Heather Sellers’ writing guide, Page After Page: Discover the Confidence and Passion You Need to Start Writing and Keep Writing (No Matter What!) was published in 2005 by Writer’s Digest Books. Divided into three sections — “Blank Pages: Creating a New Writing Self,” “Turning Pages: How to Maintain Your Commitment to Writing,” and finally, “New Pages: Finding Your Place in the World of Writing” — the book encourages aspiring writers to believe in their talents while teaching them how to cultivate their drive, motivation, and writing craft. Sellers, an award-winning writer and professor, stresses that one does not need fancy new pens or high-quality paper to write but to take just three simple steps: “1. Stop complaining. / 2. Write about what you want to write about; and 3. Don’t think about it.”
Seller’s introductory chapter opens with a line that sets the tone for the rest of the book: “how to stay limber, how to make the writing not grim, how to enjoy writing. How to make room in real life for a writing life. These are my goals. Are they yours, too?” The line reflects the book’s practical approach, which blends personal anecdotes about the writing life, with actionable advice, while writing prompts at the end of each chapter allow writers to practice the lessons Sellers imparts. Seller’s stresses that “it’s not the writing part that’s so hard” but rather, the preparation, the mindset, and one’s personal habits. This book helps readers unpack those elements and give them useful tools. For example, in her first chapter, “The First Day,” Seller’s breaks down the expectations that come with the very first day of one’s writing career. She recommends setting goals, but realistic ones, like sitting down and writing for 20 minutes uninterrupted, no more or less.
She also stresses the importance of not thinking too much, but getting words onto the paper. The very first exercise that Seller’s provides on one’s first day of writing is to “make two lists: the qualities of your ideal writing guidebook. What is covered?” and “What do you learn?” She then recommends a third list regarding yourself as a writing student, “What are all your best student-like qualities? Who are you when you are learning – truly open, changing growing?” These prompts are encouraged to help writers on their first day in order to set up their own expectations for themselves as a writer, how they can keep their own practice and stay motivated to write.
A critical decision when approaching your writing, according to Sellers, is to decide whether your writing life is going to be a “lover on the side,” or a “lover in the centre.” Regardless, it is essential that you need to fall in love, “deeply, seductively, [and] passionately with your writing life” and commit. One of the prompts that Sellers provides for your journey of falling in love with writing is to “take your books to bed.” As a form of wooing your own writing journey, Seller’s encourages writers to read as much as possible to the point that you are taking your books to bed with you. Reading is essential in one’s own writing life, so make sure you take that time to read in order to keep fostering that relationship. Now, once you have established your own personal goals as a writer, and what kind of lover writing will be to you, it is time to sit down every single day and write. Seller’s expresses the often very difficult reality of this practice. However, her solution is called the “Butt in Chair” method. She stresses that, even if you end up not writing anything at all that day, you always show up and sit in that chair. Sellers acknowledges that this comes with a lot of wasted time, but it is essential, and it is what needs to be done if you want to become a writer. However, she does add some further useful tips if you are finding yourself unable to focus and get anything written down. Her first piece of advice is to “write very slowly,” and also suggests “writ[ing] in all capital letters” and furthermore, “write exactly what you see or hear.”
So now that you’ve sat yourself down in your chair every day with the “Butt in Chair” method, what do you write about? A common adage in the writing world is “write what you know,” and there is an important truth to this. Sellers represents this saying through her concept of the compost pile, “finding your material is just like maintaining a compost pile.” The compost pile represents all of the material you have built up over your life and stowed away for later. What is important is that it is your compost pile, and not someone else’s. Sellers stresses that, “your best work is going to come from your compost pile,” meaning your own memories, traumas, and stories. It is also important to know how long your compost takes before you can write about the contents of your compost pile. What Sellers means by this is, you need to let those memories “ripen and mature,” – you need time and perspective away from those memories before being able to write about them. Sellers herself claims that her compost takes seven years, “it’s seven years before I can remove my own need to present myself as the Beautiful Tormented Misunderstood Star of my own drama and get at something of the truth.” Sellers provides some prompts for writers who are trying to access their compost pile, “Describe the last time you felt shame,” “Writer a time when you felt both completely right and terribly wrong,” and “Write from the point of view of the most annoying person you have ever met.” Doing writing prompts that ask you to look at your own personal memories and stories is the best way to access your compost pile and to accomplish your best writing.
Sellers concludes her book by outlining the different types of writers one can choose to be such as, “a closet writer (writer every day, never reveal you do so),” “a wanna-be writer (talk about what you want to write and how unfair and hard publishing is),” or even “a famous writer (write every day. Trade work with people a little better than you. Read every day. Go to writing conferences and school. Learn a lot).” Whatever choice you make, Sellers’ book offers a comprehensive breakdown of how to begin a writing practice, with prompts that help make that commitment.
Exercises/Prompts from Page by Page by Heather Sellers
- “Sit down in your chair. And write. Don’t think. Take your day yesterday and pick a moment — a moment when other people were around … You are going to write exactly what happened — no emotions, no adjective — just what happened, in short simple sentences, trying to capture, exactly, every gesture, every bit of dialogue, every reaction. Just start, and play the scene out in your mind, like a movie, rewinding whenever you lose your place … Write like that for the full fifteen minutes. Go slowly and write by hand. You want to cover five minutes of real time in fifteen minutes of writing time” (45).
- “Get out your notebook. Write at the top of a fresh page “Writing Fears.” Number your list from one to twenty-five. You’re going to have to write fast … Three minutes — go. List every fear — and keep your pencil moving. You have to put something down for all twenty-five items … Now pay attention to how you felt. Those feelings … those are your cops. It’s important that you recognize fear and its poorly paid henchmen” (83 – 84).
- “Fill in this blank and repeat until you run out of memories: I can’t believe I once _____” (215)