“The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.” --David Hare

Start with the phrase, “I believe,” and then complete the sentence. “I believe in magic.” “I believe it’s more important to have a clean house than it is to eat vegetables for dinner.” Then use, “I believe,” again, for the start of the second sentence. And the third. And the fourth. Repeat until you have nothing more to say. Don’t think or plan—just write. If you do this exercise well, some of the things you believe should surprise you.

"Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?" — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

How alive are you willing to be?

"It's a reactive thing, like a Geiger counter; you click whenever you come close to whatever you were built to do." -- Stephen King

Tell me about a time when you knew you were doing exactly what you were meant to do. Describe yourself doing that thing and show us how it felt to do it.

“Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words." --Valerie Sherwood

Make a list of things that passionately interest you. Choose one thing from your list and tell us about it.

“Everyone has a talent; what is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.” --Erica Jong

Tell me about one of your talents and the pleasure and pain it has brought you. Be sure to include both.

“In order to do creative work in any of the arts and sciences you must go through long or short spells of not knowing what is going on, of being irritated, and not being able to find the cause, of being willing to work as hard as you can and what happens isn’t valuable enough, isn’t good enough, isn’t what you meant to do, what you meant to say. Then, if you can bear it, if you don’t quit and move to Canada or call up Joe and go hiking for two weeks or quit your job or get a divorce or do anything else to relieve the pain and it is pain, it’s really irritating, it puts you in a bad mood, you are irritable to children and can’t focus on anything and keep changing your mind, if you can put up with it and just go right on sitting down at that desk every day no matter how much it ... [Continue Reading]

“Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?” --Frank Scully

Tell me about a time you went out on a limb and what you found there.

“The price one pays for pursuing a profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” --James Baldwin

Tell me a story that reveals the ugly side of your profession.

“If I just work when the spirit moves me, the spirit will ignore me.” --Carolyn Forche

Tell me about something you were so passionately committed to that you pursued it whether you felt like it or not.

"The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little.” —Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Tell me ten things you know the truth about. The real truth. Write several paragraphs about each, honing in on its essential truth as you have lived it and known it. Start with the words, “I know the real truth about…..”

This isn’t about reporting on something you simply know how ... [Continue Reading]