Carrie Link

WHAT GROWS BETWEEN THE CRACKS

She said the writing would push itself through my psyche just like a weed through the cracks in the sidewalk. One day you'd be walking upon square after perfect square of sidewalk, the next day you'd see a small burst of green that pushed and shoved its way through one of the hardest surfaces known to man. It's true. When I think all my writing ideas are dried up and gone and I am stuck on an arid field of thought, up pops an idea, or three, or five, seemingly out of nowhere. Tracy was right about that, and she was right about something else, too, all the self-distracting I was doing that I felt kept me from what I really needed to be doing, was part of the process. The process of writing is much more than what ends up on the page (or screen). There is a pre-writing stage that can be simultaneously brutal and fertile. There is all the processing that goes on in both the conscious and sub-conscious that gives way to what it is you are REALLY trying to say/write/express, to yourself, more than anyone.

When I woke up at my usual 2:00 AM this morning, I had three stories that urgently begged to be told. Seemingly disparate, my mind spent the rest of the time in bed weaving the three together, beautifully, fascinatingly, in ways my fully awake mind would not have been able to do with all its logic and reason.

I have learned more from the writing workshops Jennifer and I do, than anyone. We are all fellow journeyers, fellow students, fellow teachers on the path to greater understanding of self, story and life.

For any of you feeling the need to journey, please consider joining us in Sisters, Oregon October 5-7. Write me at: fullycaffeinated@comcast.net for more information. You do not need to "be" anything other than a woman with a story that needs/wants/begs to be processed. Who among us isn't that?