Like the rest of the world, I spent the last few months with limited contact with my community. My kids are attending school online, I am working remotely, and our summer travels are limited to trips to the grocery store and bike rides at the park. 
 
During this time, I have not written much. In fact, I found it challenging just to read. Usually I read twice a day, but I didn't for the first two months of my isolation. I returned to reading in slow steps, but eventually, the newspaper and I got reacquainted and books and I found each other again. 
 
After my anxiety about the new routine passed, the writing started to return. It didn’t arrive as an explosion of creativity, though that would have been wonderful. It came back in trickles. The return of writing reminded me to take it easy when reengaging, and I had to take the advice I had given dozens of writing students in the past: start small to start writing. 
 
Reengaging with writing after time away from the page can bring the dreaded writer’s block: the feeling of not knowing where to start. Every writer has experienced writer’s block at some point, and it’s no fun. But writers can take some simple steps to overcome writer’s block and start writing again.    

4 Ways to Overcome Writer's Block and Start Writing Again
 
1. Six-Word Memoir
 
The six-word memoir is just what it sounds like: It's a personal story told with just six words. The legend goes that a journalist challenged Hemingway to tell a poignant story with just six words, and in typical Hemingway style, he accepted and wrote:
 
Baby shoes for sale. Never worn. 
 
Those six words give you a sense of the story. You get tone, character, situation. A whole story can be told with just six words, and many have been; in fact, there are now collections of six-word memoirs. 
 
If you're ready to start writing, try a six-word memoir to start. You can think of the overarching theme of your life and write a six-word memoir about that, or you can focus on a smaller story and capture a single event in one line. 
 
Here are a few examples:
 
Things didn’t turn out as expected.
 
Single girl, ginger cat, vintage guitar.
 
She said yes then ran away.
 
I should have taken a left.  

2. Collect Snapshots
 
When you start writing again, you don’t have to tackle a novel. Starting out small tends to be best for getting back into a creative routine. Take time to collect snapshots rather than whole stories. Composing a small scene, a conversation, or a description of a setting can go a long way toward reigniting your creative energy. Here are a few ways you can collect snapshots:
 

• Go to a local park or place where people are outdoors (you may even just sit on your front porch if people walk by your house). Pick one person you see and write five to eight sentences of what may have brought that person out today, what they might be thinking about, and what they are planning to do next. 
  
• Look for a couple or group of people. They should be far enough away that you cannot hear them but close enough that you can see them. Write a dialogue of what they might be talking about. Are they talking about the weather? An upcoming event? An alien invasion? 
  
• Go for a walk. Many of the great writers recommend walking to clear your head and brainstorm story ideas, Stephen King and Ray Bradbury included. As you walk, take a mental picture of three different settings. Perhaps the front of a house is bright and cheery but the side is shadowed and dark and the trash cans have been knocked over. Find a few settings that you can write about, and create a description of them. 

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3. 50-Word Stories
 
Limiting the amount of space for a story can be helpful in getting a story down on paper, whereas an open-ended story can take ages to write. A 50-word story must be exactly 50 words (not 49, not 51) and can be useful for helping writers focus on the value of each word. 50 words may sound limiting, but the limit can help a writer get started and allow for a short creative burst, which can help to establish a writing routine. 
 
Here are a couple of prompts to use when writing a 50-word story:
 

• What happened when the lady asked her cat a question and it answered?
• A group of five men go hiking but only four return. What happened?
• Write a story that includes the words: terrain, vague, and nostalgic.
• What happened when the walk around the park took a turn? 

4. "What If" Questions
 
Many great novels, stories, and films began with a writer asking a "what if" question. I recently read a vampire trilogy. The author said she wondered what types of jobs vampires would need to have considering their long lives. That question served as the inspiration for her trilogy (as it turns out vampires become research scientists and medical doctors). 
 
Create a list of five "what if" questions that are interesting to you. 
 
Here are some "what if" questions to get you started:

• What if karma was instant?
• What if people could remember their past lives?
• What if everyone became allergic to the same thing?
• What if all politicians had to live on minimum wage?
• What if being a witch or wizard was a profession? 

 
You can see how asking a "what if" question can spark some interesting ideas. This kind of thinking can open up new avenues for your stories, poetry, or essays. Asking "what if?" encourages risk-taking in writing and engages the creative mind in a different way. 
 
Every writer spends time away from the page. People get sick, work takes too much time, other priorities creep in and take precedence over our schedules—and writing falls to the wayside. After that downtime, it can be challenging to get back into the swing of things. Writer's block looms large. Using these simple techniques, writers can re-establish their writing practices and get back to writing. 

