5 Ways to Establish Your Writing Practice - Freewrite Store

5 Ways to Establish Your Writing Practice - Freewrite Store Today’s guest post is by editor and author Susan DeFreitas (@manzanitafire), whose debut novel, Hot Season, won the 2017 Gold IPPY Award for Best Fiction of the Mountain-West. Â   Â   Â   If you struggle to establish a writing practice, don’t despair. While writing will never be a completely painless process, there are ways to make it easier on yourself (not to mention more fun). First, though, some real talk: Most people who want to write never do. Or, at least, they never make writing enough of a habit to finish any of the big projects they have in mind, be it a novel, a memoir, or a chapbook of poems. Say you have a great idea but you don’t know where to start. Or you get started with your project but then lose the thread, or get distracted, and never wind up finishing it. In either case, the following tips can help you get started, get back on track if you’ve stalled out- and, ultimately, get to the finish line with your project. 1) Brainstorming Terrified of the blank white page? You’re not alone. There’s something about beginnings that’s deeply intimidating- especially when it’s the beginning of something big. The thing is, the beginnings are all about brainstorming and daydreaming- and as it turns out, staring at a blinking cursor on a blank white page is really not the best way to do either of these things. Neuroscience suggests that this sort of big-picture creative thinking- about what you envision for your project, its concerns, its scope, even the voice you hear for it- is best accomplished while walking, or in the back of your mind as you’re going about other tasks, or as you’re falling asleep at night. In this way, you’ll be partnering with your subconscious mind, opening the door to associative connections that simply won’t arise if you try to push. What are the questions driving your project? What do you know about it, and what don’t you know? In the earliest stages of your writing process, as far as I’m concerned, you shouldn’t be writing at all- you should be thinking about your project in a way that clues you into what it is you really want to do, and how you really want to do it. 2) Visioning Once you’ve answered these sorts of questions, it’s time to set aside a few hours to envision where you’re going. Take yourself out for coffee on a Sunday morning, or set aside those precious hours after the kids go to bed. This is your time to flesh out and solidify your ideas. What will the plot of your novel be? What topics will your essays cover? What are the concerns of your poetry, the forms that inspire you, the specific themes you’d like to write toward? This is the time to take all those big-picture ideas you’ve had floating around in your head and solidify them into a real plan. Be as specific as you can- this plan will be the roadmap for your project. 3) Set aside a regular time Only have a half hour a day to write? Or even fifteen minutes? No problem. When you have a detailed plan for your project, it’s not hard to make use of small chunks of time to execute it. You may do nothing more than write a few sentences, or a paragraph, or a few lines of poetry. But if you write each day- preferably at the same time, but not necessarily- you will progress in your project. If you can find more time to devote to your writing practice on a daily basis, great- but remember, it can be hard to continue a practice that’s based on finding big chunks of time. If you can learn to write in smaller increments, you’ll wind up writing more often (which tends to be the key to finishing). And if you lose the thread, remember, you have a blueprint you can return to (and amend, if necessary). It’s not necessary to keep the big picture of your project in your head at all times- all that’s necessary is that you keep inching forward, whether it’s a little or a lot at a time. 4) Find your people One of the best ways to ensure that you stick to your writing practice over the long term is to find a group of people who will keep you accountable for creating new work. This group might be a traditional writers’ critique group, or it might be a generative group like Sit Down, Shut Up, and Write. If you live in a place where writers are scarce, even a Patreon campaign that makes you accountable to your sponsors for new work every month will do the trick. Of course, it’s possible to establish a writing practice in isolation- but over the long haul, it’s hugely helpful to know that there is someone on the other end, waiting to read what you’ve written. 5) Make it fun Finally, if you find your writing process losing steam, stop and ask yourself why. Is it because you’ve become too critical of your own work? Because you haven’t gotten the validation and direction that comes through feedback? Or because you’re pursuing the wrong project, one that your heart isn’t really in? In the end, you may find it something more like the fact that your writing desk is uncomfortable, or that you don’t like working where it’s too noisy (or too quiet). Maybe you need to draft in longhand, or outdoors, or next to a window. Maybe you need to write with a cup of coffee in hand, or after you’ve had a glass of wine, or after you’ve read a poem by your all-time favorite poet. Whatever it is, you owe it to yourself to find out, and experiment until you find the tools, setting, and context that sends a clear signal to your mind: writing is fun, and this is a great time to make it happen. Now it’s your turn. What do you struggle with in your writing practice? And what has proven most helpful to you in staying on track? Â   An author, editor, and educator, Susan DeFreitas’s creative work has appeared in (or is forthcoming from) The Writer’s Chronicle, The Utne Reader, Story, Southwestern American Literature, and Weber- The Contemporary West, along with more than twenty other journals and anthologies. She is the author of the novel Hot Season (Harvard Square Editions), which won the 2017 Gold IPPY Award for Best Fiction of the Mountain West. She holds an MFA from Pacific University and lives in Portland, Oregon, where she serves as an editor with Indigo Editing Publications.

Timeline of Brown v. Board of Education

Timeline of Brown v. Board of Education In 1954, in a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws segregating public schools for African-American and white children was unconstitutional. The case, known as Brown v. Board of Education overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, which was handed down 58 years earlier. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling was a landmark case that cemented the inspiration for the Civil Rights Movement.   The case was fought through the legal arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which had been fighting civil rights battles since the 1930s. 1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is established to protect the civil rights of African-Americans. The act guaranteed the right to sue, own property, and contract for work. 1868 The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. The amendment grants the privilege of citizenship to African-Americans. It also guarantees that a person cannot be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. It also makes it illegal to deny a person equal protection under the law. 1896 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an 8 to 1 vote that the â€Å"separate but equal† argument presented in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. The Supreme Court rules that if â€Å"separate but equal† facilities were available for both African-American and white travelers there was no violation of the 14th Amendment. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion, arguing The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to endorse social, as distinguished from political, equality[...] If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane. The sole dissenter, Justice John Marshal Harlan, interpreted the 14th Amendment in another way contending that â€Å"our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.† Harlan’s dissenting argument would support later arguments that segregation was unconstitutional.   This case becomes the basis for legal segregation in the United States. 1909 The NAACP is established by W.E.B. Du Bois and other civil rights activists. The purpose of the organization is to fight racial injustice through legal means. The organization lobbied to legislative bodies to create anti-lynching laws and eradicate injustice in its first 20 years. However, in the 1930s, the NAACP established a Legal Defense and Education Fund to fight legal battles in court. Headed by Charles Hamilton Houston, the fund created a strategy of dismantling segregation in education.   1948   Thurgood Marshall’s strategy of fighting segregation is endorsed by the NAACP Board of Directors.  Marshall’s strategy included tackling segregation in education. 1952 Several school segregation cases- which had been filed in states such as Delaware, Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington DC- are combined under Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. By combining these cases under one umbrella shows the national significance. 1954 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. The ruling argued that the racial segregation of public school is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. 1955 Several states refuse to implement the decision. Many even consider it, â€Å"[N]ull, void, and no effect† and begin establishing laws arguing against the rule. As a result, the U.S. Supreme Court issues a second ruling, also known as Brown II. This ruling mandates that desegregation must occur â€Å"with all deliberate speed.† 1958 Arkansas’ governor, as well as lawmakers, refuse to desegregate schools. In the case, Cooper v. Aaron  the U.S. Supreme Court remain steadfast by arguing that states must obey its rulings as it is an interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.