Self-Recognition

DeAnn Louise Daigle AWW 3/6/2011

You don't write what you know, you

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.