Craft Advice with Andrea Gibson
On the movement of writing, the sound of a poem, editing, the inner critic, and Andrea's memoir. Plus, a fantastic writing prompt!
Intimate conversations with our greatest heart-centered minds.
If you missed last week’s conversation with Andrea, you can check it out here.
The three lucky winners of an autographed copy of You Better Be Lightning are Rosalie Jones, Rosanne Cassidy, and Amy Paturel. I’m so happy for all!
xJane
NOTE: I’ve promised myself I’ll take a break once a quarter, so next week will be it. I’ll see you all back here on the 11th with more wonderful interviews, questionnaires, and essays! Looking forward to sharing them with you!
We made another beautiful monthly donation to The DeTommaso Dogs. Thank you gigantically to all the paid subscribers!
Where do you write?
Meg needs a very specific place to be. She needs an office with a desk with everything quiet. She also needs to set aside time. I'm not like that at all. I can write anywhere, at any time. I could think of something and just sit on the floor and start writing it. I have a desk but I could be at the kitchen table. I could be on the porch, any time of day. There are so many creative thoughts coming at me these days that I'm like, “stop.”
Usually, I write standing up. I write while pacing the room, and I write out loud. If anybody walks in on me doing it, it's embarrassing for us both because I know the sound of a poem before I know the words. So if you walk in, you're watching somebody yell at the walls or whisper at the walls, making sounds that are not language that we've ever heard.
That’s how the poem begins: with the sound of it. It's interesting, if I know particular words will be better writing, I will commonly opt for worse writing if the sound is better.
I've tried to go to writing workshops in which you're expected to just sit there and I can’t stay still. For me, writing is movement.
You're like a musician that way.