Writers-in-Progress

Be Quiet

This is a challenge I'm giving myself so thought I'd extend it to you. Take a day (or a weekend if you can manage it) and just be quiet. No phones, no TV, no email, no music, no visitors, no parties, etc. Stay home if that works best for you, but you can also go out - you just can't talk to anyone!

The last year, for me, has been so busy, which has been great, but I haven't heard myself think in a long time. Not good for any artist to not be able to hear that 'still, small voice' within. Now that my residency with Creative Alliance is over and I've moved into the new house, I finally have the quiet and privacy I've been craving for a while, and can see and feel how much I need a big, healthy dose of silence. Right now it sounds better to me than chocolate, which is really saying something.

So I am setting my intention to do this within the next week or so. If this is harder for you - you might have kids - lock yourself away somewhere for an hour (closet, laundry room, master bath?). Figure out what might work for you and take whatever size dose you can. It does add up.

Yes it's good to find time to write and to read, but it's also important to find time to make space - in your head, in your heart, as well as your life, for whatever belongs to you to enter. Have pen and paper handy if you must, but just listen and think. And don't expect anything momentous to happen right away. It's a process. It's a journey. It's cumulative. Let your mind clear, and just be quiet.

Doesn't that sound delicious?

Loving Yourself More

I wanted to give you the gift of a website that offers 'assignments' every week (I think it's weekly) of various kinds - writing, post pictures, collage, conversation, music, etc. I encourage you to check it out and give some of them a try. You don't need to be an "ARTIST" to do these, you just need to have an open heart and mind. As a writer, you should never - I repeat: never - not try another art form because you think you are 'only' a writer. Um, that's bullshit, just so you know...

Writing may be what you choose to focus on, but you can find inspiration from many other forms. Sometimes by trying something else, you get a different perspective on your writing - it's that averted gaze thing, where you don't look directly at something and that enables you to see it more clearly. Think stars, for example. The minute you take your focus off something, you stop expecting something from it, and then you can see it for what it is.

Plus, it's just plain fun and relaxing to try another form and give yourself a break. Here's the link:

www.loveyourselfmore.com

FanFic: Write an Episode for Your Favorite TV Show

When I was an early teen, a girlfriend and I used to write episodes for our favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica. You remember: Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene. We loved it. And we wrote 200 page 'scripts' for the show for about a year. They probably weighed more on the side of romance than science fiction (I had a crush on Benedict; she had a crush on Hatch), but they were great practice at character development and sustaining a storyline.

I haven't done this in years, but have come across others doing it, which has been a nice surprise. Not many people know this, but I'm a mad Doctor Who fan from way back. I've been watching the show on public television for over 20 years and loving every minute! (I'm not a big sci fi TV/movie watcher, but there are a few that I can't resist and Doctor Who is one of them.) I am thrilled that it's back with new Doctors and episodes (I'm more partial to Eccleston than Tennant as the Doctor, I have to say), and have come across many blogs where fans are taking matters into their own hands and writing scenes and episodes of their own to develop the relationship between the Doctor and his companions, as well as his backstory, and producing funny, technical, dramatic stories to boot. It reminded me how much fun it was to write like this way back when.

It's called FANFIC (fan fiction), and it's a fabulous exercise that I encourage you to try. The characters and structure are already in place for you, all you have to do is think up a story and start writing. There's no pressure, only fun. What's especially good about it is writing outside your genre. If you normally write romance, maybe try a cop show. If you write humorous pieces, try a hospital drama. Sci fi is fun because there are so many possibilities - anything is possible: romance, science, drama, history, humor, politics.

So c'mon you literary fiction writers or poets, show me some Spock!

Journal Opportunity #2

Opportunity sounds much better than 'assignment' doesn't it? Here's another one, as sent to my class, inspired by Writing for Your Life (Deena Metzger):

At the heart of whatever we write is a question, or series of questions. We write to answer those questions. Usually it ends up being an exploration. Truly, a story shouldn't necessarily solve a problem so much as illuminate. Human questions/issues/problems are usually too intricate and paradoxical to answer/solve.

Asking a question leads to the mystery of a story. The deeper you go, the more you learn, the more that is revealed. For writing to be 'deep,' the writer must be aware of the question(s) at the core of it. We are each asking a particular set of questions, and our lives are uniquely designed to answer them (via values, experiences, desires, fears, etc.). If we're not aware of this, we're in danger of reducing and trivializing experiences through explanation. As a result, the story/poem/essay doesn't feel as satisfying.

So keeping that in mind, what are the themes that you find recurring in your work? What are you trying to understand? What obsesses you? What are you afraid of? What's missing in your world? What images, symbols, metaphors, and dynamics repeat themselves in your work? We're going to go backwards here - take the answers to these and formulate your set of questions. Have as many as you like, but at least 4, based on the questions above.

