10 Rules of the Secret Society of Housewife Writers

A few friends and I were discussing how we really needed to commit to writing more down about what is going on in our lives and process what God is doing in our souls. Writing is a very hard discipline to stick to, especially when one doesn’t have an audience (and most of us really don’t want one). As I was mulling over our dilemma of how to hold each other accountable to taking time to write as a weekly or monthly practice, I realized what we needed was a writing club. And well, if you are going to put a club together, why not have some rules to go with it. ​

So, I channeled my inner-junior high brain, along with my administrative-teacher-mom modes and created the following rules for our Secret Society of Housewife Writers. ​

Enjoy! Laugh! Share with a friend. Then go start a writing club with some of your favorite people. If necessary, steal these rules to get your club going. ​

10 Rules of the Secret Society of Housewife Writers

1. Every member is required to take a turn posting a writing prompt in the writing group page. Failure to post a prompt on you assigned day will result in all members sending the perpetrator text messages made up completely of emoji’s (Or she can opt to have her house egged by teenagers hired for the job.)  
2. If any member of the club publishes a book, article, pamphlet or hymn, or viral meme she is required to mention this writing club by name in the acknowledgements.
3. Any member who arrives to a writing club meeting more than 5 minutes late will be required to create an acronym for the middle name of each member in attendance.
4. Any member who fails to bring a piece of writing with her to a meeting will be required to write an apology in limerick form and present it out loud to the group.
5. Any member of a the club who fails to return a fellow writer’s piece of writing that she has agreed to proofread or edit will be required to plead for forgiveness on the doorstep of the person whom she has let down and offer a bottle of wine as a peace offering. (If either the giver or receiver are opposed wine out of respect for John the Baptist, locust and honey will suffice as a replacement.)
6. Any member caught talking more than writing at a club meeting will be required to find a copy of her senior portrait and post it has her FB profile picture for one week. If she fails to comply, she will be required to post memes related to national pride and foreign policy to her Instagram account for one week. If she doesn’t have an Instagram account, one will be created for her but she will not be given the password. Other group members will take responsibility of making posts for her.
7. If any member invites someone to join the group, she is required to read the new member these rules while keeping a straight face. If she doesn’t complete this task as specified, she will be tied to Big Ole’s leg until she can complete the task with the seriousness that is expected of such an honor.
8. Any member who feels the need to bring to a club meeting chocolate to stimulate her writing ideas, she must share equally with all members. If she is caught not sharing her chocolate, she will be required to provide each member her favorite candy bar at the following meeting.
9. At the close of all meetings each member will text her mother and thank her for giving her life. This must be done in rhyme form and uniquely each time.
10. All members are required to provide the following personal and detailed information in order to gain passage into this highly sophisticated writing club: 1) middle 2 digits of her SS#, 2) the style and color her favorite outfit in junior high, 3) the name of her first pet, 4) how often she cleans her bathroom, 5) an ode to her favorite food, beverage or restaurant.  

You learn a few things about yourself as you age. What you actually like. What you don’t like. Who you are. Who you aren’t. All things you would really have liked to have known earlier to avoid all those awkward decisions made in adolescents and young adulthood. But the test of time is necessary for sifting through what is true about you. As C.S. Lewis once said, 

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”

Yet, God is the best definer of our identity because he created us. And it takes time to build a relationship with him that is deep enough and strong enough to enable your heart, mind and soul to differentiate between what is true about how God made you, and what isn’t true about you that others or society have led you to believe defines you. ​

Can you relate?

Pause, and consider: what are some aspects of your personality or passions that you didn’t realize were a big part of who you were made to be until later in life? 

One of those little parts of me that I didn’t realize was in me until my mid-thirties and placed in a few different disorganized working environments was this quirky love for policies, procedures, flow-charts and definitive processes. I don’t necessarily like to read them. But I do enjoy writing them. And I love examining how they can be tools used to enable a team or individuals to operate confidently and grow within a specific organization or group.

You don’t have to tell me I am strange. I know it. I own it. And someday maybe I will even get to use my love of policies, procedures, flow-charts and definitive processes for the glory of God and the love of his people. But for now, I am using it to humor myself and you. I wouldn’t say satire is my go-to writing style, but using it now and then keeps my soul in the right place.

---

I believe God authored humor so that we could know and experience joy through laughter. Don’t forget to add a little satire to your life just for the fun of it. As comedian, Ken Davis, always says, "Lighten up and live." Perhaps writing is just the activity for that. Why not at least try it out and see. 

Give it a try and share with me your best satirical rule for life, writing, parenting or another challenging aspect of your life. A little humor just might help you approach it differently.