During the last two months, I haven’t written a word.

I've had several slow-moving projects in the works: a novel about a person who receives postcards from the afterlife (it’s not as weird as it sounds), my memoir written for my kids, a how-to-dress book for my daughter, memory books of the toys my kids played with and their funny antics, and a series of short stories that I have been sending out to magazines.   
 
But since the pandemic’s beginning, I haven’t had the energy to write. I have always been a highly productive person and typically work from the moment I wake up until just before bed. Watching a lot of TV or goofing off has never been part of my routine. I’m the gal who grabs a cup of coffee and goes straight to my computer. 
 
So, why can’t I write? Like most adults, I have been through many emergency situations—illness, loss of income, and heartbreak—but the pandemic has hit me differently. After taking time to reflect on this experience, I identified a few adjustments that have helped me get back into the swing of writing. 

Adjust the Schedule
 
During the last couple of months, my mind has been racing, and that distracts me from my work, my writing, and my routine. I didn’t realize this until talking to a friend. When she described her difficulty sleeping, I realized I wasn't the only one. I changed my schedule right away and it made all the difference. By getting up earlier and sticking to a schedule, I was able to focus better.
 
Switch Up the Sense of Control
 
Admittedly, I can be a bit controlling (my husband would probably say a bit of a control freak). When the pandemic started, I think my initial fear was about my lack of control: everything was out of my hands. But I have been staying home, wearing a mask, and limiting my trips, and that has added significantly to my confidence and given me a greater sense of control. Now, the limited travel doesn’t bother me at all, and my production has been increasing over time. 

Show Some Gratitude
 
Though I am not the best at showing gratitude, when I have recognized the blessings in my life, I am better able to focus on the tasks at hand. All of my problems are of the first-world, middle-class variety. I am working from home on a new computer with reliable internet. We have enough computers that every person in our home has one of their own to use, so no one is forced to share. We have food, jobs, and our health. Life is pretty good. 
 
Get Dirty
 
I think every person I’ve talked to in the last month is gardening. Even the people who don’t like gardens are starting a plot of vegetables or a window box of flowers. It seems like, as we are all longing for our former normalcy, we are returning to simple activities like gardening. Getting into the garden gives us something to look forward to, something to nurture, and a healthy dose of vitamin D every time we put in the work. 
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Take In New Information
 
Like many people, I spent the first two weeks of the pandemic watching Netflix. I think I was binge-watching The West Wing (a well-written political drama if you want to see good-quality character development and a quick-paced plot with never-ending complications). But after a couple of weeks, I couldn’t sit that long and had to seek out other ways of filling my brain with information. 
 
Though I couldn’t read for the first few weeks that turned around for me and when it did, reading afforded me a huge relief. I added the paper delivery to my digital newspaper subscription, and thank goodness I did, because I am back to spending Sunday morning reading the paper for two hours, which is a joy in itself. 
 
I came back to reading but only connected with the lighter stuff at first. No research, no economics, no professional journals. I started with a couple of my kids’ middle grade novels and a nonfiction series the kids like. Then I re-read On Writing by Stephen King for probably the fourth or fifth time. It’s one of those books that I come back to because I get a new idea each time I read it. Reading came back slowly, but when it did, it provided the soothing herbal tea remedy that I needed to get myself back on track. 

Let Go to Move On
 
The cracks in the system reveal deeper truths. Though the lockdown has been incredibly challenging for millions across the country, its effects reach across every demographic, and even healthy, employed people feel the struggle. 
 
I think that for me, letting go of my desire to live in the pre-pandemic manner helped me reconnect with a new routine, and that helped me get back to writing again. I am not yet writing in the same way that I was before the pandemic started, but I am finally writing. The writing is slow, it lacks style, and it comes out in ribbons rather than whole cloth, but it is coming. 
 
Whether we'll return to our pre-pandemic lives anytime soon, I have no idea. I do know that what is ahead of us will take an incredible amount of bravery, camaraderie, and community. And for writers, if we are able to put words on the page, we are more likely to address what is coming with grace rather than fear. 
 
I am certain that in the coming months, I will continue to grow and learn, but for right now, I am out of the woods. I am reading again and writing a little bit. The biggest takeaway of my experience is that if I can put just a few elements in place—a consistent schedule, gratitude, reading, and so on—then I can reconnect with the writing and get the words on the page. 

For the last 20 years, I have taught writing. Over this time, I have talked a lot about the writing process, a series of steps writers take to create a piece of writing in a manageable amount of time. It generally follows these steps: brainstorm, outline, draft, edit, and publish. 
 
