Lott Lynn - Seven steps on the writers path: the journey from frustration to fulfillment

Table of Contents

Lynn dedicates this book to Hal with love.
The Universe sent me someone to walk the path who inspires me,
comforts me, helps me, challenges me, and loves me.

Nancy dedicates this book to her mother,
Mary Wolfe, with love and gratitude.
Without a mother who reads, Id never
have become a daughter who writes.

Authors praise for SEVEN STEPS ON THE WRITERS PATH

Every writer gets lost from time to time on the creative journey, and when that happens, its nice to encounter a friendly and helpful companion like Seven Steps on the Writers Path. Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott light the path and guide us out of the darkness one step at a time.

ROB MACGREGOR
Edgar Awardwinning author of Prophecy Rock

This book made me want to walk straight to the computer and start writing.

ELAINE VIETS
Author of Shop Till You Drop: A Dead-End Job Mystery

Seven Steps on the Writers Path is a must-read, must-absorb, must-follow for anyone who has ever even dreamed of becoming a writer. Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott brilliantly define the joys and jolts all of us encounter on the tortuous road to publication and beyond, along with excellent practical tips for how-to stay the daunting, difficult course and make those writing dreams a reality.

JUDITH KELMAN
Author of Every Step You Take

SevenSteps offers much good advice, both practical and motivational, thats been time- and career-tested. This would be a pleasing companion as you embark on a book project in any genre.

SUSAN K. PERRY
Author of Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity

With this enlightening book for writers, we find two authors who not only understand the truth about the writers life, but also communicate it with flat out honesty, a dose of impishness, and always an abundance of heart.

GAIL PROVOST STOCKWELL
Cofounder, Write It/Sell It Seminars and
Workshops, and Writers Retreat Workshop

Lynn Lott

Chores Without Wars (with Riki Intner)
Do-It-Yourself Therapy: How to Think, Feel,
and Act Like a New Person in Just 8 Weeks
(with Riki Intner and Barbara Mendenhall)
Teaching Parenting the Positive Discipline Way Manual
(with Jane Nelsen)
Together and Liking It (with Dru West)
To Know Me Is to Love Me: Steps for Raising Self-Esteem
(with Marilyn Matulich Kentz and Dru West)
Positive Discipline AZ (with Jane Nelsen and H. Stephen Glenn)
Positive Discipline in the Classroom
(with Jane Nelsen and H. Stephen Glenn)
Positive Discipline in the Classroom:
A Teachers Guide Manual (with Jane Nelsen)
Positive Discipline for Parenting in Recovery
(with Jane Nelsen and Riki Intner)
Positive Discipline for Teenagers (with Jane Nelsen)

Nancy Pickard

The Truth Hurts
Storm Warnings
Ring of Truth
The Whole Truth
Speak No Evil
Twilight
Generous Death
Say No to Murder
Bum Steer
I.O.U.
No Body
Confession
But I Wouldnt Want to Die There
Dead Crazy
Marriage Is Murder

Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the pathcan substitute for putting one foot in front of the other.

Mary Caroline Richards

Preface

How This Book Was Born

A few years ago, mystery writer Nancy Pickard and psychologist and self-help author Lynn Lott were both asked to be presenters at the Bare Bones Writers Retreat put on by the San Diego Chapter of Sisters in Crime. By bare bones, the conference organizers were referring to the accommodations at an old summer camp in the mountains and not, they no doubt hoped, to the workshop material to be given by their speakers. The problem was, however, that although Lynn, in California, knew what she would talk about to the writers there, Nancy, in Kansas, was feeling down to the bare bones herself.

Having by that time been a professional writer for more than thirty years, and having spoken to thousands of people about writing, Nancy found that she was sick of hearing herself say the same old things: where did she get her ideas, did she plot out her story first, did she work on a computer, and so on and so forth. She wondered if there might be something deeper, a larger perspective, she might contribute to the existing knowledge of the writing life.

What emerged from her musings was unexpecteda form, a structure, a pattern.

As she looked back over her own career and that of her many writer friends, she saw herself and most of them struggling through stages of unhappiness, of wanting, of commitment, of wavering, of letting go, of immersion, and of fulfillment. It looked very much like a path to her, and it felt true, the way only actual lived experience does feel true. And so she put together a workshop, The Seven Steps on the Writers Path.

At the conference, in a cold, dirty, cavernous room, she lined up seven chairs at the front and placed a different sign, one for each of the steps, on each chair. After explaining a bit about the steps, she asked for volunteers to fill the chairs according to which step they believed they were on at the time. All seven chairs filled up quickly, so that now seven brave strangers were gazing out at the audience, which included best-selling mystery writer Sue Grafton. Nancy asked people to tell in turn what it was like for them to be on their step, and then she opened up the discussion to the other writers there. One person realized she was sitting in the wrong chair, and another person hurried up to take her place. The writers in the room couldnt seem to participate fast enough. Sue Grafton volunteered her feelings about the importance of the third step, Commitment. Words tumbled out from all over the room; deep feelings emerged; there was shared laughter, some tears, fear, hope, and inspiration. The steps seemed to come alive, and they felt as authentic as Nancy believed them to be.

Lynn Lott was seated in the audience, taking notes as fast as she could and thinking that shed love to try out the material in one of the retreats she put on for clients in her therapy practice. After the workshop, she approached Nancy and asked her permission, which Nancy gladly gave.

Later, Lynn wrote to Nancy, I transformed your writers path into a path for mere mortals and called it their personal growth and change path. I asked them to focus on their dreams and wishes or on an accomplishment that was important to them. I suggested they could use your seven steps on the writers path to learn more about their personal journeys. In attendance were artists, lawyers, coaches, teachers, hairdressers, personal fitness trainers, and homemakers. They loved it, and it helped frame the entire weekend with a common language.

Nancy wrote back, suggesting they do a book together, and thats how it all began.

After that, and over the next two years, they worked in person and by E-mail. They wrote together in Florida and in California. Lynn wrote first drafts, and Nancy ripped them to shreds; Nancy wrote first drafts, and Lynn took scissors to them. Meanwhile, Lynn continued to use the steps with her therapy clients, testing the material out in the field, in real life. Some of her clients are artists of one sort or another, but that doesnt seem to matter in regard to the applicability of the steps. She has found in her practice that the steps apply to everyone, not just to writers or to people who think of themselves as creative.