{"id":4532,"date":"2024-08-21T08:33:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T16:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2024-08-21T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T16:36:14","slug":"our-job-as-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/?p=4532","title":{"rendered":"Our Job as Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0OUR JOB AS WRITERS<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

\"Unlikely<\/p>\n

Our job as writers is both to see the world for what it is<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

and to imagine a better one into being.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn Forche<\/strong><\/p>\n

An only child, since age 7 when I began my writing journey by writing poems, writing was <\/strong>an imaginary friend I could talk with. At age 9, I wrote my first story, The Silver Cup,<\/em> about a girl and a colt she raised. At age 16, my first play, Always a Tomorrow. <\/em>Then more plays with 11 produced and several awards followed which led to an invitation from Hollywood to write films (The Christmas Wife<\/em>; Unlikely Angel<\/em> with Dolly Parton) and a television series (Touched by an Angel). <\/em>After leaving Hollywood and moving to a small town in S. California, 8 books followed and this week I begin #9, another memoir.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lately, I reflect on why writing? For starters, writing is the best therapy I know.\u00a0 Maya Angelou once said, \u201cI write in order to discover myself.\u201d\u00a0 I also re- create in my own voice what and how I perceive the world around me. Recently, my lawyer-son remarked after reading one of my short stories in East & West: Stories of India, <\/em>that people don\u2019t really talk like that. Hmm, I thought, don\u2019t they? Then I realized that the best plays, movies, and novels all reveal not what \u2018real life\u2019 people may say, but what they should say and not just think. Most dramatic works are family dramas and most family struggles in real life arise from what is not said but should be said. Edward Albee\u2019s Who\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf or <\/em>Arthur Miller\u2019s Death of a Salesman <\/em>are two examples. We might look back to 5th<\/sup> C. Greece at Antigone<\/em> or Oedipus Rex <\/em>or 16th<\/sup> C. England to Romeo and Juliet or Othello or Hamlet<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Or 19h<\/sup> c. Russia to Anton Chekhov\u2019s The Cherry Orchard <\/em>or The Seagull<\/em>. All family dramas. And all depicting what should have been said in real life.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The aim of a writer is not only to reveal the world as it is but to imagine a better one where conflict is voiced and characters interact by telling the truth as they perceive it in order to create a better relationship, a better world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Conflict is part of life and part of our world. How to confront conflict in our lives, in our stories, and reveal the truth as we see it? This constitutes our job as writers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Writing my dysfunctional family play, The Women of Cedar Creek,<\/em> was one of the hardest challenges I ever faced. Three generations of Southern women in conflict with each other and with themselves embrace 24 hours of conflict to emerge strengthening that fragile bond called family. Upon completing the play, I assumed it was too personal, too Texas, to appeal to others. Imagine my surprise when this play won more awards than any of the earlier plays I had penned. Strangers would come up to me and say, \u201cI\u2019m from Kansas. That was my sister. How could you know?\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m from Canada. That was my mother to a tee.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

From this experience, I learned a valuable lesson as a writer. That the universal rests in the specific and not the other way round. The lesson: Dare to be personal!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/strong>For writing consults, workshops, blogs, online courses, & psychic readings<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 wayofstory.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0OUR JOB AS WRITERS Our job as writers is both to see the world for what it is and to imagine a better one into being. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carolyn Forche An only child, since age 7 when I began my writing journey by writing poems, writing was an imaginary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catherine-ann-jones","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4537,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions\/4537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}