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What I Learned from Madeleine – A Book Flight

What I Learned from Madeleine – A Book Flight

by | Jan 10, 2019 | Book Reviews

Speak with me for more than twenty minutes, and you’ll likely hear me quote Madeleine L’Engle. Sometimes you find that author, thinker, or artist that challenges and inspires you in all the right ways. For me, that person is Madeleine.

I’ve chosen four titles for this flight: a collection of quotes from Madeleine’s many speeches and books, a memoir, a work of literary fiction for adults, and a Newbery Honor book for youth readers. While I’ll be delighted if this collection sends you straight to the library to pick up a L’Engle title, I hope it also inspires you to read a flight of books by one of your author-mentors. Examining an artist’s work over a range of genres offers a rich thinking experience, and provides insight into that ever-elusive question: What makes up a writer’s voice?  As always, I wish you inspiration and joy as you savor your reading exploration.

What I Learned from Madeleine: A Book Flight

Herself by Madeleine L’Engle

“In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself… A child playing a game, building a sand castle, painting a picture, is completely in what he is doing… So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating.”

Herself is my go-to book for words of wisdom about writing craft, and a writer’s life. Madeleine L’Engle said many times that she doesn’t teach writers to write. However, as Carole Chase writes in her introduction to the book, “As thousands of individuals who have say in her writing workshops and read her books over the past five decades will tell you, Madeleine may not teach people how to write but she certainly inspires them to unearth the writer within.” Whenever I need to dig deeper, stretch my courage, or be reminded why I write, I return to this book. Learn more here.

 

Two Part Invention by Madeleine L’Engle

“What I must learn is to love with all of me, giving all of me, and yet remain whole in myself. Any other kind of love is too demanding of the other; it takes, rather than gives. To love so completely that you lose yourself in another person is not good. You are giving a weight, not the sense of lightness and light that loving someone should give.” 

As an artist, it can be easy to focus so much on a creation that I forget the most beautiful creation I’m making … my creative life. Two-Part Invention reminds me that our responsibility–and privilege–as artists is to live life meaningfully and with intention. While this book always makes me cry, it also brings me great joy. I read it regularly, because each time, it helps me become a better wife, friend, mentor, and writer.  Learn more here.

 

Certain Women by Madeleine L’Engle

 “We human beings grow through our failures, not our virtues.” 

While I loved reading this book the first time through as a reader, I have returned to it multiple times as a writer. It’s a masterclass in crafting complex relationships on the page through dialogue, backstory, and action. As with everything else Madeleine L’Engle wrote, this book strikes a resonant chord with me, waking me up to a more fully present way of moving through each day. With each scene, she reminds me of how valuable each moment of our lives are. Live as an artist, live with intention, live with laughter and joy. Learn more here.

 

A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle

“If I’m confused, or upset, or angry, if I can go out and look at the stars I’ll almost always get back a sense of proportion. It’s not that they make me feel insignificant; it’s the very opposite; they make me feel that everything matters, be it ever so small, and that there’s meaning to life even when it seems most meaningless.” 

Madeleine L’Engle often spoke and wrote about her characters as though they weren’t made of imagination, ink, and paper, but as though they’d arrived in her life as living, breathing people. Her characters are complicated, creative, and dealing with life’s highs and lows. I love how L’Engle blends light with darkness, joy with pain, making each more distinct in her work. In this, as in all of her other books, I find myself feeling life more deeply when I view it through the lens of her words. Learn more here.

 

Share Your Favorites, Too!

If you pick up the books in this flight – whether for the first or (like me) the thirtieth time – I’d love to hear what thoughts they spark for you. If you have a favorite author who writes across genres, and who inspires you, please don’t hesitate to introduce me and the entire Writerly Play community! Tag me on Twitter or Instagram, and let’s chat. Happy reading!

Cut Years Off Your Writing Learning Curve with this Mindset Shift

by | Apr 24, 2018 | Creative Life

For writers, 10,000 hours is probably an understatement. The writing learning curve is no small thing. Writers twenty years into their careers will tell you they still have miles to go–so much landscape to cover, and so many discoveries to make. However, as any hiker knows, a solid plan, clear expectations and a backpack full of optimism are absolutely necessary to take the first step up a daunting mountain.
 
How you start, how you spend your time, and your overall mindset about developing your skill set can make years of difference in your writing learning curve.
 
Cut Years off Your Writing Learning Curve
 

The Publication Milestone

If we’re honest, when we start writing seriously, the milestone most of us aim for is publication. Writing is an art form, and art is meant to be shared. We might love writing for self-expression, for the sheer creative joy of it, for sharing with our students, children, family and friends, but we still long for that finished book with our name on the spine.
 
Now that I’ve been writing seriously for nearly twenty years, I see how aiming for publication as my first milestone was detrimental to my learning process. For one thing, I put my success (and honestly, my feeling of self-worth) squarely where it didn’t belong … in the hands of other people.
 
