March 24, 2023
Jumps in ability: Part One
We can’t see ten years ahead to a jump in our ability, but if we persevere, it’s coming. My musical life taught me that this can also happen in my writing.
When I was a beginning cellist and my teacher told me to warm up by playing open strings, I didn’t realize how this would benefit my future development. In open strings, the cellist doesn’t push down on the string to change the pitch. It’s relaxing, and requires little effort or thought. Therefore, I formed the habit.
At age twenty-three, I was a cello performance major at the University of Oregon School of Music. Preparing for my senior recital, I was practicing one of my favorite pieces, which calls for a huge, organ-like sound. I could hear it inside my head but could not produce it.
As usual for the start of a practice session, I was warming up on open strings. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, my tone deepened, becoming so resonant that it began to sound like what I’d been hearing in my head.
This apparently sudden leap did not come out of nowhere, but was the sum of all those years of playing open strings. I had no idea this new ability was building until it appeared.
What would have happened if I hadn’t played open strings from the beginning of my cello playing? I would never have achieved that leap to better tone—and would never have realized what I was missing. Writers are in the identical position.
March 28, 2012
Freewriting, Part Three: Why It’s Valuable
Whenever I hear other writers say that freewriting is a waste of time, I always wonder what they expect of it. Useable words? New ideas?
If so, they might be disappointed. Good freewriting is sometimes so loose and disjointed that nobody can make sense of it.
If a good idea hits during freewriting, great. Grab it. If you get the revision of that key scene in your novel, wonderful. But if it’s just random words, don’t be deceived: the process is inherently valuable.
Freewriting teaches ease and flow, and you have to trust that even if your language is empty and chaotic, the experience of pouring out words—any words—is well worthwhile.
March 21, 2012
Freewriting, Part Two: Unrestricted Words
In journal-writing, where our only goal is to capture our thoughts and feelings, we still expect our observations to make some sense. Therefore, we try to steer our writing in a certain direction.
Freewriting is different. It steers us, and being propelled forward by the raw energy of undirected ideas is a good antidote to the strictures of self-expression, even the mild limits of a journal entry.
August 18, 2010
How Can Undirected Work Be Productive?
If you sit at your desk, idly twirling a pencil, how could you justify that behavior to your boss? If you work on an assembly line, or otherwise produce a material product on a set schedule, then likely you couldn’t argue that you’re accomplishing something.
The rules of creativity are different. Every musician knows that the real battle is in expressing the subtle nuances of emotion. Likewise in writing. How do you capture the deepest moments of human experience; those which are nearly impossible to put into words?
It can be done, but not through known avenues of productivity. Daydreaming, on the other hand, can lead us in surprising new directions.
August 11, 2010
Why You Should Ignore Mistakes in Your Warm-ups
In cello I teach and practice an activity known as “speed scales.” The procedure is to start slow, with an easy scale, then speed it up incrementally until you’re playing so fast that everything breaks down. Thus you experience the feel of fast playing, with nothing getting in the way, certainly not a preoccupation with the inevitable wrong notes which become more frequent as your speed increases.
A good writing warm-up is like speed scales. The goal is to experience the outpouring of language so you can learn to hear and feel it as it floods through you. The result is increased creativity, and you can look forward to this if you learn to ignore superficial errors and stay with your main purpose.
Music of Writing 