Gaia: DIVING DEEPER: A Writing Workshop - Welcome to the DIVING DEEPER WRITING WORKSHOP!

What is Diving Deeper? - Tips & Tricks

http://quietlaughter.gaia.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:51:44 GMT

We have a number of boards here on Diving Deeper - here are a few tips and tricks to help you along the way while you are reading, sharing your writing and commenting:

When you are reading on any of the boards, you can sort people's posts by most recent posts/ replies. Click on "discussions" at the top of the board, and then click recent - and you will get all the most recent posts made on any of the boards.
If you go to an individual board, you can sort posts by the number of replies that a post has received.

For example, if you go to the Responses to Assignments Board and click on "Replies" column (it will be in blue, and is a link) - it will sort the posts by the greatest number of replies first. If you click it again, it will give you the posts by the least number of replies (ascending/ descending sort). It is always interesting (to me) to see the posts that are sometimes not receiving comments - not because they aren't worthy of a comment, but because they are impactful or just have maybe been missed.

For the Mods: you can also look at all of the posts that a DD member has made - go to "Admin" and manage members - click on a member's name and voila - all the posts they have ever made on DD. (I like this feature - helps me to keep people's posts straight, especially multiple posts, and that way I am less likely to miss reading something)

If you have any other tips or suggestions, please send them along to Sandra!

What is Diving Deeper? - commenting personally

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:10:00 GMT

Every so often when we read a piece here we feel to talk to the writer - rather than about the writing. Perhaps we are deeply touched by what is written, feel sure it's autobiographical and we want to share something to the person, rather than the writer.

Please, if you feel this impulse -- stop, breathe, and take a moment to refocus your attention on the writing and NOT the person who wrote it. Recently I wrote a note to someone about this, and it does keep coming up so the moderators and I decided it might be a good idea to have a public post which we can link to when it comes up. Here is a version of what I wrote:

-------------------------

I didn't want to 'comment on commenting' on the thread as it always takes away from the writer's work. One thing in DD we try to do is always treat the work as fiction, even if it is obviously not, and not write direct comments to the writer linking up the characters in the story with them as real people.

It probably seems weird for me to say this, given that there is such a huge 'healing' aspect to the DD approach – however I have experienced so often that the 'healing' happens when we focus on the work, and not the writer.

It is as if by somehow putting some air between ourselves and 'our story', and looking at that story as a piece of art, we are more able to let it go, or more able to integrate it - whatever 'needs' to happen.

I've seen this occur time and time again, and experienced it for myself..

I also know of a woman who found she could not write for months after someone approached her (in a 'real life' workshop) and said, “I'm so sorry about what happened to you”.

The On Commenting notes, which are so important for everyone to at least 'skim', does cover this, and so do many of my Notes Along the Way.

How to 'refocus' -- keep thinking about the -I- character in the story, or the main character:

e.g. If you feel sad about a person in the writing, just say this. "I felt sad about what the -I- character went through"... "I feel the -I- character has some deep issues/ideas that I differ with, I'd love have these explored more in the writing" etc etc

Sometimes it takes a lot of care to phrase what you want to say so it's about the writing and not about the writer - but it's time well worth taking, in terms of supporting the person you are writing to, and also in terms of your own writing.

If you really feel a strong urge to say something personal, please email the writer first and ask their permission, and if they say 'yes', I'd do it privately, unless you both agree to do it publicly and please publicly state that you are both in agreement to the discussion, and link to this post so people know that it's outside of Diving Deeper commenting guidelines.

Love,
Sandra

Re: What is Diving Deeper? - Welcome to New Members

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:06:11 GMT

As I may be offline for much of the next few weeks, I wanted to place the 'welcome note' I send out to all new members here. It includes the piece above, and the following:

.
DIVING DEEPER: A Writing Workshop - Welcome!

If you have any questions about how the pod 'works' don't hesitate to ask. Main thing is to jump in. Try out one of the assignments - many are only 15 minutes long. A good one is Truly Bad Writing - in fact I'd say it is almost a prerequisite for anyone joining the pod.

