Advice from an Addict Program
The 12-Step program for alcohol and other addictions, gives addicts a place to go and find healing. They have a lot of slogans they use as reminders to help them work the program. A lot of these slogans apply to almost anything we struggle with in life, including our writing. Today we want to share a few of them and relate them to our writing struggles.
Writing (Photo credit: jjpacres)
►Act as if.
When writer’s block, discouragement, criticism, or other things pop up, keep writing.
►Be gentle with yourself.
Don’t be so hard on yourself if you make mistakes or fall behind — keep writing.
Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
►Don’t should yourself.
Don’t hold yourself, your writing, or anything else to a higher standard than you hold for others — keep writing.
►Easy Does it.
See above. If you no longer enjoy the process, you may be pushing yourself too hard — keep writing.
►Fears are not facts.
This is one of my favorites. Fear or anxiety is a natural reaction; it doesn’t have to keep us from writing, however. Counter fears by telling yourself the truth. It’s not the end of the world if an article or blog post bombs or has a typo or two. (That made Gram gulp.) Keep writing.
►First things first.
“Writing”, 22 November 2008 (Photo credit: dr_ed_needs_a_bicycle)
Break down the process and do the first thing, then the next thing. Looking at the entire project can overwhelm and paralyze –keep writing.
Sometimes, just a short sentence can keep us going. I hope you enjoy and keep writing!
- Posted in: Writing
- Tagged: Addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous, Arts, Support group, Twelve-Step Program, Writers Block, Writers Resources, writing
ansuyo
Great post Angela. I love the idea of a 12-step for writers.
If we aren’t addicted, I don’t know who is!!! Thanks for the tweet and comment
Fabulous idea applying the 12-step progam to writing. Hmm. Makes so much sense. I love your imaginative approach to writing. Thanks.
Thanks Tess — we are all addicted to writing, aren’t we????