“On Writing”: An ‘Oldie’ Now, But Still Good
When penning my WALL #4 update recently, I thought I’d endeavour to not just report progress but offer an insight into the writing life and my writing process—with some additional leaven, by way of humour, from the pen of the great Dorothy Parker.
In this instance, because the last three to four months have been challenging (which is as often as not the way), the focus was on some of the ups and downs, hence choosing the famous Dorothy Parker telegram by way of a companion quote.
Over the weekend, when searching for something entirely different in the “…on Anything, Really” archive, I found a decade-old post that also focused on writing and my own approach and process.
Among many other matters, I discussed the notion that writing books is not a linear art, and instead explored the view that it’s far more like Edelman’s rainforest.
And felt, on re-perusing, that it was still entirely relevant and so worth re-sharing a substantial portion with you today:
“OK, now I really am at the (more serious) “on writing ” part. … Paul Weimer, guested over the weekend on writer Mhairi Simpson’s blog with a post titled “The Unwritten Stories in My Head.” You really should read it in full, here, but in summary it’s about having great ideas for stories and why we don’t write them.
Paul says it all boils down to fear, and I suspect he is all if not mostly right. He mentions some of the fears: rejection (aka “non selection”: he-he, ‘a rose by any other name’— is still a sourthistle!) in all its many guises; having to contend in the savage arena of public opinion, and simply that the ideas themselves may be ‘not good enough.’ These are not only very real fears, but may also be ‘fears of substance’, because yes, all these things will be in your cup should you choose to become a writer. And you will drink of them, too, down to the lees.
But here’s the thing—if we give in to the ideas and begin to write them down, they become their own reward. I suspect there may be a tendency “oot thar” to think of storytelling as a linear art (there’s the plot after all, right?) but in fact I think it’s more like a rainforest. The path is there before your feet, but in fact it’s not an asphalted or concreted superhighway: its muddy and leaf-littered; it bends, it wends, it may even loop back a time or two … And there may not be blue sky overhead, but layers of canopy and liana creepers … If you look closely there may be slow creeping tree sloths, or spider monkeys, or jaguars with the coughing roar that heralds danger. And it is a rainforest, so there’s definitely danger out there. As the intrepid explorer, best to bring the heavier of your machetes, not to mention quinine, mosquito netting, steel-toed boots and a pith helmet. (A flak jacket and bullet proof vest may also be advisable … ) So danger, yes: for sure. But there’s also colour and magic, wonder and mystery to be found in the rainforest that can comprise a host of characters peeping between the vines, or brave new worlds glimpsed around a bend in the great river we traverse in dugout canoes …
Or to say it in poetry, with a quote from the poem Angel Fish, by my friend-in-poetry Bernadette Hall:
“… The brain according
to the Novel prize-winning scientist
Gerald Edelman, is not at all like
a computer. It’s more like a rainforest
‘teeming with growth. decay, competition,
diversity and selection.’ So this word
is a toucan, this poem, a yellow
casque hornbill hiding beneath a canopy”
(from The Lustre Jug, VUP, 2009)
The other thing about the rainforest of ideas we call writing, is that they’re connected to dreams—and even if the reality proves to be more mud, mosquitos and malaria, (not to mention piranhas) than Winston Churchill’s “broad, sunlit uplands” it may nonetheless prove both wonderful, and a wonder, if we grant ourselves the opportunity to investigate our dreams.
So I think, when it comes to investigating and pursuing a dream of writing, the final quote must go to Goethe:
“Whatever you can do
or dream you can,
begin it.
Boldness has genius, magic
and power in it.
Begin it now.”
“Begin it now.” That does sound like the very best exhortation for the start of a new week, so I’ll be awa’ to make it so.
In the meantime, may all your weeks be as rewarding as it’s possible for any five-to-seven-day period to be, and may you always “make it so.” 😀
~*~
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