You Should Be Writing

Brenda Knight began her career at HarperCollins, working with luminaries Paolo Coelho, Marianne Williamson, and Huston Smith. Knight was awarded IndieFab’s Publisher of the Year in 2014 at the American Library Association. She is the author of Wild Women and Books, The Grateful Table, Be a Good in the World, and Women of the Beat Generation, which won an American Book Award. Knight is a poet, writer, and editor. She also serves as President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, and is an instructor at the annual San Francisco Writers Conference, Central Coast Writers Conference and wherever she can be with fellow writers. She resides in San Francisco, CA.Nita Sweeney’s articles, essays, and poems have appeared in Buddhist America, Dog World, Dog Fancy, Writer’s Journal, Country Living, Pitkin Review, Spring Street, WNBA-SF blog, and in several newspapers and newsletters. She writes the blog, BumGlue and publishes the monthly email, Write Now Newsletter. Her memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, was short-listed for the 2018 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. Nita earned a journalism degree from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a law degree from The Ohio State University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. For ten years, she studied with and assisted best-selling author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) at weeklong writing workshops teaching the “rules of writing practice” and leading participants in sitting and walking meditation. Goldberg authorized Nita to teach “writing practice” and Nita has taught for nearly twenty years. When she’s not writing and teaching, Nita runs. She has completed three full marathons, twenty-six half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than sixty shorter races. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and her yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet (aka #ninetyninepercentgooddog).Becca Anderson comes from a long line of teachers and preachers from Ohio and Kentucky. The teacher side of her family led her to become a woman’s studies scholar and the author of the bestselling The Book of Awesome Women. An avid collector of affirmations, meditations, prayers, and blessings, she helps run a “Gratitude and Grace Circle” that meets monthly at homes, churches, and bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently resides. Becca Anderson credits her spiritual practice and daily prayer with helping her recover from cancer and wants to share this encouragement with anyone who is facing difficulty in life with Prayers for Hard Times and her latest, The Woman’s Book of Prayer. The author of Think Happy to Stay Happy and Every Day Thankful, Becca Anderson shares prayers and affirmations, inspirational writings and suggested acts of kindness at https://thedailyinspoblog.wordpress.com She also blogs about Awesome Women at https://theblogofawesomewomen.wordpress.com/ @AndersonBecca_ on Twitter @BeccaAndersonWriter on Facebook @BeccaAndersonWriter on Instagram

• Table of ContentsForeword: Your Pen Is MightierIntroduction: Ten Minutes, Go!Chapter 1 Writing Tips from the GreatsChapter 2 Accessing Your Well of CreativityChapter 3 The Art of StorytellingChapter 4 The Craft of WritingChapter 5 Read Your Way InChapter 6 Waxing PoeticChapter 7 Drawing Influence from Other Works of ArtChapter 8 Writing as MedicineChapter 9 The Role and Responsibility of the WriterConclusion: OnwardAbout Nita SweeneyAbout Brenda Knight

“I observed that Nita would have inspired many readers through her books. ‘I can’t think of the person reading my books when I write. I have a coaster: Dance like no-one can see you. I need one that says: Write like no-one is reading. When I edit, I think about the reader but not when I’m writing.’ I commented on that inner critic who sits on our shoulder when we write. We have to learn how to silence them so the writing can flow. Nita worked as an assistant to bestselling author of Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg, for many years and took several of her classes. The writing practice Natalie teaches is to set a timer and just write. Natalie Goldberg talks about the Guardians at the Gate. She visited a Zen monastery in Japan. Huge, grotesque statues stood at the gates. Natalie says that your inner critic is like the guardians. They roar, ‘How much do you want this? What are you prepared to risk?’ Our inner critic is trying to protect us. Nita says that she has a guardian on one shoulder and a little cheerleader with pom-poms on the other, chanting, ‘You can do this, Nita!’ The guardian is louder with its roar but they both want the best for her. I asked how she makes her peace between those two voices. ‘I often think the guardian/inner critic is trying to keep me safe. So, I just think: I know you are trying to protect me, but it’s okay I have a plan. Let’s just see where it goes. You just have to keep moving. It’s like writing. The inner critic is yammering away at you, but you just have to keep your hand moving along the page. So long as you are writing, the inner critic won’t catch you.’ This is why Natalie Goldman uses periods of time for writing. You keep your hand writing, no matter what. That’s the key. If you don’t acknowledge the inner critic, it starts screaming. So, it’s important to acknowledge it calmly.”—Deborah Klee, author and host of The Mindful Writer podcast