The Ego And The Shadow
So many journal entries are dead ends but you don’t know until you write them down and think about them. . . My main influences in the whole idea of keeping a journal were, oddly, Henry David Thoreau and Tom McGuane. The latter used to keep his on tiny dime store notebooks, which he would toss in a box. The best and most influential journals for me where those of Dostoyevsky, with Flaubert coming in as a close second, also Loren Eisley. . .
- Jim Harrison, novelist, from his journal notes while writing Dalva. In addition to Dalva, Jim wrote Legends of the Fall, and others.
Falcon Leaving
Sue Grafton, author (of the alphabet detective series “A” Is for Alibi, “B” Is for Burglar, etc.), from her essay “The Use of the Journal in Writing The Private Eye Novel,” from the book by Diana M. Raab, Writers and Their Notebooks
The most valuable tool I employ in the writing of a private eye novel is the working journal. This notebook (usually four times longer than the novel itself) is like a letter to myself, detailing every idea that occurs to me as I proceed. The journal is a record of my imagination at work, from the first spark of inspiration to the final manuscript.
One of my theories about writing is that the process involves an ongoing exchange between the Left Brain and Right. The journal involves a testing ground where the two can exchange. Left brain is analytical, linear, the timekeeper, the bean counter, the critic and editor, a valuable ally in the shaping of the mystery novel or any piece of writing for that matter. Right brain is creative, spatial, playful, disorganized, dazzling, nonlinear, the source of the Aha! or imaginative leap. Without Right Brain, there would be no material for the Left Brain to refine. Without Left Brain, the jumbled brilliance of Right Brain would never coalesce into a satisfactory whole.
In addition to the yin/yang of the bicameral brain, the process of writing is a constant struggle between the Ego and the Shadow, to borrow Jungian terms. Ego, as implied, is the public aspect of our personality, the carefully constructed persona, or mask, we present to the world as the “truth” about us. The Shadow is our Unconscious, the Dark Side – the dangerous, largely unacknowledged cauldron of “unacceptable” feelings and reactions that we’d prefer not to look at in ourselves and certainly hope to keep hidden from others. We spend the bulk of our lives perfecting our public image, trying to deny or eradicate the perceived evil in our nature.
For the writer, however -- especially the mystery writer -- the Shadow is crucial. The Shadow gives us access to our repressed rage, the murderous impulses that propel antisocial behavior whether we’re inclined to act out or not. As repelled as we may be by the Dark Side of our nature, we’re drawn to its power, recognizing that the Shadow contains enormous energy if we can tap into it. The journal is the writer’s invitation to the Shadow, a means of beckoning to the Unconscious, enticing it to yield its potent magic to the creative process.
The same journaling techniques that are useful creating a work of fiction can be useful in creating a life. Make a special place in your journal for the fury, the rage, the unacceptable part of you that you keep hidden away. It too may have something it wants to say.
- Rod MacIver
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Below, the two-page spread of this entry from the upcoming Heron Dance book, Nurturing The Song Within.
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