Releasing

Easier said than done, to be sure

What feels like it’s ready to be left behind in your life or creative practice right now? Explore that in your writing practice today and see where it takes you.

It can be easy to treat writing prompts that feel personal as journal entries, and, to be fair, that’s perfectly fine. But, I’d challenge you to make the personal/micro into the more universal/macro in your writing if you can. Perhaps you start with writing about a box of items you’re ready to part with, then weave in layers about consumerism or Swedish death cleaning or the neuroscience of souvenirs or collectibles, for example.

Inspiration of the theme of letting go:

• Atul Gawande’s New Yorker piece “Letting Go,” in which he, a physician, writes about the emotional realities of death, the limits of medical care, and letting go.

• Joan Didion’s essay, “Goodbye To All That,” from Slouching Towards Bethlehem in which she reflects on her love for New York City and for leaving it: “It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.” Her “On Self-Respect” is another good choice on the theme of letting go, too, as it speaks to the idea of letting go of societal expectations and reclaiming self-worth.

• CL Hauser’s “The Crane Wife,” in which she reflects on a a research trip after calling off her engagement, and redefining love and care.

• Zadie Smith’s “Fail Better,” in which she reflects on creative failure and letting go of the idea of creative perfection.

  

  Photo by Gianandrea Villa on Unsplash