September 24: "And Now You Write" Squelching the Inner Critic Using the Sense of Sound

You are welcome to join “And Now You Write” at any time. Your timing is just right to write with us.

   

 Listen to the recording of today's session here if your preference is to have an audio guide to your writing:

Please feel free to participate in our next optional teleconference writing session which will be held Sasturday at 8:30 AM Pacific time.

Simply Dial-in here:

Access Number: 1-712-432-3100 and enter the Conference

Code: 440137

AUDIO will be added by 11 AM Pacific time if you prefer to write along with a recording.

Now: our session begins -

It is no secret that I love haiku. I love the brevity, I love the way it makes me feel to write haiku and I love the way it feels to read haiku aloud.

One of the most popular haiku artists of all time, Basho, wrote these words.

Listen carefully:

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound 
coming out of the flowers.

Listen to Basho’s words again. Read them aloud if you are not participating on an audio version of this program. “The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound 
coming out of the flowers.”

Did you hear the temple bells in the vowel sounds?

If you didn't hear it, release your concern about 'what you didn't hear' and instead settle into the lush word choices - simple, elegant sounds within those words.

“The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound 
coming out of the flowers.”

This technique is called "assonance".

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within
a piece  of writing.  It is frequently used as a device
in poetry AND it can be used in any form of writing.

I intentionally use this form of writing when I am 
"at risk" for being stuck.

Here is why:

Creating exercises and games is one of the surest
ways to jump start the creative process.  It unblocks 
clogs which may be present due to circumstances, 
moods or those moments when we are discouraged or overwhelmed. An added bonus is this: listening to your own voice 
as you verbally speak the sounds can create another bridge to deeper creativity.

It keeps my writing fresh, clear and crisp - especially 
during times when I might be more prone to slow 
down in my writing practice is to keep a steady 
supply of writing games on hand.

One day shortly after the death of my friend, Tom, 
I sat at my kitchen table, pencil poised to the page. 
I created a word pool based on the vowel sound 
"ah" like in "Mom" or "Balm".

I wasn't sure what I would create, but I knew I had to create – I knew the longer I only focused 
on feeling out of sorts about Tom's death, 
the less likely it would be that I would ever 
create any decent writing in the near future.

I chanted "Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah" and let the words flow.

Soon I had quite a collection of words and wrote a semi-surreal, assonance based
poem.  Listen to the results, focusing on sounds produced in the words.

Dissolving
© 2003, 2004
Julie Jordan Scott

Dissolving into a bog like trance of tears

and disbelief


Someone had absconded

with her resolve


Slowly she dropped, loose and floppy


Her body a blonde modge podge


No longer a treasure to behold


Instead a trodden upon over run


Marsh of weeds and soggy grasses


Begging to be cut down and mowed


So something useful could 


Be grown, filling the space

which now only held


The salt of her tears which slowly

filled
Her mouth with an unquenchable

thirst
For small, green frogs gathered at dusk


From the nearby pond


Soggy, lifeless green mushing into her


Mouth smothered blithely in butter and


Swallowed almost whole, bonded and


Sought to be more than a blot, a void


A mottled mirage

====

I remember the muffled awe which struck me


after I composed that poem.

The moment echoed light. I might have heard the string section in an orchestra
as it played a grand crescendo of emotion if I listened carefully.

It became an auditory a-ha experience.

Julia Cameron has an inner censor who hissed "
Who do you think you are, writing a book about
 writing?" There the words are, written by Cameron
herself. They march across a page in her book, 
"The Right to Write."

Using a tool like an assonance based word
 pool can do wonders for squelching the inner 
critic – and the outer critic as well.

I was amazed to learn of Julia Cameron having 
an inner censor remarkably like my own. The 
Divine Diva of inspiring writer-dom herself has
 an inner critic?

This realization brought my defenses flopping at my
feet, inert and exempt of their former power.

Julia Cameron hears the same sort of untruth and rumors
and sees the same sneaky slights of hand that we do.

What a relief.

I remember when I was interacted with the tormenting 
barrier-like wall built up and surrounded by my nay-saying internal
anti-cheering squad.

