Between You and Your Writing Passion

Hey, Writerly Women. I so appreciate your patience with my absence these last two weeks. A family illness in California kept us away longer than we planned and has necessitated some rebalancing on our return. I'm so grateful for your comments and prayers, and I love being back with you. Hopefully you've been thinking about your driving passion -- what it once was -- whether you can recover it. You can always chime in on that topic, as PAM, CATHY and EMII have done.

We're going to reflect today on what has inserted itself between you and your original passion for your project, and hopefully we can do it in a creative way. That's what my ten-year-old granddaughter Maeryn and I did this week. It totally worked for us. Maybe it will for you?

The photo you see at the left is one our MARGIE (who has let me know she'll be away from the blog for a short time because she is totally immersed in the four-week Book Launch Blueprint course, part of her own reviving of her passion) sent me when I had her do a  profile on her ideal reader. This is the diamante poem Mae and I composed for it:

   

Knowledge

Actual   Deep

Absorbing  Learning  Understanding

Solitude  Focus  …   Lecture  Instructions

Straining   Yawning   Losing

Useless   Pointless

Classroom

 

If you've never composed a diamante it's really quite delightful. The form is --

Noun

2 adjectives to describe that noun

3 gerunds (-ing verbs used as nouns) to describe that noun

2 nouns that relate to that noun and 2 that relate to its opposite

3 gerunds to describe its opposite

2 adjectives to describe its opposite

Opposite noun

 

The trick is to establish the two opposites first (line 1 and line 7) and work from there.

We were dealing with the loss of enthusiasm for learning, for knowledge, and in the writing of the poem we discovered that it is fed by deeply absorbing yourself in pursuing what fascinates you, and it is basically suffocated in the typical classroom. (It was my subversive way of reminding her how lucky she is to be studying with me in my studio!  :) )

What if you looked at your original passion for this writing you were doing with such fire and revealed what snuffed it out -- through a diamante poem? Here's mine:

Ardor

Fervent   Bright

Dreaming   Shaping   Allowing

Depth   Wholeness  …  Criticism  Expectation

Revising   Cutting   Comparing

Strained   Stiff

Doubt 

It's so clear to me that right where that ellipse is (...), I allowed an unexpected (though correct) criticism to take me down into a stilted kind of writing fueled by doubt. It's like the perfect picture of exactly what happened. Will you give this a shot?

Once you've done that, turn it upside down and see what happens:

Doubt

Strained   Stiff

Revising   Cutting   Comparing

Criticism   Judgment  ...  Depth   Wholeness

Dreaming   Shaping   Allowing

Fervent   Bright

Ardor

 

Now I can face that doubt. I can see it for what it is. I can recognize the damage it's done to my writing. And at the ellipse I can return to what has always brought me such joy and satisfaction -- and personal success -- in my writing. 

Will you do this part too? Turn it upside down? Rearrange it so that it provides you with the start of a plan to revive? You are marvelous wordsmiths, my insanely interesting women. You can so do this!

So, to summarize:

    * Consider the original passion for your writing. Find the noun that names it. (line 1)

    * Write down its opposite as a noun (line 7)

    * Create your diamante, following the seven-line form above

    *  Ponder what that tells you

    * Now turn it upside down

    * Ponder what THAT tells you

Share with us -- PLEASE! Next week we'll take it from there. Can't wait!

 

Blessings,

Nancy

 

 

 

Comments

[Kate P.]

Ooh haven’t done one of these in ages! Yours are beautiful, Pam and Emii! Here’s my go at it:

Creation
Full glorious
Flowing waxing rejoicing
Daydream fantasy
Nightmare actuality
Pressing dragging boring
Empty blank
Nothing

[Pam Halter]

Emii - I did read it backwards. Pretty cool! Yours is heart-tugging!

I love this exercise!

[Emii]

This is beautiful. Here's one I just wrote (I really enjoyed this):

Inadequacy
Missing Ugly
Faking Hollowing Lacking
Rejection Shame Space Seed
Being Stabilising Seeing
Complete Enough
Wholeness

I love things when you flip them and see a bigger, more clarifying picture & the journey 'toward'.

Pam -- I just flipped yours in my head. It was very moving. Have you tried reading it backward to top?

[Pam Halter]

Okey dokey - here's my try. It was harder to do than I thought.

IDEA
UNIQUE * FUN
ENGAGING * INSPIRING * LIFE-CHANGING
BOOK * ENCOURAGEMENT * DARK * SORROW
DOUBTING * REACHING * PEERING
UNREALIZED * SILENT
BLANKNESS

[Pam Halter]

Wow - this is cool. I'll see what I can do with it! Mary is home, so I've been having fun with her, but also got some writing done. My girl loves sleeping in, so I have mornings. haha!

Still praying for you, Nance! Very happy you're back. xo