On a chilly afternoon I walked into the local Starbucks to grab a coffee and sit down and try to focus on this paper I've been trying to write that's now due in less than 12 hours. I see a few of my old friends from college that have become well known writers and decide to sit down and ask for their advice and guidance. You may know them... My friend Carolyn Chute wrote "How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call", Anne Lamott wrote Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" , and Ray Bradbury wrote "Zen in the Art of Writing".
(I walk over and sit down to join them)
Me: Hey you guys! Long time, no see! How are you all?
Them: (simultaneously) Good, good, good!
Me: That's great!! I'm glad you're all here. I need some advice and guidance writing this big paper I have to do for school. I've been trying to get it done for weeks now and I've come up with nothing! Do you have any advice or guidance that you can offer me? This paper is due tomorrow and I'm drawing a blank!
Anne: "E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you." "This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."
All: (nod in agreement)
Ray: Well, honestly I fully agree. I used to have the same problem. But eventually "you stumble into it, mostly. You don't know what you're doing and suddenly it's done."
Me: really? You've had this problem? You're so successful. I'm sure it's so easy for you all.
Ray: Yes. I often draw blanks on what to write about. "But through the years i began to make lists of titles, to put down long lines of nouns, These lists were the provocations, finally, that caused my better stuff to surface."
Carolyn: You see "writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming. You are tapping into your unconscious. To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way into your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission."
Anne: you're right Carolyn and some of those noises come from within. "What I've learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head."
Anne: "I just sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander."
Me: So, You're all saying that it doesn't just come to you? How long does it normally take for you to come up with something good?
Carolyn: "You see, I cant just switch from life mode to writer mode. Usually it takes three days to get into the writer mode. Three days of quiet non-life mode, lots of coffee and no interruptions."
Me: THREE WHOLE DAYS?
Anne: You see that's the problem "People tend to look at successful writers, Writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially and think that they sit down at their desk every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated."
Me: Well, I Don't feel so bad after all. I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only person that has trouble focusing and getting the job done. Even the best of the best have issues.
Carolyn: Exactly! I've come to realize that "I am a person who can't teach writing or make a living in any public way, as I get confused when interrupted or overstimulated. In a classroom or crowded room, I all but blank out."
Ray: I agree! And believe it or not "In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you right, the more honest you are." Once you're fully focused it will all come so quickly, but you have to be in YOUR TRANCE.
Anne: Absolutely Ray! And also you have to remember that there are always "shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is How they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts."
Me: Well I have a much better understanding now! Thank you all so much for all of your help! I'll see you all later.... I'm heading to my quiet place. I'll be done in no time!
(I walk over and sit down to join them)
Me: Hey you guys! Long time, no see! How are you all?
Them: (simultaneously) Good, good, good!
Me: That's great!! I'm glad you're all here. I need some advice and guidance writing this big paper I have to do for school. I've been trying to get it done for weeks now and I've come up with nothing! Do you have any advice or guidance that you can offer me? This paper is due tomorrow and I'm drawing a blank!
Anne: "E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you." "This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."
All: (nod in agreement)
Ray: Well, honestly I fully agree. I used to have the same problem. But eventually "you stumble into it, mostly. You don't know what you're doing and suddenly it's done."
Me: really? You've had this problem? You're so successful. I'm sure it's so easy for you all.
Ray: Yes. I often draw blanks on what to write about. "But through the years i began to make lists of titles, to put down long lines of nouns, These lists were the provocations, finally, that caused my better stuff to surface."
Carolyn: You see "writing is like meditation or going into an ESP trance, or prayer. Like dreaming. You are tapping into your unconscious. To be fully conscious and alert, with life banging and popping and cuckooing all around, you are not going to find your way into your subconscious, which is a place of complete submission."
Anne: you're right Carolyn and some of those noises come from within. "What I've learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head."
Anne: "I just sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander."
Me: So, You're all saying that it doesn't just come to you? How long does it normally take for you to come up with something good?
Carolyn: "You see, I cant just switch from life mode to writer mode. Usually it takes three days to get into the writer mode. Three days of quiet non-life mode, lots of coffee and no interruptions."
Me: THREE WHOLE DAYS?
Anne: You see that's the problem "People tend to look at successful writers, Writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially and think that they sit down at their desk every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated."
Me: Well, I Don't feel so bad after all. I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only person that has trouble focusing and getting the job done. Even the best of the best have issues.
Carolyn: Exactly! I've come to realize that "I am a person who can't teach writing or make a living in any public way, as I get confused when interrupted or overstimulated. In a classroom or crowded room, I all but blank out."
Ray: I agree! And believe it or not "In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you right, the more honest you are." Once you're fully focused it will all come so quickly, but you have to be in YOUR TRANCE.
Anne: Absolutely Ray! And also you have to remember that there are always "shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is How they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts."
Me: Well I have a much better understanding now! Thank you all so much for all of your help! I'll see you all later.... I'm heading to my quiet place. I'll be done in no time!