For many years, autumn has been the time of year that I do most of my writing, and during the month of October, I am hosting a Memoir Writing Challenge: Harvest Your Past. 

I have decided to throw in an extra memoir-writing challenge before October, to help you prime your writing pump.

Bottom Line: The Only Way to Become a Better Writer is to Write–and Write Daily.

Several Octobers ago, I truly embraced the reality that writing daily was the only way that I would become a better writer. I had reached the point that I had become a blocked creative. I couldn’t paint, I couldn’t draw, I couldn’t write. I had a full-blown case of Writer’s Block, but after I dared open my problem to the light of day, I realized that the main cause of my Writer’s Block was Fear–Fear of Failure.

“ Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” John Wayne

My memoir challenge is designed to help people learn to saddle up–to write–in spite of the Fear that is holding them back. The 6-Word Memoir Challenge is a way to attack your writing challenge in baby steps–one word at a time.

Most of us who have a tendency to get writer’s block were excellent students in school. In fact, it is because we were excellent students that we developed a pathological case of perfectionism. For the next several weeks, I want you to relinquish your perfectionism but attack this as though you are a student again. I am assigning you some Homework:

Exercise 1: Think of 6 concrete things that are meaningful to you. The key word in this assignment, however, is “concrete.” You must only list things that you can actually see. You can’t see love–Love is not concrete, and you may not list that. You can’t see hope–Hope is not concrete, and you may not list that. You can’t see faith–Faith is not concrete, and you may not list that. You can’t see God or Jesus. I am not trying to take anything away from God’s power or Jesus’s love, but for this exercise, neither of these will work. You can only list things that you can actually see. Things that you feel will not work. Now: List 6 concrete things that are meaningful to you. That is all–just 6 words.

When you listed those 6 words, you have completed Exercise 1. Anyone can write 6 words. We’ll add to the challenge one bite at a time.

Fear Is the Artist’s Worst Enemy – It Causes Writer’s Block

Harvest Your Past Challenge – 31 Days of Free Writing Prompts to Help You Write Your Own Memoir

I have decided to throw in an extra memoir-writing challenge to help you prime your writing pump.

Bottom Line: The Only Way to Become a Better Writer is to Write–and Write Daily.