don’t want to write about your own experience, create a character and write in short fiction form). Use the story to explore both the feelings at play and also what the concept of “empathy” means and how it shapes human experience and connection.
The Empathy Exams is a great piece to read today.
xx Jill