Recently I went to a working retreat. The working part: we were planning professional development sessions for DESE (Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education). The retreat part: it was in a funky, charming hotel situated in a small town… close to walking trails and down the street from wonderful bars and restaurants. It’s a place this group has been to before, and luckily, I got the same kind of room I stayed in before--a room with a glass bathroom.
Yes, you read that right. In the corner of my room was a bathroom with glass walls. No shower curtain. The toilet, the shower, the sink--surrounded by two walls of glass. Since I was the only one sleeping in the room, I was fine. I joked that if someone else was in the room with me, I’d probably be constipated and have a brimming-over bladder for the two day stay. Plus, I might stink to high heaven...
Marveling over the bathroom, I thought about transparency. And trying to be like the great Cathy Hall--who connects everything she experiences to writing--I will try to connect that glass bathroom to writing.
1. Shower/use the throne/brush your teeth with abandon. As a writer, we need to surrender. We need to take our foot off the brake and let loose with our writing. In a glass bathroom, I had to embrace the openness… the vulnerability. There was nowhere to hide. If we hold back emotionally, our writing won’t be as authentic, as compelling. We have to be unafraid to bare our souls, our emotions.
2. Embrace the view. Being in a glass bathroom was unique. Being able to see the bed, the paintings on the wall while I showered was a new experience. The bathroom’s glass walls were etched with birds and flowering trees. As writers, we have a unique perspective when it comes to our writing. We need to take the time when crafting a piece to look around. Look around from the viewpoint of a character (when we’re writing fiction) and really soak in the ambience, the people surrounding the character. Look around and “relive” the moments in our life when we’re writing memoir pieces. Look past what just went down on paper, and dig a little deeper into our emotions. How did that experience impact us?
3. Use the transparency--make it a plus. I won’t say the glass walls were an advantage in any way when it came to what took place in the bathroom, except it was more interesting looking around while I took a shower. Also, it excited me--how different it was compared to my bathroom at home--and I even talked to several people I was working with about the glass bathroom. (Only two rooms in the hotel had bathrooms that were all glass. A few more had glass doors.) As a writer, it would help if we were transparent. What kind of feedback do we want? What part of the article/story/poem do we--deep down--think needs major revision? Where do we want to submit this piece? The more we’re clear, the more we can improve our writing, and the more others can help us.
I’m curious: what room/retreat center/hotel/house have you been in that’s been inspirational or was so unique, it impacted you? Nosey minds want to know…
Sioux Roslawski is the author of the historical novel, Greenwood Gone: Henry’s Story. She’s also a middle-school teacher and a dog rescuer for Love a Golden. If you’d like to see more of her writing, check out siouxspage.blogspot.com
