A Writer? Who, Me?

Reading through all  the phenomenal reponses to last week's prompt - the poetry, photography, the heartfelt reflections - I found myself more and more amazed by the creative thinking you all expressed.  One after the other, you amazed me with the level of awareness you demonstrated, and the varied focal points that direct your creative lives.  On a couple of occasions, I found myself so excited by what I was reading I jumped up from the computer and sat down at the piano, feeling a need to release some of that energy in a physical way that only pounding out a Beethoven piano sonata can do. But, then it hit me.  Suddenly I was paralyzed, stopped dead in my tracks across the keyboard.  What the heck am I doing?  I thought in a panic.  Who am I to ask people - especially people as talented and creative as all of you are - to talk about their writing?  After all, what do I - a humble housewife and office worker, who dabbles in wordplay - have to say about the writing process that could be of value to anyone?

Self-doubt assailed me.

Writer's are notorious for doubting themselves, aren't they? Certainly we're all familiar with stories of the depressed writer, slugging gin and downing pills in an effort to stimlulate the muse. Unlike other creative work, the fruits of a writer's labor aren't immediately visible.  We work away at putting words on paper, and in the end what do we have to show for it?  Anyone can put words on paper, we think.  What's so special about that?  Where do we get off thinking our words are better than those of the average joe sitting on the bar stool next to us?  What's so special about our vision of the world, our ideas, our little storylines?

 Natalie Goldberg calls this voice "The Editor," and says "the more clearly you know it, the better you can ignore it."  Write down what that Editor keeps saying, Goldberg advises, so you recognize those thoughts for what they are, simply "prattle in the background" of your mind, and can dismiss them as easily as you would the "distant sound of white laundry flapping in the wind."  Unless you do, it will take over your creative thoughts and smother them as effectively as a wet blanket does a flame.  Instead, Goldberg continues, "have a sense of tenderness and determination toward your writing, a sense of humor and deep patience that you are doing the right thing."  (Writing Down the Bones)

Dorothea Brande also recommends a sense of tenderness toward your writing, a warm acceptance of your ability and the importance of putting words on the page.  "Don't follow yourself around nagging and suggesting and compaining," she scolds.  "Hold your own good work up to yourself as a standard...keep a friendly, critical eye on your progress."  (On Becoming A Writer)

I like the idea of being "tender" toward my writing, of "keeping a friendly eye on my progress."  Ultimately, I have to believe that my "vision of the world" has meaning, even if for no one other than myself,  that the process of putting my thoughts and emotions on paper in the form of stories and essays is a worthwhile practice, and one that benefits my mind and spirit.  Like the practice of yoga, where we come with "a willful determination but without pressure to be perfect," the practice of writing helps us work toward expressing our minds and hearts in a beautiful and meaningful way.

Goldberg quotes Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Buddhist master, as saying: "We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opporistion.  No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart." 

As we Write On Wendesdays, perhaps we can encourage each other to open our hearts and trust our own voices as we progress in this practice of writing.

 How about you?  Are you ever assailed with self doubt about your writing ability, or about the reasons for writing at all?  Do you "follow yourself around nagging and suggesting and complaining"? What are some of the negative things your Editor tells you?  What could your Editor say to be more encouraging?   How do you encourage yourself to keep practicing the craft of writing?

What's Your Line?

My son is a fabulous story teller - he always has been, even before he could talk intelligbly.  He'd stand proudly in the midst of  family circle, draw himself to a full 30 inches, and pontificate for 10 minutes in complete gibberish.  We all attempted to laugh or looked dismayed in the appropriate places, but mostly we just wanted to yell "What in the world are you trying to say?" As he grew and developed a command of the language, his stories began to take on familiar themes - there were usually characters doing something stupid and being saved by other ultra smart characters.  Plenty of explosions and car chases were involved.  The stories got more complex as he aged, yet the basic themes remained the same.  He found his line.

I think once you've found your voice, your theme, your preoccupation, then your writing life becomes a lot simpler.  You begin to focus your vision of the world through that lens, and pretty soon you start relating everything you see and everything that happens to you in terms of that focal point.  There's an old adage every writer is familiar with - write what you know.  I'd take that a step further and say write what you care about.

I'm an only child.  I'm married to an only child, the mother of an only child, and the daughter of an only child.  Does it surprise you that my writing is preoccupied with family relationships?  It's not really even a conscious decision - no matter what kind of idea for a story or essay I come up with, somehow family relationships are involved.  I've completed NaNoWriMo twice, and both novels involve parent/child relationships and the emotional legacies we pass on to our children.  I'm working on a short story now that involves a young man who keeps sabotaging his love life because of an unhealthy obsession with his deceased mother's little dog (which of course is just a cover for an unhealthy obsession with his mother!) 

Perhaps it sounds limiting, to have this recurring theme for your work.  But if you look carefully at the work of most writers and artists, you'll notice a similar constancy of thought.  Jane Austen was certainly successful in her portraits of young women discovering life and love in the 19th century.  Jhumpa Lahiri has done quite well exploring the lives of second generation Indian immigrants, navigating the no man's land between the traditional values of their parents and modern American culture. 

And Monet did allright with those water lilies, didn't he?

The real trick lies in having the skill to develop your material in new, interesting directions.  Certainly I could write fantasy novels, historical novel, or mysteries and still retain the common thread of exploring family relationships and dynamics.  The things I care about. 

