What My Mentor Taught Me. The first thing my mentor taught me was to show up. Jean Rikhoff was my writing mentor. “Ninety percent of success is showing up,” she told me. Figure out how to do what needs to be done in your life to get where you want to go. Then show up and do it. Jean talked the talk. But when it came to creative discipline – she was a woman of action first and foremost.

My Mentor Taught Me to Walk the Walk. Jean was a young mother when she began her writing commitment. Home was too hectic to permit the writing consistency she required. So she drove to a local supermarket parking lot very early every morning and wrote her first novel there.

My Mentor Taught Me to Figure Out What I Need. Jean showed up. She did what had to be done – for herself and her dream. Do the same for yourself. What is the biggest challenge that keeps you from showing up for your writing? Share this post with a writer or creative person who needs to hear about the power of showing up consistently for their work.

Joy Write. Who was your first writing mentor? The person who most inspired and encouraged you early in your creativity life. What did they teach you? What was the best piece of advice they ever gave you?

My Mentor Taught Me to Write Regularly. What does it take to show up for your writing every day? Create a writing routine that works. Adopt strong writing habits. No matter what else is going on in your life – develop a writer’s discipline. One page or one hour a day minimum. That was Jean’s rule. Make it yours.

My Mentor Taught Me about My Need to Write. Train your writer psyche to feel out of balance without a daily dose of writing routine. One page or one hour minimum. Make creativity a positive addiction. Set yourself up to crave another dose. Schedule writing time on your calendar for the next week. Make that schedule a vow to your writer self.

My Mentor Taught Me to Mark My Territory. How do you set up your very own writing space at home? Carve out a place for yourself. A writer’s workspace for your writing practice. Virginia Woolf advocated “a room of your own.” Crowded or chaotic circumstances may preclude that – like they did for my mentor. What My Mentor Taught Me.

My Mentor Taught Me that Any Space can be My Territory. Jean wrote her novel in the front seat of a car. Any private corner can suffice.  Gather your precious writing tools. Notebooks. Laptop. Files. Pens. Give them a home in your writer’s workspace. A home for whatever you require to pursue your dream. Write in that home space every day.

Joy Write. Describe your ideal writing and creative space? Have you created that place for yourself yet? If not, why not. Write it into detailed existence on the page.

My Mentor Taught Me to Get Good Gear. What writing equipment do you need? Prepare yourself well to pursue your writer motivation. Buy quality equipment. Cut back spending on other things when necessary. Do you have qualms about doing that? Leave those doubts behind. 

My Mentor Taught Me this Mantra. You deserve what you need to succeed. Make this your mantra from this moment on. Believe every word with all your heart. Repeat it often and enthusiastically. Pledge yourself to show up for yourself. Commit to honoring that vow. List your writing gear essentials. Acquire them asap.

My Mentor Taught Me to Value My Time. How do you find time to work within your busy schedule? Practice writing time management. Control your commitments. Ask yourself. “Can someone else do this? Does it have to be me?” Examine carefully each new request for your valuable time and already overtaxed energy.

My Mentor Taught Me My Creative Work is Crucial. When someone or something asks for your time and energy – ask yourself the following in return. “Will this be the best use of my precious life?” Show up for yourself by prioritizing yourself. Your creative work is crucial. Make time to create. Protect your writing time.

Joy Write. Make a list of your current commitments. Choose one that somebody else could do well enough. Write a scene of yourself backing away from that commitment.

My Mentor Taught Me to Train My Tribe. How do you begin to command respect from others for your writing time? Post your writing work hours. The refrigerator door is a good place in most households. Insist on no interruptions at those times. Tell family and friends how important your writing is to you.

My Mentor Taught Me to Be Open About My Dream. Reveal your creative desires to the people in your life. They may not understand. Make them hear you. Do not back down. They will come around. If they do not – keep on writing whatever may occur. Continue your creative work. Show up and stand up for what you need. Pursue your dream. What My Mentor Taught Me.

My Mentor Taught Me to Train Myself. How do you begin to command respect for your writing time from yourself? Identify your personal time-burners. These activities contribute little to what you really want to accomplish in your creative life. Never ever indulge these activities during your best brain time. You can do better.

