Writing 10,000 Times

Recently, a friend told me about the 10,000 times principle. I'd heard about the 10,000 hours principle, which I suppose is the same. Anyway, the idea is that you may be, say, a terrific writer. But you haven't put in enough times to make that clear to the world. The idea is also that talent may be a false construct.

I don't know. I kind of disagreed with that. I think there is some basic talent that's necessary. Though of course, it helps to put in your 10,000 times (or hours, depending on your version of the theory).

Anyway, in the end, the whole thing inspired a poem...

Explanation for Our Disagreement

I have no particular talent
for arguing with you;
I've simply done it
nine thousand, nine
hundred and ninety-nine
times. And besides,
it is so fun to make up
with a poem.

This is in celebration of One Shot Wednesday.

White Flowers photo, by L.L. Barkat.

I Collect Words

I'm not going to reveal that to you, she said.

My nine-year-old could just have easily replied, I'm not going to *tell* you. But somehow she's become a collector of words, and she isn't shy about using them.

In a marvelous little book called Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words, Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge encourages us to create 'wordpools', collections of words we find here and there, to help 'free us to follow the words and write poems.' This is apt advice not only for the would-be poet but for the writer in general.

Words, after all, are like faces... they look you in the eye or avoid your gaze, smile or frown, raise eyebrows in surprise or blink back tears. They are distinct, arresting, memorable, except when we use the same ones over and over. Not that we can't tell a good story using common words (and sometimes too many unique words are distracting). But consider the difference between...

sit, perch, settle, sprawl

or

see, observe, spy, peek, glimpse, view, squint

or

red, crimson, vermilion, scarlet, cranberry

This week I invite you to begin a word pool. On your fridge, in a box with note cards, in a journal or even on the sidebar of your blog. Collect words from conversations, the dictionary, street signs; collect words for their sounds, even if they are words you coin (swizzle, swazzle, swittle). If you're feeling adventurous, you might stir those words into a poem or vignette that begins, middles or ends with the phrase 'I am' (choose a sound, a song, an animal, a number, a food, a tree, a piece of furniture, whatever, says Wooldridge) and see what your words reveal.

'Bottled'

I am fizzle
fazzle pizazz,
snap crackle...
slide your hand
past my red belt
take me by the
ribbed neck
set teeth on edge
flick fluted tin
and, pop!

Photo by Gail Nadeau. Used with permission.

Some Writing is Like Weight-Lifting

Serendipity.

I love that word. And I love when it happens to me.

The other day I ordered a book from the library, but it turned out to be a 6-DVD series on writing that was the exact resource I would have ordered for my daughter, had I known. Lately, she's been filling notebook after notebook with stories and poems, and she has a lot of questions that one writer alone (me) can't really answer.

Enter the DVD series: published writers, fiction and non-fiction, talk about everything from how we word-people get inspired, to dealing with character development, writer's block and rejection. (Since these series are EXPENSIVE, you'd want to get it from the library; it's called Writer's Workshop: Fiction and Non-Fiction and is put out by Films for the Humanities & Sciences I didn't see it on-line, so maybe it's no longer available for sale, but perhaps in the stacks one could find it).

My daughter has begun watching the series and appreciates the various perspectives. Some writers don't believe writer's block is real, for instance (and it is better for her to hear that from someone else, since I already tried the delicate advice, JUST WRITE!). Some of the writers think ahead about the market and others say they just write for themselves. Almost all of them agree that the best way to be a good writer is to first be a good reader.

What struck me, in listening to these people talk about how to write and in hearing them read their own words, was how many good writing skills can be practiced by reading and writing poetry. No one was saying that outright, but they talked about the need to focus on details, encouraged us to learn language rhythms and slow ourselves down when experiencing texts in order to feel the impact of words, and discussed the need to play around with and free one's voice. Poetry is the ideal context in which to hone these skills. Think about it. Great writers like Wendell Berry and Mary Karr don't just write essays; they write poetry too.

The problem is that too many of us think poetry is for lovers, kids, English-class students, or high-minded people; we don't realize that reading and writing poetry is a form of writer's weight lifting. It challenges our word muscles, pokes at our weak spots and dares us to strengthen them in a way that meandering prose opportunities do not. Once, a friend of mine (who has written 36 books) said the best way to practice writing is to write 'short'. We could do that by writing ad blurbs (I served some time that way), or we could really flex our muscles and start lifting words into poems.

So why not take Laura's challenge, maybe win a free book while you're at it, and get those writer's abs in shape?

Berry Book and DVDS photo by L.L. Barkat.

THIS 'N THAT:
Fun feature of the basic me at Andrea's place
Check out this great little new blog, Children of Eve.
Book Giveaway: Stone Crossings, at Holy Experience