1. Write, write, write! You want to write but don’t have the time? Schedule it! Make your writing a personal appointment for yourself, and keep the appointment. (*See note, below.)
2. Establish a regular writing practice. Regularly is essential; daily is ideal. Write new material for at least 15 minutes a day every day. This is fine advice from Priscilla Long in her wonderful book The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life (2010). OR, write 1,000 words a day every day. This is fine advice from Carolyn See in her wonderful and funny book Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers (2002). Additionally, see #1 above.
3. Say in your most authoritative voice, “I am a poet. I am a writer.” Write these statements down on slips of paper and post these around your living spaces (house, apartment, yurt, etc.) where you can see them. Say this statement out loud frequently. (These affirmations will help you make it so.)
4. Read, read, read!
5. Start a “commonplace book”–a bound notebook where you collect your ideas, lines of overheard dialogue, notes on what you’ve read, and passages you like. Pay attention to attribution; take good notes on your sources. This practice will save you lots of time in the long run, and may save you embarrassment at some point.
6. Start your writer’s “Lexicon”–a bound notebook where you collect your favorite words and phrases. Priscilla Long explains the creation and use of a Lexicon in her fine book The Writer’s Portable Mentor (above). Create a Lexicon which will be for your use: terms and turns of phrase from your childhood, words you like for their sounds and meanings, and words, words, words. Shape your Lexicon, too. In mine, I added sections for “favorite titles,” “favorite sentences,” and “favorite lines.” (When I told Priscilla this, she said “great idea!”) Use your Lexicon book for creating “word traps” or “word salads”–collections of words you’ll be using in your poems and pieces. Return to your Lexicon regularly!
7. Free write regularly–even daily! Use timed-writing exercises as taught by Natalie Goldberg.
8. Subscribe to Poets and Writers Magazine. It is a fine resource for poets and writers, and contains interviews, market listings, calls for submissions, and classifieds. Start with the online PWM here.
9. Subscribe to Creative Writers Opportunities List, a Yahoo community group for poets and writers. CWOL is a handy summary of contests; it includes occasional calls for art and listings for open teaching positions. You can subscribe to and receive regular email updates. Themed contests may give you ideas–even if you don’t enter! View here.
10. Subscribe to a handful of literary magazines–especially the ones you’d like to be published in. Enjoy The Sun? Rattle? The American Poetry Review? Subscribe and support these publishers and editors! My favorite strategy is to enter contests which have an entry fee including a one year subscription (Rattle and The Missouri Review, for example).
11. Attend open mic events. Listen carefully and attentively to other poets and writers. Read your work and listen carefully and attentively to audience feedback. Observe the (unwritten) rules of the open mic venue; for example, stay until the last reader finishes. (Leaving after you’ve read your work is something which is noticed, not to mention rude!) If you liked a particular poem or piece, tell the poet or writer. Network! Oh–there’s NO open mic venue near where you live? Start one!
12. Join a writing group. Oh–there are no writing groups near where you live? Start one! (See where I’m going with this?)
13. Submit your work. Write respectful, professional cover letters. Follow submission guidelines closely. Keep close track of where you have sent your work.
*Note: Write, write, write!
Andrew S. McBride ~ Book and Writers' Coach 