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Write A Way: Journey to Creativity
Exploring the World with Your Senses: Hearing
By Sandra Lee Schubert
Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard.
~ Daphne du Maurier British novelist (1907 - 1989)
Artists use their senses. Everything is a playground for the muse. The way the light hits water can lead us to a great piece of art or an interesting story. Walking down the street with a friend we discussed the insanity of our senses. How we can become over-stimulated, fractured by the sounds, the shapes and the colors that surrounds us. At the same time, we were in a state of wonder about this heightened awareness and where it leads us.
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German novelist, poet, scientist (1749 - 1832)
This year we have been exploring our senses. As I write I am listening to Irish music on a public radio station. Outside my closed door I can hear the fan as it oscillates in my living room. Sometimes out of a mass of sound one thing will catch my ear. Maybe it is the sound of baby crying or the distant wail of a fire truck. As a child I could hear the sound of fog horns off the East river. I knew from my mother that the river was a dangerous place. The sound made me think of a lone ship lost on the water searching for its way out of the darkness. Many years later that sound still haunts me.
What do we hear? Sometimes we hear the angels singing and other times it is the clanging of bells in our head. We are surrounded by sound. It envelopes us for good or bad but how can we use it creatively?
This is the best kind of voyeurism, hearing joy from your neighbors.
~ Chuck Sigars, The World According to Chuck weblog, 8/14/2003
If we are musicians or singers hearing is different then it is for a writer or a painter.
As a writer,
we hear as we write. It is an important for us to hear the sound of our own words. I have a microphone that I use to record onto my computer. I started to record poetry and prose I had written. The first playback was disappointing. The sound of my voice was at first unpleasant. I sounded nasally and seemed to swallow some of the words. But I did hear how the poems sounded; where they worked and where they didn't. I usually read my work out loud but hearing it played back was different. I could now use my voice more creatively by modulating it, using inflection and adding a bit more pizzazz into the words I was speaking.
Writers often talk of finding their voice. As if it was lost somewhere. Most times the voice we seek is the one we hear all the time. But we dismiss it because the sound of our voice seems mundane. We want to write great things. We want to hear our work spoken with great flourish. We want to see the moist eyes of moved audiences lingering on the very sound of our words.
Hearing = Listening
When in a conversation do you really listen? Have you blocked out the sounds around you with technology? Consider the things you hear; the good, the bad and loud can be a great source of material for you. We quickly dismiss the ordinary as having no value. But it is this mundane that is the fodder for a good tale. Think about Frank McCourt's book
Angela's Ashes.
It was a devastating recount of his childhood. The dialogue was not profound. It was ordinary, every day and powerful. We hear things and we laugh. A piece of music makes us cry. Surrounded by sound we can't help but immerse ourselves into its possibilities.
Ellen DeGeneres performed a masterful piece about the ongoing chatter in our heads. You can't help but laugh listening to her disassociated loop of nonsense conversation. Never underestimate what you hear. Those voices in your head could be giving you some very good information.
I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I'm looking out of my third eye and everything that I'm supposed to be doing. It's amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. 'Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama's got the magic of Clorox 2.'
~ Ellen DeGeneres, comedian and actress
Creative writing prompts:
Eavesdropping: We hear snippets of conversation all the time. Cell phones have given us many opportunities to overhear the personal intimate details of perfect strangers. Don't get mad. Get creative. Use some of the overheard conversations as the foundation for some juicy writing. Go take the mundane and make it brilliant with the stroke of your pen.
Record your own voice: Use a tape recorder, the computer, or a video camera and record some poetry or prose. Do you like how you sound? What don't you like? Use your voice as an instrument, modulating it up and down. Try acting act different characters. Create a story out of the sound of your voice.
Listen: Just listen.
Copyright © 2006 Sandra Lee Schubert. All rights reserved. If you are interested in publishing this article, please email
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