My Mentor Taught Me to Use My Online Time Wisely. Limit online play to your dim-bulb hours. Social media activities do not require your best creative abilities. But – you can optimize your online time all the same. Use it to build your public platform visibility. Use it to share your writing work with the world.

Joy Write. What are your peak creativity hours of the day? Write about them, especially what your energy feels like during those times.

My Mentor Taught Me to Show Up for My Story. What will carry you deeper into your writing and keep you there? John Gardner called that deep-down center of your story “the dream of the book.” The true joy of writing happens when you enter that dream and inhabit it completely.

My Mentor Taught Me to Show Up for My Imagination. Move beneath the surface of your mind. Dive into the mysterious and mesmerizing depths of your imagination. Your very best stories await you there. This is the place where the burning heart of your story resides. Go there. Write from there. What My Mentor Taught Me.

My Mentor Taught Me to Show Up for Myself. Life stress can stop you in your tracks. Life stress can kill creativity. Give yourself a break. Give your story a boost. Utilize your stress. That stress is intense. Powerful stories are also intense. Transport your personal stress intensity into your writing work. Feel it. Adapt it. You are the creator. Create.

Joy Write. How do you manage to write regularly no matter what? Write about a current stressor in your life. Transform that reality into a stressful situation for a fictional character, maybe from a story you are now writing. Bring it to life on the page as an intense, dramatic, powerful scene.

My Mentor Taught Me to Show Up for My Writing Tribe. Build a writing tribe that supports you. Support that tribe yourself. Embrace your writer family. Help your writer colleagues. Look around your writing community. You will know where you are needed and by whom. You feel it. Somebody is down. Show up. Lift them up. Let your generosity shine.

Joy Write. Write a dialogue between yourself and your wise mentor, whether that is a real person or one you create for this exercise. What do you most need to hear right now?

My Mentor Taught Me to Be My Own Mentor. Figure out how to make your writing happen. Show up where your creativity needs you to be. My mentors made their creativity happen. Be inspired to do the same. You have what you need. Show up and use it all for your creative self. Become your own mentor in your writer’s life story.

My Mentor Became My Friend. The photo is Jean and me at a writer’s conference long after our relationship began. By then I was a published author, workshop leader and literary agent. She was the wise woman she had always been. Her wisdom brightened my beginnings and lit my path. I am forever grateful for What My Mentor Taught Me.

FYI – Writing Prompts Your Mentor Self Would Like You to Follow.

Someone in your life who was not a writer taught you something crucial about discipline and persistence that has positively influenced your creativity. Tell your writer’s journal about this person and what they did for you. Share your own mentor story as a Comment on this post.Commit to writing a minimum of one page daily for a week. At the end of the week, reflect in your writer’s journal about how this practice affected your relationship with writing.In your writer’s journal, list all of the reasons you use for not writing. Rewrite each excuse as a problem to solve and propose a way to solve it.Track how you spend one day. Ferret out where writing time was hiding in that day, even if it was only a brief period. Record the results in your writer’s journal.Identify what is at the burning heart of a story you are writing, or a story you want to write. Describe that emotional core in vivid detail in your writer’s journal.What is your favorite writing tool? A pen or your laptop or a notebook or whatever. Write about why this particular thing means so much to you. How does it help you and encourage you to create.Make a list of other writers in your life who have lifted you up when you were down or when you were discouraged about your writing. What do you remember most about each of those experiences?Make a list of other writers in your life whom you have lifted up when they were down or discouraged about their writing. What did you give to each of them? What did you receive in return?At the end of every week, note in your writer’s journal how you showed up for yourself during the past seven days. Congratulate yourself for doing so.Remember who you were as a writer before you learned that you should show up for yourself. In your writer’s journal, compare that former you with your current writer self.

Keep on Writing whatever may occur. Alice Orr. http://www.aliceorrbooks.com

Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Former Editor and Literary Agent. Author of 15 novels, 2 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells.

Partake of Alice’s Joy Writing Wisdom. http://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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