Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:56:16 +0000

Poster for a reading held at a fantastic independent bookstore, Santoro’s, in Seattle in 2005. Artwork, oil bars on brown paper, by Caroline Allen. www.carolineallen.com

When coaching writers, I begin by asking new clients to create a Writing Commitment Statement. In it, they should address their commitment to the process, specifically:

— How many days will they write a week?
— How many hours each day?
— What project will they work on for the next six months? Year? Two years?
— What are some of obstacles in the way of the writing process they want to address?
— What other support do they want to look for to help them in the process? Writer’s group? Writer friend? Babysitters?
— What is their writing space like, and how can they improve it for ease of writing?
— What is their five-year plan?

I ask them to write all of this down, then send the commitment statement to me to be witnessed. I tell them: It’s a living document and will change as you change; it will need to be rewritten as you write and find your flow. I ask: Do you find after one month that your writing times have changed during the week? I tell them: revise your commitment statement, and send it back to me so that I might witness it again. I believe the document becomes an almost inspirational/spiritual force that is a sacred contract. I believe it can have an energy that is like a wind at our backs, that helps us move forward into our authentic path as writer.

You can download for FREE a Commitment Statement template on my website: http://www.artofstorytellingonline.com/. Go to FREE RESOURCES and login to find your free download.