Have you started that notebook?
Did you find one like Natalie Goldberg’s with a Disney character on the front or a more austere school ‘Exercise Book’? Perhaps you took Michael Avatar’s advice and found an A6 notebook and have been getting down at least 50 words a day. Perhaps you haven’t started yet. It’s the beginning of term. It’s always impossibly busy.
May I suggest you find a writing friend?
I have written before about reading aloud. Reading aloud is such a strong way of sensing the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own writing. Reading aloud to a living audience (it need be only one person) makes a huge difference. The person who listens may say nothing, but the act of reading in their presence reflects back to you something of what you have written -surprise, melancholy, laughter, edge of the seat suspense, goose bumps. It is an affirmation. Writing and reading with another or others can boost confidence and pleasure. The companionship of it and the call to commitment is invaluable.
In his essay, ‘A Map of Writing’, to which I return repeatedly, Peter Elbow characterises four kinds of audience: the self, the assessor, one’s peers and one’s allies. Allies, he says, are invaluable. They are not, he argues, better than other kinds of audience, but they are necessary. They are readers who care for the writer:
The simplest definition of an ally writer is someone who cares more about the writer than about the writing – who cares more about helping and being a friend than about improving the writing. I think of an ally as someone who sees that I am smart even when I write something stupid; who sees that I am good even when I write something that reveals selfishness or meanness or limited vision. When an ally reader notices these things in what I have written, he or she may point them out – if I ask for critical feedback – but I can always feel the feedback as only a part of subsequent caring for me and seeing my goodness. Ally readers are precious and should be cherished.
A writing friend can help you keep going. They help you commit to writing regularly. They can hear and appreciate your writing, whatever state it is in. You both check in. Meeting to write can be such an enjoyable thing. During the pandemic, many people I know chose to write on-line together. They would talk and write and read to each other. Quite a few of these pairs have continued to meet, now face to face. You can meet remotely or up close. Just know it can be a nice thing. Meet at a café, or in the park, in the same place or different each time, alternate between your homes or explore the territory that lies between them.
It is not just the writing. There may be coffee or wine; cake or cheese scones; you will talk about writing and all the other things that are important at the time; you may talk about teaching; you may share ideas. You will return to writing refreshed.
Find yourself a writing friend. Book a date.