# One Year to a Writing Life ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517i4MoviML._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Susan M. Tiberghien]] - Full Title: One Year to a Writing Life - Category: #books ## Highlights - A person who writes has the habit of writing. The word habit refers to a routine, but also to a stole, to a costume befitting a calling. In the same way that a monk puts on a traditional habit, so the writer puts on a traditional habit. As writers we find where we are comfortable and with a stole over our shoulders, we write. ([Location 201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=201)) - A person who writes has the habit of writing. The word habit refers to a routine, but also to a stole, to a costume befitting a calling. In the same way that a monk puts on a traditional habit, so the writer puts on a traditional habit. As writers we find where we are comfortable and with a stole over our shoulders, we write. ([Location 201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=201)) - Amy Clampitt was once asked at a writers’ conference, “What do writers need most?” She answered, “Predecessors.” ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=212)) - We learn by reading others, by reaching down into our universal roots. ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=214)) - With your words you give life to what you see, what you hear, what you touch. In this way you transform the outer thing that you see or touch into something inner. You bridge the outer and inner worlds, the visible and the invisible. This is the gift of journaling. Your daily life calls you in a thousand directions; journal writing centers you. You slow down and write. You learn to look anew at the world around you. ([Location 250](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=250)) - As Marion Woodman writes, “My journal became a mirror in which I could see and hear my truth resonating in my own daily experience.” ([Location 257](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=257)) - The French word for day, jour, points the way for a journal: a day’s work, a day’s discovery, written down. We find the same French root in the word journey, which is defined in the dictionary as a day’s travel. So a journal is a day’s journey. ([Location 261](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=261)) - Journal writing showed her who she was—what to discard in herself and what to respect and love. ([Location 274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=274)) - So why journal? Here are some of the reasons. • To establish the habit of writing (A writer writes.) • To capture memories (places, characters, conversations, events) • To discover what you think and feel (each time going deeper) • To find your voice (When does your writing sound the most natural? Look at your entries to see at what time of day and in what place you write most easily. Track your writing habits.) • To take risks (in a private place) • To plant seeds for stories (move from image to story) ([Location 282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B004ZY136C&location=282))