Letter to a Writer, Emerging (part 1 of 3)

Dear N.

Thank you for sharing the post about your trip to Costa Rica.

I enjoyed the way you captured the sights and sounds of the place.

I have never been there; I can only imagine what it’s like, and from the writing you shared, I have a good idea.

Writing is like making a batch of brownies. It’s quite simple, as long as you have the right ingredients, a pyrex baking pan and an oven that works.

After five attempts, or fewer, I’m guessing anyonecould make an excellent, delicious brownie.

Rather than comment any more on what you shared with me, let me show you a path you could take, if you wish.

J.

I. Baseline Writing

Writers begin at the beginning.

The Book of Genesis leads off the entire Bible, telling us how God made the Universe and the world and our species, out of the void, in seven days.

Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick begins in just three words, with the narrator, telling the reader,“Call me Ishmael.”

T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Wasteland starts off seasonally, “April is the cruelest month, breeding /Lilacs out of the dead land.”

In the fourth grade, I was home sick with a cold and I wrote my first poem about Christopher Columbus. I cleverly rhymed “New World” and “sails unfurled” and I was on my way. Language had a hold of me. I was fortunate because my grandfather Grey (for Greyford) wrote me Ogden Nash-style poems on my birthday, typed out on pages I still retain.

“Write what you know,” is classic advice.

Just write about what’s around you.

An emerging writer once gave me a list of potential chapters for her memoir, and labeled chapter #7 as a boring period of her life, maybe questioning whether it should even be on the list.

“Start with #7, the boring chapter,” I suggested.

Look at the boring part of your life and make it interesting.

Baseline writing means writing about your experience, impressions of life (“slice of life”) plus any memories you want to capture in narrative prose.

Any easy way to start is travelogue.

Where did you go on vacation this year? Last year?

When you pack for your next trip, pack a blank notebook and several pens, or make your entries on the notepad feature in your smartphone.

Writers hang out in coffee shops. Write about the coffee shop.

What’s going on around you?

Tap into all the senses. What famous actress does the barista resemble? What about the homeless person who just wandered in and panhandled everyone? Describe that person for me, so I would recognize them walking down the street.

Baseline writing can also tap into childhood memories. Start with three childhood memories and write a page about each one.

Growing up in Santa Barbara, everyone inmy generation went to Don’s Pony Rides down by the beach, and had a picnic at Tucker’s Grove in Goleta.

I once wrote about my earliest memory, which was a trip to Disneyland, starting out at my grandfather’s house in Inglewood. Or maybe I have it wrong. My first memory might be slicing my foot open on a piece of broken glass as I walked barefoot through runoff water along the curb at our house in Goleta, leading to my first visit to an emergency room.

With childhood memories, the list is endless. If you get stuck, ask a relative, a parent or aunt or uncle, to jog your memory.

II. Advanced Baseline Writing

Advanced Baseline Writing is about paying attention.

If you can learn to pay attention, constantly, in a deeper way, your writing will improve naturally.

Tap into all your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

And of course, any sixth or seventh sense of how you perceive what’s going on around you. Are there any ghosts in the room of ancestors or ancient people? Are there any echoes of History nearby?

When I walk along the beach in my hometown of Santa Barbara, I like to recall that every place a creek enters the ocean was a possible Chumash native settlement, from as long as 10,000 years ago.

While modern day humans think of the 20-mile stretch of coastline as three cities, Goleta, Santa Barbara, and Carpinteria, it’s possible the Chumash had 20 or even 30 separate settlements and place names for each one. Each distinct creek settlement was a confluence of food and shelter elements, and a launching place to the Channel Islands, 20 miles offshore.

Here are some other ordinary ways to immerse yourself and discover a deeper form of writing:

* Getting your oil changed

* Doctor or Dentist Waiting Room

* Airport gate, waiting to board a flight.

Writers take advantage of down-time and delays. When time expands, it’s a green light to start taking notes at the very least. Take advantage of a weekend trip that’s been cancelled due to illness. The Covid-19 Pandemic created ideal conditions for me, months and months of government-mandated social isolation. I wrote and published five books.

I use the notepad feature on my phone, then I email the notepad file to myself, and then copy that poem or story idea right into a Google Word document online. I usually have my laptop with me, so I sometimes start writing right in the Google document.

Some writers prefer to handwrite first, on a blank legal pad, or in a diary, which is fine. Just pay attention and write it down.

This essay originally appeared in Letter to a Writer, Emerging (2022)

Parts 2 and 3 to follow.