Well, our October series on the spiritual side of writing has come to an end, and I'd like to thank you all for reading along and commenting. Here's a summary of our posts for October.

My intro // Heather's intro

Rituals and writing: My post and Heather's post

Writing inspirations: My post and Heather's post

Writing deities and saints: My post and Heather's post

Writing superstitions: My post and Heather's post.

It's been fun, and in some cases, very revealing for me. Hope you enjoyed!

Writing Superstitions

Wikipedia has an interesting rundown on the etymology of "superstition":

The etymology is from the classical Latin superstitio, literally "a standing over", hence: "amazement, wonder, dread, especially of the divine or supernatural". The word is attested in the 1st century BC, notably in Cicero, Livy, Ovid, in the meaning of an unreasonable or excessive belief in fear or magic, especially foreign or fantastical ideas. By the 1st century AD, it came to refer to "religious awe, sanctity; a religious rite" more generally.

I love Heather's definition - that ritual is based in love, and superstition in fear.

And to that (neurotic) end, I do have a few superstitions about writing. I don't really get into the details of the plot of any story I'm working on with anyone until I'm well into it. Or, many times, with myself (hee).

I'm guessing superstitions are as different as writers. I'll admit to being superstitious about the query process as well - that is, I'll say a little prayer over an envelope before I send it, I'll consider the day and whether or not it might be auspicious, and most of all, I don't tell anyone I know anymore about when I query and what the results are.

So, what are your superstitions when it comes to writing and creating?

Please, have some Stevie Wonder, live on Sesame Street. You're welcome.

Heather's post on writing superstitions is up. Check it out!

Saints and Symbols of Writing

No, we're not talking symbols in writing. We're talking symbols of writing. On Tuesday, Heather talked about the gods and goddesses associated with writing. I'm going to take a slightly different tack.

The patron saint of writers is St. Francis de Sales. Living in France in the 16th century, his ministry focused on making catholic teachings clear through writing. By all accounts a kindly and patient man, he died of natural causes in Lyon in 1602.

I like this idea of someone so steady and calm being named (in 1923) the patron saint of writers. So often one gets the impression in western culture that writers are neurotic, depressive, alcoholic, etc. etc. I expect writers have incidences of these afflictions at about the same rate as the general population, but there's this "romantic" myth that you have to be very wrong in the head and socially inept to be a writer, which I submit is complete BS and does writers more harm than good.

But I digress.

Hall's excellent review of symbols in visual art* gives us a run down of the symbols and people most associated with writing in western art. Pen, inkhorn, and sometimes a book are attributes of the four evangelists, as well as Doctors of the Church, including Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thomas Aquinas.

The evangelists are often represented with books or in the act of writing – particularly Matthew, an angel dictating his words – St. Bridget of Sweden is also shown in this way. Gregory the Great and St. Teresa receive dictation from a dove, and St. Jerome sits in his study, working away with a lion at his feet.

What other symbols of writing and authors in art can you think of? Examples?

Photo: Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

* James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art, 1974

As part of our continuing series this month, check out Heather's post on the deities of writing. So, so fascinating.

Inspirations for Writing

What is inspiration? For thousands of years, people have believed inspiration – that creative spark – derives from the gods/God/Spirit. The Wikipedia article on inspiration does quite a good job providing an overview of the different views of
the genesis of inspiration through the ages. Go read it. Really. It's good. I'll wait.

Fascinating, no? I love that there are so many ways of thinking about inspiration. As a (still in recovery) Type A, I love that there are things about creativity and the creative process that we have no control over. What a high, when that idea magically appears, or the solution to the problem reveals itself.

To digress, one of the many things I love about writing is being surprised. When I outline, when I don't outline, the story goes where it wants and it's not always where my conscious brain wants it to go. It's a constant fascination to me to see the way the story grows, sometimes out of my conscious control. And one of the great joys, the addictive alchemic high of writing, is when a previously unknown character wanders into a scene and changes the course of the story. I love my protagonists, but I absolutely adore the characters that appeared out of nowhere and stole my heart, and made the story better. In The Pilgrim Glass, it was definitely Dubay (I kinda want to be him when I grow up). In The Midnight Son, it's Håkon. And in The Hummingbird, it's Alyce and Brother Augustine.

It happens in every novel and novella I write, and it gives me a shiver every time it happens. As a matter of fact, it happened within the first three pages of my ONoWriMo story.

So, these characters wander in. At some level I have been inspired to bring forth these characters (again, even if my waking brain doesn't recognize them yet). So. Who is doing the inspiring? Is it within, or without? Does it come from the collective unconscious, a la Jung? Genetic memory? God? My own personal combination of genetics and personality and brain goo? A combination of all of the above? Does it matter? Personally, I think it is a combination of the above, because that combination is inextricably interconnected.

Heather talked about refilling the well, and that's a crucial component of inspiration, too. I do that through travel, through long bubble baths, and taking the drive over Highway 17 to the coast. Sitting and watching the waves come in over at Davenport is the quickest way for me to get reset emotionally, spiritually energetically. In fact that reminds me: I'm due for a visit.

In a more direct way, what also inspires me are the What If? questions. When my husband and I were traveling in Burgundy in 2002, we visited the Wine Museum in Beaune. As we walked down a spiral staircase, I looked out the window. It was clear glass, but old (or a replica) with the lovely seeds and wavy lines. It put me in mind of stained glass, and I got to thinking: what kind of personality does it take to repair stained glass? And then, days later, we visited Vézelay and my world was rocked. And out of that developed Jonas, and The Pilgrim Glass.

