Qwiller Writing Room

Each week we give you writing activities based on a particular genre and invite you to share your writing with us to read, comment on, be inspired by and enjoy.

This is a place for all to share their stories.


Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Writing the transcendental

Writing the transcendental requires you to think differently. Accessing that which is outside the conscious mind will also help you to write the transcendental. You have also looked at how nature is often used symbolically to explore the transcendental.

Let’s have a closer look at what it means in writng.

  •  Refers to aspects related to the nonphysical realm, metaphysical or the spiritual
  • Modernism represents the thought that art and the imagination can transcend us to beyond the everyday
  • Allows the writer to link what is happening in the text to something greater in order to represent universal ideas.

Example

Below is an example of how the transcendental could be incorporated into your writing. Take note of how the everyday experience of lying in a hospital bed has a greater significance when blended with the transcendental. Minute details also bring the scene to life.
 
Molly wriggled over onto her side and stared out the window onto the rooftops below. The moon crept up out of the verandah. Its yellowy arc, muted by the film created by the heat. The flow of it like lines on a map. Framed by the window. Like a grand painting occupying a wall. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and rubbed her hand on the white linen gown.

Beside the bed lay a copy of Lord of the Flies. A patient must have left it there. It sat on top of the bible. A faded orange cover with a circular pair of glasses on the front. Piggy’s glasses watching. She felt him tumbling down the cliff, his bones cracking against the stone. The children watching him in shock at what they’d done. That they were capable of murder. She remembers her teacher pausing when she said this and looking at the class as if they too were capable of such heinous acts.

Exercise


a          Think of a narrative you have already started writing. Write a list of ways you could incorporate the transcendental into your writing. You might like to add description to these things on your list. For example, the moon creeping up over the verandah.

b          Free write a scene including one or more of the transcendental aspects you mentioned above. Try to include the everyday and/or minute details in your scene writing.

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