I think, like Sanders, I have a lot of developmental moments in my life that have led me to want to become a writer. In Janice’s response to my last blog, she asked me about my “vision statement,” about what drives me to write. And I know it’s something most writing professors ask, something I’ve written about in craft workshop, but I am realizing that I don’t think young writers really know what drives us, or why we really write. I think that writing will show us what makes us beat, will reveal our inner drives that spill and spew out of us, landing up as words on paper, once thoughts now forms.
I used to be an athlete. I used to get high from the sound of a field-hockey ball “pinging” against the back of the goal cage. I used to get turned on by finishing suicides and feeling the sweat drip down my back, tickling my pumping muscles. I used to know what drove me, what passion motivated my game. I used to grip a long wooden stick and direct its quick finite movements against a soft-mowed lawn, driving the ball, to the square of stirring netting.
I don’t play anymore. I can’t due to injuries. But I think I know at least one of the reasons why I write. I write to get high, to get turned on by the writing exercises I finish, to discover what passions step up my game. I think I’m comforted by gripping a pen and directing it in quick finite movements against a soft-sheeted paper, driving the pen, into the window of my stirring mind.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great entry, Libba. I like the idea of the writing itself showing us what makes us "beat."
ReplyDeleteThis bit about field hockey is great. You should really write more about this experience. I don't know a lot of writers who've always been serious athletes or vice versa. I haven't read a lot about the visceral experience that is playing sports.
Yes, I agree. The tie is strong between the exercises in athletics and the exercises in writing. Granted, you're sweating in a different way, but both get your heart rate up. Both give you a giddy sense of accomplishment and an amazement at what our bodies (and minds) can do.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I love that connection between field hockey and writing, and I think there's a lot to be said for being passionate about something--whatever it is. I'm wondering what other similarities you can find between the act of writing and the act of playing a sport, especially since both are physical on one level and mental on another.
ReplyDeletealso loved: "once thoughts now forms"
ReplyDelete