My Philosophy of Writing as a Dancer

1 write

2 stop and research

3 come back and write

4 read through like a story or a speech/ perform it

5 title

Ready, set, go!

When I am about to write, it’s very cinematic. The race cars rev their engines. The batter steps up to the plate. The music swells. Close-up on the determined eyes and furrowed brows. The musician rolls up her sleeves and cracks her neck. Close-up on the mouth as it inhales, and slowly releases. Everything’s still for a moment- then the gun goes off and the show begins.

Then it’s a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions as they streamline from my brain, down my shoulders, through my arms, and flow from my fingertips directly into the keys, where they click clack almost faster than they’re coming into my mind. The first draft is always a rush of words and palabras and 語 and sentences and frases and 文. And then sometimes I realize all I have is my own words and frases. So I stop, and go to Google.

I research for hours. This is the main reason my first drafts take so long. I fall down those internet rabbit holes like I’m Alice. The Wikipedia links that let you just keep clicking and clicking and clicking. So many tabs open your computer starts to slow. Clicking. Clicking. Typing all the random phrases and key people and ideas beneath your draft, until your paper becomes 10 pages, with only a few paragraphs of coherent sentences. So it’s time to stop again, and return to your masterpiece.

Integrating all your research is the next step, and the most taxing. Finding a way to make your ramblings and loose ideas flow into a beautiful web of thoughts and words that are your story. Sadly, a lot of your research will end up on the cutting room floor, as it would take several years at least to assemble all your concepts into a book, which is not a problem, if that is what you are doing. Alas, I have never done so, so I cannot include it into my philosophy of writing, though I hope I someday will. But, I digress.

Now I read through my work. My favorite part! I am suddenly an actor giving my emotional soliloquy. I am performing my monologue with wit and perfect timing. I am graceful ballerina, waltzing through the wings. It’s my final curtain call- as I chasse across the stage and soak in the life I’m living.

My love of writing makes sense of my love of performing, and vice versa. When I write, I am performing my words as big dance numbers and powerful speeches. When I dance, I am writing a story through my body. It’s a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions as they streamline from my brain, down my shoulders, through my arms, and into every fiber of my body as I move to the music, or the music of me.

And the final bow, the deep curtsy as I dip my head with my hand at my heart. And it’s always in this moment- in the final moment of my performance, when I know what it is. I know what the story I need to tell, the story I have told, is. And it is then that I christen the story with its name.