Certainty, fidelity

lizshine74by lizshine74

In A Room Of Your Own, Coaching, Found sentences, Inspiration.

Certainty, fidelity

This post’s title comes from one of my favorite Auden poems, taken from a line that gets me every time I read it. Even if I’ve just read it. It’s a line that highlights mortality, the ephemeral nature of our lives, and how we inhabit them. It’s a new year, and I’m trying on some new ideas for Make Time. Like writing a monthly newsletter to release every second Sunday and using notes to stay in touch the rest of the month. Like using a scrap from a different poem for every title, selecting from poems I really love. This will be a work in progress. Please tell me what you like or don’t like, plus any ideas you might have for what I could include.

This morning, reluctantly, I went for a run. All week I’d been waking up tired and congested. Though I’d been up for a few hours already, I couldn’t manage to get myself out the door before ten. Fortunately, the sky was clear and even a little blue, and I swear there was a bit more light in the sky than there had been. I’m back to running after an unintentional break. Just a few days per week, a couple of miles. Nothing to brag about. Simply trying to get some cardio in, keep my blood pressure down so my doctor doesn’t increase the dose on my meds again.

I tend to run the same routes over and over. It helps to get me out the door, because I know exactly what I’m getting myself into. The route I’ve been running for at least a couple of years now is a series of streets, tucked safely in my neighborhood. Though I almost didn’t make it out the door today, once I started running, my spirits lifted a bit. My mind started to imagine all kinds of possibilities. I thought about the novel I’m working on. I sketched out an idea for a summer party Chris and I could have in June of 2028 to celebrate our thirtieth year of teaching. I was feeling so good that I decided to go a little further and cross the main drag that divides West Olympia. Oh! I know these roads too, I thought. I’ve run them and walked them too. I can do this. I began to expand the map of my weekly run, planning more add-ons for future runs.

Next time I’ll take the trail and continue up the hill!

I also thought about writing this post. Showing up for my run was not unlike showing up at my writing desk. You’ve got to trust that as long as you sit in the chair and set the time and get yourself out the door, you’ve created the conditions for flow to happen.

I’m working on a new novel now. There is so much that I am uncertain about, so I am relying on that magic of routine and commitment to pull me through these uncertainties. I’m writing more poetry too, and working on a short story collection. I’m on a hot streak with submissions, having submitted work every day of 2026 so far. I’ve decided to try to keep the streak going at least until my birthday in late February.

My niece (she’s 10) left a note on my desk over the holidays that says “Do your work.” And I am keeping it there. It makes me smile every time I sit down to write. When you sit down to do your work this January, remember this: you have done enough simply in the act of sitting down. All you need to do is to sit down to work again and again and again. I’ll be doing the same. If you lose heart, drop me a line. I’ll send some encouragement.

Small Things That Have Been Bringing Me Joy

  • My favorite winter hat, snugged on my head
  • Cuddles with my dogs
  • Honey in my tea
  • Writing letters
  • Reading the poem-a-day

One Found Sentence From What I’ve Been Reading

A woman with powerful thighs is like a nutcracker; To venture between them is to risk being shattered.” —from Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

A Writing Prompt for January

Write a poem, a CNF piece, or a work of fiction that explores the idea of becoming something entirely new and includes some magical realism or actual shapeshifting.

My January Goals

  • Submit work every day this month
  • Finish the first two chapters of the new book
  • Continue to revise poems and write new ones
  • Write the last Sophie story already. Quit stalling!Next month, I’ll include a reflection on these goals with new goals for February.

Reflection Question for Your Creative Practice

What is one thing you could do to create a more inviting workspace for yourself?

I also work as a writing coach and love helping writers gain confidence, set goals, and develop their work. I was a writer first, but I’ve been teaching for over twenty-five years. Coaching weaves those two skill sets in a way that I love, love, love. I work with writers locally and over Zoom. For more information on coaching, email me at eatyourwords.lizshine@gmail.com or see my website.

You can see my books here and read some of my short works here.

Looking for any of the books I’ve mentioned here? Order through my Bookshop.org affiliate page to support me and my local bookstore!

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.