Jul. 12, 2010

One of the books that I’m currently reading is “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott. I’ve read “Grace (Eventaully): Thoughts on Faith” by her as well and came away with some of the same feelings about her (as an author). Feeling one: This lady is really crass. There are a moments in her books that might make you blush. If you’re theologically conservative you will probably think she is the anti-christ. If you’re politically conservative you will probably think worse. Feeling two: She is one of the funniest geniuses I have ever read. She can make you laugh in one sentence and ponder the greatness of God in the next. She is truly; a brilliant writer.

So, “Bird by Bird”. I have wanted to be more faithful with my blogging, but I also have wanted to be half way decent. I’m a songwriter - a developing songwriter, but a song writer none the less. I care about putting words together in a thoughtful manner. I’m consistently involved in the “creative process” - in whatever shape that may take. I thought this book might be helpful. I’m about 70% done and have found it to be both challenging and encouraging. Oh, and did I mention funny?

Anyway, I’ve recently been in a bit of a “creative slump”. I swore I would never be one of those guys who records a CD and doesn’t keep writing hordes of songs when the recording is done. I have become that guy. There have been a few songs here and there, but I’ve become a bit of a writing slacker. This book has been a reminder that you don’t sit down and write because you are teaming with creative juices. No - you sit down and write because it’s what you do. You have, at some level, been gifted to write. You write because you are grateful. You write because you have a story to tell. You just write. Lamott recalls her father, who was also a writer, tell her the following:

“Do it everyday for a while…Do it as you would do scales on the piano. Do it by prearrangement with yourself. Do it as a debt of honour. And make a commitment to finishing things”.

That is excellent advice, but also sounds very much like something you would put in a frame. I like her not so refined take on it:

“you sit down at, say nine every morning, or ten every night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter or you turn on your computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so…you try to quiet your mind so you can hear what the landscape or character has to say above the other voices in your mind. The other voices are banshees and drunken monkeys. They are voices of anxiety, judgment, doom, guilt. Also, severe hypochondria…There is a vague pain at the base of your neck. It crosses your mind that you have meningitis…Then the phone rings and you look up at the ceiling with fury, summon every once of noblesse oblige, and answer the call politely, with maybe just the merest hint of irritation. The caller asks if you’re working, and you say yeah, because you are. Yet somehow in the face of all this, you clear a space for the writing voice, hacking away at the others with machetes, and you begin…to tell a story…But you cannot will this to happen. It is a matter of persistence and faith and hard work. So you might as well just go ahead and get started”.

It is so encouraging to hear such a famous writer talk about the realities of the creative process. She says that all good writers she knows feel this way. As I read this I think that the “creative slump” is often (not always) more of a discipline slump. Perhaps the question is not, “did I write a song (or whatever it is that you write/create)”, but “Did I sit down”. Sometimes the magic moments come quickly, but most of the time the magic starts in the mundane - in the sitting down.