DeAnn Louise Daigle AWW 3/6/2011
write because you know. At least, I
think the best stories are told from what
we've learned through the experiences
we've had. It's hard to pinpoint what I
know, but it's easy to write when I have
no expectations at all, no deadline for
which I get paid, no outline to follow,
no strict assignment fraught with
demands into which I must fit; a pattern
that's cut out for something like
building a ship or making a dress.
Perhaps I'm being totally false here
because having a deadline actually
motivates me to get off the
procrastinating seat. I've been paid for
writing, and it was awful; I've also
volunteered my writing services and
that was a learning experience, and in
both cases something specific was
required and I basically stunk at it.
But, I think some great writers of fiction
have spoken truth because they've
allowed the places they've seen to
speak to the imagination in such a way
that the boundaries between fact and
fiction melted. But they called it fiction
when it was really derived from a whole
lot of fact. I'm only speaking about
good fiction here, like Hemingway's The
Old Man and The Sea and Harper Lee's
To Kill A Mockingbird.
There's a true story aching to be told,
and these writers bring together pieces
of actual experience to tell the story.
We are blown open like we are with a
great opera or a symphony or a ballet or
a poem or a truth of any kind that hits
the nerve of consciousness.
I know myself best when I am blown
wide open by the sound of a bird or a
piece of music or a delicious chocolate
mousse or a kiss unexpectedly
passionate.
Whatever it is that makes an experience
realer in the one moment; that for me is
a touch of the ineffable, an awakening,
an epiphany, a moment of awe, and it
cannot be planned.
But, I can practice for it by showing up
for whatever way works for me; and
writing my story works for me.
