Tele Aadsen

writer - fisherman - listener

Postcard from NCI: Writing in the New Year, Week Six

by | Jan 1, 2014 | Reading & Writing | 17 comments

 

Writing at North Cascades Institute

 

Hap­py New Year, friends!

Final­ly, a post­card for you that actu­al­ly is a post­card, thanks to Cap’n J’s Sol­stice pho­to shoot. (And how awe­some is my many-legged friend? Sock­to­pus is my crafty sis­ter Ash­ley’s work.)

It was a pret­ty wild New Year’s Eve up here in the moun­tains… Nachos and a soda with an evening of word-mak­ing. In the final hour of 2013, I took a break to read a let­ter, a wel­come sur­prise from an old friend. (My neigh­bor deliv­ered sev­er­al weeks’ worth of mail the oth­er day; I’ve been parcel­ing them out to myself, one a night, as a treat.) On the blank back of a reject­ed page from chap­ter four, I start­ed writ­ing a response.

Have you noticed how dif­fer­ent­ly you write to a friend? How the words come more nat­u­ral­ly when you’re just talk­ing with some­one you trust wants to hear what you’re say­ing and cares? Your friend knows your voice; they’ll hear your words exact­ly as you mean to con­vey them, respond­ing with empa­thy and cel­e­bra­tion at all the right places. Such a dif­fer­ence expe­ri­ence than writ­ing to the silent­ly judg­men­tal page, the face­less screen — or worse, the clear­ly scowl­ing crowd that’s so going to hate this. With those detrac­tors in mind, why bother?

There’s good rea­son writ­ing teach­ers advise imag­in­ing one spe­cif­ic read­er as we approach our work.

In con­ver­sa­tion with my friend, I found myself shar­ing thoughts that, in my book, had been stiff. Over-wordy, yet dis­tant. As a let­ter, they stum­bled into what I had­n’t been able to say with­in the book. So I inter­rupt­ed the let­ter to reach for my note­book instead. That’s how I rang in 2014 — find­ing a dif­fer­ent way into the sto­ry, scrib­bling a re-writ­ten scene, and send­ing thoughts of grat­i­tude to that friend. Pret­ty good terms on which to wel­come the new year, I think.

So. Two thoughts to share with you:

The first is a poem one of you sent (thanks, Angela!) It’s a verse observed inside a Seat­tle Metro bus as part of their 2006 poet­ry-in-motion project. I’m sor­ry I don’t have the author’s name.

Every fam­i­ly has one — usu­al­ly the one

who writes, the one who spills fam­i­ly secrets

onto the page like so much grape juice

on beige car­pet — cre­at­ing continent-shaped

stains that are slow to fade and nev­er disappear

entire­ly

 

The sec­ond is a quote from Theo Nestor’s new­ly released book on craft, Writ­ing is My Drink. This is what Lisa Jones, author of Bro­ken: A Love Sto­ry, has to say about the role of the memoirist:

“You’re sim­ply a nice car­pen­ter who has helped make a shel­ter for oth­er peo­ple’s uneasi­ness by expos­ing your own.”

 

This house is big, sweet­ies. Come on in — there’s plen­ty of room for us all.

Hap­py New Year, all. Be well.

Tele

c/o ELC

P.O. Box 429

Mar­ble­mount, WA 98267

17 Comments

  1. JL Oakley
    JL Oakley on January 1, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    Oh, cool. Is this a work­shop? I did­n’t know you could just go up there.

    • Tele
      Tele on January 2, 2014 at 6:52 pm

      Nope, Janet, it’s a 12-week res­i­den­cy. I’m NCI’s writer-in-res­i­dence this win­ter. They DO offer group rentals, though; I think it’d be won­der­ful fun to get a group of Red Wheel­bar­row writ­ers up here for a week­end Write Out! All best New Year wish­es for you.

  2. Joanne Rideout
    Joanne Rideout on January 1, 2014 at 5:52 pm

    Thank you, Tele, for this won­der­ful post. Hap­py New Year!

    • tom
      tom on January 2, 2014 at 9:33 am

      chap­ter four tele; its going to be a long job ; I can come up if you might need a proof­read­er tom

      • Tele
        Tele on January 2, 2014 at 6:53 pm

        You’re a good friend, Tom! New Year’s cheer to you and Mary.

    • Tele
      Tele on January 2, 2014 at 6:52 pm

      To you, too, Joanne! I’m look­ing for­ward to meet­ing you — less than two months now ’til Fish­er Poets!

  3. Katie Lee
    Katie Lee on January 1, 2014 at 6:06 pm

    Thank You Tele. Hap­py New Year sweetie

    • Tele
      Tele on January 2, 2014 at 6:53 pm

      You, too, Katie! Hope all’s good for you.

  4. Lisa
    Lisa on January 2, 2014 at 10:28 am

    Hap­py New Year! I’ve been enjoy­ing fol­low­ing your adven­ture in the mountains.

    • Tele
      Tele on January 2, 2014 at 7:03 pm

      Lisa, thanks so much for say­ing hel­lo — I’m glad to start the new year with a new friend, and your com­ment gave me a trail back to your blog. Your post for Mo was beautiful.

  5. Norm
    Norm on January 3, 2014 at 10:36 am

    Keep up the good work Tele, anx­ious­ly await­ing the forth­com­ing writ­ing event! Hap­py New Year! Until we meet again.….…
    Regards,
    Norm

    • Tele
      Tele on January 3, 2014 at 3:51 pm

      Norm! Thanks, friend — it’ll be good to see you again, when­ev­er it works out. If you and your wife are look­ing for a road trip on Feb 21 — 23, Joel and I will be in Asto­ria… Hope all’s good for you guys.

  6. Pierr Morgan
    Pierr Morgan on January 3, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    Thanks for the post card, Tele! And your shared thoughts — always inspi­ra­tion. Hap­py New Year.

    • Tele
      Tele on January 3, 2014 at 3:52 pm

      You’re most wel­come, Pierr, and thank you, too! Your lat­est is one of the envelopes I’ve been sav­ing… Maybe tonight’s the night!

    • Tele
      Tele on January 5, 2014 at 11:11 am

      Good­ness — part of a NON-dys­func­tion­al fam­i­ly? So unprece­dent­ed! Many thanks for your kind words, my friend, and to Nil­lu for hon­or­ing the impact of your work. I’m glad you’re out here.

  8. Susan Chase-Foster
    Susan Chase-Foster on January 11, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    Hap­py New Year, Tele! Just love lis­ten­ing to the mag­ic flow­ing through your dig­its, dear writer, and wish you 365 days of lit­er­ary loveliness.