Being Intimate?

Yet often for me - and maybe for you too - my “official writer” takes over. My work veers so far away from my imaginative storm that it reads like a tax return: wooden, self-conscious (fear of audit perhaps), and distant.

On the surface, letting your “official writer” run the show might seem like a safe, smart strategy. But what if you want more? What if you want your writing to be intimate, juicy, and emotional? Maybe you have an unruly tale whispering in the basement. Or memories dangling on branches after the wind blows through.

I remember a few years back, when I was taking acting classes in New York City at Black NeXXus Studios Inc. My teacher, Susan Batson, would say, “If you want your work to be intimate, you’ve got to let your audience see what's inside. You have to use your body as your instrument and open up. Intimacy means: Into Me See.”

(For the record, I’m a poet, not an actor. I was there to discover new ways to go deeper in my creative work.)

Susan focused on one thing: “USE YOUR BODY!” This strategy is just as true for writers as for actors.

Here's an exercise that will help you learn to use your body to generate dynamic writing. It will also help you engage emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and physically. It's spontaneous. (I've learned that my most creative moments come when I stop worrying about what people think.)

Do it in private. It's kind of like singing in the shower.

Pick a song you know, for example, “Summertime.” “Summertime and the living is easy, fish are jumping and the cotton is high. Your daddy’s rich and your mama’s good looking, so hush pretty baby and don’t you cry.” Sit down in a straight chair and sing the song. It’ll probably sound fine. Or maybe not. Who cares. Nobody's listening.

Now sing it again. This time, stand up and sit down, stand up and sit down, stand up and sit down WHILE YOU'RE SINGING. Notice how using your body focuses you on the process rather than the result. You smile. You chuckle. You laugh. You’re relaxed. You’re free. You might even sing on key. Most of all, you’re open.

Now pick a topic that you’re working on right now. Remain standing and write for ten minutes. Notice how your writing flows when your body is warmed up, relaxed, and engaged? We're all so used to holding our bodies a certain way, maybe hunched over, closed in, protecting our tender innards, that we forget that our bodies are our instruments. Opening up makes your writing more intimate and invites other in.

Intimacy: Into Me See. Now, that's an idea worth spreading.

If this notion of intimacy in your work strikes your fancy, and you’d like to explore it more, then join us and write from the imaginative storm at our next Writing Salon in Taos at the San Geronimo Lodge, July 20-25.