Okay, time out for a second. A voice in the back of your mind might be piping up, saying, “Well, yeah, yadda, yadda. I’ve heard this all before. Make goals that focus on process. But, time is short. I’m strategic. I’m determined. I can find the publication shortcut if I look hard enough.”
 
Yep. I absolutely agree. You might be the exception to the rule, and you might find a shortcut to publication. Let’s say you do find a publisher before you’ve deepened your writing craft. Now, your first book is out there, and it may not be representative of you as an artist. Or, you may not have the ability to follow it up with a next book. Or you might face any number of other problems that occur when the cart comes before the horse.
 
Or, let’s say that you experience the writer’s fairy tale. You work hard, grow as a writer, and are published without too much heartache. You carry on, growing and publishing regularly. This story is honestly the one that I wish for you, and it’s absolutely possible. It’s much more possible if you choose to focus on your craft from day one.
 
Here’s where the years of difference come in.

The Writing Learning Curve: An Early Milestone

Returning to our hiker for a moment, consider a trail map. The map highlights points of interest, giving you mid-trail mini-goals. However, the most memorable moments of your hike are often the ones YOU discover. You might spot a mountain lion in the distance, or unexpectedly find a four-leaf clover. In the same way, your personal milestones are likely to be the most meaningful as you develop as a writer. Still, it’s always helpful to watch for a few common milestones, as well.
An early milestone is the ability to clearly identify a craft problem in your writing. Rather than focusing on a specific story, and how to nudge a sentence or paragraph in one direction or another, you start to see patterns.
 

My characters don’t have the necessary depth to feel real.

My exposition pours out as an info dump.

The pacing of story questions and discoveries is too fast or too slow.

 
In order to make it to this milestone, writers need to have read, researched and practiced enough to:
  • Know what a well-crafted story needs
  • Build courage in their ability to solve problems
  • Have a body of work across which they can identify patterns
Courage may seem like the least important in that list, but I believe it is the key to unlock the others. No one wants to identify a problem he or she cannot solve. Daring to see a problem that goes beyond a specific story, to see an area of true growth for yourself, is highly difficult. You must admit that you have done your very best and still fallen short. Our subconscious flares up, playing all kinds of tricks to keep us from seeing the truth. If we haven’t proven to ourselves that a shortcoming is no big deal, if we don’t believe at a bone-deep level that with hard work, we can gain that next skill, we simply won’t be able to see the gap.
 
Have you made it to this milestone yet? Here are a few steps to speed up your momentum if you think you’re in this phase of growth.
  1. Read and write regularly.
  2. As you read and write, ask yourself questions that go beyond the specific story. If you notice that a character isn’t pulling his or her weight, ask yourself why. Then, step back and notice what this insight might mean on a more universal level.
  3. Write small. One novel will take you a long time to write, and you won’t be able to see patterns as clearly in one piece of work. Instead, use at least some of your writing time to draft 10-15 minute stories. These low-stakes stories will help you experiment (which builds courage) and also to see patterns more clearly.
 

The Writing Learning Curve: A Next-Step Milestone

 
A next-step milestone is the ability to identify strengths in mentor texts. Once you see an area of growth, you can then turn to resources to help you develop that skill. The ability to see specifically how another writer has done what you aim to do will change the trajectory of your growth. Here’s where you truly cut years off your writing learning curve.
 
In order to make it to this milestone, writers need to have questioned, experimented, and explored enough to:
  • Identify writers they admire for strength of writing craft
  • Understand the strengths of their own perspective and writing voice
  • See past the surface of a story to the gears and cogs turning within
 
Again, the most important skill on this list deals with mindset. You can’t expect yourself to be teachable and willing to learn from master writers if reading their works closely will discourage you. If you don’t yet believe you have something unique to add to the conversation, you will feel as though you’re working toward being a shadowy copy of someone else. You have to know, without a doubt, that your stories matter. Learning someone else’s successful strategies allows you to stand on the shoulders of the greats, and from there, create your own beautiful, innovative, meaningful work.
 
Have you made it to this milestone yet? Here are a few steps to speed up your momentum if you think you’re in this phase of growth.
  1. Create a vision for who you are, at core, as a writer. Collect artifacts–stories, scenes, beautiful lines, anything that helps you see and hear your unique voice. You may even want to make a list or a collage to keep in your writing space, a touchstone to remind you of the simple truth: there is only one you, and only you can tell your stories.
  2. Read with your writing objectives in mind. Notice when an author stands out as a master in a skill you want to develop. Keep those mentor texts on a specific shelf or on your desk. Also, consider reading twice. Read once for the experience, and a second time, more slowly, to notice the inner workings of the story.
  3. Begin to practice the art of reverse-engineering. Underline specific lines that show a strategy in motion. Consider what the author is doing, why, and how you might do something similar (in your own words) in your work.

