Proprioceptive Writing Practice

Formally entitled: New Moon: My Writing Practice

This photo was taken on April 13th, which was ice out day on Bede Make Ska. The ice you see there was gone by the end of that 90 degree day. I wonder how that date compares with past year’s. I’m sure Minneapolis Park and Rec keeps track, but I haven’t looked it up. That black bump on the ice is a muskrat. They were many of them on the edge of that ice flow that day, which was why I got out of my car to take the picture. I had seen them lining the edges of the water as I do this time most years. Muskrat love time. More photos of urban wildlife below.

I began a formal writing practice in January of this year when I went on retreat. The method is called Proprioceptive Writing. I had learned this practice from a writing teacher in the early 2000s, but after I found a book about it in a little library, I realized I wasn’t doing it as originally prescribed by its creators. Proprioceptive Writing, as designed by Linda Richter Metcalf and Tobin Simon in 1976, involves setting up your writing station with candles and music, preferably Baroque, setting the timer for 25 minutes and then writing for that time period while applying a question to your own thoughts — “What do I mean by that?” Once the time is up, you reflect on the “Write” you produced, by answering 4 questions. The writing isn’t like the “Free-writing” of Natalie Goldberg style, where you write fast to get your first thoughts on the page. This writing is intended to be slow. You listen inward for your voice and write what you hear AND listen again as you write it on the page, to hear what you wrote and take the time to bring in the question. The point isn’t to get as much writing in as possible, but to listen well and apply the question frequently, so that you are always deepening your listening. There are other guidelines as well. Things like using a pen, rather than computer, using unlined paper to encourage freedom. Not editing. Accepting the Writes as perfect as they are.