In bewildered awe, I asked my friend Jon, who has completed a trilogy of novels, how he did it. How did he find time to work, have a life, create a world and write thousands upon thousands of words about it? Jon’s answer got me thinking about how I write.
Although I would like to write novels, I’m not there yet. Writing for me is still about process, not product.
I thought I would share with you what that process – my nascent writing practice – looks like…
Morning Pages
I started reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron at the beginning of the year. A 12-week path to “creative recovery”, Cameron prescribes “morning pages”: three pages written by hand first thing in the morning, every day.
I’ve journaled in fits and starts since junior high. The halcyon days of Amy the Diarist came and went while I lived in Edinburgh after college, when every adventure wanted recording. I’ve gotten away from it in recent years.
I renewed a commitment to my journal via morning pages.
During the week, I wake shortly after 5am and write three pages in a 3×5 moleskine notebook. I give myself permission for my weekday morning pages to be short ones: Mondays through Fridays are marathon long, so my morning pages are inversely proportional. Weekends find me writing in a larger notebook: I have the luxury of time for a longer jot.
I write mostly about what’s gone on in the day, or what’s expected from the day to come. It may not be a masterwork, but I enjoy the flow of ink from my pen. It starts my day with a contemplative, creative spirit.
Writing Prompts
After morning pages, I write check my email for a message with Sarah Selecky’s daily writing prompt. I write at least one page in a spiral notebook, sometimes more if I’ve not hit the snooze button too many times.
When I started in mid-December, they were random, disconnected vignettes. A few weeks later, characters from novels I’ve considered writing started to creep into the daily prompts. Pretty soon, every morning’s response became a scene from a book I’ve sketched out.
This was a strange and unplanned – but certainly welcome – evolution to my morning practice. I’ve learned things about my characters through the prompts, about their lives, about what they’d do when confronted by a hipster with a Holga or where – and why – they have a taxidermied owl.
Moving On
The hardest part of this practice is getting up from my writing desk to go about daily life. After the morning pages, after the prompts, I’m ready to get down to business and really write something. But, sadly, the business down to which I must get takes place in a cube, in an office building, in downtown, far, far away from the comfort of the Room of My Own.
I don’t yet come home and write in the evenings. My workdays are long: I come home and collapse. Maybe one day my writing practice will burn the candle at both ends.
Until I’m ready to focus on product, I’m enjoying the process
Amy's Inkwell 
Your words are inspiring, Amy… Thanks for sharing.
How long have you been writing?