Three Fall courses are now up at Muse! Shapes of Stories, The Writer as Researcher, and Approaching Mystery (self-guided). Early bird prices end 8/4 for the self-guided course and 8/13 for the guided courses!
I am back from the land of Covid isolation— my first time getting it— and I’ve been thinking about the relationship between “inside” and “outside” in autobiographical essays. My friend Jasmine gave me a deck of oracle cards, The Starseed Oracle, for my birthday last month. (In fact, two friends gave me oracle cards! Emily gave me The Literary Witches Oracle deck. It’s nice to be understood for the Oracle I am. Ha.) Anyway, one of the cards from today’s pull from the Starseed Oracle was “Earthed,” the themes of which are “Learning to be human. In the world, but not of it.” And it’s true, I’m still at age 52 learning how to be “in the world.” You can read the full description of the card in the photo below.
As someone who has always had an active inner life, writing allows me to report from that inner world. But it also allows me to think about what it’s like to exist in and observe the world outside myself, to think through the interaction of inner and outer worlds. Here’s a piece from my book The Itinerant Girl’s Guide to Self-Hypnosis that moves back and forth from inner to outer:
In “Some Notes on the Gazer Within,” poet Larry Levis discusses the interaction of inner and outer in poetry. Levis writes of the poet as threshold, the poet as making a journey into the wilderness, into the unconscious, to a place beyond the social. This setting out is what, ironically, allows the poet to reconnect with the self and with others, to come back again and report from that place: “So a poet, no matter what his or her subject may be, and no matter what the landscape, goes ‘beyond society.’ And so this is what happens at the moment of writing: the wave takes the shape of the fire. What is ‘out there’ moves inside. The poet becomes threshold” (83).
So, here’s your assignment: Think of how you might play the movement from outer to inner and back again in your writing. Try this exercise: One day this weekend, write of your morning and the physical details of it— your surroundings, the room you’re in, gestures/behaviors/interactions. Then include a moment from your inner life that you wouldn’t normally share (a thought, association, private habit). Then end back in the physical world, on an image.
Happy writing!
Check out the new fall courses up at Muse! You can snag a spot at Early Bird prices if you purchase by 8/13.
Shapes of Stories, a 10-week masterclass on finding a form for your personal essays. Instructor: Nancy McCabe. Early bird price through 8/13.
NEW! The Writer as Researcher, a five-week introduction to the techniques, tools, and use of research in creative writing, open to all genres. Instructor: Megan Baxter.
SELF-GUIDED. Approaching Mystery. Capture the absurd or surreal quality of everyday life and tell a meaningful story in as few words as possible. Designed by Joanna Penn Cooper. Early bird price through 8/4.
Also, keep an eye out next week for news about a new generative writing workshop series, which will be offered at a steep discount to paid subscribers!
Good. I hope it all passes quickly too.
When I read the summary I realised I did the Mystery class when it was asynchronous, just I had stored it as Flash Nonfiction in my brain and on my computer. I actually have so many pieces from that class I could work on. I so enjoyed it. And no reason why I can’t redo it on my own, as it’s impossible to take it all in in five weeks. I’ll have a look at the other two and see how they fit. Thank you!
I hope you are feeling all better. Great prompt! I have so many oracle decks in a drawer somewhere that I never thought to use as creative prompts.
All of these classes sound fantastic - if only I could do them all haha. I’ll have a look and see which fits best for where I think I am. The Mystery class sounds intriguing - I’ve been mostly drawn toward short speculative nonfiction recently - but I need to be more disciplined to do self led classes (and self led writing).