How to be a Good Writer with a Good Life

The WRITER Framework

Shaunta Grimes
The Write Brain
Published in
6 min readNov 4, 2019

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A friend told me the other day that she’s not like me. She can’t do all the things the way I do. And I was a little dumbfounded.

I can’t do all the things. Oh, my god. Are you crazy? I’m a straight up disaster.

I’m a classic scatterbrain, prone to never finishing anything that I start. I’m addicted to ideas, but the middle part (where all those things actually get done) escapes me. I’m highly-creative, messy, disorganized, with a high tolerance for never finishing a damn thing.

My friend is kind of right, though. I get a lot done. But it’s not because I’m some kind of natural at it. It’s because I had a massive gap between what I wanted and what I had and if I wanted to close that gap, I had to figure out a way to work with my tendencies to give myself a chance of finishing the things I start.

One of those systems — the one at the heart of everything — is one that I started calling the WRITER Framework when I wanted to teach it to other people and decided it needed a clever name.

I have the WRITER Framework on my mind because winters are hard for me. I really struggle with them. The short days, cold weather, and gray skies lead to some seasonal blues and make me want to hibernate.

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Shaunta Grimes
The Write Brain

Learn. Write. Repeat. Visit me at ninjawriters.org. Reach me at shauntagrimes@gmail.com. (My posts may contain affiliate links!)