Why Do I Write?

In a fiction workshop, the instructor, Lalita Noronha, asked us to ask ourselves “Why do I write?”

My first thought was I write because I like to write. I believe I do it well, and so I follow the law of attraction and gravitate towards what flows more easily. I don’t sing or paint, because I don’t do either of those things well and don’t want to fill my life with the frustrations of trying. Is that the real reason, though? Do I write because it is easy? Do I write because I’m lazy? Hardly.

When you really get into it, writing is work. It is work I love, but why do I love it enough to keep at it? That was the question I tried to answer.

I was surprised to find myself jotting into my notebook that writing makes me feel more organized. My experiences don’t slip away, my thoughts are saved. Without writing, I’m just living with no record of it. With writing, I know I am here.

I sew. Once I took up sewing, I noticed how clothes are put together. Now that I write, I notice how life is put together. My friend Nelle Stanton pointed out to me that nothing comes from seeds until they crack. For me, it is my writing that breaks the seed.

Writing has helped me through some difficult times, but I don’t just leave it for that. Writing also enhances the good times and gives me a heightened awareness of how great things can be. It shows me the progress I have made toward becoming myself, toward becoming the version of me that I respect the most.

The more I am myself the more I have to offer others. The more I write; the more I am.

Writing Groups

If you like to write, getting a group together or joining one is a very worthwhile endeavor. Done right, it can be an enormously enriching experience. Done not-so-well, it's just a chore and possibly a boring or frustrating one. For the last week in July I was at my annual writing retreat in the Adirondacks. A big topic, at least in many of my conversations, was being in a writing group.

The easiest thing to do is to join an existing group, but don't take it personally if you are not invited. The existing members of a working group don't just invite their friends. If they are looking for new members (and that may be a big IF), but if they are looking for new members, they will only want people who are a good fit.

We talked a lot at the retreat about what makes that good fit and here are some of our thoughts. First, you have to be in the same genre. If three of you are writing narrative non-fiction, throwing in a poet is not going to help anybody. While a non-fiction writer may try some fiction and bring it before the group, the focus has got to be relatively narrow. Some people belong to separate groups for prose and poetry; some groups say poetry only this month, essays the next.

The level of writing is important also, but this factor actually has two facets. Skill level has got to be matched or at least be similar. A beginning writer can enjoy the whole process of learning how to get published, the process and even the vocabulary surrounding all that. For a more experienced group member going through all that again can be quite tedious. Also, people usually don’t join writing groups to teach grammar. If what you bring to the meetings makes the other members feel like they are being asked to correct papers, you may be asked to get up to speed or find another group. Always proof read before you present; so your group can focus on craft, not basics, unless basics is precisely the purpose of the group. That would be annoying for some and enriching for others.

The other aspect of level is your intensity level. If you want to have a chance to read your poetry among friends once a month, that can make for a great group. It could however be frustrating for someone who is trying to transition to earning a living as a writer or get a chapbook published. When I was discussing intensity recently with a non writing friend, she said it reminded her of those book groups that get together to eat, drink wine, and talk about the neighbors. Yes, like that. Any level of intensity can make for a great group; just make sure it’s fairly consistent among the members.

Speaking of members, how many writers is the perfect number? Trick question, of course. There is no perfect number but again this may go back to intensity. If you are in a group of 10 who discuss their poetry once a month, you’ll either have long meetings or you won’t get your poetry reviewed very often. If having your poetry discussed every third month or so works for you; that could be just right. I would find it frustrating, but I’m not in your group.

In my group there have been two of us for two years – me and my writing partner, Carol Glover. We know. That sounds a bit exclusive. We get together every two weeks and work quite seriously. At the retreat in July, where we met and which we both attended again this year, we invited a third person to join us. Welcome, Laura Packer. We have known her as a storyteller, but now she is becoming more interested in the written word, focusing on her blogs. One is on stories and one on food, both are being added to my blog roll. I’m looking forward to another opinion, a third ear.

Sometimes I’ve wondered if Carol and I were writing each others books in a composite voice. We have been good for each other because of our opposite problems. I’m always telling her to get right into the story, to leave out so much boring explanation. She said my writing is not terse, it’s stingy. Again, welcome Laura.

Good luck to you if you have a writing group, are joining one, or forming one. Please share your experiences here.

The Joy of Private Writing

Do you have that annoying cousin? You know, the perky one? How about the older relative who consoles you with, "Don't worry dear. I think you are a lovely person. Pay no attention to what others say."

Sure you could write about them, or write letters to them that you have no intention of sending; but here is the joy of keeping it private. You can explain yourself to anyone who bugs you, but you don't have to do that. You could write a poem a day this month and at the end of it say to them or yourself, "Guess what? I wrote 30 poems and you're not in any of them. I wrote and I did not write about you."