Here is a bit of orientation:

- Have a look at the Newsletters for details of what's most recent in terms of changes, plus any announcements since then.

- Please read the Pod description if you haven't already. It explains much of what this workshop/pod is about.

- Sandra Jensen's NOTES ALONG THE WAY will explain the method behind the 'Diving Deeper' writing process.

- If you want to comment on other member's creative pieces, please have a look at On Commenting / Giving Constructive Criticism - and, if you post a piece of your own creative work, please 'comment' on one or two other people's work. You will find your work will get more attention the more you give back to the community :-)

- The Tree House is for introductions or just to chat about yourself or your writing or whatever is going on for you.

- If you have any issues or difficulties with something on the pod, there is a Mediation Thread for you to share and be heard.

- Newsletters & Announcements - should be perused by all new members just to see what is happening.

- The Assignment Archive - a list of all assignments, and the 'instructions' on how to make this archive work for you.

If you respond to one of these assignments, please post these to the Responses to Assignments board as a new thread -- except for screenplayscreenwriting assignments, which get posted in the Diving Deeper SCREENWRITING & PLAYWRIGHTING board.

- Diving Deeper PROSE is for Prose, fiction, non-fiction, creative writing etc not in response to one of the assignments.

- Diving Deeper POETRY - is for all forms of Poetry not in response to one of the assignments.

- Diving Deeper SCREENWRITING & PLAYWRIGHTING - a "craft room" and place to post this form of writing - including responses to assignments that are specific to these genres.

Remember that short excerpts are easier to handle in this digital format. And, there is so much wonderful writing here, you will find that your work is more likely to be read if you share it in bite-sized chunks.

AND… a basic principle of Diving Deeper is that we support each other with our comments, See the guidelines on how to comment. If you post a piece of your own creative work, please make it a practice to then comment once or more on other people's creative work.

And check out the other boards, we have a wealth of resources for writers and other fun stuff going on.

Note: we are making a new policy to help maintain the focus of the pod: a member who does not at least view the pod once within a six month period will be removed. This only means taking a look, it doesn't mean to say you have to post anything. And if you are removed, you can always rejoin.

What is Diving Deeper?

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:38:56 GMT

The main aspect of the Diving Deeper pod is that it is a workshop - meaning it's not a place to simply publish our work, and have people say nice things about it, but rather a place to get inspiration and feedback and support to 'go deeper' with our writing and therefore our lives. It is not a place to sell ourselves or our writing, but a place to fine tune our craft and our way of being with ourselves and each other.

It is also a community of fellow writers and seekers and people who believe in giving back, so a huge part of being on the pod is actually reading other people's creative work and sharing our response, and of sharing any tips about what supports the process or where or how to publish work in the 'outside' world.

The Diving Deeper approach is one I teach in workshops. I teach because I want to learn.

Diving Deeper is a method developed out of the Freefall technique taught to me by Barbara Turner Vesselago. Freefall is an extraordinary process, one which has turned many from "I want to be a writer" to being writers. Because the method so beautifully mirrors the spiritual and meditative journey I am on, for me the process is not just about writing, but about living: in the moment, honest and direct as we know how, as risk taking as we can be, deeply alive with all our senses to the world inside and outside.

Sandra Jensen
Cultivator

Here is our original 'pod description'. It also sits at the bottom of our pod 'home' page, but it gets a bit lost down there so it's here with a few more details.

We may update the description from time to time, life is always moving and changing... have a look every so often, and even if we don't make any changes, it is good to be reminded why we are here:

Do you feel compelled to write, but something is stopping you from getting on with it?

Do you feel you have a story to tell, or simply something 'to say' but don't know how to start, or how to continue?

Are you looking for a deeper connection to your self, or a sense of fulfilment?

In this online “playshop,” you will find tips and support from Sandra Jensen's DIVING DEEPER process; you will find writing games and suggestions which will help you break through Writer's Block, find your authentic voice, and tell your stories. You will generate more subjects, themes and ideas that you will ever be able to use, (but it is a big comfort to have a book full of them so that you will never feel stuck again.)

