Up: [[Introspective Writing]] Created: 2021-12-08 Proprioceptive writing, called a Write, is agenda-free for the first three months. After that I can do a guided Write that begins with a question I want to answer, or an issue I want to understand. Good topics for guided Writes come from answers to question 4 in the third step below. ## Environment Work sitting at a table and away from all distractions. I’m not even supposed to drink anything while doing a Write. Work for 25 minutes while listening to Baroque music, such as Bach or Vivaldi, which roughly matches the steady rhythm of my pulse. The authors urge 5 days a week. They also want Writes done on white unlined paper so I have freedom to go in any direction with my words. I don’t intend to do that. I will use my vault. ## Relax Start the music, light a candle, and take a minute to relax either through several long inhales and exhales or by closing my eyes, cupping my hands over them and waiting until a black velvety curtain or a purple field appears on the inside of my eyelids. ## Steps to Proprioceptive Writing 1. Capture moment-to-moment thoughts in writing. Think of anything I might or could say, and say it in writing. Don’t try to actively direct my thoughts. Just write whatever I’m thinking or feeling, whatever interests or concerns me. I’m writing ‘about’ anything. I don’t need to keep my pen going all the time. If I’ve got lots of thoughts all at once and I don’t know which one to pursue, I can slow down and allow time to explore, but without judgment. 2. Overhear my thoughts as if they were spoken. No judging, editing or censoring. Hear every thought with curiosity, patience, and calmness. The tool to help with this is called the Proprioceptive Question — **What do I mean by___?** Write out the question and write what I hear in response to the question. Be ready to use the question with any word or phrase I’ve written that has me sensing emotion or story or where I have a hunch there’s something juicy waiting. The question is an attention focusing tool, meant to *amplify thought, express it more accurately and reflect on it more meaningfully.* The response is never a definition. It’s about the emotional or psychological sense the word has for me. See [[Proprioceptive Question Example]] 3. Reflection is what makes this process different from freewriting, morning pages or stream of consciousness writing. Each of those separates expression from reflection or sees thinking as a distraction. *We view thinking as an act of imagination and reflection an inquiry into that act.* Write down four questions and answer them in writing. This is often where revelations occur. Take the time I need for this. 1. What thoughts were heard but not written? 2. How or what do I feel now? Try to find a word or phrase for my dominant energy. 3. What larger story is the Write a part of? I might not have titles for the larger story at the beginning but eventually will. Could be ‘marriage story’, ‘family story’, ‘self-concept story’…. 4. What ideas came up for future Writes? I can eventually organize my Writes into my various themes. ## Challenges The superstition that expressing a thought will make it come to life. But I didn’t choose my thoughts so I don’t need to feel guilty or sorry about expressing them. And they aren’t my considered judgement, they are just a snapshot. Nick Milo says this well — *It’s not what you believe, it’s just what you type.* Allow my emotions full expression. They might have to intensify before they subside. Failing to distinguish between my real inner world and just verbal patter that sounds unscripted. It happens if I’m writing how I think stream of consciousness should sound, rather than what I am really thinking. ## Benefits for Writing for Publication Proust said that literature is a product of a different self, it’s not a transcription of daily life. Proprioceptive writing helps by giving me distance on my [[Emotions]]. My voice will emerge when my feelings don’t threaten me but are just what they are. I won’t worry about who my listeners are, or what they’ll think of me for expressing that feeling, or whether I have to act on what I’ve written. Finding my voice will help me find my subject matter. Once I’ve understood what larger themes my stories illustrate, I will be able to construct out of my experience many ‘wholes’ that have meaning for others. ## A Writes Study Session Once I’m comfortable doing Writes, I can work to enrich my understanding of one Write or a group of Writes. Start the same way as usual except I can use any instrumental music I find relaxing and focusing. Do one or more of the following in a half hour session or longer - Read all or part of a group of Writes (even one) - Write if I feel moved. Feel free to riff off any words, phrases, or sentences of the text. - Mark or colour code any parts I want to study further or copy out for use later. - List the sequence of Proprioceptive Questions in one Write or several. Does a story reveal itself? - List the people who show up in a Write, and reflect on our shared history. - Explore my Writes for their [[Metaphor]]s. Do they tell a story? - List and/or draw the visual images in the Write. - List any words I want to explore but didn’t get to before. - Take note of statements in a Write that seem to contain important truths. Copy them elsewhere and start quoting myself. - Add in any other activities that might be helpful, such as asking myself the four questions of the entire study session Writes. > [!User] Linda Trichter Metcalf in *Writing the Mind Alive*