This week’s writing tip isn’t so much about the act of writing as it is about the the act of BEING a writer.

As I progress on my countdown of remaining days at the day job in cubicle confinement (10 working days left) I am trying to envision my ideal writing life….to picture now how I want my days to unfold. Now even if you aren’t a touchy feely new age sort of person I still challenge you to give this some thought. Because the thing is, if we have a picture in our mind of how we want our life to unfold we have a much better chance of it actually happening. 

Several people have me asked me lately about my process which in turn has gotten me thinking more about my process. And here’s the thing…I have always written in the middle of stress, a time when my life or parts of my life, were spiraling out of control. Sometimes it seemed that the crazier my life was, the more I wrote. And now I am approaching a calmer part of my life. I will not be working outside of the home. I won’t be getting up to an alarm clock. I won’t have staff meetings with agendas waiting my doodles. I can’t help but wonder how this will affect my writing because I know it will. I don’t know if I know how live in a world with so much less stress (but hey, I am willing to learn.)

Just because you have all the time in the world doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world to write.

So these last few weeks of work I am trying to find the time to imagine the writing life I want to have in order to get the writing life I most want to live.

I have never been a stay-in-bed morning writer but perhaps I’ll try that, at least for some "morning pages" ala Julia Cameron.

I have never been a go to the library/coffeehouse/park with my laptop kind of writer but perhaps I’ll try it.

I have never been able to write in the company of others, especially friends, but I DO want to try that.

I want to try to go gently to the writing each morning, starting the day, perhaps, with some reading in the inspiration notebook I want to create.

I want to take breaks to visit the garden, pull a few new chunks of Bermuda grass and see what bugs have discovered the yard.

I want to play with a new writing exercise every day, just to warm-up my writing muscles.

I want to rediscover my lifelong love affair with words in such a way that I can’t wait to get to work each day.

I want to take time to smell the flowers, play with the dog, listen to music, go for long walks and just sit in blessed silence.

I hope this will help me create the writing life I have held in my mind for so many years.

I encourage you to think about the writing life you want to live, even if you aren’t living it now. If you think it, you just might make it so.