pi & anne

Seriously. Don’t we all write because it makes us feel … happy? Excited? Satisfied? (At some point, at least.)

I want to tell you a story: There is not one way to tell a story. Brains work by association, one thing leading to another,  yet this can happen without a surfacing connection. It is how in haibun prose and haiku happen to work together.  You can write a story like a movie, and a cut in between scenes can be disturbing or gentle.

Just to blow your mind: you can do the same within the prose. You can deliberately cut the flow to underline the jump of thoughts of the narrator or character. You can change writer’s perspective. You can create a kaleidoscope of tiny impressions and once you finish placing the last tile, it makes sense.

You can write realistic, abstract, surreal stories. You can write a dialogue, a movie script, a fairy tale, an hommage, a biography, a documentation, a joke. It all can be a story that you tell someone.

There is not one way to paint. There is not one way to sculpt. There is not one way to perform. There is not one way to express yourself. A story can be pages long or just one paragraph or six words (Hemingway!).

You can mix all of this, when it serves the story you want to tell. Don’t let anybody tell you there is too much going on or not enough going on. Good critique will ask why you did what. So be consistent with your why and how, and ignore the critiques which ignore your why and how. You might challenge and shred the comfort zones of your readers and of editors.

Remember: some have experience and can offer you great feedback. Some are just uncomfortable with their challenged perspective. Some are humble and want to listen and be of help. Some think they know best (and they may, in their field of expertise), and those will strongly urge you to change what feels right to you without listening to your why. Or will just reject you. This does not mean you are a bad writer. That does not mean they are bad editors per se.

A haibun is a piece of art. And who are we to define art as being a street, when it truly, always is a map?

I could start at this part of my writing to point out examples and proof, but instead I want to remind you how it felt the first time you were handed a sheet of paper and a crayon, pen, brush, finger painting. And you could do with it whatever you liked to. And this is before anyone looked over your shoulder and kept saying that this was really nice, or that was ugly. Just someone showing you how you can hold the tool, how you can use it and what it is able to do. And then you think cool, you put it down, fold that paper and make it a kite which slightly looks like a cat.

Go back to that state. Write your story. It might not fit into one drawer, but who cares. It will feel awesome. It will be you.

not one way to change the last tile serves