We talked about our inner critics the other day, when they took the form of a human. Sometimes our inner critics take the form of a wall or a blockade to our writing voice. One of my ways of dismantling the wall is to describe it, to become more familiar with it.

My “inner critic” wall is made of chain links and barbed wire and
has electrical charges 6,026 feet above and below
it, too. There is no burrowing under it or climbing
over it without some extreme equipment which in
these moments seem way out of reach.

The chain link monster has a built in laughing track
and every single time I get within six inches of it the
wall itself there are out of control shrieks and gales
of laughter and taunting choruses gleefully, hatefully,
scornfully greet me.

I could be doing stand-up comedy in front of creative
souls and laughter would bubble towards me (and
towards themselves) due to the sheer ridiculousness
of my wall plus the joyful recognition that we are not
alone in the disengaging devices created by our inner critic. We are also not
alone in the ease and ability to untangle ourselves
from what had at once felt like a strong-hold upon
our hopes and dreams.

We all have these sinister, ordinary, run-of-the-mill
and extravagant false beliefs and barriers to our
own brand of extraordinary-ness. None of us has
the corner on the monumental girth and depth
and tempestuousness of self-doubt.

Mine has ebbs and tides, it rises with occasional mean
spirited notions which I can usually spirit away rather
easily as quickly as they unexpectedly arise.

And guess what?

We can choose to create, to plan or to simply be even
when the winds from the gales of laughter feel like
we could fly our thought-made kites into them.

You, me, Julia Cameron, your next door neighbor
who bears a stunning resemblance to Clark Kent, we
can all choose to write or choose to sew or choose to
make that phone call we have, up until now, let our
own internalized inventions of doom cast their
power upon our moments.

Not any more.

I am siding with Julia. And You. And Me

Today we will build a word pool and use that word 
pool in our writing time.  I would like us to use 
the vowel sound that is found in "ooohhhm" – 
because it is a sacred sound and will keep us
grounded in that spiritual energetic space.

If you are present during our live session, we will simply bubble up the words that are spoken
into your heart-mind and I will echo the words
back to you as I write it into the pool in front 
of me. You may want to scribe the words 
the others speak as we go along.

If you are working on your own, you may follow the same process, simply doing it in your own voice at home.

Here are some words to start the process.


Something     trumpet  Drum   Handsome 
Wonder     Winsome now

Now here is a list of words collected in our call, and feel free to add your own words:

spoke    brown  cone  invoke   gnome  foam  yodel  harmony   joke  oak reproach   folk  Oklahoma  round comb token toke  remote  Rhode Island   poke  gloat   pole  ohm moat spoke vote  fountain  phoney ground ohm invoke   sound

If you are working on your own, read the list of words aloud before you write. You may then weave as
many of these words as possible in your writing. 
As always, don't think about what you are creating
simply allow your pencil to move across the page.

The prompt for today is "In this moment I hear….."

"In this moment I hear….."

"In this moment I hear……"

Later today, tomorrow and next week, really hear the world 
which surrounds you.  Hear those sounds again through your words.  Your writing is improving. It is becoming more vivid and more enjoyable to your reader.

Please share your writing with us using Mr. Linky. If you use this prompt to blog, we would love to know and include you in our community. Mr. Linky is an easy creative tool to help connections happen easily.

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I am so grateful to be writing together with you.

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Comments

[Tabitha the KnittingJourneyman]

I only found this blog three days ago--but I am loving working with these prompts. Right now, I have writing by hand in a notebook, and am not publishing my responses online. But I did want you to know I am here and I am glad to be participating. Thank you.

[Julie Jordan Scott]

I am grateful to know you are writing along with us, Tabitha. You may have noticed I am not big on "rules" and instead choose to center myself in the knowledge you are writing... and perhaps when you are ready, you may share some of what you have written (or share a story of your experience) via Mr. Linky (or not!)

I am starting a facebook group this weekend, perhaps you may join us in there.

The most important is moving your pencil - allowing your words to fall onto the page.

So glad you found us!