A Daily Writing Practice
by Beverly A. Kipp

Leverage opportunity, seize joy.

Those four simple words, received in my “inbox” at bedtime, would be my nighttime dreams and the glasses through which I would see my next day. At the end of that day I was to sit down and write just three paragraphs to my writing coach Mary Anne Radmacher, the artist, author and originator of the writing process called Radmacher Focus Phrase™. The sunrise heralded a workday so I wrote the phrase on an index card, tucked it in my scrubs pocket and set out.

Like table manners, a daily writing practice is a valuable tool in the toolbox of life. A daily writing practice opens eyes and softens hearts, it can clarify muddy water, shine a light on a path; even open doors.

Men and women have been jotting down life’s happenings for centuries. Hieroglyphics and scrolls preceded diaries, spiral-bound notebooks, and journals. We record minutiae and milestones in pen and ink or fill our hard drives with folders full of observation and emotion. The fodder for our writing is endless, and though we don’t tend to identify it as such, a daily writing practice is as much a part of our growing up as learning to drive a car, joining the work force, and learning to navigate the maze of our relationships.

A faithful jotter of words myself, I discovered Simple Abundance, the beautiful pink book by Sarah Ban Breathnach, when it made its way to me many years ago. As the core of her process Ban Breathnach uses a Gratitude Journal. She advocates that each day participants write down five things that they are grateful for. In the process they nurture a sense of abundance and gratitude and create an opportunity for self reflection and inner change.

A few years later, a friend wanted to unearth her creative self and invited me to walk with her. Using Julie Cameron’s The Artist’s Way as our guide, we wrote Morning Pages, three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, every morning as a way to promote change in our lives.

“Change, of any sort, requires courage,” writes Mary Anne Radmacher Perhaps it was the very act of putting pen to paper every single day that she was thinking of when she wrote those words. A writer whose work spans more than 25 years and has affected hundreds of writers including young children, prison inmates, retreat attendees and employees at the Pentagon, Mary Anne knows about the courage that it takes to commit to a daily writing practice. Focus Phrase, says Mary Anne, “promotes discovery, personal insight, greater observation and daily writing practice.”

This writing process brings focus—a big word in her work and in her life as well—but outward. By looking through the lens of the daily phrase, your day is changed; the commitment to the dailyness of the process changes you as well.

A daily writing practice has benefits both therapeutic and artistic. It is used in mediation, psychotherapy, programs for the abused, neglected or homeless, and in classes for both fledgling and veteran writers. Teachers use a daily writing practice to nurture creative thinking and expression and corporations use the process to identify office or business culture and as a means to identify and resolve conflict.

Imagine carrying with you a “phrase of awareness” every day and recording your experience every night. Imagine starting each day by writing three longhand pages, or writing a list of the things that you are grateful for EVERY DAY.

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time. The wait is simply too long, said Leonard Bernstein, famous composer and conductor. And it is true. Sometimes, inspiration comes first, but sometimes it comes after action. To begin a daily writing practice you can’t wait to be inspired, you have to, quite simply, write, daily.

Fifteen hours after slipping that index card in my pocket, I sat at my computer and typed out these three paragraphs; evidence that change is as hard and as simple as what we commit to.

Leverage opportunity, seize joy:.

I smiled at the housekeeper as she cleaned our coffee machine in the kitchenette. That’s all. I just smiled. She smiled back and said, “You are always fair to us, never treat us like anyone different, you are very nice, I notice the first day I work with you. You are special.”

My heart leapt with joy.

I smiled at the young man delivering trays to the patients. That’s all. I just smiled. He smiled back. He had a brilliant smile. Even his soft brown eyes smiled. I said, “You have a wonderful smile.” He stopped smiling. He beamed. My heart leapt with joy.

I sat down next to the silent man who lay dying. I smiled into his face. That’s all. I just smiled. He reached out and took my hand and closed his eyes. My heart broke with joy.

Beverly is a lay minister, writer, inspirational speaker and a nurse. She has recently opened Quest House: A Writing Place for Inspiration and Healing. She is a trained and authorized “phraseologist” offering Radmacher Focus Phrase™ to others. You can find her work and courses at beverlykippquesthouse.blogspot.com.

To learn more about Mary Anne and other phraseologists, go to A New Way Radmacher Focus Phrase on Facebook.

Here are a few phrases you are invited to use as writing prompts for two paragraphs of your own.

A party of one is sometimes the best time.

—mary anne radmacher

Young cat, if you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you would learn! The most wonderful stuff!

—Dr. Seuss