How You Can Make Writing Magic Happen (Eleanor Intro) (05/22/2021)

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Intro by Eleanor Gallagher.

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I've been experimenting with life like the characters in our featured fiction piece, “Drug Magic.” What if, instead of trying to make something happen, I just trust what I need will come to me, like magic? Can blind trust work better than worry and effort to bring me what I want in life?The Old English root of “worry” means “to strangle,” which is evident in the definition of “worry” that means “to bite and tear at with the teeth,” a dog worrying a bone, for example (though that dog is much more content in its worrying than humans ever are). Worry can mean “to pull at repeatedly,” until the thing you've been worrying has unraveled. I'm finding that the trick to making this magic work is that I don't doubt it. It's a little bit of a trick, to transcend worry into knowing, one I've only recently been able to accomplish. I used to try to paper over my worry with positive thoughts; I didn't actually feel the trust, I felt the worry, despite my bold proclamations. But that was pre-pandemic me, ignoring-the-shadows me. Now that I'm grounded in myself, trust is infinitely easier to execute.Take writing these letters, for example. I worried over the first one. I asked for many weeks' lead-time, and, true to Parkinson's law—work will expand so as to fill the time available for its completion—I wrote it in the final few days, after weeks of stressing, worrying over my sentences, editing and tweaking much more than necessary. (Worry will also expand to fill the space allotted it.) I like my final piece, but I can't read it without feeling the stress that went into its execution. The next time the schedule for these letters came out, I had a mere two weeks to produce my piece. A familiar panic started to arise, but I couldn't afford to let it run—I didn't have enough time, or heart, to put myself through that again. Instead I tried the approach used by Abe in “Drug Magic”—I told myself: I'll get inspired, I'll write something satisfying by the time it’s needed, it'll flow, it's the perfect amount of time. And it did. It was. This one, too.I think of quarterback Aaron Rogers (among other athletes) who says he visualizes throwing the perfect pass, executing the perfect plays over and over. And of what Esther Hicks says: “Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want.” The time between knowing what I have to do and doing it is the same, whether I am worrying, visualizing, or just trusting and waiting for the words to come. How can I best leverage that time, for the outcome I want? What experience do I want to have along the way?Thing I'm finding is, the feeling of that magic working gets rather addictive. No doubt, it's a rush getting a result through flow and ease rather than worry and effort. Now that I know it works, I'm wondering how good I can get at it. How far ahead of myself can I clear the path? Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here. Eleanor GallagherAssistant Fiction Editor

We've added several new books to our reading list. Go check it out!Are you a contributor to Atticus Review who'd like your book featured in the reading list? Send us an email at [email protected]. 

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FICTIONDRUG MAGICby Nick Gardner"In the letter I wrote to Abe while he was still off at rehab #3, I included an itemized list of his transgressions. Besides the credit card he stole, the arguments and lies, there was his carelessness as the family fell apart."READ ON

POETRYROCKET SCIENTISTby Karen Greenbaum-Maya"Your pelvic arch on the screen, the lit fuseof your unfolding spine,both sprouting little galaxies,nebulae shining through old dust,through dark matter no matterthe point of view."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTIONFAKE PLASTIC TREESby David Lawton*Part of our Superunknown: Stories About Songs series"We had a secret life where we were happy. Then things got stressful at work, clashing with our secret. She said we had to stop. Which made us both unhappy."READ ON

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