I started teaching my  six week course, “Courage & Craft” at UCLA Extension today, and, as I wrote a few posts back, you’re invited to come along on this journey with my students and me.  (Almost everybody acknowledged that they’d signed up for the course because of the word “courage” in the title.) The class is full of interesting people – (including Stuart and Charlotte’s veterinarian)  – people who have never written before, people who have published and then stopped writing, those who have a specific project in mind, and those who just want to fool around and try writing in different genres.

Today was the first time I’ve used my own book as a text and it was a strang feeling. The book came out of what I learned teaching this class and is now assigned reading for the class. The previous version of the book was printed by a textbook publisher at a cost that was so high I told my students not to buy it.  (I bought out the small printing so another publisher could publish it.  Weirdly the text book version was recently available second hand on Amazon at about ten times the original astronomical cost).

Today I told everybody I wanted them to use these six weeks for focusing on their writing, to be selfish about their time, figure out when they’ll write, and when they’ll make time to read.(not find time but make it.)  Today was about getting started. I told them the  two most important things they’ll learn in the class: (which you’ve probably read about a hundred times on this blog, but it’s worth remembering.)  Writing is a two part process; creating and then editing. You can’t do both at the same time.  First you create and let it get as messy and crazy as it needs to be, then you edit. 

The second important thing is doing 5 minute writing exercises when you’re stuck or feeling creatively brain dead.  You pick a word or a topic and write without thinking for 5 minutes. No pausing to reflect or rewrite or think – you just start writing and keep going no matter if it’s a grocery list or the words “I’m stuck” over and over.  (If anyone would care to comment on their experience with 5 exercises, I’d love to hear it – readers or students.)

In class everybody wrote for 5 minutes about Halloween (apparently not a wildly popular holiday for adults); what you need in a perfect world to write (this came out of Twyla Tharps fabulous book, The Creative Habit, page 135, where she lists what her perfect world for dancers would be: “No goal other than to try things, No fear of failure, nothing will fail, No obligations other than to do your best…etc.”) The final writing exercise was about how they got their name and what they think/feel about it.  After each topic everyone read what they wrote.  It always amazes me how much you learn about people in just a few short writing exercises.

Homework for today is to start a journal (get a notebook – I use those three hole college lined ones that you can buy anywhere, or start a new computer file) and write in it every day. Yes, everyday. It can be short: This is what I’m hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, touching – Or it can be pages of venting. There are no rules, no guidelines for keeping a journal.  Well, one rule: Never ever let anyone read it.

Other homework assignment was to write about the first thirty minutes of a specific morning this week– again, using your senses.  (The purpose of this is to simply pay attention to your own life.) Read the first section of Courage & Craft, “Getting Started”.  And finally, (the best assignment you’ll ever get) to go to the library or bookstore and find writers who inspire you. Buy or check out their books.

The main thing, readers, is to mark off six weeks on your calendar and make a real commitment to your writing, whether it’s ten minutes every morning, or all day Saturday or whatever works for you.  It’s not for the rest of your life, unless you want it to be. It’s just for six weeks.

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FYI: For those of you in the Bay area: I’ll be at East West Books in Mountain View, CA on 10/4 at 7:00, and on Saturday 10/6 I teach a four hours workshop on writing the healing story. On Sunday a workshop at Book Passage in Corte Madera.