When I was fairly new to falling headlong into creative writing, I complained one day to a group of more seasoned writers that I kept repeating the same scenes or stories. Many of those scenes and characters were based on lived experiences. I believed that this repetition was a sure sign of my imaginative limitations. The group listened respectfully and then one writer laughed. Then they all laughed. One of them said, “Of course you’re repeating yourself. It’s your story.” Their answer has helped me form an understanding of an essential part of the process of creating art.
Every life contains large moments, and those large moments are filled with mystery, complication, confusion, and collision. These are rich and layered experiences, which means that one examination will not be enough for us to understand their full meaning. These moments create us, so we, in turn must create them in our art, turning them around, inside out, sideways, shaking them, entering them from different vantage points, looking down at them from the ceiling, or entering through a window. We can begin the story anywhere we want, end it where we want, tell it backwards, leave elements out and add different ones in. Life gives us our stories so that we can understand what it is to be alive. By writing something repeatedly we mine the obvious and the elusive, the fundamental and the metaphoric.
Our lives are mythic and mundane at the same time and all of these elements intersect and interact for illumination. From these events we write a memoir or inform fictional characters, compose music, make pencil drawings, or paint murals. We also delve into our experiences, transform it into art so that we can get along with our neighbors and family, and, even better, to get along with ourselves. As we tell our stories for the third or three hundredth time, the story evolves because we know something we didn’t know the first time we told it. We have listened to ourselves as narrators and characters. Art is, of course, an expression of who we are, but it is even more an illustration of the questions we ask, how willing we are to keep asking. So, by all means, say it again, Please!
Upcoming Events
Save The Date! May 13, 7:00 p.m. A virtual reading for Maud & Addie at Broadside Bookshop of Northampton MA. A link to the event and more information to follow.
Release Date: May 6, 2021: Maud & Addie, a middle-grade novel. In 1910, sisters, Addie and Maud Campbell are swept out to sea off the coast of Nova Scotia. With a half-filled picnic hamper, a carriage blanket and their wits, they survive the North Atlantic and landfall on a deserted island. As castaways, they become scavengers and inventors, facing the truth of who will save them and who they might have become.
Advance Review:
What an amazing read – I couldn’t even decide whether this was to be considered middle grade, or if it’s for adults – I think this book is perfect for both children and adults. It talks about very real and important things, maturing in our relationships and becoming less selfish, seeing the bigger picture. Also, it’s just an incredible story of survival and healing. It’s definitely a must-read! Read here.
Available for pre-release purchase:
Regal House Publishing for advance hardcopy & paperback:
Join Maud & Addie on Instagram: maud.addie
and
Facebook: Writing Full Tilt
Prompt Photo
