If you want to write, you must practice. This is to be true with all artistic endeavors. I have danced ballet and modern, played the piano and organ, sang in choirs, and currently I’m a painter, as well as a writer. Without a daily practice, my skills deteriorate. It’s natural to write or paint or whatever your creativity is, as a daily practice.  As a child, I practiced the organ an hour per day and took weekly lessons.  As a young woman, I participated in as many ballet classes as I could afford, and when we were performing on stage, the practices increased to daily workouts.  As a visual artist, I practice by painting canvases, but a sketchbook also becomes a daily drawing workout that keeps my skills honed.  

Writing practice can contain exercises that help build character, describe landscape and setting, practice sentence structure–long or short sentences that slow or speed up pacing.  A regular practice can help bring new language into your writing, words that describe the senses, perhaps, or metaphors.  If you don’t have a practice, writing daily in an inexpensive journal for 30-40 minutes will increase your fluidity. Writing with others is even better; as you listen to how another writer describes setting, character, and action, and you are informed by their words.

Village Books www.villagebooks.com offers several drop-in groups that you can sign up for and participate in: non-fiction, fiction and poetry.  I offer a weekly practice held in my art studio in historic Fairhaven–call if you are interested, 360-710-7139. During the summer, there are weeks where I’m out of town camping and plein aire painting. Even then, you can write by the clock, keeping a schedule that you mark down on your calendar. Buy either at Village Books or another independent bookstore, “Writing Done The Bones,” by Natalie Goldberg. Follow her writing format daily and see what happens. See her book here. Carry on and have fun!

Nancy Canyon, MFA, is the author of SALTWATER: poetry, CELIA’S HEAVEN: a novel, and STRUCK: a memoir. She works as a Writing Coach for The Narrative Project and teaches writing for Chuckanut Writers, Bellingham, WA. In her Historic Fairhaven Art studio, she holds painting workshops and leads a weekly writing practice. To contact Nancy, or for more information about the classes she offers, email her at nancy@nancycanyon.com