Irresponsibility, the Pleasure of Art.

“Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.” -James Joyce

James Joyce was an instant favorite of mine. It was like he crawled into my head and spoke my language.

I started with Finnegans Wake, what is often considered his magnum opus. Then I read Ulysses. I also found it fascinating, but I never finished either of them. After those, I read his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and that sealed the deal.

He was a genius, and he made me feel like a real writer.

It’s funny because while I was in my writing cave (a short spurt of my life where I spoke to no one, just wrote and studied the greats), I thought he was one of the greatest writers in the world and that no one would ever dispute that. I came to find that many people greatly disliked Joyce for the torture he placed upon them. One woman had no shame in calling him an a$$hole in the middle of a writing group.

That moment fascinated me.

Because what I experience as brilliance, others experience as torture.

The way Joyce writes makes me feel like he narrows in and develops the ability to listen intently to the world inside his head, almost like Daredevil, but his own internal universe.

If you consider Jungian concepts, it’s almost like he tapped into the collective consciousness. That’s something I say with fantastical excitement. Jung’s concept of the collective consciousness is that there are inherited “thoughts” not from our own lived experience but handed down from those before us.

It took me much longer to appreciate Jung, and I really didn’t connect with him until after I finished his Red Book. But once I did, something clicked. The world of Finnegans Wake that Joyce seemed to hear suddenly had a place.

My novel absolutely holds both Joyce and Jung at its roots.

If you’re interested in Joyce or Jung, let me know; you can see their influence on Writer’s Quest.

The Value of Writing Consistently

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” — Joan Didion

There’s a part in Writer’s Quest where Senta, my main character, explodes into her notebook and experiences a great release from finally unloading all the weight she has been carrying. I think one thing that is important for us as writers is to avoid explosive writing.

Writers should write so consistently that they don’t explode; they consistently flow through their own unfolding.

As writers, we are consistently taking in new ideas, working on stories even without the document in front of us. As humans, what we take in, we must also sit down and sort through. When we don’t sort through all the information we’ve been collecting, we can lose track of ourselves. And when we lose track of ourselves, we lose track of all the things we value.

But when we write, we allow our brains to run the way they are created to run. We allow them to acknowledge and feel and observe and learn and explore and connect. As we learn our characters, we learn ourselves. And that’s the value of unfolding.

Writing, for me and for Senta, is our lifeline to a more peaceful inner world.

If you’re ready to explore the world of Senta and
her writing journey,
today’s a great day to purchase the ebook!

Tell Your Story

Writer’s Quest took courage

It’s time to tell your story how it works for you. There’s no limit to the way you can tell a story. They may make you think there’s a right way; it’s a lie.

If there’s a form that makes you feel seen, do it. If there’s a style that makes you finally hear yourself, do it. E. E. Cummings said, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” That goes for becoming who you are as a writer too.

Writer’s Quest is that book for me. I showed up boldly to the page. The hard part now is that I’m struggling to find ways to talk about my novel. It’s always been challenging for me, but now I’ve reached the point in my writing journey where it matters.

On the plus side, I’m practicing.

Building Faith Through Storytelling

A Writer’s Quest

“To leap across an abyss, one is better served by faith than doubt.” -William James

This quote makes me wonder how we give our readers the faith that together we will make the leap or the journey from the beginning to the end of the story. Is it inspiration that fans the flames of faith? Is it consistency? Is it giving them a familiar plan but a good plan?

It really could be all of these. Joseph Campbell believed that there had to be a clear journey, and that journey included Carl Jung’s archetypes. E. E. Cummings believed that feeling can come across in poetry even when it didn’t “obey” traditional forms. And from the writer’s perspective, Julia Cameron believes that we, as writers, need to journal in order to grow our faith throughout the writing process.

The thing is, as writers, we’re responsible for two faiths: our own and our readers’. Carrying our own faith can be quite the load on its own. What we learn is that if you tell a story well enough, faith carries the reader through the abyss. And how do you tell a story well enough? Well, you find what you have to say and say it in a way that makes people want to listen. The tricky part is remembering what it is you want to say through the entire writing process.

Exploring Jung’s Divine Feminine

“The collective unconscious consists of the sum of the instincts and their correlates, the archetypes. Just as everybody possesses instincts, so he also possesses a stock of archetypal images.” -Carl Jung

Writer’s Quest was inspired by a lot of Carl Jung’s work. Most of Jung’s influence can be seen in book one, where Senta meets Anie-Ma. I don’t want to give too much away. The focus was on Jung’s idea of the divine masculine and the divine feminine, with Anie-Ma being the divine feminine. I wanted to personify Jung’s divine feminine, and I wanted her book to unfold in that way as well. That part of the project was something I connected deeply with. It was something that stayed through all the edits.

I think it was meant to be.