Sometimes writing about these preoccupations helps make sense of them in a way ordinary thinking cannot.  Jhumpa Lahiri said that, in writing about the two worlds she grew up in she "tried to weave them together in some combination that was orderly on the page in a way that it isn't always in life."

So how do you find your material?  Carolyn See, author of Making a Literary Life, asks her students "What's your inner  voice talking about these days?"  What are you thinking about when you're in the shower, or driving your car, on the treadmill at the gym?  If you've become accustomed to tuning it out, because it's constant muttering drives you mad, then perhaps its time to tune it back in.  Turn up the volume even. 

What do you catch yourself thinking about?  What experiences and relationships in your life are the most meaningful? What catches your attention when you're out and about?  These are the things you're going to know, the things you're going to care about, and that knowledge and caring will resonate in your writing. 

This is where you'll find your line.

How about you?  Have you found your line yet?  Do you think you have one?  How do you go about expressing it?

Welcome to Write On Wednesday

This is Write on Wednesday's new home, a place to gather if you love playing with words and putting them to the page.  Each Wednesday we'll explore some aspect of the writing process...how we get those words out of our brains and onto paper (or screen).  And what we do with them once they're out there for all the world to see.

We might look at some of our favorite books about writing...

We might talk about our instruments of choice - pencil or cursor? paper or screen?

We could share secrets about the best places for finding ideas...

Perhaps we'll explore the process of revision (shudder!) or what happens when the words just won't come (double shudder!)

Whatever the topic, sharing is the name of the game.  Add your thoughts on the subject by writing a post on your blog and leaving a comment with the link to that post.  If you wish, you may also simply write your thoughts in the comment section.

So, come join us around the table.  Bring your best notebook and a freshly sharpened pencil.

Get ready to Write On Wednesday.

Today's post is waiting.

Where In the World Do You Come to the Page?

I love my back porch on summer mornings.  A soft breeze whispers through the evergreens, a chorus of birds serenade me with early morning wake up songs, no one else in the house is stirring  (not even Magic or Molly), and I can savor the solitude.  Still in pajamas and slippers, my first cup of coffee close at hand, I tuck my laptop under my arm, pile my books and notebook on a wicker side table, and settle into the chair.  It's a perfect place to write. Of course, I write in other places in the house.  I'm fortunate to have a "room of my own," with a writer's desk and large overstuffed chair (with extra wide arms perfect for propping up a laptop).  Most of the time, that's where my writing happens, seated at the desk or curled up in my chair.  There are bookstacks everywhere in that room, and though I keep cleaning them up, more seem to appear in their place.  Whether I'm writing blog posts, or book reviews, or even working on a short story, I seem to need bookstacks around. <smiles>

I'm nosy about writer's desks, aren't you?  There seems to be something magical about the places people write.   I readily admit to chills running down my spine when I stood in Virginia Woolf's study at Rodmell, and Charlotte Bronte's parlor in the parsonage at Haworth.   Every year, I purchase a copy of The Writer's Desk calendar - photographer Jill Krementz has made a study of writers and their desks, and has published a lovely coffee table sized book as well as these annual calendars. (See, I'm not the only nosy one!)  And it isn't just writer's desks that intrique me - it's all the "writuals" that are associated with the writing process. 

Stephen King wrote Carrie and Salem's Lot "in the laundry room of a double wide trailer, pounding away on my wife's portable Olivetti typewriter and balancing a child's desk on my thighs."  He advises writers to "have a space of their own," a place with a door you are "willing to shut, telling the world and yourself you mean business."  (On Writing)  Conversely, Natalie Goldberg advises leaving home occasionally, going to a cafe or public place to write.  "It's good to change the scenery from time to time," she says, "because at home there is the telephone, the laundry, the refrigerator, the dishes to be washed, a letter carrier to be greeted. If you made the effort to get to a cafe, you can't leave as easily and go do something else, the way you can in your own home."  (Writing Down the Bones)

Awareness of place is important, not just because of nosy friends like me, but to set the stage for all the writing that you do.  Before you can convincingly relate a feeling of place to your reader, you must first feel it for youself.  If you're connected to the place you write in, Julia Cameron tells us, the "accumulation of details, the willingness to be specific and precise, the willingness to 'place' a piece of writing accurately in context - all these things make for writing the reader can connect to."  (The Right to Write) 

How about you?  Last week we talked about why  we come to the page, now I want to know where  you come to the page.  What's magical about your writing spot (or spots!)  Free write about the places you put pen to paper.  Post pictures if you can  - that would be even more fun!  (I can't because the battery in my camera is dead!)

Leave a comment  with the url  linking to your blog post, and we'll all come and spy on each other. <more smiles>

Postscript

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts about what brings them to the page.  I was enlightened and insprired by each one of you.  (A reminder that Write on Wednesday lasts all week, so if you decide to respond to the prompt anytime during then week, then feel free to do so.)

As a postscript to this week's WOW (Susan pointed out the aptness of the acronym),  here's a quote from I found this morning on Writing Time - it's from a man named Frank Smith.   I especially like the last two lines...

Writing is for stories to be read, books to be published, poems to be recited, plays to be acted, songs to be sung, newspapers to be shared, letters to be mailed, jokes to be told, notes to be passed, recipes to be cooked, messages to be exchanged, memos to be circulated, announcements to be posted, bills to be collected, posters to be displayed and diaries to be concealed.

Writing is for ideas, action, reflection, and experience. It is not for having your ignorance exposed, your sensitivity destroyed, or your ability assessed.

Happy Writing!