Mystic Toad Press Blog

It’s amazing how useful it can be to allow yourself to remember some resonant event and then let it expand onto the page. This process elicits written wonders you could never have thought up. I call it “flying by the seat of your pencil.” The key is being willing to jump off the Cliff of Your Own Imagination, with nothing whatever but your pencil beneath you, and la Harry Potter, go whisking through the atmosphere of your psyche, dodging dragons while in hot pursuit of whatever shiny things (images, characters) that make you want to keep going. You write as if streaking through the sky–clothed, of course–toward an uncertain destination. Only once you have reached it will you know you’ve arrived. You will have landed at the heart of the imagination. Its pulse is steady, reassuring, almost too obvious. And yet now and then it wanders, slightly offbeat, and you remember its unpredictability. Later you will revise and craft a bit so that the piece holds rightly, if not calmly, together as a whole. For now, while you fly by the seat of your pencil, your only desire is to report whatever occurs as it whizzes past: a sudden branch, the crackle of leaves underfoot, the color and movement of a phantom in the brush that’s about to reveal itself. Keep flying, and you’ll meet it face to face! That, friends, is writing. And the culmination of many such journeys, interwoven in a way that deeply satisfies, is sometimes called a book.

A Writing Exercise
To do this exercise, you must first be engaged in the physical act of writing - with a pencil, on a piece of paper. Antiquarian, I know, but bear with me. Start by describing anything at all: a hairpin, a soggy sock stuck to the sidewalk, or (if your taste runs to the cheerier side) a bowl of vivid fruit with the leaves still attached. Keep writing until the apples or cherries or the hairpin or the sock are not themselves, but have begun morphing into something wildly Other. At that point you are Flying By the Seat of Your Pencil! Keep flying. If the sock has acquired a foot, let it run and run - do not allow it to stop until it has landed somewhere that astonishes you! If the cherries have begun emitting the sounds of bees, let them explode into harmonics, or swarm into kaleidoscopic shapes. Whatever you do, however wild the ride becomes, Keep Your Seat Firmly Attached to Your Pencil. It’s your anchor. The only rule is this: Everything goes on the page! Keep writing down what’s unfolding . . . let the next image/sound/event unfold, and write that down. How will you know when to stop, you ask? When you’re done, of course!

Ceci Miller is the author of Sacred Visitations: Gifts of Grace that Transform the Heart and Awaken the Soul, endorsed by Chicken Soul Author Marci Shimoff, Mars/Venus author John Gray, and bestselling author John Bradshaw. The book’s touching, often magical, stories guide readers beyond mere memoir into the profoundly personal world of their own sacred experiences. Ceci’s workshops teach the 5 Steps of Sacred Awareness. A student of meditation since 1976 Ceci’s heartfelt stories of spiritual experience and contemplation–shared in articles, books, and public talks–have inspired meditators and seekers throughout the world. She is the author of two children’s books and has co-authored and edited numerous books for adults. To hear Ceci read an excerpt from Sacred Visitations, or to hear her interviews with people about their spiritual experiences on the Sacred Visitations Podcast, go to http://www.SacredVisitations.com.