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If You Want To Write, Let the World Move You - Article from our Life Coaching Programs
If You Want To Write, Let the World Move You
I think that in order to write really well and convincingly, one must be somewhat poisoned by emotion. Dislike, displeasure, resentment, faultfinding, imagination, passionate remonstrance, a sense of injustice—they all make fine fuel.
Choosing to experience the world from a writer’s perspective—you remember that a writer is someone who is actively writing—means opening yourself up to experience and emotion. A writer soaks up the world; then it flows through the heart and mind, finally putting it into words.
At times, this will hurt. To be open means to experience deep empathy, sympathy, and compassion. It means stopping to experience many things most people ignore, or do not wish to see. Such as that homeless woman wrapped in once bright now filthy scarves, sitting on a dirty wooden box outside the tobacco store. Writers pause to take this in. To feel it. The red eyes of the clerk. The tight mouth on that gentleman. The husband clenches his fist. The child stomps into a puddle. We allow these things to strike us emotionally.
Then we must find words of truth, for what we feel. We must honestly put a name to it. Disgust? Fury? Judgment? Do we find the homeless woman ugly? Lazy? Haunting? How does it feel she sits at a tobacco store? What is on the faces of others? Do they curse, turn away, turn pale, cross the street, drop a thin dime into her palm? Does she turn to look at us, and what emotions pass between us? All of that is precious, beautiful and rare material to go write down.
Often the delight and wonder of a good piece of writing is that the writer says what the reader is thinking and feeling, but would never say aloud. Nor perhaps even acknowledge, without the writer’s help. In this way writers assist society to face itself, know itself, talk about itself, unbury secrets, celebrate nuances, and rise above pettiness.
Early writers sometimes enjoy tossing out “shocking” words or truths. Go ahead; get it out of your system. Then go deeper.
In order to speak for society, or a company, or a family or yourself, you have to move through society alert, awake, your feelings open. Like a blind man feeling his way with sensitive fingertips and intuition, writers must use heightened senses.
Then you go sit in your café, or at your desk or under the tree, and you must be willing to regurgitate that experience. Focus on minutiae, feel it intensely, drag up everything, cast around for words, feel inside for more and more emotional details. Did I feel compelled to some action? Did I do nothing? What was that like?
It is this emotional experience many people want to avoid, and so they do not write. It is not a myth that writers often drink, use drugs, and seek escapes and numbing remedies.
You will need some skills for bringing yourself out of that intense state of awareness and feeling, for dealing with what comes up inside yourself, for having the courage to put your words out there. You’ll need NOT to drink, do drugs, or become the caricature of a writer…cynical, sorry, penniless, or angry. Be a passionate writer. Alive, vital, hopeful. Because when you can be open to deeper, richer pain, you create openness to deeper, richer joy, as well.
Set up skills. A sport you love, regular exercise, others with whom you commiserate, good nutrition, meditation or prayer, great writer’s you read because they did or did not find a way to deal with deep emotion and awareness, and most of all, create your emotional shield. A shield is vital. When you want to rest from the angst and distressing details of a homeless woman wrapped in scarves, put on your shield. Turn off awareness for a while, as many people do the majority of the time. You’ll find you can, with practice.
Let yourself bloom,
© Kimberly Wordbird Bate
photo by meanderingtypepad
Wow! What inspiration to teach children who write to develop their passion for writing, give it deeper meaning, and remember totake a rest. I feel aflame with passion to pass on this advice, certainly not because I am a "writer" but I do meet some very sensitive budding authors.
Oh stop I, we are all writing our lives, and as we see the angst rising through out the week how preciouse is the call for a day of rest and celebration of what is noble. I think we all need this time of reflection to look deeper, find that voice, and determne what action needs to come forth.
Thank you Kimberly Wordbird Bate
Thank you for such a remarkable for this article. How true it is I am a writer poetry and it has changed my life around for the better!
I cried ... softly, deeply these words touched my inner being. I, too, recall a moment in time when I kept vigil of a homeless woman I saw for only one winter and never did see her again. I watched her with her shopping cart, layers of clothing, collection of items and wondered many things about her life and how she came to this path roads. She humbled me. I wanted to "take care" of her in some way, with out her feeling insulted or intruded upon, so I carefully watched, I silently observed her all the while thinking ... thinking how do I show her a kindness. I also saw how she distanced herself from the outside world, lived in her own void, not looking upon anyone, not making any kind of human contact with her entire being. She would rest while other's went about their every day existance, paying little, if any, attention to this woman ... no communication what's-so-ever from she or other's. I took her completely in, all her movements, or none at all, all her gestures, or nothing ... then after weeks I knew what I was going to do. It was drawing upon the holiday season and into even colder more harsher weather. She was a large woman like myself, and I had plenty of items to give her. I asked my aide at the time to help me. She had no idea what i was up to. I took all the items I barely wore that were warm and in great condition: dresses, sweatpants, leg warmers, scarves, gloves, hats, whatever I could and I made a simple care package for her. I added to that food items she could use easily; hot chocolate mix, tea, coffee, items that wouldn't go bad, and some fresh fruit she could nibble on. I put everything in a paper bag with handles and brought it with me to the shopping center I always saw her at. Without saying one word I placed it against the wall she was sitting on and made sure it stood properly. Neither of us said one word, neither of us exchange one glance. Yet, for that one moment in time, I felt a connection of sorts, and understanding if you will of what her world was like. It was a solidary world of contentment and safety, and she allowed me in if only for a moment, and that was good enough for me. She accepted my gift by just letting me give it, to be in her moment with her. It was an incredible feeling to share another's silence. Before I left the shopping area, I saw she had added the clothing onto her already existing layers of clothes, and that was her gift to me, a gift of acceptance, the silent gift of 'thank you'. I never saw that woman ever again, but I will never forget her. Thank you for giving me the gift of rememberence.
So beautifully shared. I like to imagine you gave her the boost she needed to perhaps go find family, or take some other step she didn't have the warmth and leg up to do, before your gift.
I appreciate the comments so much.
I so appreciated this inspiration! I haven't written in so long because I was so afraid of feeling all that emotional pain that drounded my existence at one time.
I have had many ideas in my head but I can never quite figure out how to get them out anymore.
This was the exact thing that I needed to hear to get my fingers slamming on the key board again. Thank you!
I am not really sure why, but I just associated my writing with my grief and didn't know how to keep those feelings alive with out "drowning into an unstoppable depression"
This helped me to realize that what I am writing about is my deep compassion for things it wasn't just the sadness.
Thanks for making that click for me!
You brought me back into my passion!
Wonderful to hear!
Yet again, our resident word bird takes to flight...
As usual, this is clear, passionate, and poetic writing. We are lucky to have Kimberly challenge and inspire us.
Bravo.
Quetzaltlahtolitzin:
A central concept in Elias Canetti’s life and work is “metamorphosis.” As he insisted in his 1976 address, “The Writer’s Profession,” it is the job of the writer to be a “guardian of metamorphoses,” and to “claim for his own the literary heritage of humanity, rich in metamorphoses.” Throughout his life that word remained at the heart of his self-awareness. When Canetti describes the writer as guardian of the metamorphoses, he has in mind primarily the writer’s own potential for transformation, a capacity which must be preserved in a world of specialization and division of labor, in opposition to a production which, Canetti insists, “unhesitatingly multiplies the means to its own destruction and at the same time tries to stifle whatever might remain of human qualities already won.”
With much love,
Beatriz