Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part. It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.
- Writing teaches you to pay attention, to notice everything, see the world with new eyes
Part 1: Writing
- “…good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are.”
- Short assignments: “…all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being.”
- “Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong.” And thus, it is important to have hope, because: “hope, as Chesterton said, is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.
- “I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it.”
- Geneen Roth: “awareness is learning to keep yourself company.”
Part 2: The Writing Frame of Mind
- “To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass—seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way…”
- On the role of intuition in writing:
- “You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind.”
- “Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.”
My deepest belief is that to live as if we’re dying can set us free. Dying people teach you to pay attention and to forgive and not to sweat the small things.
Part 3: Help Along the Way
- If you’re stuck on how to write about something, try approaching it in the form of a letter— informality might help you get started
Part 4: Publication—And Other Reasons to Write
- “When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are.” Shame heals when spoken and all.
- Re: publication… “If you’re not enough before the gold medal, you won’t be enough with it.” (from Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team)
Part 5: The Last Class
“So why does our writing matter, again?” they ask. Because of the spirit, I say. Because of the heart. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.