A Room Of Your Own: Pair Up

lizshine74by lizshine74

In A Room Of Your Own.

Writing occurs in solitude. It can only be done by you and requires that you linger long in that internal space of imagination where you have to go alone in order to write your story.

The joy we feel in writing something well is deeply personal–all ours. So are the struggles, and there are many. I am a strong woman capable of writing through all the ghouls my imagination can conjure to block my writing. I am even strong enough to face them alone. But, why would I do that?

Expending mental energy to try to solve a friend’s writing problems helps you solve your own problems too. At least half of A Room Of Your Own entries I’ve written thinking of my friend Carrie and then passed the ideas on to her as advice. We both struggle to write every day despite family, doubt, and lack of discipline, but I cannot imagine how much more difficult the writing would be if I did not know that in every moment of struggle or joy, she is always there, waiting to cheer me on or pick me up and dust me off.

I say fill your life with as many people like this as you can gather!

How do you do that?

By giving support. Whose pages have you read lately and given words of encouragement back? Who have you shared a quote with or a book? Whose story idea have you listened to? Who have you written a letter of support to? Who have you shared your writing process with?

Make a habit of encouraging others. I promise your own writing will benefit.

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Some past posts to keep you making time: 
Adjust your pace accordingly.
It’s about the routine and how you shake up the routine
There are things you will have to give up
See it to achieve it
Washing the dishes
Write slowly
A celebration of the pause
Monday, a run through the driving rain
Zen accident
Get out of your comfort zone

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.