“…….(on)Writing: shitty first drafts. Butt in chair. Just do it. You own everything that happened to you. You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart–your stories, visions, memories, songs: your truth, your version of things, in your voice. That is really all you have to offer us, and it’s why you were born
I’ve been getting my stories down on paper for the last 3 years. Now What?
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything, but, I have been writing….
a lot.
Last December I took a 4-session workshop on Writing Memoir, and in January I began to audit a local college course on Creative Non-Fiction. It felt so good to have a pen in my hand again. I’d forgotten how the kinesthetic experience of scribbling words on paper could be so immensely satisfying., especially with the right pen. There is a certain pleasure from typing too, particularly the sound of the keys as they make contact. But, writing more by hand over the last 4 months has reactivated older neural pathways and lit them up with new creative impulses. Typing just doesn’t tap into the memories the way handwriting does.
In class we’ve been doing things like: free writing, writing from prompts and pictures and maps, and learning how to craft scenes, dialogue, and sensory information. All the assignments are to be drawn from our personal life…..aka: non-fiction. Although I had plenty of english and writing courses in school, this is the first course like this I’ve ever taken and just as I’d hoped it’s the genre that suits me most. Putting my stories on paper, breathing some life into the characters that inhabit my life, and then sharing the stories has been immensely humbling and satisfying. It feels more like therapy then entertainment.
Not sure yet how all this comes together, but I have faith that it will. My goal, if I were to have one, would be to assemble all these stories into a hard copy book. But in the meantime it shouldn’t hurt to publish a tale or two here online on my website? What do you think? Who’s reading this? That’s the amazing thing about the internet, you’re writing for who?
New Moon yesterday in Aries. We’re in an action oriented cycle right now, but speed has nothing to do with it. As Confucius says,
” It does not matter how slowly you go, So long as you do not stop.”
I got to watch a bridge being built. That isn’t something that happens around here very often. However, the day I signed the contract for my new home the old bridge that got me there was torn down. How’s that for a metaphor?!?!
It took a year to move in……….a year to go the long way around to get to what is “just over there”. I had to constantly travel in circles. Life’s like that sometimes.
After I finally did move in I was able to watch construction. (There were all kinds of delay’s and setbacks that prevented the new construction from moving ahead too quickly??)
I was fortunate (or quite unfortunate) enough to be in my home as they began to “drive in the pilings” that would provide support for the structure. The ground vibrated violently in resistance to the plunging and pummeling machinery. The sound was deafening and there were days when I thought my eardrums were truly going to implode or something! Naturally, I tried to leave when I could and schedule my time around this horrendous interruption in my ‘peace of mind’.
What became so interesting was how my life began to ‘open up’ after the bridge was complete and I could, once again, get to where I had to go more directly. It was as if the bridge became a metaphor for my life. Quite amazing, actually.
Today, another bridge is being repaired in my neighborhood. (I live where there’s a lot of water!) Once again, my habitual route to everywhere is interrupted with another detour. Methinks that Mars Retrograde has shown up as a very interesting metophor in my life. Thankfully, this bridge is a bit down the road and I don’t need to listen to the noise again. Oh well.
I’m leaving tomorrow for a 10 days of bliss up at Kripalu. I don’t think I’ll have any time to post, but you never know. Happy New Year.
