Madeleine L'Engle Herself
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3. How have you experienced or witnessed suffering in your life? What has suffering taught you? How has suffering changed your faith? How has it changed your art?
Write a poem about your experience with suffering.
Section II: Co-Creators with God
1. L’Engle says that “God, in creation, uses precisely the same tools and rules as the artist.” Spend some time with Creation—go for a walk or a hike, work in your garden or play with an animal. Do something that takes you outside of yourself for a while and allows you to experience that which was not created by humankind. As you do, take note of your senses. What do you see? How does the air smell? What is the light doing? What textures do you feel? How does this moment taste?
Write a description of your experience, being sure to include each specific sense—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell.
2. When was the last time you lost track of time or experienced kairos—God’s time—as L’Engle calls it? What were you doing that so engaged your attention you forgot about the minutes or hours?
Write a scene where one character experiences kairos while another remains in chronos, or chronological time.
3. What is the difference between mana and taboo powers, according to L’Engle in this section? She gives examples of power lines delivering electricity to a room—mana—but electrocuting a fireman—taboo. What balances and imbalances do you see in power in your life?
Write two poems about power, its balance and imbalance. In one, follow a strict form of your choosing, such as a sonnet. In the second, write in free verse.
Section III: My Books Wrote Me
1. What was your childhood relationship to story like? Who encouraged or discouraged your writing or art? How has your relationship with story evolved over time?
Write a letter to your childhood self. What would you want you to know? How would you like to encourage or warn yourself?
2. To whom or what are you most attached? If your house was on fire, what would you grab before fleeing? Who in your life can you not imagine living without? Why?
Write a first-person story about losing someone or something of deep importance.
3. Despite initial success in publishing, L’Engle experienced several years of rejections and began to struggle with feelings of guilt over her dedication to writing. Yet, she knew that no matter what, she was meant to write—even if nobody ever read another of her books. How has rejection played a role in your life and art? How do you deal with it? What keeps you going?
Write a poem that celebrates rejection.
Section IV: Faith Foundations
1. L’Engle asserts that great artists must die to self in their work. Though it is difficult and demanding, she says, “without this death, nothing is born.” What does this mean to you? How do you die to self in your work? In what ways does death lead to new birth?
Write a poem exploring death and new birth, their interdependence, difficulty, and beauty.
2. “Truth is more important than facts,” L’Engle says. What does this mean? She talks a great deal about the truth found in story and myth. What stories or myths speak truth to you? What characters resonate most deeply with you? Why?
Choose a story from the Bible—Abraham and Isaac, Daniel in the lion’s den, Ruth and Naomi, or the woman at the well with Jesus—and translate it into a contemporary story. (You are welcome to choose a biblical story other than those listed.)
3. As Christians and as creatives, co-creators with God, we are called to “help in the furthering of the coming of the kingdom” of God. L’Engle says there are moments in life when we get a foretaste of the kingdom. Moments such as a meal with loved ones, forgiving and being forgiven, and being part of a loving body. What moments in your life felt like moments that were “kingdom moments”? Why? How do you, as a creative, help to further God’s kingdom?
Reflect on a moment in your life when you received a foretaste of the kingdom of God. If this isn’t something you’ve experienced, write about a moment when you felt deeply connected to community, or shared a wonderful meal with loved ones, or otherwise experienced a moment of connection and spiritual freedom.
Section V: An Accepted Wonder
1. Do you remember a time in your childhood when you were completely absorbed in play? When was the last time you became so absorbed in something that you lost all self-consciousness?
Recall a moment of play from your childhood. Write that scene, returning to present tense as if you are living in that moment again.
2. L’Engle says, “One of the greatest privileges of writing a children’s book is that we write out of our child selves but with all that chronology has taught us.” What does this mean? Have you ever written a story for children? Why or why not? If so, how do you write out of your own childhood experience?
Write a short story using yourself as a child—any age under eighteen—as the protagonist. If you’d like, retell a story from your own childhood that you loved by putting your child-self into it.
3. L’Engle emphasizes the importance of vocabulary, saying that a strong vocabulary better equips us to create. Do you agree? Is vocabulary important to you? How do you expand your vocabulary?
Write a poem that celebrates vocabulary.
Section VI: Finger Exercises
1. Do you have a routine to your writing or art? Why or why not? What time of day are you most creative? What prevents you from creating well? Do you keep a journal? Why or why not? How often do you feed your creative self—reading, if you’re a writer; studying paintings of the masters if you’re a painter; and so forth?
L’Engle emphasized the importance of keeping an “unpublishable journal.” Choose a sentence from one of the psalms or Gospels and write a journal entry about what this sentence means to you right now in your life. Do not filter your thoughts or worry about form or content. This writing is unpublishable. Let go of self-consciousness and write.
2. Do you believe complete objectivity is possible? Why or why not? How do your own experiences inform your writing or your art? Have you ever worked through something in your own life—grief or anger or betrayal—through your art? How?
