New writing home and new writing prompt
what we don't want to write about....
a new writing home
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Read on for this week’s writing prompt….
today’s thoughts on writing
In September 2021, when we were all still figuring out how to manage the ongoing pandemic, I read my first Substack—Suleika Jaouad’s The Isolation Journals (*highly recommend.)
It was an older post of hers, where she interviewed the poet Marie Howe about her creative process in Interview: On Matters of Life and Death with Marie Howe. I clipped multiple ideas and inspiration from the interview, but one writing idea, in particular, keeps circling back for me.
When asked how to make writing a sustainable practice, Howe said this:
“Whenever I can’t do the practice, I'll get a composition book, and I'll write three pages a day, but I write it with my non-dominant hand. So it’s a big scrawl. I’ll write “I don't want to write about” and then just write into that—so that there's a release in it. Just get it out of your mind.”
See what I mean about multiple ideas?
Three pages a day. Write with your non-dominant hand. Start with “I don’t want to write about…” Write until you get the words out of your mind and released onto the page.
It’s worth trying any of those ideas to see what helps your words flow.
I’ll be honest. Free-writing three pages at one time doesn’t often happen for me. I can get two pretty easily, but I’ve also got deadlines to meet, a dog to take out, and a to-do list that keeps growing. I’m fine with this. Any pages are better than no pages.
The idea of starting with “I don’t want to write about….” has promise.
I don’t want to write about lots of things.
The things that keep me up at night.
The words I said, or didn’t say.
That way a relationship ended, or just drifted apart.
That new pain that signals nothing more than aging, or something simply dreadful.
The dark days.
The choices I made that hurt others.
The myriad inane little thoughts occupying my brain every day.
And plenty more.
Sometimes we don’t want to write about things because we don’t want to face whatever it is—pain, our worst impulses, trauma, fear. That might be for good reason.* Sometimes it’s because we don’t want our words written down for someone else to find and read. Sometimes it’s because we can’t think of anything that feels important enough to write about.
It all matters. Your words matter. Get them out of your head and onto the page, and then see what happens next.
a new writing prompt
Start with “I don’t want to write about…” and then just keep writing. When your pen stops, begin again: “I don’t want to write about….” and repeat.
Make it a list. Or tell the story. Or just write phrases or descriptions. Just keep your pen moving.
Then—if you want—rip the pages out and get rid of them. They are for you alone.
Bonus idea: start with “I do want to write about…” and keep going.
*A disclaimer and mental health advisory: if you truly don’t want to, or can’t write about it, don’t. This is not an assignment, but a suggestion for your own writing practice. If you want to write about something else, do that instead… Look back through the archives and pick another prompt. Just write.
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