Those What If? questions are often brought up by travel, and by history, and especially by those things together. I want to know what life is like there (wherever "there" is) now, but especially what it was like in the past: what did they eat, what did they think, how are they different, how are they the same? What looked miraculous to them? How did the landscape act on them, and they on it? How has the landscape changed, and how do we see it now? Is it the same? Can we find those same worldviews in ourselves? Do we see the same miracles?

So, that's what inspires me. What inspires you?

Photo: (c) Craig Allyn Rose Photography

Heather's fascinating post on inspiration is now live. Check it out, and join the conversation!

Rituals and Writing

Ritual
An established or prescribed procedure for a religious or other rite
a system or collection of religious or other rites.

any practice or pattern of behavior regularly performed in a set manner.

a specific act, as hand-washing, performed repetitively to a pathological degree, occurring as a common symptom of obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Writing for me is many things, but above all, it is both a psychological necessity and a spiritual practice. So of course I have created rituals to mark the writing process, necessary in my mind in a religious sense and in a mildly OCD neurotic sense.

Every writer's reason for creating is different, and every writer's process of writing is different. Some writers can sit down at their desk/at the coffee shop/on their couch/on a bus, with no preamble, and dive headfirst into their world. That writer is not me.

It's not that I can't just start writing, or that I can't write outside my office. But creating a space, both physically and through ritual, where I can be creative and I can offer thanks spiritually is something that's hard to do sitting on a bus. Plus, my office is a lot quieter than a bus. And it doesn't smell bad. And, usually, there's no crazy people rambling in the corner.

At first, the rituals were a way to quiet my mind, to shift from my workday into my writing, or, more often, shift from sleep into early-morning writing. It was sometimes a lovely way to procrastinate, when I was blocked, or when I was anxious. Sometimes it still is.

But the rituals have morphed, in meaning if not in substance. I still start my music (has to be the same playlist, tailored to the story), and have a sip of coffee (with hazelnut creamer). I still light a candle (green Coventry Creations Brigid, or orange Zena Moon Candle for Writing), say a prayer of thanks, take a deep breath. But I think now, because it's so ingrained, the ritual is an offering to the creative process.

Once a book is done, I have a whole different set of rituals. I create a playlist for the book – almost never the same as the playlist for writing. The former is supposed to be evocative of the story and the characters; the latter is the music I listen to in order to help me write. I've taken lately to creating a cover for the book. I play the "who would you cast"* game. And, of course, there's the ritual sacrifice to the query gods.

Do you have rituals you go through before, and after, you create?


* For the record: Paul Bettany for Jonas and Rachael Weisz for Meredith in The Pilgrim Glass and Justin Long for Sam in The Hummingbird.

ETA: Don't forget to check out Heather's writing rituals post!

As promised, the first of our October writing posts - on ritual - is up at Heather's journal. Check it out!

This month, Heather Domin and I are going to be looking at the intersection of writing and spirituality (and, in honor of the season, spiritualism). This can take a lot of forms – ritual, (divine) inspiration, the gods and saints associated with writing, superstitions about writing. Heck, we might even talk about automatic writing and writing from beyond the grave.

Is writing channeling the gods or your own inner demons? Or both? Do rituals work, or are they a crutch? Are certain times of year – say, autumn – more conducive to writing thanks to something in the air?

This week, we'll be looking at rituals for writing; next week, inspiration. Later in the month, we'll be covering gods and goddesses associated with writing, saints and symbols, and during the last week of October, superstitions. We'll be posting in our own journals, and cross-posting as well.

And every Wednesday, we'll be coming clean and giving updates on our ONoWriMo progress.

We're really looking forward to your ideas and comments throughout the month!

As I'm writing this, it seems we have finally turned the corner in the Bay Area to autumn. Our summer is always a clueless guest, hanging around well past the time that the beer is all gone and the hosts are yawning and looking longingly at the door. I think the brutal summer heat hung around just a few weeks too long because I – in a fit of optimism – put out my autumn decorations, pumpkin-scented candles, and delicate bowls made of wrought-iron leaves, which of course jinxed us all.

But now that the cool weather is here, I can finally turn my mind to things other than "WHEN WILL THIS HEAT END?" to what I really want to be thinking about, which is writing. Around about this time for the last five years, I've been thinking, nay, obsessing, about what I will write during NaNoWriMo. Yes, I write during the rest of the year, but there's something about the insanity of NaNo, the global free pass to skive off housework and go in just a little bit late to work and stay up way past your bedtime: a monthlong celebration of writing goodness. But this year, I'm not obsessing and planning and biting my nails. Because this year, I'm doing NaNo during October.

Because of various Real Life Reasons, Heather Domin and I have made a pact to do our NaNo in October: ONoWriMo. And we have also made a pact to let you all know how we're doing, every Wednesday doing October.

But wait, there's more!

Heather and I, being gluttons for punishment, will also be doing a series of blog posts throughout October. We'll be covering a range of topics about the process of writing – ritual, inspiration, superstition, gods and saints – topics that come to our minds when we think about this turn toward the darkness, the turn inward.

So look for our posts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays throughout October, and join in with your experiences and ideas!