Day 34: Writing Challenge ~ #wewrite

Lo que dirán!

The inner critic can be brutal. If you’re anything like me, you question everything and everyone.

Some days you don’t trust the path you’ve chosen for yourself. If you’re as masochistic as me, every word you write comes with a twelve hour conversation raising questions like, “What will they think? What will they say? What if I offend them? What if they stop speaking to me? What if it hurts their feelings? Will they still love me? Is this good enough? Do I sound smart enough? How dare I?” Writers, we are our worst critic!

A friend asked me, “who do you have in the room when you write?”

This question was more about kicking out the people who have no business being in our writers space. These people who make us question if what we are writing is right or true. These people who try to censor us. These people who act like they know our stories better than us.

These people need to go! Kick them the hell out! They are poisoning our stories.

They may love us, but they cannot be a part of our process.

At a dinner nine years ago, author, Oscar Hijuelos offered me wonderful advice, he said, “write your story as if you’re telling it to your daughter. Write the story to her!”

That piece of advice has completely changed over the years. At first I wrote a memoir for my daughter. I wanted to give her a gift. It was written in the form of a love letter.

Now I write with her in mind. I write with her in the room because she is smart and knows how to ask all the right questions. She doesn’t question my storytelling. She knows how to offer feedback and criticism. She’s a reader. She questions the depth of the story. She asks about the characters. She’s interested in their motivations and intentions. People like her are the only ones to keep in the room with us. They help us become better writers and the added bonus, people like her, believe in us.

Writing Prompts: 

(1) Who do we have in the room with us right now? What do they think about this story? What kinds of things do they say to us? (20 minutes) – Writer or character can respond.

(2) What is motivating you or your character(s) to get to the end? (20 minutes) – Writer or character can respond.

Remove yourself from this exercise. Allow your characters to speak. Allow what wants to be written to find its landing on the page. Surrender to the process. Lean in and trust what wants to be expressed.

Set your timer for the time allotted. Do not lift the pen off of the page. Do not over think. Do not censor or self edit. You are writing from a stream of consciousness. Trust what wants to be written. If you get stuck begin the prompt again… GO!!!

There are things we fear as writers. Certain truths we rather keep hidden. Let’s go there!

The intention for these prompts is to help you flush out your story and look for the scenes you might want to write. Whether we are writing fiction or non-fiction there are moments (the great stories do this well) where we are called to feel things. Allow us to feel everything. Allow us to see everything. Bring us into this world.

BEGIN!

Joining in on my writing challenge and writers commitment! Here are the TWO rules:

1. Check in for yesterdays writing each day:
How was yesterday? (post if you wrote, didn’t write, got stuck, need some support.)

Did you find it challenging to carve in the time to write? If we are honest with ourselves where could we have begun instead of doing…….. (Fill in the blank-leave your response in the comments). Yesterday is done. We are not beating ourselves up. Today we get to begin again.

2. WRITING COMMITMENT:

I AM committed to writing everyday!

I AM completely off FB or any form of social media until the days writing is done!

I WILL check in once a day everyday to share that I have met our goal!

If you are writing fiction or non-fiction, choose to write the prompt from whichever POV, or character you choose-i.e. 1st or third person. Writing Prompts: 

(1) Who do we have in the room with us right now? What do they think about this story? What kinds of things do they say to us? (20 minutes) – Writer or character can respond.

(2) What is motivating you or your character(s) to get to the end? (20 minutes) – Writer or character can respond.

Today was a hard day but I wrote.

Check in later.

Happy writing!

NOTE TO READERS: I’m so grateful for this community. I’m currently raising money for the TENGO SED “I’m Thirsty” Writers retreat in Costa Rica, please consider donating and sharing my gofundme campaign. Please spread widely: gofund.me/tbdvdhw4

With love,

Alicia off FB, IG, Tumblr, WordPress – #WEWRITE

Copyright © 2015 by Alicia Anabel Santos