Musing (Coaxing The Muse - Pt. 1)

I've been thinking a lot about writing lately - In fact, really since last October, when I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. That primed the pump, so to speak. In January, I started doing some freelance writing for companies over the Internet. Though it isn't that great of writing, and it is low-paying, it is a foot-in-the-door, a "paying my dues" sort of experience. But I'd love to be doing more of it - I'd love to have it pay enough to be a living wage someday. So, I've been doing much more writing lately, and reconnecting with a root choice of "potential occupation" of being an author. (Another root choice would be to be a Librarian, but some of that interest was because I love books and wasn't sure I would be good enough as a writer.)

I was delighted to find on KBYU-TV a speaker that really caught my interest -- Lance Larson, who is a very well-acclaimed (published and awarded) author/poet/essayist. He teaches for BYU (as of the date of this talk, May 22, 2007) in the English department, and has even taught in London at BYU's Study Abroad, teaching English Literature and Creative Nonfiction. Wow. This guy is amazing.

So, his talk was titled "Coaxing the Muse: Thoughts on the Creative Process". Even the title gets me excited! Last night I thought "Ok, I'll listen to it as I fall asleep - if isn't that engaging, I won't bother to go back and finish watching it. (It is on the DVR. Waiting for me to watch again. :-) I love DVR!)

His talk is available online for those who want to listen to it or watch it themselves. If you are patient, over the course of the next few days I'll take you through his whole talk, highlighting the numerous wonderful parts. That will give you some time between (daily) posts to digest and implement his ideas.
Coaxing the Muse: Thoughts on the Creative Process

He begins by telling some of the methods that have been used in the past to tap into "hidden reservoirs of creativity" - from the ancient Greeks who would ask one of the 9 Muses to sing them a song of wisdom, to a phrenologist who would read the bumps on your head to profile your personality, to visiting with Sigmund Freud for two years on his couch.

Lance Larson has several "strategies to help us harness this power we only dimly understand." He wanted to talk about creativity for all areas of life, all interests, but realized that was way too big and broad of a topic. Instead, he decided to talk just about writing creativity. Though he says he still feels in over his head, even with a more limited topic. He quoted T.S. Eliot: If you're not in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? (I like that quote a lot! It has so many applications in life...)

Today, I'll write about his first strategy.

"The first principle of creativity I stress in the classroom, is very simple: Read. If this sounds too simplistic, then let's dress it up: Immerse yourself in the discipline and gorgeous chaos of words."
He told a story about a student who brought him several poems he'd written, and was waiting for him (the professor) to read them and praise him on them. Trouble was, they were really bad. Terribly bad. And he struggles with how to respond. He asked the young man whose poetry inspired him, who kept him up at night, reading. The young man said, "No one. I don't read poetry. I don't want anyone's style rubbing off on me."

Lance Larson says:

"If we don't consciously seek the best model, we unwittingly put ourselves at the mercy of the worst."

And "Sir Philip Sidney's advice, "Fool, look in thy heart and write" works pretty well if you've internalized the English canon and taken in a healthy sampling of the world's literature in translation. It works less well if you limit yourself to what pop culture drops into your lap. Sing-songy nursery rhymes in Kindergarten, faked emotion trapped in greeting cards, advertising jingles for fast food, and the saccharine cooings that leak into our brains when we turn on our car radios. Each writer is a capacious storage tank, containing a lifetime of reading and experience. If this is true, how can we expect refreshing elixirs to pour forth from our spigots if we have filled ourselves with stale pool water and artificial sweetener?

We can change this. My advice - to the young man then, and to would-be writers now -
Devour books - eclectically, intelligently, voraciously.

He says - Listen to what others have said about reading:

• Nobel prize novelist Sabella - a Jewish writer - "Good writers are good readers, moved to emulation". (Love that quote too!)
• Giorgos Seferis - a Greek Poet - "Don't ask me who's influenced me. The lion is made up of the lambs he's digested and I've been reading all my life." (Wow.)
• Daryl Spencer: "Listen, if you're not reading 3 stories a day, you're not in the game."

For his class, the students sign a contract. In it, they agree to read 700 pages beyond regular class reading. It must be literary, not assigned in another class, and previously unread. (Sounds like fun to me!)

Strategy two tomorrow. Stay tuned!