Making of - The Pendulum
Writing about Writing
Maybe this is a new series, I don't know. I'll see what happens.
All I know is right now, I feel like writing about writing. Which is kind of what the article I'm about to write about was about.
So it seems that perhaps, here now I'm going to write about writing about writing.
How about THAT!
No memes here.
I'll leave that for TGA (Doc Kev is the one memeing over there anyway, we work together to finish the articles that way - sometimes I have specific input if a particular meme comes to mind while I'm writing)
Nope, just text here (with that singular exception above).
The way I like it.
Here's the article I'm referencing:
The Pendulum was presented to us at The Guardian Academy Event in March 2024, by Dr. Jeff Spencer.
He's The Guardian Academy Cornerman. If you aren't familiar with the concept, a Cornerman is someone who can see around the corners of life - but you've got to have lived enough of life to be able to do this.
I'll leave The Cornerman concept for another time (but you can read more about it here).
On The Pendulum Idea
When I saw the concept of The Pendulum I immediately recognized how most of my best writing comes in receivership.
I'd already had a growing awareness of this, but I couldn't put it fully to words, nor could I command it.
Quickly after that, I realized that most of the time I've struggled in life with writing it's been because I've thought of it as implementation (and thus tried to execute upon it that way)
Implementation (building) writing is quick, very focused, goal oriented. A lot of copywriting ends up being Implementation, because we're taking known pieces and putting them together in a specific way for a specific outcome.
Writing writing (in receivership) is long, exploratory, conversational, and very revealing. Journaling is the easiest example of this.
But as I've explored this idea, I've come to understand that ANY writing can be receivership, and that my best stuff comes when I'm in that state, because it's a tap into the eternal ME which reveals the best insight, ideas, and uniqueness.
Implementation writing is most useful for executing once "all the ducks are in a row."
You may have heard that old tidbit of "if you've got writers block its because you haven't done enough research." I see this now as a side effect of implementation writing. Because its like executing on a recipe in cooking.
If you're trying to bake a sourdough bread, and you're stuck in the process, it's probably because you are missing some kind of information in the recipe that will let you keep going.
Receivership writing does not suffer from writers block, because it is quite by definition a practice of writing *unblocked* - you just have to accept whatever it is that you end up writing, and allow it to come out.
But letting go is the key. If I'm writing in a state of needing to create a specific outcome, it becomes a lot more difficult.
On Writing the Article
So funnily enough, I started the article on The Pendulum with the simple idea that I could communicate the power of intentionally entering receivership to write as a way of writing without hesitation - as a way of entering focus easily and how I go here to write my best writing.
This reflects an experience Ive had over the past several months as I've gotten distinctly more effective at sitting down and writing in focus, no matter what is happening (with the possible expection of this still being quite difficult with my 15 month old is smacking my leg and shouting "uppa uppa" while I'm at my desk).
I actually wrote a chunk of The Pendulum in the middle of DRAM Headquarters in the back of Omega Mart in Las Vegas - for the uninitiated, that room has constant music, pounding base, oscillating and flickering lights, frequently every phone in the room (there are over a dozen) starts to ring, and you're surrounded by 30-40 people milling about.
I just sat down in a chair on the side, and started writing and had no problem doing that for half an hour or so. I wasn't trying to make something specific, I was just trying to let the ideas in my head spill out onto the page and then write from there to see what I'd discover.
The thing is,
I didn't fully understand the depth and intensity of the concept until I got deep into writing about The Pendulum.
But this concept itself is explanation of WHY I chose to write about The Pendulum.
The why of this is something I’ll write about in another piece,
But in essence, I allow receivership to tell me what I’m going to end up focusing on. Or perhaps more accurately, I allow it to lead me down the best path for the moment.
I have a ton of interesting ideas, and whenever I sit down to write, I listen for the one that sticks out.
Today, that’s been this article (the one you are reading). I have been contemplating what to do with Growing Trees. This space, when I started it, called to me, and I haven’t added to it since the inception.
Part of the reason is because I’ve been waiting for clarity.
Perhaps i’ve just been in the practice of Growing Trees just by letting the seeds do their work while I tend to other areas of my garden.
And after publishing The Pendulum, a seed sprouted. This article. This idea of writing about writing (about writing).
But that’s how all my articles go.
And as I’ve been writing over the past month+ since the TGA event, The Pendulum slowly emerged and then sudden sprouted in front of me.
But it didn’t really take the shape it ended up in until I had the concept square in my awareness.
How ‘The Pendulum’ Came Together
In the midst of writing the article, I had two things happen in my life.
The first is that I attended a Scifi / Fantasy convention in Seattle which has a heavy focus on writing - Norwescon. Lots of writers panels. I don't write much scifi/fantasy myself (though perhaps I will, I feel a call towards exploring some worlds) - with limited exception to a D&D Campaign I've been building, but more on that another time.
Exposure, proximity, and access to writers who write for passion is something I don’t have in abundance, and going to this convention and attending the panels feels like food for the soul. (you can see in the article how it fed me)
The other thing is I reread The Authentic Swing by Steven Pressfield while on the plane. I was looking for something to read on my phone, and that stuck out.
I think perhaps something was calling at me from the depths - maybe even The Muse herself - because nothing could have been as on point and timely as that book.
You'll have to read the article to see what I'm saying,
But that book made a TON of pieces click together all at once, and the likely goal of the article became clear.
Because here's the thing,
Even though I spend as much time in receivership writing as I can, I still MUST have goals in mind for these articles.
I'm writing the articles ultimately to serve a particular purpose, and that is to provide insight and understanding and raised the value of TGA for people.
Wisdom comes from multiple perspectives. I'm not inventing any of the principles we talk about in TGA. I'm taking what I've learned from those principles in TGA and applying my unique perspective and experience to pull out more useful applicable understanding for others.
The Necessity of Implementation
So the writing must eventually have a goal.
How do you write goalless (Receivership) writing without a goal?
I think this is a complicated question with a complicated answer, that I suspect I'll continually unpack as I write more about writing here.
But one tool I use is I always ask myself this question:
How Can I Be Useful?
That question allows me to enter into receivership with the awareness to allow that answer to reveal itself.
That's I think, one of the tricks of receivership.
You don't have to be having no purpose in your writing.
Quite the contrary.
You can have a LOT of purpose. But to get the benefit of receivership you must - or perhaps it's best for me to say I must - give myself ideas and perspective that allow the answer to be revealed as I explore.
How can I be useful?
That's why I'm writing about writing here - because if you're a writer who loves to write, you may find my perspective useful in unlocking some greater ability for you to tap into your own gifts.
For The Pendulum, my answer to that question was illuminating the power and benefit of the intent of entering receivership AND recognizing the need to oscillate between the two, and then leveraging that understanding to create create create.
Because as I'm constantly nurturing the garden of myself - growing trees here - I MUST Engage the Field as a part of that process.
Engaging the Field requires Implementation.
And to do all this in the way that allows me to tap into my truest self - I've got to find that balance and power to oscillate on The Pendulum.
Again, here’s the article in question:
If anyone finds this approach useful, I’ll likely continue writing about writing. That includes myself - if I find it useful, I’ll continue whether anyone is reading or not :)
Fire emoji here