#16: Setting The Stage: Creating a Writing Environment for Writing Your Powerful Personal Stories

Are you ready to transform your writing journey and craft the perfect space for your creative endeavors? I promise that after tuning into this episode, you'll be well-equipped to create an inspiring and productive writing environment. In this episode we discuss the importance of dedicated time and space for writing, sharing how a distraction-free zone can enhance concentration and spark inspiration. We also delve into how to effectively communicate your writing boundaries to your loved ones, ensuring your productivity is not hampered.

The conversation doesn't stop at just creating the physical environment. This episode also packs in discussions about choosing the right tools to aid your writing journey, including some of my personal favorites. We'll discuss the importance of knowing who your writing is for, how this knowledge should influence your approach, and how to share your pieces with the world. Keeping your creative juices flowing isn't always easy, so we even touch upon the ideal snacks to munch on during your writing sessions.

For more resources and exclusive content, make sure to check out my website and sign up for our weekly newsletter at www.melissaannkitchen.com. Join me in this journey, your notebook and pen are about to become your best friends!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Preserve your Past podcast, where we'll explore all things related to the creative process of writing your stories for future generations. I'm your host, melissa Ann Kitchum, author, teacher, speaker and coach. I believe that your personal history is a priceless gift for family, friends and generations to come, whether you consider yourself a writer or not. We are discussing the topics that help with every step of the process, like how to mine for the juiciest story ideas or how to refine them into polished final drafts you'll be proud to share. Let's face it sure, your stories can be overwhelming, but I've got you covered. We all have a lifetime of memories to share, so why not save yours to pass along? Let me help you leave your lasting legacy. Hi everybody, and welcome back to the Preserve your Past podcast. Today I would like to start with a little experiential activity. I'd like to guide you through two separate scenarios. I want you to place yourself in these scenarios. In both scenarios, you have chosen to begin writing your powerful personal stories. You know you have stories to share. You're excited to get started and ready to begin, and life is busy. But so you know, you're still excited, but you're challenged with how to fit this writing into your very full life. Does that sound like you know what I'm talking about? So here's one scenario. In one scenario, you pull out a notebook and whatever pen you can find, because you finally have this time right, and you slide the last week's worth of junk mail aside on your kitchen table so you can sit down to get your perfect stories all down onto paper. You're just going to take action. As you sit down, someone in your family begins to ask you what you're working on. Then you explain, then you gather your thoughts again to begin again. You start writing, look across at the kitchen and see the unwashed dishes in the sink. So you begin to focus on all of the other things that need to get done, and then you try to go back to the writing. You have the beginning of the idea. You're not really sure who you're writing for. You just have this story in mind and you feel like your language, because of this, is impersonal and even a bit generic. Who are you to be doing this anyways? Who will ever be reading this? Now you realize you're thirsty. You go to fill your water glass and remember there's laundry to be switched over to the dryer and you haven't yet had anything to eat. 30 minutes have passed and you are stuck with not a single word on the paper.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Next, I'd like you to imagine scenario number two. In this scenario, there's quiet piano music playing in the background, your writing table has been cleared, you have a warm mug of tea, your favorite notebook and your favorite pens, and your laptop is ready to go with a clear document open. You light a candle and take a moment to just breathe in its calmness. You've already let your family know that you need this chunk of time to work on this important project, and when you sit down at your desk, you remind yourself of the story that you'd like to write. You remember how you are doing this, so that your children and your grandchildren have your words long after you are gone and that you want them to know your great aunt the way that you did, or your grandfather the way that you did. So you sit down and you're ready to begin. Which one of these scenarios sounds like it's going to have the best results?

Speaker 1: 4:28

Would you like to create a writing process that starts with ease? That is more like scenario number two. So, when working through my writing projects that I have going on on my own, I actually developed a seven-step process that I have been using consistently and have been teaching others through my writing workshops, and I covered these in episode 14 that was titled Unlocking your Inner Writer the Seven-Step Process to Write your Powerful Personal Story. And in the next few episodes of this podcast, I'd like to delve deeper into each of the steps. So today we're going to delve deeper into the first step. That is often overlooked, especially when we are struggling to get started. In the desire to just get it done, we may rush in and try to write about everything without taking time to prepare, or we might even continuously put our writing to the side because we don't feel prepared and we're waiting for everything to align to perfection. So what is that first step? I call it setting the stage and creating the environment for success, and so today I want to take you through the step.

