The Real Writer

Approfondement Anyone?

I copied this quote from Rob Brezny's Free Will Astrology Newsletter (www.freewillastrology.com, if you haven't signed up for it you're falling behind on your spiritual evolvement).

"The notion that inspired play (even when audacious, offensive, or obscene) enhances rather than diminishes intellectual vigor and spiritual fulfillment, the notion that in the eyes of the gods the tight-lipped hero and the wet-cheeked victim are frequently inferior to the red-nosed clown, such notions are destined to be a hard sell to those who have E.M. Forster on their bedside table and a clump of dried narcissus up their ass.

"Not to worry. As long as words and ideas exist, there will be a few misfits who will cavort with them in a spirit of *approfondement*--if I may borrow that marvelous French word that translates roughly as "playing easily in the deep"--and in so doing they will occasionally bring to realization Kafka's belief that 'a novel should be an ax for the frozen seas around us.'"

-"In Defiance of Gravity" by Tom Robbins, *Harper's Magazine,* Sept 2004

Misfit - yes, that's you. Yes it is. Start cavorting.

When to Let Go

What writing project have you been struggling with longer than you'd care to remember? You know the one. You could recite chapter and verse about how it's resisted your every effort at completing it. You've pushed. You've pulled. You've cajoled, coaxed, bargained - you name it, you've tried it. And still the plot, or characterization, or the right way to begin (or end), or vivid descriptions, or smooth syntax, or figurative language, or structure have eluded you. It it were a person you'd smack the piece upside the head and say, "Snap out of it!"

What should you do when you and the story or poem don't see eye to eye? Let it go.

I know this is hard. You think that, if you do, you will let go just before you figure it out. This kind of mentality is what makes Vegas so successful. People who are losing, or who are winning just enough to keep them hooked, keep pulling the lever on those slot machines because they're certain they're close to winning. That if they walk away now, the next person to use the machine will win the jackpot that should have been theirs.

That might be true (sometimes) in Vegas, but it's not true here. The more you try to force your writing to work, the less it's going to work--the further away that 'jackpot' is going to be. You have to let it go and trust that the answer or solution to making the writing sing will come to you on its own. Your pushing means that you are trying to make something specific happen, something that you think is right for the piece, something which isn't right, in reality, because if it were, it would work and you wouldn't be close to burning the manuscript and going to law school instead. Get it?

If it isn't working that means your approach is not the right one and you should get off the ride for a while and let your internal Writing God--we'll call it--figure it out for you. It may take a while (it could take years, that's been the case for me on occasion), and information could arrive in bits and pieces, but If You Trust It, It Will Come. And--dare I say it--it's exciting when the information comes in. You never know the where and when of the answer: a Muzak song in the elevator, a street sign, a T-shirt someone is wearing, a visual image you see out a window that triggers another one relating to your story, coming upon the same object over and over until you get the hint - however it arrives, it can be like a treasure hunt. It can be fun if you let it. Let's dispel the myth right now that writers/poets have to suffer!

Writing is a mix of control and letting go. You try an approach and it either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't, you let go and wait for the right way to come to you. This takes practice, and is sometimes very difficult. But writing is a partnership between your mind and the Collective Writing Mind (I'm sure Carl Jung would agree). The more you force what you want, the more you're closing the door to all the wonderful ideas in the Collective Mind, to which your own Writing God (or we could say Higher Writing Self to keep up with the times!) is connected. You two have to work together.

Don't push so hard. Here's one of my mantras again: enjoy the process. Let go and see what happens.

Reading Your Work - It's Not About You!

The Baltimore Book Festival was this weekend, where I gave a reading, hosted a reading, and attended readings, and in the afterglow of it all it came to me - the best, most important thing to remember when you're giving a reading: it's not about you.

It's about your work. It's about the audience. It's about making a connection with them and having a good time. You shouldn't be inside your head listening to a running commentary about yourself and your performance: 'Oh God, I'm going too fast, I need to slow down, but when I slow down I can't breathe. My mouth is so dry, my hands are shaking. Stop fidgeting, stop fidgeting!!!'

Yes it's important to read slowly and stand still and make eye contact and breathe, but, you should have already pinned these skills down in the (at least) three practice sessions you made sure to have, either with a group or by yourself in front of a mirror, in the weeks before the reading. During the reading itself is not the time.

What you should be focusing on is making it a good time for your audience. Hopefully you've chosen a section of your work that's interesting, where there's some action or an important revelation, even a little bit of dialogue (a little, not a lot. It's too hard to follow). A character droning on and on in their head is difficult to stay interested in. Something needs to happen in the scene.

That taken care of - enjoy the crowd. They're not there for you, they're there to hear your story. Be enthusiastic about what you're reading. Be enthusiastic about your audience's attention. Vary your tone, pause in all the right places, smile if appropriate.

If you're doing the running commentary thing in your head, you're going to be jittery and miserable. If you're rushing or expressionless because you want the piece to be over so you can sit back down and be 'safe,' the audience will pick up on this, all of it, and be miserable and hoping it's over soon too. And they'll remember you, but not for the right reasons.

So believe in yourself. And have a good time!