Good things from inside a writing workshop

An exercise I use when I teach writing - simple enough for you to try right now at home, work or in between. Find your good things.

Hey there, Bec here

I can still feel the panic years later. I was in a writing workshop when the teacher gave us an exercise based on a picture postcard - she set the timer and I froze.

It was meant to be fun warm-up ahead of an away day for the organisation I was working for, but the fear of being judged by my colleagues meant I couldn’t write a word. Nothing. When the bell rang, my sense of relief was cut short as she went round the table getting us to read in turn. My shame rose as I listened to the exquisite prose of my peers, waiting to share my nothing. I stumbled a few words to describe the picture. The moment passed but when I began teaching myself years later I promised to never let anyone experience that same mortification.

Inside a writing workshop

Writing retreats are designed to be the perfect environment to support and nurture creativity. Yet when people arrive at a workshop they bring their doubts, fears and vulnerabilities to the table. However gentle the tutors, prompts can bring up all sorts of stuff that people process on the page, and it’s scary to write and to read your work in front of strangers.

In January I taught a week-long course for Arvon at The Hurst. I’ve been teaching for a while and design workshops to follow an arc from starting small, building people’s confidence to tackle bigger obstacles as the midpoint approaches (time, distraction, the inner critic), then tapping into finishing energy as the Friday night readings arrive.

Find your good things

At the end of every workshop I repeat the same exercise. I call it my ‘good things practice’ - it’s based in positive psychology and used to build resilience. People often feel tired and low after a three-hour session; writing is cognitively demanding even if we are working on the most joyful projects, so taking a moment to reframe how we feel can have a big impact in the present and for the long term.

It’s very simple, I ask people to find one good thing about their writing that morning. It can be small, indeed, I suggest it should be. Perhaps they wrote a neat word or phrase, they might have focused and found a minute of flow, they could have a new idea or a different way to look at their work in progress. It could even be hearing the birdsong outside the workshop room, having a cup of coffee, or sharing the joy of today’s cake (there’s always cake at Arvon).

Finding good things is a practice. And the more we do it the more likely we are to find those good things. If we are stuck or blocked it can help us notice that even within that experience there’s something good. Meg Mason described her writing block after her first novel was published, and how she found a way out of that ‘pit’:

“Bearing in mind I was starting from quite a deep pit, the only positive things I could think of to start with were things like: ‘You’ve chosen a really good font to write in today.’

It was the most pathetic endorsement in the world, but it was all I had. I began from there, but I could see my confidence building.”

- Meg Mason

She built her confidence to write Sorrow and Bliss, a bestseller beloved by readers the world over.

Writing a book and getting it published is a long game, with many setbacks along the way. Finding good things makes us feel better and that is essential when building self-command and developing a habit. In short, if your project makes you feel full of dread you’re less likely to return to it, so knowing there’s a word or idea or even a great choice of font, makes it lighter. And unlike some of the goals we set ourselves, a daily practice of good things takes mere seconds.

Here’s a good thing from my week of teaching: when me, my co-tutor Musa Okwonga and mid-week guest Daisy Buchanan all turned up for dinner wearing identical black polo neck jumpers. We were cosplaying serious writers, and failed spectacularly as it made us laugh so much.

A pile of good things

And it’s not just writing. I find this helps across my life. At the moment things feel tough, there’s a lot going on and I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all. We don’t always choose the hard things in life, but we can choose how to balance them out. As Rainbow Rowell said:

“So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow.”

- Rainbow Rowell

One good thing for me was going to visit our new puppy. We’ve waited a long time after Peggy the labradoodle died to find a new floof, but here she is, held by Chris Smith.

At the workshop, when writers share their small good things, we create a pile of good things. Each additional delight increases in size as we listen, smile and laugh.

Try it now, what good thing would you like to share? Pop it in the comments below, I can’t wait to read.

Keep writing, Bec

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Daisy Buchanan shared her experience of Arvon in this post. She is also teaching at Lumb Bank in May with my good friend Wyl Menmuir who I wrote about in the ‘habits’ chapter of Written. Daisy also shares Sixteen Pieces Of Good Writing Advice.

Sixteen Pieces Of Good Writing Advice

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