The writing process can help a person get from an idea to a completed essay, but it doesn’t take a writer through the day-to-day work of being a writer. 

Writers do a lot more than follow a series of super-organized steps to polish an essay. We live our lives, we go to work, we find love, we appreciate the outdoors, we fall down, and we strive to achieve life goals. In between all of these life events, we write. 
 
But what happens when life falls apart? What happens when we don’t feel like writing? How about when we have nothing to say? What about those days when the words aren’t coming to us, when we have the dreaded "writer's block"? What do we do then? 

I think there is a writer’s cycle that more closely mimics the reality of the writing life. It goes something like this:

First, you collect information. This includes reading, observing, and engaging with life. 
 
Next, you practice. This includes attending classes, writing in a writer’s notebook, and doing practice prompts. 
 
Finally, you write, edit, rewrite, and revise each piece until it is publishable. 

In the years that I have worked with writers, I have heard many people disappointed at themselves for not writing all the time. I actually think not writing at times is OK. It's part of the greater process that writers go through. 
 
We don’t always have something to say. We don’t always have something worthy of a story or an essay. But we do always have a place within the writer’s cycle, and we can engage wholeheartedly with another part of the process. 
 
Reading hones our writing skills. It puts us in touch with professional writers, it gives us published pieces to evaluate and understand, and it connects us to literary works. Observing and engaging with life allows us opportunities to see situations from different viewpoints, think about how characters would react in different scenarios, and better connect our writing to how real people interact. 

As writers, we improve through practice. Every time we take a class, we learn something new. Every time we drop an idea in our writers’ notebooks or write a practice prompt, we play with ideas without feeling obligated to complete a story for a publication. 
 
Once we have collected and practiced, we write. And in those moments when we have something to say, on those days that the words are flowing and the story is laid out before us, we can collect our thoughts on paper. Those are the situations where we can write, edit, and revise until we produce quality writing that connects to other people, which speaks to our readers. 
 
So, if today the words aren’t coming to you, read a book. If you don’t feel inspired to write, go out and observe the world. If you feel cooped up or bored or lonely, take a writing class and do some practice prompts. And when the words have built up in your creative bank, you will be ready to write. 

Not long ago, I heard someone say that the only people who like to cross country ski are people who love the daily grind. These are people who understand what it takes to get up early, work hard, take on underwhelming projects, and push through when it would be easier to take a break. I loved the idea, partially because I love to cross country ski and partially because it reminded me of why I love to write. 
 
I have run across so many writers, and they’re each such wonderfully unique people. Some write for a short period of time, and some stick with it for life. I have met writers who scribbled a handful of letters to pass on to their grandkids and felt totally satisfied, and I have known others who struggled with never-ending novel series that took years to complete. 

What I have observed about writers generally is that they like to work hard. They like to dig into a complicated story, a wild poem, or a new idea and wrestle with the words until something new emerges from the page. They like to get their hands dirty and don’t really mind struggling with a character that starts out cardboard flat and ends up walking and talking with as much complexity as the eccentric guy down the street. 
 
Writers love to get out into the world. Yes, ours is a solitary hobby. We sit by ourselves, tapping away at the keys alone, and oftentimes use devices to block out the noise of life happening around us. But writers must delve into the truths of life to be able to write about them. Writers listen to conversations, they watch the way people move, and they taste the subtle differences in dishes. All these observations are deep dives into life, which writers do so that they can capture life experiences to put into stories. 

Writers tend to think about writing all the time. They read more books because they are involved in learning on an ongoing basis. They tend to have a high interest level in a variety of topics. Who else would want to know when to plant roses, how long a body takes to decompose in the desert, and the physicality it takes to ride a bicycle from Seattle to Portland? These are normal questions for writers to ponder and research. In fact, sometimes a writer will research a question for hours just to write a single line in a story. 
 
Writers think about writing all the time. Many carry a writer’s notebook to capture ideas that come to mind in the middle of the day. Writers will say things like, “That would make a great story” when they hear a weird statistic or curious scenario. Writers dwell on which comeback they would have used two hours after being shouted at by a rude jerk. And they analyze movies for choices the writers made, rather than which explosions were biggest. 
 
The wonderful thing about writers is that they can see the depth of life. They can identify its smells and tastes and textures, because they seek out its stories. To be able to understand life so well that we can write about abandonment, desperation, ecstasy, and triumph means that we not only don’t mind getting close to life but we relish it. 

The writing process can feel overwhelming to some, but most writers have the keen ability to turn coffee into words, which gives us an advantage to take on enormous projects, like 9-volume book series.

