What I'm learning is that to write a good book, I needed to learn how to sing. Or more specifically, I needed to learn about my voice.
The latest lesson I took away from my voice coach (Jan Cooper) is that a warm up is a requirement or I could cause damage to my voice. Duh. Same as physical exercise. I would never think of running without warming up my muscles first. This week I brought that concept to my writing. What if I warmed up before jumping straight in to the meat of my writing? This isn't a foreign concept, I mean, I am sure Maggie (my writing coach) has mentioned it before and I have heard other people talk about writing something fun especially when in writer's block. All the times I had heard that, I never thought of it as a warm up the same way I view physical warm ups; the same way Jan cautioned that not warming up can cause damage. I mean, it's writing. What kind of damage can be caused by not warming up. Let me tell you, damage will happen. It has happened to me. Without the warm ups, my emotional and mental bodies aren't prepared. This has led to soul crushing doubts and near breakdowns. It ultimately led to a complete and utter writer's block. So, this week I approached it differently. Through Maggie's suggestion, I only focused on writings that allowed me to build back any trust I lost (or maybe never had) in myself. I didn't write anything pertaining to my memoir. I practiced writing fun things, non-emotional things, boring things. Then, I integrated the warm-ups into the practice. I have no idea what a warm-up for writing looks like, so I improvised. I played around with all the different words I could use to describe a river. I practiced writing loving, comforting words to myself. Each time I allowed myself to warm up, I found myself deeper in my writing than I've been in months, maybe years...consistently. It enabled me to touch tender parts of myself that were behind those blocks. In those writings, I see the shape of my voice coming forward. Warm-ups y'all. They aren't just for the body.
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AuthorMelinda Lee is a mom of two adolescent boys, a devout student of all things spiritual, a recovering perfectionist, and immensely fascinated with achieving the unachievable. Currently writing a memoir about hugging strangers. Archives
February 2023
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