One Hundred Days

The challenge of creating a sustainable writing practice that is just right for me

As I’ve explained in recent posts, I’ve been focusing on my writerly nature by challenging myself with new techniques, practices, and visibility. I’ve completely surprised myself with a newfound ability to commit to regular practices including morning pages, tarot draws, writing prompts, and daily walks, all of them intended to develop skills and give me a chance to try new things without tipping me over any edges. I am, quite frankly, astonished that I have an enviably unbroken streak of morning pages and an amazing number of responses to random writing prompts. Some of them are good. Others just prove that I turned up on the page that day - but collectively they have stretched my skills and are teaching me that I can dip into the writing zone on demand. I’ve proven to myself that I don’t have to have perfect writing conditions (whatever they are) to produce something interesting and often thought-provoking.

Like so many of us, I have dipped into The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad in search of ideas for developing sustainable creative practices for myself. I was quite taken with the idea of doing something for 100 days. That seemed difficult but doable. The question was what practice would be worth that kind of commitment and investment? After consideration, I decided to commit to writing down three things that I noticed during the day - just three and not the ten suggested in the book. I needed something I knew I could achieve and enjoy, and I hoped that it might help me develop my sense of curiosity and teach me to notice fine details of the world as I passed through. I set up a journal for my daily notes and dove in, calling my three points Significant Sightings, and tracking myself on a habit tracker. Almost immediately, I saw that the practice was achieving what I’d hoped, and more. Sometimes I included photos for fun. Noticing itself became fun. And after a week or two, I realised that each of my noticings, my significant sightings, could serve as writing prompts. They were story seeds.

Over these past 100 days I have come to see my writing practice as three-fold, a trifecta:

- writing Morning Pages to serve as a daily brain dump

- collecting Story Seeds to strengthen my observation skills

- responding to Writing Prompts to keep me showing up on the page, to keep words alive in me by writing the way a pianist practices their scales - I call it joy writing

Every day. Three tasks to keep me writing. Three small acts to remind me that I am a writer who writes.

Yesterday was Day 100. Most days I go beyond those three practices and write more, whether it is part of a bigger work or creating a piece for publication or sharing. But at the very least, I come home to myself constantly with these three practices. One hundred days is not enough, and I’m carrying on.

I am incredibly proud of myself for accepting the challenge and seeing it through, and letting myself fall in love with my writer self.

Consistency, routine, small daily steps. I am, at last, a happy writer!

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Thank you to Lea Goode-Harris for creating the sigil that sits in the centre of my practice symbol, reminding me to claim my self as a writer.

If my writing interests you, please check my website, Ariadne’s Thread, where I do a deeper dive into my specific projects. At present I am researching and writing about the medieval pilgrim, St Birgitta of Sweden.