Read an article in the September issue of the Smithsonian called Ghost Writer by Gioia Diliberto and I've figured out where I'm going wrong with my writing - I should be channeling spirits!!! LOL!
The article is about a woman, Pearl Curran, who channeled at 17th century spirit (Patience Worth) using an Ouija board and dictated her poems and stories - nearly 4 million words between 1913 and 1937. That's not all - her first novel was hailed by the NY Times as a "feat of literary composition" and went on to publish 7 novels, poems, short stories, and plays.
gosh - a dead spirit can get published and I'm still waiting - patiently (ha, ha get it Patience Worth - ha, ha - okay lame I know)
Anyway, no one was able to prove her false though various theories abounded - like "the automatic activities of the unconscious" or "result of inherited 'nerves cells' or the more popular mulitple personalities. And of course spirtualism was enjoying a resurgence during this time making her popular.
There are times - the very rare times - that I do, as the article points out 'live as fully in their writing as in their own lives.' - where characters , plots, scenes, dialogue become as 'real to me as personal experience'
But to channel a dead spirit? Creepy - and besides the Bible says" 'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
--Leviticus 19:31
So channeling dead spirits is out. But how about channeling an alien from Planet X? Oh yeah I'm all over THAT.
I'll take the ghosts and you get the aliens. Ghosts getting published oh my. But there was rumors of ghosts at teh sorority house - maybe I'll try to channel it ...
ReplyDeleteI dunno. My characters are always speaking to me. Sometimes at me. Or around me. Possibly through me.
ReplyDeleteOften, even, on my blog!
Read about this, too. Interesting. I once tried waht they call automatic writing but nothing happened.
ReplyDelete