– (noun) the activity or work of writing books, poems, stories, etc.

Anne Wenzel & her dog Annie.

What do you practice?

Writing. Sometimes it’s poetry, sometimes it’s short stories, sometimes it’s a novel. I write pretty much every day. Sometimes I just do journal writing if I don’t feel like doing something structured.

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been journal writing on and off since college. Then I started to work on this story, and I took my first creative writing class in 2008. It was a memoir writing class. I actually took two more classes with her: one was at Stanford Continuing Studies and the other one through OneRoom.

Oh! Caroline Goodwin? She’s actually our poetry writing coach.

Yeah! I really wanted to join that group but I decided I can only do one group (laughs). I didn’t want to spread myself too thin.

The class with Caroline was why I got back into poetry. My Shakespeare professor in college really encouraged me to pursue poetry. But — I was talking to someone about this the other day — whoever said, “I think I’m going to make a living as a poet?” I know that some people do, but it’s very rare.

So even though my professor encouraged me to pursue poetry, I stuck to my major in Economics. I’m glad that I did because now I’m much more financially stable and am able to pursue poetry when I want to. I’m really considering writing as a new career. I’m hoping to transition to it in a few years. But right now, it’s been a matter of carving out time and making it a priority to write every single day.

How do you make a habit of writing every day? Is there some kind of strategy or structure you’ve put in place?

It’s been hard. A couple of things changed. One came from a novel class I took through Stanford. The most important thing I got out of that class was that I have to be realistic about the amount of time that I have to write. It’s so easy to think, “After this, then I’ll have time. After this, then I’ll have time.” Something clicked in that class to make me realize I can’t keep doing that (laughs). It’s been several years since then, and I’ve learned to approach writing more realistically, more logically.

And then I took a writing habit class. It was just 21 days. The thing out there right now — I don’t know if it’s really true — is that if you do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. It was a 21 day class of writing every day. I think an important thing to remember is that it can’t always be quality writing. It can’t always be, “Oh my gosh I just got a whole chapter written.” Sometimes it’s a matter of just sitting down. You’re tired. Maybe you have a little bit of a headache. But you’re going to sit down for 20 minutes and do something.

Another thing, I got this book called Fire Up Your Writing Brain. One of the most important things that I got from this book is that the more you do it the better your brain gets at it. The author talks about how important it is to create a writing habit. Reading things. Doing things that not only train your mind in the craft of writing, but also get you excited about writing. One of the things that the author said is, “When you have a positive experience with your writing, then you get excited about getting back to it.” What a lot of writers do when they don’t write is they feel really crappy, you know? They feel guilty. And you kind of crawl back to your writing desk with your tail between your legs.

Reading this book kind of flipped it around for me. If I just write in my journal. If I just write for 15 minutes, I get kind of excited. That excitement makes it fun to get back to it the next day. It’s not like, “Oh god, I better write.” I think that’s really what changed: understanding that I have to be realistic. I can’t keep saying someday it’s going to be easy to sit down and write every day.

How long do you usually spend writing every day?

I would like to have 3 hours a day to write, but I’m finding that I get so much done if I do an hour and a half a few days a week and 20 minutes the rest of the days. I’m finding the progress is just incredible. I do need those huge chunks though. That’s just the way I work best. And I think that’s something that I need to be realistic about. I make my most progress with these huge chunks.

What do you find is the most difficult part of writing?

At first, the difficulty lay in finding the time. Especially with writing a novel, finding the time and sticking with it can be hard. The motivation part isn’t terribly hard for me though because this idea has taken hold of me and I can’t let it go. It’s just not possible for me. I think that’s made it easier because I realize that it’s not like one day I’m going to say, “I think I’m going to do something else with my time now.”

Also writers, especially novel writers, don’t get paid for the time that they put into it. That, to me, was one of the most difficult things. I kept taking jobs thinking, “I’ll make some money and then I’ll have time off.” Now, I’m teaching at two colleges and I feel comfortable that I have enough income coming in that any free time I have, I’m not going to worry about making more money. Now that I feel like I’m in a space where I’m saying no to things, and carving out time, I’m finding that the most difficult part is the craft of it.

