Tuesday, June 5, 2012

What are your writing obsessions?

I'll admit, I'm ripping this one off an old college professor. In a poetry writing course some years back, she asked us to consider our "poetic obsessions." She even brought in some of her own compulsions from her office within the same building. Vintage advertisements from a younger America, books with brown, image-less hard covers and yellowing pages, china cat figurines with chipped ears. She spread it all out on the long conference table. Told us to sift through it, get inspired, write a poem. "We all have our own obsessions," she said, "obsessions which fuel our writing, whether we're aware of it or not. Go home and scan your bedrooms, work rooms, or other places you may sanctify. Examine your bookshelves, closets, dresser drawers. What seems to come up over and over again? These are your obsessions. And I'll bet you anything that from time to time, they inexplicably show up in your writing."

I was eager to come home and observe my space for my obsessions. I went straight to my office, and just as my professor said, I noticed some patterns. Flowers, for one thing. Fake flowers. Feather flowers, glass flowers, plastic flowers, wooden flowers. On my desk, shelves, end tables, etc. Then there was my lighthearted fixation on the occult: astrology books, psychic books, palm reading cards. I also have a greeting card with a painted fairy balancing the scales of justice on her shoulders. LIBRA it says in fancy font across the bottom. I have posters, calendars, and books on Elvis Presley. Numerous more books on rock 'n roll, and Rolling Stone compilations, etc.  I was surprised to find I had more than one book on England--some simply images of the countryside, some tour guides, and some chronicled histories, including an anthology on the kings and queens.

My photo albums are chock full of pictures of myself as a child. On an antique step ladder that I use for decorative purposes are photographs of my grandparents as children. I have another framed picture of my father and uncle as young boys. Then there are the lighthouses--tiny knick knack versions of course. My grandfather--formerly of the Coast Guard--was an avid collector. I also have an image of a lighthouse I took with my digital camera on the background of my computer. And cats...paintings, books, and a humorous tapestry that says, "The more I get to some people, the more I like the cat." Plus two real live ones that like to rub against my face as I write.

I could go on (Thomas Kinkade desk calendar, prints, and collectors' coffee table books), but I'll stop and say this: At one point or another, all of these things have turned up in my work. We all write for various reasons, and sometimes we get too caught up in the 'business' side of it--publications, queries, conferences, platform building, etc. and while these elements of living the writing life are both important and thrilling, I think sometimes we forget that writing is a subliminal, unconscious process that can help us connect to our hidden depths, those things that make us who we are. Writing is channeling, it's drudging up the dirt, and these 'obsessions' of ours are symbols, or keys have you, that unlock what we consider to be important.

So I'm interested...what are YOUR obsessions, and do they, perhaps inadvertently or not, reveal themselves in your writing?


5 comments:

  1. as a new writer i apprecaite your insight. i found you through She Writes and i would love you to check out my blog
    http://blackinkpaperie.blogspot.com
    thanks
    new follower bev

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    1. Hi Bev,
      Glad you're enjoying the blog! I will go check yours on right now.

      -Katie

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  2. Hi Katie I write mostly because I find it cathartic and equally important I think it's vital that women tell their stories. If we stood next to one another and said nothing we'd consider gender our commonality but if we opened up and began a sincere dialogue, we'd realize that you and I have more in common than realized.

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    1. Hi, thanks for visiting. I think you're right. I'm really enjoying your blog. I'm always down for learning something new, or viewing things in a new and inventive way.

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  3. Fun concept! Hmm what do I have around the house? Books, computer parts, dragons, and more medieval clothes and weaponry than a non SCAer should own.... these things have appeared in my writing. Some not so subliminally, I do like this discussion though. One of my alphas thought I was going a bit too far into having my modern character explain computers to my historical character. Its what I would naturally do, but my alpha was right it didn't fit the stories purpose or tone... maybe next time.:D

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