Monthly Archives: November 2011

“Writing is a struggle against silence.”

–Carlos Fuentes

Tell me about all the different kinds of silence you have known. Start each paragraph with the words, “There is the kind of silence…”

“Most of us have ongoing obsessions, sometimes as a result of difficult, tragic, magical, or unexpected events or circumstances in our lives. Sometimes these are the things we studiously avoid in writing about, but sooner or later we come to realize they are our bedrock material. The fact is that writing, like any creative undertaking, carries with it both pain and great joy. The pain is often inherent in the most fertile subject matter; the joy lies in transforming that subject matter and thus moving through it in a way that helps us grow while we create something of value to others.”

–Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir

Make a list of your current obsessions. Make a second list of the obsessions you had ten years ago. Make a third list of the obsessions you had twenty years ago. Look at the similarities and differences between your lists.

Now choose one of your current obsessions. In twenty minutes, without stopping, tell me everything you can about that obsession.

“Sometimes we feel as if we’ll never master the art of writing because we are so enmeshed in daily life. We sandwich writing, reading or walking in between work, family and chores, and nothing gets done. There is no continuity or development. We imagine what it is to be a writer and assume that is different from how we are. We come to believe that we will never know how to do it, even if we have the time and opportunity. We are afraid of the solitude and the concentration we believe may be required.”

–Deana Metzger, Writing for Your Life

With words, create a yearlong sabbatical in which the perfect conditions to support your creativity exist. The world and circumstances you create can be anywhere, in any time and space. But they must include deep solitude. For the sake of this exercise, imagine, as Deena Metzger suggests in her wonderful book, Writing for Your Life, that your current life will remain completely whole, intact and unchanged, in a sort of suspended animation, while you go on your writing sabbatical. So you will lose nothing. You simply get to step out of your current reality and create a year devoted to your deepest self and creativity. When you return, everything will be the same.