You Are What You Write
When I teach, I often ask the question, “What’s at stake for you in this story?” I’m not alone; it’s a common question in the world of writing. Students are puzzled by it, however, and usually ask me to explain. Really I’m looking for the intersection between the writer’s heart and the words on the page. How does this subject terrify you, compel you, wrap its sweaty hands around your longing and jerk you into unexplored territory? When a story nags, it always shares some fundamental passion with the writer. It always taunts the writer with the promise of discoveries that cannot be made in any other way. How does this project set you on edge? What’s the rabbit hole you’ve been skirting? Your writing will take you down. For people who keep journals and new writers, writing is a natural extension of the self. We don’t recognize any separation…
What’s At Stake?
Perhaps the most important question for every creative writer to ask—and definitely the hardest question to answer—is “What’s at stake for me?” For writing to work well, the writer must care deeply. On the surface this question seems simplistic; our care is instinctive, compelling, and unspoken. In practice, the journey through revision is an excavation of the author’s stake, digging below external reasons (“I want to help others; I want to be published”), below the outer story (“I want to explore this memory, character, or idea”), to some subconscious, undercurrent of longing. Our stake is always found in our emotional relationship to the subject matter. Without some connection to our content, we might convey the content to a reader but we’ve no reason to explore it. And passionate exploration is what makes writing great. What’s in question? What are you risking? What of your heart have you invested? A writer’s…