You can fine tune your writing skills at formal workshops and courses - this playshop is about jumping in, liberating your Inner Writer, and getting started. Or, to paraphrase Guy Kawasaki, it is about “the art of the start.” Once you learn how to overcome your writing Ogres, and trust your true voice, there will be no stopping you.

This is not a specific 'writing course' but a community of writers with something for every level of interest. It is however, strongly based on Sandra Jensen's Diving Deeper methods.

If you want to join us, please go here…

Jump in wherever you feel comfortable!

Sandra Jensen leads Diving Deeper writing retreats in Europe and North America. Her non-fiction work has been published in newspapers in Canada, the Whole Earth Magazine and Utne Reader. Her fiction has been published on Verbsap.com, The Dublin Quarterly, r.kv.r.y Quarterly. Word Riot, Versal, Common Ties, SFWP.org and Sou'Wester. She has written for the theatre, and is presently writing a collection of short stories.

”Out beyond ideas of right and wrong, there is a field.
I'll meet you there.”
Rumi

Welcome and Have Fun!

Re: ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:55:03 GMT

Thanks So much dear Mimi, Tom and Mary!
I'm completely delighted to be here with you all.

I keep planning to do more ODEO files, ( there is one more, buried in my blogs somewhere..)but it is a bore as you can't just copy and paste or do updates easily, the ODEO code has to be done in HTML, and doesn't always work. I think it's working on my home page.

And, a big part of my workshop process is that I read out the writing aloud, and I've been thinking of incorporating this into an 'online' writing workshop. Lets see..

Much love,
Sandra

Re: ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

http://gardenplanetproject.gaia.com — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:10:40 GMT

yes, sandra rocks! Her river runs deep and wide....

Re: ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

Thu, 03 May 2007 05:25:57 GMT

I'm extremely grateful and proud that Sandra is here. Sandra, your Zaadz home page is full of interesting links and information. I have it bookmarked. Thank you :)

Love.

Re: ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Wed, 02 May 2007 05:02:48 GMT

Sandra,

The ODEO one didn't work for me, but the other one was delightful. Very nice to meet you. A great idea to include the sound bite. Here's what I got from the sound of your voice: kind, gentle, very smart - dangerously smart if someone so gentle can be dangerous - charming, self-possessed, curious, restless, musical, beautiful soul: a feeling-tone that resonates in her voice, way out of my league.

Some of it I already knew, some may be mistaken, but it was a revelation of your character that wouldn't have been available just from pictures and text, even though everything I've seen of those have been exemplary. Thank you for sharing so openly, Sandra. Open sharing of selves is what I was hoping for when I joined Zaadz. We're all just spiritual doo-dads doing the thingie for the whatchamacallit anyway, eh?

And thanks so much for starting this awesome camp! I always wanted to go to Camp Happiness, but never dreamed it would be so beautiful here. The mountains...the trees...the sky...the stars...I can see the whole universe from here! Plus the cabins are so cozy.

Your new Boy Scout in writing camp,

Tom

Re: ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:25:20 GMT

Wow. I'm not sure how you did that ! Thank you.

I'm very happy to be here, I've been waiting for a long time for a writing pod on Zaadz to attract my attention, and this is it!

I'm almost overflowing with advice on the writing process, not all of it is useful, I'm certain of that.

I have had a long journey writing - full of all the bumps and crevices and mountains and mountain tops, and I continue to learn so much from my own students. So I'm here also to learn (you teach what you want to learn, (w)right?).

As always, how much we get out of this pod will depend on how much we put into it, even if it is just a line here and there. We need your voice. I believe that words carry energy, and writers need much nourishment and encouragement, your voice will provide that.

One of the major issues with the writing process is how to keep writing, and what to do when you are blocked.

I have discovered that we need support of other writers, even just having their presence nearby (and we are always nearby, thanks to the Internet).

