The Write Balance: How to Embrace Percolation, Revision & Going Public by Bonni Goldberg
Writers write. Being a writer or a book lover also means being a literary citizen. As such, Lynn (a.k.a. Ellesea, a.k.a. Linn) extends her writing to include a blog and book reviews. I extend mine to include writing advice books. Besides offering advice, exercises and tools for writers, The Write Balance reveals a great deal of the inner workings of writers and the creative process. Productivity is something many of us worry over.
“How much do you write?” I’m often asked. Most people really want to know if there’s a magic number of pages or hours that makes one a legitimate writer. My answer always surprises me. When not working on a specific project with a deadline, my general habit was to write for two to three hours a day, five days a week. When I think about this, it’s amazing to me that I organized my entire life to support twoish hours a day of work. On the surface it doesn’t seem to add up to much of a day. But I’d spend those writing hours creating new work, revising it, and editing it. I’d spend the balance of my working-writer day reading and researching, teaching, and doing the ever-expanding tasks of the business side of my profession: correspondence, follow-up, filling out grant applications, working on book proposals, making and returning calls, and brainstorming about other avenues for sharing my work to pay the rent.
It’s a small amount of time, those two to three hours daily. Couldn’t I make it longer if I didn’t socialize, take yoga classes, make art, read, see movies, spend time with my family, help the occasional stranger, and comfort troubled friends? I don’t believe so because my sense of self includes all the above just as much as writing. I’m also not convinced I would get more writing accomplished if I gave up some of these other activities because I don’t have the wherewithal, even if I had the time, to write more. After a few hours. I’m spent.
Some writers also have full-time jobs. One of my college classmates is a full-time lawyer who has published two short story collections and a novel. He wrote them during his daily one-hour train commute between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. I was not this type of person. When I worked on a specific project, I used to need to give over whole days to writing a first draft. Even if I physically wrote for only a few of those hours, I needed to immerse myself, without distraction, in my subject for the day.
My rhythm made me feel like a dilettante and a fake, or worse, a mediocre writer. I envied my colleagues who had the security of a comfortable salary, the energy for another way to contribute to society, the focus, and the comfort of fitting into the societal norm. But I had to accept my reality:
I was not like them.
Spending energy being bitter about this takes away from writing time.
I’m already committed to being a writer no matter what.
Then my circumstances changed. I was the one working full-time. I learned a new writing rhythm. There’s no guarantee that having a Writing Self is easy, but perhaps we focus too much attention on how hard it can be given our personal circumstances or rhythm. Instead of judging yourself so harshly, if you accept who you are you can enjoy the writing process as you experience it. Whether it’s life circumstances or personality traits that define how you write, you may be better off working within their confines instead of expending potential writing energy being aggravated by them. Author Peter Korn’s writing time is defined by being a father. Because he shares work and parenting responsibilities with his wife, his writing schedule changes all year long in conjunction with his children’s school calendar. As a result, he writes a lot of articles and essays because it lends itself to his time frame. Meanwhile, his next novel percolates away in the back of his mind until the kids are old enough to go to sleep-away camp.
I remember hearing a true story about the writer who would get up in the morning and have her his wife lock him in his office. At noon she would unlock the door, serve him lunch, and ask, “How did the writing go this morning?” “Wonderfully,” he’d reply. “I put a comma in.” His wife would lock the writer back in his office until dinner, when she would ask him how the writing 67 The Write Balance went during the afternoon. “Splendidly,” he’d answer. “I took the comma out.”
(from The Write Balance, pp. 64-67)
Through years of teaching writing in workshops and in classrooms, Bonni has seen that the writers who are most passionate and grounded in their Writing Self embrace three aspects of the writing process: nurturing ideas, revising to best communicate those ideas, and completing the writing cycle by going public.
In this powerful guide, Bonni invites you to explore these creative stages which are essential to satisfying your Writing Self.
Use The Write Balance to:
Find Fulfillment as a Writer
Explore Creative Writing
Add to Your Writer’s Toolbox for Perspective
Overcome Writer’s Block
Teach Creative Writing
Inspire Your Writing Group
Give as Gifts to the Writers in Your Life
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Bonni teaches creative writing at colleges and leads writing workshops internationally for all ages. She knows everyone is creative, and she supports people to discover and share their authentic, meaningful and imaginative experiences through words. Whether through her writings or through teaching, her methods and perspectives continue to empower thousands of adults, families, and children.
Bonni
is also a Jewish educator. She speaks, writes, and leads workshops on
Jewish topics such as Jewish identity, rituals and antisemitism at
Jewish women’s events, JCCs, and conferences.
Bonni Goldberg lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner in life, and some creative projects, artist Geo Kendall.
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