It’s not always easy. We can get distracted, tired, anxious, frustrated, and sometimes wonder why we even bother writing. Still, many of us, including myself, would agree with Sylvia Plath: “You ask me why I spend my life writing? I write only because there is a voice within me, That will not be still.”
I find it helpful to establish priorities and boundaries. Do not call me between certain hours. It’s best if you have a set place to write (even if it’s at a coffee shop) and write each day as much as you can. It’s also important to check in with yourself on a regular basis to be sure you haven’t gotten off track from your original dreams and ambitions.
When you first thought about what you wanted to write, it’s possible you might have known it would be demanding and challenging. Perhaps you thought it would be easier or quicker or certainly more fun. So, when you get off track, or feel like you are going to, reconsider what the right track is for you. Are you really writing about what you want? Are you taking your writing seriously? You have every right to be a writer. Don’t listen to negative voices!
So, if you’re procrastinating, or experiencing anxiety about writing, it may help to do some of the writing prompts below. Writing exercises and prompts can help you to escape for a time from thinking about whatever else it is your writing. These exercises allow you to view situations and people, or even some characters in your book, from different perspectives. Respond to any or all of them and don’t be concerned about your answers. They can be your secret!
Writing Prompts
- Pick several people you know, and write a brief paragraph about each one of them.
- Select five of your favorite words, and write a paragraph using them.
- Write a letter to your favorite author, and tell them how much you admire their work.
- Write a letter to anyone you love or admire.
- Write about something you might be grieving or sad about.
- Write about how you see the world today.
- Write something funny.
Finally, remember your words do matter. They matter to you and you can make them matter to others. The power of words, your words, can help others explore new ideas and develop different opinions. Believe it . . . your words can have an impact!
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelo
Marcia Rosen (aka M. Glenda Rosen) is an award-winning author of eleven books including her newest one, An Agatha, Raymond, Sherlock and Me Mystery: Murder at the Zoo plus The Senior Sleuths, Dying To Be Beautiful Mystery Series, and The Gourmet Gangster: Mysteries and Menus (menus by her son Jory Rosen). She is also author of The Woman’s Business Therapist and award-winning My Memoir Workbook. For 25 years, she was owner of a successful national marketing and public relations agency. Marcia has frequently been a speaker or program moderator at organization meetings and conferences, bookstores, libraries, and Zoom programs. Topics she has taught and presented over the past twenty years include Encouraging the Writer Within You, Marketing for Authors, Writing Mysteries…Not A Mystery, Writing Your Memoir, and recently Anatomy of Writing a Murder. Many articles on these topics have been published on mystery reader blogs and in newsletters and magazines and her newest articles relating include Location, Location, Location: Murders Have Their Places; Hearing Voices of Past Famous Detectives: Their Impact and Influences; and Writing Mysteries at a Zoo: With Caution. She is a member of Sisters in Crime National and New Mexico (Croak & Dagger), Southwest Writers, New Mexico Book Association, Women Writing the West, Public Safety Writer’s Association, Women’s National book Association, and National Association of Independent Writers and Editors.
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