Day 15 & 16: Sideways Step and Test III

Happy Easter everybody! I hope you all found warm tables to sit around with good family and friends, chowing down on a good ham and all the fixen's that go with it! Haha!

Today's topics are Sideways Step and Test III

In Sideways Step, Natalie Goldberg wants to ingrain in us that when writing your memoir that you don't want to tackle head on, but rather to come up along side it. One way to do this is to pick one thing that you like; gardening, painting, working on cars... You name it. As you write about these experiences, you start digging in a little deeper: How old were you? When was this? What season was it? Where were you at? What was it like? Were your folks sick? Who were you dating at the time?...

These questions help to give a depth in your writing, but more importantly it gives you practice!

If you want to do anything you need practice, hard work. You need to be constantly looking, constantly writing about the happenstance's around you; tripping over a rake in the grass, something you notice while teaching algebra.

As Goldberg puts it, "you need to stay in touch with notebook and pen, to be connected with your search. If you don't know you're looking, you won't find anything."

What does this practically look like? A fellow by the name of Rob Wilder, he taught workshops with Goldberg for four years, had been writing short stories for nearly twenty years... but wasn't really well known or published from what we can tell.

Anyways, Goldberg tells the story that in writing, you can work hard for years, but it won't do you any good unless you are willing to jump off the ledge, get out of your 'comfort zone' (for all conservative christians out there) and become vulnerable in your writing.

So Goldberg would have Wilder get up and tell stories to the students, with each story that he told, they got more detailed, more involved. The students would sit enthralled to hear him and some would come to tears about what he was saying.

He would talk about how he got started writing, about his two boys, about his trips to England and other countries, all things that he regarded as old boring stuff. But after every story Goldberg would tell him to write it down, and he would merely have this perplexed look on his face.

Eventually, Wilder did write a story down, it was almost immediately published in an online journal, an writing agent sought him out and made deals, now he has a book out about parenting his two kids called, Daddy Needs a Drink.

What did I take from all this? 1) Write all the time about anything that you like writing about and about anything that happens to you. Because you don't know what stories will trigger something inside that will unleash the thing that you want to share. 2) Hard work will only take you so far. You need to know your voice and you need to be able to be who you are in your writing... no matter how that may look or how vulnerable that may be :)

Now that I've said all that!

Test III is simply a couple of 'I remember...' exercises that you do in a short amount of time. There were supposed to be 2 minutes but I went ahead and made them 3, just because I like the extra time to set the memory. The four exercises are:

• A memory of cabbage
• Some instance of war
• A cup you loved
• A peace march you didn't attend

Test III

A memory of cabbage:

I have a memory of sauerkraut, which I count the same since all it is, is fermented cabbage.

I was in Germany, the summer of 2001. I was probably in week 2 or 3 of our three month long missions trip around the world.

We were walking along the streets of his old city full of cobble stone roads.

There was a food stand we came up upon that had tables set out in the plaza, each one with a bowl, full of sauerkraut.

I had never had sauerkraut before, and instinctively put a bit of it into my mouth...

Time.

Some instance of war:

I was young, about 13 or so I want to say. The news was all a buzz with what was going on in Kosovo at the time and my interests in war had been peaked by a fascination with World War II that had been peaked not too long before.

I sat eagerly on our couch in the basement, listening to commentators talk about possibilities that the U.N. was going to send troops.

Still shots of the United Nations building filled the screen as we waited eagerly for the decision to pass.

Suddenly, word came across the air that America was sending troops!

In my little mind, America was going to war...

Time.

A cup you loved:

I actually still have the cup that I love!

It's a hand crafted mug that has a textured, salt glaze on it that was received probably from a six day wood fire.

I was helping my former instructor/mentor/good friend/master potter Fergus, set-up and run a booth that had his pots at the concert hall in downtown Columbia, MO.

My eye had been on this sleek, oval bottle that had a hole right through the middle of it...

My plan was that I was going to buy that bottle after the show had closed down...

Time.

A peace march I didn't attend:

When I was going to Moberly Area Community College about 3 year ago. I had this old philosophy teacher that reminded me of Santa Clause (now as I remember it, it seems that every philosophy teacher that I have had has reminded me of Santa Clause).

Sometimes, he would lean back in his chair in the basement of the college and start telling us stories of the peace matches and demonstrations that he used to take part in.

One such march, he was with a group of thousands that were demonstrating in front of the Pentagon in Washington D.C...

And... Time!

Well, thank you all for reading!

Let me know how you guys are liking the blog (i.e. what do I write that you really like? that I do well to illustrate?) and also any pointers to help me become a better writer (i.e. What are some things that I can improve on? punctuation? word usage? vocabulary? mental pictures that are created in your mind? Jazz like that).

Tomorrow's topics are: Monkey Mind and Wild at Heart

See everyone Tomorrow!

-Eric Alan