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| Photo Credit: Alex Dunn - October 2012 |
In
my craft readings I’ve returned to an old favorite, Nancy Willard’s The Left-Handed Story:
Writing and the Writer’s Life.
I first became acquainted with Willard’s work when I read her lovely novels – Things Invisible to See
(1984) and Sister
Water (1993). She offers wise advice to writers.
In
the context of working on revisions, I am considering her words. Willard says
that there are two kinds of journeys that we all make. “The first is the journey that you can map.
Your destination is clear, the map will show you the shortest way to get from
here to there.” Sometimes after a trusted reader lays a finger on a
problem in a story under revision, the writer sees what needs to happen next to
the text. Perhaps a contradiction must be resolved or a character’s motives
more carefully developed. The map routes are easier to follow – at least for
me. I can see the route needed to improve the work and arrive at my
destination.
But
a more challenging journey is the one that requires an act of faith, that
requires rich imaginings that move beyond the text on the page, and sends the
writer on a quest driven by instinct. Sometimes those journeys take years of
travel time.
Willard
says that “…the second kind of journey is
the kind of journey where you go from instinct. Not even a compass [or
Garmin or MapQuest] will help you.”
And she goes on to say that “…The
journeys that writers make - are like both kinds. Sometimes you need the
map. When you’re revising your work, it’s helpful to know where you’re
going and how you plan to get there. But when you’re writing a first
draft…[and even later drafts] ah,
that’s a different story.”
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| Photo Credit: Jan Bowman - September 2012 |
When revising
subsequent drafts, it is necessary to keep the second kind of journey as part of
the process, too.
Willard’s
observations are particularly helpful to me because writers do have a calling
to live “on the interface of two worlds,”
the one that gives us the reality of maps and concise directions to improve
work and the other one of dreams, if our stories are to get to their
destination.
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| Photo Credit: Alex Dunn - September 2012 |
Writers struggle to find a balance and not everyone understands
just what writers are saying about their life when they say, “I’m a writer.”
Most people don’t know
how much reflection time is required. Some journeys require light years of
travel time.
Jan Bowman’s work has
appeared in Roanoke Review, Big Muddy,
Broadkill Review, Trajectory, Third Wednesday, Minimus, Buffalo Spree (97), Folio, The Potomac Review, Musings, Potato
Eyes, and others. She won the 2011
Roanoke Review Prize for Fiction. Her
stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories
and a story was a finalist in the “So To
Speak” Fiction Contest. She is working on two
collections of short stories and currently shopping for a publisher for a
completed story collection. She has nonfiction work pending publication in Spring
2013 Issues of Trajectory and Pen-in-Hand. She writes a weekly blog of
“Reflections” on the writing life and posts regular interviews with writers and
publishers. Learn more at:
Website – www.janbowmanwriter.com
Blogsite – http://janbowmanwriter.blogspot.com
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