Use what’s happened to you, to shape your writing

Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

“A writer — and, I believe, generally all persons — must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource,” writer Jorge Luis Borges said in an interview, when asked about his blindness.

“All things have been given to us for a purpose,” he continued, “and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”¹

You may be familiar with Kate Bowler’s book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved, and you might think it would push back against the wording of this sentiment.

Everything That Happens Can Shape Your Writing

But I take the quote’s overall message to mean we can work with whatever happens, good or bad. In fact, that’s kind of what Kate Bowler has done. Her misfortunes shaped her art.

This summer brought our family celebrations, gatherings, challenges, and losses. And they came so fast, I couldn’t find time to document them all. For now, they’re jumbled in my mind and heart.

Reflecting on Highs and Lows

The Borges quote encourages me to revisit the summer’s ups and downs when life starts to slow…to take my time as I capture the details (and emotions) of the chaos that whizzed past.

Will you join me?

As you reflect on the past few months—the moments you couldn’t control, the raw material of your life—consider how you can work with all that transpired.

Were there adventures? Celebrations? Humiliations? Misfortunes? Embarrassments?

From these “resources,” we, as writers, shape:

• stories that resonate
• ideas that stick
• opinions that stir discussions
• advice that steers decisions
• revelations that open others to new perspectives

We, as word artists, can transform all that happens to us into art.

Transform Experience into Creative Expression

As you reflect on the past few months—the moments you couldn’t control, the raw material of your life—consider how you can work with it.

Explore your journal notes, expand on fleeting thoughts, and, with your creative flair, discover the meaning and purpose within those experiences.

Whether they become part of a poem, essay, book, or blog post, see their purpose.

“Remember,” writes Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird. “that you own what happened to you.“²

Every event, episode, and experience contributes to your becoming who you are as a creative human.

Every hardship, misfortune, humiliation, joy, success, and celebration is a resource waiting to be shaped into art.

A Prompt to Capture Life’s “Raw Material”

Use this prompt to tap into the raw material of your life:

Something significant that happened to me is ______________________.

This is what happened: ________________________.
Use vivid language and specific details as you recall the facts. What did you see, hear, or notice?

Here’s how it shaped and changed me: _____________________.
How did this experience shift your perspective, behavior, or beliefs? What did you learn about yourself or the world?

This is how I connect it with how it made me feel, deep down: _________________.
What emotions did it stir? Did those feelings evolve over time?

Here’s how I can use the experience in my creative life: __________________________.
Could it inspire a story, poem, or essay? What universal themes does it touch on?

Your Creative Prerogative

The details may stay in your personal journal while the experience finds its way into your body of work in more subtle ways.

Your experience and insights may simply inform your work, your style, your ideas without being your work.

Or you may write it “slant,” relying on metaphor to hint at its impact.

It’s your creative prerogative to shape it as you wish.

Because the experience shapes you, but you shape it, as well.

____________

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Resources

• What Lies Beneath the Surface of Your Life?
• Ep 173: [Interview] Patrice Gopo on Meaning Making on the Page and Studying the Craft
• Writing Quote: writers write…to relive life (Donald Murray)
• Write to Discover – Start with Yourself

Footnotes:

1. Borges, Jorge Luis, and Roberto Alifano. Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges: Including a Selection of Poems: Interviews, 1981-1983. Lascaux Publishers ; Distributed by Grove Press, 1984. (15) (quote first spotted in James Clear’s newsletter: “3-2-1: On Growth, All-Or-Nothing Mindsets, and How Great Art Evolves with Us.” James Clear, 17 Oct. 2022, jamesclear.com/3-2-1/june-3-2021?rh_ref=294c7014. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.)
2. Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.‌ (6)

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