Gardeners, can work in the garden once a week for an hour or two and end up with a beautiful garden that the neighbors admire. Writers have to keep coming back to the page over and over again. An hour here or there will result in a completed story, but it will take ages, and no one will see the positive results until the words are arranged in their polished final version.

​It’s hard work that makes that happen.  It’s having the drive to come back to the desk over and over again.  It’s having the courage to open up the story and try again and again to edit the scenes to make them flow better. 

Writers read, research, write, and revise in an ongoing cycle, because once one story is completed, most writers take up another one. To keep up with that kind of hobby, a person has to love to work and they have to find their flow when they dig into the process. 
 
Writers are like that. We may take time away from the writing to handle life’s complications when they arise, but we are consistently hard workers. We put in the work, knowing the reward will come. 

Whether you are writing for yourself, for a small audience, or for the publishing market, you probably appreciate when your writing is supported. That support may keep you going when you feel a little low. The little things can add up to keep you motivated and creative. 
 
When you spend your time alone, typing away at a keyboard, receiving positive support can be the difference between continuing in the craft or abandoning writing for another hobby. Few writers leave the craft altogether, but many take short breaks to recharge their batteries when they feel low. Writing can be a lonely hobby, especially when people don’t have the support they need. 

If You Want to Have a Friend, Be a Friend  
 
How does a writer find support? Drumming up support for one’s hobby can feel like a chore in itself, but the old adage is true: If you want to have a friend, be a friend. This certainly applies to writers. If you want to be a supported writer, then support other writers. 
 
One way to support writers is to spend time with them. I know this might sound a little bit silly, especially considering that writing is a solitary exercise, but finding someone who is willing to listen to story ideas can be a challenge. Offer to listen to another writer’s ideas about characters, storylines, poems, or research projects. By spending time listening to another writer talk about their ideas, you not only support another writer, but you also earn an ear to listen to your story ideas. Many writers process verbally, so talking about your writing can be a huge help to your writing process. 
 
Another way to support writers is to be willing to read their work. The editing and revising steps of writing can be brutal for any writer. If you have ever taken a story from initial brainstorm to publishable draft, then you know how much work it can take. Unfortunately, most people willing to read a piece of writing fall into two types: the “I love everything you write” type and the “here are the 500 errors I found” type. Neither of these readers is particularly helpful, because they lack the balanced perspective that a competent writer can offer during a revision. 

Leave a Review for Every Book You Read
 
Find local writers, your writer friends, and members of your writing groups and read their books. After you read their books, ask them where you can leave a review. Amazon, Goodreads, and Kobo all allow readers to leave original book reviews. These reviews can make an enormous difference for writers. The more reviews that writers have, the more likely their books are to be included in the criteria for search engines.
 
I belong to a writer’s group in my small town. We show up to every author’s event at the library and local bookstore. We have three literary events a month: a critique group, a writer’s workshop, and a public reading night. By doing this, our group has doubled in size and we have created a community of writers who support each other. The effort is worth the payoff. 
 
Finally, if, by chance, you earned a degree in literature or history in college (as I did way back when), you may have an understanding of the classics and may be less aware of contemporary literature. Break out of the canon and spend time reading contemporary writers. Read outside of your comfort zone. Read books by people of color, people from other countries, and people from different socio-economic groups. Read outside of your usual genre. When you read newer writing, you have a better understanding of what is being published now, what is popular, and what topics writers are addressing. 
 
Reading modern literature puts you in touch with contemporary writers. When you find writers you like, reach out to them. Send them letters, write them emails, and follow them on social media. Getting connected to writers can help you build a literary network.

You Get What You Give
 
Develop a community of people who support writing, and offer support to other writers. When you do, you create a community of others who will support your writing. Though we write alone, we engage with life to find inspiration to write and we share our writing with others so that our words can comfort, instruct, and entertain. Our strength as writers is in our shared community as lovers of the written word, and it is within that community that we can develop support for our own writing as we support others in their creative pursuits. 

I am not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I cannot think of a single time that my life changed significantly because of me following through on a resolution, and in fact, it seems that most of my attempts at resolutions have sent me backward on my goals. 
 
What has worked for me is to decide on a small goal, meet it, then commit to another small goal and meet that. When I have followed the path of tiny goals, I have been much more successful than I ever was with resolutions.

Now, I understand that setting a small goal might feel like the same thing as making a resolution, but I would argue otherwise. When I set a resolution, it’s usually because some part of my personality, habits, or behaviors is driving me crazy and I want to overcome that by changing several patterns at once. Overnight, I’m supposed to eat better, exercise more, wake up earlier, and be more productive. But the reality is that I never do that because it’s too much all at once. I can’t focus on battling my middle-aged body and try to figure out how to get to the gym six days a week (in the snow no less) with kids, the house, the job, and so many life complications. 
 
