Lamott highly recommends participating in a writing group. This was good affirmation about our writing-about-testing group. But she cautions about criticizing others’ work: “you don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth, you can point with it too.” Having been chopped down before, I appreciate this advice. We need criticism, but we also need civility.

She also talks about the joy of having a writing partner, and I can attest to the value of that! Janet Gregory is the best writing partner anyone could want, whether we are writing something together or helping each other with individual projects.

Here are some more tips from the book that stick in my head:

“Short assignments” – if you have an anxiety attack trying to start a project, write down as much as you can see through a one-inch picture frame. Tell a one-inch piece of your story. I think this applies well to our kind of writing too.

“Shitty first drafts” – All good writers write them. That’s how they end up with good second drafts and awesome third drafts. I put this to use already on my Agile 2010 proposals and so far I’ve got some shitty first drafts, yay!

Get over your perfectionism. (I think this is particularly difficult for us Type A testers).

Quiet your negative inner voices, and get out of the way of your subconscious. At first I thought this was not applicable to technical writing, but all writing comes from within us, doesn’t it? We figure problems out while we’re thinking about something else or zoned out in the shower. Who knows what might be locked up in my subconscious, if I could just quiet my brain down enough to hear it?

There’s a lot in the book about characters and dialog that I didn’t find all that relevant to my writing, but it was still interesting.

Lamott writes about keeping at least one index card and a pen with her at all times to jot down notes, ideas, observations. She wrote the book in 1994, so maybe now she uses an iPhone, I dunno. But, I know at times I’m out walking the dog or something and have an idea – like this morning I had an idea about my proposal while I as out walking – it would have been good to have a way to note it down so I didn’t forget.

Another interesting chapter was on jealousy – being jealous of other writers (especially of your friends) when they have a huge success and you don’t. I don’t think I feel jealous about others’ success, at least not in the field of writing (I am envious of my former neighbors who retired to Hawaii, but at least I get to visit them), but maybe I just don’t admit it to myself because I know it seems bad? I do get envious when other people get fabulous jobs in fabulous locations, but why? I have a fabulous job in a fabulous location!

I think my wonderful writing-about-testing community as well as the other agile and testing communities in which I participate will help me avoid wasting time on envy and take advantage of every resource that can  help me write well. I write because I have something to say that I think could help someone else. I’m grateful for the opportunity to pay forward all the help I’ve received over the years as I’ve learned better ways to develop and test software.

Now, if I can just find the time to write! Check out my News page to see why I’m so busy. (I’ve also been on vacation for nine days! Back to work soon, hopefully with lots of new energy and ideas after this nice rest!)