All In - Risk In Writing
June 30th, 2008
This posting is a guest post by Gina Cacace. Her writings, artwork, and musings on life can be found at GinaCacace.com.
I’ve been reading Laraine Herring’s Writing Begins With the Breath (Shambhala Publications*). It has a really interesting approach to creating an authentic writing voice. Herring uses yoga postures and an awareness of the breath to help the writer access the part of the self that is usually guarded by our inner critic. Her first chapter is on risk in writing. She explains that most writers guard themselves in their works, “The writer tries to play it safe, tries to couch what he’s doing in layers of deep, and often beautifully phrased crap. The reader spots this right away…” But that through surrendering ourselves to our experiences, we can become more honest and compelling writers.
I very rarely take any risk in my writing. My memoirs normally adopt a sarcastic tone in order to downplay the importance of events. In fiction, I have created numerous middle aged male narrators, whose voices are usually comedic but distant. In an effort to tap into a more authentic voice, I created a female narrator in her twenties who was struggling to write a story (very much like myself). The result is the short fiction piece All In.
Any writer that shares their work understands that most people will confuse the narrator with the author. This can be frustrating, especially when we’ve worked so hard to create an interesting and complex character. But we can’t deny the little bits of ourselves that we invest into our characters (and that is where risk comes in–the more you are willing to invest, the more alive your story becomes, but also the more susceptible you are to be judged). Most readers will understand that if the story was purely autobiographical, the writer would have labeled it a memoir (as a side note, what is wrong with people who keep releasing fabricated memoirs? Why don’t they just call it fiction and avoid all of this?).
This is not to say that we can only write narrators that share our same demographic information. We all know that there is something that resonates beyond age/sex/location in a story. But to get to that point, we have to admit that if the story we write is our story then we’ll be closer to the characters and the result will be more powerful.
My hope is that the parts of myself I invested into my narrator, Rea, will make her believable. I also hope that readers will understand that she has certain exaggerated traits that make her distinct from me. It is a relatively simple story about self-realization and the confusion of college. Sharing this story is the most important part of the process (although believe me, writing it was difficult enough) so I’d love to have some feedback.
Thanks!
Gina
*For anyone who isn’t familiar with Shambhala Publications, they’re the ones that published Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, another essential tool for supporting your creativity.
Did my post help you? Buy me a coffee?Curing the “If Only’s”
September 6th, 2007
We’ve all done it. You think to yourself, “everything would fall in to place if only…” or “I would be truly happy, if only…”. I know I have done it from time to time. Whether its “if only I was in a relationship” or “if only I had the new iPod“, the thinking itself is faulty. If you have found yourself in this position, one of two things is happening:
1) You’re wrong: It’s possible you’re 100% wrong. You would not be happy in the situation you are envisioning, its just a safe concept to place the blame on for your unhappiness. If the “If only” you are focusing on is completely out of your hands, this is the more likely of the two. We tend to prefer to place blame on things that are out of our hands, because we feel more comfortable with it. We do not have to evaluate ourselves, or change our game plan, theres “nothing that can be done”. If this is the case, the only real method to remedy your thinking is to realize its flaw, and reevaluate your life to see what is truly making you unhappy, focusing instead on the items that are in your hands.
2) You’re putting too much pressure on a good thing: Yes, it’s entirely possible that being in a relationship or having the new iPod WOULD, in fact, make you happy. But if you are relying on one change in your life to completely switch your mindset from unhappy to happy, you are putting far too much pressure on that change. Under such pressure, the change can end only in failure.
For instance, say your life is not where you feel it should be. You’re in a job that doesn’t make you enough money, you haven’t be exercising like you resolved to, and you’re lonely for some intimacy. If you take any one of those problems by themselves, and apply the weight of your entire unhappiness to it, you will not succeed in conquering it. You will apply 2-weeks to your weight-loss program, and still feel blue about your job every morning. This dissatisfaction will then wear at you, until you give up on your exercising again, and return right back where you started.
So what is to be done? It’s pretty simple, really, and I’m sure you’ve already realized. Give each item in your life that you feel could be improved its proper attention, and nothing more. Watch out for situations where you are applying too much pressure to one particular problem or its fix. In addition to this realize that, generally speaking, no one person or thing should have the power to make you wholly happy or unhappy. To be healthy, you should be capable of removing any one happy aspect of your life, and still remain relatively optimistic. If you can’t envision your life without your job, perhaps its time to reevaluate your priorities. If you can’t imagine going on if the girl you asked out rejects you, likewise, its time to reevaluate your priorities.
Did my post help you? Buy me a coffee?Scare yourself
March 26th, 2007
You’ve heard this topic before, no doubt, but it is worth a remention/reread.
If there is one phrase, one sentence, one idea that I would give someone asking me how self improvement is accomplished, it would be “Scare yourself”. No one, no great thinker, no great athlete, no great musician or actor, has ever achieved greatness by remaining in their comfort zone. Every single one has had to challenge themselves, bite off just a little bit more than they thought they could chew, to truly achieve their dreams.
Look at it this way. Few people have lowly ambitions. By ‘ambitions’, I’m not referring to what you would be ’satisfied with’, I’m talking about those dreams you have where your life is perfect. It could be…a well paying job, a loving spouse (who moonlights as a model), and adoring honor roll children. It could also be a fat paycheck and the new Benz. Regardless, you can’t expect to achieve any of those dreams if you aren’t willing to shake yourself up a little bit. If extreme success was easy, everyone would be successful.
You will read a lot of articles that tell you to ‘do one thing each day that frightens you’. I say, in every decision, in every aspect of every situation of every day, do what frightens you. Strive to achieve just a little bit more than you think you can. Apply for the position you aren’t sure you can get. Ask for the promotion you know you deserve, but are afraid to request. Talk to the girl (or guy) that is out of your league.
Always shoot for the moon, and you just may be surprised with what you’ll hit.
Did my post help you? Buy me a coffee?— Next Page »
