‘Narrator voice is the doorway through which the reader enters your story’ – so I have been telling my students all week. Gary Disher mentions this in his great little book Writing Fiction. I’d never thought of it in that way before and that’s why I love the teaching process. ‘The teacher teaches what the teacher needs to know’ is an idea I’ve always agreed with so I love it when I discover these pearls in the process of encouraging others. The idea of the doorway is one I use often when discussing finding the the way into the writing and the world of our story. Of course this portal is always there just waiting to be opened but too often in our busyness we walk right past and don’t even notice it. We need to slow down a little and not be so intimidated by its power and beauty ; find ways to approach it, open it just a crack, put our toe inside, then a whole foot, a whole leg, venture in for a while, play around, no pressure to produce, just frolic in the wonder of this new world we want to create but are still a little afraid of.
This November in Luang Prabang, Laos, in workshops by the Mekong River we will be stepping through doorways like this into the temple of our imagination. No pressure, no stress, just us and the handmade mulberry paper we gather from the paper making village across the river. Why not join us?