Stimulus and Result
Stimulus: flow-write for 15-30 minutes at a minimum in response to a writing prompt.
Result: things have been shaking loose.
By “things” I mean memories and feelings. By “shaking loose” I mean books falling.
Memories and feelings about them sit like books stacked this way and that way in a bookcase. Some memories are at eye level and they stare at you every day as you walk by. Some days you look. Most days you avoid eye contact but you know they’re there. They’ve become fixtures and you’ve read them so many times, you don’t have to but glance at the cover and you know the whole story, as well as how you feel about it.
Some of those memories, however, have been crammed behind other books or are sitting on the top of the bookcase and you don’t remember that they are there. You read them maybe once after the event of which they are a memory and for whatever reason decided to stuff them where you can’t see them.
Writing in response to a writing prompts is akin to giving the bookcase a good shake. Some of the books from eye level end up on the floor, demanding to be seen from a different perspective, and some of the books from atop the bookcase end up in your hand, demanding to be acknowledged. The ones crammed behind others on a shelf take more work and uncovering.
I’ve been writing every morning…okay, okay, nearly every morning…thanks to a memoir-writing class. Am I going to share with you what rereading one of those books has yielded? No, not now. As one of my classmates verbalized, this writing is like therapy at times and it’s hard to know when a piece is ready to share. We talked about this as a class and the advice was, it’s not when a piece is ready, but when you are ready. If I may translate the class’s advice to my metaphor: when it’s a book that has attained the honored position of sitting at eye level, then think about putting it out there. It may not sit forever at eye level, as we have learned, but at least there’s enough familiarity and comfort with that book to discuss it in public.
Am I going to recommend writing every day? Yes. Writing is thinking.1 I’m also going to recommend the class, which is called, Memoir: Write Your Own Story, with Janisse Ray.
Jeanne, this is so profound! Love this metaphor to our class. I feel like I have several books that have been shaken loose lying around me on the floor. It’s been therapeutic, albeit quite emotional at times. I’m so thankful to have connected with so many thoughtful, deep women as well. Keep doing the hard work, we’ll get there & one day we might have something we feel we can share. ❤️
This piece ends rather abruptly, as if to say: “reader, now you go and do some of your own writing, okay!?” I will take this advice.