richard wagamese on storytelling

“People never ask me where I get the inspiration for my work and I really wish they would,” Wagamese said in a 2014 interview with the Globe and Mail. “The answer is long and complicated but shows my motivation to write and create stories. Simply and briefly put, I get my inspiration from the knowledge that there is someone out there in the world who is just like me — curious and desiring more and more knowledge of the world and her people. I write so that when they pick up one of my books there is an instantaneous connection, like we’re collaborating on the story.” (source)

in Embers:

“today, once again, i surrender my gift to Creator and ask that it be directed, channelled through me, every word, phrase, sentence guided by Her intention. then i sit and write and watch the Great Mystery expelled upon the page. this marvellous gift has become my life by virtue of my always remembering where it comes from and claiming only the discipline, dedication, sacrifice and commitment as my own. All else is Creator’s. if art is not spiritual, it suffers from our human limitations.”

“On my own in the country of my people, and i feel the lure and tug of the land as insistently as a lover’s grasp. this is where poems are born, where stories are nurtured within me, and it is here, among the cliff and stone and bush and waters, where i am most fully the creation that i am. i stand solid here. i am the moose and bear and pickerel. i am tamarack, pine and lichen. i am the rich brown of the earth and the eternal bowl of the sky. Home. where i am articulated and defined in the context of geography.”

“sometimes people just need to talk. they need to be heard. they need the validation of my time, my silence, my unspoken compassion. they don’t need advice, sympathy or counselling. they need to hear the sound of their own voices speaking their own truths, articulating their own feelings, as those may be at a particular moment. then, when they’re finished, they simply need a nod of the head, a pat on the shoulder or a hug. i’m learning that sometimes silence really is golden, and that sometimes “fuck, eh?” is as spiritual a thing as needs to be said.

on quiet solitude: “there are motions of the heart that occur only in quiet rooms, in the splendour of solitude where nothing and everything exists at the same time. being and becoming have their confluence in these moments of touching your essence. you feel yourself a part of the great wheel of creative, nurturing, loving, benevolent energy that is spinning around us all the time. this is what it means to be spiritual — to feel your spirit moving. take to quiet places, then. immerse yourself in them. feel your energy merge with that timeless, eternal energy and be made more.”

on showing up! + the creative process: “write spontaneously every day for fifteen minutes. first, get settled. breathe. big, deep, full breaths, taken slowly. clear your mind of words. be wordless. then, open your eyes and write whatever comes out of you, and keep writing without taking your hands from the paper or the keyboard for fifteen minutes. don’t worry about punctuation or spelling. just write. every day. fifteen minutes. regardless. watch what happens to your level of craft when you work on a project. why? because stories live in our bodies and we need to feel our fingers moving in the process of creation every day. your hands are your interpretive tools. they bring your spirit out in words and language.”

“you stoke the fires of creativity with humility, gratitude and awareness. you need to ask for the gift to be directed. writing is a spiritual process. to be a creator you need to connect with Creator.”