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Guest Blogger Loralee Clark

Writer's picture: Sonja  McGiboneySonja McGiboney

Seven Questions to Sustain Us/Move Us Forward/Help us Dig Deeper:

We’re in the winter months now, the time for introspection and reflection. What better time is there to sit with deep thoughts about who we are, how we define ourselves, our writing and what paths we’d like to take in the future? Here are several questions for us to entertain as the days slowly grow longer.


What is our reality in regards to ourselves as writers and our writing? Think about the reality you make through your thoughts and practices about yourself as a writer/your writing. There is no one right way to think about this or to be a writer but these help us to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, help us to know what works for us and what doesn’t. Think in terms of process, not product.


I’ll go first:

1. Freewriting helps me get out of my own way when I begin a project.

2. Small steps make discernable progress and if I break larger goals into smaller chunks, I will be less overwhelmed and make more progress.

3. Lean into obsessions. If I don’t, they’ll be there at the edges of my mind and want to be let out. It’s the similar situation of having an emotion and not feeling it/letting it pass through your body—it will be stuck there eventually. I let my obsessions come out and play. My husband jokes that unless one of my poems has an internal organ or blood in it, it isn’t finished. My obsessions are there for a reason—I let them help me work.

4. Per Natalie Goldberg, I set up writing dates with trusted friends (who are also writers) so that even though we are working on our own projects, the sense of camaraderie and support sustain me to keep moving forward; I am externally motivated and do my best to acquiesce that need.

5. I support other writers, as writing can be a very isolating art and I don’t always fare well emotionally with isolation.


It’s also helpful to have clear answers to What is our purpose for writing? And what impact do we wish to have with our writing? Thinking in terms of general goals as well as project-specific goals can be really helpful, allowing us to spend less time flailing and more time cycling through drafts where we are able to serve our purposes.


I remember as an undergraduate I had the privilege of seeing Maya Angelou speak, at the Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine. It felt transcendent to me; I remember as a young poet feeling the excitement and expectation that comes with being in the presence of a deep creative, a deep thinker. I left with the question her grandmother posed to her: How can I be of service? It was a lesson that has stayed with me for all of my adult life. My purpose for writing is to share experience and be of service to my subject matter and to my readers.


What book did we love as a child? A teen-ager? A young adult? What was it about those books that drew us in? How do those books live in us today? What could those books tell us about the person we are today? Introspection is a privilege, for sure; let’s use that privilege to our advantage to help us become a stronger writer. If you’ve never thought about these questions, write down the answers—stroll through memory lane. Maybe you’ll unearth a poem, discover an essay, or learn more about yourself in general. You could uncover an idea for a series of artworks. You could remember your best friend in second grade that you haven’t thought of in over a decade. You could re-read old favorites and who knows where that may take you?


What are our fears? When I taught public speaking at the University of Maine and the College of William & Mary, I would always tell my students to imagine their worst fears; once they had them in mind, I told them to plan accordingly. What would you do if after practicing for hours, you suddenly forgot every word of your speech? The things my students feared rarely came to fruition, but if they had a plan in their back pockets, that gave them the confidence they needed to overcome their anxieties. This is the same idea for us writers—if we avoid what we fear, it could derail our overall plans for what we hope to accomplish.


Are you afraid of spiders? Write about them. Dying? Write about it. Losing loved ones? Write about it. The poems/essays/stories you come up with may not be publishable, outright, but they will strengthen your writing. They will help you understand yourself better. In the larger picture, they will help you to attain your goals.


How can we befriend our weaknesses? Most people’s reaction to knowing they have weaknesses are to berate themselves or ignore the weakness(es). If I beat myself up for having weaknesses, it’ll only make me a less productive writer in the end and if I ignore those areas, I won’t be affecting change and won’t grow as a writer.


There is a third option available to us: befriend them. If you make friends with your weaknesses, the same way you are easily prone to embracing your strengths, they can help you. We all have strengths and weaknesses; they aren’t inherently good or bad. They just are. It’s our attitudes that make a difference.


I struggle with organization when I am writing; there are a lot of times when I am not internally motivated; I become overwhelmed easily with the administrative side of writing. It’s scary to step out of our comfort zones and try new skills, try to develop weaker skills; it feels like we’re at the edge of a precipice about to do a triple somersault into the abyss and have to stick the landing without being able to see the landing. The more we are willing to embrace that feeling of wrongness and discomfort, the more we will be able to grow as artists.


The penultimate question: what stories need to be told? What stories do we need to notice? The answers can range from large events to small ones. From places of privilege to places of disadvantage. Who are the beings, the places, the people that are important to pay attention to? These questions will most likely be able to be answered by the other questions you have explored. As Sophie Strand asks, what if you aren’t the main character—what stories need to come through you?


And lastly, what are achievable, challenging goals we can create for ourselves in this coming year? You could think of large goals and make smaller steps that help you accomplish them. You could think in terms of projects. However you approach this, keep in mind what is controllable: for example, you can submit to 12 journals but don’t make it a goal that you will be published by a certain number of journals. Cultivate a mindset for success. My goal sheet focuses on projects with sub-sets of small goals to help me accomplish those projects. I also set the goals of applying to a workshop and an artist residency. The act of applying helped me organize and focus on how I write about my writing; being accepted is not on the list at all, as it is out of my control.


Try asking yourself a few of these seven questions and see if it helps you to better understand yourself as a writer. It’s nice to have something to do as the nights envelop us in their darkness. Please, share any other questions you feel are important to entertain, as well as any answers you found!


 

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Founded in 1991, Chesapeake Bay Writers is a chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. CBW serves writers from the Middle Peninsula, the Northern Neck and Williamsburg and adjacent areas. 
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