Speaker 1: 5:48

That contains several pieces and tenants that together help you create a writing environment that leads to inspiration and success. So here they are the tenants for setting the stage for your successful writing projects. First first tenant is to make sure you clear time and space in your schedule. This means you are letting others know your expectations and your goals. For that time You're setting boundaries ahead of time so that everyone knows you're sitting down to do some writing and that it's something that needs to be distraction free. You need to have some focus time. Even setting a beginning time and an ending time allows you to set those boundaries ahead and clear out the distractions by devoting this time just for writing, no multitasking. So, yes, even if you're home and you're not out at a you know a cafe or writing somewhere else or at the library, you're at home. You can still make sure when you sit down you're clearing that time and space and knowing that it is just for writing and you are not multitasking. So that's the first tenant clearing time and space in your schedule.

Speaker 1: 7:08

The second one is creating a supportive physical environment that is clear of distractions. So, while we could have that time and space distractions and this one, we're talking about physical distractions. So when you get to this, you're thinking about where are you most comfortable writing? Is it in a comfy chair? Is it at a desk that's clear and open? Are you comfortable writing in that space? Is it quiet? Does it allow for concentration? Is it inspiring? So, thinking about that physical writing environment that works for you and setting that up ahead of time. It just needs to be something that's going to, when you sit down, you're ready to write, you know that your stage is set. For me, I love to have that clear desk and I love the idea of the music playing. I love having, you know, the candlelit or a bright, sunny spot in the house, something that's quiet, allows for me to be inspired and focus, and it's a dedicated space to my writing. So that is number two find a create and create a supportive, physical writing environment that's clear of distractions and it might look different from you than what it looks like from me.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Number three is a big one. It's gathering all of your materials ahead of time. How many times did those distractions happen that take us away from our writing when we're getting one more thing that we needed that we forgot to get ahead of time? So the first piece of that is gathering your writing elements your favorite notebook, your favorite pens, your laptop ready to go. If you like brainstorming with post-its, have post-its ready. If you love, open white notebook without the lines and colored pens to do your mind mapping, get those writing elements ready. The other materials that you need to gather ahead of time is to think about.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Have you eaten already? Do you need snacks next to you? Do you want a glass of water or a worn beverage like a tea or a coffee? What's going to be there so that you feel like you're nourishing yourself and you're not needing to get up and be distracted because you're hungry or you're thirsty or you just need something. So I'd love to have snacks in. Either, depending on the time of year, it could be a cold ice water or seltzer, or it could be a nice warm cup of tea or coffee, depending on the time of day. And that way I feel like it's almost like I'm treating myself. I set those materials up, those snacks and things also as a treat to create this beautiful, wonderful environment for my writing.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Which leads me to the next piece, which is lighting a candle for calmness and inspiration. I love candles when I'm writing or as I'm connecting to my topics right when I'm meditating, when I'm alone. That candle part helps to add calmness, it helps me feel inspired, it helps me feel grounded. So something like that for you that sets up that environment for feeling that you're ready to write and you're kind of setting that intention with writing, the candle that helps you focus on your project? Also, is there a playlist that supports your creativity? I have different playlists depending on whether I want to listen to classical, whether it's piano, whether I'm putting on spa type playlist that makes me feel like I am you know again that nourishing, caring for myself, having a massage, but I'm working through my creative massage. But I just think having a playlist that supports your creativity and is playing in the background. You need to find what's right for you. Some people don't like having any kind of music or noises going on while they're working or writing. It depends for me what the playlist is and really how I'm feeling and how rested I am, and so music can be distracting sometimes. But if you can find that perfect, relaxing, supportive, creative background, music will help you also define that time and that space as special and as creative and help you kind of feel grounded in what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 11:57

