Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices: The Writing Life

If you've been paying really close attention, you might have noticed that I changed the name of my upcoming online writing course. The main title stayed the same ("The Writing Life"), but the subtitle morphed from "Illuminate Your Creative Process" to "Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices."

Why the change?

A bit of market testing (and by "market testing" I mean input from trusted colleagues and my own gut instinct) showed that the original subtitle was a goat rodeo of a name. It was all over the place. It was confusing and hard to say, and not really representative of what this class is about. 

So what is this class about?

Well, I hope it's there in the name now: This class is about the rituals, rhythms, and practices that go into your writing life.

It's about understanding your routines, preferences, and schedules so that you can write more often and with more ease.

It's about learning how a wide variety of factors can influence the way you write.

Whether you realize it or not, you make a lot of decisions when you choose to write (or choose to not write). Sometimes subtle shifts in these choices can make a big difference in your writing.

This class will help you to answer these kinds of questions, which will empower your writing life:

• Do you think before you write, or do you write in order to think?
• Do you write best to music or in silence?
• Are you a linear or an associative thinker? And what does that mean for how you write?
• Do you write best with pen and paper or on a keyboard?
• Can you sit and write for hours on end, or do you work better in shorter bursts?
• Do you really have to write every day in order to be a writer?
• How can outlines, index cards, and mindmaps support (or hinder) your writing?
• Which of these words motivates you more: discipline or enthusiasm?
• How can the physical objects around you make you feel more inspired and focused?
• How can you stoke your creativity when you're not writing?

I created this class because the process and practice of writing comes up all the time with writers at all levels of experience. I've had similar conversations with brand new writers and with published authors. All of us writerly types are looking for ways to make our writing lives easier and more prolific. 

Here's a broad outline of the course content, to give a flavor of the topics we'll cover:

• Writing as a Process of Discovery: Cultivating a writer's mindset, clearing the mental clutter, and practicing the practice
  
  
• The Inner World of Your Writing Life: Understanding the different phases of your process, knowing how your mind works, and embracing your natural writing "breath"
  
  
• The Outer World of Your Writing Life: Understanding how your surroundings impact your work, finding inspiration in tangible objects, creating rituals and routines, and leveraging your natural rhythms and schedules
  
  
• Living the Writing Life: Setting livable writing goals and dreams, discovering what motivates you, and choosing to live the writing life

By taking this class, you'll unravel the misconceptions and myths of what being a "Real Writer" looks like. (That pesky myth of the real writer is a persistent little guy!) You'll tap into your creative energy and unleash it in a sustainable way. You'll learn techniques for transforming your perceived weaknesses into the strengths of your writing life. You'll figure out what it will take for you to write more. And you'll probably start to have a lot more fun while writing!  

I hope you'll join me for The Writing Life: Rituals, Rhythms, & Practices. Class runs from March 31 to April 27. The course is just $47, which gives you a full month of lessons, prompts, exercises, and inspiration, plus access to a private online community with your fellow students.

Full details and registration are available over here. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or contact me. I'm happy to help. 

 p.s. If you're interested in reading more about my own writing process, I wrote about it over here.