Style is a Simple Matter, or, 5 Tips to Get Writing in Trying Times
The Virginia Woolf quotation about style has been rattling around in my soft brain these days:
“Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words. But on the other hand here I am sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can’t dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which has nothing apparently to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it.”
I knew I’d shared these and other words by Woolf a fair bit, but then I did a search on the blog and came up with quite a list.
So, as Woolf says, style is a very simple matter, or in other words, getting anything down these days is a freaking miracle. In that spirit, here are five tips to potentially get you writing.
1. Give up writing altogether.
Well, that’s not very good advice, you might think. But isn’t it often when you’re doing something else, vacuuming, showering, taking a photo, that the words arrive unbidden? I find that if I completely remove any expectations whatsoever, this is when I’m able to write. The thing is, it really is okay not to be writing at the present moment. But that doesn’t mean you’re not also writing. Because part of the process of writing might be: wool gathering, recharging, reading, gardening, learning something new, staring out windows, staring at clouds, daydreaming, walking….I could go on. Maybe now it’s soul time.
Time to find our soul, listen for it, as you would a bird singing unseen in a nearby tree. Time to stay with that sound, even if returns to you with questions. This, you could call — writing.
There are Times
by Hermann Hesse
There are times when a bird calls
or a breeze rustles the branches
or a dog barks from a distant home
and I must fall silent and listen.
My soul returns to forgotten places
where a thousand years ago
the birds and the wind blowing
were more like my bothers.
My soul transforms into a tree,
into a creature, and a cloud passing by,
my soul returns to me with questions,
but I stay the same and find no answer.
Maybe now is the time to just love the world.
From the intro to The Seasons of the Soul:
“To cut through the charades of the world, to despise it, may be the aim of great thinkers. My only goal in life is to be able to love this world, to see it and myself and all beings with the eyes of love and admiration and reverence...”
– Hermann Hesse
2. Write with a fountain pen.
If I were a fancy influencer, this would be a paid sponsorship, but because at heart I am a lazy blogger, I had to buy this TWSBi pen with my own cash dollars. This is a piston ink-filling pen, with a 1.1 nib. The filling system is easy and relatively non-messy, I find. And my handwriting is so much nicer (notice I say nicer rather than nice) when I’m writing with a stub / italic / 1.1 nib. So that’s just me. I have gone through more ink in the last couple of months than I usually do in a 6 month period. The reason being that I can think better with pen and paper. It asks less of me, perhaps. I can be messy, I can crumple the piece of paper up and toss it out. It need not be anything good at all. This is freeing. It feels productive, even if it does end up in the garbage. Maybe it even uses a different part of the brain, handwriting.
But okay, if not a fountain pen, try changing the way you get things down. Maybe try voice recording, or an old typewriter. Paint some words, or collage them. If you’re not a diary writer, try that. Or, start drawing, and see if words come out of that process, too. In short, change the materials you’re working with.
3. Make a list
It could be your grocery list. This is important right now. Maybe the first sentence on your list is: “The first sentence is a sentence about writing.” Maybe.
Why do I feel like the list poem is a form for our time?
Tell me, in a list….what do you love? what do you feel? what are you buying at the grocery store? what are you missing? what do you wish for? what do you regret? who/what do you mourn?
4. Change the Vessel
Put the flowers in a different vase, you know? If you’re writing poems, try an essay. If you’re writing a long essay, try shorter ones. Invent a new form! These times are new and I think demand a new way of writing, a new vessel, a new form….something that blends genres, challenges traditions, surprises and vexes….ideas?
We are trying to find ways to say things about this time, but will the old forms work?
5. Try Some Writing Prompts
I write about writing prompts with my tongue in my cheek, at least partially. I highly dislike them as a rule although, it’s also true that I use them all the time. I’m not good at using other peoples’ prompts, but I like making up my own. I wrote a section titled “Writing Prompts” in my book Asking. And that section was started off with an essay of the same name, filled with sort of pretend writing prompts, which ends by prompting the reader to write a poem of their own writing prompts. So, you don’t feel like writing now — how about writing some prompts for when you do?
Sort of along that line of thinking, what I’ve been doing is writing a list of all the things I want to write in my life. For example, I want to write a novel inspired by Anita Brookner, I want to write a book of poems about the smallest things, I want to write a book of song lyrics — total rock n’ roll ones, I want to write a book about the libraries in Rome….I could go on. But the point is to just dream a little. And remind yourself that you will write again.
Your might enjoy revisiting Charles Bernstein’s 66 writing prompts, or Bernadette Mayer’s List of Journal Ideas.
Or, make your own list, and please share them in the comments! with thanks. Once you start goofing around, good things can happen.
Also, a great way to support authors right now is to buy their books, obviously :) Did you know you can buy a few of mine from Palimpsest Press directly? Click here. This way you’re not only supporting me, but a small Canadian Press. Huge thank yous for considering. Otherwise check out all my books here.