What works for me is to attempt a teeny-tiny goal, meet it, and then set another one. One example of when this worked well was the Inktober activity. In October of this year, I joined Inktober, where writers and artists create a single piece each day based on a one-word prompt. For the first week, I wrote a haiku poem (a haiku is a poem with three lines with syllables of 5-7-5). This activity only took me three to five minutes a day. The goal was tiny and I felt successful quickly. 

After writing a haiku poem for the first week, my confidence was up. So, I wrote a 50-word short story for the next two weeks. Each day, I would sit down and write a short story, which was usually closer to 100 words. I’d cut it down to 50 words, post it on Instagram, and move on with my day. 
 
For the last week in October, I created a series story. Each day, I used the daily prompt and continued the story that I wrote the day before. The process was interesting, because I couldn’t go with a totally new idea because I needed to string several prompts together. 

Inktober forced me to write every day for a month. Although I would love to say that I write every day all the time, I don’t. I write a few times a week and usually set aside one morning to write for a couple of hours straight. The problem isn’t that I lack the discipline to write every day; I lack the opportunity. Between work, kids, family, pets, and taking care of myself, I can’t make daily writing work. Yet, incredibly, I wrote every day in October for the Inktober project. 
 
When I set a tiny goal (write a haiku poem, write a 50-word story), I was able to do what usually feels impossible. I was able to write for 31 days in a row. The outcome was exhilarating and I kept writing every day through November. In fact, the momentum generated in October got me through the rough draft of my next book, which I expected would take another two months to accomplish. 

So, if you’re like me, skip the resolutions. If they don’t help you, then don’t bother with them. Instead, consider taking on a small goal, meeting it, and then another small goal.

Would you like some help doing this?

This January, I plan to write a small piece each day. The prompts I’m following are listed below.  If this sounds like fun, you’re certainly welcome to join me. 
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January Daily Writing Prompts

Each day, write a haiku poem, a free verse poem, a 50-word story, a 100-word story, or one paragraph (description of character, setting, plot, or scene) based on the prompt. Feel free to interpret the prompts in any way you choose.

For the last few years, I’ve taught writing workshops to adults in memoir writing and short stories. Most of my students are new to creative writing and come in feeling intimidated about being judged or expected to achieve more than they feel capable of managing in a weekend workshop. As I listen to people’s concerns, I’ve heard consistently that writers have a hard time putting the first words on the page. 
 
It seems like those first words are particularly intimidating, but once they are down, the rest of the story flows pretty well. When teaching essay, article, and blog writing, I recommend that my students write the middle portion first, then the introduction. It lessens the expectation that writers put on themselves to be perfect the first time around. 

When first-time writers are breaking ground with their first stories, whether they are taking on a memoir story of childhood or a fictional short story, those first words can be the hardest. But one of the truisms of creativity--novices borrow but professionals steal—can help take care of that problem. Stealing words from another source is a tool we can use to get our stories started. If you are a first-time writer or if you need a bit of a booster, give this a try. We are going to steal stories from another genre to use in our stories.

Introducing the 6-Word Memoir
 
As the legend goes, a journalist asked Ernest Hemingway to write a story that could make a person cry with just six words. In true Hemingway fashion, he responded with a challenge accepted bravado and wrote the first 6-word memoir. Now, whether or not this story is historically accurate or not is unimportant to me, because it is such a great story. Hemingway's six-word story?
 
For sale: baby shoes, never worn. 
 
When you read that six-word memoir, you get a full sense of the story: it’s a missing childhood, shoes never used, an adult who missed out, or someone who never was a child because they were forced to mature at a young age.   

If we boil down what we want to say in just six words, we have achieved a significant accomplishment. We have communicated a full thought, a full story in a small amount of space. Communicating so precisely with few words is a powerful way to begin a story. Instead of explaining your setting or your character, begin your story with a six-word memoir and start with a bang. 
 
Here are a few more examples to get you thinking:

• Three great kids. One terrible accident. 
• Hard work. Low pay. Still nothing. 
• Who was counting the calories anyway?
• I didn’t think this would happen.

 
With each of these six-word memoirs, you can imagine the story that could unfold from them. From “Three great kids. One terrible accident,” the reader is instantly intrigued and wants to find out what happened. What was the accident? Was there an accident to one of the children? What happened? When you introduce a scenario that causes your reader to ask questions about what is going on, you have the reader hooked. 

