Jack Grapes calls his revolutionary way of teaching writing "Method Writing." As in Method Acting (famously used by Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and others), he teaches actors to draw upon their own memories to elicit real feelings as a short cut to great acting, making years of studying drama unnecessary.
Good news: if you found Writing about Taboos difficult, it means you have solid gold buried within your heart. Here's how to access it.
St Augustine’s mind on fire with ideas
Simply put, Method Writing involves:
1. Writing like you talk -- finding your voice
2. The transformation line -- finding your deep voice
3. Image/moment -- action writing in moments or sandwiches of time (no continuous action)
4. The dreaded Association Exercise (not for the terminally timid) -- stream of consciousness (interior monologue, free association) taken to the next level by visualizing each item, also called "random image" or "psychoVISUAL" association. What comes to mind when I say "cow"? "Horse." But what comes to mind when you visualize a cow? It might be "corpulent" or "milk." Come up with a random list of words and their visual associations, and incorporate these words into your writing exercise. Don't worry if it doesn't all make sense, keep going and you may find some hidden gems.
This is a way to surprise yourself. As Grapes writes in his book, "The mark of genius is the willingness to explore ALL the alternatives, not just the most likely solution." Einstein, he writes, expressed it a bit differently with his haystack analogy. "Geniuses make their thoughts visible," like Galileo, Grapes reminds us.
Here are 2 great video clips that give powerful demonstrations of #2, finding your deep voice, or writing from your gut about what truly matters to you and therefore to your audience. He states that most stories are ultimately meaningless until you exceed the transformation line to find your own deep voice.
Gold dust, Laura. Thank you. 🙌