Setting Milestones Provides Momentum

 
When I started my MFA at Hamline University in Writing for Children and Young Adults, people told me that my study would take years off my writing learning curve. Hamline is a magical place, and working with my incredible mentors there delivered exactly what they promised. If you’re able to invest in an MFA, I strongly recommend it. The mindset challenges I noted above, especially, are more easily overcome with close guidance and encouragement from a distinguished mentor. Also, writing critical papers on mentor texts pushes you to do the necessary work to make this progress possible.
 
That said, with or without an MFA, these milestones will make an incredible difference for you. It feels counter-intuitive to take precious writing time to write small, or to closely examine someone else’s work. However, if doing that work is like turning on a headlamp to pierce through your internal fog, think of how much more quickly you can make it where you want to go.
 
If you’re a longtime reader of the Writerly Play blog, you’ve likely spotted that the skills explored here are foundational in the Writerly Play Library. If you’re curious to dig deeper into how to individualize, map and problem solve your creative development, you might enjoy reading about what Writerly Play is, or how the Writerly Play Library offers creatives an opportunity to strategically develop their skill set.
 
As writers, one of the best ways for us to support one another is to share our insight. Have you found any mentor authors? What book has helped you grow as a writer, and how has the text specifically helped you? Let us know in the comments section or tag me on Facebook or Instagram. I can’t wait to learn from your experience.

It Gets Messier Before It Gets Clear

by | May 4, 2016 | Creative Life

It gets

I know it’s happened to you. You have that freak-out moment when you realize that your world is simply too cluttered. You absolutely must–at this very moment–clear out your closet. Or your top desk drawer. Or your car. The trouble is, you’re craving clean and tidy and what you get is a messy pile.

The only way to clear clutter away is to take it out of the dark corners and deal with it.

Recently, I’ve been clearing a lot of things out of dark corners. Whether it’s a physical pile that I’ve pulled out of the closet, or an invisible pile, such as my unwritten task list, nearly every time, I’m hit at some point with fear, sharp and sudden. This pile! I think, throwing my arms up in despair. It might be more than I can handle.

As long as you can’t see the entire pile, you don’t know the distance between where you are and relief. You don’t know what it will take to achieve a clear closet or a clear calendar. The pile tells the truth. Here are the things you’ll have to decide about, and that you’ll have to deal with, before this mess is cleared up.

But we know that on the other side of the mess is the thing we’re craving. Clarity.

So usually, at least on good days, we push past the fear and tackle the pile. I’ve noticed the following questions have been helping me brave the rather large piles I’ve been tackling lately. Maybe they’ll spark some momentum for you, too.

  1. What problems do I see?
    • I stack items in the pile into distinct issues. This approach requires mentally transforming the items from “stuff” into the problems they represent. Maybe a messy pile of notes points out that I need a better note taking system. Or a stack of mail might remind me that I need a holding space and reminder system for bills. 
  2. How can I hide all the problems but one?
    • It’s easy to get distracted. Once everything is sorted, I look for ways to hide the mess to give my brain clear thinking space. Sometimes I put the piles in boxes so I only have to deal with one problem at a time. In the case of tasks or projects, I will sometimes write each project on a separate piece of paper. Then, I’ll make decisions about what needs to happen with that particular project. Maybe it needs to go into my to-do list. Or maybe there are a lot of steps to a project and what I need is to calendar it out in stages or put it into a project management tool.
  3. What solutions might I try?
    • Once I’ve focused on an issue, I’m tempted to search obsessively for the perfect solution. However, the ideas that result from the question of what I “might try” are usually more creative than the ones that show up when I ask myself how I will “fix this.” Fixing feels set in stone and often stumps me.

Clutter, whether it is physical, mental, or emotional, crowds out creativity. If we allow the messes to stick around in the dark corners, eventually, our creativity is struggling to thrive in a sunless, oxygen-deprived space. However, when clutter is our creativity block, dealing with the situation is challenging. As we take out the mess, the trouble explodes across our physical or internal space. A flood of emotion is quick to follow. In these moments, the thing that helps me most is remembering that it’s not just me. I’m not the only one who who sets out to deal with some clutter, and finds that what’s required is determination, resilience and courage. All because of a pile!

If your closet, to-do list, or office is in need of some spring cleaning, remember … when push comes to shove, you’re not alone. And you CAN do this, no matter how it feels in the moment. Even a mountain can be moved one shovelful of dirt at a time. I’d love to hear your spring cleaning stories, be they survival tales or monumental successes. Share away below, or join me over on Facebook or Twitter to chat.

