Writing in the Margins
We’ve completed one week of Patchwork! Congratulations, writers.
Since one goal of Patchwork is to build a sustainable writing practice, including self-care for both our physical selves and our writerly selves, it’s important that we leave room in our expectations for weeks that do not include writing outside of the workshop, for prompts that don’t inspire you, for writing sessions that include nothing more than showing up at the page and then walking away. Those days and weeks will happen, and it is okay!
This is particularly important because holiday weekends can be exhausting. Be patient with yourself this week if you’re tired after the long weekend.
This week we wrote on four prompts during the workshop. We were exploring the idea of “voices,” and these prompts are modified from Pat Schneider’s exercises in Writing Alone and With Others.
The three types of voices are the primary voice, the everyday voice, and the acquired voice.
Our primary voice is the voice that we heard as children from our primary caretakers, our families of origin or the people that we spent time with as small children. Our first prompt was to try and find this primary voice, and we did this by writing about a meal scene – from any perspective, and at any point in the meal process from preparation to clean-up.
Our everyday voice is the voice that we everyday, our adult voice, the voice we use with our friends and adult family. The prompt associated with this voice was to write a letter. Letters can be a valuable tool for us as writers, because a letter gives us a specific audience and often makes it easier to tell a story. Many essays and pieces of fiction can begin as letters, with the “Dear X” taken out in rewrites.
Our acquired voices are multiple and fun! These can be the voices we have learned to take on in specific contexts, such as a voice used in academic, professional, or specific social settings. These can also be any of the voices we have been exposed to as writers. Taking on an acquired voice can be valuable when writing either fiction or creative nonfiction, because these voices can allow us to more realistically portray a character other than ourselves. Our third prompt was to take on an acquired voice and write a scene in that voice.
Our final prompt was to go back to the primary voice, since that was a challenging exercise for many of us.
And that, my friends, sums up our lovely second session! Now take a deep breath, check in with your body, do a quick stretch and revel in the number of voices now at your disposal!
Your take-home prompt is this – combine two distinct voices in a dialogue. Dialogue is challenging for many writers, so give yourself permission for the writing to feel clunky and unnatural. If you’re not sure what your characters are talking about, put them in a coffee shop and have them talk about their long weekend.
Happy writing!
