Ed. by Cassie Premo Steele
Foreground: Aliya. From left: Elizabeth, Sondos, Shirley, Cassie, (Cassie's wife, Susanne), Candace. Not pictured: Kelly.
During a writing retreat held this summer on the South Carolina coast and led by writer and writing coach Cassie Premo Steele, participants met under a gazebo next to the ocean for a discussion.
The question posed: What do you know for sure about writing?
Aliya: I will go first because I identify most with my role as a physician, and I'm eager to listen to what the rest of you who write professionally have to say. My most important intention as a healer is to meet my patients where they are, and I do this by listening carefully. I think this can work in writing, as well. You want to begin with a clarity of concept, and then work with readers to play with the idea. The healing power—of medicine, of writing—comes through collaboration.
Shirley: As an educator with decades of experience, I have seen over and over that kids don't like to write if they feel they're not good at it. Reading a lot teaches you to write. I would say that as writers, we need to keep energy for ourselves so we can have the focus to read when we are not working on whatever we are doing to earn an income. I would also add that there are too many rules in schools. The thing that was revolutionary for me in working with Cassie was when she said, "Don't edit while you're writing. Just write."
Candace: I am a community leader for writers of color, and I've seen that what you are reading will influence your writing, so I agree it's important to be intentional about that. I've also learned that in order to trust the writing, trust the process, trust the characters, and be in the moment, the controlling part of the brain has to be calmed down. This is why meditation is so important: to calm that part of the brain, so that you can access the creative part. Otherwise, the mind is like a fork in a garbage disposal.
Sondos: I used to have pain in my arms after writing. I pushed myself through it. Now I have less pain because I learned to see the pushing as violent to myself. Instead of pushing to find the direction of my writing, I now I take the time to find the "east," the position of our prayer in the Muslim faith, for the project. In my research and writing on entrepreneurship, I often collaborate with others, and I find that we can have a shared direction and do it in our own way. Pushing is the reason for the pain. We can learn to use a compass instead.
Liz: Over the course of my years teaching writing at the university level, I have come to see that writing is a mirror for the self. If you have a decision-making issue in life, you have a decision-making issue in writing. If you have a development problem in life, you have a development problem in writing. If you are afraid of emotion in life, you are afraid of emotion in writing. It's the irony of invention. Life shows up in your writing.
Kelly: And writing shows up in your life. As someone who studies the Early Modern period, I think about how the printing press changed how people read and wrote, just as the internet and other digital platforms are doing now. Authors and printers increasingly manipulated elements such as chapter headings, white spaces, tables of contents, and illustrations to offer multiple ways of navigating a text. This reflected existing reading practices and encouraged readers and writers to develop new ones. When I get deep in the weeds of my writing, I often take a step back and think about my reader. How can I help her find the through-line of my argument? Manipulating format and creating visual aids are essential parts of the writing process because they can make a huge difference in how our readers use and interpret our work.
Cassie: And as we think back over centuries in the development of writing and publishing, we must admit that there are things we don't know—we can't know—about who will read our writing or how. We can't control things in the way schools erroneously taught writing should happen. We must trust the writing. Trust ourselves. Writing is like lovemaking. It's no fun if we try to dictate every move. We can get into the flow of it once we have a clear intention and mutual trust.
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Aliya Shamsi, M.D., was born and raised in northern Pakistan and since 2003 has been practicing family medicine in North America's Midwest. She is researching the experiences of immigrated female Muslim professionals.
Candace Wiley, B.A., M.A., M.F.A, is the co-founding director of The Watering Hole and has been a Vermont Studio Center Fellow, Lighthouse Works Center Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center Fellow, Callaloo Fellow and Fulbright Fellow.
Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D., is the author of 18 books, including the poetry book Swimming in Gilead, and the novel Beaver Girl, both coming out in 2023. Find Cassie here.
Elizabeth Vogel, Ph.D., is an associate professor of English at Arcadia University, where she serves as Coordinator of Professional Writing. Her work has appeared in Journal of Teaching Writing and Studies in American Humor.
Kelly Digby Peebles, Ph.D., is an associate professor of French at Clemson University. Her research focuses on women's leadership and religious dissidence in 16th century France.
Shirley Smith, Ph.D.'s career in education spans more than 40 years. She is the author of Navigating the Labyrinth: Teacher Empowerment Through Instructional Leadership (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).
Sondos G. Abdelgawad, Ph.D., is a professor in entrepreneurship at IE Business School, IE University, Madrid Spain. Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, her research focuses on sustainability in startups and established organizations, and she gives voice to unrepresented social actors.
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