This helps at the very least to keep us connected to the creative process, even if we are not actually writing. There are all the sensations and thoughts and quiet open intuitive spaces that are so much a part of the writing process, and it is good to be reminded that this creative space - this source - is always there, whether or not you are actually writing.

With love,

Sandra

ALL ABOUT SANDRA JENSEN, Our Co-Moderator :)

http://camphappiness.gaia.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:17:42 GMT

Sandra Jensen, our Co-Moderator, has already started sharing her light and wisdom (see her recent posts). Here is more information about this wonderful lady, who travels the world teaching writing workshops...:)

Sandra Jensen

Inspirational Ambassador

Gender: Female

Age: 45

Sun Sign: Virgo

Chinese Sign: Metal Ox

Location: On the Road, Germany, Canada, US, UK, Ireland

About Me:

What I'm learning…
“to never know better, never know first…”
(attrib. Carl Jung)

If you have stumbled here, and prod a bit further, you will discover how much I love cats.

And if you are new to zaadz, I'm here to support in any way I can. I am not an expert, but I am often online…

Some of what there is to say about me is on the biography page of my website at: www.sandrajensen.net.

**********************

My favourite quotes of the moment:

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

Plato (possibly)

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.”

Bruce Lee

“Consciousness is so pure that whatever you are doing in the direction of purifying that consciousness is adding impurity to it.”

U.G. Krishnamurti

“There is no way you can look at anything without the use of the knowledge that you have of what you are looking at.”

U.G. Krishnamurti

“None of our pretences and none of our beliefs about ourselves and about what we think God is can save us from having to face the authentic condition of our own hearts.”
Michael Brown

“Reality is the interval between two thoughts.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

“It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and lovingkindness, a community practicing mindful living. And the practice can be carried out as a group, as a city, as a nation.”

Thich Nhat Hanh
“The Next Buddha May Be A Sangha” in Inquiring Mind, Vol 10, No. 2, Spring 1994 (with thanks to Siona)

..the key to a fulfilled life is to pursue wholeheartedly what one cares about and that it is through caring that we infuse the world and our own lives with meaning… the most authoritative and important form of caring is love—a nonvoluntary, disinterested concern for the flourishing of what is loved…

Harry Frankfurt - The Reasons of Love
(thanks to Nicole from the Meme Busters Pod ”balance vs positive” thread)

“it's the embrace that fulfills us, not the thing that we embrace.”
yours truly

“Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to others' insights and experiences.

We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.”

Thich Nhat Hanh
The 2nd of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings from Interbeing

“I see that I've been No to Practicals and Yes to Dreams. So it's like: No to do-able practicals and Yes to non-do-able dreams. I haven't done anything to make my dreams happen, except work on myself so, ok, that's not how reality works. It's delusional to imagine that the world is going to act like some New Age thingamabob and send me invitations.”

Michael Walsh

“The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.”
Joseph Schumpeter

“It is hardly possible to overrate the value…of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar… Such communication has always been…one of the primary sources of progress.”
John Stuart Mill

”the first person singular present tense which is the LOVE that makes the world go round and leaves no-one whatever out - all travelling the way - and willing to communicate and collaborate with each-other - regardless of race, religion, politics or culture.”
Douglas Harding

“Using no way as way, Having no limitation as limitation.”
Bruce Lee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DIVING DEEPER WRITING WORKSHOPS

Berlin, Germany Feb 8 - 11 2007 PDF
Earthgate, Pennsylvania, March 9th - 11th PDF
Earthgate Studios is a lovely retreat facility in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Cork, Ireland March 23rd - 25th. PDF
Earthgate, Pennsylvania - Sept/Oct 2007 tba
Seattle, Washington - Sept/Oct 2007 tba
Berlin, Germany Oct 15 - 20th 2007

Email me for more details or check out my website for further information.

**********************

zaadz blogs to watch:

Photizo's blogs and extraordinary photographs; eg the beautiful: The Awakening Revisited

What would you do if you weren't afraid?
And all of Ron Hardy's beautiful writings

Mushin's blogs - eg The Myth of the Given or is subject and object fiction? and The Myth of Cause and Effect - Or is it really the slap that hurts?

