Day 2: What’s Deep Writing?

Wisdom from yesterday’s comments, without additional comments from me:
From  Kelly Davies, The Naked Executive: “Today- I write myself whole.”

From Mary Ellen, a reality-check on why to participate: ” I can get caught up in “shoulds” and lose track of what my real goal was to begin with. I am at point in my journey where there are many twists and uncertainties; the path ahead is not clear.”

Jackie Dishner wrote about her first day of experience and included a great photo to think about.

And SimplyTrece discovered this piece of wisdom, “Write Myself Whole”. I may also transmute it into “Write Myself Home”.

“Day 2 of what?” you ask? Find out, join us if you feel called.

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You see the shadow first, then the stick. The stick looks straight, the shadow doesn't. What's going on? It's just like reall life.

“I’d like to join,” said the email, “But I don’t know what Deep Writing is.” Good point. I was thinking of calling it Heart Writing, or Truth Telling, or even Authentic Writing, but the term authentic is so exhausted, it wouldn’t even raise its head when I called. And yes, I did think of calling it Raw Writing, but that just didn’t sit right with me. When I asked my book,  Raw Art Journaling flapped its pages at me in disagreement.  I’m open to suggestions.

The best way I can describe this soul-deep, clear-heart writing is the word “truth.” It’s a relentless exploration of your emotions, the truthful details of an event–without spin, without excuses, without bringing in someone else to shoulder some blame. Some questions I asked myself when I sat down to write last night:

• What are you worried about? (It can also be angry, bitter, jealous, or ‘what can you not forgive?’)
• What happened (a full description of the incident(s)
• What did you feel (a full exploration of emotion)
• What was your part in this event?
• How do you feel now?
• What needs to happen to set this straight? (you may not know, or have extravagant ideas.)

By writing down the blood-deep truth, there is no need to spin or dress it up, it’s just you and the journal. I do know it’s important to capture both the left-brain (event description) and right-brain (emotional) parts, to work toward a clear understanding and a resolution.

You may well write for days or weeks without knowing what to do, and that’s fine. Just be open to dreams, ideas, and well, the possibility that you will write down the solution right out of your pen tip without being ready for it. That’s one of the potential results from this kind of writing.

–-Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach who helps people deal with change in their lives.