Writing Prompt #47: RAIDING THE UNCONSCIOUS

Hi Everyone,

Creativity involves raiding the unconscious. Taking risks. Failing—as I’ve often told my students—spectacularly. Writing is more than just putting down on paper what you know. It’s a means of discovery, of coaxing the unknown into your work, of “writing,” as short story master Grace Paley once said: “what you don’t know about what you know.”

The most authentic presence of the self is the loss of the self. When you’re in the white heat of writing, it’s no longer you sitting at your desk or at the coffee shop, scribbling in a notebook or pounding away on a laptop. You’re a beam of light— illuminating, sculpting, chasing, enticing, seducing language to create the image, the scene, the moment that will both break and lift our hearts.

“Write what illuminates the moment,” Raymond Carver told us. Settle for nothing less.

YOUR PROMPT: Ask yourself ‘what you don’t know about what you know’ regarding your current work. Make this question the starting point of your inquiry today. Jot down notes, if that helps, then write 2-3 pages.

Enjoy!

Abrazos,

Cristina

Grace Paley …