How about the second example? “Hard work. Low pay. Still nothing.” After reading that line, the reader knows they will come across a story of struggle with little reward. Struggle is a classic theme in memoirs, so this kind of story can pull your reader into your story right away. The reader will hope for a happier ending and will be intrigued to know what happens in this unfolding tale. 
 
Another example is “Who was counting the calories anyway?” I imagine this as the first line of a chef’s memoir. After reading this six-word memoir, the reader will expect a story about the joy and pleasure of food, rather than the tedious monotony of counting calories.
 
Finally, the six-word memoir “I didn’t think this would happen” leaves the reader with questions. The reader wants to know what happened. What was the situation? Who was involved? How did things work out? Anytime that you get your reader asking questions about the story, you have them engaged and will keep them reading.

I have seen the six-word memoir used a couple of different ways, which may give writers more ideas for using this tool. You can use it as the first line of a story. Or you can use it as a transition between scenes, themes, or settings in a story. Another idea is to use it as the title of chapters in a book. If you need a way to start your story, try the six-word memoir.
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Audience and purpose go hand in hand for writers. Before we write, we spend a little time considering our intended audience, which is the person or people we hope will read our writing. Establishing the audience for a piece can help writers stay on track and create a more valuable piece of writing. A little time spent planning can save a lot of time revising.   

As a starting point, writers create for themselves. Writers are their own audience. We engage in certain types of writing (e.g., reflective work, diary and journal, and stream of consciousness memory writing) solely for ourselves. When we write solely for ourselves, we write with the intention that no one else will read what we write. In such cases, we tend to be free and open about what we create, because we don’t fear the judgment of others or worry about the outcome of what could happen because we're the only ones who will see that writing.

When we branch out, we create work for a small audience. We write letters, emails, and personal stories intending them to be read by one person, or at most, a small group of people. For example, we might write a letter to Aunt Clara with the idea that she will be the only person to read it, so we include only information that would interest Aunt Clara and we address her personally in the piece. Of course, we know that Aunt Clara is chatty and loves to tell stories at her club, so we might keep that in mind when choosing which details to include.

Additionally, we may consider writing for a small, controlled group. I work with writers who are composing their personal stories to preserve within their families. They collect the stories of their lifetimes to save and pass to their close friends and family members, knowing that those stories may be passed on for generations. When writing personal stories, we might address our audience specifically or we might use a generalized second person point of view by using “you” to reference our readers.

And of course, we have the broad, general audience. This is where our writing could be read by anyone and everyone who comes across it. When we write for a broad audience, we might be writing a blog, an article, a novel or short story, or a book for publication. Our hope is that the broad audience loves our writing and buys our books, though that audience can also be more critical because they are separated from us personally. Believe it or not, our friends and family tend to be our biggest supporters when we are creating. They know us and our journeys, and understand what it took for us to put words on the page. 

Our intended audience includes the person or people we believe will read our writing, but things don’t always work out that way. The letters that Benjamin Franklin wrote to his son have been compiled into a book and shared for centuries. The letters that author Willa Cather wrote to friends are part of her estate, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s letters to his daughter giving her advice on life go in and out of publication.

So, although we may originally compose writing for a certain audience, the reader can change over time and our writing may end up in the hands of an unintended audience. That could be a broad, general audience of readers who purchase a copy of our collected letters, but it's more likely to be other friends and family, business partners, or community members who come across our writing. For example, historians have used the journals of average people throughout history to piece together events from the past. Our writing can end up helping more people than we originally expect when we dedicate words to the page. 
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What about Purpose?

The other element that writers may want to consider is purpose. Why are you writing? What drove you to sit down and start the letter, the story, or the book? What outcome do you intend will come of your writing? Do you expect the reader will understand you better, make a change in their life, or develop a skill from reading your writing?

When we set a purpose for our writing, we tend to help ourselves. This is because when we have a purpose, it is easier to focus and stay on track. Many writers wander down a bunny trail after beginning a piece that lacks purpose; this may happen with fiction writing more often than with non-fiction. We start out writing about a pirate who wants to settle on land and end up with a gardener who hates to get dirty. It happens to the best of us.

Setting a purpose for writing before putting your first words on the page can help you focus, write in a more organized manner, and meet your goal. If you have no purpose, then any road will get you there, but if you have the purpose to compose a particular piece of writing that meets a particular goal, then establishing that purpose can help get you organized and keep you organized throughout the process.

Of course, the best-laid plans for writing can be easily derailed. If you set a particular audience and purpose for a piece but end up in a different place, it’s OK. Sometimes, a story wants to be told and insists on coming up no matter what we are trying to create. So, if you are on a path but end up racing down a bunny trail, it might be a good thing.
 

