365 Affirmations for the Writer

By Jane Hertenstein

Writing is a journey. Every time we sit down to begin a piece or write the first chapter or the first line we are venturing into uncharted territory. 365 Affirmations for the Writer is about listening to those who have gone before us and letting them guide us with their insight, their own trials. By reading what others have said, we can survey the path before us, count the cost, and plunge ahead.

Jane Hertenstein is the author of numerous short stories and flash. Her work has been included in Hunger Mountain, Word Riot, Flashquake, and Rosebud as well as earning an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train. Her literary interests are eclectic, evident in the titles she has published: Beyond Paradise (YA), Orphan Girl (non-fiction), Home Is Where We Live (children’s picture book), and a recent ebook Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir. Jane lives in Chicago where she blogs at Memoirous

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jane Hertenstein
• Release date: Oct 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310120350

Jane Hertenstein

Jane Hertenstein is a Pushcart nominee and the author of a middle-grade novel, Cloud of Witnesses and YA novel, Beyond Paradise. Her non-fiction Orphan Girl was widely reviewed and featured in the Chicago Tribune Sunday Book Section. Her work has been recognized by the New York Times. She has in her portfolio over 100 published stories both macro and micro: fiction, creative non-fiction, and blurred genre. She's an alum of Bread Loaf Writers' Conference waitstaff, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Amanda Davis Award, Wesleyan Writers' Conference. Jane is the recipient of multiple grants from the Illinois Arts Council and City of Chicago. Every year she rides her bike hundreds of miles and currently resides in the piney woods of Michigan. She teaches a workshop on Flash Memoir. Find out more at https://janehertenstein.substack.com/ Her life motto is to Do Everything with your One Wild and Precious Life. www.facebook.com/JaneHertensteinAuthor/ @memoirjane on Twitter janehertenstein.com

Book preview

Introduction

Writing is a journey. Every time we sit down to begin a piece or write the first chapter or the first line we are venturing into uncharted territory. We never know how it is going to turn out. Oh, we have a certain idea, like most pioneers or explorers. But, these journeys can take detours; we have to react to circumstances and often go with our gut.

365 Affirmations for the Writer is about listening to those who have gone before us and letting them guide us with their insight, their own trials. They know the terrain, how harsh it can be; they know where we can find water, shade, and rest along the way. By reading what others have said, we can survey the path before us, count the cost, and plunge ahead.

My motivation for compiling 365 Affirmations for the Writer is to offer light along the way. From day to day, week to week, we are getting further inside our writing, further down the path.

Every effort has been made to track down the source of the quotes used in this eBook. If the source is not identified then perhaps the quote was taken from a public reading, Twitter, etc.

I particularly want to acknowledge a few of my sources: Goodreads Quotes and the New York Times, Writers on Writing. Some of these quotes have been sourced from conferences I’ve attended such as the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and The Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. In addition I have attended workshops and critique groups where the feedback has been invaluable. These classes and meet-ups have been great for supplying me with quotes and writerly tips. (One beggar offering another bread.)

The writer prompts are meant to help get the writer, started. Started thinking, imagining, and indwelling. Some of the prompts are meant to help the writer become unstuck—that awful place which many of these affirmations give credence to, yet we don’t have to live there. Sometimes all it takes is just being able to move the pen or the cursor, acknowledging that it is bad, but also that it will get better. Most importantly: Show up.

Let these affirmations wash over you, give you strength, fortify you in your search for words, story, wholeness.

JANUARY

January 1

You Determine Where You’ll Go

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go...

― Dr. Seuss, from Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

January 2

Books

Books are the grail for what is deepest, more mysterious and least expressible within ourselves. They are our soul’s skeleton. If we were to forget that, it would prefigure how false and feelingless we could become.

― Edna O’Brien, from It’s a Bad Time Out There For Emotion

January 3

Books

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

― Cicero

Can you recall the first book you read? Right now write about that experience and what keeps you coming back to books?

January 4

Outlines—Yes or No

I’m one of those writers who tends to be really good at making outlines and sticking to them. I’m very good at doing that, but I don’t like it. It sort of takes a lot of the fun out.

― Neil Gaiman, winner of both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many other awards too numerous to list, from and interview by Chris Bolton, Powells.com, August, 2005

January 5

Outlines—Yes or No

A lot of new writers assume you have to know the where the story is going and that it flows out as molten gold. But really, sometimes you think you are going to one place, but then you decide that is dumb idea. Then you go somewhere else and it is a worse idea. But then you switch again and you might have a beautiful accident.

― Patrick Rothfuss, writer of epic fantasy, namely The Wise Man’s Fear

Do you use an outline or go by instinct? Mindmapping is one such way to free associate. Rather than work consecutively or following a certain set of logic, mindmapping allows you to start with one idea and link it to another, even if there is no obvious connection. Some work with words and images, drawing pictures or icons or simply the use of color to describe their feelings. It is the same part of your mind that doodles during a lecture. There is the main idea, but the supporting material under the surface that you want to access. Allow yourself to explore what appears to be non-sense.

January 6

Rules

There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.

― Doris Lessing, Nobel prize-winning novelist

January 7

Characters

First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him.

― Ray Bradbury

January 8

The Writer as Witness

When I think about writers who use fiction as social commentary and to raise social awareness but who are also very popular, I think of Dickens.

― Jodi Picoult, New York Times Best Seller author

January 9

The Writer as Witness

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

― Dani Shapiro, fiction writer and memoirist, from Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life

January 10

Writers in Action

Mark Salzman ran into a bad case of writer’s block. He was desperate to break out and find his groove. He discovered that the only way to write was to sit with a towel wrapped around his head and headphones clamped onto his ears to block out all noise. In addition he fashioned a skirt of aluminum foil to keep his cat from continually jumping in his lap. Eventually he finished his third novel, Lying Awake.

Analyze your writing process. Do you need a few minutes before diving in? Time to get set up? Some writers have a routine such as a cup of coffee or tea, lighting a candle, a writing playlist.

January 11

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

The first 15 pages are critical—the reader demands a reason to keep reading.

― Jane Hertenstein

Review your current writing project. Does it grab your attention from the first sentence or pique your curiosity? Start at the beginning, making the first sentence lead to the next.

January 12

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

The prime function of the children’s book writer is to write a book that is so absorbing, exciting, funny, fast and beautiful that the child will fall in love with it. And that first love affair between the young child and the young book will lead hopefully to other loves for other books and when that happens the battle is probably won. The child will have found a crock of gold. He will also have gained something that will help to carry him most marvelously through the tangles of his later years.

— Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) Matilda (1988), amongst others

January 13

Keeping a Reader’s Attention

In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.

— Stephen King, from On Writing

Ask yourself—what is going to motivate a reader to spend a week reading this book?

Hint: write one true sentence

January 14

Writing Tips

Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of