On Writing
I have gained a new appreciation for the way I create on the page.
And how I express myself.
The singularity of my voice and the mosaic nature of my process.
I honor a validity no expert can teach and no framework can bestow.
I wait for and follow ideas. I get lost. I recover.
I listen to direction I receive internally.
And notice numinous clues that catch my eye and my heart.
I know on a visceral level what to trust and who.
And trust myself.
I have gained affirmation that there is no one way to tell a story, to write a memoir, to create a piece of art.
Pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, hands in a puddle of paint.
These are vehicles not only of telling but of listening.
I give them, and me, space and liberty to live.
—M
I’m coming to this place with [a particular work] where I’ve got to rip the thing up and start anew. Salvaging big chunks but only the stellar…the whole linear is so boring. But it’s kind of heartbreaking, too.
The more I try to think linear to organize it the more chaotic it gets, if that makes any sense. Like, it knows I’m tying to control it.
This is one of those parts of myself I’m meeting for the first time but that has always been there inside me. A way of telling a story that I labeled not acceptable because it came from inside me.
—M
Touching a nerve. Reaching out. Being seen. Learning a lesson. Documenting a confession. Letting go of control. Coming out of hiding. Crystalizing a point. Savoring a memory. Understanding a motive. conveying a truth. Finding my truth. Honoring my voice. Speaking my truth. Crafting something original. Imparting a lesson. Hulling the pain. Savoring the laughter. Facing the jealousy. Relaying something original. Holding up a moment. Digging into depths. Recognizing the conflict. Stirring things up. Letting things go. Speculating. Not understanding. Re-understanding. Marking the moment everything changed, the moment I knew, the moment I wish I hadn’t known but without it, I wouldn’t be here and be me. What I wish I’d never done. What I did but didn’t want to. Or wanted to. How I didn’t care. Or cared. That moment of extreme joy, loneliness, humiliation, belonging, shame. Feeling out of control. Questioning why. Discovering the answer. Putting it down on paper. Sending it—and myself—out into the world.
—Meredith
Judith Handelsman Smith is the author of three books including GROWING MYSELF: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY THROUGH GARDENING. After creating a mountain sanctuary for meditators, and teaching Vipassana meditation for a decade, she has refocused on writing. Her fourth book is a memoir of her lifelong spiritual awakening. Her blog is the most current outpouring of her writer’s voice, one that is personal, meaningful and real. Judith’s memoir is one of my favorites of all time, and so it’s no surprise I love her blog, too. Please visit www.deepscribejudith.com.
Self-Doubt/ Self-Knowledge/ Changing my Relationship to Writing/ Doing the Work of Writing/ Being a Professional Creative/ Glamour Isn’t Real
As a writer and an artist, the only time I am truly happy is when I am creating. Creativity is intoxicating and not separate from my life. The creative process, in whatever medium, is my vehicle for satisfaction and empowerment. Everything I do is art.
I realized the truth of this when I first appeared on a TV talk show to promote my first book. Writing the book gave me satisfaction. Talking about the book, after the fact, tasted like sand in my mouth. When I realized the discrepancy between process and PR, I knew where my joy came from.
Writing always came naturally to me, even as a little girl. I was born with an ease and fluidity in writing, I unwittingly took for granted. I started writing professionally forty years ago, when I was in my early twenties. I had immediate success getting my first book published with a top-tier publisher in New York. I sold pieces to well-known magazines, and wrote and read a daily radio column for a major news network. I was doing well.
I believed being a successful writer should make me feel good about myself, but it only masked the wound I carried inside. In truth, I felt less-than, not enough, unable to take in my success, and afraid to fail. The glamour part was seductive, but it wasn’t real. It seemed real when I had books published, won awards, made appearances, signed autographs, gave speeches, and taught classes. But, it didn’t solve my problems.
At some point, I became inundated with unconscious material, as Jung would put it. I became depressed, fatigued, and overwhelmingly sad. I developed severe back problems and crippling pain. I had an abortion, got divorced, and lived in physical, emotional and spiritual crisis for years.
I knew I needed to heal myself in order to save my own life. Meditation and psychotherapy became my two strongest modes of inner work. It was obvious to me that being a writer and author did not make me feel like somebody. It couldn’t. I didn’t respect myself as a writer, or as a human being.
