Written by Sarah Selecky
Writers want the things we write to feel alive and enchanting. We also want to be reasonable and smart. We want our writing to convey the messiness that comes with living a life on this planet. Of course, we also want our writing to make sense. What we’re trying to do with words is a kind of magic. So when we imagine our story in our mind, it’s beautiful and coherent. When we put it down on the page, it goes flat.
Ann Patchett describes this conundrum in her own writing life as “pinning the butterfly.” Seeing your butterfly pinned to cardboard is one of the most common and disheartening experiences writers have, and for good reason. Creative writing works at the edge of what language can do. The thinking mind wants to label things, but in doing so, it intellectualizes them. This saps the life force right out of the writing. You can shift this process when you stop trying to pin the butterfly down with words, and learn how to become the butterfly, in and through your writing.
To do this, you must use your whole mind, and practice feeling and thinking at the same time.
First, stir up the feeling so it is alive in your body, then start writing. Trust that your words will transmit the energy of your ideas, not just label them. This is a real skill to develop, and it strengthens with practice. Freewriting every day helps the most, because it trains your mind to stay in the aliveness of the experience as you write.
To freewrite, set a timer for 10 minutes, put your pen to paper, and write without editing your words. Your thinking mind will be interrupted by the constant movement of your pen. This interruption feels vexing to the thinking mind, but the feeling mind flourishes when you give it time and space. We are usually surprised by what we write in our freewrites, because we didn’t think it up first. This is how life force finds its way into language. This is how words take flight.
Join me on August 7-12 at Hollyhock for my program!
Writing with Intuition: A Journey into the Creative Consciousness with Sarah Selecky
Learn the magical art of writing from your whole self, using intellect and intuition at once!
Click here to Register!
