Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014
Making journal writing a habit
Reading and writing
You, the writer
We creative writers must write: freely, openly, and without regard for future implications. And you, as a writer, must keep what you write, however hyperbolic, outrageous, or sloppy it might seem at the outset. Your journal is the primary reservoir for your ideas and observations—some eventually useful and others perhaps not. Time and the context of what you’re working on will reveal which of these categories a given entry eventually falls into.
DEFINITION
If something is hyperbolic, it has been exaggerated or enlarged beyond what’s reasonable.
Similar to free writing, journal entries need not concern something you’re working on. On the contrary, they can articulate your feelings about the overall endeavor of writing or perhaps your reactions to what others have written about work you’ve presented in a workshop or published someplace.
By way of example, here are a few entries from my own writing journal. I no longer advocate these thoughts, but they were necessary for me to write at the time:
The opinions of other people, including academics, seldom matter to serious writers. I know English professors who haven’t and likely never will produce a book, yet pompously spout off on how others should go about their writing. Who would ever take such a person’s ideas on writing seriously? No-count critics and academics always will be envious of a serious writer’s production. That is because they believe they understand the writer’s work and fancy they somehow could fix its perceived shortcomings, and make it better by applying their past training and the various highly structured systems of thought they champion. Ironically though, for all their knowledge, it is simply not within their means to generate successful creative work. If it were, then they would do so rather than sitting around nit-picking and attacking what a more talented person developed using the powers of their mind and soul.
That passage lays it on heavy and pummels the literary intelligentsia, and you know what? That’s totally fine. Journals are great mediums for airing frustrations with rejection or the areas of the creative writing undertaking you find personally unpalatable. I no longer agree with this sentiment, but at the time, it was both necessary and cathartic to write. Moreover, things in the writing profession, as in life, have a funny way of coming full circle, so who knows when it may become relevant again and find its way into a publication.
You’ll find that your own work occasionally gets attacked in a writing workshop or, if published, by a reader or reviewer. Your journal is a good way to express your reactions in a healthy manner without responding to your critic(s) publicly. Here’s another somewhat hot-blooded journal entry I once wrote in defense of two of my books that I no longer feel strongly about:
Believe it or not, there actually are people out there who can’t stand the fact that I created The Warrior’s Path and Confederado, and thus bitterly take issue with aspects of those books. It baffles me that some people seem to want to live in a fantasy world where my work exists in the public domain and I should do as they say regarding the direction my writing and career take. My response to their delusion is simple: if you don’t enjoy my artistic vision, then don’t read the books. You have that right, but you don’t have the right to control my artistic vision. The great thing about producing creative work in this country is that you can do whatever you want without having to answer to others. Your only limits are the limits of your mind and spirit. Who could ask for a better gift or vocation?
Here, the journal entry takes on a more constructive response to criticism, as opposed to the earlier one, which might seem haughty or aggressive. It abstracts my books and the people who have taken time to criticize both them and my career to the universal purpose of creative writing. Regardless of what happens or how readers react, you remain free to express yourself as long as you’re alive and possess the drive to write. In this sense, even the most negative criticism a writer can receive remains a by-product of the gift of free expression via creative writing.
This observation on the limitless freedom of writing extends itself, in another entry, to an idea about fundamental existence and the way in which our planet currently is organized:
It is important for Americans to realize that the end of our finite little society is not the end of the world. The so-called western nations could all disappear suddenly and the impact would be negligible on the rest of humanity. In fact, in some ways the world would be better off. It is true that an apocalyptic end could arrive for us at any moment, but those who believe abstract powers like magical entities, extraterrestrials, or other deity-like beings are going to save them are clinging to a mass delusion.
This entry constitutes an existential declaration to live for now in light of the uncertainness inherent in our lives. Many of you may disagree with these expressed sentiments—in fact, there are parts of this entry I no longer agree with—but the point is that they were on my mind at the time and I felt compelled to record them.
Likely, this entry never will be extracted into a published work, but it serves as an example that, even for published writers, not all journal entries are going to prove useful or even helpful. Yet that only should encourage you to write in your journal more because the more you record, the greater your chance of generating material that’s useful to you at some point.
WRITING PROMPT
Having perused my journal entries on responding to writing criticism and contemplating how to live in the world, begin keeping your own journal. Write anything you like, but if you find yourself stuck, perhaps begin with responses to my last two entries.
I have every confidence that as you continue to keep your journal, both writing in it and working on your more formal pieces will become increasing easier. Even when you’re at your best, writing is rarely effortless. In fact, even with several books to my credit, I still have days when the terror of the blank page gets the best of me or what I record proves utterly useless in the long run.
However, as I have continued reading and writing over the years, those days have become fewer and fewer. True, it can be frustrating, but the key is to stick with your writing and keep doing it. The best writers I know possess greater quantities of relentless determination than raw literary talent.
The least you need to know
· Your own life is the genesis of your writing.
· Made up material exists in all writing.
· Writers are educated by the things they choose to read.
· It’s essential that you “do” or perform the act of writing.
· Make it a habit to use a journal to record quotes, ideas, and observations.