The next four weeks are really going to be about producing a harvest. That means we’re going to focus on a particular project that maybe you’ve been putting off, or started and stopped. Being a writer In Bloom is all about being a finisher. And we all know that sometimes that can be a struggle. So the purpose after these four weeks is to have some type of finished product by the end.
As Melissa Kimble of Blk Creatives always mentions, creative careers are heavily based on our mental and spiritual being. Sometimes what’s blocking your creativity is you. I feel like writing flows from your brain to your heart and through your fingertips. If that passageway is blocked, I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to write. What are you dealing with? Where are you mentally at this moment when so much is happening in the world?
In all of my writing workshops, I take time to do a moment of assessment. This gives everyone the opportunity to be mindful of everything that is influencing their writing in this current moment. It’s important to spend some time with ourselves and evaluate how we feel.
Take some time to complete each phrase below:
The thing I’ve been avoiding …
What’s on my mind when I close my eyes …
What I think my biggest obstacle is in writing …
My biggest fear …
My quiet struggle …
I am most joyful when …
If I could just ___________, I would write more …
What have been your top three challenges with writing?
_
_
_
What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the next four weeks?
What do you want to write about?
It can seem like the most simple yet loaded question ever. No, most writers don’t write about just one thing, but you literally have to start somewhere. I started out writing about boys all the time apparently when I was a young child. Which led to short stories about love and ultimately two nonfiction books about love and relationships with God and others. It wasn’t until college that I learned how to make life my creative influence and write about a myriad of different subject matters.
The best way to evaluate what you may want to write about is to write.
“You don’t have to want to be a writer. You are a writer; you just need to write.”
- Jeff Goins
For the next five days, I need you to write for 30 minutes each day. Whatever comes to mind. It does not have to be pretty or well structured or anything. For me, it works best for me to write first thing in the morning, but you have to figure out what will work best with your schedule. Connect with your heart. What is there before you fill it with the day’s news and everyone else’s opinions?
Before next week, I want you to evaluate the themes that you have after the five days. What’s recurring when you look back over those five days? What excites you? What did you have to stop yourself from writing about because the words were simply flowing?
Within that is your seed …
Sometimes it may not be the most popular thing or the thing that you think you’re most graced to write about but I assure you that the recurrence is not just by happenstance. You don’t have to stick in one lane but for the duration of this set of emails, I would love it if you stuck to one specific theme from your five days of the writing exercise. We all have our own ministry as I like to call it. An area that calls us.
Will you speak to the broken-hearted woman who rose from the ashes? The millennial who is desperately trying to make their mark in the world? The new father or mother desperate to get it right?
Every single one of us has been through something that connects to the soul of another person. The key is to first identify what that story is inside of you and then amplify it for others to be moved, inspired, informed, or even healed by it.
This is why we write and this is why what we harvest is extremely important. Bigger than us. Bigger than our fears and apprehensions.
Writing Opportunities
Introvert, Dear is looking for submissions. https://introvertdear.com/write-for-us/
Global Citizen is hiring a Contributing Editor. https://apply.workable.com/globalcitizen2030/j/21135752FD/
Wired is looking for pitches. Here’s information on best practices. https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-pitch-stories-to-wired/
Penguin Random House remote paid internship. https://jobsearch.createyourowncareer.com/PRH_US/job/New-York-2020-Fall-Internship-Editorial-NY-10019/610873501/
New York Times is looking for a Cooking Writer. https://nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/News/job/New-York-NY/Cooking-Writer_REQ-007915-1
Revolt is looking for a Music Editor. Email your resume and 3-4 published links to editorial@revolt.tv.
The Guardian is hiring a Deputy Editor. https://workforus.theguardian.com/jobs/new000076
To Be Read
The Black Book Club Takes It To The Next Level
How I Get It Done: Writer and Activist Raquel Willis
Women in Hip Hop Cannot Thrive While Misogynoir Exists
She’s the First Black Person to Lead a Major Publisher, and She’s Going to Get Authors Paid