M.Alan's blogs e.g. My zaadz friends list and his writings elsewhere

Michael's blog e.g. The search for the Holy GRAIL

Martin's blog e.g. Being for Something

Perfect Logic is meaningless without perfect perspective and Donan's other lovely blogs

Without Emotion
By Ian Gardner

FART: Faith, Atheism, Religion, Transformation
By C4Chaos - actually check out ALL C4's blogs, he's a miracle

What & Where: Notes on the Seeker's Mentality
by David Jon

Siona shows her cards
And all of Siona's wonderful blogs

**********************

Other writings / musings/ videos to have a look at:

Harry Frankfurt: a philosopher talking about Bullshit
Pop Go the Scientists by Brian Appleyard of the Sunday Times
David Gelernter and Ray Kurzweil debate about the (im)possibility of machine consciousness.
9/11 Mysteries- by now well know vid suggesting that Bush administration and other elements of the government had a hand in 9/11
George Carlin's controversial “on Saving the Planet”
Ben, the blind teen who 'sees' with sound
Mellen-Thomas Benedict's Near-Death Experience
The Nature of Consciousness - Alan Watts

**********************

Pods & Threads I've been involved with:

Heroes and Heroines - ThinkTank
What IS the purpose of life? - Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime
Advice to Butterfly On Joining the Military - Zaadz Lounge (zLounge)
Balance vs Positive - MemeBusters
Goosebumps - on Brian's blog
Yasuhiko Genku Kimura on Thinking - on ~C4 Chaos' blog
Confusion - on Jodi's blog
Do Something Amazing? How about Something Extraordinary? - on the Gemütlichkeit Pod
Is Peace Possible? on zLounge
ATTN: The two guides of IDEAL ME and REAL ME - outside of Zaadz, but a response to a Zaadzter…

**********************

I'm putting in time on my novel. That's good. I'm not happy with what I'm writing, but this is better than not being happy that I'm not writing. Or is it? If I'm not writing, I can always bask in the illusion that I could be writing something, and that something could be really exceptional. Ah well… I guess I'll muddle on.

What else, This is what I posted nearly a year ago, it still stands:

I've seen a lot, done a lot, felt a lot . Actually sometimes I feel both 90 years old and seven at the same time.

I've worked in all kinds of jobs from weaver to breakfast chef to IT project manager in Canada's biggest bank to hands-on healer.

I love delicious food, delicious smells and things that feel soft and silky. I've taught Photoshop to refugee Tibetan monks and nuns, I've acted on stage, I've taught Jeet Kune Do, scrubbed other peoples toilets and sat at the feet of Guru's.

I've lived in more places than I can count on my fingers, (I have 3 passports) and am still searching for the perfect home, which I sense can only be in an organically evolving yet intentional community of like-spirited beings.

My love-partner (David Crean - www.bodyresonance.org )
and I plan to participate in or create such a community, which would include a healing centre and a think-tank for creative, spiritual and healing projects which could bring more light into the world.

Please let me know if you are interested!

If you want to hear what I sound like… here is a snippet… recorded on January 10, 2007

Member Since: Tuesday, February 28 2006

Last Visit: Today.

Profile Viewed: 4446 times (last viewed less than a minute ago)

Re: DIALOGUE BETWEEN SANDRA & ALEX

http://camphappiness.gaia.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:55:52 GMT

print | permalink | delete

2 days later

Sandra said

Smiling. I'm feeling very 'met' dear Alex. Yes I too started my Diving Deeper writing workshops as a way to support me writing.. and they worked well, for a while, the first three got me started on The Novel ( rather curiously, also a fantasy/sci-fi type thing, completely NOT what I expected to be writing). And then, well then of course the workshops started to need my full attention, and in any case, I couldn't write more than a couple of clunky lines when I tried.

