We have lost another Writing Champion this month.

From Wikipedia: Annie Dillard (née Doak; April 30, 1945 – September 15, 2026) was an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and nonfiction. An “American naturalist”, she published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. From 1980, Dillard taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.

I loved reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek many years ago. More recently I re-read An American Childhood. In my review on Goodreads, I wrote: This is a great memoir. Beautifully written, insightful, thoughtful. The words are masterful. I especially loved the chapter describing her mother and the one about the outdoor games she played as a child.

Annie Dillard gave this advice to aspiring writers: “Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for later . . . give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.”

This advice makes good sense to me. I think about it often when I do family history work. What if I had waited for films to be digitized and not spent years pouring over microfilms? Because I did that work then, I can do other work now. What we do now builds on what we have already done. What we have already written frees us to write something else now. Waiting to get your stories out is never a wise idea. There are no guarantees that our future will be better for us than this very moment. (Is your memory improving? Do you have more time and energy? Are your technical skills getting better?) NOW is the best time to write!!

Is there a story you are waiting to tell–waiting until you can write it perfectly? Are you holding stories in your heart, waiting for the perfect time (when you have nothing else to do) to write them? You may think that your writing will only improve, so why not wait until you’re more confident with your words. If you put off writing your stories (until you have time, until you retire, until you’ve done more research, until the kids are grown, until your life slows down) you will probably never write them. Get your words out NOW. If you must, save the editing for later, if you live that long. If you knew you were going to die next year, what would you write now? Think about it, then get after it.

Annie Dillard also said:

“Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon?”

“…the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

Here is some advice from The Writing Life:

10 Things Annie Dillard Can Teach Us About Writing

1. Follow the Writing Where It Leads
Don’t decide in advance exactly what your story is “supposed” to be. Start writing and see what emerges. Sometimes the real subject appears only after you begin.

Try this: Begin with, “The thing I remember most about that day is…” Then follow the memory wherever it takes you.

2. Embrace the First Bad Draft
Writing involves trial and error. You have to put words on the page before you can discover what the piece really wants to become.

Try this: Write freely for 15–20 minutes. Don’t worry about grammar or perfection. Just get the words down.

3. Be Willing to Throw Things Away
Not everything you write needs to survive. Sometimes you have to write several pages to discover the one paragraph—or even one sentence—that contains the heart of the story.

Try this: After writing, underline the one sentence that feels most alive. Ask yourself, “Could this be the real story?”

4. Spend Your Best Material Now
Don’t save your best memories, observations, ideas, or stories for some imaginary future book. Use the good material now.

Try this: Think of a favorite memory or story you’ve been saving. Write it now. Give it a home in your current work.

5. Write About What Fascinates You
Something doesn’t have to seem important to everyone else to be worth writing about. An ordinary object or memory may contain extraordinary meaning for you.

Try this: Ask yourself, “Why can’t I stop thinking about this?” Then write about it.

6. Pay Close Attention
Dillard’s writing reminds us that careful observation can create a story. Notice sights, sounds, smells, textures, objects, expressions, and small details.

Try this: Take a familiar place or event and describe it in as much sensory detail as you can. What might you have overlooked?

7. Trust the Page to Teach You
You don’t have to know exactly how to write your story before you begin. Writing itself teaches you what the story needs.

Try this: Write the story first. Let the writing show you what it wants to become.

8. Don’t Worry About Speed
There is no “right” speed for writing. A short writing session that produces one honest paragraph can be more valuable than hours of forcing yourself to produce pages.

Try this: Set a timer for 20 minutes. Write without stopping. When the timer goes off, stop—no matter how much or how little you’ve written.

9. Take the Writing Seriously
Dillard compares words to tools—a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. Writing can help us dig beneath the surface of our experiences and discover what we didn’t know was there.

Try this: Choose a question, a feeling, or a mystery from your life. Write about it—not because you know the answer, but because you want to discover it.

10. Let the Process Be a Gift
Writing isn’t only about producing something for other people. It can be a way of paying attention, remembering, discovering, and seeing your own life more fully.

Try this: Notice something today—small or large—that makes you feel more alive. Write about it.

A Thought to Take With You
Pay attention. Follow the line. Tell the truth. Let the writing surprise you.