A Writing Buffet By Sheila Bender
Help Yourself to as Much as You Like
This year, when my bookshelves were unscrewed from the walls of my old study inside the house for relocation to my newly finished detached study, I piled books, papers and magazines in every corner of the other rooms in my house. I found myself dipping into those piles like preschoolers opening presents at their birthday parties. I have paired some of the snippets I enjoyed with writing ideas to inspire you.
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When I was seven, I said to my mother, may I close my door? And she said, yes, but why do you want to close your door? And I said because I want to think. And when I was eleven, I said to my mother, may I lock my door? And she said, yes, but why do you want to lock your door? And I said because I want to write. --Dorothy West
Writing Idea What is a significant question you asked a parent in your childhood? What was the question as you asked it? What was the answer? What was an ensuing question? What was the answer? What do you remember of the topic after the asking? Where do you (or you and the parent) stand on it today?
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C.G. Jung says that we know everything we know by way of images, that an image is the functional equivalent of an idea. And a Jungian would say that these images breaking through the barrier are constellating themselves, presenting themselves for our consideration. --Pat Holt II, "Requiem for the Outline," WOE, Spring 2001
Writing Idea List images from the memory of something you loved and lost. Write a conversation between these images and see where it goes. For instance, if you lost a favorite ring, list images of the ring and of the place you lost it, of the day or period in your life. Let the sink drain talk to the diamond or the platinum band or allow the cart you delivered newspapers in talk to the porch of the old lady's house where you tossed the paper close to the door so she could pick it up easily.
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Nothing lasts, and yet nothing passes, either. And nothing passes just because nothing lasts. --Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Writing Idea Do you agree with Philip Roth because you have seen a thread in your own life linger after an occasion's ending? Do you agree with him because what has been lost wasn't lost just because nothing lasts? Write to recapture what has ended and continued and to explore the truth of Roth's notions.
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Often the voice of conscience whispers / Often we silence it / Always we have to pay. --Cletus Nelson Nwadike, Left Curve #28
Writing Idea Write about a time that your conscience kept you from doing something and what the result was. Write about a time your conscience made you do something and what the result was. Write about a time that you silenced your conscience and describe what happened. This might turn out to be an essay in three parts. You might call it "Conscience" and see that by writing about three specific incidents you have evoked experience that proves Nwadike's statement.
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As one Jordanian-American man said to me after someone poured gasoline on his car while he was praying at his Seattle mosque, "The sadness is indescribable when you are home but still feel homesick, and there is nowhere to go." --Pramila Jayapal, "Be Here Now," Orion, January/February 2005
Writing Idea Write about homesickness by writing about being in a place that is very familiar to you. Think about all that is missing from your life as you describe this place-- the wild roses may have nowhere to climb; the spring candles on the pines may be unlit and draped only with the webs of caterpillars that will devour the fresh needles. Keep going with your description until you have at least a short vignette about sadness. Alternatively, write the story of being home but feeling like a stranger--this might have been upon a return from college or it might have been when people in your family or at work disagreed with you or while they were taking some course of action with which you disagreed.
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He and I talked for more than an hour that day over sweet, hot tea. He remembered life before war, the smell of the dusty air in Burundi, the sound of his children playing in the road outside his hut. As we drank our fourth cup of tea, he reached out and touched me lightly on the arm. "Now, we are connected--by this," he said, gesturing to the tea, "and by this," gesturing to our hearts. --Pramila Jayapal, "Be Here Now," Orion, January/February 2005
Writing Idea Describe an encounter where you and a person you hardly knew connected at some deep level and created intimacy. Write what you said, what the person said, and describe the location you inhabited. Show how you recognized the intimacy.
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About the Author
With over nine books on creative writing under her belt, Sheila Bender is now publishing Wrting It Real, an online magazine for those who write from personal experience, and offering online classes at Writing It Real,. She also provides content for LifeJournal for Writers software and teaches workshops across the country.
