One of the great things about being a writer is that writing allows me to experience, to explore, anything I want. As a writer I can find the voice of a twelve year old girl, be an ancient stone, or become a young wizard. I can experience life in the most wondrous ways. If I’m lucky enough to find a character who has lots of richness and depth, such as Kate or Rhia or Merlin, then as the character grows, so do I. And, I hope, so do readers.Check out these links to find resources on the writing process and inspiration for your own creative explorations. Especially useful to writers, I hope, is the first link on this page – “A Special Essay for Writers”. There are also many helpful videos, which discuss characters, fantasy, and inspiration – as well as several more articles about the challenges and joys of writing. In addition, the Q & A provides extra insight into my own quirky writing process … from how I get my ideas to what I’ve learned from the wizard Merlin.
All of us, like the greatest wizard of all, have magic within us; I hope you will find your inspiration to unlock yours.
I leave you with these words from Windell Berry, which is one of my most favorite descriptions of the magic and mystery of writing:
VII
by Wendell Berry
I would not have been a poet
except that I have been in love
alive in this mortal world,
or an essayist except that I
have been bewildered and afraid,
or a storyteller had I not heard
stories passing to me through the air,
or a writer at all except
I have been wakeful at night
and words have come to me
out of their deep caves
needing to be remembered.
But on the days I am lucky
or blessed, I am silent.
I go into the one body
that two make in making marriage
that for all our trying, all
our deaf-and-dumb of speech,
has no tongue. Or I give myself
to gravity, light, and air
and am carried back
to solitary work in fields
and woods, where my hands
rest upon a world unnamed,
complete, unanswerable, and final
as our daily bread and meat.
The way of love leads all ways
to life beyond words, silent
and secret. To serve that triumph
I have done all the rest.
“VII” from the poem “1994” by Wendell Berry, from A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979–1997. © Counterpoint, 1998. Reprinted with permission.