If you want to write, you must practice. I believe this to be true in all artist endeavors. I have danced on stage, played the piano and organ, sang in choirs, and currently paint and write. Without practicing, my skill deteriorates. I realized recently that it’s natural to write, as a practice, daily or several times a week. As a child, I practiced the organ 1 hour per day. As a young woman I took as many ballet classes as I could afford, and when we were performing on stage, the practices increased. With painting, I practice as I paint, but a sketchbook is a daily drawing practice. I carry one with me when I go to the beach or the woods.
Writing practice can contain exercises that help you build character, describe landscape and setting, practice sentence structure…long sentences, short sentences. It can help you with bringing language into your writing that explores the senses. If you don’t have a practice, writing daily is good, writing with others is better, because you can listen to how they describe landscape and build character, how they use dialogue, etc.
Village Books offers several drop-in groups. I offer a weekly practice that is held in my art studio. Call if you are interested, 710-7139, as during the summer I’ll have some weeks where I’ll be out of town. Carry on and have fun!
