{"id":8347,"date":"2020-05-22T10:04:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T15:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=8347"},"modified":"2020-05-22T10:04:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T15:04:07","slug":"how-to-write-like-a-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2020\/05\/how-to-write-like-a-river\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write Like a River"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of the biggest misconceptions about writers is that they sit around and think up Important Literary Things and that when they\u2019re done, they sit down to spill out all their genius on paper. The real truth? I know gaggles of writers, and we all write not because we have a grip on our own lives and know Important Things but because we don\u2019t<\/em>. We write to find out Important Things. We write to fight against forgetting. We write to excavate. We write to discover that inner story, and it comes mostly through wrestling. Sometimes maybe we\u2019re grappling with an angel. Sometimes ourselves. Sometimes maybe even God.<\/p>\n\n\n

I know this all sounds too mystical and too hard. How do we actually do this? Let me show you a way: through a writing exercise I call WordSeeking. This practice is commonly known as Freewriting, but I\u2019m renaming it to something I believe is more accurate. When we WordSeek, we\u2019re using words in pursuit of words, of course, but we\u2019re not recording thoughts, memories, and images as much as we\u2019re seeking. We\u2019re actively seeking memories, truth, and understanding. Jesus (who is also known as the Word), gives this invitation to all of us:<\/p>\n\n\n

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.<\/p>Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

This is just what we\u2019re doing: asking, seeking, knocking, using the tools given to us\u2014words. And when we do this, we\u2019re somehow touching the divine.<\/p>\n\n\n

When I teach people how to write stories from their lives, this part is always the roughest: convincing them to throw out their inner editor and just write like a river into their questions with no stops, no fixes, no backing up, just flowing wherever the water wants to go. It doesn\u2019t sound quite right, somehow, throwing out all the usual rules like that. It sounds like the start of anarchy, maybe, or like mysticism, or maybe even a little bit of socialism. You know, something threatening.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jeanna was the most resistant to WordSeeking. A few weeks after our initial kerfuffle, I prepped the class to begin their first attempt. It went like this.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, I\u2019m going to show you why we need WordSeeking. I\u2019m going to start writing a story.\u201d I\u2019m standing in front of a whiteboard with a blue marker in my hand. I scrawl across the whiteboard,<\/p>\n\n\n

It was a dark and stormy night.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

I stand back, regarding my genius words. \u201cOh, that\u2019s ridiculous. Such a clich\u00e9.\u201d I cross it out. \u201cBut wait, it was a dark and stormy night. No . . .\u201d I cross out stormy. I try out a few other adjectives, then reverse the order of the adjectives. Then I realize, out loud, with the marker in my hand as I\u2019m writing, that \u201cWait, no, it wasn\u2019t actually night. I think it was more like early evening.\u201d I cross out \u201cnight.\u201d And on I go for another thirty seconds, writing and rewriting until the whiteboard is filled with indecipherable cross-outs and arrows. I\u2019ve managed to decide on two words: \u201cnasty\u201d and \u201cevening.\u201d And I\u2019m not even sure about those.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cHave you been spying on me?\u201d David asks.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cOh my gosh. That\u2019s my problem exactly,\u201d Amy says, looking as though I\u2019d slapped her.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cI just want to write one story, and I can\u2019t ever get past the first paragraph,\u201d Cathy complains.<\/p>\n\n\n

You have to get in that cupboard and rattle those pans. You have to go out onto the empty plain, to the white screen. And whoever comes to meet you, you have to lean low, grab hard, and not let go. You have to be willing to question. Write beyond clich\u00e9s that catch us unaware. Reach for as deep a truth as you can find. Be fearless. What are we creating here? We\u2019re not after good writing right now. We\u2019re after memory, we\u2019re after understanding, we\u2019re after reflection, the inner story.<\/p>\n\n\n

And understand\u2014we\u2019re not writing to convert anyone to our point of view, whatever it is. We\u2019re after the inner story. We\u2019re after true stories written as deeply and beautifully as we\u2019re able.<\/p>\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry about making a mess when you start writing. In fact, this is your job right now. We\u2019ll clean it up in later chapters, when we find out what we\u2019ve come to say.<\/p>

Leslie Leyland Fields<\/a> <\/strong>on Facebook<\/strong><\/a>, on her blog<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0 on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>, or on Instagram<\/strong><\/a>. Her latest book + Companion Eight Week DVD Curriculum (Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life <\/strong><\/em><\/a>) are now available from NavPress<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

More from Leslie<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
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