I took a short trip today to meet my new little brother, so I got lots of drive-time with Stephen King. CD 4 of On Writing is definitely my favorite thus far. I felt like I was in church, nodding and "Amen"ing everything he said. The most intriguing thing, and perhaps the most important that I have learned this past three months since starting my blog (Happy 3 month Anniversary, by the way), that Mr. King had to say was that writers don't create stories, they tell stories. He regards these tales as "relics" or "fossils" that the writer stumbles upon and unearths. A thing already in existence that the writer simply transcribes. It's interesting to me, because now that I think about it, this is pretty much what I wrote about in my 10th post, "Maintaining openness". King says that these stories he stumbles upon are such a discovery that even he doesn't know how they will end when he first finds them. Even he cannot predict who the characters will become by story's end. They simply find him and jump out from the
Streams of Story into his head. And, I have felt this myself many times. Maybe you have the pieces but you don't quite know how they fit together until the words pour out like puzzle pieces from your fingertips.
On CD 5, he gives an assignment, a prompt for a story we, the listeners, are supposed to finish and email him. Though horror is not my forte, I decided to try it. One of the other important things I have learned is that you must try everything to determine what you are meant to do. So, though the prompt didn't excite me, and though, to be honest, I felt a bit queasy writing about such things, write I did, and I churned out the greatest number of pages I have ever written in one sitting, the highest number of words.
I can do this.In my Tolle reading for today, he states that our purpose in life is to align our inner focus with our outer focus, meaning to express our spirit through our work, whether that work is writing, mowing the lawn, or washing your face. When you are one with the spirit, it flows through you, guides you. Just like Stephen King said.
My new little brother.
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2 comments:
Found you through Scattering Lupines.
I love that Stephen King book "On Writing". But what I really want to say is that the little puppy is adorable ! What did you name him ?
More later,
Kary
Oh cool, thanks for reading! Yeah, I'm really digging the book, though it is actually my first King. It was suggested to me by my life coach. But on to more important things, the puppy belongs to my parents, and my dad named him Peewee, which is obviously appropriate! He is the tiniest cutest thing! My husband and I are so tempted to go get one of his brothers!!
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