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| Concert in Gray and Gold. Study for Collage. ©by Ruth Zachary |
No one starts out being a great writer. But we all have the potential to become one.
I
really believe this is true for nearly everyone, and yet I have so much to
learn. I want to try to access the intuitive process of writing, and identify
the ways to capture that elusive muse.
Metaphorically, I
believe the Greek muse, named Euterpe, muse of Music and Lyric poetry, resides
in our brains, specifically in the right brain. Calliope, the Greek muse of Epic
Poetry, probably resides in the left-brain, as she would govern words and
speech, a left-brained function.
Ideas
about the intuitive process in creativity and creative writing have also been
around for centuries. Rational process has been identified with exposition
writing for a long time as well.
Some
others went a step farther, saying there were two separate processes during
writing. Peter Elbow, in Writing with Power, (1981) said, “
Writing calls upon two skills that are so different that they usually
conflict with each other: creating, and criticizing….
(Writing calls on the ability to create words and ideas out of yourself, but it
also calls on the ability to criticize them in order to decide which ones to
use.)” Elbow understood there were “two mentalities needed for these two
processes, and that they flower most when they get a chance to operate
separately.”
Elbow
also said writers don’t suddenly arrive fully matured, that each piece of
writing needs time after its birth to change and grow and reach it’s potential,
and also that you “probably won’t find a pearl if you only pick up oysters once
a year. ” (Advocating practice)
I
mention this because regular practice also makes access to the intuitive
process more available. Elbow’s book also focused mostly on exercises and
mechanics of writing. Some of his exercises do seem inclined toward accessing
one’s intuitive skills, such as one advocating “Free Writing” in which one
writes rapidly.
In
all the classes and workshops I have been in since the 1990s, including the
class I attended at UNC in 2007, the emphasis has been on writing exercises, or
writing about a particular topic, or forms of poetry. Exercises can be
wonderful for broadening a writer’s levels of skills, and familiarity with many
kinds of writing. This awareness is just as important as learning to use the
right brain in creative writing.
But
being able to access that mysterious and miraculous place where a poem seems to
write itself, has been a rare experience and seldom am I sure how to get there.
I think even when teachers wanted to pass along what they sensed about
intuitive writing, they didn’t know how to get it across.
In
1997, a WMU poetry professor, John Rybicki moved to my neighborhood in the
country and started a class in his home and I signed up. He offered many
exercises that triggered the creative process, and because I had read Rico’s
book, Writing the Natural Way, I began to identify situations in which
others and I talked about accessing an intuitive mental space.
I
still knew no specific means for getting there, other than trying to recreate
the
conditions which created that space. I believe this varies for different
writers. In other posts, I will list the situations and conditions and
practices that seem most likely to put a writer into that right-brained state
for writing creatively.
The information on this blog was previously published on RZ Writestuff, February 21, 2011.
The above image and many others may be seen on my blog, Mixed Media Abstract Art.
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