I began to address the hole in my being. Among other issues, I admitted I wasn’t living up to my potential as a writer. A big part of me felt like a hack. I had been writing in a certain mode for many years and got stuck in a good place. Inside me was a book calling out to be written that would be a huge departure from the kind of writing I was doing. I vowed to do everything in my power to birth that book into form.
Writing became my spiritual practice. I dove deep within myself to enrich my writing skills so I couldn’t blame myself if I failed. I stopped being afraid of my ambition and harnessed it to generate productive action. “Just do it,” became my answer to every fear that arose.
During the eighties, I gobbled up the new books about writing on both sides of the brain to access my creativity. At the time, these techniques were cutting edge. They taught me how to mine the personal gold of my feelings and put them into words.
With these methods and my enthusiasm, I changed my relationship to writing. I made myself vulnerable and stopped playing it safe. In this way, I recharged my creativity and found a boldness and iconoclastic bravery I never had before. I discovered I could be myself and write.
During this time, I developed my own curriculum and taught writing and poetry workshops from an inner point of view. I called my workshop, The Inner Game of Writing, and my college class, Writing as an Artistic Experience. When I decided to host a writing salon at my home, writers and poets from throughout the area came out of isolation.
In the salon, we’d each write a word or phrase on a piece of paper, and put it into a hat. Someone would pick out a topic, and we’d write for ten minutes, then read out loud what we wrote, round-robin style. Each writer had a vastly different take on the same topic. For a couple of hours, we’d do marathon writing and generate a lot of material.
We gained confidence writing together and had fun loosening up. We were all students, and we were all teachers. The only rule was no criticism. Some writers had been paralyzed for years after being picked apart by other writers in more traditional settings.
Navigating Within/Tracking/Trusting Myself/ Why do I Write?/Making a Contribution
I am still wary of buying into any mystique or fantasy about what it means to be a writer. I made that mistake in the past. The glamour part minimizes the struggle we all go through in our efforts to get the words right. When Meredith asked me to do The 5-Question Interview, I almost said no. I didn’t want to set myself up as “being a writer.” I keep that self-aggrandizing posture in check, even if I am being self-deprecating and unpretentious.
In order to do this, I monitor my daydreams, plans and fantasies so they don’t get out of hand. I use meditation techniques to maintain a witness relationship to my thoughts (inner talk and inner images), and my body sensations that correspond to feelings such as fear, anger and sadness. I call these categories the components of my inner movie. In this way, I know whether I am getting carried away with desire for outer recognition and inflated financial success. I stop, breathe deeply, and come back to writing.
I offer myself up as a conduit because that is what I believe what I am. I ask for help in orchestrating the reader’s experience, and trust the help will come. When I find myself creating the illusion that being a writer makes me worthwhile, I switch my attention back to writing. Writing is the only answer to being a writer. The rest is hollow.
I finally trust myself and my ability as a writer. I write in service. The words come through me. It is obvious “I” am not doing it. For me, writing is a co-creation. Defining where the inspiration comes from, whether it’s from the muse, the subconscious, or from beyond this material world, remains conjecture. What is real is knowing I do not do it alone.
Yes, I am a highly skilled writer and editor. I have read the best writing my whole life, so I know what it sounds like. But, ultimately, I know that the verve, the vitality, and the voice is a mystery.
This attitude is more difficult to attain and sustain when, as a professional creative, I need to sell my work in the marketplace so people will read it. I keep reminding myself, this is not about me. However small my contribution may be, my intent is to use my gift to illuminate, uplift, inspire and heal. When I keep this intent in mind, the creative act itself becomes enough.
Darkness/Getting Real/ Inner Focus/From Suffering to Freedom/Satisfaction
For most people, the tendency is to focus outside for ways to feel better. “If only I were a writer or an author, I would be someone.”
If only never works. This projection becomes a subtle addiction that temporarily relieves disappointment, rejection, fear and shame. The big lie is that worldly success, in terms of adulation, money, power, fame, makes people happy. If I am writing and enjoying the creative process, there is no need to look outward to distract myself. Satisfaction from creativity is a prize in itself; the pearl of great price.
For me, writing well temporarily eclipses the general unsatisfactoriness of life. Nothing on the outside lasts for long. I watch what happens when I get what I want. The victory is fleeting. It is never enough. Difficulties and dissatisfactions arise. The mind always wants more.
