Yellow blur, detail of glass globe on a lamp, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
I’d been writing with a group of women locally for about a year when I told them, “Some day soon, let’s write on ‘No Topic’ as our topic.”
I explained that No Topic was like the mother of all topics. It frees you. No writing about Pickles or Hair. Not about What’s in Front of Me, or Everything I Know About the Color Burnt Sienna.
It seemed intriguing enough, yet for weeks after I mentioned the idea of No Topic, we continued to pull from our writing group envelope topics written on strips of paper.
Writing with a topic is soothing. A topic propels those first words on the line and helps guide your practice.
Writing without a topic is like coloring without a border on your page. It’s like taking away the structure that you’ve carefully created and followed over time. Will the writing still flow? Where will wild mind take you?
In our Intensive with Natalie Goldberg, we often wrote without a topic. “No topic, ten minutes,” Natalie’s voice rose from the silence. And away we’d go, our hands moving across the pages of our notebooks.
I’ve searched Wild Mind and Thunder and Lightning, two of Natalie’s books, to see what she might have said about No Topic. I find nothing. I look through the notebooks I used during the retreats — did I take notes on the power of No Topic? None that I can find.
Yet, this is one of those concepts I associate with Natalie’s teachings. A gem, a pearl of wisdom cultivated from years of studying the mind through her writing.
The more you do writing practice without the aid of a topic, the more equipped you are to write anytime, anywhere. From the “Write Anyplace” essay or chapter in Writing Down the Bones,
Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.
About a week ago, as we were thinking about a topic to use for our timed practice, one of the women in my writing group suggested we go ahead and try No Topic. “Sure,” we all said. We wrote for fifteen minutes. Then one by one, we read.
Without exception, our writing had busted open. We all felt it in ourselves and in one another.
You try it. Write without the aid of a prompt. Write with just you, your pen, and your notebook. For ten minutes, fifteen, or for as long as you need to write. Just write.
Now go.
Rose-colored glasses, detail of the glass base on a lamp, photo © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Hey, this is the prompt I blog with everyday.
LikeLike
There is an award for Red Ravine at Leslie’s Blog.
LikeLike
I am not a writer but I very much enjoy coming here..it is like quielty sitting in a theater during a dress rehearsal. 🙂
LikeLike
TIV, yes, probably true for most of us. It’s the non-writing-prompt that I’ve come to use most, too. Funny, also, even when I pull something from the air for a morning writing practice, I often ignore it completely, using No Topic instead.
leslie, thank you for that award! You mentioned it was your first award, and I commented that I was surprised. Your blog is great. I always enjoy it.
Thanks, gypsy-heart. I like your metaphor. I used to work for an advertising agency in Santa Fe whose client was the SF Opera. We used to get to go see dress rehearsals. I loved sitting in the theater in my jeans and grubby clothes, a big blanket. Something very special about having that access.
LikeLike
YB, I planned on not commenting on this post, however I read it a 2nd time & must admit that I, like gypsy-heart, am not a writer, however I spent most of yesterday, slowly, yet lovingly rubbing lemon oil into some of my prized anitiques that have soaked up the dry winter air inside my home. How peaceful that was, just me & the wood I was nurturing with oil & cloth! Giving no thought to anything in particular, I must admit it was quite a rewarding accomplishment! The pump organ is a very detailed work of fine artisanship & a very intricate piece indeed! And to K, to whom I have promised to hand it down to, I hope you enjoy moments like that as much as I have…Thanks YB, whether it be pen to paper or whatever, it is great to get in touch with ones’ self having no expectations of the end result. D
LikeLike
I’m a “no topic” person, but the anxiety of coming up with something to write about sometimes seems completely different from the actual writing. There is the idea…and the doing. A topic can be a relief.
At the same time, My students often complain about liking no book that’s assigned. While I think that’s silly, something in me understands it. Sometimes we need “no topic.”
LikeLike
Beautiful choice. In using the artificial structure of prompts to engage our minds, sometimes it’s good to remember that taking that structure away afterwards is just as important.
LikeLike
Exactly, Heather. (Hey, is your avatar a cat or a koala bear? At first I thought it was a koala bear, but then I saw the ears. It’s adorable.)
