Today I learned a creative writing exercise from my boss (horray for non-pecuniary job bonuses!). I decided I am gonna try it out. She said that when she taught writing and composition to undergrads, she'd have them do an exercise where they start with only an exclamation -- i.e., Woah! Oh no! Damn! etc. -- and generate about ten lines of text to go with it. Then, at the end, a strong paragraph emerges by removing the exclamation part. Here goes....
Oh no! I think about yesterday and all the mistakes I made in it. I wonder if I am still the same person today that I was before yesterday anymore. Do my actions define me and condemn me to a worse-off character than I used to have? Is life the progressive succession of mistakes, and is my identity one that is destined for erosion? What is my saving grace, if I seem to be on a trajectory of mistakes? I doubt I could "be better" even if I tried. It's not like the mistakes I make are things that I had no clue were a bad idea. It's more like, in the moment, I choose a course of action that is most pleasing for me then and there, or requires less work on the spot. Make no mistake about it, character is work. I don't feel daunted by life's many weeks and years ahead, though, because I am held by God's grace. I sense Him by my side through both my triumphs and my mistakes. He has a much stronger interest in me having a good character than I do for myself. My own desire to be good traces only back into myself and how I feel about myself and how I hope others perceive me. But God's desire for me to be good has to do with me reflecting Him. That is, suddenly the project of me building character becomes something of an art project, with the end goal of being as beautiful as possible, and more beautiful than imaginable.
...Now imagine that paragraph without the "oh no." The exclamation isn't even necessary, is it? Yet, without the "oh no" prompt, I would not have called up this memory of recent days to write about. It had been a thought on my mind, but the "oh no" directed me to that particular thought, because it is a part of my internal life that I had been struggling with, an issue that I myself have not yet fully resolved. But as usual, writing brings grace back into the equation. Grace resolves an array of unresolveables. And that I can bank on from now to age 96.
Not only is the "oh no" ultimately not needed, it is also ultimately untraceable. It's as if I used a template for my creative work that the viewer would never detect or know about. And, sweeter still, I am not constrained by that template because its purpose and role is only introductory.
Having done it, I approve of this creative exercise. I think you should try it on your lunch break. Give yourself the gift of being creative.
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