Rule Number Seven

I really do believe that you can't grow as a writer unless you grow as a person.  And some of us just have further to go, ok?  For example, take the fact that I am extremely inflexible.  My days are scheduled out in such a way that if someone asks me to go to lunch, I have to say, "I'm sorry.  I can't.  I have to write my blog."  Now, on the one hand, this has given me a large measure of self discipline... but, balance in all things, right? I have now figured out how this is handicapping my story.

It comes down to killing your darlings.  Do you think a person that can not drop a blogging appointment with herself to go to lunch can kill her darlings?  Seriously, who knows what I gave up in my life to write all that darling stuff in the first place.  A date out to lunch, to be sure.  It feels a lot like opening a drain and just letting a portion of your life flow down it.  Sounds very depressing, eh?  Yeah, I thought so too.  Until I figured something out.  We are in a learning process, and the opposite of rule number seven is also true.  As we write, we grow as a person.

I have more motivation than ever to learn to be more flexible, because you just can't write good books when you are unwilling to bend.  I need to treat both life and writing more like clay and less like glass.  It's better when you look at it as something that can come undone and re-molded better than it was the first time. Be willing to change everything if necessary.  It's easy.  Or this is what I try telling myself.

I will say this: I have learned never to spend 20 minutes picking the right word again, unless you are very sure it's the final draft.

Writing... with a side of candied potatoes

Sometimes I try to write like I am following a recipe.  And why not?  It works very well for food.  But, as I have discovered, not so much for writing.  My point being, with writing, the more you realize there is no right way to do it, the better off you are.  Following a recipe is not creative or playful. Creation is about play, about discovering who you are.  How can another person tell you anything about that?

Okay.  I should say that all of these deep thoughts are inspired by The Artist’s Way, which I just got through reading. I have so many new insights as a result, that if I could, I would share them with the world.  

On a side note, which is probably a topic for another blog, sometimes I am afraid because, in the process of self-discovery, I realize that my imagination is often sparked by things of a dark nature.  Why is that?  I don’t want to pretend, so instead, I discover that I just might be bad.  But that’s what writing is all about, right?  Tell the truth, Stephen King always said.  

To play is to discover and you can’t discover without exploring.  Creative energy is God’s energy, and sometimes He lets us tap into a bit of it.  I believe that’s what play is.

There are no rules, and we must make mistakes as part of the process.  All work, all writing, no matter how bad, comes to good because it equals growth.  Growth of you, of your inner child who would like very much to come out and play, thank you, and of discovery.

I use my imagination more after reading that book, even when I’m not writing.  It’s like my senses have been turned up a notch and the world is mine.  The warm pavement under my bare feet, and the way it contrasts with the cool, wet grass.  The warm spring breeze.  Even cooking has become a process of creation and discovery.  Everything has been made to be a little more like play.  Sometimes I feel too full of all of these senses and all I can do to release them is to write.

“Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.”  

-Paul Tillich

A Lesson From a Tampon

Okay, first I must apologize for the very simplistic metaphor, but that's just the way they come to me.  Now, to explain it:

I don't like to follow the rules.  If someone says I should write a story some way, I really don't think I should.  But the problem is, I always do.  Dang, why is that?  Don't I trust my own instincts?

And that is the whole purpose of this blog, according to me and my dear friend.  Because we like breaking rules.  On purpose.

What does this have to do with a tampon?  Lots.  You see, every time I go to open one, I look at the stupid plastic package that covers the slender stick.  Every time.  Which way are the arrows facing?  Which way is it properly opened?  Well, guess what?  I hate opening them the way the arrows say I should, and yet I look, every time.

It's the wrong end, people!  Isn't it far more logical to open it on the end you will actually hold?  Okay, sorry.  Making an effort not to get too carried away and/or graphic here.

My point is this:  Are we not all like that a little bit?  Do we sometimes have to make a conscious effort to ignore rules?  I'm really not saying rules are bad.  I believe most are, in fact, helpful (even if I haven't figured out how those blasted arrows are yet).  However, I like to take every rule with a large grain of salt, heck a whole bag of it is better.  Because, isn't having fun the point of writing?

Every day I ask myself again, why did I start this, this writing stuff?  To have fun!!!!!!!  (Over-use of exclamation points.)

It was definitely not to follow rules.