“The very impulse to write springs from an inner chaos, a crying for order, for meaning and that meaning must be discovered in the process of writing or the work lies dead as it is finished.”
Arthur Miller
The very odd thing, YOU might think so, but not anymore for me.
Writers block… I’m no expert, but recently as I’ve been carried away in a blissful outpouring of writing that I enjoy, and that others enjoy reading, I noticed also a couple of STOPs.
One is when I’ve let someone else tell me how the story progresses. Is it because their story is their story? I think of “A Hidden Wholeness” Parker Palmer, and his term> third things.
But the big one is the years I’ve spent trying to write but constantly blocked. The true story. A play by play of my life’s adventure. Another quote from Arthur Miller:
“If I knew, I could probably control the inception of it better. I’m at the mercy of it; I don’t really know. I cannot write anything that I understand too well. If I know what something means to me, if I already have come to the end of it as an experience, I can’t write it because it seems like a twice-told story.”
Arthur Miller interview with Henry Brandon/1960
There’s still another one. I can’t think up a story in my head. I only get “first lines” and then a hamster wheel. Anne Lamott says to write those down to use for when I am able to sit down and write.
Hobart Chapter One came from the idea of trying to explain the key needed to reading and understanding the Bible. So I thought of an analogy, just the “first line” a child stumbles upon a dinosaur tooth. I sat down in the spot chosen by me. A coffee shoppe, my iPhone, and this blog site. I obeyed all of Anne Lamott’s rules. See that link, but also read her book, Bird by Bird. And had a first draft.
I allowed myself to just write with no rules but the one rule! No editing! take a look and see! My son Ashton listened to me read it! He loved it! But he reacted to certain parts that didn’t fit and so he helped me get to the 2nd and 3rd drafts.
Interesting thing happened! I don’t know what other word to use for it! You pick one! In this one, and this one, I get to a part where tears and sobbing occur! And I am not totally sure why!
That’s what Arthur Miller’s quote is a window to!
So the writing is the therapy? And the angst is the call to write! It’s unavoidable! It’s relentless like a tormentor!
Vastly different from anything I ever supposed was going on!
Running Down Vimy 