I light a candle. A vanilla scented tea light that sits in conical mauve glass in a metal stand that I've had for thirty years. Something about the flickering light and the vanilla scent that helps me settle in. That and coffee. I must have coffee.
There are project-specific portals too. For my memoir, a picture of me when I was nine (one of only two that exist of me under ten years old). In the memoir, I alternate chapters on either side of a pivotal night when I was nine. For my novel-in-progress, it's a Newton's Cradle (those silver click-clack balls). Newton's Cradle is also the title of the novel.
Other meaningful knickknacks on and around my desk: a pewter wizard my mother gave me; a small barbie doll, her hair in a bun, that I think I stole from my friend Stacey; some glitter false eyelashes; a pack of B'loonies; sparklers; my college copy of As I Lay Dying; and a minibar size bottle of Chartreuse I got in New Orleans that makes me think of Hemingway, to name a few. I guess I have a lot of portals.
Writing, traveling, hanging out and visiting with family and friends are portals for me. Every day there can be several portals. Life is a series of doors. What did Cat Stevens say? Life is a series of doors and they open from the side you're on. I think I got that right. It's one of his songs from the early 70s.
This is a great question. Playing music, listening to music, reading, and poetry are portals for me. The biggest one, though, is writing a book. I love that it's a portal of my own making, a little escape hatch. I laughed when I read this because I have a chapter in one of my books titled "It's Obviously a Portal" and of course, in the story, it's obviously not. Even in the book world, thinking about portals is a delight. :)
"In fact, the moments of greatest ‘stuckness’ often happen because I was resisting some kind of needed change, either to my process or how I was thinking about the story or maybe even my own understanding of the kind of writer I am or am not.”
Quoting you and Oh! Portal opens. Thank you. I have been "stuck" and "woe-is-me-ing" it. I know intellectually that resistance causes the pain, but I don't know how to "intellectually" surrender.
For me, it's the research. My WIP is informed/inspired by nerdy WW2 history and Army nurses' journals, heartbreaking stories of courage and sacrifice. It's humbling and puts a lot of my daily whining into stark relief. But their voices also compel me to keep going.
How timely this post is today! I loved State of Paradise too. What is your portal? This has been a theme my entire life. I crossed a portal to come to the US in 1997 (which reminds of another great book, Exit West). I stepped through a portal when I came out in my early 20's (Happy Pride!), I stepped through another portal when I left a career in higher education in 2021 for a corporate job. I was forced through a portal I didn't choose two years later when I was laid off from said job. And then as a result of that layoff, I deliberately ran through a portal that has brought me here, to finally say it out loud: I'm a writer ❤️. And finally, as I write this, I stand before another portal. I'm taking time to decide if I will cross it and what it means if I do or don't.
I light a candle. A vanilla scented tea light that sits in conical mauve glass in a metal stand that I've had for thirty years. Something about the flickering light and the vanilla scent that helps me settle in. That and coffee. I must have coffee.
There are project-specific portals too. For my memoir, a picture of me when I was nine (one of only two that exist of me under ten years old). In the memoir, I alternate chapters on either side of a pivotal night when I was nine. For my novel-in-progress, it's a Newton's Cradle (those silver click-clack balls). Newton's Cradle is also the title of the novel.
Other meaningful knickknacks on and around my desk: a pewter wizard my mother gave me; a small barbie doll, her hair in a bun, that I think I stole from my friend Stacey; some glitter false eyelashes; a pack of B'loonies; sparklers; my college copy of As I Lay Dying; and a minibar size bottle of Chartreuse I got in New Orleans that makes me think of Hemingway, to name a few. I guess I have a lot of portals.
Writing, traveling, hanging out and visiting with family and friends are portals for me. Every day there can be several portals. Life is a series of doors. What did Cat Stevens say? Life is a series of doors and they open from the side you're on. I think I got that right. It's one of his songs from the early 70s.
This is a great question. Playing music, listening to music, reading, and poetry are portals for me. The biggest one, though, is writing a book. I love that it's a portal of my own making, a little escape hatch. I laughed when I read this because I have a chapter in one of my books titled "It's Obviously a Portal" and of course, in the story, it's obviously not. Even in the book world, thinking about portals is a delight. :)
"In fact, the moments of greatest ‘stuckness’ often happen because I was resisting some kind of needed change, either to my process or how I was thinking about the story or maybe even my own understanding of the kind of writer I am or am not.”
Quoting you and Oh! Portal opens. Thank you. I have been "stuck" and "woe-is-me-ing" it. I know intellectually that resistance causes the pain, but I don't know how to "intellectually" surrender.
For me, it's the research. My WIP is informed/inspired by nerdy WW2 history and Army nurses' journals, heartbreaking stories of courage and sacrifice. It's humbling and puts a lot of my daily whining into stark relief. But their voices also compel me to keep going.
I LOVE this and will be mulling this over. It's a really good writing prompt for the week ahead.
How timely this post is today! I loved State of Paradise too. What is your portal? This has been a theme my entire life. I crossed a portal to come to the US in 1997 (which reminds of another great book, Exit West). I stepped through a portal when I came out in my early 20's (Happy Pride!), I stepped through another portal when I left a career in higher education in 2021 for a corporate job. I was forced through a portal I didn't choose two years later when I was laid off from said job. And then as a result of that layoff, I deliberately ran through a portal that has brought me here, to finally say it out loud: I'm a writer ❤️. And finally, as I write this, I stand before another portal. I'm taking time to decide if I will cross it and what it means if I do or don't.
❤️❤️❤️