Write a short story—no more than 2,500 words—from the perspective of a “good guy.” Then, write the same story from the perspective of the “bad guy.” (You may take half an hour for each story.)
3. What does L’Engle mean when she says there is freedom in structure? Do you agree with her? In what ways do boundaries force us to be more creative? How do boundaries free us? How do boundaries hinder us?
Write a poem about freedom using a structured format, such as sonnet or haiku.
Section VII: The Empty Page
1. Where does your inspiration come from? How do you extrapolate from real experiences into your fiction or art?
Go for a walk, even if just around the room you’re in. Find something to focus on, and practice the art of extrapolation. L’Engle says she got the idea for a planet based on a bubbling pool of yellow mud in Yellowstone. What can you create out of that stain on the rug, or those strange flowers in your neighbor’s yard, or the shape of that cloud? Find something, anything, and spend some time freewriting. (Remember: Don’t think. Write!)
2. What is your writing routine? Do you write better in the morning or the evening? Is it difficult to get started? Why? How do you push through your own resistance to your work?
Write a poem about the ways you procrastinate. Try, if you can, to rhyme. (Nothing beats poring over a rhyming dictionary for procrastination!)
3. What risks have you taken in your life? What risks have you taken in your art?
Write about a risk you’ve taken, and why it was important—even if it didn’t turn out as you’d hoped.
Section VIII: A Life of Their Own
1. In fiction, it is essential that characters make a choice—that they have agency and will. The same is true in life, though we often give up our choices, our power, because of fear or laziness or lack of focus. What are some of the most important choices you’ve made in your life? What choices have gotten you to where you are now? Are you facing any major choices in your life now that you’d rather avoid?
Examine a choice you did not make, a time you gave up your own power. How did this indecision change you? Follow this essay with another focusing on a difficult choice you did make. (You may take half an hour for each essay.)
2. L’Engle believes that any character we create is really an amalgamation of many real people we know or have encountered. Do you think this is true? How do you watch and observe people?
Observe someone near you. (If you are alone, simply observe someone in your own memory.) Write a poem about this person, focusing on one or two distinct traits, whether physical, personality, or even spiritual traits.
3. Every character, like every person, will react to a situation differently. Think of a time in your life when your reaction to something was different from that of another person. How did you react? How did they? Why do you think they responded the way they did? What can you learn about yourself when you examine your own response?
Write a scene in which two characters respond differently to something surprising or frightening. Choose a strong inciting incident, something that would provoke a lot of emotion.
Section IX: Paints of the Writer’s Palette
1. What do words mean to you? Why are words important? How are words changing in today’s society? What would you do without them?
Write a poem about words.
2. There are many words that have wonderful connotations, and many whose connotations have turned sour in today’s political climate. What words can you think of that have changed meaning over the years because of the changing society? Is it damaging to language when words change meaning? Why or why not?
Choose two words from the following list, one that has a positive connotation to you and one that has a negative connotation. Look up the definition of the words you choose and write them at the top of your page. Then, write a paragraph or two about each, exploring why these words have a positive or negative meaning to you.
love, children, joy, play, sunlight, daffodils, spring, autumn, leaves, stress, truth, friends, grandchildren, books, stories, freedom, compassion, responsibility, caring, healing, integrity, control, belief, fundamentalism, risk, winter, failure, success, growth, change
3. L’Engle says, “If we limit and distort language, we limit and distort personality.” How is personality limited by language? How would you communicate if you could not use words? Is it ever a good thing to remove or censor words? Why or why not?
Write a scene of pure dialogue—no action or descriptors—between two characters where one character is unable to say any words that have an emotional meaning (happy, angry, hurt, and so on). The character incapable of using emotional words must communicate something deeply emotional (such as loss, betrayal, or love) to the other character.
Section X: This I Know
1. L’Engle says that she is better able to understand what she believes when she is trying to share her beliefs through story. What do you think she means by this? How does your writing or art help you better understand your own beliefs?
Choose something from Scripture that is not easy for you to fully understand. Perhaps the story of Jesus walking on water, or the field of dry bones that reassemble themselves and come to life with Ezekiel’s prophesies, or the Incarnation. Write a story—another midrash—about the passage you choose. (Remember: Don’t think. Write!)
2. Writing, L’Engle says, may be done in isolation, but the writer must also be “surrounded by community.” What is your community? Why is community important? How does your community feed you? In what ways do you feed your community?
Write a letter—a psalm of thanksgiving—to your community. Acknowledge the ways your community encourages and upholds you.
3. L’Engle says that story helps us to answer the question “Who am I?” How have you found yourself in story? What characters have resonated with you, helped you understand yourself better? What stories have shaped you?
Think about the stories and characters that have left the deepest impression on you. Write a poem that asks—and perhaps answers—“Who am I?” through the lens of these stories.