Although in my perfect world, everyone reads beautiful hardbound books made of high-quality paper with gorgeous fonts that suck you into the stories, that isn’t how the world works. Audiobooks are the fastest growing market in the publishing world right now. But does listening to an audiobook count as reading?
 
In reality, we read what we have access to. Many of us don’t have enough time to read paper books the way we once did. I remember growing up we would spend the first half of Saturday sitting around reading. But, in my current life, I don’t live that way. I work 50% more hours per week than my parents did, and I have a full schedule on top of my job. I am engaged in a number of activities: writers' group, working out, writing three different books, and household tasks. I also have my family to think of. My kids are busy (intentionally so). And each of these activities means time away from reading paper books. 

Audiobooks have changed enormously over the last 30 years. My husband once belonged to an audiobook lending bookstore. For $50 a month, he would check out as many audiobooks as he could listen to, which was a lot, since he would listen at work for 10 hours a day and in the car. Considering that the books he listens to are 700-page fantasy tomes, this was an exciting option. It connected him to his favorite authors (Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan) and allowed him to keep reading while he worked.
 
Today, audiobooks are available everywhere and millions of people have caught on to the trend. Many people don’t want to listen to the news or the radio, but an audiobook can be a source of pleasure reading or informational reading depending on the title. 

Granted, I have heard concerns about listening to audiobooks in lieu of reading paper books. Fellow educators have suggested that listening to an audiobook does not engage the reader in the same way that a paper book does. They have also said that the learning gains from audiobooks are lower than from reading a paper book. I can understand these concerns, and I take them into consideration when I recommend an audiobook to a student. But if the decision is between a reader struggling through a paper book or abandoning the paper book altogether, I support the audiobook as an option. To me, an audiobook could be used as a gateway to independent reading for a reluctant reader, which in the long run, would support literacy skills and lifelong learning through reading.
 
Fellow writers have also expressed concerns that the audiobook misrepresents the author’s original intentions behind the text. You see, when a playwright composes a piece for the theater, they intend the piece to be performed by professional actors for a live audience. But when an author composes a piece, they intend the connection between writer and reader to occur on the page and not be interrupted by a reader’s intonations, emphasis, and vocal suggestions. 

 These are fair concerns. Having listened to at least a hundred audiobooks, I agreed that some actors add their own spin to the story by the way they use their inflections, pronunciations, and tone to deliver the tale in a way that may be different than the author intended. As a writer, I can understand not wanting an uncontrollable in-between to enter the writer-reader relationship. But I think that I would prefer to have my story valued enough in the mainstream market to be recorded as an audiobook. I also think that some of the best audiobooks I have heard are ones read by the author. For example, I have listened to two audiobook versions of Fahrenheit 451. The version read by Ray Bradbury is spectacular, an experience to be appreciated over and over again (I’ve listened to it at least three times already). The author knows how to control and deliver the text, and I would love to hear more books read by their authors.

So, does it count as reading to listen to an audiobook instead of reading a paper book? 
 
At this point, I would argue that it does. First, accessibility to audiobooks is higher than for paper books. People can listen to an audiobook while commuting, exercising, or doing mundane tasks. Reading a paper book is more of a challenge while doing a second activity. I know, I’ve tried. I used to try bringing my book to the gym and the only machine where it worked was the recumbent bicycle. With my audiobook plugged into my ears, I am free to roam the gym and can hit the machines and free weights that I need. The same is true for driving, walking, running errands, and cleaning the house. 
 
The accessibility issue has greatly improved recently since the advent of smartphones. Now, people are downloading audiobooks using apps like LibriVox and Kobo where people can buy audiobooks and listen to them anytime their phone is nearby. Plus, readers can connect their phone to the car’s stereo system and never miss a line of the story. Technology has upgraded audiobooks for readers who used to have to carry around CD players and change out the CD every hour. Now, audiobooks have full streaming accessibility. 

Too, audiobooks increase the number of titles on our mental bookshelves. The statistics around reading are a bit depressing. The young and the elderly tend to be the lowest readers, with few reading a book a year. If we got audiobooks into the hands of more people, we could potentially increase their general knowledge and engagement with humanities, the sciences, and current events. More readers means a more educated population, which means stronger communities because people have more information available for better decision making. 

If the decision comes down to not reading, reading only occasionally, struggling through reading paper books, or listening to audiobooks, I say go for the audiobooks. I have met a few writers who don’t read or read only occasionally and I have recommended trying out audiobooks as an alternative to paper books. Yes, in a perfect world, we would all read beautifully crafted hardbound books, but the reality is that many of us are trying to keep up with busy schedules. The audiobook format fits for many people, writers included. 
 
