The Winds Will Blow

Like the wind that can turn boulders into rocks that turn into stones and then into sand, so too can a story change shape as the writer explores it. Because like sand, stories are not static. It’s the nature of art to evolve, to reconsider its shape under construction.

Sculptors wait for the clay to tell them where to place their fingers and then the warmth of their hands or the temperature of the room can coax it into another form.

Painters mix color pigments and brush the newly made hue onto the canvass and once applied, the artist will see that it needs more yellow or more blue.

This is the reconsideration stage of making art.

Which is what happened to me last year when a project I had begun took a transformational turn.  

I had been writing a book about the process of bringing personal narrative to the page. I had sketched out twelve chapters with titles, positioning them in an order that felt right. I was five chapters into the manuscript when suddenly it didn’t feel so right any more. I knew I had something unique to contribute to the creative nonfiction conversation but what I had to say didn’t feel book-length.

I’ve long felt that every word form has its own length - like breath can be short, medium and long. And this one just didn’t feel long, so I stepped away from it and reassessed.

That’s when the pages spoke, as if they were saying all is not for naught, we just want to take another form. The pages didn’t want to be a book but maybe they were a long craft article, a series of articles or a twelve-month (year-long) writing workshop.

Those of us who have worked in the arts for our professional lives learn to listen when our clay, canvasses or pages speak. We grow accustomed to the fluctuations, the fluid nature of the making. Others might find this unsteadying and uncomfortable. But welcoming reexamination is a useful skill not only in making art but in navigating life. It provides practice in embracing, rather than fearing, change.

Hoping to keep all of this in mind as I dive into a new year and find a new shape for this project.

I’ll keep you posted.

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann 

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