Now ask these questions of a character that you are currently working with, or who has been hovering in your mind, or one you wrote about a while ago who is still haunting you. For this character, change the word 'work' to 'life' so it makes sense for them. See if anything interesting, new, inspiring comes up.

Time to interview the man behind the curtain - YOU.

Journaling Assignment

I just gave this to my class on creating a writer's journal, so I'll share this exercise with you as well:

FIRST: Consider starting over and buying a new journal, rather than turning a page in the one you're using. Even if you have a journal around that you like and haven't used, maybe buy another, just for the purpose of this new practice. New energy, and all that! Buy something that makes you feel good, that you will want to pick up and write in. If a big, black sketchbook is your thing, great. If something with kittens on it is your thing, great too. This journal is the physical manifestation of your writer's mind. It should be the 'home' that makes you happy. Ditto on pens or markers or whatever. (No pencils; this must be writing you can't erase.)

SECOND: The exercise:

Imagine your daily life is occurring in a foreign country. Carry the journal with you the rest of the week and write in it whenever you have a moment - in line at the supermarket, on a bus, in a restaurant, in the park, at the beginning and end of the day, whenever. Write anything and everything: snatches of conversations, observations, concerns, your dreams the night before, plans, lines of poems, something you want to include in a letter to someone, a song lyric you like, what people are wearing, the weather, the food, etc. Allow yourself to record anything and everything without judging its appropriateness or meaning. Allow your emotional responses to things without censoring yourself.

We get so used to our routines that we stop seeing our world with fresh eyes, so let's change that: for the next few days, you are vacationing in your own life. Everything is new and of value. Everything is worth observing and describing - big or small.

What you write here may later be used to generate something structured - poem, story, essay, play, or not. Writing is writing. Whether it coalesces into something to be shared or not. The writer's life and journal is about taking things a few steps deeper. You are constructing yourself as well as your relationship to the world. This is at the heart of all writing - whether it's fiction or not.

THE RULES:

Write. Don't try to name what you think should come in advance of its arrival. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or sentence structure. Don't look back. Don't edit. Don't think of what it could be. Just welcome what comes and give it space and a place in which to BE.

Promise yourself that you won't tear anything out and throw it away.

What Poetry Form Are You?

The questios are odd but the answer dead on. I've written in terza rima. It's challenging and fun. Just my thingy. Or gizmo, or - you'll see.

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile. Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away I let mine out, and chatter all the while. I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day Is any day that's spent without a friend, With nothing much to do or hear or say. I like to be with people, and depend On company for being entertained; Which seems a good solution, in the end. What Poetry Form Are You?

You are a SuperHeroine/Hero!

I found an old journal of writing exercises (clearing out clutter for the new year and entering things in the computer just as I suggested you do in a previous post - hey, I walk the talk) and came across this one:

Exercise: You are a superheroine/hero. Everyone thinks you are an ordinary person but you know better. What is your superpower and how do you use it?

You HAVE to try this. It's so fun. Here's what I wrote:

"I can instantly speak and understand any language without studying it. No matter how complicated or ancient it is, or if it uses gestures or ritual dances, or face and body paint, or paintings done on cave walls or with colored sand and chanting - I understand all of it, all of its nuances and complex layers of meaning and can instantly converse in it or express its symbolism verbally or physically. I travel all over the world and magically meet people who need to understand each other. Initially I translate each person's language and ideas to the other, but after a few minutes they see and hear each other without my help and I move on. Everywhere I go, I'm also invited to join whatever group, culture, or tribe I encounter and live among them as one of them for as long as I like. While I do, I think like they think, I feel like they feel, and speak and write with those impressions, in their voices, telling their stories, their history, as if I've lived it."

So, what's your superpower?

The Aptitude for Gratitude

One question: how grateful are you for your ability to write?

Like most things, we take our ability to write for granted. We have a love/hate relationship with it and, let's be frank, most of the time is spent complaining about how it isn't working, or even that the well is dry (my personal favorite phrase to indicate that I think I'll never write anything good again).

Try something different right now: give thanks. I know it's a bit early for it, Thanksgiving is two months away, but why not make it a monthly, perhaps weekly, dare I suggest daily habit to take a few moments to think of how much you love to write, how much it adds to your life to see stories where other people don't, to have your own voice (even if you haven't figured it out yet, don't worry - it's lurking about in there somewhere), how good it feels to write something that touches someone and has meaning for them, and be grateful for all you have created (even the horrors, and the ones you burned), and all you will create.

