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Inspirations
WRITING YOUR SELF
Reeling in the fish
Roselle Angwin explores the unconscious and turns your life into literature
In the last column I spoke of the importance of allowing one’s mind to drop into the semi-hypnagogic freewheeling state that operates just below the level of conscious intellectual activity, such as when dropping off to sleep, or just as you awaken. It happens too in daydreaming; during certain kinds of meditation or visualisation; in relaxation; and in some kinds of repetitive activity such as walking, running, swimming (athletes call it ‘the zone.’) It’s characterised by a flow of images, sometimes accompanied by feelings.
This liminal mind-state is exceedingly fertile ground for a writer, and I consider ways of accessing this state to be core practice for both creative and reflective writing. Sensory stimulus enhances the ability to drop into this state. Images and music ‘speak’ directly to this place in us, as well as image-based poetry. When your mind is freewheeling below the threshold of conscious thought other guiding principles such as intuition, feeling and imagery can come into their own and work in synergy, rather than being held subservient by the intellect.
This is also the place from which those ‘eureka’ moments of genius arise: Crick (of Crick and Watson) had his insight into the double helix nature of DNA after dreaming of a pair of intertwined snakes (the caduceus), and research scientist Kekulé daydreamed the shape of a snake (or ‘ouroboros’) holding its own tail in its mouth, which turned out to reflect the molecular structure of benzene.
The core practice for a creative writer is ‘stream of consciousness’ writing – actually ‘stream-of-liminal-consciousness writing.’ You’re aiming to get out of your own light, so as not to ‘direct’ the writing process. These are the steps:
1. Buy a good fat notebook – one that you’ll enjoy writing in.
2. Set yourself achievable goals. Ten minutes a day, five days a week that you do is worth more than an hour a day, seven days a week that you don’t do.
3. Don’t expect ‘good’ writing. Don’t expect anything – just allow (see my Writing the Bright Moment).
4. Do this very first thing in the morning, the moment you wake up; or immediately before sleep if this is better for you.
5. These are my ‘rules’ (other tutors have variations on this):
◊ Use a pen and notebook, not a computer (the cursive act of moving the pen connects more directly to the image-based part of the brain).
◊ If you need a ‘prompt’, play some music, lift an image out of a poem, or start with what you’re feeling or a recent event.
◊ When you have started, don’t stop. Keep your pen moving, even if only to write ‘I am stuck and this is rubbish’ over and over until you get unstuck.
◊ Don’t think and don’t censor.
◊ Allow yourself to write rubbish.
REFERENCE: Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind (Rider, 1991).
ROSELLE ANGWIN is a writer, poet and painter, and runs the Fire in the Head creative writing programme, which now also includes a novel-writing correspondence course. She’s interested in the connections between creativity and well-being, and between inner and outer landscapes. She is the author of Writing the Bright Moment (Fire in the Head, 2005), and Looking For Icarus (bluechrome, 2005).
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New Writing
From Issue 36 ◊ Jan/Feb/Mar 2008
CAUTION:
- The exercises in this feature can access memories and feelings that may be challenging or painful. Before you start, do ensure you have supportive friends or family members to talk to if need be.