How do you go about learning the craft?

I think that the quarterly classes that I take, they give you a slice of it, but it’s not the whole picture. I know that I can go back to some of the really good writing books that I’ve gotten. I know that I could go to the books and learn all the parts of novel writing.

The reason why I joined the OneRoom Novel Writing group, and the reason why I continue to take classes at Stanford (even though the exercises and especially the workshopping kind of take you away from your actual writing), is because the structure is really important to me. That’s one thing that I learned. I decided that I’m not going to beat myself up because I don’t have the discipline to do this. I need structure.

Something that I’ve heard a lot, too, is that writing can be lonely…do you think that’s part of your reason for taking classes and joining the OneRoom Novel Writing group?

Yes. The in-person USF [writing teams] have been helpful, but the online classes and things that I’ve done have been really helpful too. A lot of the classes that I’ve taken have been online. It’s much more convenient. I also find that people tend to stay in touch a little bit better when they do things online.

And one of the things that I’m finding in associating with writers — they recommend the best books. Before this, it always took me so long for me to pick out a new novel. But now that I’ve been hanging out with other writers, I have many things that I can choose from.

That’s part of the reason why, at OneRoom, we decided to offer practice groups instead of “classes”. We know that people often have long-lasting practices, and we wondered what it would be like if you had long-lasting company along the way too.

Yeah, the problem with classes is that they kind of take you away from your project. It’s not the same. You learn things and you meet people and the exercises are cool, but it really does move you away from your project for 12 weeks. Then you get back to your project and you’re kind of relieved. The classes kept me writing, but it really is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. I learn a little bit, but I lose time to work on my project.

What I like about the practice group is that it’s just so cool to be working on my own project and still have the support. That’s what I like about the practice group rather than the class. I get to focus on my own project and keep working on it. It’s just wonderful. I have to say it’s been absolutely wonderful. And Laura (the coach) has given me deadlines. When I look at them I think, “Oh my gosh I have this due in May?” But then I think, “Well, this is what you said you wanted to do.”

I think if it was just people hanging out, it wouldn’t be as good for me. But because of the coach, you get the benefits of a class in the way of deadlines, even if you know there aren’t going to be any consequences if you miss them. But I have this calendar of deadlines that she’s given me that I’m supposed to accomplish to get to my goal, and that’s helpful. I need that.

In the practice group, I have the group of writers and I have the accountability of deadlines. So for me, I think it’s going to be really good. Classes and the practice group are both nice, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d say that the practice is the most important.

What does your practice mean to you?

As I do it more, it becomes who I am. Again with Laura’s encouragement, I went to a talk with an author Tuesday night. One of the guys in the audience said, “If you could give one piece of advice to students, what would it be?” And she said, “Oh that’s really hard.” But then she thought about it and she said, “It’s to read. Reading is just so important to writing.” I was just so excited to hear that. I like the thought that I’m a writer. I wouldn’t have considered myself a writer before I had this practice. Before I had this practice — I always wanted to be a writer. But now that I have this practice, I am a writer.

I love that reading is so important to being a writer. I love to read. And I consider myself a writer now that I have a really solid writing practice, so now I can curl up with a good book and say, “Don’t bother me. I’m working!”

I think that’s why a writing practice is so important to me. It gets me wrapped up into the things that have been really important to me ever since I was 8 years old. I wanted to be a writer when I was 8, and now I feel like I’m finally fulfilling that dream. I think that I’m really stepping into what I was meant to do. I think that that’s a really important thing for people — to do what they believe in their hearts they are put on this Earth to do. And, you can’t be a writer unless you write (laughs). Because of my practice, I’m becoming the writer. Now I am a writer.

Anne Wenzel is an economist and writer (The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Market Research) based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Intrigued by her mother’s stories of a happy childhood in Northern California during the Great Depression, Anne decided to investigate. Newspaper archives, interviews, and court records revealed enough drama for Anne to decide to write an historical novel based on her Italian American grandmother’s life. She has been studying creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry writing through Stanford University’s continuing education program. When Anne isn’t researching, writing, or lecturing San Francisco university students on the Principles of Macroeconomics, she is playing piano or walking her rambunctious border collie Annie.