Know thyself, and thy creative process. The Uncommon Writer has uncommon powers.
Stop waiting for someone to tell you how writers find the time, space and love to write—start writing and notice how you write. Decision #14 from Sixteen Superpowers Memoir Writers Need to Have.
Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash
14. Know thyself, and thy creative process.
YOUR MANTRA: Know your creative process better than anyone else.
This is the gold. Your self-knowledge is what will power your creative process. Protect this knowledge like it’s gold, and set boundaries. Know thyself, and don’t doubt thyself.
First, become the expert on when your writing flows (morning? midnight? On the commute to work?) and where it flows (what’s your space? What’s your place? Mine is Ireland). Do you need time in nature so you can think? Do you need meditation so your mind is clear and calm? Do you need collaborators?
Jennifer Haigh (Heat and Light and other books) says each time she writes a novel, she is teaching herself all over again how to write a novel. That’s because she’s a great writer who brings extraordinary imagination and creativity to her craft. Every novel calls on different craft techniques because different themes need different techniques. Her greatest asset is her curiosity about her own process.
DECISION: Be curious about your creative process. And keep refining it.
That means being endlessly curious about other writers’ process—but never adopting someone else’s process lock, stock and barrel. Take bits and bobs and make them work for you. Keep noticing.
ABOUT SIXTEEN SUPERPOWERS OF MEMOIR WRITERS
It’s easy to write a memoir! All you need to do is write something with universal resonance that is true and comes from your life.
Let’s get real. To write a memoir, you need a basket of superpowers.
As a memoir writer with a forthcoming book (BOUNDLESS, coming December 2024 - pre-order here at Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon and as a book coach/developmental editor who works with memoir writers, I’ve learned quite a lot about tapping into literary superpowers.
What’s enduring about memoir is that it is real, and it matters. A few decisions you make on the front end will determine whether it will go well.
In this series of posts, I give you 16 decisions to install at the beginning of your journey. Make these pacts with yourself, stick to them and you’ll get there!
THE FULL SERIES - AVAILABLE TO PAID SUBSCRIBERS
The Sixteen Superpowers of Memoir Writers: Make These Decisions on the Front End, and All Will Go Well for You
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From Lived Experience to a Book: The Path of My Memoir, Boundless