Storytelling is a fantastic way to get your story out there – especially when it comes to writing about your life as an artist, your influences and inspirations and how you think and feel. Whether you’re using your story as content on your website, a preface for a self published art book, submissions or developing your artist statement you need to make it engaging. This doesn’t come naturally to everyone so one of the best things you can do is to study and learn from the greats. Here are some of my favorite recommendations.
I’ve been following the self guided course, The Artists Way, Creativity as a Spiritual Practice by Julia Cameron, whose pursuits are many, including playwright, novelist, poet, filmmaker and teacher. The book is written not only for artists but also for anyone who wants to expand possibilities in their lives and daily living. As I progress through each chapter I marvel at the brain behind this creative life curriculum and how clearly she takes the reader through the process through thoughtful organization and really good writing, much of which comes from her own personal experience.
One of my favorite books that I’ve sent to several friends is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott, novelist and non fiction writer, teacher and presenter of some really great TED talks. If you want to learn to write well, pay attention to great writing, not just the rules. Great writing often employs storytelling and there’s nothing like a good story to hold your audience’s attention. My enthusiasm for this book was so great I believe I sent my own copy off to someone, which I regret doing because this is one you can read over and over again. Like Cameron’s Artists Way, it entwines the process of art (in this case writing) with one’s life showing by example how to live that life, that passion, to the fullest.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King was a surprise when I read it many years ago – because it’s just that. A memoir and masterclass in one. So it’s not about how to write from point A to point B, but a mesmerizing tale of a personal experience which happens to be written by one of the best selling authors of all time that is an example as in both of the above of one of the strongest writing rules of all time which is: Show, don’t tell.
Writers, like artists continue to study and learn all the time. In Joan Didion’s memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, there is a passage in which she reminisces about one summer in her and her husband John Dunne’s writing life in which day after day he paces back and forth in the pool just studying the writing, the creative mechanics of a book in order to learn how the author put it together.
If you’ve got your story down and just want a pair of second eyes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can email me at beth@bethlowell.com or call. (973) 960-6464.
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