So, if you are not reading a book right now, go get one. The library has both CDs and downloadable audiobooks to check out (you can use apps to download them onto your phone). You can buy audiobooks for download, and even YouTube has audiobooks available for instant listening. Listening to audiobooks increases the number of books you complete each year, and that leads to a more knowledgeable, competent version of you. 

When I teach memoir workshops, one of the topics we discuss is the difference between fiction and nonfiction writing. When writing memoir, writers tend to approach the writing with a stiff spine and a list of facts to impart upon the reader, and that can lead to lifeless, though factual, writing. Unfortunately, one of our first inclinations as memoir writers is to turn off the reader with dull, encyclopedic accounts of events.
 
Think of the classic school biography project. These tend to start with the facts: date of birth, place of birth, and parent’s names. Invariably, the writer has lost the reader by the end of the first paragraph because the writing functions better as a sleep tonic than an engaging piece of writing.

For whatever reason, many writers fall into this pattern when writing nonfiction, especially memoir. We tend to think of life as a series of facts rather than a series of stories with full sensory details and deep emotions and thoughts. All too often, the result is writing that fails to inspire the reader. 
 
How do we fix this situation? Memoirists can use fiction writing techniques to capture and keep their reader’s attention. We can use our creative storytelling skills when we write nonfiction to bring our personal stories to life. Though the stories are factual, they don't need to be boring. 

In Eat Like a Fish, author Bren Smith documents not just his life stories as a Newfoundland fisherman turned sea farmer, but he also lays out his philosophy around providing highly nutritious food amid climate change and restoring the ocean’s plant and animal diversity. 
 
I picked up the book because I wanted to learn about his ideas on sea farming, but I was pleasantly surprised by Smith's crisp, lively writing style which engaged me from the book’s beginning. Smith had me hooked from the first page to the last as he took me along his life journey from Canada to New England to Alaska and beyond. 
 
What tools did he use to pull me into his memoir?

• First, he used sensory details and deep descriptions in his writing. He gives the reader a sense of the images, sounds, and tastes in the events that he experienced, and that brought me quickly into the story. When I read his narratives, I was there watching the scene and taking it all in. He showed me what was happening rather than just telling me the facts. 

• Second, Smith focused on the story not on the facts. Of course, he included the facts of his life in the stories, but the focus was always on the story itself. As a Newfoundlander, he has an unfair advantage over the rest of us mere mortals. Newfoundlanders are famous for their storytelling and lovely ways of reorganizing language from a dull series of words into lyric poetry. When you read the examples below, you’ll see what I mean. The man can write! 

 
Let’s take a peek into the book Eat like a Fish and see how he does it. Read the two quotes below. Notice how Smith pulls the reader into the situation with just a few words, and through just one paragraph, leaves us with a vivid sense of the story:

The ER nurses wouldn’t let me be. The first day I pushed my cart into their domain, they swarmed, demanding to know my story. They were all ages and sizes, but all shared a mix of warmth, strength, and irreverence. They made fun of my teenage silence and anger, forcing me to unfurl. I’d join them at the nurse’s station, listening to gossip about new patients, shitty boyfriends and husbands, grim tales of bad sex, frustration with sloppy and arrogant doctors. They were great storytellers, able to slide from ridicule to compassion mid-sentence. During that time in my life, they were my ballast. No wonder I later married a nurse. (Page 28)
 
I had been welcomed by the new urban class of “foodies,” a strange, ritualized culture marked by the trancelike state they’d go into after the first bite of a new dish. A slight smile curled onto their faces as the oyster liquor hit their taste buds. Their eyes would close. A moment of silence. Then a practiced attempt at poetry, as they detailed the swirls of flavor. Never one to fetishize food—I still ate at the gas station most nights—I found this new and, at first, alienating. But, God, how they loved my oysters, my pea crabs, my slipper shells. I’d quickly become proud of the food I grew, and adopted their culinary dialect. (Page 107)
 
We didn’t need a laundry list of facts and figures to get a sense of what was happening or how Smith felt in this time of life. He is able to tell a story in just a paragraph.

I love this book, and I loved reading it. It filled me with fog and mist and green leaves and salty sea and cold sand. As I was reading it, I had a clear sense of where he was in life, the ideas he was wrestling with, and the life questions he had.

That type of storytelling gives the reader a glimpse into one’s life, and that’s one of the most powerful effects that we can have. When we pull the reader into our little corners of the universe and give them a peek behind the curtains, we create a level of intimacy and clarity that readers seek. A memoir reader wants to know about you, wants to know your stories, and wants that revelation of self.

When you tell a story for the sake of the story, you can give them what they want without boring them.