Once you've got the knack of it, I'm betting that regular practice of freewriting – by “regular,” I mean at least 2-3 times a week – will produce insights (light bulbs), help you process the toxic junk of your past traumas and deal more creatively with your everyday troubles (dark bulbs), and bring you joy in the form of flowery little surprises (tulip bulbs).
My post “Fishing the River Styx” concluded with a brief jaunt through the tulip fields, but that freewrite also brought me other gifts.
The subconscious mind will sometimes blurt out truths that the conscious mind would rather avoid. This isn't always a comfortable experience, but I've certainly found it worthwhile to pay attention to what I have to say when I'm not really paying attention to what I say.
Here are some of the things I learned about myself from this morning's freewrite (although just what I'm supposed to do with these bits of subterranean wisdom, I'm not sure):
1. I seem to cry at the most opportune times, like in front of my computer screen
2. This is what always happens when the big draw is, “Here's someone I can make happy!”
3. The idea that writing can exist separately or be for public consumption, that's what sucks
4. If I am going to be a writer, I'm going to be embarrassing
5. Fishing in the subconscious...this is what comes up: a refusal to cooperate with the ego's schemata
Do you think the fish swimming in the unconscious want to be caught?
ReplyDeleteInteresting question, anonymous. Here's my feeling on it: whatever's in that water (fish, eels, old tires, duckweed, gum wrappers from your fifth birthday) is probably indifferent. Whether you, the conscious fisher, want to catch what's there -- that's the question. Sometimes you do, and sometimes you don't. And sometimes you change your mind when you see what's on the line.
ReplyDeleteYou may be right, although I'm not sure. It seems to me that often unconscious content attempts to slip the reigns of conscious control - the unintended comment, the Freudian slip, etc. I think it refuses to make a frontal assault, but is not adverse to taking a roundabout approach. But perhaps I'm ascribing too much volition to something shadowy.
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