Loft Writing Minute: Read Outside Your Reflection
“And if the glass began to melt away like a bright silvery mist, what would become of the glass? And Alice got through and found herself in a nice little room, quite as real as the one she had left.” -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
In wrapping up the last week of my internship at the Loft, I wanted to reflect on everything that has contributed to making this a meaningful experience for me. From the Inbound Book Fair and meeting fellow readers to writing these weekly blog posts, I’ve met so many like-minded individuals and people who have pushed me beyond my initial perspective. In fact, my first major project at the Loft showed me how big the literary world is. I spent the beginning of my internship updating the Loft’s Literary Organizations page, where I reached out to literary organizations, poetry centers, authors guilds and writing clubs across the country that exposed me to viewpoints far beyond my own.
Through the Looking Glass
Diving head first into the mass amounts of literary organizations around the country can be a bit discombobulating; with all the colors and callings of the diverse opportunities, it can be hard to find one that interests you, matches your values and aligns with your needs. However, I still encourage you to go down the rabbit hole. Why? Because otherwise you’re stuck in an echo chamber that parrots back to you ideas you’re already familiar with.
Readers and writers alike tend to gravitate toward comfort characters and familiar stories, since they give us a sense of belonging, they make us feel seen. Even so, if we only surround ourselves with reflections of our own views, those reflections start to multiply; we see a mirror within a mirror, creating an infinite illusion that doesn’t challenge our thought process. We need to step into the mirror, past the reflections of ourselves, plunge into the looking glass to question our assumptions, rewrite our biases, develop empathy and test our beliefs.
Through the Windows
While a mirror shows us ourselves, a window shows us someone else, and writers need both. There’s value in understanding perspectives that are nothing like our own, and as a writer, every time you write about someone different from yourself, you must practice empathy, so reading about a life you’ve never lived or listening to someone whose experiences differ from yours can help you understand feelings and circumstances you’ve never personally faced.
We can find these experiences in all kinds of places, including genres we might not normally read or write. For example, connecting with a poet might teach a novelist how to pack an emotional punch, while a nonfiction writer may show a fiction writer how to present the facts and a playwright could educate a short story writer about dialogue. As someone who admittedly struggles with writing dialogue, I should probably spend more time looking into this.
Entire literary communities present us with opportunities to expand our perspectives, since writers from different regions and backgrounds bring their own values and approaches to the craft. Even when we don’t agree with everyone we meet, disagreement can be worthwhile because having an idea challenged forces us to examine an assumption.
We spend so much time inside our own stories, inside our own heads, that it can be difficult to see them from the outside, so another reader may interpret a scene differently than we intended or point out a plot hole. They give us a point of view we couldn’t have entirely seen on our own. If every voice around you confirms what you already believe, you may be limiting your writing. The more windows you open, that is, the more perspectives you consider, the more chances you have to question, empathize, reconsider and grow.
Your Turn: Through the Doors
Windows let us see with fresh eyes, just as doors let us enter different communities. While I was updating the Loft’s organizations directory, I found that nearly every organization that responded to my email encouraged participation from writers beyond their immediate state. Many of these organizations offer online programming and feedback networks for education, connection, publishing and creative growth, and you don’t have to pack up your life and relocate to find them.
So open a door. Visit the Loft’s Literary Organizations page and choose a state you’ve never lived in or maybe one you’ve always wanted to visit, and spend at least ten minutes exploring the organizations there. Let yourself go down the rabbit hole, and, if you have the courage, reach out and introduce yourself because you never know what might be waiting on the other side of the door.