Writing Thru It does not mean Wallowing in It. You can write yourself a path of liberation by focusing on something else entirely. Write what you know is good advice if you are writing to be published or to demonstrate your knowledge. Go find something new is good advice if you want to write for the pleasure of it.

If you are recording family stories, just try to change the ending of one. That's what fiction is. The writer decided how it would end and had no requirement to get it right. No need to stick to what actually happened. Writing memoir? You don't have too include everybody. That perky cousin probably gets enough attention already and the older relative? They weren't with you on your adventures.

Never written poetry? Take some favorite writing of yours and print it out to look like a poem. That won't necessarily make it one, but it will give you a new appreciation. Rework it by choosing your words very carefully. Try to establish rhythm or rhyme and you may be on to that something new. You may be on the path to liberation. Just don't worry about what others say.

Ellie the Essayist

When I was in high school there was a question on a test in English class. Ralph Waldo Emerson was _____________________________. The answer was an essayist. Even back then I thought How do you get that job? and Who pays you?

Now all these years later I know the answer to both questions.

How do you get to be an essayist? Write essays. Actually a few hundred years after Emerson's birth his genre is is still going strong, even enjoying a new popularity in blogs and 'last page' essays. Some of the major publications in the U.S. have a personal essay. Newsweek has its MY TURN and Smithsonian Magazine has THE LAST PAGE. To be an essayist, you write essays. You can be a dancer even if you earn a living otherwise. You can be a painter or pianist, if that is what you do. To be an essayist, you write essays. What to do with your essays? That beings us to the second question.

Who pays you? Probably nobody. The point of Writing Thru It is that the process itself has its own value. Working out the order of words, sentences and paragraphs has its own rewards. That's your pay. The recollections that surface, the further practice of your writing skills - those are probably going to be what you get. You can show the work to friends, workshop it in a writing group or class or online site. You'll probably get some nice compliments, maybe some truly snarky remarks. You can submit it for publication or post it on your blog. Who'll pay you? You'll be paying yourself.

Starting Over

I believe in starting over and that's what I am doing with my blog right now. I finished working a part time job three weeks ago so that I would have more time to write and more time to work on my primary job. I thought I could finish work on Saturday night and Sunday morning I would have time on my hands. I was wrong. It took me a few weeks to unwind and that brings me to today's topic. Deciding to start over is not enough. It's a start, a good start; but only actually doing it counts.

I have started over a few times in my life; who hasn't? I strongly recommend writing thru it, of course I do. Here's how.

It's not likely that we, especially the non-poets among us, will start with something as potentially esoteric as poetry. We may not get going with a personal essay or even a journal entry, but we can make a list. Hear me here, not a to-do list. I use to-do lists all the time, but don't count them among my writing endeavors. I have another type of list that works for me, though. It's the what to keep and what to throw away list.

Works every time. When it is time to start over, there is no need to get rid of everything. Some things are just fine and affirming that is helpful. For instance, right now, I really like where I live. It's not perfect, but I've been here two and a half years and I'm not moving. No need. So on my KEEP list I have 'loft on the salt marsh'. On my THROW AWAY list I had 'weekend job'. The KEEP list often includes certain friendships, classes, long range plans, and writing projects. The THROW AWAY list often includes negative thoughts, relationships, or various maybe I could do this for a living schemes. The lists never include things like declutter, do the dishes or laundry. Those belong on a to-do list.

I'm starting over today, finally getting to implement my new schedule. I know there will be interruptions and I'll have to be flexible, but I'm on my way.

Writing Thru It - in 5 parts

My project, Writing Thru It,comes in five parts. I have taught it in four sessions and I've taught it in six, but in my mind it is divisible by five. It progresses, if that is the right term, from letters to journals/diaries into essays to fiction and then lands in poetry. What better place to land if you must, than in poetry?

There are two points I would make about the name. Yes, I mean to spell it 'thru'. It is my attempt to lighten up, to not take things, especially myself, too seriously. I originally called it the Transformative Power of Writing. Accurate, but, oh please.

More importantly the name has a lot of meaning for me. I have been thru it, it here being the it referred to in Shit Happens. I'm not the only one, I know that, so I am grateful to be able to work with my own problems by sharing a method that has worked for me. Of course, you don't need stress for Writing Thru It, maybe you just enjoy writing or exploration.

I'm also writing a memoir, Up Home Again, a much longer attempt at writing thru it about my return to Maine after decades of living away.

Whether you write for publication or exploration, keep writing. Writing helps.

Writing, Writing Everywhere

It looks like I have been writing so much I've neglected my own blog, but I am getting all caught up now. I have worked out another chapter of Up Home Again, not polished, but worked out. I have been writing, writing everywhere but here.

After lots of thought on the topic, I have decided my next Senior College class will be on the personal essay. It has not been approved yet, but I am not seeing that as a problem.

My topics here in the coming weeks will be the epistolary novel, journal or diary - call it what you want, and the joy of the personal essay.