Writing as a Spiritual Practice

CTSA Fall Course

Mark Chmiel

Brief Course Description

In this course, writing is introduced as a practice to help us “wake up” to the wonders, suffering, and joys of everyday life. Accordingly, we will use various exercises to get in touch with our own powers of creativity, clarity, and compassion. We will learn how to write without stopping and without judgment, our basic method being the timed writing practice in notebooks as taught by Natalie Goldberg. Once we get experience with this method, we can use writing practice to generate material for any writing we want or need to do, from old-fashioned letters to short stories to populist poems to academic papers to Twitter posts. Throughout the ten weeks, we will learn to trust our own voice and to be receptive to the voices of each other.

Here’s a way of looking at writing practice from Natalie Goldberg:

Recording the details of our lives is a stance against bombs with their mass ability to kill, against too much speed and efficiency. A writer must say yes to life, to all of life: the water glasses, the Kemp’s half-and-half, the ketchup on the counter. It’s not a writer’s task to say, “It is dumb to live in a small town or to eat in a café when you can eat macrobiotic at home.” Our task is to say a holy yes to the real things of our life as they exist—the real truth of who we are: several pounds overweight, the gray, cold street outside, the Christmas tinsel in the showcase, the Jewish writer in the orange booth across from her blond friend who has black children. We must become writers who accept things as they are, come to love to details, and step forward with a yes on our lips so there can be no more noes in the world, noes that invalidate life and stop these details from continuing.

Method

At each session we will do variously timed writing practices, share in pairs or trios, listen attentively to each other, share reflections on the book we’ve chosen to read, and (re)learning the discipline to trust our own minds.

Essentials

1 200-page wide-ruled composition notebook

1 or 2 pens

1 copy of Natalie Goldberg, Writing down the Bones, 2005 edition

1 book of your own choosing, one you are eager to read and share the fruits of your reading with the class

Tuition

$100.00

Time and Place

Wednesdays, 7:30-9:00 p.m.

September 23, 30

October 7, 14, 21, 28

November 4, 11,18

December 2

Center for Theology and Social Analysis

1077 South Newstead

Forest Park Southeast

(Also, perhaps, various local cafes)

Instructor/Animator

I have taught at Webster University and Saint Louis University, using the methods of Natalie Goldberg in classes since 2001. I used some of Goldberg’s techniques in composing The Book of Mev (2005). I can be contacted at MarkJChmiel@gmail.com

Follow-Up

I’ll be offering a ten-week spring course, based on Mary Pipher’s book, Writing to Change the World. Now skilled in writing practice, we can go on to send specific works out into the world—to agitate, wake up, to connect the dots, to empower, and to share visions of a more just and harmonious world.

Final Advice (from Jack Keroauc)

Submissive to everything, open, listening

Be in love with yr life

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself

Believe in the holy contour of life