Yes, joefelso, when it comes to a topic for a blog post, I am relieved when I finally figure out what I’m going to write about. I have to admit that I also like assigned reading. When I pick books for myself, in fact, I’ll often look for books that have won prizes — Pulitzer or Booker or National Book Award. There are so many choices that I look for some cue as to the quality of the options. Another writer’s recommendation is about the best I can get. But yes, the “no topic,” whether its in picking a book or writing, is a way to bust out of the boundaries.
diddy, I really loved the way you related to “No Topic” with your oiling of your antiques! It makes total sense to me, this notion of just doing, just being present to the oil and cloth and you and the piece of furniture. Thanks for relating that experience in this post.
LikeLike
One of the things I want to say about “No Topic,” as I am about to do a writing practice this morning. Sometimes what happens when I don’t have a topic, I end up writing about all the stuff that’s happening here and now. Like right now, all the political ca-ca, or other current events. Or what I’m feeling right now. I think that can get old, too. And that’s what I sometimes don’t like about NOT having a topic. The topic allows me sometimes to leave the immediate events around me and step into something else. And I like that about topics. I like not being sucked into the vortex of today’s current events. Not that No Topic always sucks me in, and not that a topic never takes me out of current events. But sometimes that’s what happens.
LikeLike
I wanted to add something else about No Topic. It’s part of a larger practice that ybonesy and I do – Writing Practice. We already have a practice set up and follow all the structures of that practice. It was after we learned the structure, that we learned to break it. Using No Topic for us is part of breaking structure within our every day Writing Practice.
The whole idea is to have a Practice set up first, something that gets you to the page every day, or the canvas, or the zendo, even on the days when you don’t want to. For me, the most valuable thing Natalie has taught me, besides Writing Practice, is about studying the structure of the creative process – both mine and other writers and artists.
I also want to say, in the structure of writing my book, I NEED Topics. I write down a name, a place, a person, a time period, and do a Writing Practice JUST on that Topic. It helps me focus. Keeps me on track. And keeps my mind from rambling all over the world events and ca-ca (to use ybonesy’s word) that is happening all around me.
Writing Topics are invaluable to focusing in on the details of a particular subject. No Topic, like ybonesy said, can leave us spinning. There are advantages to both.
But it’s really the *Practice* of writing (or as diddy mentions, the Practice of oiling her antiques – anything can be Practice if it centers us and takes us to our hearts) that makes all the difference.
LikeLike
Quietly sitting in a theatre during a dress rehearsal, lovingly rubbing lemon oil into prized antiques…I like both of those comments.
I am sometimes commissioned to do art. It is like being given a ‘topic’. Commissions have specific boundaries to work within.
Sometimes it’s just more fun to do the ‘work’ of coloring, after someone else has done the making of the outlines.
LikeLike
leslie, that’s so true. I think that’s why I loved coloring those pre-drawn mandalas with Liz a few weekends ago. (We might start work on our February ones this weekend.) It’s so nice to just sit and color, another form of practice.
I think being asked to write a piece for someone, or to do a newsletter for them, is much the way you describe being commissioned to do a piece of art. The parameters are there – I just have to put my spin on it, in my own style and voice.
LikeLike
[…] Poor Otis. If he were a person, he’d be the good guy who finishes last. And who made up that saying anyhow? I like good guys. And gals. Kindness is underrated. Toughness, like fashion, is overrated. -related to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – NO TOPIC […]
LikeLike
ybonesy, I finally have a chance to comment on your photographs in this post – they fit perfectly with No Topic. The focus is disorienting and you can’t nail it down. And I love the tones. I like how you are getting more experimental in your photography. It’s fun to bust out of the boundaries of image making, then pull everything back in and see what fits. Especially with ordinary objects around the house. It breaks open the ways we see.
LikeLike
ybonesy, I forgot to mention, the photographs in this post remind me of abstract paintings. And it made me wonder – how is it going with your painting? Do you have one you are working on? If not, do you miss it at all? I realized today, I need to get back out and start taking some photographs. I really miss it!
LikeLike
[…] to Topic post, WRITING TOPIC – NO TOPIC and safety hides (blizzard […]
LikeLike
😀 It’s a cornish rex cat at 5 weeks old. He’s almost 7 years old now and looks quite different!
LikeLike
[…] it again Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. After a while it becomes like No Topic — a quick way to get your hand moving without worrying what to write […]
LikeLike
[…] a Writing Practice with No Topic, November 30th, […]
LikeLike