by Laurie Wagner | Jun 13, 2012 | Blog
1. Let’s start with the easiest one – Ask yourself what you’re afraid to write about. Bingo. Write this for yourself – you don’t have to share it with other people unless you want to. 2. Trust the words that come out of you. Don’t make them “better.” If you hear the word “shit” or “puss” or “pumpkinhead,” those are the words you should use. Shooting from the hip – just to get the words on paper – is the best way to land something real. It’s your subconscious in action. 3. Never try to pretty up your writing and write things that are appropriate or nice. The more real you are, the more accessible and trustworthy you are to readers. It’s like meeting them at the door with bed-head vs all gussied up. Bed-head is gorgeous you without the frills. We like you better that way. 4. Write as if no one is going to read what you’re writing. This is a practice. 5. Try writing in the second person. The distance you can get when you refer to yourself as, “you,” is amazing. There’s a lot of freedom there. 6. Your truth will resonate with other people. After years and years of working with folks, I believe we’re all in the same soup. Different details, same story. 7. We are all moved when we’re around people who are taking risks and telling the truth. When you tell the truth on paper or in person, you’re showing people how big the territory is so they can step in and join you. It’s an end to loneliness. 8. Be...
by Laurie Wagner | Jun 8, 2012 | Blog
“What would people look like if we could see them as they are, soaked in honey, stung and swollen, reckless, pinned against time?” – Poet, Ellen Bass, from the poem “If you knew.” I’ve been looking at people like that lately, especially when I’m peeved at them because they’re moving too slow – in the check-out line – on the road. I imagine them these large, swollen, sticky pods of honey – babies – innocent – without malice – not trying to hurt me or slow me down – just humans, as Ellen says, “pinned against time,” which means their days, as mine, are numbered. It’s a great practice, though the pedal really hits the metal when I’m trying to bring that same compassion home to myself – especially in these last few months when I’ve felt like a plane in a holding pattern, circling the airport, around and around, never landing, just circling, listening for the “ding!” of the Paypal button when someone makes a purchase on my website, making too frequent trips to the kitchen for salty things, sweet things, crunchy things, watching episode after episode of Friday Night Lights, playing game after game of Words With Friends, checking email and Facebook every two minutes, comparing myself to others– certain I could be working harder, smarter, achieving more success, making more money, more friends…more…and then the day is done and I’m not sure where I’ve been. It’s like my old therapist Gary used to say, “I’ve been following the wrong dog home.” Or… drinking from the wrong trough. I write this because the only way I know...
by Laurie Wagner | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
“You sound just like YOU!” gushed Jen as she walked into my house last weekend for our altered books workshop. I’d never met Jen in person before, but she’d recently been in my eCourse, Telling True Stories, and knew my voice from the weekly writing lessons that I sent to the group. “Goody!” I said, “that’s how it should be: we should sound in person like we do on paper.” Which is to say – when we write, let’s trust the music that comes out of us, the exact words that want to be written, and the sound of our own true voices on paper. And while we’re at it, let’s write about what we LOVE, not what we think other people will want to read about. That’s where our natural energy is, where our passion lives, and honestly, writing will be easier and so much more fun when we let what we love drive the bus! Trust Your Obsessions! My friend and long-time student Becky Ruiz Jenab, writes a lot about food. She loves to cook and bake – it’s part of her language, the fabric of her life – her foundation. Her Mexican-American grandmother taught her to make tortillas, her Persian sister-in-law showed her how to make Persian flatbread – which she makes for her husband and which he swoons over. Becky makes fruit pies and delivers them to her grandparents hundreds of miles from her home, and on weekends she makes hamburger sliders for her kids. Making food, talking and writing about food is one of Becky’s big loves. And because of that, she can mesmerize...