It's not just enough to have an attitude of gratitude, a phrase we hear a lot. You must have the aptitude for gratitude - meaning that you don't just take a moment to be thankful, you have the attitude all the time. This takes practice and patience. For example: whenever you get stuck, or your writing comes out all wrong, be grateful, these are signs that you're trying too hard to control your piece (I say this all the time, I know, but it bears repeating). Let go a little bit, ask your Higher Writing Self to figure out how to fix the problem and then go to the movies or for a walk or take a break for a few days. The answer will come. And when it does, guess what you do...? Right - be grateful.

Gratitude is positive energy. It can't possibly screw anything up to feel positive about your writing. If it does, write a story or poem about it!

Here's your exercise: take out a piece of paper and write down all the reasons you're grateful for your writing. Glitz it up with color or whatever, if you like, but make sure to tack it up over your desk where you can see it every day. Add to the list whenever possible!!

Come to the Dark Side...

Saw a great bumper sticker this morning:

COME TO THE DARK SIDE. WE HAVE COOKIES.

While you're there, tune into the parts of you that you usually avoid: the ugly, scary, angry, lonely, greedy, selfish, crazy parts. Write something from each of their voices. It can be about what they want to tell you about you, themselves, or the world.

These voices are just as important for you to listen to for yourself, as well as when you are creating a character. Let your characters be all of the above when called for. Let them be human.

ADDENDUM: per the comment, note that I made a distinction between listening for yourself (as a journaling exercise, for example), and listening on behalf of your characters when you're in the process of getting to know and understand them. If you'd like to base a character on yourself and what you hear from these parts of you, great. If not, visualize your character and let those parts of him/her speak to you. A character's fears, phobias, and flaws are just as important as his/her talents and gifts. Making sure to represent both sides creates a well-rounded character. They, like us, though, will always have one aspect of their personality that stands out - positive or negative - and dictates how they will behave. Keep that in mind!

Tired of Being a Grown Up

A new set of paintings, sketches, photographs, and sculpture has gone up in the Creative Alliance members gallery down the hall from the residents' studios. It's a striking show because CA has painted the walls a deep gray, which I've never seen them do before in my year there. It works; it's much more elegant and serious than plain white walls. Last night, Joe (boyfriend) and I walked around taking it all in (a great perk of living there - private viewings of the art any time!). One thing that kept jumping out at me was the use of color - bright bright colors - and juxtapositions you don't see all that often - turquoise against orange for example.

There was a lot of humor as well; two pieces I especially liked were: 1) a narrow little pillow made of an old-fashioned floral fabric (almost Victorian looking) with what appeared to be the word 'luck' embroidered on it in red. Take a closer look? It really says 'fuck.' Great! 2) a two-headed, black dildo curved into a smile with a tiny nun atop each head and letters cut out from magazines spelling out: "A Healthy New Habit!" (Get it? Nuns - habit - nuns - habit. Ok.) It was inside a sort of shadow box decorated with little black and white pom poms around the frame. Great again! The pillow reminded me of one I saw in the house at Ladew Topiary gardens here in Maryland - it was in a room painted aubergine (eggplant). On the couch was a little cross-stitch pillow with this helpful advice: "Love Thy Neighbor, But Be Discreet."

The point of all this is that I am not playing enough. I am not out there creating wacky, personal pieces the way I'd planned. I need to make sure the next set of visual poems are truly representative of my heart and mind and can give a visual voice to what's there. WE ALL NEED TO DO THIS. We do enough playing grown up and not enough just playing.

So here's OUR assignment:

Get a piece of paper - the bigger the better. Do one of the following:

1) Using crayons or markers - write the word "PLAY" in large letters, each letter a different color. (Or choose another word that represents what you need more of in your creative life.) Just make it as bright and eye-catching as possible. Add glitter or beads or feathers or buttons or draw pictures, whatever.

2) Divide your paper into a grid. Get a stack of magazines and put a picture of something you need/want more of in your creative life - one pic per square in the grid.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I mean what you need more of in your CREATIVE life, not life in general.

Put this in your workspace so you can see it as much as possible.

When I first got to CA, I made what I called my "Psyche House." It's a house that's a sort of map of my creative mind - a 3-D collage of photographs, painted cardboard walls, little worry dolls, perfume sample bottles, colored paper clips, beads, ribbon and more. There's a colonnade made out of Q-tips, and I rigged it with a nightlight that I can plug in and illuminate a tower at the far end. It's messy - you can see the glue and mistakes. That's what I like about it. When I redid the loft, I pulled it out and put it on top of Keegan's (dog) crate, which I never use, so I can see it. If I'm up there writing at night, I plug it in so it glows. I can't believe I haven't done anything like that in a year!

Time to get back to it. You too.