I do know some of the answers to the wonderful questions Larry Brody asked you - What is keeping me from writing is partly to do with practicals: I'm on the move constantly, and rather haphazardly ( in other words, I'm not travelling for inspiration for my writing, more as a reactive process) - I do not have a home base ( looking for one) and presently more or less live in one room with my partner. I want space and silence, more than I need food and water really. And the other question, why do I need to write? Ah. That's a good one. I'm going to have to sit with this. Thank you so much for your supportive words. And most definitely I'll be delighted to share anything that might be helpful..

One is the very thing you have done right here with me, and you mention “Make “writing dates” with other writers” - I sense most writers need the company of other writers, even if it is long distance. One of my workshops spawned a writers group, they get together twice a month and share work together.. and do some writing in the group itself. And I know that going on a specific 'writing' retreat with other writers as I have just done in the UK, is really really helpful.

With much love,
Sandra

print | permalink | delete

3 days later

Sandra said

<<sigh>> Today I read a synopsis of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

It has so many similar elements to my own (blocked) novel I almost wanted to cry. & I then think of ”The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. “(Ecclesiastes 1:1–9)

Perhaps my response is a key my answer to the question, “Why do you need to write?”

print | permalink | edit (for 12 minutes) | delete

3 days later

AlexNoble said

Sandra: Yes! When I started to answer Brody's question as to “Why I want to write-NEED to write,” it was like Proust biting the madeleine…suddenly the universe cracked open. I actually started writing with the “voice” of Japanese lady named “Hiroka,” in very broken English, but I was WRITING! Ray Bradbury used to encourage writers to improvise on his plots and characters, as no two stories will ever be the same. I am about to post a story based on Julio Cortazar's Famas and Cronopios. Be of good cheer. Let the good times roll!!! Love xxx

DIALOGUE BETWEEN SANDRA & ALEX

http://camphappiness.gaia.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:17:44 GMT

POSTED BY SANDRA IN RESPONSE TO A WISDOM FOR WRITERS ITEM ABOUT BREAKING WRITERS BLOCK (BY ALEX):

Fabulous stuff dear ones, nourishment for me and for the writers I work with, thank you!

I do believe one of the most terrifying things known to man/woman is the blank page.

In return I will copy a few things I've found helpful and which I use in my Diving Deeper groups - not as wonderfully hilarious as Burt's.. but.. perhaps something here to inspire.

And, who am I to speak? I have quite a big writer's block - not for blogs or bits and pieces, but I realise I'm in a kind of transition phase, a good one, but not a comfortable one. I blocked half way through a novel ( my first ) - and as I go on, with support from others and my own personal process, I realise that I need to discover the world more, the world I'm writing about… and to fill myself with it as much as my own life stories have filled me.

One simple practical thing which supports me, is to 'prepare' my writing desk the night before. Make it look inviting… and sometimes, if I'm actually not completely blocked, stop writing at a point where I'm 'in the middle' of something, so the next day I'm already juiced.

Well, here are the quotes I've found helpful:

“Do not try to see the words when you stop, just see the pictures better.”
Jack Kerouac.

”When you’re writing, you’re trying to find out something which you don’t know. The whole language of writing for me is finding out what you don’t want to know, what you don’t want to find out. But something forces you anyway.”
- James Baldwin

“Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding. That’s just part of the deal.”
- David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear

”The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas – for my body does not have the same ideas I do. ”
- Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text

the next bit is very long, but one of my absolute favourites:

”A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has
found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not
started to say them.

One implication is the importance of just plain receptivity. When I write, I like to have an
interval before me when I am not likely to be interrupted. For me, this means usually the early morning, before others are awake. I get pen and paper, take a glance out of the window (often it is dark out there), and wait. It is like fishing. But I do not wait very long, for there is always a nibble–and this is where receptivity comes in. To get started I will accept anything that occurs to me. Something always occurs, of course, to any of us. We can't keep from thinking. Maybe I have to settle for an immediate impression: it's cold, or hot, or dark, or bright, or in between! Or well, the possibilities are endless. If I put down something, that
thing will help the next thing come, and I'm off. If I let the process go on, things will occur to
me that were not at all in my mind when I started. These things, odd or trivial as they may be, are somehow connected. And if I let them string out, surprising things will happen.