The next piece of this, the next tenant, is clarifying your why. So I talk about this a lot that when you get ready to write, you want to, at the very beginning, remind yourself why are you sharing your stories? I share my why almost every single time on this podcast and in my blog posts and when you hear me speak, no matter the conference or if I'm talking to someone you know as I'm doing my speech or in a conversation on the side, I share. My why is that I lost my parents at a younger age and I want to make sure that I preserve my stories and the stories of them and my grandparents for my children. I want to do better for my boys. So I know every time I sit down I have this strong reason of why I'm sharing my stories in the big picture and then I also look for the why. Am I wanting to write this particular story? So think of that also, clarifying your why. Is your big why? But also it's your why for that particular story. Is that story going to be a gift? Is it going to be a one-off story? Is it going to be part of a bigger project? Is it going to teach a lesson? Is it going to just tell a story about a particular person? So what's the why for that story? And finally, I want you to think about clarifying your who and in this, by talking about your why and your who, when I get to who, I'm talking about determining your audience.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Any writer knows that when you sit down to write and you remember this from school that you want to think about who are you writing this story to? Because the audience is gonna determine the language you use, it's gonna determine the vocabulary and it's gonna determine the style that you're writing in. So, are you writing to a loved one, or are you writing to a formal group or a stranger? Is it a young person or an adult? Because how we speak to younger children might be different to than how we might be writing a story for our grandmother or our parents. Right, writing to young children can be very different. Is this something that's going to be formal or informal? So is this person we're writing to our audience someone we know, or is this going to be kind of a broader audience, maybe of people that we don't know yet? Or, if it's for a purpose that's formal, that might be published, that's gonna be in a book format that may be published out into the world, aside from just being gifted. That's gonna need to be a different language than what you would use when you were writing to your children or a loved one.

Speaker 1: 14:54

So that final piece is clarifying your who and determining your audience. So let's just review the steps. We have the clear time and space in your schedule, letting others know your expectations, right. So giving that time to say, hey, I'm sitting down and writing now and this is what I need from you and this is what it will look like if you need me, right. So that's the first tenant of setting the stage. The next tenant is creating that supportive, physical writing environment that's clear of distractions. This is your physical space. Thinking about what's comfortable for you, clearing out physical distractions now and making sure you have a space that's comfortable, temperature-wise, quiet-wise and allows for concentration and inspiration. The next tenant was gathering all your materials ahead of time. That was talking about your writing elements, your snacks, the water, lighting a candle for calmness and inspiration, and also thinking about whether there is a playlist that supports your creativity.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Next, I would like you to clarify your why. Why are you sharing your stories? Why are you wanting to write this particular story? And in the last tenant, you're determining your audience and who you are writing this to. Is it a loved one or a stranger, a young person, an adult? Is this formal or informal? Using those tenants, I think when you use them intentionally and take the time to create that environment, that is very specific and thought out and prepared ahead of time. Using even just a few of these recommendations, I think you'll find that your writing practice flourishes and the words begin to flow more easily, leading you to finally sharing your powerful personal stories.

Speaker 1: 17:08

So I invite you to test out some of these tenants and share this with me. I also am going to link a resource that I have that's called a few of my favorite things that will share with you some of my favorite tools for preparing my environment, some of my favorite writing items, snacks, how I set up my environment and this is a freebie, so if you do go over to melissaankitchencom a few of my favorite things you'll be able to. I'll link this in the show notes. Also, you'll be able to sign up for that free little booklet with some tips on how to set up your writing environment and be signed up for our weekly newsletter that also shares tips and inspiration and writing prompts to help you continue writing your own powerful personal stories. So thank you again for joining me and I look forward to seeing you over on the website and hope that you sign up to become a newsletter recipient and get the weekly powerful personal story newsletter.

Speaker 1: 18:32

Wasn't that a fun episode. I enjoyed our conversation so much and if you would like to continue our conversation, be sure to follow this podcast and share with friends. This helped share the mission of preserving the past with stories. Want more tips, tools and inspiration? Head over to melissaankitchencom and, as always, let's get writing your powerful personal stories.