Reflections Are Not Mirrors
A reflection need not be a representation of the present self.
When was the last time that you took the time to reflect?
I mean REALLY reflect.
In a conscious way, how often do you ask yourself, ‘How do you feel? How did this session go? Do you feel successful? Does success really matter to you?’
So many questions and each one could prompt you to write so many words, but that’s not the issue here. I’m not talking so much about content as I am about being content.
I teach college students how to write.
Many have been damaged, even broken, by past teachers who focus too much on the black and white issues of writing. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics do matter, but before we get to that polishing phase, we have to have something to polish.
I often tell my students that they have to have a chunk of diamond before they can set about carving the diamond. Only then will you end up with a multi-faceted, sparkling gemstone.
Writing is that chunk of diamond.
One way to help find the chunk of diamond is through freewriting. Professor Peter Elbow coined the phrase and made it his life’s work to promulgate the benefits of the free write. He recommends writing for ten minutes. No topic. No agenda. Just write. Don’t stop. Don’t think. Just write.
It’s freeing. And it works.
But then what?
Here’s the other part of the equation.
Reflect.
After each writing session, take a few minutes to reflect on your writing.
I’ve done this before. I will do it again. But sometimes, it’s damn hard to do.
Yesterday was one of those days.
I had spent ninety minutes doing my daily writing. And the session left me with a feeling of distress. (I was going to write here dis-rest because that’s more appropriate than distress.)
I was going to write about my self-doubts, my displeasure with myself as a writer.
I was going to write about what I see when I look in the mirror — a wannabe writer who sometimes feels like time is running out and I still haven’t figured out how to crack this nut. (The nut that I see so many thirty-somethings achieving and excelling at that I wonder where I went wrong!)
But instead of writing that self-deprecating journal entry, I wrote a headline- Reflections are not mirrors.
A reflection need not be a representation of the self.
A reflection represents the past and the future.
A reflection, instead, can look back at the motivation, the history, the background of the project.
What prompted me to come up with this idea?
What do I know that led me down this path and not that one?
When did I first encounter that road sign?
When did I make the turn?
How fast was I going?
What did I hope to find at the end of that (this?) journey?
A reflection can be speculation on the journey ahead.
What do I hope to learn?
Who do I want to connect with?
What do I want to do with my writing tomorrow?
Where will my characters go?
What will they do?
Why are they going there?
Will they achieve their dreams?
Will I?
Reflections serve as a record of the writer’s journey.
But the author reserves the right to edit, pick and choose, even delete.
It is unnecessary to show the truth. It is not important to tell all.
Here’s one idea:
Remember when you were a kid? And you’d come home from school and a parent might ask, ‘What did you do today?’
The simple answer is to shrug. ‘Nothing.’
The complicated answer would be to recount every moment of the day.
“Well, I climbed up the stairs to the yellow school bus. Ms. Albert said, ‘Hello.’ I smiled and walked down the aisle and sat down next to Alex. And then,…”
And mom or dad stopped listened as soon as you said, “I climbed…” because there’s nothing new there.
Try this:
Write about your ideas, your motivation. Write about your purpose.
Try this:
Write about your intentions, your motivation. Write about your purpose.
Try this:
Write about your purpose. YOUR purpose.
My purpose is to inspire. My purpose is not to bitch and moan about what I didn’t do. The opportunities that I didn’t have. The mistakes that derailed my journey.
The journey continues to unfold. Would it be wrong to be too intentional?
A reflection provides the creative the opportunity to crystalize perceptions. And once crystallized and made solid, the shaping and carving can begin.
A reflection need not be a mirror of the present self.
So let’s begin.
Take a deep breath. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the possibilities.
Fight to make this true. And look for the stragglers along the way. Take their hand and support them, if only for a few steps. Maybe that’s all they need.
A writer’s reflection becomes part of the writer.
What is your one guiding principle?
For me, it is to inspire.
Always. And only.
Reflection:
(Journal entry- Saturday, May 8, 2021. 8:25 a.m. 843 words.
Overcast- 48 degrees farenheit. Day before Mother’s Day.)
So, that didn’t go the way that I thought it would. But when does it?
I like the image of the mirror and the reflection.
What I see is a person looking in, but what they see is so different from what they are.
That kind of disconnectedness — that’s what I’m trying to demonstrate here.
When I take the time to write a reflection AFTER a session of creativity, I find it quite cathartic.
I have this idea to create a publication called ‘The Naked Writer’ where I would post these reflections to show the reality behind what is produced.
And then I stop… because I don’t feel like an actual writer.
But I am a writer.
I love to write.
And that alone makes me a writer.
It doesn’t matter what others have said about the reality of the writer.
Am I not real?
(I think I am.)
Who said that? “I think. Therefore, I am.”
I could look it up, but I won’t because all the instructions about being a productive, successful writer say not to get distracted. And fact-checking is distracting.
But today, I just wanted to write about how a creative’s reflections do not have to be a journalistic account of what went down.
We are not crime scene investigators.
We are people with a calling to do art, to make things, to write ideas, and create stories.
And if the court reporter needs a factual accounting of my processes, then I’m sorry.
A reflection is not a mirror.
A reflection is much more. Much, much more.