If I let them string out…. Along with initial receptivity, then, there is another readiness:
I must be willing to fail. If I am to keep on writing, I cannot bother to insist on high standards.
I must get into action and not let anything stop me, or even slow me much. By “standards”
I do not mean “correctness” spelling, punctuation, and so on. These details become mechanical for anyone who writes for a while. I am thinking about such matters as social significance, positive values, consistency, importance etc…. I resolutely disregard these. Something better, greater, is happening! I am following a process that leads so wildly and originally into new territory that no judgment can at the moment be made about values, significance, and so on. I am making something new, something that has not been judged before. Later others–and maybe I myself–will make judgments. Now, I am headlong to discover. Any distraction may harm the creating.

So, receptive, careless of failure, I spin out things on the page. And a wonderful freedom
comes. If something occurs to me, it is all right to accept it. It has one justification: it occurs
to me. No one else can guide me. I must follow my own weak, wandering, diffident impulses.

A strange bonus happens. At times, without my insisting on it, my writings become
coherent; the successive elements that occur to me are clearly related. They lead by themselves to new connections. Sometimes the language, even the syllables that happen along, may start a trend. Sometimes the materials alert me to something waiting in my mind, ready for sustained attention. At such times, I allow myself to be eloquent, or intentional, or for great swoops (Treacherous! Not to be trusted!) reasonable. But I do not insist on any of that; for I know that back of my activity there will be the coherence of my self, and that indulgence of my impulses will bring recurrent patterns and meanings again.

This attitude toward the process of writing creatively suggests a problem for me, in terms
of what others say. They talk about “skills” in writing. Without denying that I do have
experience, wide reading, automatic orthodoxies and maneuvers of various kinds, I still must insist that I am often baffled about what “skill” has to do with the precious little area of
confusion when I do not know what I am going to say and then I find out what I am going to
say. That precious interval I am unable to bridge by skill. What can I witness about it? It
remains mysterious, just as all of us must feel puzzled about how we are so inventive as to be able to talk along through complexities with our friends, not needing to plan what we are going to say, but never stalled for long in our confident forward progress. Skill? If so, it is the skill we all have, something we must have learned before the age of three or four.

A writer is one who has become accustomed to trusting that grace, or luck, or–skill.

Yet another attitude I find necessary: most of what I write, like most of what I say in casual
conversation, will not amount to much. Even I will realize, and even at the time, that it is not
negotiable. It will be like practice. In conversation I allow myself random remarks–in fact,
as I recall, that is the way I learned to talk–so in writing I launch many expendable efforts.
A result of this free way of writing is that I am not writing for others, mostly; they will not see
the product at all unless the activity eventuates in something that later appears to be worthy. My guide is the self, and its adventuring in the language brings about communication.”

William Stafford “A way of writing, Writing the Australian Crawl”

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2 days later

AlexNoble said

Sandra!

Thank you so much… These are wonderful. Yes, we ALL have those moments when we feel we cannot write another word! They say you teach that which you most want to learn, and I developed my Creative Writing Workshop as my personal curriculum for breaking through my own 'blocks' and stuck moments. This is, as you say, a universal issue, and I will be posting much more on this (in byte-size pieces) because it is one of my favorite subjects. I am a “recovering writer” in that I was completely stuck for several years. Simply could not get near my creative work. Endless business and corporate writing, but nothing remotely creative. My dear friend Larry Brody (www.tvwriter.com) helped me break out of my drought with this wonderful question: “Why do you need to write, and what is keeping you from it.?” That facilitated my breakthrough. (Larry teaches aspiring TV writers how to be real writers and write material which is about something worthwhile.)

I welcome your ongoing notes on this, and I will be sharing all the tricks and tips that have worked for me in the past, and which are working for me now. Blessings and love to you, AJN.

Sandra said