If you’re familiar with any kind of twelve-step program such as that of Alcoholics Anonymous and you’re a writer, you should find these steps, compiled by Patricia Proctor, inspiring:
The Twelve Steps of Writers Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over writing; that our writing efforts had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore our writing from insanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our writing over to the care of God and our editor as being the only ones who could restore the mess we had made of it.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our writing.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another writer the exact nature of all the mistakes we had made in our writing.
6. Were entirely ready to have God and a helpful editor remove all these defects of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other writing defects.
7. Humbly asked our editor to remove all our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all readers we had harmed and became willing to rewrite until our material was readable.
9. Made direct amends to our readers whenever possible by making conscious efforts to improve our writing skills on a daily basis.
10. Continued to take personal inventory of our writing and when it was bad, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God and our editor as we understand them, praying only for the knowledge of their will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message in all our writing efforts and to practice these principles in all our writing commitments.
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