Creating Confident, Competent, Creative Work

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. – Ernest Hemingway

Growing up every meal began with quiet hands, the kind of folded hands with a purpose and simple elegance. Maybe that’s what Paula Munier was talking about when she wrote her book, Writing with Quiet Hands. When you know what you’re after, what’s important in life, things fall into place. Munier describes how when a writer approaches her art with quiet confidence, with know-how, what she writes makes a difference. She says writers need to focus on craft, inspiration, play and practice, and they “will create confident, competent, creative work.”

Learning to write with style and substance requires focus and effort. Munier suggests creating “a voluntary apprenticeship of your own making” in which writers take charge of their education. She believes writers can refine and improve their writing by studying and working with others, focusing their attention on becoming a master, and growing their art from good to great. A successful apprentice must possess a beginner’s mind and be willing to be mentored by another artist. Conveys an openness to learning and a willingness to explore his own techniques and style. Listens.

There’s nothing like play—playing—that stirs the imagination. Munier describes how “Play and practice go hand in hand, just like inspiration and craft.” Emily, my granddaughters’ piano teacher, knows the value of play. During lessons when a shift in the dynamics is expected, she’ll ask them to play like a bunny scampering through grass or, for more volume, like a mastodon crunching through the savannah. Emily also challenges them to hold their hands cupped like they are balancing a cup of tea. I am amazed at the shared laughter when an “oops” is heard.

Practice often gets a bad rap. Remember when we had to practice our math facts or spelling words? What was our attitude like then? If we apply a negative frame of mind to writing, we can develop an attitude that accompanies a forced march instead of the joie de vivre of putting our pen to paper. Practice writing means writing every moment that opens to you. “But when does it stop being practice and become the real thing, the championship match?” someone asks in Natalie Goldberg’s The True Secret of Writing.

Goldberg says we know the answer. “Practice is not for something else. Practice is the practice of being here with your life and pen now. Go, across the page—on your computer screen—what are you thinking of? Put your life on the line.” – Becky Breed

For more about making connections and finding inspiration in your writing life, go to http://thewritingandcreativelife.com