Come and gather. Open your hands. Receive the gift of Advent.

Five Days to a More Peaceful Advent :: How Do You Want Advent to Feel?

Keeping Advent

So, you already know about the MFA Notebook. But it’s not the only book in town. I’ve got a journal where my daily writing lives before drafts are pulled out and copied onto loose sheets, the cahier sized book that is for copywork, an orange book that’s just for ideas, and a monthly calendar from the dollar store.

The last one is just for tracking my daily writing. I mark out each day that I write with an X–Jerry Seinfeld style. What I didn’t expect was the handsome diagonal quadrants a la Lynda Barry that the X would create.

I use these spaces to note exactly what sort of writing happened: blogging, commonplacing, journaling, poems.

A good day has room for all four.

The idea is that when you do your work, you take note of it. Even if the day at the page doesn’t seem like much or enough. Maybe this practice is especially important on those days. Even when the fire wasn’t roaring, I was standing close, fanning the flame.

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.

There’s a saying, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. I accidentally happened across the work of Shaunta Grimes early on in my Homeschool MFA journey. And talk about a happy accident! Shaunta is the best kind of teacher–always pushing you to excel because she’s always learning and growing and pushing herself.

Shaunta has published three middle grade novels, and there are more coming. The woman has a fierce writing practice. She’s also really good at taking a long term goal and breaking it down into daily and weekly steps. Figuring out the next steps is where I often get blocked. Shaunta’s suggestions become a roadmap.

Her work is founded on a quote from Ray Bradbury:

Just write everyday of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens.

Simple, doable, approachable. And that’s the magic. It’s so easy to begin. It helps to short circuit the self-doubt and fear. But it’s also a powerful practice that will change you.

I don’t follow all the suggestions in the 1,000 Day MFA. I’m a poet afterall, not a novelist. There are fewer essays and short stories on my reading list. But it has been a guidepost for my own developing practice, especially my MFA Notebook. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow!

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.