The Joy of Writing: Transitioning Between Novels

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.” — Howard Thurman

Writing the triptych was a challenge, but it was a good challenge. It was such a strange feeling to write another story after that. It was like the triptych required so much heavy lifting that once I got to just write, it was so light that it felt like I was dancing through it. Way less pressure, like when you finally take the ankle weights off.

The point of all this is just to share that transition from completing one novel and then moving right into another afterward. It’s already weird to process finishing a complete novel. I think I love this job. I think writing is exactly where I’m supposed to be, and even though I know that, it still becomes clearer and clearer every day.

Women Rising: The Unseen Labor of Breaking Curses

The books in Writer’s Quest are written by two people, Anie-Ma and Senta. These two ladies don’t live the same lives at all. But Anie-Ma patiently mentors Senta with intention and presence, even though it wasn’t the way she was mentored.

These days, we say women like Anie-Ma are breaking generational curses. That was so important to me to have in the story because I don’t know that we are heard clearly enough. When women are breaking curses, they are stepping into unknown territory for the sake of love. It’s not easy. No one taught them how.

They saw what was wrong and made choices against all odds to make it right.

Some women stood up and did this with no guidance. They did this away from their families, all alone. And they deserve to be honored for the unseen unpaid labor they carried into this world.

Purchase Writer’s Quest: A Triptych Here

My Experience Writing Experimental Fiction

Let’s talk a little bit about experimental fiction

What is it? Experimental fiction, according to The Write Practice, “is about breaking the rules, skipping conventions, literary innovation, and uniqueness.”

My Experience Writing Experimental Fiction

Writing my latest novel, Writer’s Quest: A Triptych, was a big undertaking. Writing a novel is a challenge in itself, but doing it while exploring the different ways storytelling does its thing is a whole other level. It was hard work putting this novel together. I don’t say this to suggest that I’m some genius writer, not at all. I can barely edit well enough. But what I can do is explore the world of storytelling. When it comes to writing, I can leave myself breadcrumbs for when I forget, or for when things go dark again. This story was pulled from deep within me, and using different ways to tell that story seemed more authentic than any other option.

Some Might Choose Experimental Fiction for the Freedom of it.

The only freedom I found was freedom from the limitations I set on myself. It wasn’t the rules that limited me. It wasn’t techniques or readers’ expectations. The truth is that I didn’t understand the “rules” and why they were there, but now that I understand why they are there, I can understand how to break them. And the strange thing is I don’t really even think about the rules anymore.

I just write.

Experience Experimental Fiction for Yourself

The Hinges of Storytelling

As you know, Writer’s Quest: A Triptych is an experimental fiction inspired by Triptych paintings. What was important to me was finding what would hinge these stories together. We have this fantastic collection of different stories being told in unique ways. What ties them all together?

There are three books I’d bring with me on a stranded island: The Bible, James Joyce, and now, of course, Writer’s Quest. (I’m laughing that the last one was completely impromptu but might actually be accurate.) Those stories hold enough for me to keep learning for a lifetime.

Let’s bring it back; the Bible is the foundation of many cultures and communities. It’s the Old Testament that truly fascinates me. The way they maintained their history and culture through oral tellings is remarkable. That is why one hinge had to be in the fashion of oral tellings, because that is literally the beginning of storytelling. But that’s just one hinge; we have to talk about the other one.

The other hinge is a narrative poem. There is something about poetry that tells stories without saying too much. Whether it’s the use of symbols, rhythms, myths, or music, it speaks to people. I do feel poetry holds our world together. It heals the writer and reader through validation, contemplation, and connection.

So we have three different styles of storytelling held together by one narrative poem and one oral telling. If you like that idea, the ebook is available for you to explore at your own pace. Take some time to explore storytelling with me here.

Start Your Exploration Today

William James on Attitudes and How it Applies to Writing

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” -William James

William James is an American philosopher and psychologist who is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the 19th century. It’s interesting that we are still learning this after so many years. At the same time, I think this is a general idea. And it’s not always easy to take responsibility for your life in this way. It’s not about positive toxicity. I think it’s important to bring a problem into awareness, but it must be brought to awareness with intention and action steps to follow.

For the sake of writing, we must show up to the page and mind our attitudes about it. I had to stop myself tonight before I started to complain about my writing routine. I love writing. I love the writing process. I’m really enjoying getting reconnected with the writing community. That is the thought I desire to lead with when I sit down to write. And just like that, I’m behind the screen developing a story and filling in a blank page.

If this is something I already want, why not find ways to make every aspect enjoyable.

Great News

I just finished my first novel. It’s called Writer’s Quest: A Triptych. It’s an experimental fiction novel inspired by the triptychs that hang in Catholic churches. Just like triptych paintings have three panels that tell one story, Writer’s Quest has three distinct parts that tell one story. The art doesn’t end there; the story explores the metamorphosis of a woman who’s in search of her mom. So fun to read! Buy it here.