Outside is seductive. Turning within is hard work. The unexamined poison and pain of a lifetime can wreak havoc with writing. When I face and feel what hurts inside, it shifts the balance of power. I cannot lie to myself if I am being self-aware and acknowledging what is dark inside me. Things that used to frighten me don’t scare me anymore. Deep psycho-spiritual work re-wires the subconscious.
If I am not writing, or I am unhappy with my writing, my first step is to look within to see what is going on. Instead of turning away, I face whatever it is and feel it through. I don’t try to get rid of it. If I try to push it away, I am at war with myself and that hurts.
Self-examination is an ongoing process, so resolution may not happen right away. But, I keep reading the book of my own mind and heart, and continue to make conscious, my unconscious drives and secrets. I shine the light of awareness on them. This is what Jung called Shadow Work.
At its core, a faithful and ardent meditation practice can transform suffering and stress into release and freedom. Meditation builds deep spiritual happiness independent of outer circumstances. This kind of happiness creates a baseline of clarity with which to face any and all conditions. Meditation is not a quick fix, but it is the deepest fix there is, and nothing can ever take it away.
The pull from within has to be undeniable in order to have the motivation and staying-power to commit to writing. It took me decades to be able to say, “I am a writer” and feel it was the truth. I used to say, “Hi. My name is Judith. I’m a writer but I don’t write.” I’d laugh but it was true.
Over the years, writing has been a stop and start practice. I’d be alternately blocked and overflowing. I have called forth four books that begged for a voice. To invoke my latest book, I prayed, danced, made rituals and ceremony, and maintained the discipline to do an immense amount of work. I was propelled to write. I loved every moment, no matter what challenges arose. I was happy just to be writing.
Please visit www.deepscribejudith.com
Copyright©2013-2016 Judith Handelsman Smith. All Rights Reserved.
I do like scaring myself when I write—
writing about something that I might not want to say aloud.
—Jessica Anya Blau
Jessica Anya Blau is the author of DRINKING CLOSER TO HOME, THE SUMMER OF NAKED SWIM PARTIES, and THE TROUBLE WITH LEXI.
1.
Meredith: What did you have to unlearn about yourself to find your truth as a writer? Was there anything that had to go?
JESSICA: I guess I had to unlearn the idea that I was not smart enough to write. I had to choose to ignore my ideas about myself and my own abilities and just write anyway.
Meredith: Does your creative process come from a place of something that scares you or from a place of welcoming familiarity? Now answer this–which is the preferable path to creativity…for you?
2.
JESSICA: I’ve always been a daydreamer, so I’m very comfortable spending hours in my head. When other people are going crazy because a flight is a delayed, or a bus isn’t showing up, or the line at the post office is forty-minutes long, I’m completely comfortable just waiting and spacing out. My writing mind is connected to my daydreaming mind, so the creative process is very comfortable for me. I do like scaring myself when I write—writing about something that I might not want to say aloud. And often that’s the best writing. Although the path to that scary writing is the same as any other writing—I just enter that spacey mindset and see what comes out.
3.
Meredith: Do you judge your work before it’s finished? I guess a better question is how do you keep from passing too much judgment on your work in order to keep moving forward. And while we’re on the subject, what does judgment really mean?
JESSICA: I don’t have time to judge my work when I’m trying to get out an early draft! I have two kids, a dog, a husband, a house, and I teach. My writing time is very limited, no time to dilly-dally, so when I sit down I just push ahead no matter how pathetic the writing is. This way I can rather quickly get to a first draft that I’ll then revise (which is a form of judgment) over and over and over again. But I don’t really judge myself. I can see the work as separate from myself. It is something I created, but it is not me.
And, wow, ‘what does judgment mean,’ that’s a big question! Judgment feels connected to shame somehow—like it’s an overseer making sure no one shames the family, the village, the tribe, the nation. Or the self, I suppose!
4.
Meredith: Using the six-word memoir approach, please give us your six-word description of how you write.
JESSICA: Transcribing the movie in my head.
5.
Meredith: What do you do when you sit down to write and nothing happens? Is it really nothing? Or a path to someplace unexpected?
JESSICA: Yes, you’re so right, it’s always the path to someplace unexpected. Last year my computer crashed and I lost about a hundred pages (I use Dropbox now). I never really rewrote those pages, I wrote something completely different using only the idea behind those pages. So even that “failure” was a path to someplace unexpected.
Visit Jessica Anya Blau at https://www.jessicaanyablau.com.
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