Odds are if you’re reading here you know about BIAW. You may have heard me speak, you may have read an article I wrote about it. If you don’t, it’s the philosophy that one of the best gifts we can give ourselves as writers is to take a week and make writing a priority that week.
BIAW is about forgetting the rules and just writing from the heart as much as we can as fast as we can. Not to show off, not because there’s something inherently better about doing so but because by doing this for a week we’re likely to let ourselves take chances we otherwise wouldn’t, to rediscover—or discover—how much fun writing can be, and because we often write the best work of our lives this way—when we aren’t constantly second guessing ourselves. Even better, we can discover how and what and when and where we write best and who supports us—or doesn’t.
I’ve been hosting a BIAW this week for the Regency subchapter of RWA. It’s fascinating to me how the story I’m writing is unfolding. (And it’s not too shabby to see page totals of 30, 36, and 17 pages a day. (I had a dental appointment today and errands to run, too, in the middle of my writing day.)
It’s a great way to try a new project or delve into difficult material—because you know you’re only going to be deep in it for one week. If it doesn’t work out, so what? You’ve only lost a week. How many times, as writers, do we waste far more than that putting off writing because we’re afraid we won’t get it right?
Anyway, I hope that if you’ve heard me speak and haven’t tried BIAW that at some point you will. See it as a chance to play with the writing, a chance to affirm for yourself and everyone around you that the writing matters and is a priority in your life. Oh, and if you’re interested, I do have some information on it on my website with a couple of my handouts. Though if you’ve heard me speak, odds are you have them already.
Happy writing!