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Questions for the Start and End of Your Day

Questions for the Start and End of Your Day

by | Apr 1, 2016 | Creative Life

In The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander point out that this harmless little question might not be so harmless after all. Why? Well, the underlying question for most of us is, “What did I accomplish today?” And the danger is that we’re measuring the value of our day based on our answer.

If you’re a novelist and you spend the day working on a difficult passage, ending up with 500 words, it’s all too easy to judge the day a failure. Only 500 words today. Or, what if at the end of a day of teaching, you realize that you spent most your time resolving a heartfelt conflict in your classroom but hardly any time on spelling?

Asking the wrong question leads to the wrong answer. And the wrong answers, over time, lead to skewed thinking, poor decisions, and too often, a sense of discouragement and confusion.

And yet, reflection is an important part of growth. The momentum that growth brings is key to staying motivated and engaged.

So … What helpful reflection questions might we ask ourselves at the end of the day?

Here are a few I’m going to try.

  1. When did I feel grateful today?
  2. When did I feel connected today?
  3. When did I listen to someone today, and what did I hear?
  4. What did I learn today?
  5. What challenged me today?
  6. What made me curious today, and how might I explore my questions tomorrow?

Donald Miller used to have a course about life-planning. In it, he encouraged people to ask themselves in the morning: “If I could do today over, what would I do differently?” Projecting yourself to the end of the day and thinking about what honestly matters shifts the day’s focus from that addictive to-do list to something more lasting and important.

I’m enjoying the experiment–these book-end question sessions at the start and end of the day. Want to try it out too? I’d love to hear about your experience. Tag me on Instagram or Twitter and let’s chat about it. In the meantime, here’s to you and your creative journey.

 

Find Your Story

by | Mar 24, 2016 | Creative Life

YOU ARE SIMPLY THE

How do you consume stories? Do you read them? Listen to them? Watch them? Play them out? How many stories have you consumed today? This week?

I’ll venture to guess that stories are a staple of your every day diet, and not just because you’re the kind of person who reads this blog. There’s a reason brands use stories as the foundation for multi-million dollar commercials such as the ones aired during the Super Bowl.

Humans crave stories.

Donald Miller, as part of his Storybrand workshops, points out that stories are built on patterns. Those patterns create clarity in the human mind. In a well-crafted story, a character has a problem and sets out to solve it. Through the story’s twists and turns, the character strives for the desired solution, and in the end he or she either achieves success or does not. 

But the point is: We KNOW what the character wants. We can see the character’s progress. We have a mental picture of what success looks like. All the twists and turns in the story are given meaning, when viewed in light of the goal.

Often, life doesn’t feel that clear.

First of all, it’s not easy to figure out the exact problem and identify a clear solution or goal. Maybe we want fourteen things all at the same time. Or maybe we know what we want but we doubt our motives. We want external guidance and assurance that we’re headed in the right direction.

Second, it’s not easy to gauge success. When we watch a character try to solve a problem, we can usually read into his or her internal reasons for needing that problem to be solved. Maybe externally, the Three Pigs each want to build their own houses. But what they really need is a safe place to live. When they end up together in the brick house, safe from the wolf, their deeper longing has been met. They are safe. In our real lives, when we don’t reach our external goals, we feel frustrated. Even if our internal problem is solved, we may not realize that is the case, leaving us feeling foggy and uncertain. We wonder: Have I made progress? Often the missed goal blinds us to the actual success.

But is the story pattern impossible to see in our own lives?

No. Not impossible. And when we do glimpse the story pattern, every twist and turn and challenge and success becomes that much more meaningful. The fog on the path ahead clears, and we see how to carry our life story forward. 

Here are some questions I find helpful when reflecting on my own life story. 

  1. What goals am I working toward? (I often look at six key areas of my life when asking this question: core, creativity, commitment, connection, cultivation, casting dreams. More on those categories here.)
  2. Why? (I ask the question about each goal, and list all the answers that come up.)
  3. And that’s important because …? (I look at the answers and push myself to go a little deeper. These second tier answers are usually closer to my real reasons.)
  4. Is there an overall goal that ties these goals together? (Stories make more sense when they are unified. An overall goal might be “I want to be healthy in body, relationships, mind, and spirit.”)
  5. Am I just starting out or have I been on this journey for a while? (You can decide whether to look at a small, recent story or one that you’ve been telling for a long time. The size of the story is up to you. The goal is to choose a story that is meaningful to you at this current stage of your life.)

Question five can be the basis to draw a map for your life story. Where are the notable successes and where are the setbacks? The more whimsical the map, the more it can transform your experience into something objective that you can look at from the outside. The map then becomes a living document that can accompany you on the journey.

I hope you’ll try this process out for yourself. Over the past couple years, I’ve used a map to chart the story of my year. I’ve gained so much perspective from seeing my story told in this visual, streamlined way. I hope the same is true for you! Feel free to share your story below, or share with the greater community on Facebook or Twitter.

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