Embedded Prompts

Have you ever gone back to a piece of writing that you had to abandon because you ran out of time, or you ran out of steam, or you ran out of knowing where you were going? It happens to us all, all the time. When you go back, do you struggle with picking up where you left off? Is it difficult to find that thread? It’s not surprising that trying to re-enter a work in progress is difficult. What exactly were we thinking at that moment? What were we feeling? How were we trying to say what we wanted to say? The answers are there, embedded in our words. The trick is to re-discover the creativity behind them. Most often we want to pick up the last sentence or phrase and carry on as if we had never left off. The problem is that the last words we write often, unconsciously, have a way of closing off the entrance. Something like brushing away our footprints. It’s a natural instinct. The idea of tidying up, finishing, making our work sound complete is drilled into us from the moment we are taught to put forth ideas, arguments and stories. But this story is not done. How do you break into your own writing? Here are two strategies. 1. Ignore the last sentence. In fact, ignore the last two or even three sentences. Let the fourth sentence in be where you pick up the thread. That line will be much more open, much more in the heat of your writing. Tug on that line and start to write again. 2. Re-read your piece. Then re-read it again, this time looking for the line or phrase that is the prompt you inadvertently hid for yourself. It’s there. It’s the one that has heat. The line that surprises you. The line that sets off that spark and sends you back into the dream. You’ll know it when you hear it. Pick up that line and follow it for all your worth.