Day 20
30 mins journal + 30 mins editing + 15 mins planning
+ 1 hr planned writing
Today we are invited to consider writing integrity, which Jacqui interprets as being true to ourselves. Because we are human, that doesn’t mean being whole and knowing exactly you are. It means being true to the questioning and doubt which defines lives and, in my view, is the subject and point of fiction.
Jacqui’s advice is to regularly question why we write and who we are as writers. Not just at the start of a writing career, but throughout. Questioning why we write leads to renewed motivation and a sense of responsibility towards the process.
It is important to do work that you believe in, whether anyone else believes in it or not. (they will) It doesn’t have to be an objectively “worthy” genre, just something that makes sense to you to do.
I wholeheartedly agree with this, to the extent that I am fully incapable of writing something which I don’t believe in. For free, at least; maybe I’d change my tune for money. But, considering that most writing careers are unpaid at first — material must exist before it can be paid for — there is no point doing unpaid work unless you think it matters and you enjoy it.
If you want to do that unpaid work in mimicry of a style which has commercial opportunities and money is the reason you’re doing it, then according to Jacqui that counts as integrity, too — if you believe in why you’re doing it.
So far, all my writing has been unpaid (which might have quite a lot to do with the fact that so far my writing has been unfinished!) so I have had the luxury of only working on things I care about. I hope I will be able to stick to that, as my career develops. I don’t think I know how to make things up otherwise.
Journal exercise
This week we need to think about our integrity as writers. What are our motivations to write and how do we feel we are being true to ourselves creatively?
Exercise
- 30 mins: journal entry on the subject of your own writing integrity
- 1,000 words aim (I added 30 mins editing + 15 minutes planning): write a scene based on personal truth, that gets close to the reason you’re writing
My response
- This was my second session this week, because I needed to catch up on last week. I had Saturday free to do this, which I’m relieved about, because I could have compounded my lapse otherwise. Getting back on the horse always seems so much harder from the ground than it is once you are back in the saddle. I feel on track again now, despite the blip. Hopefully this experience will build some of the resilience in me which has been missing so far.
- It was a long session today, considering that I am trying to integrate all the suggestions Jacqui makes throughout the weeks. I know this was optional, but I want to get a sense of how she works, as a professional author giving advice. So what was previously an hour’s work has become nearly two for me.
- My scene was about life purpose and belonging. My main character has recently graduated and is feeling lost. She doesn’t know what she should or even wants to do. She knows how she wants to feel, but doesn’t know how to live. She is seduced onto a particular path by someone who plays on this weakness, and it is a weakness I very much feel. Part of my decision to take writing seriously was because I felt more purposeful about it than anything else. And I really struggle when I’m not feeling purposeful; it links with the yearning to belong. So I gave those feelings to my main character and let her suffer for 1,000 words. (It’s okay, I also gave her a glass of wine and some friends.)
all course content copyright Jacqui Lofthouse thewritingcoach.co.uk