I’ve been memorizing “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock” for a few weeks now, a little each morning while I do stretches and sit-ups and brew the coffee. I’ve gotten a few stanzas past the second time the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo. Memorizing poems is an old habit I returned to over the summer, and it’s been just the thing to start me toward writing in the morning. The contents of the poem relate to what I want to talk about here. Prufrock is full of regret, concerned about aging, wondering whether to dare.
I decided to write this post a few weeks ago, after a breakfast table conversation I had with Chris. We have a trivia daily calendar as well as a ‘table topics’ daily calendar we get around to when we are sitting down to a meal. This summer, on one trip to Goodwill, I added an old Trivial Pursuit question deck to the mix. The table topic questions are not always that great. Chris is sure that they must be AI generated because he can’t imagine a human coming up with questions as obtuse as some of them are. But we give it a shot anyway. It gets us out of the work banter rut (we work at the same school so the home/school boundary can be tough). Anyway, that morning, the question was What do you think is the ideal age? We thought it dumb at first. But then, we both thought about it. I said I thought the best age was now. I explained that never in my life have I felt less plagued by self-doubt and insecurity. And if things kept going the way they seem to be, I would soon be a red hat lady, running my stick along the public railings. This segued into a discussion on the certainty and uncertainty surrounding death. It certainly will happen, and you can’t know when. So, we agreed that to put off your dreams for some imagined future made zero sense.
I hope the conversation allowed us both to be more fully into our creative work and our hearth and home work that day. I’ve wasted far too much time as a writer waiting for permission, putting the writing off until my life got a little less hectic (it never does), or until my son got a little older, or teaching became less demanding for experience (also never happens).
If you are a writer who has been putting off your work, giving it far less time than it deserves, telling yourself that you’ve got to do more research or learn more before you start, this post is for you.
Please, start now. You can keep doing all those other things you think you need to do first. But start writing now. Decide on a schedule for regular writing, even if it’s only an hour or two a day. Use that time for writing, not for reading about writing, thinking about writing, or making outlines or doing research for writing.
Put sentences on the pages. Don’t worry if they are any good or not. Write as many sentences as you can, then keep writing more. Not only will you get better at writing sentences, but you will start to find your voice. Once you do that, you’ll be hooked.
School has started, and this is a very easy time to let work and life take over and not make time for writing. But those morning hours on weekdays I’ve set aside for writing and the four hours I’ve marked in my planner for Saturday and my Sunday writers’ group, those times are sacred.
I hope as the dropping temps and falling leaves and waning hours of light begin settle us into new routines that you too carve out time to do the work of your heart. The age you are at right now is the perfect age.
There is no other age.
Small Things That Have Been Bringing Me Joy
- Still yoga on the porch, though I know I’ll need to move indoors soon and learn to love the space I’ve made there.
- Teaching! Once we start in on the content, I remember how much I actually love my job. How lucky am I to be paid to geek out about reading and writing with young adults?
- The return of walks to work.
- Bagel Friday!
- Grooving to songs off my ‘Liked’ list on YouTube music while I cook.
Found Sentences from What I’ve Been Reading
“There are many things to make me angry here, many unbeautiful things, but I know the ice caps are melting and it fortifies me when I remember that all these ugly parking places, all these red bags, will be on the bottom of the ocean soon.” The Seas by Samantha Hunt
Books I Read in August (One sentence review)
The Typing Lady and Other Fictions by Ruth Ozeki: All great. The Typing Lady so good, I used with my 12th grade Literature class this week.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey: I checked out this lyrical book from the library after listening because there is a passage I have to copy to use with my students.
Gliff by Ali Smith: If you have to live in a dystopia, at least you can have some delightful characters and killer sentences.
Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and ReShaped the World by Danielle Friedman: A fun read that made me grateful I live now, because even not that long ago we had weird ideas about exercise and women.
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bizyar: I wanted this either to be longer or have less POV switches.
A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong: Interesting, short, and perfect for the ‘Myths and Legends’ square on summer book bingo.
Palestine by Joe Sacco: Wow. Still relevant, and so richly detailed.
Change Your Life: Essential Poems by Rainier Maria Rilke: Man, he would have been interesting to have coffee with.
Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories (anthology): So much in so little over and over again—how fun!
The Seas by Samatha Hunt: She believes she’s a mermaid, and I say, why not? She can be whoever she wants; she’s great.
Soldier’s Pay by William Faulkner: It is raining dynamite sentences, and war sucks.
Accidental Devotions by Kelli Russell Agodon: Excellent poems and a compelling central metaphor (devotions) in this age of time deficit and short attention spans.
A Writing Prompt for September
Every time you sit down to write, warm up with a freewrite. Grab a sentence from a book near you or a line from a book of poems and then keep going. Set a timer for 10 to 30 minutes. At the end of the month, read over what you have. Anything worth developing? Remember: keep your pen moving, and don’t think too much. Just write.
September Goals
- Show up for the times I’ve committed to
- Submit 3 to 6 pieces every week
- Finish SS collection
- Do a read through of novel and make it to 25K words (Currently at 17K)
Reflection Question for Your Creative Practice
How can you fit one more hour of creative time into your week?
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 now 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.
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