It was one of those surprising moments, entirely unexpected, that the believers among us see as kismet, divine intervention or a sign. And while I hold such ideas to be the sign of poor writing, I took the hint anyway.
Outside the Holden Room where the GFWG meets is the writer's resource section. Absolutely appropriate, if entirely accidental. Sandy and I were talking before the meeting last Thursday, waiting for two nonmembers to clear out, when I looked up and saw the book mentioned in the title of this post, Writing the Wave. It was written by Elizabeth Ayres, a poet under whom I studied at NYU a few years ago. It's a book full of writing tips and exercises, from which I managed to land several short stories. One of those, a writing exercise turned Aesop fable, has been written up twice, once for adults and once for children and was just submitted to Dial Books (And no, I don't take it as a sign. I had decided to send it to Dial two months ago. Now, if Dial miraculously agrees to publish it, I'll rethink this, briefly, as a sign...)
Sandy checked out the book, and I'm eager to see if she found it helpful. Did it provide her with the same inspiration it did me? I hope so.
As for kismet, well, I had been thinking about Writing the Wave a lot over the past few weeks, thinking I should pull out my copy to redo some of the exercises. An experiment, a chance to work the writing muscle, to see what I come up with now that I didn't come up with then. Weird that there it was, eye level, saying take me down and use me again. I have some time coming up in between writers groups. I think I'll sit down with Ms. Ayres once more and write the wave.
But not because I believe in signs or anything. It was simply the plan all along...
At least that's what I keep telling myself.
4 comments:
John,
Hmm. One of the writing-related books I don't own... But I checked it out once. I'll make a note to look at it again sometime (after Sandy returns it, though there is one other copy in the SALS system, in case someone wants to request it...).
Let's hear it for kismet! Actually, I love the term "synchronicity." Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way uses it the Jungian way, "loosely defined as a fortuitous intermeshing of events."
"...never ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seat belt. The more remarkable things follow."
"Understand that the _what_ must come before the how. First choose _what_ you would do. The _how_ usually falls into place of itself."
"All too often when people talk about creative work, they emphasize strategy....If you ask an artist how he got to where he is, he will not describe breaking in but instead will talk of a series of lucky breaks. 'A thousand unseen helping hands,' Joseph Campbell calls these breaks. I call them synchronicity. It is my contention that you can count on them."
"Take a small step in the direction of a dream and watch the synchronous doors flying open....'Leap, and the net will appear.'"
OK. That's probably as much as fair use will let me go in quoting her. Besides, you get the drift... If we write, publication and fame may not necessarily follow, but something will happen to take us to the next place we need to go.
The next wave.
Kay
John,
It is interesting that you mention it. I haven't had a chance to do much with the book yet - too many extraneous commitments, but I hope to get reading and working from it this weekend. However, I have started working on something else completely different from what I have been submitting to the group. So now I have a number of projects running around in my notebook!
A further comment however, Crandall has some great books on many different aspects of writing and how to improve. there is no question that my relationship with the written word and white pages has been improved by life experience. A valuable lesson for others who may have struggled through English or Lit classes but still have tales and stories running around in their heads or just things they would like to say.
It is fun (satisfying...revealing...) to start actually saying it out loud, well on a page.
-Sandy
Color me inspired. As I read your post I realized immediately that I own the book you mention. Since beginning with the morning group and using prompts several months ago I've thought often about taking a few minutes each day to do some writing using prompts. Of course, I haven't quite put the thought into action but your post has inspired me to pull some books off the shelf and at the very least flip through them. Thanks.
Ann Marie,
Prompts can be good for pumping up your creativity and injecting some oomph into your imagination. Sort of like warm-ups before strenuous exercise. Also, you never know when something started as a prompt will catch wind and set sail on its own. Let us know how it works out for you.
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